Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness, and faction/Section 16
SECT.XVI.
Of the first characteristic Mark of Licentiousness and Faction.
THOUGH we have seen, that the Patrons of Faction will attempt to mix and confound themselves with the Friends of Liberty; yet, in Spite of their Pretences, they will be detected by the following characteristic Marks, which will stand in clear Opposition to Those of Freedom.
These, like the former, may seem sufficiently decisive, even when separately viewed: But to do Justice to this Argument, it will in the same Manner be necessary to consider and weigh them in Union: Because, as they in Part depend on each other, they will illustrate each other, and at once receive and give additional Confirmation.
1. "The Leaders of Faction (being naturally of the higher Ranks[1]) would aim to establish an aristocratic Power; and inslave both Prince and People to their own Avarice and Ambition."
Thus, if any Set of Men had in former Times been in Power; and while in Power, had oppressed embarrassed Majesty; had threatened the Prince with a general Resignation; had thus intimidated him to their own Purposes; had by these Means usurped the legal Prerogatives of the Crown; and apply'd them rather to the Support of their own Influence, than to the public Welfare:—
If the legal Privileges of the People had fared no better in their Hands:—If These, too, had been swallowed up, in the great Gulph of aristocratic Power:—If the Members of the lower House, while they seemed to be the free Representatives of the People, had been in Truth, a great Part of them, no more than the commissioned Deputies of their respective Chiefs, whose Sentiments they declared, and whose Interests they pursued:—
If such a Set of Men, as soon as they had lost their Influence, should now rail at the Privileges of the Crown, as the Engines of Despotism, though they had been formerly allowed by the Wisdom of the State, as the occasional Securities of Freedom:—
If they should now absurdly magnify and exalt the Privileges of the lower House, beyond the Limits prescribed by a free Constitution:—If their Pretence should be the Vindication of the People's Rights; while their real Motive was "the Restoration of their own exorbitant Power, founded on an expected Majority of their own Dependents:"—
If this Conduct was pursued by any Set of Men, they would stand convicted of a clear Mark of Licentiousness and Faction.
Such would be their main End or Purpose: And this End would be pursued by suitable Means: These Means, considered in Union, would still farther confirm and illustrate the End they aimed at: And these Means would be such as follow.
- ↑ See above, Sect. xiii.