gh misdemeanor_. Be it so; and if he deserves
it, let him be punished. _But_ the learned judge might have had a fairer
opportunity of displaying the powers of his eloquence. Having delivered
himself with so much energy upon the criminal nature and dangerous
consequences of any attempt to corrupt a man in your _grace's station_,
what would he have said to the minister himself, to that very privy
counselor, to that first commissioner of the treasury, who does not wait
for, but impatiently solicits the touch of corruption, who employs the
meanest of his creatures in these honorable services, and forgetting the
genius and fidelity of the secretary, _descends to_ apply to his
housebuilder for assistance?"

In Let. 44 he says: "There may be instances of contempt and insult to
the House of Commons, which do not fall within my own exceptions, yet,
in regard to the _dignity_ of the house, ought not to pass unpunished.
Be it so."

In the Declaration, paragraph 25, we read: "We might have been a free
and a great people together, but a communication of grandeur and
freedom, it seems, is below their _dignity_. Be it so, since they will
have it."

So much for the trifling little trinity of words made up of six letters,
when traced to their mental origin. The reader will see an aura of
_dignity_ always darting out from the sentence when used by Mr. Paine.
It might never have this connection in the soul of any other man. This
closes paragraph 25, and I proceed to the conclusion.

Paragraph 26. Here the nation is named. "The United States of America,"
are declared "free and independent States." ... "And for the support of
this declaration we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortunes, and our sacred honor." Compare Common Sense, conclusion, as
follows: "Wherefore, instead of gazing at each other with suspicious or
doubtful curiosity, let each of us _hold out to his neighbor the hearty
hand of friendship_, and unite in drawing a line which, like an act of
oblivion, shall bury in forgetfulness every former dissension. Let the
name of whig and tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us
than those of _a good citizen, an open and resolute friend, and a
virtuous supporter of the_ RIGHTS OF MANKIND, _and of the_ FREE AND
INDEPENDENT STATES OF AMERICA."

I have now gone through with the Declaration, both in a general and
special manner. In the former regard I have found it to be the soul's
image of Mr. Paine, in styl