Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1817-10-01
ALEXANDRIA:
UED.SESR.lT. OCTOBER l. 1917.

Certain societies and religious sects,
iihe Quakers for ins ance) provide verts'
successfully for the maintenance OF their
purit, BY expelling from :hem all incorrl'
cable sinners and malefactor.. That K
celent expedient might be carried with
advantage into the regulations oil Other
bodies who never think OF it, ard poss-
bly, never think of publication as seces-
sary, because purity is in the nature oil
thinsxitseIf presupposed. The principle
that kings CAN DO NO WRONG, though III
its place a more valuable political device
than many will allow, may possibly have
the effect, in some cases Of hoodwink-
Ing their majesties, OF inducing them TO
consider as a literal truth that which Pc.
li,icai wisdom established only as salu-
tary fiction, and Of filling them with the
persuasion that by virtue OF the mere
name of king, the purity OF the man is
put beyond the reach OF doubt or acct
dent. II is rather unfortunate that at
the very time when, more than ever, the
correctness of that principle, either as
moral truth or polite fiction, is called
in question, and it has. become the bon
ton Of tie political world to think kings
no better than other men, the character
of that excelled office, should be taInish-
cd, and that the efforts Of such yirtHnus
mel a. Alexander and Louis to COME:
ustre on it by their virtues, should b.
defeated by the unexampled baseness
and folly of stupid anu malignant BIZ
got. who seems, too, as rega' dless of the
qualities, now indlspensably necessary to
support a king and steer him clear oil
contempt and adherence, as any oil the
WOIsL ROlldu eu'pelois'
Would it not then be worth the cOnsi-
Iteration of the majority OF the kings ct
Europe, or can there be imagined pro-
iect more truly wise, or more worthy OF
the member, of the Holly AliaRce-one
more truly legitimate, or more suited to
the character Of kings, as kings ough t to
be, than, profting Tor once BY the exam
pie OF their interiors, to adnpt the Puri-
flying plan Of the Quakers, and make it a
rule to expei from their body any mem
Der Of it whose vices and iollies reflect
upon it shame and disgrace. 1t is not
possible that any sovereign in Europe
can view sithout sceru and adherence
the conduct Of Ferdinand Why do
they not, then, as in the case OF Bona
parte they did, inform him at once that
he must cease to disgrace the kingiy Of
fee, and if he disebeys, coerce him-un-
King him-shave his head send him into
a convent, and place upon the throne Of
Spain, some one or other that will not
be curse to that unhappy patton, and
sore as he Is, to every one, and every
thug he touches.
1t is truth-a deplorable and dis
graceful one to Our species-but stl'i a
truth, that to be supremely, independent
ly. and pertiDaciOusly base AID mische-
yous is the way to extort from the world
the privilege Of continuing to be so, un'
resisted and unque,tioned. 1t would
seem as If ferdinand felt this, and on
the stength Of it committed acts OF
wrong, which no othcr king ouId dare
10 think of:-as if. like the fools and
dwa,fs which it vas once the fashion for
great men TO keep about them, be thought
himself emitted by the courtesy Of his
masters, and IN virtue Of his imbeCility
and litt.en~.s, to commit every trespass
ard .ni,cnief thar insanity or malice may
suggest to his diseased Imagination. II,
like Domitian or iiberus, or Caligula
Nero or Comaodus, he chooses to crush
his subjects, to destroy the foolish brave
men who restored him, and TO cut OF Dy
the cruel execution OF burning alive some
Of the best men in his dominions, still