and PREVILEGES can be but PREROGATIVE, which in many instances has been illegally carried beyond the Limits of Liberty and the Constitution. It is therefore necessary we should recur to the Spirit of the Constitution with the strictest Rigour and Perseverance.
The only Reason that can be given, why our Forefathers in the ancient Fundamental Statutes of the Realm, have delivered nothing verbally explicit on this Head; of limiting the Power of their Representatives, derives its Origin from the same Cause that the ROMANS had no Laws against Parricide: they never conceived that the thought of BETRAYING or SELLING a PEOPLES LIBERTIES, any more than MURDERING a FATHER could enter the Human Heart: they never imagined that the Representative could ever possess an Interest distinct from that of his Constituent, or that pecuniary Advantage could outweigh the Public good in his Breast: they did not foresee, that MINISTERS might
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have Occasion to OPPRESS US, for the Gratification of a WEAK or WICKED PRINCE; or that ENGLISHMEN no longer animated by the Soul of Public Prosperity, might Degenerate into granting OPPRESSIVE TAXES, till the NATION would be brought within ONE STEP of RUIN: Or that Laws essential to the Establishment of Freedom and Security of the State, could be made to burst at the Mandate of a Minister, by the Breach of a Majority of Five Hundred and Fifty Eight Men.
When the Representatives of the People Act contrary to the very Elements of the Constitution, betray and give up the RIGHTS, PRIVILEGES, and LIBERTIES of the PEOPLE, though nothing in the Fundamental Statutes literally prohibit so ignominious a Behaviour; the very Nature of their Station, the innate sense of Right, and Original Spirit of Government, directly contradict all possibility of their having Title for such proceedings; and whenever it is done, it is an unjust and wanton Exertion of Power, and not of Authority: add to this dreadful and heinous Crime the indignant and humiliating Consideration, that our Equals whom we chuse to save, have sold us like our Cattle to a WEAK (not to say worse) KING, and his accursed MINISTERS, who have paid our Betrayers with a Part of that Money which was most unjustly levied on us, not to Answer the NECESSITY of Government, but for the most Infamous and Villainous Purposes.
The Particulars mentioned in the Bill of Rights, at the Revolution, were then considered as so many Violations committed by King James, on the Previleges of the People, and necessary to be remedied, for the sake of securing our Religion, and reestablishing Liberty and the Constitution.
The Grievances at that Time complained of against the Sovereign, had their Foundation in Justice and the Rights of the People and the redressing them in the Nature of the Constitution: otherwise, by what Arguments could be assigned a Cause of Complaint against the Prince on the Throne or preserve those Men who accomplished the Revolution from the imputation of Traitors and Rebels to their King.
They considered the Constitution as the primary Object of an Englishman; and the King but as the Secondary; who by his attempts towards Despotism, became a Rebel against this superior Power. They justly
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reasoned, that as the People, who make a Third of the Constitution, are deemed Traitors, for plotting or attempting the life of, or taking up Arms against the King, who forms another Third of the Constitution, and doomed to Death in consequence of such Behaviour; in like Manner King JAMES rebelled against two Thirds of the Government, by attempting to subvert their Religion and Liberties: for our Constitution, supposes, that each Part of it has a Right to be preserved; that Two are more than One; and the Happiness of a whole PEOPLE to be preserved, in preference to the Ambition or pernicious Passion or Designs of a King.
Shall then the present Sovereign and his Ministers be exempted from a strict and nice INQUIRY into their Conduct, because they have effected in one Method, the very Despotism which was opposed in JAMES, who was deservedly drove into Exile, for attempting it in another. Forbid it Heaven! and every Thing that is Dear to ENGLISHMEN.
To the PUBLIC.
The POEM called the PROPHECY of RUIN, repeatedly advertised to be published, in Quarto, Price 1S 6d. the Author has been unavoidably obliged to postpone from Time to Time, through a severe Illness; in order therefore to make some Compensation to the Public, for the Trouble and various Disappointments they have met with, the ENTIRE POEM will be given next Friday Noon, in No.12. of the CRISIS, containing Three SHEETS in FOLIO, at the reduced Price of 6d.
Printed and published for the Authors, by T. W. SHAW, in Fleet-Street, opposite Anderton’s Coffee House, where Letters to the Publisher will be thankfully received.
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THE
CRISIS
| NUMBER XII | To be continued Weekly. |
| SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1775 | [Price Six Pence. |
Ense velut stricto, quoties Lucilius ardens
Infremuit, rubet Auditor cui frigida Mens est.
Criminibus, tacita sudant Pracordia Culpa.1
JUVENAL.
Sharp as a Sword Lucilus drew his Pen,
And struck with panic Terror guilty Men,
At his just Strokes the harden’d Wretch would start,
Feel the cold Sweat, and tremble at the Heart.
The prophecy of RUIN,
A POEM.
SHOULD e’re a Prince the British Empire sway,
(And I be doom’d by Heav’n to see the day)
Who quite UNMINDFUL of that glorious state
To which he’s rais’d, not by desert, but fate;
Should he be base, be cruel, and unjust,
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FALSE to his friends. unworthy that great trust;
Should he, unmindful of the good that springs
From true royalty, and true patriot Kings;
By oppression (destroying like a flood)
Cause civil war, and fill the land with BLOOD;
Should he rebel ’gainst FREEDOM, LAW, and RIGHT,
And laugh at truths which honest men should write
With fair intent, write with no other view,
But to save HIM, and save their COUNTRY too;
Such deeds as these, would fire my soul with rage,
And make me e’en against my safety, wage
War with VILL’NY, and stamp the TYRANTS crimes,
That he might live and stink to after-times.
Thrice happy, NOW, when ev’ry blessing springs
From GEORGE the THIRD; we boast the BEST of KINGS.
Curs’d be the wretch who would support a plan,
Which must destroy the natural rights of man;
Perish the wretch, who unconcern’d would see
The LAWS DESTROY’D, a falling MONARCHY;
I could not, I am of another breed,
I ne’er should tamely see my country bleed;
Nor crouch to him, to truth and justice dead,
Or fawning compliment an empty head:
Let subtle knaves, to CANDOUR more inclin’d
Disguise the truth, I’d always speak my mind;
Perish