Page:An address to the thinking independent part of the community.djvu/26

( 26 ) said, that when this has been done, there will still be no security for the remainder. I answer, that if the current of opinion continue to run long and violently in its present direction, it is true it may sweep away every trace of our antient system; but, I say, in such a case, it would not be pent up by obstructions, which only make it foam and swell and rush with increased impetuosity. If, on the contrary, as seems more likely, a calm and temperate state of the public mind should quickly be the result of these concessions, and time should demonstrate the charms which appeared so fascinating on the first view of the Republican form, to be no more than an unsubstantial glare—the component parts of the political body remaining unaltered, such of them as should appear to have been injuriously weakened, might again be repaired and strengthened; and the crown, if too much enfeebled to fulfil, with the requisite vigour,, the functions allotted to it, might readily draw back, with the entire approbation of the people, such a portion of its former weight as should be found necessary to restore the due balance of the constitution.

You then who regard your own safety and the public happiness, who wish to preserve the constitution and uphold the throne of your sovereign, are you not called upon by all these motives to come forward now, at this moment