314 Effects of the Knowledge of Bk. iv. 



palling to the imagination. If political discon- 

 tents were blended with the cries of hunger, and 

 a revolution were to take place by the instrumen- 

 tality of a mob clamouring for want of food, 

 the consequences would be unceasing change and 

 unceasing carnage, the bloody career of which 

 nothing but the establishment of some complete 

 despotism could arrest. 



We can scarcely believe that the appointed 

 guardians of British liberty should quietly have 

 acquiesced in those gradual encroachments of 

 power which have taken place of late years, but 

 from the apprehension of these still more dread- 

 ful evils. Great as has been the influence of cor- 

 ruption, I cannot yet think so meanly of the coun- 

 try gentlemen of England, as to believe that they 

 would thus have given up a part of their birth- 

 right of liberty, if they had not been actuated by 

 a real and genuine fear that it was then in greater 

 danger from the people than from the crown. They 

 appeared to surrender themselves to government, 

 on condition of being protected from the mob; but 

 they never would have made this melancholy and 

 disheartening surrender, if such a mob had not 

 existed either in reality or in imagination. That 

 the fears on this subject were artfully exaggerated 

 and increased beyond the limits of just apprehen- 

 sion, is undeniable ; but I think it is also undeni- 

 able that the frequent declamations which were 

 heard against the unjust institutions of society, 

 and the delusive arguments on equality which 

 were circulated among the lower classes, gave us 



