way the empire.

On this side, then, whichever way you turn your eyes, you see nothing
but perplexity and distress. You may determine to support the very
ministry who have reduced your affairs to this deplorable situation;
you may shelter yourself under the forms of a parliament, and set the
people at defiance; but be assured, Sir, that such a resolution would
be as imprudent as it would be odious. If it did not immediately shake
your establishment, it would rob you of your peace of mind for ever.

On the other, how different is the prospect! How easy, how safe and
honourable, is the path before you! The English nation declare they are
grossly injured by their representatives, and solicit your Majesty to
exert your lawful prerogative, and give them an opportunity of
recalling a trust which they find has been scandalously abused. You are
not to be told that the power of the House of Commons is not original,
but delegated to them for the welfare of the people, from whom they
received it. A question of right arises between the constituent and the
representative body. By what authority shall it be decided? Will your
Majesty interfere in a question in which you have, properly, no
immediate concern? It would be a step equally odious and unnecessary.
Shall the Lords be called upon to determine the rights and privileges
of the Commons? They cannot do it without a flagrant breach of the
constitution. Or will you refer it to the judges? They have often told
your ancestors that the law of parliament is above them. What part then
remains but to leave it to the people to determine for themselves? They
alone are injured, and since there is no superior power to which the
cause can be referred, they alone ought to determine.

I do not mean to perplex you with a tedious argument upon a subject
already so discussed that inspiration could hardly throw a new light
upon it. There are, however, two points of view in which it
particularly imports your Majesty to consider the late proceedings of
the House of Commons. By depriving a subject of his birthright they
have attributed to their own vote an authority equal to an act of the
whole legislature, and, though perhaps not with the same motives, have
strictly followed the example of the Long Parliament, which first
declared the regal office useless, and soon after, with as little
ceremony, dissolved the House of Lords. The same pretended power which
robs an English subject of his birthright