If
this were to happen, though we might be the losers, humanity would be the
gainer. He himself had been thought sometimes to use expressions relative
to France, which were too harsh, and as if he could only treat her as the
enemy of this country. Politically speaking, France was our rival. But he
well knew the distinction between political enmity and illiberal prejudice.
If there was any great and enlightened nation in Europe, it was France,
which was as likely as any country upon the face of the globe to catch a
spark from the light of our fire, and to act upon the present subject with
warmth and enthusiasm. France had often been improperly stimulated by her
ambition; and he had no doubt but that, in the present instance, she would
readily follow its honourable dictates.
Mr. (now Lord) Grenville would not detain the house by going into a
question, which had been so ably argued; but he should not do justice to
his feelings, if he did not express publicly to his honourable friend, Mr.
Wilberforce, the pleasure he had received from one of the most masterly and
eloquent speeches he had ever heard,--a speech, which, while it did honour
to him, entitled him to the thanks of the house, of the people of England,
of all Europe, and of the latest posterity.
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