possible; for I hope not much
is wanting. To be totally silent on his charges would not be respectful
to Mr. Fox. Accusations sometimes derive a weight from the persons who
make them to which they are not entitled from their matter.

He who thinks that the British Constitution ought to consist of the
three members, of three very different natures, of which it does
actually consist, and thinks it his duty to preserve each of those
members in its proper place and with its proper proportion of power,
must (as each shall happen to be attacked) vindicate the three several
parts on the several principles peculiarly belonging to them. He cannot
assert the democratic part on the principles on which monarchy is
supported, nor can he support monarchy on the principles of democracy,
nor can he maintain aristocracy on the grounds of the one or of the
other or of both. All these he must support on grounds that are totally
different, though practically they may be, and happily with us they are,
brought into one harmonious body. A man could not be consistent in
defending such various, and, at first view, discordant, parts of a
mixed Constitution, without that sort of inconsistency with which Mr.
Burke stands charged.

As any one of the great members of this Constitution happens to be
endangered, he that is a friend to all of them chooses and presses the
topics necessary for the support of the part attacked, with all the
strength, the earnestness, the vehemence, with all the power of stating,
of argument, and of coloring, which he happens to possess, and which the
case demands. He is not to embarrass the minds of his hearers, or to
incumber or overlay his speech, by bringing into view at once (as if he
were reading an academic lecture) all that may and ought, when a just
occasion presents itself, to be said in favor of the other members. At
that time they are out of the court; there is no question concerning
them. Whilst he opposes his defence on the part where the attack is
made, he presumes that for his regard to the just rights of all the rest
he has credit in every candid mind. He ought not to apprehend that his
raising fences about popular privileges this day will infer that he
ought on the next to concur with those who would pull down the throne;
because on the next he defends the throne, it ought not to be supposed
that he has abandoned the rights of the people.

A man, who, among various objects of his equal regard, is secure