Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/462

 448 ANNUAL REGISTER, 175S.

very eve of its deftruflion : and fuch was the ftate of Rome, in the timeof Marius and Sylla, Pompey and Casfar, Anthony and Auguf-

tQS.

Therefore, before we can deter- jninewhetherthefadions that divide a free country be falutary or dan- gerous, it is neceffary to know what is their foundation and their objedt. If they arife from fi eedom of opi- nion, and aim at the public welfare, they are falutary : if their fource be felfifh intereft, of what kind foever, they are then dangerous and de- ilrodive."

He concludes with the following very juft remark.

the excefs of military fpirit and ambition of dominion, they increafe the national capacity and fpirit of defence : on the contrary, where factions arife from felfifh effeminacy, the national capacity and fpirit of defence will certainly be weakened or deftroyed."
 * • That when factions arife from

In his fourth part are confidered the fources of thefe manners and principles, which he chiefly derives from exorbitant trade and wealth ; which naturally, in a country conllituted like ours, produces luxury, avarice and effeminacy in manners ; and a deficiency if n(5t a profligacy in principles. He fums up the whole in the con- clufion.

••From thefe accumulated proofs, fays the author, then, it feems evi- dent, that our prefent efl'eminate manners and defett of principle have arifen from our exorbitant trade and wealth, left without check, to their catural operations and uncontrouled influence. And that thefe manners, and this defeft of principle, by weakening or deftroying the nati-

onal capacity, fpirit of defence, and union, have produced fuch a general debility as naturally leads to de- ftruftion.

We might now proceed to con- firm thefe reafonir.gs, by example* drawn from hiflory. for there is hardly an ancient or modern flate of any note recorded in ftory, which would not, in one refpedl or other, confirm the leading-prin- ciples on which this argument is built.

In thefe, throughout their fever- 1 periods, we fhould fee trade and wealth, or (which is in this refpeft equivalent) conqueft and opulence, taking their progrefs : at one period polifhing and flrengthening; at another, refining, corrupting, weakening, deftroying, the ftate that gave them entrance : working indeed in different ways, and under a variety of appearances; by avarice, by fadtion, by effeminacy, by pro- fligacy; by mixture and combina- tion of all thefe evils ; fometimes dividing a nation againft itfelf ; at others, quelling its fpirit, and leaving it an eafy prey to the firft invader: fometimes checked by a rifing patriot, or counterworked by nationalmisfortunes: in one country corrupting manners; in another, principles ; in a third, both manners and principles :renderingone people blind, another cowardly, another treacherous to itfelf: Healing fe- cretly end infenfibly on one na- tion ; overwhelming another in cer- tain deflruftion.

But to enlarge on thefe fubjefts in that vague and undiftinguifhing manner, which molt writers have purfued in treating them, though it might carry the appearance of rea- foning, would in truth be no more tian Declamation in difguife. And

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