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by the right of petitioning that will may be expressed; first, perhaps, in low and distant tones such as beseem the children of peace; but if corruption deafen power, gradually increasing till they swell into a deep and awful thunder, the Voice of God, which his vicegerents must hear, and hearing dare not disobey. This unrestricted right of over-awing the Oligarchy of Parliament by constitutional expression of the general will forms our liberty: it is the sole boundary that divides us from Despotism.
Χρηςθον τι Βουλευμ᾽ εις μεσον φερειν,' εχων.
Και ταυθ᾽ ο χρηζων, λαμπρος εοθ᾽. ο μηθελων
Σιγα τι τουτων εςιν ισαιτερον πολει
Eurip. Supplic. 440.
By the almost winged communication of the Press, the whole nation becomes one grand Senate, fervent yet untumultuous. By the right of meeting together to petition (which, Milton says, is good old english for requiring) the determinations of this Senate are embodied into legal form, and conveyed to the executive branch of Government, the Parliament. The present Bills annihilate this right. The forms of it indeed willremain;
