Historical Sketches of Statesmen who Flourished in the Time of George III.

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C. Knight & Company, 1839 - Great Britain - 404 pages

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Page 39 - If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms — never — never — never.
Page 35 - I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest.
Page 38 - To conclude, my lords, if the ministers thus persevere in misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say, that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown ; but I will affirm, that they will make the crown not worth his wearing. I will not say that the king is betrayed ; but I will pronounce, that the kingdom is undone.
Page 41 - My Lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more; but my feelings and indignation were too strong- to have said less. I could not have slept this night in my bed, nor reposed my head on my pillow, without giving this vent to my eternal abhorrence of such preposterous and enormous principles.
Page 403 - An English Whig, who asserts the reality of the popish plot, an Irish Catholic, who denies the massacre in 1641, and a Scotch Jacobite, who maintains the innocence of Queen Mary, must be considered as men beyond the reach of argument or reason, and must be left to their prejudices.
Page 42 - The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail ; its roof may shake ; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England cannot enter— all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement...
Page 38 - I say we must necessarily undo these violent oppressive acts; they must be repealed — you will repeal them; I pledge myself for it, that you will in the end repeal them ; I stake my reputation on it — I will consent to be taken for an idiot, if they are not finally, repealed.
Page 40 - I call upon the honour of your lordships to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country to vindicate the national character.
Page 146 - A species of men to whom a state of order would become a sentence of obscurity, are nourished into a dangerous magnitude by the heat of intestine disturbances ; and it is no wonder that, by a sort of sinister piety, they cherish, in their turn, the disorders which are the parents of all their consequence.
Page 160 - The king is the representative of the people ; so are the lords ; so are the judges. They all are trustees for the people, as well as the commons ; because no power is given for the sole sake of the holder ; and although government certainly is an institution of divine authority, yet its forms, and the persons who administer it, all originate from the people.

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