other intrigues and supplied by other resources
than yet we have seen in action. Confounded at its growth, the
government may fly to Parliament for its support. But who will answer
for the temper of a House of Commons elected under these circumstances?
Who will answer for the courage of a House of Commons to arm the crown
with the extraordinary powers that it may demand? But the ministers will
not venture to ask half of what they know they want. They will lose half
of that half in the contest; and when they have obtained their nothing,
they will be driven by the cries of faction either to demolish the
feeble works they have thrown up in a hurry, or, in effect, to abandon
them. As to the House of Lords, it is not worth mentioning. The peers
ought naturally to be the pillars of the crown; but when their titles
are rendered contemptible, and their property invidious, and a part of
their weakness, and not of their strength, they will be found so many
degraded and trembling individuals, who will seek by evasion to put off
the evil day of their ruin. Both Houses will be in perpetual oscillation
between abortive attempts at energy and still more unsuccessful attempts
at compromise. You will be impatient of your disease, and abhorrent of
your remedy. A spirit of subterfuge and a tone of apology will enter
into all your proceedings, whether of law or legislation. Your judges,
who now sustain so masculine an authority, will appear more on their
trial than the culprits they have before them. The awful frown of
criminal justice will be smoothed into the silly smile of seduction.
Judges will think to insinuate and soothe the accused into conviction
and condemnation, and to wheedle to the gallows the most artful of all
delinquents. But they will not be so wheedled. They will not submit even
to the appearance of persons on their trial. Their claim to this
exemption will be admitted. The place in which some of the greatest
names which ever distinguished the history of this country have stood
will appear beneath their dignity. The criminal will climb from the dock
to the side-bar, and take his place and his tea with the counsel. From
the bar of the counsel, by a natural progress, he will ascend to the
bench, which long before had been virtually abandoned. They who escape
from justice will not suffer a question upon reputation. They will take
the crown of the causeway; they will be revered as martyrs; they will
triumph as conquerors. Nobod