But we have seen
complimentary letters and addresses to the imprisoned gentlemen,
and their answers; while by a stretch of arbitrary power they have
been kept in confinement, till by a prorogation instead of a
dissolution, they have been discharged of course. Is this my
friend a matter of such triumph? Does it not show that Britons are
unfeeling to their condition? Or has brutal force at length become
so formidable, that after having in vain petitioned those whose
duty it is to redress their grievances, they are afraid to imitate
the virtue of their ancestors in similar cases, and redress their
grievances themselves?
Mr. Hume, if I mistake not, somewhere says, that if James the
Second had had the benefit of the riot-act, and such a standing
army as has been granted since his time, it would have been
impracticable for the nation to have wrought its own delivery, and
establish the constitution of '88. If the people have put it in
the power of a wicked and corrupt ministry to make themselves
absolute lords and tyrants over them by means of a standing army,
we may at present pity them under the misfortune; but future
historians will record the story with astonishment and
indignation, and posterity, who will share in the fatal effects of
their folly and treachery, will accuse them.
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