[clx. 363]

1822 July 29

Constitut. Code Rationale

Securities

5 Moral Counterforce

Public Opinion Tribunal

Evidence etc

Under a government the conduct of which is in all other respects ever so good, let but this one restraint have place, there needs but one supposition to render it desirable in the eyes of a true lover of mankind desirable, that at the risk of the worst that can ensue that government should with all possible speed be put down: this supposotion is - that by the government that succeeded it the like restraint would not be imposed. One instance there is in which this supposition stands verified: the government of the Anglo-American United States: for in that country alone has self-victory in this the most difficult of all its shapes been as yet displayed.