ons of
self-interest; but power is apt to resort to unnecessary rigour in order
to supply the deficiencies of _authority_ forfeited by remissness; it is
also not unfrequently exerted merely to shew that it is possessed; to
shew this to others while power is a novelty, and when it has long
ceased to be so, to prove it to ourselves. Impatience of mind, moreover,
puts men upon the use of strong and coarse tools, when those of lighter
make and finer edge, with due care, might execute the work much better.
Above all, timidity flies to extremes;--if the elements were at our
command, how often would an inundation be called for, when a fire-engine
would have proved equal to the service!--Much more might be urged in
this strain, and similar suggestions are all that the question will
admit of; for to suppose a gross appetite of tyranny in Government,
would be an insult to the reader's understanding. Happily for the
Inhabitants of Westmoreland, as no dispositions existing among them
could furnish a motive for this restrictive measure, so they will not be
sorry that their remoteness from scenes of public confusion, has placed
them where they will be slow to give an unqualified opinion upon its
merits. Yet it will not escape their discernment, that, if doubts might
have been entertained whether the ignorant and distressed multitude, in
other parts of the Island, were actually brought to a state that
justified the suspension of this law, such doubts must have been
weakened, if not wholly removed, by the subsequent behaviour of those in
the upper ranks of society, who, in order to arraign the Government, and
denounce the laws, have seized every opportunity of palliating sedition,
if not of exculpating treason. O far better to employ bad men in the
detection of foul conspiracies, than to excuse and shelter--(would that
I were allowed to confine myself to these words)--than to reward and
honour--every one that can contrive to make himself conspicuous by
courses which, wherever they are not branded with infamy, find the
national character in a state of degradation, ominous (if it should
spread) for the existence of all that ought to be dear to Englishmen.

But there are points of domestic policy in which his Majesty's
Ministers, not appearing in counterview with their Opponents, are seen
less to their honour. Speaking as an Individual, and knowing that here I
differ from many Freeholders with whom it is an honour to co-operate in
the pre