OCR Text |
Show [70] [ 7I ] birth has placed above it, what hopes are there That this ill-natured doctrine ihould be preached by the millionaries ofa court, 1 do not in the remainder of the body which is to furnifh the perpetual fucceflion of the Prate.P wonder. It anl'wez‘s their purpofe. But that it {hould be heard among thofe who pretend to All who have ever written on government, are be {trong afiertors of liberty, is not only furprifing, but hardly natural. This moral level:ling is rife/"vile primarily. It leads to practical pallive obedience far better, than all the doctrines, which the pliant accommodati n of Theology to power, has Eever produced. It unanimous, that among a people generally cor-' rupt, liberty cannot long exift. And indeed how is it pofiible? when thofe who are to make the laws, to guard, to enforce, or to obey them, are, by a tacit confederacy of manners, indilpofed to the fpirit of all generous and noble inflitutions. cuts up by the roots, not only all idea of forcible reliflance, but even of civil Oppofition. It dill ofes men to an abjeé't fubmillion, not by Opinion, thich may be {haken by hrgument or altered by paliion, but by the ilroug ties of public and private interefi. For if all men I am aware that the age isnot What we all will). ButI am lure, that the only means of checking its precipitate degeneracy, is heartily to concur With whatever is the heft in our who net in a public {ituation are equally felfilh, time; and to have tome more correét flandard of judging what that bell is, than the tranlient corrupt, and venal, what reafon can be given and uncertain favour of a court. for defiring any fort of change, which, befides are able to find, and can prevail on ourielves If orie we the evils which mull attend all changes, can to {trengthen an union of fuch men, whatever be produflive of no polhble advantage? The aétire men in the ilate are true famples of the accidentally becomes indifpoled to ill-exercifed power, even by the ordinary Operation of hu- mats. man paflions, muf'tjoin with that fociety, and cannot long be joined, without in fome degree aflimilating to it. Virtue will catch as well as If they are univerfally depraved, the common-we alth itfelt‘is not found. We may avnufe ouz‘lilves with talking as much as we pleafe of the virtue of middle or humble life; that is, we may place our confidence in the virtue of thole (who have never been tried. But it the perfons who are continually emerging out of that lphere, be no better than thole Whom i ' i I. V I birth vice by contact ; and the public flock of benefit manly principle will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to {crutinize motives as long as aétion is irreproachahle. It is enough, (and for a worthy man perhaps too much:] tr; ' ea |