45. It is also not to be forgotten, that Mr. Fox, and all who hold with
him, on this, as on all other occasions of pretended reform, most
bitterly reproach Mr. Pitt with treachery, in declining to support the
scandalous charges and indefinite projects of this infamous libel from
the Friends of the People. By the animosity with which they persecute
all those who grow cold in this cause of pretended reform, they hope,
that, if, through levity, inexperience, or ambition, any young person
(like Mr. Pitt, for instance) happens to be once embarked in their
design, they shall by a false shame keep him fast in it forever. Many
they have so hampered.
46. I know it is usual, when the peril and alarm of the hour appears to
be a little overblown, to think no more of the matter. But, for my part,
I look back with horror on what we have escaped, and am full of anxiety
with regard to the dangers which in my opinion are still to be
apprehended both at home and abroad. This business has cast deep roots.
Whether it is necessarily connected in theory with Jacobinism is not
worth a dispute. The two things are connected in fact. The partisans of
the one are the partisans of the other. I know it is common with those
who are favorable to the gentlemen of Mr. Fox's party and to their
leader, though not at all devoted to all their reforming projects or
their Gallican politics, to argue, in palliation of their conduct, that
it is not in their power to do all the harm which their actions
evidently tend to.
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