extraordinary, because the great
parties which formerly divided and agitated the kingdom are known to be
in a manner entirely dissolved. No great external calamity has visited
the nation; no pestilence or famine. We do not labor at present under
any scheme of taxation new or oppressive in the quantity or in the mode.
Nor are we engaged in unsuccessful war; in which, our misfortunes might
easily pervert our judgment; and our minds, sore from the loss of
national glory, might feel every blow of fortune as a crime in
government.

It is impossible that the cause of this strange distemper should not
sometimes become a subject of discourse. It is a compliment due, and
which I willingly pay, to those who administer our affairs, to take
notice in the first place of their speculation. Our ministers are of
opinion, that the increase of our trade and manufactures, that our
growth by colonization, and by conquest, have concurred to accumulate
immense wealth in the hands of some individuals; and this again being
dispersed among the people, has rendered them universally proud,
ferocious, and ungovernable; that the insolence of some from their
enormous wealth, and the boldness of others from a guilty poverty, have
rendered them capable of the most atrocious attempts; so that they have
trampled upon all subordination, and violently borne down the unarmed
laws of a free government; barriers too feeble against the fury of a
populace so fierce and licentious as ours. They contend, that no
adequate provocation has been given for so spreading a discontent; our
affairs having been conducted throughout with remarkable temper and
consummate wisdom. The wicked industry of some libellers, joined to the
intrigues of a few disappointed politicians, have, in their opinion,
been able to produce this unnatural ferment in the nation.

Nothing indeed can be more unnatural than the present convulsions of
this country, if the above account be a true one. I confess I shall
assent to it with great reluctance, and only on the compulsion of the
clearest and firmest proofs; because their account resolves itself into
this short, but discouraging proposition, "That we have a very good
ministry, but that we are a very bad people"; that we set ourselves to
bite the hand that feeds us; that with a malignant insanity, we oppose
the measures, and ungratefully vilify the persons, of those whose sole
object is our own peace and prosperity. If a few puny libellers, a