(which one instance may serve for all) often meets with a treatment similar to what the primitive christians experienced from the pagans, who, as Tertullian informs us, charged them as the meritorious causes of every calamity that befel the empire. "If the Tiber overflowed its banks, or the Nile did not; if the heavens withheld their showers, or the earth trembled under their feet; if famine or pestilence wasted the city or the provinces, the cry immediately was, Away with the christians to the lions *." In like manner, a British premier is not only made accountable for disastrous political events, such as unsuccessful wars or negotiations, or for a depressed state of manufactures or commerce; but also for a scarcity of bread, or of other articles of human subsistence; as if he was responsible even for the course of nature, or had engaged, upon his assuming the reins of government, (as the Mexican emperors are said to have done at * "Si Tiberis ascendit in moenia, si Nilus non ascendit in arva, si cælum stetit, si terra movit, si fames, si lucs, statim christianos ad leonem." Apol. cap. 40. their coronation *) that there should be no barren years, nor other natural disorders during his administration. This confusion of political and physical causes, so frequent in the minds of the populace, and which is the more easy, as they are often found combined in the same events, affords no small advantage to an artful demagogue for working on the fears or discontent of the simple and less-informed citizen, who is thus led to charge entirely upon his governors, what is chiefly the effect of nature; and through a mistaken apprehension of political grievances to quarrel with divine providence. II. We now proceed to the second part of the rule, namely, Not to aggravate or rashly oppose real political evils; to dismiss imaginary ones; and, lastly, to bear patiently those * "Le roi du Mexique promettoit par un serment solemnel, lorsqu'il etoit couronné, que le soleil seroit toujours clair et serein, que les nuées ne repandroient leurs pluies qu'a propos, et que la terre produiroit ses fruits en abondance." Traité de l'Opinion, par le Gendrę, tom. iii. p. 713-14. A evils which arise out of the common condition of man in this world. 1. If we consider with the least attention the difficulty of a wise legislation, to how many objects and circumstances, both immediate and remote, it is necessary to have respect in framing laws, we shall be slow to determine upon their merits; and, though they should fail of the end intended, shal never load them with aggravated censure. This moderation is strongly enforced by the remark of Blackstone (before cited) "That a standing rule of law, whose reason was forgot, or could not at present be discerned, was seldom set aside or altered by statute, but the inconvenience of the change afterwards appeared;" which should teach us that, in the regulation of human affairs, it is experience rather than theory, which is the great source of practical wisdom; and that we are not authorized to infer from laws which, upon trial, are found inexpedient, any particular defect of ability or good intention in the legislators; who perhaps did all that could be done upon the grounds of human foresight and probability. And if this modesty be proper in our private censures, it is still more so in our public complaints and remonstrances, which ought never to appear till after a respectful interval; and then in the most peaceable and regular manner. Every thing like intimidation should studiously be avoided, which would only tend, either to exasperate our superiors and to confirm the grievance, or to weaken the general authority of go vernment. The same considerations are no less applicable to the actual administration of public affairs. The grounds of executive measures, whether relative to war or peace, often lie equally remote from the eye of the common citizen with those upon which proceed the acts of the legislature; and to condemn them before they are known, or before they have had a fair trial, is manifestly unjust. Nay, though they should fail in the trial, it would remain still to be inquired, whether the failure arose from any culpable defect in the measures themselves, or from that general uncertainty of events, against which no human wisdom can absolutely provide. No one is ignorant, though few make allowance accordingly, that the winds and waves, with other innumerable contingencies of nature; the treachery of a commander; a sudden panic ; or the least unforeseen accident, may defeat the best-concerted plans. The little time afforded for deliberation is also, in the present case, another and a particular reason for allowance; the emergence may be such as will suffer no delay, which seldom happens in the business of legislation. Besides, (which should further increase our tenderness) those who actually steer the vessel of the state are most exposed to public animadversion; every coffee-house is a tribunal before which they are summoned, and by which, without trial or evidence, they are often unmercifully condemned. which may be added, the jealous ambition and ever-wakeful envy of their competitors, who lose no opportunity to detect and expose every fault or mistake of which they are guilty; to charge them with others of which they are innocent; and to obstruct U To |