evangelical Christianity received a new impulse. Mind was opened and
enlarged; the people thought for themselves, and sighed for knowledge and
a better faith.

Revolution is going on silently, from year to year, in England. The
nobility yield by slow, almost imperceptible degrees, to the demands of
the people. It is by this process that the Government avoids the shocks
which startle Austria, France and Italy.

Such is the variety of honest opinion among men on all subjects; so
different are the degrees of information, and the opportunities of judging
with regard to the best measures of government; such a diversity exists in
the interests and abilities of a people,--that they may be good citizens
without being satisfied altogether with the constitution, or with those
who administer its laws. There will be different political parties. It is
the glory of a government that the people are allowed to think and vote as
they please, and to express their honest opinions. Perhaps with us,
expression is too free, especially in regard to public men and measures.
We may have diverse views and convictions, and yet feel and act loyally.
But men who endeavor by any influence or means to lessen the loyalty of
others, to alienate the love of the people from the government, and who
signify their own aversion, not by condemning a single statute and seeking
its lawful repeal, but by heaping abuse on the constitution and on those
who are chosen to administer the laws, by avowing their hostility to the
government and its policy, or their purpose to resist and war against
it,--are in a posture of rebellion. Those who, being in office, commanding
the arms and other property of the government, cause them to be removed so
as to weaken its power and strengthen those in actual rebellion, or who
are threatening the same; those who aid and comfort a population or
soldiery who are in a state of actual resistance, and finally, those who