gainst
calumny. I could wish, undoubtedly, (if idle wishes were not the most
idle of all things,) to make every part of my conduct agreeable to every
one of my constituents; but in so great a city, and so greatly divided
as this, it is weak to expect it.

In such a discordancy of sentiments it is better to look to the nature
of things than to the humors of men. The very attempt towards pleasing
everybody discovers a temper always flashy, and often false and
insincere. Therefore, as I have proceeded straight onward in my conduct,
so I will proceed in my account of those parts of it which have been
most excepted to. But I must first beg leave just to hint to you that we
may suffer very great detriment by being open to every talker. It is not
to be imagined how much of service is lost from spirits full of activity
and full of energy, who are pressing, who are rushing forward, to great
and capital objects, when you oblige them to be continually looking
back. Whilst they are defending one service, they defraud you of an
hundred. Applaud us when we run, console us when we fall, cheer us when
we recover; but let us pass on,--for God's sake, let us pass on!

Do you think, Gentlemen, that every public act in the six years since I
stood in this place before you, that all the arduous things which have
been done in this eventful period which has crowded into a few years'
space the revolutions of an age, can be opened to you on their fair
grounds in half an hour's conversation?

But it is no reason, because there is a bad mode of inquiry, that there
should be no examination at all. Most certainly it is our duty to
examine; it is our interest, too: but it must be with discretion, with
an attention to all the circumstances and to all the motives; like sound
judges, and not like cavilling pettifoggers and quibbling pleaders,
prying into flaws and hunting for exceptions. Look, Gentlemen, to the
_whole tenor_ of your member's conduct. Try whether his ambition or his
avarice have justled him out of the straight line of duty,--or whether
that grand foe of the offices of active life, that master vice in men of
business, a degenerate and inglorious sloth, has made him flag and
languish in his course. This is the object of our inquiry. If our
member's conduct can bear this touch, mark it for sterling. He may have
fallen into errors, he must have faults; but our error is greater, and
our fault is radically ruinous to ourselves, if we do not