Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“ The age of Priesthood will soon be no more—that of Philosophers and of Christians will succeed, and the torch of Superstition be extinguished for ever. Never, never more shall we behold that generous Loyalty to rank, which is prodigal of its own virtue and its own happiness to invest a few with unholy Splendors;—that subordination of the Heart, which keeps alive the spirit of Servitude amid the empty forms of boasted Liberty! ”

“ Hunted on all sides, insulted by unceasing and brutal menaces, they felt the blended influence of terror and indignation—by the first they were impelled to become voluntary slaves to the bloody fanatics, whose wild energies seemed alone proportionate to the danger; by the latter their gentler feelings were suspended, and the military spirit with all its virtues and all its vices seized at once a whole nation. ”

“ Our Government were projecting to starve the whole nation, and many of our senators did not scruple to proclaim the war a war of extermination. If we by the shadow and mockery of unreal things have been alarmed into blind reliance on men the most weak and unprincipled, can we wonder that a nation, whose whole horizon was black with approaching tempests, should be equally incautious! ”

“ And shall we carry on this wild and priestly War against reason, against freedom, against human nature? If there be one among you, who departs from me without feeling it his immediate duty to petition or remonstrate against the continuance of it, I envy that man neither his head or his heart! ”

“ Are his Qualities commensurate with the giant evils, which he has occasioned? My mind may be jaundiced by my abhorrence of the man's actions—but whether Truth or Prejudice be the source of my failure I must acknowledge that having investigated attentively the Speeches and Measures of William Pitt. I am as little able to discover Genius in the one, as Virtue in the other. I think of Edmund Burke's declamatory Invectives with emotion; yet while I shudder at the excesses, I must admire the strength, of this Hercules Furens of Oratory. ”

“ And he answered, because I know the evil that thou wilt do! strong holds wilt thou set on fire! and the young men wilt thou slay with the sword! and because of thee the Widow and the Orphan shall cry for bread. ”

“ Argument they answer by inarticulate Noises, and their zeal for the Constitution they manifest by breaking the Peace. Certain to make a riot in their great ardor to prevent one, and prepared to persecute what they are determined not to hear, they wilfully blind themselves to Truth, and like angry Cowards shut their Eyes as they strike the Blow. ”

“ At the commencement of the War the Government solemnly disclaimed all intervention in the internal affairs of France: not six months passed, ere with matchless insincerity the Restitution of Monarchy became its avowed aim. This guilt however may perhaps rest on its first authors, and fly unclaimed by the People, unless it should be thought, that they, who permit, perpetrate. The depravation of private morals is a more serious and less transient evil. All our happiness and the greater part of our virtues depend on social confidence. ”

“ And if in the bitter cravings of Hunger the dark Tide of Passions should swell, and the poor Wretch rush from despair into guilt, then the Government indeed assumes the right of Punishment though it had neglected the duty of Instruction, and hangs the victim for crimes, to which its own wide-wasting follies and its own most sinful omissions had supplied the cause and the temptation. ”

“ Thus baffled and friendless, I was about to depart, and stood a fearful lingerer on the Isle, which I had so dearly loved—when tidings were brought me of your approach. I found myself impelled by a power superior to me to build my last hopes on you—Liberty, the Mother of Plenty, calls Famine to her aid. ”

“ That pattern of Christian meekness, Bishop Horsley, has declared it to be the vice of the age and government that it has suffered a free and general investigation of the most solemn Truths that regard Society—and there is a remark in the last charge of the disinterested Bishop Prettyman, that the same busy spirit which inclines men to be Unitarians in Religion, drive them into Republicanism in Politics. And truly, the most exalted Forms of Society are cemented preserved by the purest Notions of Religion. ”

“ If they, who mingled the cup of bitterness, drank its contents, we might look with a calm compassion on the wickedness of great Men. But alas! the storm which they raise, falls heaviest on the unprotected Innocent: and the Cottage of the poor Man is stripped of every Comfort, before the Oppressors, who send forth the mandate of Death, are amerced in one Luxury or one Vice. ”

“ We have breathed so long the atmosphere of Imposture and Panic, that many honest minds have caught an aguish disorder; in their cold fits they shiver at Freedom, in their hot fits they turn savage against its advocates ”

“ The lower classes of the People cried aloud for War. But the Legislature well knew, that the evils even of a just war were not to be calculated, and that no war could be just, unless it had been preceded by sincere negociations for the permanence of Peace. They knew the English Nation to be practical Atheists, professing to believe a God, yet acting as if there were none. ”

“ But my reason confirms the regulation of the Athenian Lawgiver, which ordained, that it should be infamous for a Man, who had reached the years of discretion, not to have formed an opinion concerning the state of affairs in his country, and treasonable, having formed one, not to propagate it by every legal mean in his power. This Duty we should exert at all times, but with peculiar ardor in seasons of public Calamity, when there exists an Evil of such incalculable magnitude as the present War. ”

“ There have been multiplied among us "Men who carry tales to shed blood!" Men who resemble the familiar Spirits described by Isaiah, as "dark ones, that peep and that mutter!". Men, who may seem to have been typically shadowed out in the Frogs that formed the second plague of Egypt: little low animals with chilly blood and flaring eyes, that "come up into our houses and our bedchambers!" These men are plenteously scattered among us: our very looks are decyphered into disaffection, and we cannot move without treading on some political spring-gun. ”

“ Such in addition to the evils attending all wars, are the peculiar horrors of the present. Our national faith has been impaired; our social confidence hath been weakened, or made unsafe; our liberties have suffered a perilous breach, and even now are being (still more perilously) undermined; the Dearth, which would otherwise have been scarcely visible, hath enlarged its terrible features into the threatening face of Famine; and finally, of us will justice require a dreadful account of whatever guilt France has perpetrated, of whatever miseries France has endured. Are we men? ”

