nary?
The fact is that the King _and_ Lords _and_ Commons, by what is termed
the omnipotence of Parliament, have constitutionally the right of
enacting whatever laws they please, in defiance of the petitions or
remonstrances of the nation. They have the power of doubling our
enormous debt of 240 millions, and _may_ pursue measures which could
never be supposed the emanation of the general will without concluding
the people stripped of reason, of sentiment, and even of that first
instinct which prompts them to preserve their own existence.

I congratulate your Lordship upon your enthusiastic fondness for the
judicial proceedings of this country. I am happy to find you have passed
through life without having your fleece torn from your back in the
thorny labyrinth of litigation. But you have not lived always in
colleges, and must have passed by some victims, whom it cannot be
supposed, without a reflection on your heart, that you have forgotten.
Here I am reminded of what I have said on the subject of
representation--to be qualified for the office of legislation you should
have felt like the bulk of mankind; their sorrows should be familiar to
you, of which, if you are ignorant, how can you redress them? As a
member of the assembly which, from a confidence in its experience,
sagacity, and wisdom, the constitution has invested with the supreme
appellant jurisdiction to determine the most doubtful points of an
intricate jurisprudence, your Lordship cannot, I presume, be ignorant of
the consuming expense of our never-ending process, the verbosity of
unintelligible statutes, and the perpetual contrariety in our judicial
decisions.

'The greatest freedom that can be enjoyed by man in a state of civil
society, the greatest security that can be given with respect to the
protection of his character, property, personal liberty, limb, and
life, is afforded to every individual by our present constitution.'

'Let it never be forgotten by ourselves, and let us impress the
observation upon the hearts of our children, that we are in possession
of both (liberty and equality), of as much of both as can be consistent
with the end for which civil society was introduced among mankind.'

Many of my readers will hardly believe me when I inform them that these
passages are copied verbatim from your Appendix. Mr. Burke roused the
indignation of all ranks of men when, by a refinement in cruelty
superior to that which in the East yokes the livi