Volume 59: Archdeacon Scott letters, 1822-1844: No. 007
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[Page 7]
interested individuals about bounties, preventive taxes & protecting laws will give way to a wider & more liberal policy - one of two things will & must shortly happen, an extended & liberal policy in Legislation or a despotic ignorance of kingcraft & Priestcraft[?]. I think it does not require much sagacity in these days to foresee which will triumph; the struggle will be harsh but not long, both parties are determined, one for retaining & the other for obtaining power but corruption has so cankered the vitals of the possessor that it has almost sapped the foundation - I do not apply this to our country in particular but generally. But we shall feel it less than others because we are more enlightened & the "honestum" [latin for "right"] is more in us. For my own part I am glad to be alone, to think & look on, for I freely confess that my nature is too irritable to hear with patience or to agree with common propriety against the consummate ignorance & wickedness now afloat & the egregious nonsense offered by unread & unthinking men. The House of Commons is a practical proof of this if we wanted no other - & if I do not write up over my door as you say Gil Blas did Inverse posterum [latin for "the future"]! I can with much (selfish) satisfaction inscribe what Horace wished " Hoc erat in votis" [latin for "This was petitioned"]. But you have only to