“ William Pitt observed that, "by this iniquitous and unjust War the Nation was drained of its vital resources of Men and Money." William Pitt exclaimed that "our expences were enormous, while our victories were indecisive, and our defeats fatal—victories celebrated with short-lived triumph over men struggling in the holy cause of Freedom, and defeats which filled the Land with mourning." ”

“ Off its peculiar crimes and distresses we shall endeavor to give a comprehensive view, that each of us may proportion his energies to the vastness of the general evil, not to the weight of his individual grievances. But its total Causelessness must be proved:—as if the War had been just and necessary, it might be thought disputable whether any Calamities could justify our abandonment of it. On a subject so universally discussed it would be a vain endeavour to adduce any new argument. ”

“ For the prophet Isaiah had informed me "that it shall come to pass, that when the People shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves and curse the King." The grave matron heard me—and shaking her head learnedly replied, "Quos Deus vult perdere, dementat." Again I besought her to speak to the rich men of the nation, concerning ministers of whom it might soon become illegal even to complain—of long and ruinous wars—and whether they must not bear the damage. ”

“ These desperate Conspirators, it appeared, had formed their incampment in a back-garret—their arsenal was provided with Nine rusty muskets—and the formidable preparation which was to overturn the Constitution was supported by an exchequer containing nine pounds and one bad shilling—all to be directed against the armed Force and established Government of Great-Britain!———Fellow Citizens! our laughter may be raised by the cause, but our indignation and sorrow must be excited by the consequences. ”

“ It was a favorite opinion with the unfortunate Charles, that it was more honorable for a King to have his realm almost destroyed, and its very existence endangered by an Enemy, than to hazard the diminution of his prerogatives among his own Subjects. ”

“ Million of men, of each one of whom the mangled corse terrifies the dreams of her that loved him, and makes some mother, some sister, some widow start from slumber with a shriek! These arguments have been urged even to satiety—a British Senator has sneeringly styled them mere common-place against wars. ”

“ But the absurdity as well as iniquity of thus opposing the diffusion of popular principles by a foreign war, I shall not prefs on your recollection. If the People ever wish for a Revolution, this proneness to change must originate in the sense of their wants and grievances: and it must be a notable Remedy which cures the Disease by doubling the Causes of it. ”

“ We should be bold in the avowal of political Truth among those only whose minds are susceptible of reasoning: and never to the multitude, who ignorant and needy must necessarily act from the impulse of inflamed Passions. ”

“ Bounties in truth are offered—great and unexampled Bounties—tho' not always as faithfully paid as magnificently promised. The price of Man-flesh offered to the British Private has almost reached the sum paid to the German Princes—"Death's prime Slave-merchants." ”

“ Traitors to friendship, that they may be faithful to the Constitution—Enemies of human nature, that they may prove themselves the Adorers of the God of Peace—they hide from themselves the sense of their crime by the merit of their motive. Thus every man begins to suspect his neighbour, the warm ebullience of our hearts is stagnating: and I dread, lest by long stifling the expressions of Patriotism, we may at last lose the Feeling. "Society is in every state a blessing ”

“ And yet how often have the fierce Bigots of Despotism told me, that the Poor are not to be pitied, however great their necessities: for if they be out of employ, the King wants men!—They may be shipped off to the Slaughter-house abroad, if they wish to escape a Prison at home!—Fools! ”

“ But our Premiers' Harangues!—Mystery concealing Meanness, as steam-clouds invelope a dunghill. To rouse the fears of the Wealthy, and the prejudices of the Ignorant is an easy task for one, who possesses the privilege of manufacturing Royal Eloquence and sticking up Royal Hand-bills. ”

“ It has been asserted, that internal disturbances are the evil to be prevented, even by external distresses—a tenet which depraves the suspicious heart which adopts it, and realizes the event which it affects to prophecy. ”

“ And does not Government increase their want by Taxes?—Taxes rendered necessary by those national assassinations called Wars, and by that worst Corruption and Perjury, which a reverend Moralist has justified under the soft title of "secret Influence!" The poor Infant born in an English or Irish Hovel breathes indeed the air and partakes of the light of Heaven ”

“ If a series of calamities succeed each, they deprecate the anger of Heaven by a Fast!—A word that implies, Prayers of Hate to the God of Love—and after these, a Turbot Feast for the rich, and their usual scanty Morsel to the poor, if indeed debarred from their usual labor they can procure even this. ”

“ The powers of Intellect are given him in vain: to make him work like a brute Beast he is kept as ignorant as a brute Beast, It is not possible that this despised and oppressed Man should behold the rich and idle without malignant envy. ”

“ But Terror intoxicates more than strong wine; with the which, who forcibly drenches another man, is the real cause and sole responsible agent of all the excesses, which in the hour of drunkenness he shall have committed. It was a truth easily discovered, a truth on which our Minister has proceeded, that valour and victory would not be the determiners of this War. They would prove finally successful whose resources enabled them to hold out the longest. The commerce of France was annihilated ”

“ O the wonderful Wisdom of Ministers, who would cónjure restlessness into content by adding famine to poverty, and calamities abroad to oppressions at home!
French Principles are widely different from those of the British Constitution: French Excesses are disgraceful to Humanity: it is therefore impossible to treat with the French. But might not the American States refuse to negociate with us on the same foundation? The principles industriously propagated by the friends of our Government are opposite to the American Constitution—and indeed to Liberty every where ”