by a false representation of the
spirit of that leading event, and of the true nature and tenure of the
government formed in consequence of it, he is deeply responsible, he is
an enemy to the free Constitution of the kingdom. But he is not guilty
in any sense. I maintain that in his Reflections he has stated the
Revolution and the Settlement upon their true principles of legal reason
and constitutional policy.

His authorities are the acts and declarations of Parliament, given in
their proper words. So far as these go, nothing can be added to what he
has quoted. The question is, whether he has understood them rightly. I
think they speak plain enough. But we must now see whether he proceeds
with other authority than his own constructions, and, if he does, on
what sort of authority he proceeds. In this part, his defence will not
be made by argument, but by wager of law. He takes his compurgators, his
vouchers, his guaranties, along with him. I know that he will not be
satisfied with a justification proceeding on general reasons of policy.
He must be defended on party grounds, too, or his cause is not so
tenable as I wish it to appear. It must be made out for him not only
that in his construction of these public acts and monuments he conforms
himself to the rules of fair, legal, and logical interpretation, but it
must be proved that his construction is in perfect harmony with that of
the ancient Whigs, to whom, against the sentence of the modern, on his
part, I here appeal.

This July it will be twenty-six years[12] since he became connected with
a man whose memory will ever be precious to Englishmen of all parties,
as long as the ideas of honor and virtue, public and private, are
understood and cherished in this nation. That memory will be kept alive
with particular veneration by all rational and honorable Whigs. Mr.
Burke entered into a connection with that party through that man, at an
age far from raw and immature,--at those years when men are all they are
ever likely to become,--when he was in the prime and vigor of his
life,--when the powers of his understanding, according to their
standard, were at the best, his memory exercised, his judgment formed,
and his reading much fresher in the recollection and much readier in the
application than now it is. He was at that time as likely as most men to
know what were Whig and what were Tory principles. He was in a situation
to discern what sort of Whig principles they ente