rienced in
all the details of combination; improvident when they are in the receipt
of good wages, yet feeling themselves injured when those wages, during
some failure of demand, are so lowered as no longer to afford the means
of comfortable subsistence; and directing against the government and the
laws of the country their resentment and indignation for the evils which
have been brought upon them by competition and the spirit of rivalry in
trade. They have among them intelligent heads and daring minds; and you
have already seen how perilously they may be wrought upon by seditious
journalists and seditious orators in a time of distress.

On what do you rely for security against these dangers? On public
opinion? You might as well calculate upon the constancy of wind and
weather in this uncertain climate. On the progress of knowledge? it is
such knowledge as serves only to facilitate the course of delusion. On
the laws? the law which should be like a sword in a strong hand, is weak
as a bulrush if it be feebly administered in time of danger. On the
people? they are divided. On the Parliament? every faction will be fully
and formidably represented there. On the government? it suffers itself
to be insulted and defied at home, and abroad it has shown itself
incapable of maintaining the relations of peace and amity with its
allies, so far has it been divested of power by the usurpation of the
press. It is at peace with Spain, and it is at peace with Turkey; and
although no government was ever more desirous of acting with good faith,
its subjects are openly assisting the Greeks with men and money against
the one, and the Spanish Americans against the other. Athens, in the
most turbulent times of its democracy, was not more effectually
domineered over by its demagogues than you are by the press--a press
which is not only without restraint, but without responsibility; and in
the management of which those men will always have most power who have
least probity, and have most completely divested themselves of all sense
of honour and all regard for truth.

The root of all your evils is in the sinfulness of the nation. The
principle of duty is weakened among you; that of moral obligation is
loosened; that of religious obedience is destroyed. Look at the
worldliness of all classes--the greediness of the rich, the misery of the
poor, and the appalling depravity which is spreading among the lower
classes through town and co