Let. 8.
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pamphlets, will help you to corne at truth. Readthem with suspicion, my lord, for they deserveto be suspected: pay no regard to the epithetsgiven, nor to the judgments paffed: neglect aildéclamation, weigh the reasoning, and advert tofact. With such précautions, even Burnii’shistory m ay be of fome use. In a Word, yourlordslnp will want no help of mine to difcovçr,by what progression the whole constitution of ourcountry, and even the character of our nation,bas been altered: nor how much a vvorfe use, ina national fenfe, though a better in the fenfe ofparty-politics, the m en called Whigs hâve madeof long wars and ne w fystems of revenue, sincethe révolution ; than the mën called Tories made,before it, of long peace, and stale prérogative.When you look back three or four générationsago, you will see that the Engliíh were a plain,perhaps a rough, but a good-natured hofpitablepeople, jealotis of their liberties, and able as wellas ready to defend them, with their longues, theirpens and their fwords. The restoration began toturn hofpitalíty into luxury, pleafure into debauch,and country-peers and country-commoners intocourtiers and men of mode. But whilst our luxurywas young, is was little more than elegance : thedebauch of that âge was enlivened with wit, andvarnilhed over with gallantry. The courtiers andthe men of mode knew what the constitution was,refpected it, and often asserted it. Arts and sciencesflourislied, and if we grew more trivial, we werenot become either grofsly ignorant, or openly