Happily, a wiser and a better spirit has now for years pervaded
all classes of our community, and we shall be spared the ignominy of
having worked out to the end the parallel of national ingratitude.
Scipio died a voluntary exile from the malevolent turbulence of Rome.
Englishmen of all ranks and politics have now long united in
affectionate admiration of our modern Scipio; and even those who have
most widely differed from the duke on legislative or administrative
questions, forget what they deem the political errors of that
time-honored head, while they gratefully call to mind the laurels that
have wreathed it.
Scipio at Zama trampled in the dust the power of Carthage, but that
power had been already irreparably shattered in another field, where
neither Scipio nor Hannibal commanded. When the Metaurus witnessed the
defeat and death of Hasdrubal, it witnessed the ruin of the scheme by
which alone Carthage could hope to organize decisive success--the scheme
of enveloping Rome at once from the north and the south of Italy by two
chosen armies, led by two sons of Hamilcar.
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