measures, especially at this time. It provides for your honor. I know of
nothing else that can so well do this. It is something, perhaps all,
that can be done in our present situation. Some precaution, in this
respect, is not without its motives. That very estimation for which you
have sacrificed everything else is in some danger of suffering in the
general wreck; and perhaps it is likely to suffer the more, because you
have hitherto confided more than was quite prudent in the clearness of
your intentions, and in the solidity of the popular judgment upon them.
The former, indeed, is out of the power of events; the latter is full of
levity, and the very creature of fortune. However, such as it is, (and
for one I do not think I am inclined to overvalue it,) both our interest
and our duty make it necessary for us to attend to it very carefully, so
long as we act a part in public. The measure you take for this purpose
may produce no immediate effect; but with regard to the party, and the
principles for whose sake the party exists, all hope of their
preservation or recovery depends upon your preserving your reputation.

By the conversation of some friends, it seemed as if they were willing
to fall in with this design, because it promised to emancipate them from
the servitude of irksome business, and to afford them an opportunity of
retiring to ease and tranquillity. If that be their object in the
secession and addresses proposed, there surely never were means worse
chosen to gain their end; and if this be any part of the project, it
were a thousand times better it were never undertaken. The measure is
not only unusual, and as such critical, but it is in its own nature
strong and vehement in a high degree. The propriety, therefore, of
adopting it depends entirely upon the spirit with which it is supported
and followed. To pursue violent measures with languor and irresolution
is not very consistent in speculation, and not more reputable or safe in
practice. If your Lordship's friends do not go to this business with
their whole hearts, if they do not feel themselves uneasy without it, if
they do not undertake it with a certain degree of zeal, and even with
warmth and indignation, it had better be removed wholly out of our
thoughts. A measure of less strength, and more in the beaten circle of
affairs, if supported with spirit and industry, would be on all accounts
infinitely more eligible. We have to consider what it is that in th