inst the laws, and grow too
inveterate often to admit a cure, unless such as may be as bad as the
disease.

Thirdly, the several parts of this species of government, though united,
preserve the spirit which each form has separately. Kings are ambitious;
the nobility haughty; and the populace tumultuous and ungovernable. Each
party, however in appearance peaceable, carries on a design upon the
others; and it is owing to this, that in all questions, whether
concerning foreign or domestic affairs, the whole generally turns more
upon some party-matter than upon the nature of the thing itself; whether
such a step will diminish or augment the power of the crown, or how far
the privileges of the subject are likely to be extended or restricted by
it. And these questions are constantly resolved, without any
consideration of the merits of the cause, merely as the parties who
uphold these jarring interests may chance to prevail; and as they
prevail, the balance is overset, now upon one side, now upon the other.
The government is, one day, arbitrary power in a single person; another,
a juggling confederacy of a few to cheat the prince and enslave the
people; and the third, a frantic and unmanageable democracy. The great
instrument of all these changes, and what infuses a peculiar venom into
all of them, is party. It is of no consequence what the principles of
any party, or what their pretensions are; the spirit which actuates all
parties is the same; the spirit of ambition, of self-interest, of
oppression and treachery. This spirit entirely reverses all the
principles which a benevolent nature has erected within us; all honesty,
all equal justice, and even the ties of natural society, the natural
affections. In a word, my lord, we have all _seen_, and, if any outward
considerations were worthy the lasting concern of a wise man, we have
some of us _felt_, such oppression from party government as no other
tyranny can parallel. We behold daily the most important rights, rights
upon which all the others depend, we behold these rights determined in
the last resort, without the least attention even to the appearance or
color of justice; we behold this without emotion, because we have grown
up in the constant view of such practices; and we are not surprised to
hear a man requested to be a knave and a traitor, with as much
indifference as if the most ordinary favor were asked; and we hear this
request refused, not because it is a most unju