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Wealthy state of society , ^ but I should rfcucn pr ' efeT living under a limited monarchy , in which the checks and lJStriers against corruption were complete , than under a republic in which
they were defective , and where corruption would consequently he continually encroaching on the rights of the community . The great aim of reformers should therefore in my opinion he , as indeed I believe it is , to get rid of that many-headed monster , that most baneful and detestable
of all political vices , that secret , but sure means of undermining the freedom and virtue of a people , the original sin of all the existing difficulties of this country , which must indeed have arisen to an enormous height , ere the ministers of the crown would have dared to avow , that it
was as notorious as the sun at noon , that they were in the habit of obtaining seats in parliament for their dependants by its means . I think one of the best chapters in the < f Political Justice" of that ingenious speculator , William Godwin , ifc that entitled ** Of Forms of
Government ; " and his advice to reformers and statesmen , in that chapter , so much accords with my own sentiments , and is so particularly
applicable to the present time , that I will conclude my letter by extracting that part of it which is entitled in the margin—* Mode in which improvements are to be realised . *'
' < c It follows , however , from the principles already detailed , that the interests of the human species require a gradual but uninterrupted change . He who should make these principles the regulators of his conduct , would' not rashly insist upon the instant abolition of all existing abuses : hut he wotrfd riot nourish them with
false praise . He would ishew no indulgence to their enormities . He would tell all the truth he could discover , in relation to the genuine interests of mankind . Truth , de-Jiveted in a spirit of universal kindness , with no ' narrow resentments or angiV invectivecan scarcely be
dan-, gerous , or fail , so far as relates to its Q ^ n operation , to communicate a similar spirit to the hearer . Trutl ) , hoWefter unreserved fee . the mode of \ its enuneTaiioiu , will fee suflftci ^ tfitlf gradual in its ptfogtfcss . It will be . f . r '' ' ff ? ct > mpfetot » /; % rlly * t >| $ & # VOL . XII X
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degrees , by its most assiduous votaries- ; and the degrees will be stilt more temperate , by which it will pervade so considerable a portion of the community , as to render theru mature for a change of their common institutions . " Again : if conviction of the understanding be the compass which i § to direct our proceed ings in the
general affairs , we shall have many reforms but no revolutions . As it is only in a gradual manner that the public can be instructed , a violent explosion in the community is by no means the most likely to happen as the result of instruction . Revolutions are the produce of " passion , not of sober and tranquil reason . There
must be an obstinate resistance to improvement on the one side , to engender a furious determination of realising a system at a stroke on the other . The reformers must have suffered from incessant counteraction , till , inflamed by the treachery and art of their opponents , they are wrought up to the desperate state of imagining ; that all must be secured in
the first favourable crisis , as the only alternative for its being ever secured . It would seem , therefore , that the demand of the effectual ally of thepublic happiness , upon those who enjoy the privileges of the state , would be , ' L ) o not give us too soon ; do not give us too much ; but act under the incessant influence of a disposition to give us something . '"* T . H .-JANSON .
P . S . I should be much obliged to ~ Mr . Gilchrist , if he would take an opportunity of mentioning the nama of <* a certain masterly dissector of human nature and human society , " whom he speaks of pp . 588 , 58 9 , re- * gretting he had not deeply studied hk doctrines earlier .
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Heathen MoralityF : from tM Writings of Sir William Jones . tBl
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Genrge Yard , Lombard Street , Sir , Feb . 15 , 1817-IT has been asserted in the pulpit , and if I mistake not , is believed by the majority of Christians , that the precepts found in the gospels * which teach us to do to others as we should wish th £ m lo- do to us , aud to do good ' to those who injure us ,. were unknown to the wisest a we
* & $ Ji $$$ P " ®> M »*• ^ »»• ¦
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1817, page 161, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2462/page/33/
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