8193. STUART (House of), Evil influence.—
It is not in the history of modern
England or among the advocates of the principles
or practices of her government, that the
friend of freedom, or of political morality, is to
seek instruction. There has, indeed, been a
period, during which both were to be found,
not in her government, but in the band of
worthies who so boldly and ably reclaimed the rights of the people, and wrested from their
government theoretic acknowledgments of
them. This period began with the Stuarts,
and continued but one reign after them. Since
that, the vital principle of the English constitution
is corruption, its practices the natural
results of that principle, and their consequences
a pampered aristocracy, annihilation of the
substantial middle class, a degraded populace,
oppressive taxes, general pauperism, and national
bankruptcy.—
To John F. Watson. Washington ed. vi, 346.
(M.
1814)
