without presuming to scan the intentions of omnipotence, in his gifts to the human race,—or to probe into the nature of his endless works of wisdom,—or to grope into matters intended to be out of our reach, and beyond our comprehension,—yet the reasoning power he has given us, we cannot doubt, was meant to guide us in our researches to the extent for which it is capacitated, and to which its uses are fitted to be applied. in viewing man as connected with this world, and with his station in society, i think it will appear clearly that the various degrees of his intellectual and reasoning powers are the gift of providence; and, however high this boon may be, the possessor of it ought to be thankful, but never vain. it is this innate power drawn forth and acted upon by observation and industry, that enables the philosopher, the poet, the painter, and the musician, to arrive at excellence; and the same remark is more or less applicable to men bent upon any pursuit in the whole round of the arts and sciences. without using the means to cultivate their powers, they will remain inert, and be of no use either to the individual or to society; and men with innate qualifications, and men without them, are brought down to a level of uselessness. it is greatly owing to the want of effort that originates the inequalities of rank and fortune of which the community is composed. the intelligent and industrious man, guided by honour, will ever be aiming to rise in the scale of eminence; while, on the contrary, the lazy, the ignorant, or the wicked man, influenced by pride, dissipation and negligence, is whirled into the vortex of disgrace, and is attended by poverty and misery; and, if he cannot redeem his character, becomes abandoned. he is then in his last stage; his days will be full of sorrow; and, if it be true that “none are wretched but the wicked,” he will have his fill of it.
but to remedy these evils attendant upon ignorance, as far as possible, and to give every man a fair chance, his reasoning powers ought to be drawn forth by a rational and virtuous education, and it is a first and imperative duty upon the community either to provide for, or to see that it is given to, every one as far as his capacity will permit; for to the neglect or omission of this kind of instruction may be traced almost all the wickedness and misrule which disfigure the social compact and spread misery over the world. to check the reasoning power is a public crime, which, like individual crime, follows the perpetrators like a shadow. to argue against the exercise of this gift is to attempt to thwart the intentions of omnipotence. it is blasphemy. it never will pollute the tongues of good and wise men, and could only, like dregs, be reserved to defile those of tyrants and fools. men who are not actuated by the principle of “doing as they would be done by”—governed by a twisted imagination—would have their fellow men kept in ignorance,—to pass away their lives like unreasoning animals, lest they might not have sufficient homage paid to themselves, or that they should forget their duty as servants, and cease to work for, or to wait upon, their employers. a sensible servant will never omit doing his duty, but an ignorant one will; and the reciprocal duties between master and servant ought to be clearly defined. the former ought not to act the tyrant; the latter should be obedient; and equal and just laws should guide and govern them.
all men of sound understanding, and who are capable of reflection, will clearly see that there is not, and cannot be, any such thing as equality. there must, and ever will be, high and low, rich and poor; and this inequality of rank and fortune, in civilized states, is necessary for the comfort and happiness of all. a cement is thus formed, which binds together in union the strength, the beauty, and the symmetry of the whole. in the freest state, man must not expect to have the unrestrained liberty of the savage, but must give up a part of his own freedom for the good of the whole; for liberty consists in this, that every man may do whatever he pleases, provided he does nothing to injure his neighbour, or the community of which he is a member; and his morality ought to be guided by the golden rule, of “doing unto all men as he would they should do unto him.” were men made sensible of the rectitude of this order of things; were they to consider that, in whatever station in society fortune may have placed them, it is the will of providence that it should be so, this reflection would greatly contribute to their peace of mind and contentment; for no man should think himself degraded by following an honest calling.
“honour and shame from no condition rise;
act well your part: there all the honour lies.”
patriotism ought to direct every man to do honour to himself and to his country; and it is in this that great national power principally consists. it is also by the good conduct, and consequent character, of the great mass of the people that a nation is exalted. the crown—the richest diamond of our life—is the love of our country; and the man who neglects this, and ceases to reverence and adore his maker, is good for nothing. “the country, surrounded by the briny deep, where all our ancestors lie buried—in which from youth upwards we have felt the benefit of equal laws, first acted upon and handed down to us by the great alfred, and maintained from time to time amidst all the attempts of despotism to overturn them,—by men famed for matchless wisdom and virtue,—a country so renowned as england, so famous for all that most strongly attracts the admiration of men,—a country whose genius and power have, for ages, been such as to make her views and intentions an object of solicitude with every nation, and with every enlightened individual in the world,—a country famed for her laws, famed in arts and arms, famed for the struggles which, age after age, her sons have held with tyranny in every form it has assumed,—and, beyond all these, famed for having given birth to, and reared to manhood, those men of matchless wisdom and virtue whose memories will be held up to admiration, and whose example will be followed in ages to come—who have rendered the very name of englishmen respected in every civilized country in the world”—(may this be eternal!)—should this country ever sink into despotism, its reputation will sink also, and with it the high name of its once enlightened sons; for this renown and this exalted station cannot be stable unless a pure representation of the people is kept up: without that, justice will be perverted, and corruption will creep in and in time overturn the best and wisest plans. government will become omnipotent, instead of being the umpire and standing by, like a strong man, to see that justice is done. lord bacon says:—“the ultimate object which legislators ought to have in view, and to which all their enactments and sanctions ought to be subservient, is, that the citizens may live happy. for this purpose it is necessary that they should receive a religious and pious education; that they should be trained to good morals; that they should be secured from foreign enemies by proper military arrangements; that they should be guarded by an effectual police against seditions and private injuries; that they should be loyal to government, and obedient to magistrates; and, finally, that they should abound in wealth, and other national resources.”
