During a period of peace it has been havocked with the calamities of war.

Three times has it been thrown into stagnation, and the vessels unmanned by impressing, within less than four years of peace.] [Footnote 27: Rev.William Knowle, master of the grammar school of Thetford, in Norfolk.] [Footnote 28: Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected that the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious of public characters, but with regard to myself I am perfectly easy on this head.

I did not, at my first setting out in public life, nearly seventeen years ago, turn my thoughts to subjects of government from motives of interest, and my conduct from that moment to this proves the fact.

I saw an opportunity in which I thought I could do some good, and I followed exactly what my heart dictated.

I neither read books, nor studied other people's opinion.