It is a curious speculation in history to see how often the good people of England have played this game over and over again, and how incorrigible th… - William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville

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It is a curious speculation in history to see how often the good people of England have played this game over and over again, and how incorrigible they are in it. To desire war without reflection, to be unreasonably elated with success, to be still more unreasonably depressed by difficulties, and to call out for peace with an impatience which makes suitable terms unattainable, are the established maxims and the regular progress of the popular mind in this country. Yet, such as it is, it is worth all the other countries of the world put together, so we must not too much complain of it.

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About William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville

William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville PC PCi FRS (25 October 1759 – 12 January 1834) was a British Pittite Tory politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the Whigs for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars. As prime minister, his most significant achievement was the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. However, his government failed to either make peace with France or to accomplish Catholic emancipation and it was dismissed in the same year.

Also Known As

Native Name: William Wyndham Grenville
Alternative Names: William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville William Grenville William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville William Wyndham, Lord Grenville Lord Grenville
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Additional quotes by William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville

The assertion of the House of Commons, in which their lordships committee had unanimously concurred, was, that they were satisfied there was a design now openly professed and acted upon, which aimed at nothing less than a traitorous conspiracy for the subversion of the established laws and constitution of the kingdom, and to introduce that system of anarchy and confusion which had fatally prevailed in France; and he was sorry to say, that this had not been discouraged, on the contrary it had been encouraged in many instances, and that at a time when we were at war for the maintenance of every thing that was dear to us, and to every civilized nation in the world. From the first moment that those who brought on the revolution in France found themselves strong enough to avow their real principles and designs, their mischievous system commenced, and they began to disturb this and other countries, under the name of reform.

I cannot forbear writing one line to congratulate you and myself on the account which I have just now received, that the Bill for repealing the Roman Catholic disabilities is actually a part of the law of the land. I may now say that I have not lived in vain.

We in truth formed our opinions on the subject together, and I was not more convinced than you were of the soundness of Adam Smith's principles of political economy till Lord Liverpool lured you from our arms into all the mazes of the old system.
I am confident that provisions, like every other article of commerce, if left to themselves, will and must find their level; and that every attempt to disturb that level by artificial contrivances has a necessary tendency to increase the evil it seeks to remedy.

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