Page:Thoughts on a French invasion.pdf/24

 24           Bishop of Llandff’s Addres, &c.

ed; for, by their counsels, you would either be plun- dered of your property, or compelled to become their accomplices in impiety and iniquity. See what has happened in France to all orders, to the common peo- ple as well as to the nobility. “ The little finger of “ their republic has become thicker, more oppressive " to the whole nation, than the loins of their mo- “ narchy; they were chastised with whips, they are ; “ now chastised with scorpions.”

I am not altogether indefensible of the danger I may have incurred, (should matters cone to extremity), by thus publicly addressing my countrymen. I might have concealed my sentiments, and waited in retire- ment till the struggle had been over and the issue known, but I disdain safety accompanied with dishon- our. When Hannibal is at the gates, who but a pol- troon would listen to the timid counsels of neutrality, or attempt to screen himself from the calamity coming on his country by skulking as a vagabond amid the mountains of Wales or of Westmoreland ? I am ready, and I am persuaded that I entertain a just confidence in saying, that hundreds of thousands of loyal and ho- nest men are as ready as I am, to hazard every thing in defence of the country.

I pray God to influence the hearts of both sides to good will, consideration, and peace ; to grant to our enemy grace to return to a due sense of piety and a belief in uncorrupted Christianity; and to impress our own minds with a serious sense of the necessity of so repenting of our sins and fo reforming our lives, as may enable us to hope for his protection against all enemies foreign and domestic.

FINIS.

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GLASGOW,

PRINTED by J. & M. ROBERTSON, SALTMARKET, 1801.