m the sole of the
foot to the crown of the head, do we not see a race of youths growing
up to be Kings, who are the very paragons of virtue? There is not one of
them, my Lords, but might be trusted with untold gold, as safely as
the other. Are they not '_more sober, intelligent, more solid, more
steady_,' and withal, _more learned, more wise, more every thing, than
any youths we '_ever had the fortune to see.' Ah! my Lords, they are a
_hopeful family_.
"The blessed prospect of succession, which the nation has at this moment
before its eyes, is a most undeniable proof of the excellence of our
constitution, and of the blessed hereditary system; for nothing, my
Lords, but a constitution founded on the truest and purest wisdom
could admit such heaven-born and heaven-taught characters into the
government.--Permit me now, my Lords, to recal your attention to the
libellous chapter I have just read about Kings. I mention this, my
Lords, because it is my intention to move for a bill to be brought into
parliament to expunge that chapter from the Bible, and that the Lord
Chancellor, with the assistance of the Prince of Wales, the Duke of
York, and the Duke of Clarence, be requested to write a chapter in the
room of it; and that Mr. Burke do see that it be truly canonical, and
faithfully inserted."--Finis.
1 Allusion to the window-tax.--Editor,
If the Clerk of the Court of King's Bench should chuse to be the orator
of this luminous encomium on the constitution, I hope he will get
it well by heart before he attempts to deliver it, and not have
to apologize to Parliament, as he did in the case of Bolingbroke's
encomium, for forgetting his lesson; and, with this admonition I leave
him.
Having thus informed the Addressers of what passed at the meeting of
Parliament, I return to take up the subject at the part where I broke
off in order to introduce the preceding speeches.
I was then stating, that the first policy of the Government party was
silence, and the next, clamorous contempt; but as people generally
choose to read and judge for themselves, the work still went on, and the
affectation of contempt, like the silence that preceded it, passed for
nothing.
Thus foiled in their second scheme, their evil genius, like a
will-with-a-wisp, led them to a third; when all at once, as if it had
been unfolded to them by a fortune-teller, or Mr. Dundas had discovered
it by second sight, this once harmless, insignificant book, w
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