rn Egypt, and Arabia, and Kurdistan, as he governs
Thrace; nor has he the same dominion in Crimea and Algiers which he has
at Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism itself is obliged to truck and huckster.
The Sultan gets such obedience as he can. He governs with a loose rein,
that he may govern at all; and the whole of the force and vigor of his
authority in his centre is derived from a prudent relaxation in all his
borders. Spain, in her provinces, is perhaps not so well obeyed as you
are in yours. She complies, too; she submits; she watches times. This is
the immutable condition, the eternal law, of extensive and detached
empire.

Then, Sir, from these six capital sources, of descent, of form of
government, of religion in the northern provinces, of manners in the
southern, of education, of the remoteness of situation from the first
mover of government,--from all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty
has grown up. It has grown with the growth of the people in your
colonies, and increased with the increase of their wealth: a spirit,
that, unhappily meeting with an exercise of power in England, which,
however lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of liberty, much less
with theirs, has kindled this flame that is ready to consume us.

I do not mean to commend either the spirit in this excess, or the moral
causes which produce it. Perhaps a more smooth and accommodating spirit
of freedom in them would be more acceptable to us. Perhaps ideas of
liberty might be desired more reconcilable with an arbitrary and
boundless authority. Perhaps we might wish the colonists to be persuaded
that their liberty is more secure when held in trust for them by us (as
their guardians during a perpetual minority) than with any part of it in
their own hands. But the question is not, whether their spirit deserves
praise or blame,--what, in the name of God, shall we do with it? You
have before you the object, such as it is,--with all its glories, with
all its imperfections on its head. You see the magnitude, the
importance, the temper, the habits, the disorders. By all these
considerations we are strongly urged to determine something concerning
it. We are called upon to fix some rule and line for our future conduct,
which may give a little stability to our politics, and prevent the
return of such unhappy deliberations as the present. Every such return
will bring the matter before us in a still more untractable form. For
what astonishing and incredibl