cting
under a knot of factious politicians, without virtue, parts, or
character, (such they are constantly represented by these gentlemen,)
are sufficient to excite this disturbance, very perverse must be the
disposition of that people, amongst whom such a disturbance can be
excited by such means. It is besides no small aggravation of the public
misfortune, that the disease, on this hypothesis, appears to be without
remedy. If the wealth of the nation be the cause of its turbulence, I
imagine it is not proposed to introduce poverty, as a constable to keep
the peace. If our dominions abroad are the roots which feed all this
rank luxuriance of sedition, it is not intended to cut them off in order
to famish the fruit. If our liberty has enfeebled the executive power,
there is no design, I hope, to call in the aid of despotism, to fill up
the deficiencies of law. Whatever may be intended, these things are not
yet professed. We seem therefore to be driven to absolute despair; for
we have no other materials to work upon, but those out of which God has
been pleased to form the inhabitants of this island. If these be
radically and essentially vicious, all that can be said is, that those
men are very unhappy, to whose fortune or duty it falls to administer
the affairs of this untoward people. I hear it indeed sometimes
asserted, that a steady perseverance in the present measures, and a
rigorous punishment of those who oppose them, will in course of time
infallibly put an end to these disorders. But this, in my opinion, is
said without much observation of our present disposition, and without
any knowledge at all of the general nature of mankind. If the matter of
which this nation is composed be so very fermentable as these gentlemen
describe it, leaven never will be wanting to work it up, as long as
discontent, revenge, and ambition, have existence in the world.
Particular punishments are the cure for accidental distempers in the
state; they inflame rather than allay those heats which arise from the
settled mismanagement of the government, or from a natural indisposition
in the people. It is of the utmost moment not to make mistakes in the
use of strong measures; and firmness is then only a virtue when it
accompanies the most perfect wisdom. In truth, inconstancy is a sort of
natural corrective of folly and ignorance.

I am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong.
They have been so, frequently and outrag