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English Public Opinion Example Pro-war sentiment against the Americans is outraging the Prince Regent to fight on. A battle is to be fought now between the whole of our army and navy and those of the republic of America. She will not shy the fight. She is ready for us. The world is now going to witness the fall of the last republic, or the decline of the naval power of England. There will be no medium after another year of war. We must completely subjugate the Americans; or openly fall before them. We must beat them, or they must beat us. The battle will be a famous one. A great kingdom, the mistress of the sea, the Dictatress of Europe, on the one side; and the last of the republics on the other. Not only the question of maritime rights to be decided, but the question of the nature of governments. The world is now going to see whether a republic, without a standing army, with half a dozen frigates, and with a chief magistrate of five thousand pounds a year, be able to contend, single-handed against a kingdom with a thousand ships of war, and army of two-hundred thousand men, and with a royal family whose civil list amounts to more than a million pounds a year. Nothing was ever so favorable as this spectacle. May the end be favorable to this country and mankind in general. William Corbett, London
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