In return for these losses what good is to acrue to the people?  Will you hazard these evils without a fair and reasonable expectation of some solid benefits?  Is it then unreasonable to enquire what good is to be obtained?  Do the characters of these men elevate your hopes?  You know many of them in private life—­do they there abound in good works?  Shall they be heard and regarded when they demand of you to displace your faithful and approved rulers, and commit to them your all?  Modest men will wait your notice and rise at your request.  Shall the impudent, banish them from your affections and usurp their places in your hearts?

Let it again be asked what good will result to Connecticut by a new Constitution, by the prevalence of revolutionary principles?  France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy and Holland, have seen revolution after revolution, one new Constitution after another, and liberty has a thousand times been immovably established.  Altars have been demolished —­Temples polluted, Kings, Queens, Nobles and Priests murdered in the cause of liberty—­millions have perished—­religion banished, and the worship of God prohibited—­projectors have exhausted their ingenuity —­the treasures of wealth have been wasted and the peace of the world sacrificed!  What is the result?  An accumulation of misery which baffles all description.  Not an individual is more happy or more virtuous.  Not a nation more prosperous—­not a tittle added to human felicity.  Ye reformers, look at France—­behold the crimes which have risen up to demand the vengeance of God—­see the woes which you have brought on the race of man, and tremble lest your works should follow you?

If this picture is too glaring, look at our sister states in which revolutions have been effected, and shew us the benefit.  A noisy or seditious individual has obtained a lucrative office—­an ambitious leader is in the char of state satiating his pride, or like Abraham Bishop gratifying his passion for ignoble pelf, upon his thousands.—­He drives his carriage by his industrious neighbor who has toiled for him at an election, cracks his whip, and laughs at the folly of his dupe, and will laugh till he may need his services again, and then he will again cringe and bow and flatter and gull.  But is the mechanic, the farmer, the merchant profited?  Is society enriched, or the public good promoted?

In this view of the subject we will briefly ask, in the third place, is it proper to make the proposed changes—­to adopt these projects?  If no benefits will result—­if much evil will probably ensue—­the course of duty and interest is plain.  Aware, however, that it may be said many of the dangers are imaginary, and are founded upon the supposition that we shall act with as little discretion and prudence as the people of other countries, it is important to observe that revolutions are the same, in nature in every nation.  Those who speak of a new Constitution, and of thorough reforms, should