It is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the
inclinations of the people, but they ought to take great care that they
do not receive that inclination from the few persons who may happen
to approach them. The petty interests of such gentlemen, the low
conceptions of things, their fears arising from the danger to which the
very arduous and critical situation of public affairs may expose their
places; their apprehensions from the hazards to which the discontents of
a few popular men at elections may expose their seats in parliament; all
these causes trouble and confuse the representations which they make
to ministers of the real temper of the nation. If ministers, instead
of following the great indications of the constitution, proceed on such
reports, they will take the whispers of a cabal for the voice of the
people, and the counsels of imprudent timidity for the wisdom of a
nation.