The omnipotence of their effect
cannot be better proved, than in this country particularly, where,
notwithstanding the finest soil upon earth, the finest climate under
heaven, and a people of the most benevolent, the most gay and amiable
character of which the human form is susceptible; where such a people, I
say, surrounded by so many blessings from nature, are loaded with misery
by kings, nobles, and priests, and by them alone. Preach, my dear Sir,
a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating
the common people. Let our countrymen know, that the people alone can
protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for
this purpose, is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid
to kings, priests, and nobles, who will rise up among us if we leave the
people in ignorance. The people of England, I think, are less oppressed
than here. But it needs but half an eye to see, when among them, that
the foundation is laid in their dispositions for the establishment of
a despotism. Nobility, wealth, and pomp are the objects of their
admiration.
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