f maxim among them, that an
intermediate party was not bound by any obligation of honour to withhold,
farther than his own discretion suggested, any information of which he
was the accidental depositary, whatever the consequences might be to his
informant, or to those affected by the communication. In a word, they
seemed all to care less about what might be true than what would produce
effect, and that effect for their own particular advantage. It is
impossible to deny, that if interest is made the criterion by which the
confidences of social intercourse are to be respected, the persons who
admit this doctrine will have but little respect for the use of names, or
deem it any reprehensible delinquency to suppress truth, or to blazon
falsehood. In a word, man in London is not quite so good a creature as
he is out of it. The rivalry of interests is here too intense; it
impairs the affections, and occasions speculations both in morals and
politics, which, I much suspect, it would puzzle a casuist to prove
blameless. Can anything, for example, be more offensive to the calm
spectator, than the elections which are now going on? Is it possible
that this country, so much smaller in geographical extent than France,
and so inferior in natural resources, restricted too by those ties and
obligations which were thrown off as fetters by that country during the
late war, could have attained, in despite of her, such a lofty
pre-eminence--become the foremost of all the world--had it not been
governed in a manner congenial to the spirit of the people, and with
great practical wisdom? It is absurd to assert, that there are no
corruptions in the various modifications by which the affairs of the
British empire are administered; but it would be difficult to show, that,
in the present state of morals and interests among mankind, corruption is
not a necessary evil. I do not mean necessary, as evolved from those
morals and interests, but necessary to the management of political
trusts. I am afraid, however, to insist on this, as the natural
integrity of your own heart, and the dignity of your vocation, will alike
induce you to condemn it as Machiavellian. It is, however, an
observation forced on me by what I have seen here.

It would be invidious, perhaps, to criticise the different candidates for
the representation of London and Westminster very severely. I think it
must be granted, that they are as sincere in their professions as the