the Public as well as of the King) can possibly commit. But, notwithstanding the Inequality of the English Representation, and the various means practiced to corrupt it, yet it has been the principal instrument of preserving amongst us those remains of natural Liberty which we still enjoy in a greater proportion than most other kingdoms, and has occasioned more examples of just retribution on Tyrants, Traitors , and Court-Favourites, in the English annals, than the history of any other nation affords; so that M. Rapin is thereby led to conclude his account of K. Richard II. (that notorious corrupter of parliaments, and enemy to the privileges of London and other corporations) with the following reflection: “That, in a government such as that of England, all the efforts that the Sovereign makes, to usurp an absolute authority, are so many steps which lead him towards the
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