all the excellent
qualities to which he lays claim. 'Tis true, when he has gained the
ascendancy he aims at, his behaviour generally shews him to be not only
frail and faulty, but a worse knave than any he has exposed; but before
he thus discovers himself, he has gained a hold either of the affections
or the fears of the multitude, which, added to their reluctance to
owning their own mistake, maintains his popularity till a rival
incendiary rises to dispossess him. In the mean time, candour, who was
pushed behind the scenes, when she came to plead for our lawful
governors, is brought into play, and made to utter fine declamations on
the impossibility of always acting right, and on the distinction between
public and private virtue, bespeaking that indulgence for usurpers or
factious demagogues which was denied to the lapses of lawful rulers,
whose inclinations at least must be on the side of an upright and wise
administration, because they have a permanent interest in the welfare of
the nation. The delusions of which I speak seldom last long; an
enlightened people perceives the cheat; but it is lamentable that the
tricks of these political puritans should never grow stale by practice,
and that as often as a pseudo-reformer starts up with pretensions to
great honesty and great wisdom, England should forget how often she has
been deceived, and allow him to excite a tumult which wiser heads and
better hearts cannot allay."

Sir William found no difficulty in replying to the Doctor. He had only
to admit that his remarks were very just; but, at the same time, he must
say, that, if pushed to their full extent, they would tend to establish
abuses; since, who would dare to arrest the strong arm of tyranny, if
liable to the odium which was thus cast on all promoters of reformation?

"I spake not of reformers truly so called," said Dr. Beaumont, "but of
those factious persons who, to promote their own ends, tamper with the
inflammable passions of the populace, and, instead of amending errors,
snarl at restraints. A true patriot points out defects with a view to
have them removed, and brings himself into as little notice as possible.
We may as well pretend that Wickliffe and Jack Cade were moved by the
same spirit, as say, that we cannot discern between those who seek to do
good, and those who would breed distractions. Yet, as the mass of
mankind are either too ignorant or too much occupied to discover the
sophistry by which, for