Men of sense, when new projects come before them, always think a
discourse proving the mere right or mere power of acting in the manner
proposed, to be no more than a very unpleasant way of mispending time.
They must see the object to be of proper magnitude to engage them; they
must see the means of compassing it to be next to certain: the mischiefs
not to counterbalance the profit; they will examine how a proposed
imposition or regulation agrees with the opinion of those who are likely
to be affected by it; they will not despise the consideration even of
their habitudes and prejudices. They wish to know how it accords or
disagrees with the true spirit of prior establishments, whether
of government or of finance; because they well know, that in the
complicated economy of great kingdoms, and immense revenues, which in
a length of time, and by a variety of accidents, have coalesced into
a sort of body, an attempt towards a compulsory equality in all
circumstances, and an exact practical definition of the supreme rights
in every case, is the most dangerous and chimerical of all enterprises.
The old building stands well enough, though part Gothic, part Grecian,
and part Chinese, until an attempt is made to square it into uniformity.
Then it may come down upon our heads altogether, in much uniformity of
ruin; and great will be the fall thereof.