Modes of Political Action

There are many able and patriotic members in the House of Commons -- Sir Robert Inglis, Sir Robert Peel, and some others. But I grieve that they never have the courage or the wisdom -- I know not in which the failure is -- to take their stand upon duty, and to appeal to all men as men, -- to the Good and the True, which exist for _all_, and of which _all_ have an apprehension. They always set to work -- especially, his great eminence considered, Sir Robert Peel -- by addressing themselves to individual interests; the measure will be injurious to the linen-drapers, or to the bricklayers; or this clause will bear hard on bobbin-net or poplins, and so forth. Whereas their adversaries -- the demagogues -- always work on the opposite principle: they always appeal to men as men; and, as you know, the most terrible convulsions in society have been wrought by such phrases as _Rights of Man_, _Sovereignty of the People_, _&c_., which no one understands, which apply to no one in particular, but to all in general.[1]

The devil works precisely in the same way. He is a very clever fellow; I have no acquaintance with him, but I respect his evident talents. Consistent truth and goodness will assuredly in the end overcome every thing; but inconsistent good can never be a match for consistent evil. Alas! I look in vain for some wise and vigorous man to sound the word Duty in the ears of this generation.