The PURPOSE for which the abuses of government are brought into view,
forms a very material consideration in the mode of treating them. The
complaints of a friend are things very different from the invectives of
an enemy. The charge of abuses on the late monarchy of France was not
intended to lead to its reformation, but to justify its destruction.
They, who have raked into all history for the faults of kings, and who
have aggravated every fault they have found, have acted consistently;
because they acted as enemies. No man can be a friend to a tempered
monarchy who bears a decided hatred to monarchy itself. He, who at the
present time, is favourable, or even fair, to that system, must
act towards it as towards a friend with frailties, who is under the
prosecution of implacable foes. I think it a duty, in that case, not to
inflame the public mind against the obnoxious person by any exaggeration
of his faults. It is our duty rather to palliate his errors and defects,
or to cast them into the shade, and industriously to bring forward any
good qualities that he may happen to possess. But when the man is to be
amended, and by amendment to be preserved, then the line of duty takes
another direction. When his safety is effectually provided for, it then
becomes the office of a friend to urge his faults and vices with all
the energy of enlightened affection, to paint them in their most vivid
colours, and to bring the moral patient to a better habit. Thus I think
with regard to individuals; thus I think with regard to ancient and
respected governments and orders of men. A spirit of reformation is
never more consistent with itself than when it refuses to be rendered
the means of destruction.