against those who by spreading all manner of 'lies inflame the people even to madness; to teach 'them that there is a difference between liberty 'which is the glory of Englishinen, and licen'tiousness which is a wanton abuse of liberty, in 'contempt of all laws divine and human.' 'Can 'anything be done,' he asks, 'to open the eyes, to ⚫ restore the senses of an infatuated nation? Not unless the still-renewed, still operating cause of 'that infatuation be removed.' And again, in his excellent remarks upon Dr. Price's Observations on Civil Liberty, this extraordinary man expresses himself with an anxiety which subsequent events have amply justified. I am in great ' earnest,' he says; 'so I have need to be, for I am 'pleading the cause of my King and country, yea of every country under heaven where there is any regular government. I am pleading against those principles that naturally tend to anarchy and confusion, that directly tend to 'unhinge all governments, and overturn it from the foundation. Their natural tendency is to ⚫ plunge every nation into total anarchy.' The laws, and nothing but the laws, can preserve us from this catastrophe. Meantime individuals may do much in their respective spheres toward that melioration of the people which is the only true reform, and upon which our security mainly depends. The question is whether revolution, whether the endemic moral malady of this distempered age, can be averted till time be gained for educating the populace and improving their condition. We must make the poor,' says Sir Egerton Brydges, by a wise application of their labours, not only create the funds of their own 'subsistence, but add to the wealth of the rest of society... We must do that which will equally ⚫ restore their moral and physical happiness;.. that which, while it will supply them with a sufficiency of food and bodily comforts, will, in the same degree, meliorate their morals and 'their hearts. For this we must look to the legislature. What is required of us is that we be as active in good as the malevolent are active in evil; let each man do his duty in his respective station,.. above all, let the magistrates and the clergy exert themselves; and it will be found that the good principle is mightier than the evil one. The laws are with us, and God is on our side. |
