The next argument adduced in conformation of my thesis, is, that they
were not by themselves of sufficient strength, to support the weight of
administration. It is certainly a melancholy consideration, that there
should not be virtue enough left in a people to support an
administration of honest views and uniform principles, against all the
cabals of faction. This however, is incontrovertibly the case with
Britain. The bulk of her inhabitants are become, in a very high degree,
inattentive, and indifferent to the conduct of her political affairs.
This has been, at one time, ascribed to their despair of the
commonwealth, and their mortification in perceiving a certain course of
mal-administration persisted in, in defiance of the known sense of the
country. At another time, it has been imputed to their experience of the
hollowness of all our public pretenders to patriotism. I am afraid, the
cause is to be sought in something, more uniform in it's operation, and
less honourable to the lower ranks of society, than either of these. In
a word, luxury and dissipation have every where loosened the bands of
political union. The interest of the public has been forgotten by all
men; and we have been taught to laugh at the principles, by which the
patriots of former ages were induced, to sacrifice their fortunes and
their lives for the welfare of their citizens. Provided the cup of
enjoyment be not dashed from our own lips, and the pillow of sloth torn
away from our own heads, we do not ask, what shall be the fate of our
liberties, our posterity, and our country. Disinterested affection seems
to have taken up her last refuge in a few choice spirits, and elevated
minds, who appear among us, like the inhabitants of another world. In
the mean time, while the lower people have been _careful for none of
these things_, they have been almost constantly decided in the senate,
not by a view to their intrinsic merits, but in conformity to the
jarring interests, and the inexplicable cabals of faction. In such a
situation, alas! what can unprotected virtue do? Destitute of all that