This surely has
no more to do with fear than a loose identity of name; it is in fact
prudence of the highest order; the deliberate reflection of a wise
man, who does not like what he is going to do, but likes still less
the consequences of not doing it, and who of two evils chooses the
least.
"There are some men much afraid of what is to happen; my lively hope
of good is, I confess, mingled with very little apprehension; but of
one thing I must be candid enough to say that I am much afraid, and
that is of the opinion now increasing, that the people are become
indifferent to reform; and of that opinion I am afraid, because I
believe in an evil hour it may lead some misguided members of the
Upper House of Parliament to vote against the bill. As for the opinion
itself, I hold it in the utmost contempt. The people are waiting in
virtuous patience for the completion of the bill, because they know it
is in the hands of men who do not mean to deceive them. I do not
believe they have given up one atom of reform--I do not believe that a
great people were ever before so firmly bent upon any one measure. I
put it to any man of common sense, whether he believes it possible,
after the King and Parliament have acted as they have done, that the
people will ever be content with much less than the present bill
contains.
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