And
mankind has learned, my lords, by experience, that exorbitant power
will always produce exorbitant pride; that very few, when they can
oppress with security, will be contained within the bounds of equity
by the restraints of morality or of religion; and that, therefore, the
only method of establishing a lasting peace is to divide power so
equally, that no party may have any certain prospect of advantage by
making war upon another.
For this reason, my lords, it was apparently contrary to our interest
to grant those provinces to those to whom, by their situation, they
might have been most useful. Such countries, and such manufactures in
the hands of a people versed, perhaps, beyond all others, both in the
science and the stratagems of trade, and always watchful to improve
every opportunity of increasing their riches, would have enabled them
in a short time to purchase an interest in the councils of all the
monarchs of the world, to have maintained fleets that might have
covered the ocean, and to have obtained that universal dominion to
which the French have so long aspired, and which it is, perhaps, more
for the interest of mankind, that if slavery cannot be prevented, they
should obtain, as they would, perhaps, use their power with more
generosity.
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