"levelling up," not "levelling down."
Perhaps it may be said that he contemplated levelling up, as the surest
and most permanent obstacle to any proposal of levelling down.

At the same time it is fair to remark, that the argument which on a
recent occasion was so strongly pressed by the champions of the Church,
that it was beyond the power of Parliament to repeal what was here
declared to be "an essential and fundamental article and condition of
the Union," is untenable, on every consideration of the power of
Parliament, and, indeed, of common-sense; since it would be an
intolerable evil, and one productive of the worst consequences, if the
doctrine were admitted that any Parliament could make an unchangeable
law and bind its successors forever; and, moreover, since the very words
of this article do clearly imply the power of Parliament over the
Church, the power asserted, to "make some provision for the permanence
of its prosperity," clearly involving a power to make provisions of an
opposite character. The expediency or impolicy, the propriety or
unrighteousness, of a measure must always depend on the merits of the
question itself at the time, and not on the judgment or intentions of
legislators of an earlier generation. And advocates weaken instead of
strengthening their case when they put forward arguments which, however
plausible or acceptable to their own partisans, are, nevertheless,
capable of refutation.

The next article related to a question of paramount practical
importance, and of special interest, since, as has been seen before,
there was no subject on which the past legislation of the English
Parliament had been so discreditable. But the jealousy of English
manufacturers, though it had prevailed over the indifference of William
III., who reserved all his solicitude for matters of foreign diplomacy,
could find no echo in the large mind and sound commercial and financial
knowledge of the modern statesman. He laid it down as the principle of
his legislation on this subject--a principle which "he was sure that
every gentleman in the House was ready to admit--that the consequence of
the Union ought to be a perfect freedom of trade, whether of produce or
manufacture, without exception, if possible; that a deviation from that
principle ought to be made only when adhering to it might possibly shake
some large capital, or materially diminish the effect of the labor of
the inhabitants, or suddenly and violently