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218
the miseries of war. May our united endeavours revive in the
hearts of the Sovereigns, the true love of their subjects, too
unhappily victims of that chimerical love of glory
which has so fequently and so unnecessarily stained Europe
with blood!"
Observations on Par. 11 & last.
Secrecy is the known companion of guilt: Publicity of
probity and innocence. The first endeavour was to confine
the matter to verbal insinuations: that defeated, the business
was pursued by letter, which it is desired might be considered
as a private one. This letter, whether by policy or
accident, has been made public, and the reproach of meanness
added to that of insolence & tyranny, is what the
authors of the proposition have got by their endeavours to hide it. Had
the Danish Minister yielded to private insinuations,
not only would Russia have been deprived of the assistance
due from Denmark, but the seeds of jealousy
and dissension would have been sown between the
two Courts. The extorted neutrality would have been published
as a voluntary one and the breach of alliance would
have been imputed either to disaffection or to the unjust
desire of reaping the benefit of it without sharing in
the burthens. The disavowal of the threats, after they had
produced their effects, would thus have effected a double
purpose: the reproach of injustice would have been transferred
from the authors to the victims of it. Interrogated
concerning the cause of the infidelity of Denmark
to Russia, the British Minister at Copenhagen
would have known no more of it than the
British Cabinet did of the causes of the Turkish war.
Pride, too, by disposing the Danish Court to attribute
their defections to any other principle rather than fear,
might have disposed them to join in throwing a veil of
secrecy over the business.
The
Identifier: | JB/009/065/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 9.
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copy/fair copy sheet |
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recto |
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j whatman turkey mill 1829 |
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jonathan blenman |
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1829 |
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bowring, x, 201ff |
3366 |
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