It is the
spirit of the English Constitution which, infused through the mighty mass,
pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the Empire, even
down to the minutest member.
Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us here in England? Do you
imagine, then, that it is the Land Tax Act which raises your revenue? that it is
the annual vote in the Committee of Supply which gives you your army? or that it
is the Mutiny Bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? No! surely no!
It is the love of the people; it is their attachment to their government, from
the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which
gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience
without which your army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten
timber.
All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the profane herd
[Footnote: 75] of those vulgar and mechanical politicians who have no place
among us; a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what is gross and
material, and who, therefore, far from being qualified to be directors of the
great movement of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine.
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