On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
* -IX . ~ Thi * soeiety will encourage tbe forming of similar societies in this country and ill ifowstgft countries , by the dispersion of tracts , by correspondence , and by other suitable queans . They will encourage m a - tjial aid and co-operation anioog all tbe friends of peace of every denomination . X . Should any person become a member of this society whose residence is remote from Boston , it shall be regarded as honourable ffor him to encourage the establishment of a similar society in his own vicinity .
XI . No change in the objects of the gociety shall ever be made ; but the articles siav be amended , and new articles may be added as occasion shall require ; provided , that lio- ¦ alteration' be made except at the annual meeting , and by the cousent of two thirds of the members who may then be present-
Untitled Article
Sir , Junes , 1810 . fX ^ HOUGH your Repository is not JL intended to contain much political discussion , yet there are some points € 0 intimately connected " with the
wellbeing of mankind , that I think some of your pages may b £ very usefully occupied with the subject . I have been mtich pleased with jour correspondent , T . S / s account of the late -Or , Powell ^ « but there is one
paragraph in the Obituary , p . ^§ 9 * where , ; after speaking of Dr . P / s love of Hl > ertiy a \ id popular claims , he mentions , some pf ~ his own political sentiments , on which I should be much gratified by hia giving some farther explanation . Your correspondent says :
" While at Edinburgh ,. Dt * P , waa < he spectator of a very stormy scene pfjpolitical contention , and if he was not aai aqtor in it , this arose from no want of zeal in favour of the party which , in his opinion , eontfprebQndecl the frienwjs of liberty and popular
claims ^ Tlwrough -life he retained the same partiality , regulated , however , and repressed - by the good sense < and iound judgment which he applied to all subjects . Still it m * y be ( Joubted , whether he wjas suflii $ iewtl y aware of a fact , the beibt of which must be
nnpress ^ dvOij , . every cahn w \ d unprejudiced mind by even a > superficial kaowlcdgedf history , ai * 4 % a s % ht vi « w of what , during the l ** s fc five and twenty . ygftfrs ba $ -passed under our ^ jWk The fact aW uded to is , thai titem * arenbot in j tb ©••• worW wise aod wrtuQ ii ^ peopl e enough , to keep the * oolI 3 h and vicious in orden One
Untitled Article
would imagine , that this truth is toaobvious to l > e overlooked and too important to be ne ^ Iecfted , and that if it vv ^ as duly attended to bv reformers as , well as anti-reformers , it ivoulc ^ suggest a salutary lesson of moderntion to both . It seems to be the p lan of Providence to restrain and cneck one class of
crimes and delinquents , I ry the counteraction of another . The Ovidian hemistich , ponderibus lilrata suis , is not more applicable to the system of the universe , and to the British cohstitu * tion , than it is to the general fram ^ of society , composed ( as is the majority of it ) of short-sighted , wilful and selfish human beings . *'
Now I think , Sir , there cannot be a . stronger argument for reform ^ than the fact , that " there ar $ not in the world wise and virtuous people enough to keep the , foolish and vicious in order i % k shews how diligently we should strive to keep our constitution so adapted that the senate may contain
the greatest possible number of wise and virtuous persons ; and it appears to me a " t ^ uth too obvious to be overlooked . and too important to be neglected , " that it is impossible suclr should be the case so long as seats in parliament are bought and sold like stalls in a fair , which " must necessarily
lead to a great deal of corruption , and iiave a tendency to fill the senate with meri who are more anxtofus to til I their own coffers , than to promote the ge * neral benefit and good order of society }
I think-the last twenty .-rfive year * which have passed under our own eyes , have clearly shewn how very impolitic it is to neglect the people ' s voic £ till too late , when the whole fabric of
society may per destroyed in attempting to bring about a reform , whicn , if attended to as live times demanded , would ha ** e hai a gradual and very salutary operation . All history shews , and more particularly the : last two years , how very unfit kings and their
ministers are to have the mariagfement of affairs entirel y at their disposal ! , without the beneficial influerrce of the people , expressed through a constitutional representation 5 which is ; I believe , the best method that can be devised
of collecting together ** wise and virtuous people enough to ke&p thefooiish and vicious in order ; for I suppose no person will eontenc ^ at this time of day , that courts ot pQngresses are , leas li&Ule t& be infected with vice and
Untitled Article
Retnarks on / & Passage in ike Obituary of Dr . Powell . 336
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1816, page 335, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2453/page/27/
-