OCR Text |
Show 308 ACTS RELATING Part 1H,,- ture, who {hall have been found unequal to the talk, or unfaithful to the truf't. By See}. I. ed. 309 TO THE COLONIES. Not but that a reafon might be given to jufiify in fome meafure, as well as to an attentive exercife of this power the people may root up fuch evils as happen account for its pertinacity. to refult, not fo much from any vice in {ions which no government, however def- the government, as from the bad inten- potic, find it £th to fquander, and caft tions, or mifiaken views of individuals. away. The objeé‘ts of refpeét being rather They may correct, or fortify the principle the perfons of the men in power, than of the government Without endangering its ellence. But what is not commonly attended to, this circumllance is feareely more favour- any principle dillufed through the multi- able to the people, than it is to government itfelf. By a movement thus regular and tranquil, the operations of government are facilitated, and its dignity preferved. When the fovereign authority refis undivided in a permanent un hanging body, the difficulty of reformation is extreme. An erroneous fyfiem once begun mutt be perfifled in; fince to reeede from it would carry that confeflion of fallibihty which is f0 galling to the pride of power That pride is an obltacle rarely to be furniounted The refpee‘t and confidence of the people, are pofl‘ef- tution, whatever tends to diminifh that confidence and that refpeét cannot but have a dangerous effeet. Our happy confiitution is free from this inconvenience. The ultimate dependence of the people is placed not in this or that body of men in oflice, but in itfelf. One parliament may depart from the princi- ples of another parliament, and the refpeét to government continue the fame. The political regeneration of the molt ac- tive of the three bodies that compofe the legillature, is a palliative at leaf}, amongfl: other corruptions ofarbitrary governments, for that of obfiinacy. The new body in- X 3 firuéted |