If ever the body of this _compound Constitution_ of ours is
subverted, either in favor of unlimited monarchy or of wild democracy,
that ruin will _most certainly_ be the result of this very sort of
machinations against the House of Commons. It is not from a confidence
in the views or intentions of any statesman that I think he is to be
indulged in these perilous amusements.
47. Before it is made the great object of any man's political life to
raise another to power, it is right to consider what are the real
dispositions of the person to be so elevated. We are not to form our
judgment on those dispositions from the rules and principles of a court
of justice, but from those of private discretion,--not looking for what
would serve to criminate another, but what is sufficient to direct
ourselves. By a comparison of a series of the discourses and actions of
certain men for a reasonable length of time, it is impossible not to
obtain sufficient indication of the general tendency of their views and
principles. There is no other rational mode of proceeding. It is true,
that in some one or two perhaps not well-weighed expressions, or some
one or two unconnected and doubtful affairs, we may and ought to judge
of the actions or words by our previous good or ill opinion of the man.
But this allowance has its bounds. It does not extend to any regular
course of systematic action, or of constant and repeated discourse. It
is against every principle of common sense, and of justice to one's self
and to the public, to judge of a series of speeches and actions from the
man, and not of the man from the whole tenor of his language and
conduct.
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