Never, in any civil contest, has a part been taken with more of the
warmth, or carried on with more of the arts of a party. The Jacobins are
worse than lost to their country. Their hearts are abroad. Their
sympathy with the Regicides of France is complete. Just as in a civil
contest, they exult in all their victories, they are dejected and
mortified in all their defeats. Nothing that the Regicides can do (and
they have labored hard for the purpose) can alienate them from their
cause. You and I, my dear Lord, have often observed on the spirit of
their conduct. When the Jacobins of France, by their studied,
deliberated, catalogued files of murders with the poniard, the sabre,
and the tribunal, have shocked whatever remained of human sensibility
in our breasts, then it was they distinguished the resources of party
policy. They did not venture directly to confront the public sentiment;
for a very short time they seemed to partake of it. They began with a
reluctant and sorrowful confession; they deplored the stains which
tarnished the lustre of a good cause. After keeping a decent time of
retirement, in a few days crept out an apology for the excesses of men
cruelly irritated by the attacks of unjust power.
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