7667. ROGUES, Proportion of.—
I do not
believe with the Rochefoucaulds and Mon
taignes, that fourteen out of fifteen men are
rogues; I believe a great abatement from that
proportion may be made in favor of general
honesty. But I have always found that rogues
would be uppermost, and I do not know that
the proportion is too strong for the higher
orders, and for those who, rising above the
swinish multitude, always contrive to nestle
themselves into the places of power and profit.
These rogues set out with stealing the people's
good opinion, and then steal from them
the right of withdrawing it, by contriving laws
and associations against the power of the people
themselves.—
To Mann Page. Washington ed. iv, 119.
Ford ed., vii, 24.
(M.
1795)
