To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is
within our reach, is the great art of life. Many wants are suffered,
which might once have been supplied; and much time is lost in regretting
the time which had been lost before.
At the end of every seven years comes the saturnalian season, when the
freemen of great Britain may please themselves with the choice of their
representatives. This happy day has now arrived, somewhat sooner than it
could be claimed.
To select and depute those, by whom laws are to be made, and taxes to be
granted, is a high dignity, and an important trust; and it is the
business of every elector to consider, how this dignity may be well
sustained, and this trust faithfully discharged.
It ought to be deeply impressed on the minds of all who have voices in
this national deliberation, that no man can deserve a seat in
parliament, who is not a patriot. No other man will protect our rights:
no other man can merit our confidence.
A patriot is he whose publick conduct is regulated by one single motive,
the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for
himself, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor resentment, but
refers every thing to the common interest.
That of five hundred men, such as this degenerate age affords, a
majority can be found thus virtuously abstracted, who will affirm? Yet
there is no good in despondence: vigilance and activity often effect
more than was expected. Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him;
and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish
those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man
may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent
qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.
Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by an acrimonious and
unremitting opposition to the court.
This mark is by no means infallible. Patriotism is not necessarily
included in rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not love his
country. He that has been refused a reasonable, or unreasonable request,
who thinks his merit underrated, and sees his influence declining,
begins soon to talk of natural equality, the absurdity of "many made for
one," the original compact, the foundation of authority, and the majesty
of the people. As his political melancholy increases, he tells, and,
perhaps, dreams, of the advances of the prerogative, and the dangers of
arbitrary power; yet his design, in all his declamation, is not to
benefit his country, but to gratify his malice.
These, however, are the most honest of the opponents of government;
their patriotism is a species of disease; and they feel some part of
what they express. But the greater, far the greater number of those who
rave and rail, and inquire and accuse, neither suspect nor fear, nor
care for the publick; but hope to force their way to riches, by
virulence and invective, and are vehement and clamorous, only that they
may be sooner hired to be silent.
A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent,
and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of
violated rights, and encroaching usurpation.
This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the
populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick
happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that
unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errours and few faults of
government, can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge
of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by
reason, but caught by contagion.
The fallaciousness of this note of patriotism is particularly apparent,
when the clamour continues after the evil is past. They who are still
filling our ears with Mr. Wilkes, and the freeholders of Middlesex,
lament a grievance that is now at an end. Mr. Wilkes may be chosen, if
any will choose him, and the precedent of his exclusion makes not any
honest, or any decent man, think himself in clanger.
It may be doubted, whether the name of a patriot can be fairly given, as
the reward of secret satire, or open outrage. To fill the newspapers
with sly hints of corruption and intrigue, to circulate the Middlesex
Journal, and London Pacquet, may, indeed, be zeal; but it may, likewise,
be interest and malice. To offer a petition, not expected to be granted;
to insult a king-with a rude remonstrance, only because there is no
punishment for legal insolence, is not courage, for there is no danger;
nor patriotism, for it tends to the subversion of order, and lets
wickedness loose upon the land, by destroying the reverence due to
sovereign authority.
It is the quality of patriotism to be jealous and watchful, to observe
all secret machinations, and to see publick dangers at a distance. The
true lover of his country is ready to communicate his fears, and to
sound the alarm, whenever he perceives the approach of mischief. But he
sounds no alarm, when there is no enemy; he never terrifies his
countrymen till he is terrified himself. The patriotism, therefore, may
be justly doubted of him, who professes to be disturbed by
incredibilities; who tells, that the last peace was obtained by bribing
the princess of Wales; that the king is grasping at arbitrary power;
and, that because the French, in the new conquests, enjoy their own
laws, there is a design at court of abolishing, in England, the trial by
juries.
Still less does the true patriot circulate opinions which he knows to be
false. No man, who loves his country, fills the nation with clamorous
complaints, that the protestant religion is in danger, because "popery
is established in the extensive province of Quebec," a falsehood so open
and shameless, that it can need no confutation among those who know that
of which it is almost impossible for the most unenlightened zealot to be
ignorant:
That Quebec is on the other side of the Atlantick, at too great a
distance to do much good or harm to the European world:
That the inhabitants, being French, were always papists, who are
certainly more dangerous as enemies than as subjects:
That though the province be wide, the people are few, probably not so
many as may be found in one of the larger English counties:
That persecution is not more virtuous in a protestant than a papist; and
that, while we blame Lewis the fourteenth, for his dragoons and his
galleys, we ought, when power comes into our hands, to use it with
greater equity:
That when Canada, with its inhabitants, was yielded, the free enjoyment
of their religion was stipulated; a condition, of which king William,
who was no propagator of popery, gave an example nearer home, at the
surrender of Limerick:
That in an age, where every mouth is open for _liberty of conscience_,
it is equitable to show some regard to the conscience of a papist, who
may be supposed, like other men, to think himself safest in his own
religion; and that those, at least, who enjoy a toleration, ought not to
deny it to our new subjects.
