To Portugal alone she has steadily adhered, because, by her
Methuin treaty, she had made it a colony, and one of the most valuable
to her. It may be asked, what, in the nature of her government, unfits
England for the observation of moral duties? In the first place, her
King is a cipher; his only function being to name the oligarchy which is
to govern her. The parliament is, by corruption, the mere instrument
of the will of the administration. The real power and property in the
government is in the great aristocratical families of the nation. The
nest of office being too small for all of them to cuddle into at once,
the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the other out. For this
purpose they are divided into two parties, the Ins and the Outs,
so equal in weight, that a small matter turns the balance. To keep
themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practised,
every artifice used, which may flatter the pride, the passions, or power
of the nation. Justice, honor, faith, must yield to the necessity of
keeping themselves in place. The question, whether a measure is moral,
is never asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their
merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other
effect which may strengthen them in their places. As to engagements,
however positive, entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why, they
were their enemies; they did every thing which was wrong; and to reverse
every thing they did, must, therefore, be right.
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