decorum, were the errors by which he was most hurt in
the public opinion, and those through which his enemies obtained the
greatest advantage over him. But justice must be done. The prudence,
steadiness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the greatest possible
lenity in his character and his politics, preserved the crown to this
royal family, and, with it, their laws and liberties to this country.
Walpole had no other plan of defence for the Revolution than that of the
other managers, and of Mr. Burke; and he gives full as little
countenance to any arbitrary attempts, on the part of restless and
factious men, for framing new governments according to their fancies.

* * * * *

_Mr. Walpole_.

[Sidenote: Case of resistance out of the law, and the highest offence.]

[Sidenote: Utmost necessity justifies it.]

"Resistance is nowhere enacted to be legal, but subjected, by all the
laws now in being, to the greatest penalties. 'Tis what is not, cannot,
nor ought ever to be described, or affirmed in any positive law, to be
excusable; when, and upon what _never-to-be-expected_ occasions, it may
be exercised, no man can foresee; _and ought never to be thought of, but
when an utter subversion of the laws of the realm threatens the whole
frame of a Constitution, and no redress can otherwise be hoped for_. It
therefore does and _ought forever_ to stand, in the eye and letter of
the law, as the _highest offence_. But because any man, or party of men,
may not, out of folly or wantonness, commit treason, or make their own
discontents, ill principles, or disguised affections to another
interest, a pretence to resist the supreme power, will it follow from
thence that the _utmost necessity_ ought not to engage a nation _in its
own defence for the preservation of the whole_?"

* * * * *

Sir Joseph Jekyl was, as I have always heard and believed, as nearly as
any individual could be, the very standard of Whig principles in his
age. He was a learned and an able man; full of honor, integrity, and
public spirit; no lover of innovation; nor disposed to change his solid
principles for the giddy fashion of the hour. Let us hear this Whig.

* * * * *

_Sir Joseph Jekyl._

[Sidenote: Commons do not state the limits of submission.]

[Sidenote: To secure the laws, the only aim of the Revolution.]

"In clearing up and vindicating the justice of