To bring misery on those who have not deserved it, is part
of the aggregated guilt of rebellion.
That governours have been sometimes given them, only that a great man
might get ease from importunity, and that they have had judges, not
always of the deepest learning, or the purest integrity, we have no
great reason to doubt, because such misfortunes happen to ourselves.
Whoever is governed, will, sometimes, be governed ill, even when he is
most "concerned in his own government."
That improper officers or magistrates are sent, is the crime or folly of
those that sent them. When incapacity is discovered, it ought to be
removed; if corruption is detected, it ought to be punished. No
government could subsist for a day, if single errours could justify
defection.
One of their complaints is not such as can claim much commiseration from
the softest bosom. They tell us, that we have changed our conduct, and
that a tax is now laid, by parliament, on those who were never taxed by
parliament before. To this, we think, it may be easily answered, that
the longer they have been spared, the better they can pay.
It is certainly not much their interest to represent innovation as
criminal or invidious; for they have introduced into the history of
mankind a new mode of disaffection, and have given, I believe, the first
example of a proscription published by a colony against the
mother-country.
Pages:
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376