Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/167

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Civil Liberty, &c.
163

to suppose, that their mutual Attachments of mistaken Honour or private Affection, will upon the Whole be more moderate and less culpable. Yet still, while these false Attachments are prevalent among the Great, the People must in some Degree catch the Infection, from the various Relations which they bear to their Superiors. Hence untractable Prejudices arise, and are maintained: While Measures are less regarded, than the Party which adopts them.

But besides This, another Circumstance ariseth, which inevitably tends to disunite, and distract the Honest among the People; even when their personal Attachments are conquered by their Integrity. Their Dispersion in the Country hath already been remarked, as a Circumstance worthy of Attention. Here it meets us again, as a Cause of their frequent Disunion. We have seen how naturally (under the present State of Things) every factious Clamour that riseth in the Capital, is transmitted with aggravated Circumstances, through the