have caused the murder of his elder brother and younger sister; the
former he denounced to appropriate to himself his wealth, and the latter
he accused of fanaticism, because she refused to cohabit with him. He
daily boasts of the great protection and great friendship of Talleyrand.
'Qualis rex, talis grex'.




LETTER XIX.

PARIS, September, 1805.

MY LORD:--In some of the ancient Republics, all citizens who, in time of
danger and trouble, remained neutral, were punished as traitors or
treated as enemies. When, by our Revolution, civilized society and the
European Commonwealth were menaced with a total overthrow, had each
member of it been considered in the same light, and subjected to the same
laws, some individual States might, perhaps, have been less wealthy, but
the whole community would have been more happy and more tranquil, which
would have been much better. It was a great error in the powerful league
of 1793 to admit any neutrality at all; every Government that did not
combat rebellion should have been considered and treated as its ally. The
man who continues neutral, though only a passenger, when hands are wanted
to preserve the vessel from sinking, deserves to be thrown overboard, to
be swallowed up by the waves and to perish the first. Had all other
nations been united and unanimous, during 1793 and 1794, against the
monster, Jacobinism, we should not have heard of either Jacobin
directors, Jacobin consuls, or a Jacobin Emperor. But then, from a petty
regard to a temporary profit, they entered into a truce with a