us at least) have appeared together. If their owners are
disposed to serve their country, (he trusts they are,) they are in a
condition to render it services of the highest importance. If, through
mistake or passion, they are led to contribute to its ruin, we shall at
least have a consolation denied to the ruined country that adjoins us:
we shall not be destroyed by men of mean or secondary capacities.

All these considerations of party attachment, of personal regard, and of
personal admiration rendered the author of the Reflections extremely
cautious, lest the slightest suspicion should arise of his having
undertaken to express the sentiments even of a single man of that
description. His words at the outset of his Reflections are these:--

"In the first letter I had the honor to write to you, and which at
length I send, I wrote neither _for_ nor _from_ any description of men;
nor shall I in this. My errors, if any, are _my own_. My reputation
_alone_ is to answer for them." In another place he says, (p. 126,[7])
"I have _no man's_ proxy. I speak _only_ from _myself_, when I disclaim,
as I do with all possible earnestness, all communion with the actors in
that triumph, or with the admirers of it. When I assert anything else,
as concerning the people of England, I speak from observation, _not from
authority_."

To say, then, that the book did not contain the sentiments of their
party is not to contradict the author or to clear themselves. If the
party had denied his doctrines to be the current opinions of the
majority in the nation, they would have put the question on its true
issue. There, I hope and believe, his censurers will find, on the trial,
that the author is as faithful a representative of the general sentiment
of the people of England, as any person amongst them can be of the ideas
of his own party.

The French Revolution can have no connection with the objects of any
parties in England formed before the period of that event, unless they
choose to imitate any of its acts, or to consolidate any principles of
that Revolution with their own opinions. The French Revolution is no
part of their original contract. The matter, standing by itself, is an
open subject of political discussion, like all the other revolutions
(and there are many) which have been attempted or accomplished in our
age. But if any considerable number of British subjects, taking a
factious interest in the proceedings of France, begin publicly