of Good. Hope remained a British colony. It would have been
a deferable obje& then to retain p offeffion of a ftation which
would efie&ually have excluded them from the Indian Seas; and
which always would have enabled us to confine them to their
ufeleis iflands of France and Bourbon.
Of one thing England may be well allured, that the deftruc-
tion of its commerce, as the fource from whence its power and
affluence are derived, is a fentiment fo deeply rooted in the mind
of the Corfican that, fo long as it continues to flouriih, his
irafcible and vindictive temper will not allow him to keep-on
any terms of friendlhip with us. He is well aware that pur
commerce is our great fupport, that, as Mr. Delacroix ob-
ferved, it enabled us to fubfidize all Europe againft them; and
that if he could once break up our eommeree to India and China,
and ihut us out from the Mediterranean, the grand bulwark that
now ftands between him and univerfal fovereignty would, in a
great degree, be removed.
Should his views, unhappily for the world, ever be accom-
plifhed, an age of barbarifm would return, ten times darker
than that which followed the irruption of the northern hordes.
A deadly blow would be ftruek at once to the liberty of the
prefs; nothing would be written, nor printed, nor tolerated, but
what the fovereign defpot fhould find conducive to his univerfal;
fway. The time would then come when legit ut clericus, in-
ftead of faving a man from death would be the fure means of
bringing him to his end.
It-
It behoves his Majefty’s Government then to be Upon its guard,
and to watch the points Where We aie moft vulnerable, in this
refpea, with unremitting attention ; but above all, after providing
for the fecurity of the empire, to cruih, in the cradle,
the defigns of the French upon India. The firft ftep to this
definable objedt will be the rêè-overy of the Cape of Good Hope;
or, which would anfwer -pretty nearly the fame purpofe, the
deftrudtion of the ihipping that, from time to time, might be af-
fembled there. An expedition for this purpofe would require
no troops; and, having oncè eftabliihed our fecurity at home,
fo that we can venture to detach a fquadron fufficient for fuch
an enterprize, this is an objea not unworthy the confederation
of Government. I have already obferved that Table Bay, hi
the opinion of naval people, is favourable for putting fuch à dé-
fign in execution. I ihould imagine that Simon’s Bay is ftil!
mote fo, there being no works, or none of any confeqUence, to
annoy our ihipping from the ihore.
There are two finall forts only, one on each fide of the anchorage,
both of which would be immediately filénced by â
fhip of the line. The wind, in the winter feafon, when ihipping
frequent Simon’s'Bay, is always favourable for funning dlreitly
into it, and equally fo for Handing out into the G feat Bay Falfe,
in every part of which there is good anchorage. A fuperior fleet
will, therefore, at all times, take or deftfoy every ihip that may
be found there ; and the ihipping on the Cape ftation are under
an abfolute neceflity of going either into Simon’ s or Saldanha
Bay in the winter months, and of remaining there from May to
I Septem