Volume 4 — THE RIGHT OF THE FRENCH NATION TO SELF-GOVERNMENT (1792). Source.—Cowper’s Letters. Thomas Wright. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1904. Vol. iv., pp. 332-335.

To Lady Hesketh, Dec. 1, 1792.

The French are a vain and childish people, and conduct themselves on this grand occasion with a levity and extravagance nearly akin to madness; but it would have been better for Austria and Prussia to let them alone. All nations have a right to choose their own mode of government, and the sovereignty of the people is a doctrine that evinces itself; for whenever the people choose to be masters they always are so, and none can hinder them. God grant that we may have no revolution here, but unless we have a reform, we certainly shall. Depend upon it, my dear, the hour is come when power founded in patronage and corrupt majorities must govern this land no longer. Concessions too must be made to dissenters of every denomination. They have a right to them, a right to all the privileges of Englishmen, and sooner or later, by fair means or by force, they will have them.