1823. Feb. 11 Tripoli. H. to Q.A. ?.7. U.S. Inducements

in a state of society and manners such as our's, the whole wisdom of years may,

at any time, be set at nought, by the caprice or ungrounded passion of the

moment:© passion grounded on false imformation © or even destitute of all

ground. Upon this topic I see no need of enlarging. Though, in your mind, in

your situation, the idea of this irritability, with its consequences, can not be

so strongly impressed by observation from a distance, as in our's it is by sad

and continual experience, it is not without some assurance that I expect to find

it sufficiently so, for the purpose.

True it is, that, on your part, no such security can be complete, unless and

until the plan has been accomplished in regard to ”all• the States in question:

more particularly in regard to ”Algiers•, that being beyond comparison the most

formidable. But the plan, you see, embraces them all: and every thing must have

its beginning. Neither, were it to stop at Tripoli, would a perpetual security

from the hostility of that State be at all times a matter of indifference to

you. At any rate it was not, in the year 1804.

It was but t'other day, and while some part of this letter was writing, that an

article, speaking of a rupture of Algiers with Spain, appeared in the English

papers. Whether that which is the lot of Spain one day, may not be your's

another day, it is for you to judge. The article is in the following words.

Morning