Before men are put forward into the great trusts of the state, they
ought, by their conduct, to have obtained such a degree of estimation in
their country, as may be some sort of pledge and security to the public,
that they will not abuse those trusts. It is no mean security for a
proper use of power, that a man has shown by the general tenor of his
actions, that the affection, the good opinion, the confidence of his
fellow citizens, have been among the principal objects of his life; and
that he has owed none of the degradations of his power or fortune to a
settled contempt, or occasional forfeiture of their esteem.
That man who before he comes into power has no friends, or who coming
into power is obliged to desert his friends, or who losing it has no
friends to sympathise with him; he who has no sway among any part of the
landed or commercial interest, but whose whole importance has begun with
his office, and is sure to end with it; is a person who ought never
to be suffered by a controlling parliament to continue in any of
those situations which confer the lead and direction of all our public
affairs; because such a man HAS NO CONNECTION WITH THE INTEREST OF THE
PEOPLE. Those knots or cabals of men who have got together avowedly
without any public principle, in order to sell their conjunct iniquity
at the higher rate, and are therefore universally odious, ought never
to be suffered to domineer in the state; because they have NO CONNECTION
WITH THE SENTIMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PEOPLE.