, and to have that
good immediately reflected back upon himself. He can render essential
services to his country, by assisting in the disinterested
administration of the laws; by watching over the opinions and
principles of the lower orders around him; by diffusing among them
those lights which may be important to their welfare; by mingling
frankly among them, gaining their confidence, becoming the immediate
auditor of their complaints, informing himself of their wants, making
himself a channel through which their grievances may be quietly
communicated to the proper sources of mitigation and relief; or by
becoming, if need be, the intrepid and incorruptible guardian of their
liberties--the enlightened champion of their rights.

All this, it appears to me, can be done without any sacrifice of
personal dignity, without any degrading arts of popularity, without
any truckling to vulgar prejudices or concurrence in vulgar clamour;
but by the steady influence of sincere and friendly counsel, of fair,
upright, and generous deportment. Whatever may be said of English mobs
and English demagogues, I have never met with a people more open to
reason, more considerate in their tempers, more tractable by argument
in the roughest times, than the English. They are remarkably quick at
discerning and appreciating whatever is manly and honourable. They
are, by nature and habit, methodical and orderly; and they feel the
value of all that is regular and respectable. They may occasionally be
deceived by sophistry, and excited into turbulence by public
distresses and the misrepresentations of designing men; but open their
eyes, and they will eventually rally round the landmarks of steady
truth and deliberate good sense. They are fond of established customs;
they are fond of long-established names; and that love of order and
quiet which characterizes the nation, gives a vast influence to the
descendants of the old families, whose forefathers have been lords of
the soil from time immemorial.

It is when the rich and well-educated and highly-privileged classes
neglect their duties, when they neglect to study the interests, and
conciliate the affections, and instruct the opinions, and champion the
rights of the people, that the latter become discontented and
turbulent, and fall into the hands of demagogues: the demagogue always
steps in, where the patriot is wanting. There is a common high-handed
cant among the high-feeding, and, as they fancy