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is now fallen into disuse; and that there, though the regal power is in no country so closely limited[1], yet the liberties of the Commons are extinguished, and the Government is degenerated into a mere Aristocracy. It is, therefore, upon the whole, a duty which every man owes to his country, his friends, his posterity, and himself, to maintain, to the utmost of his power, this valuable Constitution in all its rights; to restore it to its ancient dignity, if at all impaired by the different value of property, or otherwise deviated from its first institution; to amend it, wherever it is defective; and above all, to guard with the most jealous circumspection against the introduction of new and ARBITRARY METHODS of TRIAL, which, under a variety of plausible pretences, may in time IMPERCEPTIBLY UNDERMINE this best preservative of English liberty.
- ↑ This was written previous to the late Revolution in Sweden, accomplished perhaps by the disuse of the trial by jury, which deprived the people of their consequence, their spirit, and their power, in the scale of the Constitution.
