2687. ENGLAND, Self-interest and.—[continued].
Her interest is her ruling
passion; and the late American measures
have struck at that so vitally, and with an
energy, too, of which she had thought us
quite incapable, that a possibility seems to
open of forming some arrangement with
her. When they shall see decidedly, that
without it, we shall suppress their commerce
with us, they will be agitated by their avarice,
on the one hand, and their hatred and
their fear of us on the other. The result of
this conflict of dirty passions is yet to be
awaited.—
To John Langdon. Washington ed. i, 429.
(P.
1785)
