Page:An address to the thinking independent part of the community.djvu/17

( 17 ) than the smallest portion of power and influence, that I would persuade them to shake off the guidance of that administration. When our present ministers triumphed in removing a popular Lord Lieutenant, and in mocking the high-raised hopes of the community, they were warned in the House of Commons, by some of its mod distinguished members, of the fatal consequences that would ensue from their conduct: Warnings, however, had no effect on them. They persisted; and the consequences predicted have followed.—I am, therefore, convinced that the greatest danger of the country gentlemen arises from their support of these ministers, and that their safety will best be ensured by an immediate abandonment of them, and the system they are pursuing. Whence is it, I ask, that the peaceable inhabitants of the country are left a prey to violence and rapine? Why do we daily hear of riots, massacres, and other atrocities committed without number? And why is it so difficult to repress these offences, and to punish the guilty? It is, I would answer, because the abuses in the constitution have estranged from it the affections of the people; because the laws have lost their firmed support—that general attachment which bed guards them from violation, and while they are hated by the multitude, are languidly enforced by the few and finally, because that class of men, which, from its rank in the community,