The French had shown themselves the ablest architects of ruin that had
hitherto existed in the world. In that very short space of time they had
completely pulled down to the ground their monarchy, their church,
their nobility, their law, their revenue, their army, their navy,
their commerce, their arts, and their manufactures. They had done
their business for us as rivals, in a way in which twenty Ramilies or
Blenheims could never have done it. Were we absolute conquerors, and
France to lie prostrate at our feet, we should be ashamed to send a
commission to settle their affairs which could impose so hard a law upon
the French, and so destructive of all their consequence as a nation, as
that they had imposed on themselves.