inution of the sternness of new republican virtue, no disgrace to the
magnanimity of a great nation, if it had pardoned the perfidy which its
own oppression had occasioned, if it had remitted the punishment of the
perjury of the king to the tribunal of Him by whom _kings reign and
princes decree justice_.

And are there any men in this kingdom, except such as find their account
in public confusion, who would hazard the introduction of such scenes of
rapine, barbarity, and bloodshed, as have disgraced France and outraged
humanity, for the sake of obtaining--what?--Liberty and Equality. I
suspect that the meaning of these terms is not clearly and generally
understood: it may be of use to explain them.

The liberty of a man in a state of nature consists in his being subject
to no law but the law of nature; and the liberty of a man in a state of
society consists in his being subject to no law but to the law enacted
by the general will of the society to which he belongs. And to what
other law is any man in Great Britain subject? The king, we are all
justly persuaded, has not the inclination, and we all know that if he
had the inclination, he has not the power, to substitute his will in the
place of the law. The House of Lords has no such power; the House of
Commons has no such power; the Church has no such power; the rich men of
the country have no such power. The poorest man amongst us, the beggar
at our door, is governed--not by the uncertain, passionate, arbitrary
will of an individual--not by the selfish insolence of an aristocratic
faction--not by the madness of democratic violence--but by the fixed,
impartial, deliberate voice of law, enacted by the general suffrage of a
free people. Is your property injured? Law, indeed, does not give you
property; but it ascertains it. Property is acquired by industry and
probity; by the exercise of talents and ingenuity; and the possession of
it is secured by the laws of the community. Against whom think you is it
secured? It is secured against thieves and robbers; against idle and
profligate men, who, however low your condition may be, would be glad to
deprive you of the little you possess. It is secured, not only against
such disturbers of the public peace, but against the oppression of the
noble, the rapacity of the powerful, and the avarice of the rich. The
courts of British justice are impartial and incorrupt; they respect not
the persons of men; the poor man's lamb is, in thei