Page:Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness and faction.djvu/134

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Thoughts on

and oppressive: And they would boast, that it was branded by the Voice of "the People."

If daily or periodical Papers of Intelligence were circulated from the Capital through the Nation, and These were open to the Admission of every Thing which private Pique, Passion, or Interest, might suggest; they would of Course become the general Repositories of popular Slander: And as Malice is always more eager to accuse, than injured Innocence to defend, these Slanders would often seem to preponderate in the public Ear: And hence, would be boasted by Those who raised them, as the prevailing Voice of "the People."

Thus, hatched by Licentiousness, Faction would attain to its enormous Growth: The unprincipled among the Great would form the Head, the unprincipled among the Populace would form the Body, of this rapacious Monster.