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851
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THE MODERATE WHIG .
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The political world , prolific as it has been of late in strange and eccentric births , seems most to have deviated from its vague and uncertain course of propriety , in the production of the moderate Whig .
Strange and ambiguous title ! yet borne boastingly and ostentatiously , by many who had long been puzzled in the choice of a party , and were ready to join any , the motto of whose standard might flatter their vanity , the tenets of whose creed might not militate inconveniently against their own ease and prejudices . Now , these half-and-half disciples of a wavering school are
contented . Any suspicions which might , perchance , have attached to the principal term , are repelled by the wholesome qualification of the adjunct . They can now dare to call themselves by a name , which , in times past , has been fancifully connected with the idea of independence and patriotism , since they are not bound to prosecute its adoption by the espousal of opinions , and the advocacy
of doctrines , to which their nature and disposition were always foreign . Little heed they the fact , that , in the scale of political thinkers , they rank as a mere lusus , less amusing by their eccentricities , than annoying by their deformity . In vain are they reminded , that too much virtue and self-denial would not have been expected from them had they assumed the unqualified title
of Whigs . There can be no harm , they think , even in excess of caution , and that name sounds the most euphoniously in their ears , which promises the least to the community . Contumely and ridicule they are contented to bear , because they have not sufficient moral courage to earn honest applause by open and manly
conduct . Let us see whether this strange and ill-starred abortion admit of any description . The task is no easy one , for as few have a clear perception of the Whigs real character , who can hope to set forth the nature and attributes of the moderate Whig ?
In some respects he may be styled a bat . Purblind and lazy , he clings with torpid adhesion to dark and ruinous edifices . When scared from them by the hand of improvement and renovation , he starts reluctantly into the full glare of day , only to remain within its influence , until he can find some new place of refuge , as similar as possible to that which he was compelled to relinquish .
Left to himself , he would have remained unseen and unheard , save in the doubtful hours of twilight , when his querulous cries and ill-defined form would barely have sufficed to remind the world of his existence . His most ambitious flights are always the most awkward and self-distressing , the objects of his pursuit trifling and insignificant , and a return to obscurity and sloth , the highest pleasure of which his degraded nature is susceptible . The
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1833, page 851, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2628/page/47/
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