410° 
maintained the perfectibility of the hu- 
man species in particular instances.” 
So far as this accusation is intelligible, 
it may be best answered by himself. 
“In giving his reveries to the public,” 
we are told by his accuser, “ that Lord 
B. employed a specious philosophical 
jargon, then novel, and calculated to 
make an impression on ignorant minds, 
since become more common, and justly 
exploded as the cant of hyprocrisy or 
enthusiasm. Its pretensions were 
founded on candour, liberality of sen- 
liment, universal philanthropy, and a 
tender concern for the happiness of 
posterity.” If this is the jargon of ig- 
norance, hyprocrisy, or enthusiasm, 
the rev. author would have done well 
to instruct us in the appropriate Jan- 
guage of the Christian virtues of cha- 
rity and beneficence. Let us at least 
hear the supposed delinquent in his 
own defence. ‘“Itseemsto me,” says 
Lord B. * that, in order to maintain 
the moral system of the world at a cer- 
tain point, far below that of ideal per- 
fection, for we are made capable of 
conceiving what we are incapable of 
attaining, that the Author of Nature 
has thought fit to mingle, from time to 
time, among the societies of men, a few 
on whom he is graciously pleased to 
bestow a larger portion of the ethereal 
spirit, who are born to instruct, to 
guide, and to preserve; who are de- 
signed tc be the tutors and guardians 
of human kind. When these men ap- 
ply their talents to other purposes, 
when they strive to be great and despise 
being good, they commit a most sacri- 
legious breach of trust. To misapply 
these talents is the greatest of crimes; 
but, to keep them unexerted and un- 
employed, is a crime too. To what 
higher station, to what greater glory 
can any man aspire, than to be during 
the whole course of his life the support 
of good, the control of bad govern- 
ment, and the guardian of public li- 
berty. A life dedicated to the service 
of our country admits the full use, and 
no life should admit the abuse, of 
pleasures.” Wa 
“Parliamenis are not only what they 
always were, essential parts of our 
Constitution, but essential parts of our 
administration too. They donot claim 
the executive power. No; but the 
executive power cannot be’ exercised 
Without their annual concurrence. 
How few meuiths, instead of years, 
have princes and ministers now to pass 
without inspection and control. How 
2 
Defence of the Character of Lorg Bolingbroke. 
(June y, 
easy, therefore, is it become, to check 
every growing evil in the bud, to 
change every bad administration. W-e 
must want spirit, as well as virtue, to 
perish. I believe,” continues this no- 
ble writer in the same specious jargon 
“no man of sense and, knowledge 
thought the Constitution concerned, 
notwithstanding all the clamour raised 
at one time about the danger of the 
church, and at another about the dan- 
ger of the Protestant succession. But 
the case is at this time vastly altered. 
The means of invading liberty were not 
then grown up into strength. You 
owe to your country, to your honour, 
to your security, to the present and to 
future ages, that no endeavours of 
yours be wanting to repair the breach 
that is made, and is increasing daily in 
the Constitution ; and to shut up with 
all the bars and bolts of law, the prin- 
cipal entries through which these tor- 
rents of corruption have been let in 
upon us. I say the principal entries, 
because, howeverit may appear in pure 
speculation, I think it would not be 
found in practice possible ; no, nor 
eligible neither, to shut them up all. 
As entries of corruption, none of them 
deserve to be excepted ; but, there isa 
just distinction to be made, because 
there is a real difference. Some of 
these entries are opened by the abuse 
of powers necessary to maintain subor- 
dination, and to carry on even good go- 
vernment; and, therefore, necessary to 
be preserved in the crown, notwith- 
standing the abuse that is sometimes 
made of them. Forno human institu- 
tion can arrive at perfection, and the 
most that human wisdom can do, is to 
procure the same or greater good at the 
expense of less evil. There will be 
always some evil either immediate or 
remote, either in cause or conse- 
quence.”— Letters on Spirit of Patrio- 
tism, pp. 10-40. 
This may serve as an answer not only 
to the charge against Lord B. “for 
broaching the doctrine of the supposed 
perfection of the human species,” but 
also another incidental accusation, | 
(Mem. of Sir R. W. ii. p. 158-9,) “ of 
considering the court-party as a fac- 
tion, and confederacy against the coun- 
try,” whereas the noble writer expressly 
affirms, that there is a constitutional in- 
fluence of the crown, necessary to main- 
tain subordination, and which it would 
be dangerous to abolish, even supposing 
it to be sometimes abused. His argu- 
ment is directed solely against that 
overbearing, 
