The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Volume 06: Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent PersonsJohnson, Samuel
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The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Volume 06: Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons
Johnson, Samuel
English essays -- 18th century
When it is said, that the whole town of Boston is distressed for a
misdemeanor of a few, we wonder at their shamelessness; for we know that
the town of Boston and all the associated provinces, are now in
rebellion to defend or justify the criminals.
If frauds in the imposts of Boston are tried by commission without a
jury, they are tried here in the same mode; and why should the
Bostonians expect from us more tenderness for them than for ourselves?
If they are condemned unheard, it is because there is no need of a
trial. The crime is manifest and notorious. All trial is the
investigation of something doubtful. An Italian philosopher observes,
that no man desires to hear what he has already seen.
If their assemblies have been suddenly dissolved, what was the reason?
Their deliberations were indecent, and their intentions seditious. The
power of dissolution is granted and reserved for such times of
turbulence. Their best friends have been lately soliciting the king to
dissolve his parliament; to do what they so loudly complain of
suffering.
That the same vengeance involves the innocent and guilty, is an evil to
be lamented; but human caution cannot prevent it, nor human power always
redress it. 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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