integrity, nor resentment, ever before directed a motion like this? Was
it not, because it neither will serve the purposes of honesty, nor
wickedness; that it would have defeated the designs of good, and
betrayed those of bad men; that it would have given patriotism an
appearance of faction, rather than have vested faction with the disguise
of patriotism.

It cannot be supposed, that the sagacity of these gentlemen, however
great, has enabled them to discover a method of proceeding which escaped
the penetration of our ancestors, so long celebrated for the strength of
their understanding, and the extent of their knowledge. For it is
evident, that without any uncommon effort of the intellectual faculties,
he that proposes an inquiry for a year past, might have made the same
proposal with regard to a longer time; and it is therefore probable,
that the limitation of the term is the effect of his knowledge, rather
than of his ignorance.

And, indeed, the absurdity of an universal inquiry for twenty years past
is such, that no man, whose station has given him opportunities of being
acquainted with publick business, could have proposed it, had he not
been misled by the vehemence of resentment, or biassed by the secret
operation of some motives different from publick good; for it is no less
than a proposal for an attempt impossible to be executed, and of which
the execution, if it could be effected would be detrimental to the
publick.

Were our nation, sir, like some of the inland kingdoms of the continent,
or the barbarous empire of Japan, without commerce, without alliances,
without taxes, and without competition with other nations; did we depend
only on the product of our own soil to support us, and the strength of