Government, by the grossest neglect of its paramount duty, has suffered them to remain, I have at all times felt, and spoken, as a man who abhors oppression, and earnestly wishes for every possible improvement in the spiritual and temporal condition of his fellow creatures. Having thus given the most direct contradiction to Mr. Shannon's assertions, I leave him to reconcile his conduct on this occasion with the principles by which our intercourse in society is usually supposed to be regulated, and his insinuations with the charity which as a minister of the Gospel he ought better to have understood and to have practised. KESWICK, 9th March, 1829. ON THE PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS OF SOCIETY. COLLOQUY I. THE INTRODUCTION. Posso aver certezza, e non paura, Orlando Innamorato, c. 5. st. 53. Ir was during that melancholy November, when the death of the Princess Charlotte had diffused throughout Great Britain a more general sorrow than had ever before been known in these kingdoms; I was sitting alone, at evening, in my library, and my thoughts had wandered, from the book before me, to the circumstances which made this national calamity be felt almost like a private affliction. While I was thus musing, the post-woman arrived. My letters |