172 rema7ks on the political progrefs. April 6,.' 



fore the present minister was born, cannot surely be 

 considered as an attack upon him. It is only preju- 

 dice that can induce any person to think so. The 

 time was, when any attempt to expose errors in go- 

 vernment was considered as treason ; but these days 

 -are gone. Government is only of use in as far as it 

 tends to prevent the abuses tliat strength and power 

 would naturally produce in society ; but as strength 

 a.:d power are, for wise purposes, entrusted with admi- 

 nistration in a more eminent degree than to any indi- 

 vidual, it follows, that more care is required to guard 

 against abuses there than any where else. To point 

 oat those abuses, therefore, when done with candour and 

 judgement, instead of being accounted a crime, ought 

 to be deemed highly meritorious. It is in such exer- 

 cises as this that the nnind acquires strength and 

 vigour. No person who has not been accustomed to 

 view "objects in different lights, can ever be said to 

 know them. Bacon did more in favour of science, by 

 destroying the veneration for names that prevailed 

 uefore his time, than by all his discoveries ; and the 

 ivorlihas been more indebted to Luther, and the re- 

 formers, than we are willing to allow, for teaching 

 laankiiid to consider man, in every station of life, 

 as no more than man. Let us pay respect to digni- 

 ties ; but let us never forget that the most dignilied 

 object on earth is the haman mind, when exerting its 

 energies, unfliackled by prejudice, unconscious of 

 error, and undaunted by fear. 



