on the other; if any thing has happened which has lessened, or tends to lessen, in the minds of persons of all ranks, their ve neration for religion-religion, My Lords, is the only sure basis of every government; for you may as well attempt to build a city without a foundation, as to preserve a state without religion-if any thing of this kind has happened, surely it becomes the legislature to advert to these things speedily, seriously, and dispassionately. I know there are many wise men who look upon our national vices, and constitutional defects, as irremediable evils, which will increase, till some dreadful catastrophe shall burst the imposthume, and cleanse the corruptions of the body politic. I am not of that desponding opinion; we are not yet arrived at that state of political profligacy which the Romans had reached, when their historian describes liberty and public probity succumbing under the corrupting influence of wealth and power; it cannot yet be truly said of us, as it was said of themAd id perventum est, ut nec vitia nec remedia pati possumus. 66 The wisdom of this and the othe House, co-operating with the wisdom of the King, may find remedies for all our evils. We are still a wealthy, a brave, and a free people. Let us keep our wealth at home for our own occasions; let us exert our bravery at home in our own defence; and let us be watchful of our own liberties, and sincerely willing to participate our freedom with every nation under heaven, and we shall have nothing to fear from all the republics in the world. "What is there so enchanting in republics, that we should be apprehensive lest the people of this country should be seduced from their attachment to the constitution, by contemplating the republic of France? In its present state it is an object of terror and abhorrence to every man, however exalted, however abject his condition. In the present aristocratical republics of Europe, every one who knows any thing of the subject, knows that the freedom we enjoy is not enjoyed in them. In the democratical republics of ancient times, and especially in that of Athens, we may see something like a prototype of the French republic: it was a dreadful tyranny exer cised by pestilent men, through the instru mentality of the multitude, -exercised over valour, learning, justice, (for even Aristides fell,) over every thing that was great and excellent among mankind. "But I shall be told, that the representative republics of America and France are essentially different from all republics of either ancient or modern times; that they are machines of government built upon a new construction. Be it so; I cannot now stop to examine either their excellencies or defects; it is enough for my argument, it is enough for the people of England to know, that they are new; their novelty renders them suspicious; when these machines shall have gone on for a century, as well as their most sanguine admirers can expect, it may be soon enough then for our posterity to examine, whether the people enjoy under them more solid blessings than they themselves will then, I trust, enjoy under the present constitution of Great Britain. 66 My Lords, we are all agreed; I do not by all, mean every individual in the kingdom; but I do mean all the individuals, without exception, in both Houses of Parliament; and a vast majority of the people out of parliament are agreed in the pursuit of the same object; and that object is, the preservation of the constitution. I give equal credit to all parties on this head, and I should think myself destitute of candour and of justice, if I did not. I know, My Lords, that the connections (I speak not of the leaders of both parties) transgress all bounds of moderation in their judgments of each other. The adherents of administration endeavour to exhibit the opposers of public measures, as men hostile to the peace and tranquillity of the country; as men of republican principles; as secret subverters of the constitution. The adherents of opposition endeavour to represent the ministers of the Crown, and the majorities in parliament, as men destitute of public probity, careless of the public safety, and anxious for nothing but the preservation of their places, and the accumulation of riches and titles. This, My Lords, is not a time—indeed, there is no time for it- but this especially is not a time to struggle for the retention, or for the acquisition of power by calumny and misrepre sentation. We are all agreed that the constitution ought to be preserved; we differ as to the means of preserving it. Some are of opinion, that the republic of France must, at every risk, be destroyed, lest its establishment should be followed by the subversion of every monarchy in Europe, and of our own amongst the rest. Others see no probability of such a consequence; can discover no connection of cause and effect between the establishment of a republic in France, and the subversion of the subsisting governments in other countries. On the contrary, they are of opinion, that the miseries which the French have hitherto experienced, and which, if left to themselves, they probably would continue to experience under a republican government, would, in a few years, make them, as similar evils made our ancestors, revert to some species of monarchy, and would effectually deter every other people from following their example. "It would be an indication of great boldness in the most consummate statesman; it would be arrogance and presumption in me, peremptorily to determine |