We Tell Them Of The
Debt Which They Are Creating, And Point Out To Them That They Can
Never Pay It.
We laugh at their attempt to sustain loyalty, and
speak of them as a steady father of a family is wont to speak of
some unthrifty prodigal who is throwing away his estate and
hurrying from one ruinous debauchery to another.
And, alas! we too
frequently allow to escape from us some expression of that
satisfaction which one rival tradesman has in the downfall of
another. "Here you are with all your boasting," is what we say.
"You were going to whip all creation the other day; and it has come
to this! Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is a better. Pray
remember that, if ever you find yourselves on your legs again."
That little advice about the two dogs is very well, and was not
altogether inapplicable. But this is not the time in which it
should be given. Putting aside slight asperities, we will all own
that the people of the States have been and are our friends, and
that as friends we cannot spare them. For one Englishman who
brings home to his own heart a feeling of cordiality for France - a
belief in the affection of our French alliance - there are ten who
do so with reference to the States. Now, in these days of their
trouble, I think that we might have borne with them more tenderly.
And how was it possible that they should have avoided this war?
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