264. ALEXANDER OF RUSSIA, Neutral Rights and.—[further continued].
Having taken no part in
the past or existing troubles of Europe, we have
no part to act in its pacification. But as
principles may then be settled in which we have
a deep interest, it is a great happiness for us
that we are placed under the protection of
an umpire, who, looking beyond the narrow
bounds of an individual nation, will take under
the cover of his equity the rights of the absent
and unrepresented. It is only by a happy
concurrence of good characters and good
occasions, that a step can now and then be
taken to advance the well-being of nations.
If the present occasion be good, I am sure your
Majesty's character will not be wanting to
avail the world of it. By monuments of such
good offices, may your life become an epoch
in the history of the condition of man; and May
He who called it into being, for the good of
the human family, give it length of days and
success, and have it always in His holy keeping.—
To the Emperor of Russia. Washington ed. v, 8.
Ford ed., viii, 440.
(W.
April. 1806)
