e considered by the
electors in the inquiry which is recommended to them. This is one of the
principal holdings of that destructive system which has endeavoured to
unhinge all the virtuous, honourable, and useful connections in the
kingdom.

This cabal has, with great success, propagated a doctrine which serves
for a colour to those acts of treachery; and whilst it receives any
degree of countenance, it will be utterly senseless to look for a
vigorous opposition to the Court Party. The doctrine is this: That all
political connections are in their nature factious, and as such ought to
be dissipated and destroyed; and that the rule for forming
Administrations is mere personal ability, rated by the judgment of this
cabal upon it, and taken by drafts from every division and denomination
of public men. This decree was solemnly promulgated by the head of the
Court corps, the Earl of Bute himself, in a speech which he made, in the
year 1766, against the then Administration, the only Administration
which, he has ever been known directly and publicly to oppose.

It is indeed in no way wonderful, that such persons should make such
declarations. That connection and faction are equivalent terms, is an
opinion which has been carefully inculcated at all times by
unconstitutional Statesmen. The reason is evident. Whilst men are
linked together, they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of an
evil design. They are enabled to fathom it with common counsel, and to
oppose it with united strength. Whereas, when they lie dispersed,
without concert, order, or discipline, communication is uncertain,
counsel difficult, and resistance impracticable. Where men are not
acquainted with each other's principles, nor experienced in each other's
talents, nor at all practised in their mutual habitudes and dispositions
by joint efforts in business; no personal confidence, no friendship, no
common interest, subsisting among them; it is evidently impossible that
they can act a public part with uniformity, perseverance, or efficacy. In
a connection, the most inconsiderable man, by adding to the weight of the
whole, has his value, and his use; out of it, the greatest talents are
wholly unserviceable to the public. No man, who is not inflamed by
vainglory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single,
unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours, are of power to defeat,
the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens. W