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been had of it, cannot fail to be well received;—and his proposition carried into full effect; though to do so, it should cause a greater change, in our civil code, than has ever yet happened, in any country even in this age of revolutions.
As yet no condition of things has ever existed, in which abuses have not sprung up and flourished. There have been those, who have profitted by them; and they have always opposed the extirpation of the evil upon which they fattened. One of their modes, of resisting any change which would go to deprive them of their dishonest nutriment, has ever been to represent that the evil was inevitable; that it was impossible to eradicate it; and that therefore it was best to submit to it, without complaint or repining. And too often has it been attended with success. The friends of pure and virtuous principles, in all ages, have, too often, been alarmed into an opinion, that they could not concentrate the co-operation of men of their own description sufficient to resist the tor- rent of corruption, and have yielded to despair: while those who flourished in the destruction of those principles, which alone can promote the public welfare, have triumphed over them. But this state of things is doomed, soon to terminate its existence. The printing-press, together, with the population of a whole State or Empire, being instructed, and rendered capable of reading;—together, also, with the possession,
