Ch. vii. Continuation of the same Subject. ' 333 



attributed to the half-measures which had been 

 pursued; and that they would be either forced to 

 proceed to more radical changes, or submit to a 

 total loss of their influence and popularity by 

 stopping- short while the distresses of the people 

 were unrelieved, their discontents unallayed, and 

 the great panacea on which they had built their 

 sanguine expectations untried. 



These considerations have naturally paralyzed 

 the exertions of the best friends of liberty; and 

 those salutary reforms which are acknowedged to 

 be necessary in order to repair the breaches of 

 time, and improve the fabric of our constitution, 

 are thus rendered much more difficult, and con- 

 sequently much less probable. 



But not only have the false expectations and 

 extravagant demands suggested by the leaders of 

 the people given an easy victory to government 

 over every proposition for reform, whether violent 

 or moderate, but they have furnished the most 

 fatal instruments of offensive attack against the 

 constitution itself. They are naturally calculated 

 to excite some alarm, and to check moderate re- 

 form; but alarm, when once excited, seldom 

 knows where to stop, and the causes of it are par- 

 ticularly liable to be exaggerated. There is reason 

 to believe that it has been under the influence of 

 exaggerated statements, and of inferences drawn 

 by exaggerated fears from these statements, that 

 acts unfavourable to liberty have been passed 

 without an adequate necessity. But the power 



