PUBLIC ADVERTISER.[A]

SIR,--The submission of a free people to the executive authority of
government is no more than a compliance with laws which they themselves
have enacted. While the national honor is firmly maintained abroad, and
while justice is impartially administered at home, the obedience of the
subject will be voluntary, cheerful, and, I might say, almost unlimited.
A generous nation is grateful even for the preservation of its rights,
and willingly extends the respect due to the office of a good prince
into an affection for his person. Loyalty, in the heart and
understanding of an Englishman, is a rational attachment to the guardian
of the laws. Prejudices and passion have sometimes carried it to a
criminal length, and, whatever foreigners may imagine, we know that
Englishmen have erred as much in a mistaken zeal for particular persons
and families, as they ever did in defense of what they thought most dear
and interesting to themselves.

It naturally fills us with resentment to see such a temper insulted and
abused.[B] In reading the history of a free people, whose rights have
been invaded, we are interested in their cause. Our own feelings tell us
how long they ought to have submitted, and at what moment it would have
been treachery to themselves not to have resisted. How much warmer will
be our resentment, if experience should bring the fatal example home to
ourselves!

The situation of this country is alarming enough to rouse the attention
of every man who pretends to a concern for the public welfare.
Appearances justify suspicion; and, when the safety of a nation is at
stake, suspicion is a just ground of inquiry. Let us enter into it with
candor and decency. Respect is due to the station of ministers; and if a
resolution must at last be taken, there is none so likely to be
supported with firmness as that which has been adopted with moderation.

The ruin or prosperity of a state depends so much upon the
administration of its government, that, to be acquainted with the merit
of a ministry, we need only observe the condition of the people. If we
see them obedient to the laws, prosperous in their industry, united at
home, and respected abroad, we may reasonably presume that their affairs
are conducted by men of experience, abilities, and virtue. If, on the
contrary, we see a universal spirit of distrust and dissatisfaction, a
rapid decay of trade, dissensions in all parts of the empire, and a
total l