If a few puny libellers, acting under a knot of factious politicians,
without virtue, parts, or character (such they are constantly
represented by these gentlemen), are sufficient to excite this
disturbance, very perverse must be the disposition of that people
amongst whom such a disturbance can be excited by such means. It is
besides no small aggravation of the public misfortune, that the disease,
on this hypothesis, appears to be without remedy. If the wealth of the
nation be the cause of its turbulence, I imagine it is not proposed to
introduce poverty, as a constable to keep the peace. If our dominions
abroad are the roots which feed all this rank luxuriance of sedition,
it is not intended to cut them off in order to famish the fruit. If our
liberty has enfeebled the executive power, there is no design, I hope,
to call in the aid of despotism, to fill up the deficiencies of law.
Whatever may be intended, these things are not yet professed. We
seem therefore to be driven to absolute despair: for we have no other
materials to work upon but those out of which God has been pleased
to form the inhabitants of this island. If these be radically and
essentially vicious, all that can be said is, that those men are very
unhappy, to whose fortune or duty it falls to administer the affairs of
this untoward people. I hear it indeed sometimes asserted, that a steady
perseverance in the present measures, and a rigorous punishment of those
who oppose them, will in course of time infallibly put an end to these
disorders. But this, in my opinion, is said without much observation of
our present disposition, and without any knowledge at all of the general
nature of mankind. If the matter of which this nation is composed be so
very fermentable as these gentlemen describe it, leaven never will be
wanting to work it up, as long as discontent, revenge, and ambition,
have existence in the world. Particular punishments are the cure for
accidental distempers in the state; they inflame rather than allay those
heats which arise from the settled mismanagement of the government, or
from a natural indisposition in the people. It is of the utmost moment
not to make mistakes in the use of strong measures; and firmness is then
only a virtue when it accompanies the most perfect wisdom. In truth,
inconstancy is a sort of natural corrective of folly and ignorance.