ESSAY VIII. ON THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF POPULAR DISAFFECTION. THAT was an unhappy state of society in which every citizen was so closely interested in public affairs, that it was declared criminal by the laws for any one to be neutral in times of public commotion. The poets and philosophers, as well as the divines, have ever reckoned an exemption from cares of this kind among the first blessings to be desired by those who would live well and wisely; and truly it is no light evil to men who would fain live for posterity and for themselves in the worthiest sense, when these cares break in upon them, to interrupt their labours, and disturb the tranquillity of their meditations. The course of ordinary politics is to them like the course of the seasons, to be regarded with no greater anxiety, in sure belief that the same Providence which disposes the seasons will dispose the events of the world also in such manner that they shall work together for good. Such things require only that calm and pleasureable attention which is necessary for obtaining a competent knowledge of current history; and the violence with which party-matters are agi tated, and the occasional gusts of popular passion are to them like the wind, which bloweth as it listeth. But when questions are at stake in which the great interests of mankind, or the safety, honour, and welfare of their own country are nearly concerned, it is no longer fitting that they should look on as indifferent observers. By the fundamental laws of England every man is bound to bear arms against an invading enemy; and when worse dangers than invasion are designed and threatened, it becomes the duty of all those who have any means of obtaining public attention, to stand forward, and by resisting the danger endeavour, as far as in them lies, to avert it. It is unnecessary in this place to adduce proofs that such designs are actually existing: we have too much respect for the judicious part of our readers to employ their time upon this topic, and too little hope of the factious, to mispend our own in attempting to produce any effect upon schirrous hearts and distempered intellects. There is an admirable print among George Wither's Emblems, having for its motto, Cœcus nil luce juvatur : it represents an owl standing, in broad sunshine, with spectacles on his beak, a lighted candle on each side, and a blazing torch in each claw; and the more light there is, the less is the owl able to No happier emblem could be conceived for a thorough-paced oppositionist of the present day,.. see. ;For what are lights to those who blinded be, 'Or who so blind as they that will not see?' Some of this class deny the existence of any combination for overthrowing the government, of any treasonable practices, or any seditious spirit; and they deny it in good faith: for they have so long been accustomed to the use of inflammatory language, to argue in favour of the enemies of their country, and to wish for the success of those enemies, in pure obstinacy of party-feeling, that they are perhaps incapable of understanding the object which their own conduct has constantly tended to promote in this respect they resemble the tanner, who lives in the effluvia of his tanpits, till he ceases to be sensible of the stink. There are others who, being a little more accessible to conviction, admit that a conspiracy has been formed, but affect to despise it because the persons who are implicated are of low condition; as if in these days rank and fortune were necessary qualifications for a conspirator! But let it be remembered, that of all the shocking diseases to which the human frame is liable, the most shocking and the most loathsome is that in which it is devoured by the vermin which its own diseased humours have generated: and to despise the present appearances in the body politic for this cause, would be as absurd as to disregard the first symptoms of that frightful malady by which Sylla was consumed. The error of these persons proceeds from inattention to the great and momentous change which the public press has produced in the very constitution of society. Formerly the people were nothing in the scale; we are now hurrying on towards the time when they will be every thing! Like the continental physicians, such statesmen would pursue the expectant system, and trust to the vis medicatrix,..forgetful that there is a vis necatrix also. Where the danger is |