Ch. vi. the principal Cause of Poverty, S^'c. 313 



sufferings, but totally ignorant of the quarter from 

 which they originate, is of all monsters the most 

 fatal to freedom. It fosters a prevailing tyranny, 

 and engenders one where it was not; and though, 

 in its dreadful fits of resentment, it appears oc- 

 casionally to devour its unsightly offspring; yet 

 no sooner is the horrid deed committed, than, 

 however unwilling it may be to propagate such a 

 breed, it immediately groans with a new birth. 



Of the tendency of mobs to produce tyranny 

 we may not, perhaps, be long without an example 

 in this country. As a friend to freedom, and na- 

 turally an enemy to large standing armies, it is 

 with extreme reluctance that I am compelled to 

 acknowledge that, had it not been for the great 

 organized force in the country, the distresses of 

 the people during the late scarcities,* encouraged 

 by the extreme ignorance and folly of many 

 among the higher classes, might have driven them 

 to commit the most dreadful outrages, and ulti- 

 mately to involve the country in all the horrors 

 of famine. Should such periods often recur, (a 

 recurrence which we have too much reason to ap- 

 prehend from the present state of the country,) 

 the prospect which opens to our view is melan- 

 choly in the extreme. The English constitution 

 will be seen Iiastening with rapid strides to the 

 Eiitlianasia foretold by Hume, unless its progress 

 be interrupted by some popular commotion ; and 

 this alternative presents a picture still more ap- 



* 1800 and 1801. 



