Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/119

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Civil Liberty, &c.
115

the last Age, through the Influence of false Principles, pre-established or infused, they had well-nigh shaken the Foundations of Liberty:[1] In the present, these mistaken Principles being no more, They are now "the firmest Bulwark of Britain's Freedom."


SECT.XIV.

Of the most effectual Means of detecting Licentiousness and Faction.

WHERE Faction is founded on false Principles, it is easily detected, because it is generally avowed. It implies no moral Depravity, but only an Error of the Mind: And he who holds this Error, is not naturally ashamed of it, because he holds it as a Truth.

But where Faction is founded on Licentiousness and Want of Principle, it

  1. See above, p. 91.