2627. ENGLAND, Crisis in.—
I believe
with you that the crisis of England is come.
What will be its issue it is vain to prophesy;
so many thousand contingencies may turn up
to affect its direction. Were I to hazard a
guess, it would be that they will become a
military despotism. Their recollections of the
portion of liberty they have enjoyed will render
force necessary to retain them under
pure monarchy. Their pressure upon us has
been so severe and so unprincipled, that we
cannot deprecate their fate, though we might
wish to see their naval power kept up to the
level of that of the other principal powers
separately taken.—
To William Duane. Washington ed. v, 552.
Ford ed., ix, 286.
(M.
1810)
