WITHOUT presuming to scan the intentions of Omnipotence, in His gifts to
the human race,—or to probe into the nature of His endless works of
wisdom,—or to grope into matters intended to be out of our reach, and
beyond our comprehension,—yet the reasoning power He has given us, we
cannot doubt, was meant to guide us in our researches to the extent for
which it is capacitated, and to which its uses are fitted to be applied.
In viewing man as connected with this world, and with his station in
society, I think it will appear clearly that the various degrees of his
intellectual and reasoning powers are the gift of Providence; and,
however high this boon may be, the possessor of it ought to be thankful,
but never vain. It is this innate power drawn forth and acted upon by
observation and industry, that enables the philosopher, the poet, the
painter, and the musician, to arrive at excellence; and the same remark
is more or less applicable to men bent upon any pursuit in the whole
round of the arts and sciences. Without using the means to cultivate
their powers, they will remain inert, and be of no use either to the
individual or to society; and men with innate qualifications, and men
without them, are brought down to a level of uselessness. It is greatly
owing to the want of effort that originates the inequalities of rank and
fortune of which the community is composed. The intelligent and
industrious man, guided by honour, will ever be aiming to rise in the
scale of eminence; while, on the contrary, the lazy, the ignorant, or
the wicked man, influenced by pride, dissipation and negligence, is
whirled into the vortex of disgrace, and is attended by poverty and
misery; and, if he cannot redeem his character, becomes abandoned. He is
then in his last stage; his days will be full of sorrow; and, if it be
true that “none are wretched but the wicked,” he will have his fill of
it.
But to remedy these evils attendant upon ignorance, as far as possible,
and to give every man a fair chance, his reasoning powers ought to be
drawn forth by a rational and virtuous education, and it is a first and
imperative duty upon the community either to provide for, or to see that
it is given to, every one as far as his capacity will permit; for to the
neglect or omission of this kind of instruction may be traced almost all
the wickedness and misrule which disfigure the social compact and spread
misery over the world. To check the reasoning power is a public crime,
which, like individual crime, follows the perpetrators like a shadow. To
argue against the exercise of this gift is to attempt to thwart the
intentions of Omnipotence. It is blasphemy. It never will pollute the
tongues of good and wise men, and could only, like dregs, be reserved to
defile those of tyrants and fools. Men who are not actuated by the
principle of “doing as they would be done by”—governed by a twisted
imagination—would have their fellow men kept in ignorance,—to pass away
their lives like unreasoning animals, lest they might not have
sufficient homage paid to themselves, or that they should forget their
duty as servants, and cease to work for, or to wait upon, their
employers. A sensible servant will never omit doing his duty, but an
ignorant one will; and the reciprocal duties between master and servant
ought to be clearly defined. The former ought not to act the tyrant; the
latter should be obedient; and equal and just laws should guide and
govern them.
All men of sound understanding, and who are capable of reflection, will
clearly see that there is not, and cannot be, any such thing as
equality. There must, and ever will be, high and low, rich and poor; and
this inequality of rank and fortune, in civilized states, is necessary
for the comfort and happiness of all. A cement is thus formed, which
binds together in union the strength, the beauty, and the symmetry of
the whole. In the freest state, man must not expect to have the
unrestrained liberty of the savage, but must give up a part of his own
freedom for the good of the whole; for liberty consists in this, that
every man may do whatever he pleases, provided he does nothing to injure
his neighbour, or the community of which he is a member; and his
morality ought to be guided by the golden rule, of “doing unto all men
as he would they should do unto him.” Were men made sensible of the
rectitude of this order of things; were they to consider that, in
whatever station in society fortune may have placed them, it is the will
of Providence that it should be so, this reflection would greatly
contribute to their peace of mind and contentment; for no man should
think himself degraded by following an honest calling.
“Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part: there all the honour lies.”
Patriotism ought to direct every man to do honour to himself and to his
country; and it is in this that great national power principally
consists. It is also by the good conduct, and consequent character, of
the great mass of the people that a nation is exalted. The crown—the
richest diamond of our life—is the love of our country; and the man who
neglects this, and ceases to reverence and adore his Maker, is good for
nothing. “The country, surrounded by the briny deep, where all our
ancestors lie buried—in which from youth upwards we have felt the
benefit of equal laws, first acted upon and handed down to us by the
Great Alfred, and maintained from time to time amidst all the attempts
of despotism to overturn them,—by men famed for matchless wisdom and
virtue,—a country so renowned as England, so famous for all that most
strongly attracts the admiration of men,—a country whose genius and
power have, for ages, been such as to make her views and intentions an
object of solicitude with every nation, and with every enlightened
individual in the world,—a country famed for her laws, famed in arts and
arms, famed for the struggles which, age after age, her sons have held
with tyranny in every form it has assumed,—and, beyond all these, famed
for having given birth to, and reared to manhood, those men of matchless
wisdom and virtue whose memories will be held up to admiration, and
whose example will be followed in ages to come—who have rendered the
very name of Englishmen respected in every civilized country in the
world”—(may this be eternal!)—should this country ever sink into
despotism, its reputation will sink also, and with it the high name of
its once enlightened sons; for this renown and this exalted station
cannot be stable unless a pure representation of the people is kept up:
without that, justice will be perverted, and corruption will creep in
and in time overturn the best and wisest plans. Government will become
omnipotent, instead of being the umpire and standing by, like a strong
man, to see that justice is done. Lord Bacon says:—“The ultimate object
which legislators ought to have in view, and to which all their
enactments and sanctions ought to be subservient, is, that the citizens
may live happy. For this purpose it is necessary that they should
receive a religious and pious education; that they should be trained to
good morals; that they should be secured from foreign enemies by proper
military arrangements; that they should be guarded by an effectual
police against seditions and private injuries; that they should be loyal
to government, and obedient to magistrates; and, finally, that they
should abound in wealth, and other national resources.”
