It is said, that, as the people will not support
them, they may safely be indulged in those eccentric fancies of reform,
and those theories which lead to nothing. This apology is not very much
to the honor of those politicians whose interests are to be adhered to
in defiance of their conduct. I cannot flatter myself that these
incessant attacks on the constitution of Parliament are safe. It is not
in my power to despise the unceasing efforts of a confederacy of about
fifty persons of eminence: men, for the far greater part, of very ample
fortunes either in possession or in expectancy; men of decided
characters and vehement passions; men of very great talents of all
kinds, of much boldness, and of the greatest possible spirit of
artifice, intrigue, adventure, and enterprise, all operating with
unwearied activity and perseverance. These gentlemen are much stronger,
too, without doors than some calculate. They have the more active part
of the Dissenters with them, and the whole clan of speculators of all
denominations,--a large and growing species. They have that floating
multitude which goes with events, and which suffers the loss or gain of
a battle to decide its opinions of right and wrong. As long as by every
art this party keeps alive a spirit of disaffection against the very
Constitution of the kingdom, and attributes, as lately it has been in
the habit of doing, all the public misfortunes to that Constitution, it
is absolutely _impossible_ but that some moment must arrive in which
they will be enabled to produce a pretended reform and a real
revolution.
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