322 Effects of the Knowledge of Bk. iv. 



and these will of course be found among the people 

 of property. Whatever may be said of a few, it 

 is impossible to suppose that the great mass of 

 the people of property should be really interested 

 in the abuses of government. They merely submit 

 to them from the fear that an endeavour to remove 

 them might be productive of greater evils. Could 

 we but take away this fear, reform and improve- 

 ment would proceed with as much facility as the 

 removal of nuisances, or the paving and lighting 

 of the streets. In human life we are continually 

 called upon to submit to a lesser evil in order to 

 avoid a greater ; and it is the part of a wise man 

 to do this readily and cheerfully ; but no wise 

 man will submit to any evil, if he can get rid of it 

 without danger. Remove all apprehension from 

 the tyranny or folly of the people, and the tyranny 

 of government could not stand a moment. It 

 would then appear in its proper deformity, with- 

 out palliation, without pretext, without protector. 

 Naturally feeble in itself, when it was once stripped 

 naked, and deprived of the support of public opi- 

 nion and of the great plea of necessity, it would 

 fall without a struggle. Its few interested de- 

 fenders would hide their heads abashed, and 

 would be ashamed any longer to support a cause, 

 for which no human ingenuity could invent a 

 plausible argument. 



The most successful supporters of tyranny are 

 without doubt those general declaimers, who at- 

 tribute the distresses of the poor, and almost all 

 the evils to which society is subject, to human in- 

 stitutions and the iniquity of governments. The 



I 



