The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.Wordsworth, William
General
The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.
Wordsworth, William
English literature -- 19th century
very existence as self-governed communities?
The Party of Opposition, or what remains of it, has much to repent of;
many humiliating reflections must pass through the minds of those who
compose it, and they must learn the hard lesson to be thankful for them
as a discipline indispensible to their amendment. Thus only can they
furnish a sufficient nucleus for the formation of a new Body; nor can
there be any hope of such Body being adequate to its appropriate
service, and of its possessing that portion of good opinion which shall
entitle it to the respect of its antagonists, unless it live and act,
for a length of time, under a distinct conception of the kind and degree
of hostility to the executive government, which is fairly warrantable.
The Party must cease indiscriminately to court the discontented, and to
league itself with Men who are athirst for innovation, to a point which
leaves it doubtful, whether an Opposition, that is willing to co-operate
with such Agitators, loves as it ought to do, and becomingly venerates,
the happy and glorious Constitution, in Church and State, which we have
inherited from our Ancestors.
Till not a doubt can be left that this indispensible change has been
effected, Freeholders of Westmoreland! you will remain--but to _exhort_
is not my present business--I was retracing the history of the influence
of one Family, and have shewn that much of it depends upon that steady
support given by them to government, during a long and arduous struggle,
and upon the general course of their public conduct, which has secured
your approbation and won for them your confidence. Let us now candidly
ask what practical evil has arisen from this preponderance. Is it not
obvious, that it is justified by the causes that have produced it? As
far as it concerns the general well-being of the Kingdom, it would be
easy to shew, that if the democratic activities of the great Towns and
of the manufacturing Districts, were not counteracted by the sedentary
power of large estates, continued from generation to generation in
particular families, it would be scarcely possible that the Laws and
Constitution of the Country could sustain the shocks which they would be
subject to. And as to our own County, _that_ Man must be strangely
prejudiced, who does not perceive how desireable it is, that some
powerful Individual should he attached to it; who, by his influence with
Government, may facilitate the execution of any plan tending, with due
concern for _general_ welfare, to the especial benefit of Westmoreland.
The influence of the House of Lowther is, we acknowledge, great; but has
a case been made out, that this influence has been abused? The voice of
gratitude is not loud, out of delicacy to the Benefactor; but, if all
who know were at liberty to speak, to the measure of their wishes, the
services which have been rendered by the House of Lowther to
Westmoreland, its Natives, and Inhabitants, would be proclaimed in a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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