If liberty of conscience be a natural right, we have no power to
withhold it; if it be an indulgence, it may be allowed to papists, while
it is not denied to other sects.
A patriot is necessarily and invariably a lover of the people. But even
this mark may sometimes deceive us.
The people is a very heterogeneous and confused mass of the wealthy and
the poor, the wise and the foolish, the good and the bad. Before we
confer on a man, who caresses the people, the title of patriot, we must
examine to what part of the people he directs his notice. It is
proverbially said, that he who dissembles his own character, may be
known by that of his companions. If the candidate of patriotism
endeavours to infuse right opinions into the higher ranks, and, by their
influence, to regulate the lower; if he consorts chiefly with the wise,
the temperate, the regular, and the virtuous, his love of the people may
be rational and honest. But if his first or principal application be to
the indigent, who are always inflammable; to the weak, who are naturally
suspicious; to the ignorant, who are easily misled; and to the
profligate, who have no hope but from mischief and confusion; let his
love of the people be no longer boasted. No man can reasonably be
thought a lover of his country, for roasting an ox, or burning a boot,
or attending the meeting at Mile-end, or registering his name in the
lumber troop. He may, among the drunkards, be a hearty fellow, and,
among sober handicraftsmen, a free-spoken gentleman; but he must have
some better distinction, before he is a patriot.
A patriot is always ready to countenance the just claims, and animate
the reasonable hopes of the people; he reminds them, frequently, of
their rights, and stimulates them to resent encroachments, and to
multiply securities.
But all this may be done in appearance, without real patriotism. He that
raises false hopes to serve a present purpose, only makes a way for
disappointment and discontent. He who promises to endeavour, what he
knows his endeavours unable to effect, means only to delude his
followers by an empty clamour of ineffectual zeal.
A true patriot is no lavish promiser: he undertakes not to shorten
parliaments; to repeal laws; or to change the mode of representation,
transmitted by our ancestors; he knows that futurity is not in his
power, and that all times are not alike favourable to change.
Much less does he make a vague and indefinite promise of obeying the
mandates of his constituents. He knows the prejudices of faction, and
the inconstancy of the multitude. He would first inquire, how the
opinion of his constituents shall be taken. Popular instructions are,
commonly, the work, not of the wise and steady, but the violent and
rash; meetings held for directing representatives are seldom attended
but by the idle and the dissolute; and he is not without suspicion, that
of his constituents, as of other numbers of men, the smaller part may
often be the wiser.
He considers himself as deputed to promote the publick good, and to
preserve his constituents, with the rest of his countrymen, not only
from being hurt by others, but from hurting themselves.
The common marks of patriotism having been examined, and shown to be
such as artifice may counterfeit, or folly misapply, it cannot be
improper to consider, whether there are not some characteristical modes
of speaking or acting, which may prove a man to be not a patriot.
In this inquiry, perhaps, clearer evidence may be discovered, and firmer
persuasion attained; for it is, commonly, easier to know what is wrong
than what is right; to find what we should avoid, than what we should
pursue.
As war is one of the heaviest of national evils, a calamity in which
every species of misery is involved; as it sets the general safety to
hazard, suspends commerce, and desolates the country; as it exposes
great numbers to hardships, dangers, captivity, and death; no man, who
desires the publick prosperity, will inflame general resentment by
aggravating minute injuries, or enforcing disputable rights of little
importance.
It may, therefore, be safely pronounced, that those men are no patriots,
who, when the national honour was vindicated in the sight of Europe, and
the Spaniards having invaded what they call their own, had shrunk to a
disavowal of their attempt, and a relaxation of their claim, would still
have instigated us to a war, for a bleak and barren spot in the
Magellanick ocean, of which no use could be made, unless it were a place
of exile for the hypocrites of patriotism.
Yet let it not be forgotten, that, by the howling violence of patriotick
rage, the nation was, for a time, exasperated to such madness, that, for
a barren rock under a stormy sky, we might have now been fighting and
dying, had not our competitors been wiser than ourselves; and those who
are now courting the favour of the people, by noisy professions of
publick spirit, would, while they were counting the profits of their
artifice, have enjoyed the patriotick pleasure of hearing, sometimes,
that thousands had been slaughtered in a battle, and, sometimes, that a
navy had been dispeopled by poisoned air and corrupted food. He that
wishes to see his country robbed of its rights cannot be a patriot.
That man, therefore, is no patriot, who justifies the ridiculous claims
of American usurpation; who endeavours to deprive the nation of its
natural and lawful authority over its own colonies; those colonies,
which were settled under English protection; were constituted by an
English charter; and have been defended by English arms.
To suppose, that by sending out a colony, the nation established an
independent power; that when, by indulgence and favour, emigrants are
become rich, they shall not contribute to their own defence, but at
their own pleasure; and that they shall not be included, like millions
of their fellow-subjects, in the general system of representation;
involves such an accumulation of absurdity, as nothing but the show of
patriotism could palliate.
