Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/132

 Capital, being near to the grand Scene of political Contention, must ever be a ready and dangerous Engine in the Hands of Licentiousness and Faction.

But in a Nation like this, to make the Populace of the Capital a more successful Instrument of Sedition, a Degree of Art would be necessary. For it appears above, that the People of this Kingdom, and the Populace of its Cities, are of a Character essentially opposite to each other: That the one is collectively knowing and upright; the other, collectively ignorant and immoral. —The first Step, therefore, that Faction would take, as the surest Method for Success, would be to confound the one with the other; and dignify "the Clamour of the Populace," by stiling it "the of the ."

The Fury of such a Populace, thus awakened by Vanity, Vice, and Ignorance, would arise in a Variety of Shapes.