te under a belief that, whatever
personal or family leanings might prevail among you, you would be moved
by a wish to see the supporters of his Majesty's Ministers and their
opponents--possessed, relatively to each other, of that degree of
strength which might render both parties, in their several capacities,
most serviceable to the State. I noticed, that this just proportion of
strength no longer remained; and shewed, that the Opposition had caused
it to be destroyed by holding, from the beginning of the French
Revolution, such a course as introduced in Parliament, discord among
themselves; deprived them, in that House and elsewhere, of the respect
which from their Adversaries they had been accustomed to command; turned
indifferent persons into enemies; and alienated, throughout the Island,
the affections of thousands who had been proud to unite with them. This
weakness and degradation, deplored by all true Friends of the
Commonweal, was sufficiently accounted for, without even adverting to
the fact that--when the disasters of the war had induced the Country to
forgive, and, in some degree, to forget, the alarming attachment of that
Party to French theories: and power, heightened by the popularity of
hope and expectation, was thrown into their hands--they disgusted even
bigotted adherents, by the rapacious use they made of that
power;--stooping to so many offensive compromises, and committing so
many faults in every department, that, a Government of Talents, if such
be the fruits of talent, was proved to be the most mischievous sort of
government which England had ever been troubled with. So that, whether
in or out of place, an evil genius seemed to attend them!

How could all this happen? For the fundamental reason, that neither the
religion, the laws, the morals, the manners, nor the literature of the
country, especially as contrasted with those of France, were prized by
the Leaders of the Party as they deserved. It is a notorious fact that,
among their personal Friends, was scarcely to be found a single
Clergyman of distinction;--so that, how to dispose of their
ecclesiastical patronage in a manner that might do them credit, they
were almost as ignorant as strangers landed, for the first time, in a
foreign Country. This is not to be accounted for on any supposition
(since the education of men of rank naturally devolves on those members
of our Universities, who choose the Church for their profession) but
that of a re