第2章 Letter I(2)

These associations are broken;these distinct sets of ideas are shuffled out of their order;new combinations force themselves upon us;and it would actually be as absurd to impute to the Tories the principles,which were laid to their charge formerly,as it would be to ascribe to the projector and his faction the name of Whigs,whilst they daily forfeit that character by their actions.The bulk of both parties are really united;united on principles of liberty,in opposition to an obscure remnant of one party,who disown those principles,and a mercenary detachment from the other,who betray them.

How this change for the better comes to have been wrought in an age,when most things have changed for the worse;and since it hath been wrought,why the old distinctions are kept up in some measure,will I think be accounted for in treating this subject farther.At present,what shall we say to these who publicly speak of this national union as impracticable and chimerical,yet privately act against it,with all their might,as a practicable thing,and a real evil to them?If it be as complete and as well cemented,as Iimagine it is,and as every honest Briton wishes it may be;nay,if there be nothing more than a strong tendency on all sides towards it,which no man of the least observation and candour will deny;it is surely the duty of every one,who desires the prosperity of his country,to seize the opportunity to cultivate and improve it.If men are to be known by their works,the works of those,who oppose this union,denote them sufficiently.Wicked and unhappy men!who seek their private safety,in opposing public good.Weak and silly men!who vainly imagine that they shall pass for the nation,and the nation for a faction;that they shall be judged in the right,and the whole body of the people in the wrong --On whom would they impose?How long do they imagine that so unequal a contest can last?

There is no complaint which hath been more constantly in the mouths,no grief hath lain more heavily at the hearts of all good men,than those about our national divisions;about the spirit of party,which inspires animosity and breeds rancour;which hath so often destroyed our inward peace,weakened our national strength,and sullied our glory abroad.It is time therefore that all,who desire to be esteemed good men,and to procure the peace,the strength and the glory of their country by the only means,by which they can be procured effectually,should join their efforts to heal our national divisions,and to change the narrow spirit of party into a diffusive spirit of public benevolence.

That we may be more encouraged to do so,it will be of use perhaps to consider,in some particulars,what advances are already made towards that national union,without which no national good can be expected in such circumstances as ours.

Let us begin with the present temper of the members of the Church of England towards the Dissenters.Those laws,by which the latter were debarred from serving God after their own way,have not been these many years a terror to them.Those which were designed to hinder the propagation of their principles,and those which shut the door of all public preferment,even to such amongst them as conformed occasionally,are repealed.Far from desiring to impose any new hardships upon them,even those who have been reputed their enemies,and who have acted as such on several occasions,acknowledge their error.

Experience hath removed prejudice.They see that indulgence hath done what severity never could;and from the frankness of these,if I was a Dissenter,I should sooner entertain hopes of future favour,than from the double dealing of those who lean on the Dissenters when they are out of power,and who esteem them a load upon them when they are in it.We are now in the true and only road,which can possibly lead to a perfect reconciliation among Protestants;to the abolition of all their differences;or to terms of difference so little essential,as to deserve none of distinction.These happy ends must be obtained by mutual good will.They never can be obtained by force.It is true,indeed,that force,which is the effect of a majority and superior power,may support a rivalship and erect even counter establishments.But then,by the same means,our ancient disputes will be revived;the Church will be thought really in danger;and religious feuds,which have been so long and so beneficially kept down,will once more disturb the peace of the state.It is a certain truth,that our religious and civil contests have mutually,and almost alternately,raised and fomented each other.Churchmen and Dissenters have sometimes differed,and sometimes thought,or been made to think,that they differed,at least,as much about civil as religious matters.There can be therefore no way so effectual to compose their differences on the latter,as to improve the growing union between them on the former.'Idem sentire de republica',to think alike about political affairs,hath been esteemed necessary to constitute and maintain private friendships.It is obviously more essential in public friendships.

Bodies of men in the same society can never unite,unless they unite on this principle;and if they once unite on this principle,they will unite on all others,or they will readily and cheerfully make one another easy about them.

--Let me speak plainly.It becomes a man to do so,who means honestly.In our political divisions of Whig and Tory,the Dissenters have adhered to the former,and they want no apology for doing so.They joined themselves to those with whom they agreed,and stood in opposition to those with whom they differed in principles of government.There could be no objection brought against them on this account.They certainly did not follow power.They did not act like a sect,or a faction,who had,and pursued,an interest distinct from the interest of the whole.Their non-conformity hath nothing to do here.