If this were to happen, though we
might be the losers, humanity would be the gainer. He himself had been
thought sometimes to use expressions relative to France, which were too
harsh, and as if he could only treat her as the enemy of this country.
Politically speaking, France was our rival. But he well knew the
distinction between political enmity and illiberal prejudice. If there
was any great and enlightened nation in Europe, it was France, which was
as likely as any country upon the face of the globe to catch a spark
from the light of our fire, and to act upon the present subject with
warmth and enthusiasm. France had often been improperly stimulated by
her ambition; and he had no doubt but that, in the present instance, she
would readily follow its honourable dictates.
Mr. (afterwards Lord) Grenville would not detain the house by going into
a question which had been so ably argued; but he should not do justice
to his feelings, if he did not express publicly to his honourable
friend, Mr. Wilberforce, the pleasure he had received from one of the
most masterly and eloquent speeches he had ever heard; a speech which,
while it did honour to him, entitled him to the thanks of the House, of
the people of England, of all Europe, and of the latest posterity.
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