An Essay on the History of the English Government and Constitution: From the Reign of Henry VII. to the Present TimeLongman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1823 - 489 pages |
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abuses arbitrary authority bill bill of attainder boroughs cause CHAP Charles Charles II church civil civil list constitution corruption court Cromwell crown danger despotism Elizabeth endeavoured England English established Europe evil execution executive government expence favour force France freedom French French Revolution give granted Henry VIII House of Commons House of Lords house of Tudor impeachment imprisonment influence interest James judges jury justice King King's kingdom labour land liberty Lord Lord Chatham maintain means ment military mind minister monarchy national debt nature never offence opinion Parlia Parliament party peace perhaps persons political popular prerogative present principles privilege punishment Queen question reason reform remedy respect Revolution Roman Rome sion sovereign speech spirit standing army statesman taxes thing throne tion tonnage and poundage Tory villein villenage vote Walpole wealth Whigs whole
Popular passages
Page 120 - Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks : Methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam...
Page 312 - All this is true if time stood still ; which contrariwise moveth so round, that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation ; and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new.
Page 106 - And whereas the Laws of England are the birthright of the people thereof, and all the Kings and Queens, who shall ascend the Throne of this realm, ought to administer the Government of the same according to the said laws, and all their officers and ministers ought to serve them respectively according to the same...
Page 444 - Ye cannot make us now less capable, less knowing, less eagerly pursuing of the truth, unless ye first make yourselves, that made us so, less the lovers, less the founders of our true liberty. We can grow ignorant again, brutish, formal, and slavish, as ye found us; but you then must first become that which ye cannot be, oppressive, arbitrary and tyrannous, as they were from whom ye have freed us.
Page 231 - The discretion of a judge is the law of tyrants: it is always unknown ; it is different in different men; it is casual, and depends upon constitution, temper, and passion. In the best, it is oftentimes caprice ; in the worst, it is every vice, folly, and passion to which human nature is liable.
Page 168 - Party is a body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed.
Page 132 - Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certain Laws...
Page 444 - If it be desired to know the immediate cause of all this free writing and free speaking, there cannot be assigned a truer than your own mild and free and humane government. It is the liberty, Lords and Commons, which your...
Page 241 - As it is in the body, so it is in the mind ; practice makes it what it is ; and most even of those excellencies which are looked on as natural endowments, will be found, when examined into more narrowly, to be the product of exercise, and to be raised to that pitch only by repeated actions.
Page 60 - That as to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, ... so is it sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power.