The Misscellaneous [sic] Works of the Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke: I. A letter to Sir William Windham, II. Reflections on the present state of the nation, III. Letters on the spirit of patriotism, IV. On the idea of a patriot king, V. On the state of parties at the accession of King George the First

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A. Donaldson and sold at his shops in London and Edinburgh, 1768
 

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Page 237 - The good of the people is the ultimate and true end of government. Governors are, therefore, appointed for this end, and the civil constitution which appoints them, and invests them with their power, is determined to do so by that law of nature and reason, which has determined the end of government, and which admits this form of government as the proper mean of arriving at it.
Page 37 - He talked to me," says his lordship, " like a man who expected every moment to set out for England or Scotland, but who did not very well know for which...
Page 186 - It is become so easy, by the present form of our government, that corruption alone could not destroy us. We must want spirit, as well as virtue, to perish. Even able knaves would preserve liberty in such circumstances as ours, and highwaymen would scorn to receive the wages, and do the drudgery of pick-pockets. But all is little, and low, and mean among us! Far from having the virtues, we have not even the vices, of great men.
Page 294 - ... grace, this propriety of manners to character, is so essential to princes in particular, that whenever it is neglected their virtues lose a great degree of lustre, and their defects acquire much aggravation. Nay more; by neglecting this decency and this grace, and for want of a sufficient regard to appearances, even their virtues may betray them into failings, their failings into vices, and their vices into habits unworthy of princes and unworthy of men.
Page 304 - Those who live to see such happy days, and to act in so glorious a scene, will perhaps call to mind, with some tenderness of sentiment, when he is no more, a man who contributed his mite to carry on so good a work, and who desired life for nothing so much, as to see a king of Great Britain the most popular man in his country, and a Patriot King at the head of a united people.
Page 6 - ... alone. It would not have been hard to have forced the Earl of Oxford to use me better. His good intentions began to be very much doubted of: the truth is, no opinion of his...
Page 42 - Care and hope sat on every busy Irish face. Those who could write and read had letters to show; and those who had not arrived to this pitch of erudition had their secrets to whisper. No sex was excluded from this Ministry. Fanny Oglethorpe, whom you must have seen in England, kept her corner in it, and Olive Trant was the great wheel of our machine.
Page 218 - As well might we say that a ship is built and loaded and manned for the sake of any particular pilot, instead of acknowledging that the pilot is made for the sake of the ship, her lading, and her crew, who are always the owners in the political vessel ; as to say that kingdoms were instituted for kings, not kings for kingdoms.
Page 239 - ... recognized in it, that right cannot be forfeited, nor that throne become vacant, as long as any heir of the family remains. How much more...
Page 14 - ... means which frequently seem to carry them from it. But as the work advances, the conduct of him who leads it on with real abilities clears up, the appearing inconsistencies are reconciled, and when it is once consummated, the whole shows itself so uniform, so plain, and so natural, that every dabbler in politics will be apt to think he could have done the same.

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