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Anecdotes of the life of Richard Watson, bishop of Landaff : written by himself at different intervals, and revised in 1814 / published by his son, Richard Watson
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stitutional man will agree to suspend even for an hour, except incases of extreme necessity; is the integrity of our courts of justice,a circumstance unparalleled in the annals of nations; is theequality of law, which unites in the same bond the peasant andthe peer; is the freedom of the press, the liberty of religion, theprovision for the poor,are these, and innumerable other blessings,so little known, so ill appreciated by the people of Great Britain ,as to render a foreign war necessary for the preservation of thatconstitution from which they are derived? No ; I do not believeit; I will not say it, for in saying it I should calumniate the char-racter of an enlightened people. There is no body of men,aristocratical or democratical, churchmen or dissenters, in thiskingdom, which would wish to exchange our assizes and our ses-sions for revolutionary tribunals ; our houses of parliament forcommittees of legislation and general safety ; our beloved Monarchfor a Robespierre ! This nation has enjoyed, for near a century,much prosperity, much tranquillity, much civil, much religiousliberty, under the mild and equitable government of the Princesof the House of Brunswick. Who but a madman would wish torisk the exchange of these blessings for he knows not what?would wish to exchange this illustrious family for the upstart pro-geny of some flagitious demagogue? Alarms of this kind arefit stuff to constitute the dreams of old women and children ; theydo not affect my mind. There are other causes of alarm, lessobvious, but more portentous, which penetrate my heart. If anything has happened in the course of this century which has less-ened, or which tends to lessen, in the minds of the people, theirconfidence in the House of Commons , as uncorrupt and carefulguardians of the public purse; if any thing has happened which