Thus is this splendid testimony of national gratitude to the Great Duke
of Marlborough made a show of for the emolument of the servants of the
establishment; each of them demanding his fee as regularly as a showman
of wild beasts at a fair demands a shilling at the entrance. This is
considered by foreigners as a disgrace to the British character, and it
is justly considered so.

We must now return to politics.--Lord Nelson bombarded the French
flotilla at Boulogne, disabled ten vessels, and sunk five; but upon his
making another attempt on it, he was repulsed with great loss. I cannot
describe this eventful period better than it is described in the
"_Chronology of Public Events, within the last fifty years;_" a most
useful and entertaining work published by Sir Richard Phillips, Bride
Court, Bridge Street. The passage is as follows, under the head of
"_Great Britain_." "This year, 1801, commenced by exhibiting the effects
of eight years war; the national debt had been doubled, and internal
distress had become general; the poor were in a state bordering on
starvation, and commerce had the prospect of having every foreign port
shut against it. The people busied themselves to meet the threatened
French invasion; and after a long watch for encroachment, the English
themselves became assailants, by an attack upon Boulogne, which did
little injury, and a second attack took place, under Lord Nelson, which
failed with loss." This certainly is a correct description of the state
of the country, in the ninth year of the war against French liberty,
waged to prevent a Reform of the Parliament at home.

I shall now state how I was employed upon this occasion. Pitt's
alarmists still disseminated throughout the country, a general terror of
invasion. The various Lords Lieutenants of counties were kept actively
at work, to support the delusion; for nothing but the immediate dread of