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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
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