Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/117

Rh his mind to better information. A character of this sort is the soil fittest to produce that obstinate bigotry in politics and religion, which begins with a meritorious sacrifice of the understanding, and finally conducts the monarch and the martyr to the block.

any other period, I doubt not, the scandalous disorders, which have been introduced into the government of all the dependencies in the Empire, would have rouzed the attention of the public. The odious abuse and prostitution of the prerogative at home,—the unconstitutional employment of the military,—the arbitrary fines and commitments by the house of lords, and court of king's bench;—the mercy of a chaste and pious prince extended chearfully to a wilful murderer, because that murderer is the brother of a common prostitute, would, I think, at any other time, have excited universal indignation. But the daring attack upon the constitution, in the Middlesex election, makes us callous and indifferent to inferior grievances. No man regards an eruption upon the surface, when the noble parts are invaded, and he