well constituted governments, if occasionally revised, and as often as necessary scrupulously amended, may be rendered as permanent as time. if wisely and virtuously administered, they would be indestructible, and incalculably contribute, by their vigour and uninterrupted duration, to the mental and moral aggrandisement of man. it is a truth confirmed by universal history, that the happiness or misery of a people almost entirely depend upon the principles of their government, and the conduct of their rulers. where just and honourable intentions exist, there is nothing to dread; but, when only the semblance of these are put on, to cloak wicked and sinister ends, delusion and artifice of every kind must be resorted to for their accomplishment. thence follows the degradation of man, and the consequent decay of states and nations. but it is not for want of knowing better that governments get out of the path of rectitude; it is by the individuals who compose its parts becoming dishonest. to the sage advice of such men as bacon and locke they turn a deaf ear; they are lost in considerations about their own private, selfish concerns, or are blinded by a false ambition, regardless of promoting the public good, or the happiness of mankind; and, until they are checked in this career, by an enlightened people, it is in vain to look for any amendment in them. but the great bulk of the people must be enlightened and amended, before liberty, peace, and happiness, can be spread over the world.
the first step preparatory to this desirable order of things, must be that the people should learn to respect themselves, as reasoning beings, which is the noblest privilege bestowed upon them by the creator. to slight this gift is to act ungratefully to the giver; for it is only by the free exercise of their understandings that men can see the face of truth, or can have the full use of all the means of advancing in knowledge, or are capable of religion, science, virtue, and rational happiness, or can be enabled to look backward with comfort or forward with hope. it is a sure sign that all is not right, or as it should be, in governments, when they fear even the fullest investigation of any, and of every, subject. truth and honesty fear no discussion, and good governments will freely encourage, instead of checking, them. there ought to be no libels, but falsehoods. can any man say, in the face of the world, that truth ought not to prevail? it is owing to inquisitorial checks and restraints, that two of the most important concerns to mankind, religion and politics,—on which their happiness, and everything of importance to them, so much depends,—is by the community, as a whole, so imperfectly understood, and so blindly acted upon at this day. it is only by seeing the conduct of public men in a clear light, that a just judgment can be formed of them and their measures, and of their fitness or unfitness to conduct the important concerns entrusted to their control. it may, indeed, be feared that, if tried in the balance, they will be found very light. wise and honest councils must be resorted to and adopted before religion, morality, and politics, arts and sciences, and a better knowledge of this world of wonders, can be developed and appreciated. till then no amendment need be expected: religion will not be freed from superstition and bigotry, nor political institutions purged from venality and corruption, and conducted by honesty and good sense. those who have fixed themselves, like a disease, upon the body politic should have warning to depart.
in glancing back upon the transactions of the world, as they have recently passed in review before us, how can it afford any matter of wonder that the advocates of liberty should have entertained fears for its safety, and have wished, as a check, the re-establishment of the british constitution in its purity. there was, indeed, little hope of this being acted upon, when foreign despots were leagued to enslave their peoples; and our own government, supported by a demi-oligarchy, was so deeply connected with them. loan after loan was wrung from the british people under various pretexts, but in reality to support despotism under the disguise of legitimacy. granted, that an honest house of commons might have supported legitimacy, they should have openly expressed disapprobation at the lost liberties of nations of enslaved people. protests of this kind, however, did not fit with the notions of the representatives of boroughmongers, who composed the majority of the honourable house, and who had long been used to treat the people and their petitions with unblushing neglect or contempt.
in this state of things, politics ran high; an unpleasant ferment soured the minds of a great majority of the people; and it cannot be wondered that they were, with difficulty, kept within bounds. those who had been used to batten on the wages of corruption became excessively alarmed, and, under the pretence of preserving the constitution, resorted to a system of espionage, and of gaols and bastilles, and left no stone unturned to throw odium upon their opponents, the advocates of liberty, who were branded with the nicknames of jacobins, levellers, radicals, &c., &c. the pen of literature was prostituted to overshade the actions of good men, and to gloss-over the enormities of the base. the energies of many members of both houses of parliament were unavailing against this compact confederacy of undeserving placemen and pensioners, who were bound together by fellow feelings of self-interest, in which all ideas of public trust were lost in private considerations. they had sinned themselves out of all shame. this phalanx have kept their ground, and will do so till, it is to be feared, violence from an enraged people breaks them up, or, perhaps, till the growing opinions against such a crooked order of conducting the affairs of this great nation becomes quite apparent to an immense majority, whose frowns may have the power of bringing the agents of government to pause upon the brink of the precipice on which they stand, and to provide in time, by wise and honest measures, to avert the coming storm. it is appalling to think of matters of this import being brought to extremities, especially when the whole might so easily be settled without any convulsion at all. the king (whose interests are the same as the people’s), if freed from the advice of evil counsellors, and from the unfitting trammels by which they have him bound, might insist upon having the constitution restored to its purity. this would at once settle the business, and would cause him to be adored by his whole people, and his name to be revered, by the enlightened in every civilised country, to the latest posterity.