Well constituted governments, if occasionally revised, and as often as
necessary scrupulously amended, may be rendered as permanent as time. If
wisely and virtuously administered, they would be indestructible, and
incalculably contribute, by their vigour and uninterrupted duration, to
the mental and moral aggrandisement of man. It is a truth confirmed by
universal history, that the happiness or misery of a people almost
entirely depend upon the principles of their government, and the conduct
of their rulers. Where just and honourable intentions exist, there is
nothing to dread; but, when only the semblance of these are put on, to
cloak wicked and sinister ends, delusion and artifice of every kind must
be resorted to for their accomplishment. Thence follows the degradation
of man, and the consequent decay of states and nations. But it is not
for want of knowing better that governments get out of the path of
rectitude; it is by the individuals who compose its parts becoming
dishonest. To the sage advice of such men as Bacon and Locke they turn a
deaf ear; they are lost in considerations about their own private,
selfish concerns, or are blinded by a false ambition, regardless of
promoting the public good, or the happiness of mankind; and, until they
are checked in this career, by an enlightened people, it is in vain to
look for any amendment in them. But the great bulk of the people must be
enlightened and amended, before liberty, peace, and happiness, can be
spread over the world.
The first step preparatory to this desirable order of things, must be
that the people should learn to respect themselves, as reasoning beings,
which is the noblest privilege bestowed upon them by the Creator. To
slight this gift is to act ungratefully to the Giver; for it is only by
the free exercise of their understandings that men can see the face of
truth, or can have the full use of all the means of advancing in
knowledge, or are capable of religion, science, virtue, and rational
happiness, or can be enabled to look backward with comfort or forward
with hope. It is a sure sign that all is not right, or as it should be,
in governments, when they fear even the fullest investigation of any,
and of every, subject. Truth and honesty fear no discussion, and good
governments will freely encourage, instead of checking, them. There
ought to be no libels, but falsehoods. Can any man say, in the face of
the world, that truth ought not to prevail? It is owing to inquisitorial
checks and restraints, that two of the most important concerns to
mankind, Religion and Politics,—on which their happiness, and everything
of importance to them, so much depends,—is by the community, as a whole,
so imperfectly understood, and so blindly acted upon at this day. It is
only by seeing the conduct of public men in a clear light, that a just
judgment can be formed of them and their measures, and of their fitness
or unfitness to conduct the important concerns entrusted to their
control. It may, indeed, be feared that, if tried in the balance, they
will be found very light. Wise and honest councils must be resorted to
and adopted before Religion, Morality, and Politics, Arts and Sciences,
and a better knowledge of this world of wonders, can be developed and
appreciated. Till then no amendment need be expected: religion will not
be freed from superstition and bigotry, nor political institutions
purged from venality and corruption, and conducted by honesty and good
sense. Those who have fixed themselves, like a disease, upon the body
politic should have warning to depart.
In glancing back upon the transactions of the world, as they have
recently passed in review before us, how can it afford any matter of
wonder that the advocates of liberty should have entertained fears for
its safety, and have wished, as a check, the re-establishment of the
British constitution in its purity. There was, indeed, little hope of
this being acted upon, when foreign despots were leagued to enslave
their peoples; and our own government, supported by a demi-oligarchy,
was so deeply connected with them. Loan after loan was wrung from the
British people under various pretexts, but in reality to support
despotism under the disguise of legitimacy. Granted, that an honest
House of Commons might have supported legitimacy, they should have
openly expressed disapprobation at the lost liberties of nations of
enslaved people. Protests of this kind, however, did not fit with the
notions of the representatives of boroughmongers, who composed the
majority of the honourable House, and who had long been used to treat
the people and their petitions with unblushing neglect or contempt.
In this state of things, politics ran high; an unpleasant ferment soured
the minds of a great majority of the people; and it cannot be wondered
that they were, with difficulty, kept within bounds. Those who had been
used to batten on the wages of corruption became excessively alarmed,
and, under the pretence of preserving the constitution, resorted to a
system of espionage, and of gaols and bastilles, and left no stone
unturned to throw odium upon their opponents, the advocates of liberty,
who were branded with the nicknames of Jacobins, Levellers, Radicals,
&c., &c. The pen of literature was prostituted to overshade the actions
of good men, and to gloss-over the enormities of the base. The energies
of many members of both Houses of Parliament were unavailing against
this compact confederacy of undeserving placemen and pensioners, who
were bound together by fellow feelings of self-interest, in which all
ideas of public trust were lost in private considerations. They had
sinned themselves out of all shame. This phalanx have kept their ground,
and will do so till, it is to be feared, violence from an enraged people
breaks them up, or, perhaps, till the growing opinions against such a
crooked order of conducting the affairs of this great nation becomes
quite apparent to an immense majority, whose frowns may have the power
of bringing the agents of government to pause upon the brink of the
precipice on which they stand, and to provide in time, by wise and
honest measures, to avert the coming storm. It is appalling to think of
matters of this import being brought to extremities, especially when the
whole might so easily be settled without any convulsion at all. The king
(whose interests are the same as the people’s), if freed from the advice
of evil counsellors, and from the unfitting trammels by which they have
him bound, might insist upon having the constitution restored to its
purity. This would at once settle the business, and would cause him to
be adored by his whole people, and his name to be revered, by the
enlightened in every civilised country, to the latest posterity.
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