FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285  
286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   >>   >|  
e more importance to ask--What use it is likely to be put to? In government, if we can keep clear of mischief, good will come of itself. Fitness is the thing to be sought; and unfitness is much less frequently caused by general incapacity than by absence of that kind of capacity which the charge demands. Talent is apt to generate presumption and self-confidence; and no qualities are so necessary, in a Legislator, as the opposites of these--which, if they do not imply the existence of sagacity, are the best substitutes for it--whether they produce, in the general disposition of the mind, an humble reliance on the wisdom of our Forefathers, and a sedate yielding to the pressure of existing things; or carry the thoughts still higher, to religious trust in a superintending Providence, by whose permission laws are ordered and customs established, for other purposes than to be perpetually found fault with. These suggestions are recommended to the consideration of our new Aspirant, and of all those public men whose judgments are perverted, and tempers soured, by long struggling in the ranks of opposition, and incessant bustling among the professors of Reform. I shall not recall to notice further particulars, because time, by softening asperities or removing them out of sight, is a friend to benevolence. Although a rigorous investigation has been invited, it is well that there is no need to run through the rash assertions, the groundless accusations, and the virulent invectives that disfigure the speeches of this never-silent Member. All these things, offensive to moderate men, are too much to the taste of many of Mr. Brougham's partizans in Westmoreland. But I call upon those who relish these deviations from fair and honourable dealing--upon those also of his adherents who are inwardly ashamed of their Champion, on this account--and upon all the Freeholders concerned in the general question, to review what has been laid before them. Having done this, they cannot but admit that Mr. Brougham's _independence_ is a dark _dependence_, which no one understands--and, that if a jewel _has_ been lost in Westmoreland, his are not the eyes by which it is to be found again. If the dignity of Knight of the Shire is to be conferred, _he_ cannot be pronounced a fit person to receive it. For whether, my Brother Freeholders, you look at the humbleness of his situation amongst Country Gentlemen; or at his amphibious habits, in the two element
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285  
286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

general

 

Westmoreland

 
Brougham
 

Freeholders

 

things

 

rigorous

 

Although

 
softening
 

benevolence

 

partizans


friend

 

investigation

 

invited

 
assertions
 
groundless
 

accusations

 

relish

 
virulent
 

removing

 

offensive


moderate
 

Member

 
silent
 

invectives

 

disfigure

 

speeches

 

asperities

 

Champion

 

pronounced

 
person

receive

 

conferred

 

dignity

 
Knight
 

amphibious

 
Gentlemen
 
habits
 

element

 

Country

 
Brother

humbleness

 
situation
 
ashamed
 

account

 

concerned

 

inwardly

 

adherents

 
honourable
 
dealing
 

question