oison of to-morrow. If any
measure was in the abstract better than another, it was to call the
States: _ea visa salus morientibus una_. Certainly it had the
appearance. But see the consequences of not attending to critical
moments, of not regarding the symptoms which discriminate diseases, and
which distinguish constitutions, complexions, and humors.

Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio; furiisque refecti
Ardebant; ipsique suos, jam morte sub aegra,
Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus.

Thus the potion which was given to strengthen the Constitution, to heal
divisions, and to compose the minds of men, became the source of
debility, frenzy, discord, and utter dissolution.

In this, perhaps, I have answered, I think, another of your
questions,--Whether the British Constitution is adapted to your
circumstances? When I praised the British Constitution, and wished it to
be well studied, I did not mean that its exterior form and positive
arrangement should become a model for you or for any people servilely to
copy. I meant to recommend the _principles_ from which it has grown, and
the policy on which it has been progressively improved out of elements
common to you and to us. I am sure it is no visionary theory of mine. It
is not an advice that subjects you to the hazard of any experiment. I
believed the ancient principles to be wise in all cases of a large
empire that would be free. I thought you possessed our principles in
your old forms in as great a perfection as we did originally. If your
States agreed (as I think they did) with your circumstances, they were
best for you. As you had a Constitution formed upon principles similar
to ours, my idea was, that you might have improved them as we have done,
conforming them to the state and exigencies of the times, and the
condition of property in your country,--having the conservation of that
property, and the substantial basis of your monarchy, as principal
objects in all your reforms.

I do not advise an House of Lords to you. Your ancient course by
representatives of the noblesse (in your circumstances) appears to me
rather a better institution. I know, that, with you, a set of men of
rank have betrayed their constituents, their honor, their trust, their
king, and their country, and levelled themselves with their footmen,
that through this degradation they might afterwards put themselves above
their natural equals. Some of these persons have entertained a project,
t