We should not be much wiser, if we pretended
to very great accuracy in our estimate; but I think, in the calculation
I have made, the error cannot be very material. In England and Scotland,
I compute that those of adult age, not declining in life, of tolerable
leisure for such discussions, and of some means of information, more or
less, and who are above menial dependence, (or what virtually is such,)
may amount to about four hundred thousand. There is such a thing as a
natural representative of the people. This body is that representative;
and on this body, more than on the legal constituent, the artificial
representative depends. This is the British public; and it is a public
very numerous. The rest, when feeble, are the objects of
protection,--when strong, the means of force. They who affect to
consider that part of us in any other light insult while they cajole us;
they do not want us for counsellors in deliberation, but to list us as
soldiers for battle.
Of these four hundred thousand political citizens, I look upon one
fifth, or about eighty thousand, to be pure Jacobins, utterly incapable
of amendment, objects of eternal vigilance, and, when they break out, of
legal constraint. On these, no reason, no argument, no example, no
venerable authority, can have the slightest influence. They desire a
change; and they will have it, if they can. If they cannot have it by
English cabal, they will make no sort of scruple of having it by the
cabal of France, into which already they are virtually incorporated.
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