cable is spurious,
and rather to run the risk of falling into faults in a course which leads
us to act with effect and energy than to loiter out our days without
blame and without use. Public life is a situation of power and energy;
he trespasses against his duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he
that goes over to the enemy.

There is, however, a time for all things. It is not every conjuncture
which calls with equal force upon the activity of honest men; but
critical exigences now and then arise, and I am mistaken if this be not
one of them. Men will see the necessity of honest combination, but they
may see it when it is too late. They may embody when it will be ruinous
to themselves, and of no advantage to the country; when, for want of such
a timely union as may enable them to oppose in favour of the laws, with
the laws on their side, they may at length find themselves under the
necessity of conspiring, instead of consulting. The law, for which they
stand, may become a weapon in the hands of its bitterest enemies; and
they will be cast, at length, into that miserable alternative, between
slavery and civil confusion, which no good man can look upon without
horror, an alternative in which it is impossible he should take either
part with a conscience perfectly at repose. To keep that situation of
guilt and remorse at the utmost distance is, therefore, our first
obligation. Early activity may prevent late and fruitless violence. As
yet we work in the light. The scheme of the enemies of public
tranquillity has disarranged, it has not destroyed us.

If the reader believes that there really exists such a Faction as I have
described, a Faction ruling by the private inclinations of a Court,
against the general sense of the people; and that this Faction, whilst it
pursues a scheme for undermining all the foundations of our freedom,
weakens (for the present at least) all the powers of executory
Government, rendering us abroad contemptible, and at home distracted; he
will believe, also, that nothing but a firm combination of public men
against this body, and that, too, supported by the hearty concurrence of
the people at large, can possibly get the better of it. The people will
see the necessity of restoring public men to an attention to the public
opinion, and of restoring the Constitution to its original principles.
Above all, they will endeavour to keep the House of Commons from assuming
a character which do