THE WAR WITH NAPOLEON

From a Sermon preached before some Volunteers on The Sentiments proper- to the Present Crisis.

In other wars we have been a divided people : the effect of our external operations has been in some measure weakened by intestine dissension. When peace has returned, the breach has widened, while parties have been formed on the merits of particular men, or of particular

measures. These have all disappeared : we have buried our mutual animosities in a regard to the common safety. The sentiment of self-preservation, the first law which nature has impressed, has absorbed every other feeling ; and the fire of liberty has melted down the discordant sentiments and minds of the British Empire into one mass, and propelled them in one direction. Partial interests and feelings are suspended, the spirits of the body are collected at the heart, and we are awaiting with anxiety, but without dismay, the discharge of that mighty tempest which hangs upon the skirts of the horizon, and to which the eyes of Europe and of the world are turned in silent and awful expectation.

While we feel solicitude, let us not betray dejection nor be alarmed at the past successes of our enemy, which are more dangerous to himself than to us, since they have raised him from obscurity to an elevation which has made him giddy, and tempted him to suppose everything within his power. The intoxication of his success is the omen of his fall. What though he has carried the flames of war throughout Europe, and gathered as a nest the riches of the nations, while none peeped, nor muttered, nor moved the wing ; he has yet to try his fortune in another field ; he has yet to contend on a soil filled with the monuments of freedom, enriched with the blood of its defenders ; with a people who, animated with one soul, and inflamed with zeal for their laws and for their prince, are armed in defence of all that is dear or venerable — their wives, their parents, their children, the sanctuary of God, and the sepulchre of their fathers. (Robert hall.)

(5) Dire ce que vous savez de l'influence que la Grande Charte de 1215 a eue sur l'histoire de l'Angleterre.

(a) Traduire en français : —