certain very limited point, so
as to endanger my own fall or the ruin of my country. I know there is an
order that keeps things fast in their place; it is made to us, and we are
made to it. Why not ask another wife, other children, another body,
another mind?

The great object of most of these reformers is to prepare the destruction
of the Constitution, by disgracing and discrediting the House of Commons.
For they think--prudently, in my opinion--that if they can persuade the
nation that the House of Commons is so constituted as not to secure the
public liberty; not to have a proper connection with the public
interests; so constituted as not, either actually or virtually, to be the
representative of the people, it will be easy to prove that a government
composed of a monarchy, an oligarchy chosen by the Crown, and such a
House of Commons, whatever good can be in such a system, can by no means
be a system of free government.

The Constitution of England is never to have a quietus; it is to be
continually vilified, attacked, reproached, resisted; instead of being
the hope and sure anchor in all storms, instead of being the means of
redress to all grievances, itself is the grand grievance of the nation,
our shame instead of our glory. If the only specific plan
proposed--individual, personal representation--is directly rejected by
the person who is looked on as the great support of this business, then
the only way of considering it is as a question of convenience. An
honourable gentleman prefers the individual to the present. He therefore
himself sees no middle term whatsoever, and therefore prefers of what he
sees the individual; this is the only thing distinct and sensible that
has been advocated. He has then a scheme, which is the individual
representation; he is not at a loss, not inconsistent--which scheme the
other right honourable gentleman reprobates. Now, what does this go to,
but to lead directly to anarchy? For to discredit the only government
which he either possesses or can project, what is this but to destroy all
government; and this is anarchy. My right honourable friend, in
supporting this motion, disgraces his friends and justifies his enemies,
in order to blacken the Constitution of his country, even of that House
of Commons which supported him. There is a difference between a moral or
political exposure of a public evil, relative to the administration of
government, whether in men or systems,