and how different they are, it would take an octavo volume to tell.

GLORY was the object of the Roman republick; and gain is of ours. A Roman felt as if the leprosy had broken out in his cheek, when his country was dishonoured; and we charge it in our ledger. To Rome it cost blood; to us, ink or tribute.

SOON or late every great nation will act out its character. As we do not aspire to glory, we shall never reach it; and our short-sighted policy, which will not provide by the expense of to-morrow for the danger of the day after, will be overwhelmed at last by the destruction of the sordid interests, for which we have sacrificed more precious ones.

WITHOUT forces, ships, or revenue, we get tallow on our ribs like the oxen, we make honey like the bees, we carry fleeces like the sheep, and we build nests like the birds, not for ourselves, but for others, for Buonaparte.

MACHIAVEL, in his history of Florence, has shewn, that the rivalship of the great men and the common people is the everlasting source of discord in republicks. In Rome, he says, it led to dominion; in Florence, to slavery and dependency. Whence, he asks, was the difference? In Rome, every thing was settled by reason and expostulation; and in Florence by the sword. In Rome they wished to employ their great men; and in Florence to exterminate them. Accordingly, Rome grew from little to great; and Florence dwindled from great to little.

THE disciples of the school of equality would learn by studying Machiavel, who studied nature, how wide those men run from the principles of liberty, who carry those principles to impracticable extremes.

BUT what avails federal truth? If every grave-stone of a departed republick bore a lesson of wisdom and of warning, the democrats would shut their eyes rather than look upon it. They have no idea of any principles, except in their extremes, when they are no longer principles. We not only seem to choose our own destiny, but to control it. By our extravagance we render every thing impossible, but our degradation.

IT may please GOD, in the course of his providence, to train our nation by misfortune, and to fit it for greatness by some ages of adversity; but if we should be left to train ourselves, we must be abject and base.

BRITISH ALLIANCE.

First published in the Repertory, November, 1806.

THOSE are not the wisest of men, who undertake to act always by rule. In political affairs, there are no more selfconceited blunderers than the statesmen, who affect to proceed, in all cases, without regard to circumstances, but solely according to speculative principles.

POLITICKS is the science of good sense, applied to publick affairs; and, as those are for ever changing, what is wisdom to-day would be folly and, perhaps, ruin to-morrow. Politicks is not a science so properly as a business. It cannot have fixed principles, from which a wise man would never swerve, unless the inconstancy of men's views of interest and the capriciousness of their tempers could be fixed.

WE make these remarks, because we are sometimes sorry, and sometimes diverted, at the dispute about an alliance offensive and defensive with Great Britain. If ever there was a question of moonshine, this is one. There is no more proba

bility, that Mr. Jefferson will conclude such a treaty, than that he will breakfast to-morrow morning upon gun-powder; and it is the prevailing opinion, that he is fonder of hominy. We might as well speculate upon our probable condition, "if "angels in the form of presidents should come down to the "federal city to govern us;" or who would get or lose a fat commission, if the time had come when Mr. Jefferson would make no other inquiry than, "is he capable, is he honest?" It is a pity, that our printers should argue, and contend, and explain about any of these matters of moonshine.

If the time should ever come, (and a new race of men must be let down from the sky before it can come) when an honest spirit of patriotism will have such a question to decide, our

Catos, and our Ciceros, and Favonii would say, the decision must depend on circumstances, not on principles deduced a priori. Salus reipublicæ suprema lex esto. To serve and save the commonwealth, controls all maxims.

It is absurd to say, Washington made no such treaty, and, therefore, Mr. Jefferson ought not to make it. The times never required it of Washington; and if they had, that firm and tempered soul, that heard reproach in the huzzas of popularity, unless conscience sanctioned its applause, would have impelled him to a treaty offensive and defensive with Great Britain. The heart swells and convulses at the mention of his name (in contrast even) with Jefferson's. But even Jefferson ought not to be reproached for negotiating such a treaty, when the circumstances may require it. We are not disposed to assert, that at present they do require it. We hope, but while they negotiate with France we scarcely know why we hope, that British hearts, such stout hearts as our ever-renowned ancestors wore, will resist Buonaparte, till his despotism has spent its fury, or the subject nations of Europe have recovered their spirit. Nevertheless, if American independence could not be preserved, without joining Great Britain to resist its great enemy, the coward world's master, is there an American who would object to such an alliance? An alliance of this sort with any nation, is an evil; but to say, there is no condition of our affairs, in which it would not be a less evil than subjugation, or than the increased peril of subjugation, without such a concert of counsels and of efforts, is book-wisdom. It is that sort of folly and infatuation, which every nation that now wears French chains has fitted itself for slavery by first adopting.

WHENEVER, therefore, a miracle is about to be publickly wrought, and Mr. Jefferson grows so careless of his popularity and so careful of his country, as to act the great part, which the reduction of the British power would justify and require, let not the federalists take off from his shoulders to their own the reproach of suffering our liberties to be seized by France as a prey.

IF Britain falls in fighting our battles, we must fight our own; and what law of sound policy or true wisdom is there, that we should choose to fight them, unassisted and alone? We do NOT say that the time has come-heaven forbid it should; but it may come, and that speedily, when the opposition to a British alliance would be treason against American independence. Let French emissaries cavil, but let Americans ponder.