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 ¬but giving them all just credit for honest in- tentions, and for their vigorous exertions, it is the office of impartial history to condemn them. — They themselves created the mighty antagonist. — Their mistaken counsels rendered his subjugation indispensable, and his dominion so powerful that it could not be overthrown without almost the ruin of their country. — Allowing them, even, for argument's sake, all the pre-eminence over their opponents they contend for, what would there be in the comparison to boast of? because sup- posing the storm to have been inevitable, and in the end to have been skilfully weathered by them, which of two pilots would you prefer? — him who, though he saw it gathering, sailed out into the midst of it, and though laden with money only escaped by throwing overboard his cargo, or the other who, seeing the tempest also, would have remained in the harbour till it was overblown : ¬" I have now brought you down from the earliest ages to the present times, and the history ¬i 2 is ¬