Historical Sketches of Statesmen who Flourished in the Time of George III, Volume 1

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C. Knight, 1839 - France - 417 pages

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Page 147 - It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision.
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 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 forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement...
Page 35 - In such a cause, your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like the strong man. She would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitution along with her.
Page 399 - 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 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 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 118 - Roman code, the law of nations, and the opinion of foreign civilians, are your perpetual theme; — but who ever heard you mention Magna Charta or the Bill of Rights with approbation or respect ? By such treacherous arts, the noble simplicity and free spirit of our Saxon laws were first corrupted. The Norman conquest was not complete, until Norman lawyers had introduced their laws, and reduced slavery to a system.
Page 38 - We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract while we can, not when we must. 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 - Lords, eating the mangled victims of his barbarous battles! Such horrible notions shock every precept of religion, divine or natural, and every generous feeling of humanity. And, my Lords, they shock every sentiment of honour; they shock me as a lover of honourable war, and a detester of murderous barbarity. ' These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation.

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