all integrity and confidence out of public
proceedings; have confounded the best men with the worst; and weakened
and dissolved, instead of strengthening and compacting, the general
frame of government. If any person is more concerned for government and
order, than for the liberties of his country; even he is equally
concerned to put an end to this course of indiscriminate support. It is
this blind and undistinguishing support, that feeds the spring of those
very disorders, by which he is frightened into the arms of the faction
which contains in itself the source of all disorders, by enfeebling all
the visible and regular authority of the state. The distemper is
increased by his injudicious and preposterous endeavors, or pretences,
for the cure of it.

An exterior administration, chosen for its impotency, or after it is
chosen purposely rendered impotent, in order to be rendered subservient,
will not be obeyed. The laws themselves will not be respected, when
those who execute them are despised: and they will be despised, when
their power is not immediate from the crown, or natural in the kingdom.
Never were ministers better supported in Parliament. Parliamentary
support comes and goes with office, totally regardless of the man, or
the merit. Is government strengthened? It grows weaker and weaker. The
popular torrent gains upon it every hour. Let us learn from our
experience. It is not support that is wanting to government, but
reformation. When ministry rests upon public opinion, it is not indeed
built upon a rock of adamant; it has, however, some stability. But when
it stands upon private humor, its structure is of stubble, and its
foundation is on quicksand. I repeat it again,--He that supports every
administration subverts all government. The reason is this: The whole
business in which a court usually takes an interest goes on at present
equally well, in whatever hands, whether high or low, wise or foolish,
scandalous or reputable; there is nothing therefore to hold it firm to
any one body of men, or to any one consistent scheme of politics.
Nothing interposes, to prevent the full operation of all the caprices
and all the passions of a court upon the servants of the public. The
system of administration is open to continual shocks and changes, upon
the principles of the meanest cabal, and the most contemptible intrigue.
Nothing can be solid and permanent. All good men at length fly with
horror from such a service. Men