All those instances to be found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted Nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the instruction of their youth.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 311.

  We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.

Thomas B Macaulay (1800-1859): On Moore's Life of Lord Byron. 1830.

  Sir, he [Bolingbroke] was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger at his death.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. i. 1754.