successor should think fit to take that step, I apprehend a general
discontent of those who wish that this nation and that Europe should
continue in their present state would ensue,--a discontent which,
combined with the principles and progress of the new men in power, would
shake this kingdom to its foundations. I do not believe any one
political conjecture can be more certain than this.

53. Without at all defending or palliating Mr. Pitt's conduct in 1784, I
must observe, that the crisis of 1793, with regard to everything at home
and abroad, is full as important as that of 1784 ever was, and, if for
no other reason, by being present, is much more important. It is not to
nine years ago we are to look for the danger of Mr. Fox's and Mr.
Sheridan's conduct, and that of the gentlemen who act with them. It is
at _this_ very time, and in _this_ very session, that, if they had not
been strenuously resisted, they would not only have discredited the
House of Commons, (as Mr. Pitt did in 1784, when he persuaded the king
to reject their advice, and to appeal from them to the people,) but, in
my opinion, would have been the means of wholly subverting the House of
Commons and the House of Peers, and the whole Constitution actual and
virtual, together with the safety and independence of this nation, and
the peace and settlement of every state in the now Christian world. It
is to our opinion of the nature of Jacobinism, and of the probability,
by corruption, faction, and force, of its gaining ground everywhere,
that the question whom and what you are to support is to be determined.
For my part, without doubt or hesitation, I look upon Jacobinism as the
most dreadful and the most shameful evil which ever afflicted mankind, a
thing which goes beyond the power of all calculation in its
mischief,--and that, if it is suffered to exist in France, we must in
England, and speedily too, fall into that calamity.