The only method which has ever been found effectual to preserve any man
against the corruption of nature and example, is a habit of life and
communication of counsels with the most virtuous and public-spirited men
of the age you live in. Such a society cannot be kept without advantage
or deserted without shame. For this rule of conduct I may be called in
reproach a PARTY MAN; but I am little affected with such aspersions.
In the way which they call party, I worship the constitution of your
fathers; and I shall never blush for my political company. All reverence
to honour, all idea of what it is, will be lost out of the world,
before it can be imputed as a fault to any man, that he has been closely
connected with those incomparable persons, living and dead, with whom
for eleven years I have constantly thought and acted. If I have wandered
out of the paths of rectitude into those of interested faction, it
was in company with the Saviles, the Dowdeswells, the Wentworths,
the Bentincks; with the Lenoxes, the Manchesters, the Keppels, the
Saunderses; with the temperate, permanent, hereditary virtue of the
whole house of Cavendish; names, among which, some have extended
your fame and empire in arms, and all have fought the battle of your
liberties in fields not less glorious. These, and many more like these,
grafting public principles on private honour, have redeemed the present
age, and would have adorned the most splendid period in your history.