Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/64

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¬people at large, though wise to a proverb, should be the dupes of so artful a contrivance. — They had been long accustomed to regard every act of the executive power with the most jealous apprehension, and to consider the voice of their representatives who had never betrayed them as the Law and the Gospel. — When they saw, therefore, the crown upon this momentous oc- casion so humbly deferring to the wisdom, as it was called, of the national council; when its ministers were entirely behind the curtain, and every step that was taken was by the authority of their own servants, they threw up their caps into the air, and poured in addresses from every part of the island, offering their lives and for- tunes in support of the glorious contest ; gifts which unhappily no opportunity was left them to recal, the personal supporters of the war being knocked on the head, and the pockets of the rest completely emptied. — When the illusion was at length dissolved by disappointment and defeat, an universal hue and cry was raised against the whole system, set on foot by its ¬loudest ¬