Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/197

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that time a very great majority of the people,) who were earnestly desirous to maintain the antient constitution of State, by restoring the King to such a share of limited Power as they thought consistent with their own safety: But, alas! the standing Army was now become the ruling Sovereign of the Kingdom, and was not less zealots to maintain an unlimited Authority than the former ruling Sovereign, whom they had so lately fought against and imprisoned for the like unlawful pretensions; so that the arbitrary proceedings and injustice of the King, in the beginning of his Reign, were severely repaid in kind by proceedings equally arbitrary, illegal, and unjust; as Oppresion