broken; in which truth and justice have once more
raised up their heads, and obtained that regard which had so long been
paid to splendid wickedness and successful rapine.

The time is now past, in which it was meritorious to harden the heart
against pity, and the forehead against shame; to plunder the people by
needless taxes, and insult them by displaying their spoils before their
eyes, in luxurious riot, and boundless magnificence; when the certain
method of obtaining what the greatest part, even of good men, cannot but
sometimes wish to acquire, interest, affluence, and honour, was an
implicit resignation to authority, a desertion of all principles,
defiance of all censure, and an open declaration against any other
motives of action, than the sole pleasure of an arbitrary minister.

It is now, sir, no longer considered as an instance of disaffection to
the government, to represent the miseries and declare the opinions of
the people; to propose their interest as the great basis of government,
the general end of society, and the parent of law. It is now no longer
criminal to affirm, that they have a right to complain when they are, in
their own opinion, injured, and to be heard when they complain. It may
now be with safety asserted, that those who swell with the pride of
office, and glitter with the magnificence of a court, however they may
display their affluence, or boast their titles; with whatever contempt
they may have learned of late to look upon their fellow-subjects, who
have no possessions but what they have obtained by their industry, nor
any honours but what are voluntarily paid to their understanding and
their virtue; with whatever authority they may dictate to their
dependants, or whatever reverence they may exact from a long
subordination of hirelings, are, amidst all their pomp and influence,
only the servants of the people, intrusted by them with the
administration of their affairs, and accountable to them for the abuse
of trust.

That trusts of the highest importance have been long abused, that the
servants of the people, having long thought themselves out of the reach
of justice, and above examination, have very ill discharged the offices
in which they have been engaged, that the publick advantage has been
wholly disregarded, that treaties have been concluded without any regard
to the interest of Britain, and that our foreign and domestick affairs
have been managed with equal ignorance, negligence