e court, to whom those in
authority, or those who would be in authority, submissively bend the
knee. A despot is not likely ever to hear the truth, for moral courage
fails where there is no law to protect it, and where honest advice may
be rewarded by summary punishment. The people, therefore, like the
despot, are never told the truth; on the contrary, they receive and
expect the most abject submission from their courtiers, to wit, those in
office, or expectants.

Now, the President of the United States may be considered the Prime
Minister of an enlightened public, who govern themselves, and his
communication with them is in his annual message.

Let us examine what Mr Van Buren says in his last message.

First, he humbly acknowledges their power.

"A national bank," he tells them, "would impair the rightful _supremacy_
of the popular _will_."

And this he follows up with that most delicate species of flattery, that
of praising them for the very virtue which they are most deficient in;
telling them that they are "a people to whom the _truth_, however
unpromising, can _always_ be told with _safety_."

At the very time when they were defying all law and all government, he
says, "It was reserved for the American Union to test the advantage of a
government entirely dependent on the continual exercise of the popular
will, and our experience has shewn, that it is as _beneficent_ in
_practice_, as well as it is just in _theory_."

At the very time that nearly the whole Union were assisting the
insurrection in Canada with men and money, he tells them "that
temptations to interfere in the intestine commotions of neighbouring
countries have been thus far successfully resisted."

This is quite enough; Mr Van Buren's motives are to be re-elected as
president. That is very natural on his part; but how can you expect a
people to improve who _never hear the truth_?

Mr Cooper observes, "Monarchs have incurred more hazards from follies
of their own that have grown up under the adulation of parasites, than
from the machinations of their enemies; and in a democracy, the delusion
that still would elsewhere be poured into the ears of the prince, is
poured into those of the people."

The same system is pursued by all those who would arrive at, or remain
in place and power: and what must be the consequence? that the
straight-forward, honourable, upright man is rejected by the people,
while the parasite, the adulator, the demago