Here then, my lord, you stood pledged to your country. What were we not
to expect from the first patriot of modern story? Your lordship will
readily imagine that our expectations were boundless and indefinite.
"Glorious and immortal man!" we cried, "go on in this untrodden path. We
will no longer look with drooping and cheerless anxiety upon the
misfortunes of Britain, we have a resource for them all. The patriot of
Stowe is capable of every thing. He does not resemble the vulgar herd of
mortals, he does not form his conduct upon precedent, nor defend it by
example. Virtue of the first impression was never yet separated from
genius. We will trust then in the expedients of his inexhaustible mind.
We will look up to him as our assured deliverer.--We are well acquainted
with the wealth of the proprietor of Stowe. Thanks, eternal thanks to
heaven, who has bestowed it with so liberal a hand! We consider it as a
deposit for the public good. We count his acres, and we calculate his
income, for we know that it is, in the best sense of the word, our own."
My lord, these are the prejudices, which Englishmen have formed in your
favour. They cannot refuse to trust a man, descended from so illustrious
progenitors. They cannot suspect any thing dark and dishonourable in the
generous donor of 2700_l_.
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