Were all men, like the noble lord whom I am now attempting to answer,
vigilant to discover, sagacious to distinguish, and industrious to
prosecute the interest of the publick, I should be very far from
proposing that they should be constrained by rules, or required to
follow any guide but their own reason; I should resign my own
prosperity, and that of my country, implicitly into their hands, and
rest in full security that nothing would be omitted that human wisdom
could dictate for our advantage.
I am not persuading your lordships to lay restraints upon virtue and
prudence, but to consider how seldom virtue and authority are found
together, how often prudence degenerates into selfishness, and all
generous regard for the publick is contracted into narrow views of
private interest. I am endeavouring to show, that since laws must be
equally obligatory to all, it is the interest of the few good men to
submit to restraints, which, though they may sometimes obstruct the
influence of their virtue, will abundantly recompense them, by securing
them from the mischiefs that wickedness, reigning almost without limits,
and operating without opposition, might bring upon them.
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