th perfect impunity to the
demagogue, thus prostituting religion itself to the cause of anarchical
crime!--

"We cannot regard these tumults, with their like in other parts, but as
the effects of Tory oppression. Our wish is to see _Rebecca and her
children arrayed by thousands, for the suppression of Toryism_. These
are the only means to remove the burden from the back of the country....
Resolve to see the sword of reason plunged in oppression's heart." He
goes on to say, "_there must be a hard-blowing storm_ before the high
places in State and Church can be levelled," &c. &c. There is the usual
twaddle about "_moral_ force," forsooth, under which saving periphrasis,
now-a-days, every rebel ranter in field, or tub, or conventicle,
insinuates lawless violence without naming it. Jack Cade would have made
it the rallying cry of his raggamuffins, so would Wat Tyler, had it been
hit upon in his day. The _array_ of _thousands_ is intelligible "to the
meanest capacity." The dullest Welsh "copper-man," or collier, or wild
farm cultivator, could not miss the meaning. But as to this magical
weapon, "moral force," which they are to handle when so arrayed--the
brightest capacity must be at a loss to know what it means. How absurd
(if he pretends such a thing) to expect that enlightened statesmen will
stand reformed, restrained, stricken through, with a new light in
politics by the exhibition of these smutty patriots' _minds_ alone!--by
the force of conviction, wrought by ascertaining _their_ convictions,
(the _illuminati_ of Llanelly coal-works, of Swansea copper-works, of
Carmarthen farm-yards,) will instantly _tack_--put the vessel of State
right about, and bring her triumphant into the placid haven of
Radicalism! And why _physical_ "array" to wield such shadowy arms as
"_moral_" force? This favourite stalking-horse of incendiary politics is
but the secret hiding-place of retreat from the "force of government."
The peace, the forbearance it breathes, is like the brief silence
maintained--the holding of the breath--by those snugly ensconced within
that other horse of famous memory, the _Trojan_, which served admirably
to lay vigilance asleep, and evade the defensive _force_ of the
garrison, till the hour came to leap from its protection, and fire the
citadel. This "moral force" covert of revolt, is every whit as hollow,
as treacherous, as fatal, if trusted to. Inflame, enrage, and then
gather together "thousands" of the most igno