Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/94

 The Manners of the Times, tho' in the Main favourable to Liberty, were mixed with a gross Alloy of private Licentiousness: And hence, factious Measures of Course arose, from the Prospect of Power or Gain. The preceding Age had caught a strong Tincture of Vice, from the prevalent Example of a debauched Court. The Education of Children was still left in an imperfect State: This great Revolution having confined itself to the Reform of public Institutions; without ascending to the first great Fountain of political Security, "the private and effectual Formation of the infant Mind."

The religious Principle, though chiefly consonant with the new Constitution, and indeed its leading Support, was in Part at Variance with it.—A numerous Body of Papists held a whole System of Principles diametrically opposite to its most essential Dictates.—Another Body of