hearts and
understandings of the People tell them that the language of a proposed
parliamentary resolution, upon this occasion, ought--not only to have
been different in the letter--but also widely different in the spirit:
and the reader of these pages will have deduced, that no terms of
reprobation could in severity exceed the offences involved in--and
connected with--that instrument. But, while the grand keep of the castle
of iniquity was to be stormed, we have seen nothing but a puny assault
upon heaps of the scattered rubbish of the fortress; nay, for the most
part, on some accidental mole-hills at its base. I do not speak thus in
disrespect to the Right Hon. Gentleman who headed this attack. His mind,
left to itself, would (I doubt not) have prompted something worthier and
higher: but he moves in the phalanx of Party;--a spiritual Body; in
which (by strange inconsistency) the hampering, weakening, and
destroying, of every individual mind of which it is composed--is the law
which must constitute the strength of the whole. The question
was--whether principles, affecting the very existence of Society, had
not been violated; and an arm lifted, and let fall, which struck at the
root of Honour; with the aggravation of the crime having been committed
at this momentous period. But what relation is there between these
principles and actions, and being in Place or out of it? If the People
would constitutionally and resolutely assert their rights, their
Representatives would be taught another lesson; and for their own
profit. Their understandings would be enriched accordingly: for it is
there--there where least suspected--that the want, from which this
country suffers, chiefly lies. They err, who suppose that venality and
corruption (though now spreading more and more) are the master-evils of
this day: neither these nor immoderate craving for power are so much to
be deprecated, as the non-existence of a widely-ranging intellect; of an
intellect which, if not efficacious to infuse truth as a vital fluid
into the heart, might at least make it a powerful tool in the hand.
Outward profession,--which, for practical purposes, is an act of most
desirable subservience,--would then wait upon those objects to which
inward reverence, though not felt, was known to be due. Schemes of ample
reach and true benefit would also promise best to insure the rewards
coveted by personal ambition: and men of baser passions, finding it
their interest,