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forces to Buncos , there to wait lor reinforcements We expect to hear every day of fresh attacks made upon them by the Spaniards , and if they could overpower them , before reinforcements
arrived , it would be a great thing for the country . They must expect a terrible conflict . Buonaparte will not easily give up his intended prey . He is collecting immense forces to enter Spain , and the contest will be -awful . On the one hand a
people is fighting for liberty and independence , on the other a nation for victory and glory , disdaining to receive a check from a kingdom it de .-pised . Such is the state of men professing to be Christians . Tearing each other like brutes , they shew how little reason has been suffered to make its way in the world , and that we are rather content to bear
the yoke of our passions , than to submit to the gentle restraints of the * gospel . Love y © ur enemies , says Christ , and pray for them : tear your enemies to pieces , says human policy , and , if you cannot otherwise obtain your ends , let destruction go before you , and convert a fruitful country into a wilderness .
In Portugal , strange things have happened . The English landed , beat the French in two battles , and when the news was expected that we were in possession of Lisbon , and that the French had surrendered at discretion , accounts were received of a capitulation or convention , by which it was agreed , that the French should be sent back into their
own country , with arrns and ammunition and ail the plunder they had accumulated . The Russian sailors were also to be sent back to Russia : but the Russian ships are to be kept by us during the war , and they are to be . restored six months after peace is concluded . Public indignation was very great at the arrival of such news , and so
disgraceful a convention is not easy to be accounted for ; since it restores to the French a body of troops to march into Spain , and gives to the Russian emperor sailors to act against Sweden . The French army and the- Russian sailors could do no harm in Lisbon ; they now become qualified to enter into the contest of nations with ardour .
Constantinople affords another instance of the baseness of its government . Another sultan ha * been deposed . The army has effected the change ; and the last of the Othman race is now upon the throne . It is needjpss to inquire ,
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what 'were the t&riscs o £ this tidr fev ©*» Itition . Where despotism prevails , the life of the sovereign is never secure and this ought to be a lesson . to kings , that their greatest wisdom is to govern by fixed laws , and to make a common cause with their people . To permit a stands ing army in a country is always a
dangerous thing . No king is safe with one yet few kings love to be without them . As children are fond of noi y toys , so kings are too often led away by the vanity of fine troops and numerous armies . In the North , the affairs of the king of Sweden seem to be improved $ he has met with successes in Finland , and by the assistance of two of our ships has
repulsed the Russian fleet . The great inferiority of Russian tactics was seen in the engagement , as with nine ships they suffered two of ours to drive them before them , and to burn a ship of their line . There is no danger of either Swedes or Russians learning our disci * pline : for the men must be new modelled , before they can manoeuvre upon sea like Englishmen .
At home , nothing very particular has happened ; but the execution of an officer in the army * for fighting a duel , and killing his adversary , must necessarily excite a sensatibn in the class of men , who call themselves men of honour .
Two officers disputed on a trifling subject , and one , very much offended , s ^ nt for the other , and in their mess room * no other person being present , a duel is supposed to have taken place . This is certain , that one was killed , and the
other has been hanged for killing him . To use the terms of men of honour , this was not a fair duel ; for there were no seconds . It will however lead men in the army and out of the army , to consider of the folly and impiety , of sending a fellow creature out of the world , for some trifling cxpressicn ,
which candid men might easily soften , and prevent bloodshed . For our own parts , we are not inclined to give a duellist any credit for courage ; for so strange are the rules of the men of-the world , that a man , enlisting under them and rejecting the law of God , Ls under
the basest tyranny . He must risk his life in single combat , or be disgraced . We have no doubt , that in some future time men will be found , whp have the courage to refuse a duel ; but they mu-t be men , who have the courage * to act up to Christian principles , whatever tlitir
* Major Campbell .
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514 Stdtebf PubUc 4 ffHit *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1808, page 514, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2396/page/58/
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