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and pottery, in which they were so ambitious to rival us. These,and motives such as these, may have been amongst the primaryones, which incited His Majesty’s ministers to negotiate a treatywith France; but as to the ostensible ones, he could see but twoof any consequence ; one was, a prospect of continuing the peaceby opening a commercial intercourse between the two kingdoms ;another was, a prospect of augmenting our revenue by extendingour trade.
“ Would to God , My Lords, he said, that the spirit of theChristian religion would exert its influence over the hearts ofindividuals in their public capacity, as much as, we trust, it doesover their conduct in 'private life; then would revenge, avarice,and ambition, which have fattened thie earth with the blood ofher children, be banished from the coumcils of princes, and therewould be no more war. The time will come, the prophet hathsaid it, and I believe it, the time will assuredly come, when nation,literally speaking, shall no longer lift up hand against nation. Noman will rejoice, My Lords, more than I shall, to see the timewhen peace shall depend on an obedience to the benevolentprinciples of the Gospel; but whilst it is simply made to dependon the selfish prospects of commercial policy, I can have no con-fidence in its continuance; it will not last a moment longer thantill it is the interest, real or apparent, of France to break it.
“ Flad we forgotten ; no length of time would ever obliteratethe circumstance from his memory, it even yet rankled in hisrecollection; had we not heard during the progress of the Ameri-can war, every annual Speech from the Throne, every monthlydispatch from our Minister at Paris, (of whose ability to detecthypocrisy, had it been possible to detect it, no one could doubt,)