The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.Wordsworth, William
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The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts.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
Much of my former Address, originated in deference to that sense of
right, which is inseparable from the minds of enlightened Patriots.
Passing from local considerations, I wrote under a belief that, whatever
personal or family leanings might prevail among you, you would be moved
by a wish to see the supporters of his Majesty's Ministers and their
opponents--possessed, relatively to each other, of that degree of
strength which might render both parties, in their several capacities,
most serviceable to the State. I noticed, that this just proportion of
strength no longer remained; and shewed, that the Opposition had caused
it to be destroyed by holding, from the beginning of the French
Revolution, such a course as introduced in Parliament, discord among
themselves; deprived them, in that House and elsewhere, of the respect
which from their Adversaries they had been accustomed to command; turned
indifferent persons into enemies; and alienated, throughout the Island,
the affections of thousands who had been proud to unite with them. This
weakness and degradation, deplored by all true Friends of the
Commonweal, was sufficiently accounted for, without even adverting to
the fact that--when the disasters of the war had induced the Country to
forgive, and, in some degree, to forget, the alarming attachment of that
Party to French theories: and power, heightened by the popularity of
hope and expectation, was thrown into their hands--they disgusted even
bigotted adherents, by the rapacious use they made of that
power;--stooping to so many offensive compromises, and committing so
many faults in every department, that, a Government of Talents, if such
be the fruits of talent, was proved to be the most mischievous sort of
government which England had ever been troubled with. So that, whether
in or out of place, an evil genius seemed to attend them!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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