uniformly asserted, that the extravagant doctrines which he
meant to expose were disagreeable to the body of the people,--who,
though they perfectly abhor a despotic government, certainly approached
more nearly to the love of mitigated monarchy than to anything which
bears the appearance even of the best republic. But if these old Whigs
deceived the people, their conduct was unaccountable indeed. They
exposed their power, as every one conversant in history knows, to the
greatest peril, for the propagation of opinions which, on this
hypothesis, they did not hold. It is a new kind of martyrdom. This
supposition does as little credit to their integrity as their wisdom: it
makes them at once hypocrites and fools. I think of those great men very
differently. I hold them to have been, what the world thought them, men
of deep understanding, open sincerity, and clear honor. However, be that
matter as it may, what these old Whigs pretended to be Mr. Burke is.
This is enough for him.

I do, indeed, admit, that, though Mr. Burke has proved that his opinions
were those of the old Whig party, solemnly declared by one House, in
effect and substance by both Houses of Parliament, this testimony
standing by itself will form no proper defence for his opinions, if he
and the old Whigs were both of them in the wrong. But it is his present
concern, not to vindicate these old Whigs, but to show his agreement
with them. He appeals to them as judges: he does not vindicate them as
culprits. It is current that these old politicians knew little of the
rights of men,--that they lost their way by groping about in the dark,
and fumbling among rotten parchments and musty records. Great lights,
they say, are lately obtained in the world; and Mr. Burke, instead of
shrouding himself in exploded ignorance, ought to have taken advantage
of the blaze of illumination which has been spread about him. It may be
so. The enthusiasts of this time, it seems, like their predecessors in
another faction of fanaticism, deal in lights. Hudibras pleasantly says
of them, they

"Have _lights_, where better eyes are blind,--
As pigs are said to see the wind."

The author of the Reflections has _heard_ a great deal concerning the
modern lights, but he has not yet had the good fortune to _see_ much of
them. He has read more than he can justify to anything but the spirit of
curiosity, of the works of these illuminators of the world. He has
learned nothing from t