He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience. We have always
protected the Americans; we may, therefore, subject them to government.
The less is included in the greater. That power which can take away
life, may seize upon property. The parliament may enact, for America, a
law of capital punishment; it may, therefore, establish a mode and
proportion of taxation.
But there are some who lament the state of the poor Bostonians, because
they cannot all be supposed to have committed acts of rebellion, yet all
are involved in the penalty imposed. This, they say, is to violate the
first rule of justice, by condemning the innocent to suffer with the
guilty.
This deserves some notice, as it seems dictated by equity and humanity,
however it may raise contempt by the ignorance which it betrays of the
state of man, and the system of things. That the innocent should be
confounded with the guilty, is, undoubtedly, an evil; but it is an evil
which no care or caution can prevent. National crimes require national
punishments, of which many must necessarily have their part, who have
not incurred them by personal guilt. If rebels should fortify a town,
the cannon of lawful authority will endanger, equally, the harmless
burghers and the criminal garrison.
In some cases, those suffer most who are least intended to be hurt. If
the French, in the late war, had taken an English city, and permitted
the natives to keep their dwellings, how could it have been recovered,
but by the slaughter of our friends? A bomb might as well destroy an
Englishman as a Frenchman; and, by famine, we know that the inhabitants
would be the first that should perish.
This infliction of promiscuous evil may, therefore, be lamented, but
cannot be blamed. The power of lawful government must be maintained; and
the miseries which rebellion produces, can be charged only on the
rebels.
That man, likewise, is not a patriot, who denies his governours their
due praise, and who conceals from the people the benefits which they
receive. Those, therefore, can lay no claim to this illustrious
appellation, who impute want of publick spirit to the late parliament;
an assembly of men, whom, notwithstanding some fluctuation of counsel,
and some weakness of agency, the nation must always remember with
gratitude, since it is indebted to them for a very ample concession, in
the resignation of protections, and a wise and honest attempt to improve
the constitution, in the new judicature instituted for the trial of
elections.
The right of protection, which might be necessary, when it was first
claimed, and was very consistent with that liberality of immunities, in
which the feudal constitution delighted, was, by its nature, liable to
abuse, and had, in reality, been sometimes misapplied to the evasion of
the law, and the defeat of justice. The evil was, perhaps, not adequate
to the clamour; nor is it very certain, that the possible good of this
privilege was not more than equal to the possible evil. It is, however,
plain, that, whether they gave any thing or not to the publick, they, at
least, lost something from themselves. They divested their dignity of a
very splendid distinction, and showed that they were more willing than
their predecessors to stand on a level with their fellow-subjects.
The new mode of trying elections, if it be found effectual, will diffuse
its consequences further than seems yet to be foreseen. It is, I
believe, generally considered as advantageous only to those who claim
seats in parliament; but, if to choose representatives be one of the
most valuable rights of Englishmen, every voter must consider that law
as adding to his happiness, which makes his suffrage efficacious; since
it was vain to choose, while the election could be controlled by any
other power.
With what imperious contempt of ancient rights, and what audaciousness
of arbitrary authority former parliaments have judged the disputes about
elections, it is not necessary to relate. The claim of a candidate, and
the right of electors, are said scarcely to have been, even in
appearance, referred to conscience; but to have been decided by party,
by passion, by prejudice, or by frolick. To have friends in the borough
was of little use to him, who wanted friends in the house; a pretence
was easily found to evade a majority, and the seat was, at last, his,
that was chosen, not by his electors, but his fellow-senators.
Thus the nation was insulted with a mock election, and the parliament
was filled with spurious representatives one of the most important
claims, that of right to sit in the supreme council of the kingdom, was
debated in jest, and no man could be confident of success from the
justice of his cause.
A disputed election is now tried with the same scrupulousness and
solemnity, as any other title. The candidate that has deserved well of
his neighbours, may now be certain of enjoying the effect of their
approbation; and the elector, who has voted honestly for known merit,
may be certain, that he has not voted in vain.
Such was the parliament, which some of those, who are now aspiring to
sit in another, have taught the rabble to consider as an unlawful
convention of men, worthless, venal, and prostitute, slaves of the
court, and tyrants of the people.
That the next house of commons may act upon the principles of the last,
with more constancy and higher spirit, must be the wish of all who wish
well to the publick; and, it is surely not too much to expect, that the
nation will recover from its delusion, and unite in a general abhorrence
of those, who, by deceiving the credulous with fictitious mischiefs,
overbearing the weak by audacity of falsehood, by appealing to the
judgment of ignorance, and flattering the vanity of meanness, by
slandering honesty, and insulting dignity, have gathered round them
whatever the kingdom can supply of base, and gross, and profligate; and
"raised by merit to this bad eminence," arrogate to themselves the name
of patriots.