Nothing, my lords, is more necessary to the legislature than the
affection and esteem of the people; all government consists in the
authority of the _few_ over the _many_, and authority, therefore, can be
founded only on opinion, and must always fall to the ground, when that
which supports it is taken away.
For this reason, my lords, it is worthy of this most august and awful
assembly, to endeavour to convince the people of our solicitude for
their happiness, and our compassion for their sufferings; lest we should
seem elevated by the casual advantages of birth and fortune above regard
to the lower classes of mankind; lest we should seem exalted above
others only to neglect them, and invested with power only to exert it in
acts of wanton oppression; lest high rank should in time produce hatred
rather than reverence, and superiority of fortune only tempt rapine and
excite rebellion.
The bill now under our consideration, my lords, cannot be rejected
without danger of exasperating the nation, without affording to the
discontented and malevolent an opportunity of representing this house as
regardless of the publick miseries, and deaf to the cries of our
fellow-subjects languishing in captivity, and mourning in poverty.
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