promulgated by the head of the Court corps, the Earl of Bute
himself, in a speech which he made, in the year 1766, against the
then Administration, the only Administration which, he has ever been
known directly and publicly to oppose.

It is indeed in no way wonderful, that such persons should make such
declarations. That connection and faction are equivalent terms, is
an opinion which has been carefully inculcated at all times by
unconstitutional Statesmen. The reason is evident. Whilst men are
linked together, they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of
an evil design. They are enabled to fathom it with common counsel,
and to oppose it with united strength. Whereas, when they lie
dispersed, without concert, order, or discipline, communication is
uncertain, counsel difficult, and resistance impracticable. Where
men are not acquainted with each other's principles, nor experienced
in each other's talents, nor at all practised in their mutual
habitudes and dispositions by joint efforts in business; no personal
confidence, no friendship, no common interest, subsisting among
them; it is evidently impossible that they can act a public part
with uniformity, perseverance, or efficacy. In a connection, the
most inconsiderable man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has
his value, and his use; out of it, the greatest talents are wholly
unserviceable to the public. No man, who is not inflamed by
vainglory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single,
unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours, are of power to
defeat, the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens.
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall,
one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

It is not enough in a situation of trust in the commonwealth, that a