Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/201

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

( 191 )

be relieved and punished—Beware that this penal moment is not at hand.—Why do you now permit despotism and fanaticism to palsy the freedom of the rising world, when your duty and your interest are struggling for precedency to crush them at a blow?—If that vast continent were governed according to the humane maxims of civilized nations, you would have no right to wrest the sceptre out of hands however unworthy to wield it; but since you have been placed for so many ages in the high post of honour for the advancement of human happiness, you ought to suffer no other nation to run on before you in the rescue of suffering millions from famine, dungeons, and the sword.—Recollect your eulogium upon the triumphs of chemistry and mechanics:—apply them to the mines and other productions of those vast regions; not as robbers or task-masters, but in the liberal spirit of commerce with their people, by which you might resuscitate your own country whilst you were breathing new life into theirs."


The