difficult to any but an extraordinary genius, to stand at the
line, and to divide the limits; to pay what is due to the great
representative of the nation, and neither to enhance, nor to
yield up, the undoubted prerogatives of the crown. These, my
lord, are the proper virtues of a noble Englishman, as indeed
they are properly English virtues; no people in the world being
capable of using them, but we who have the happiness to be born
under so equal, and so well-poised a government;--a government
which has all the advantages of liberty beyond a commonwealth,
and all the marks of kingly sovereignty, without the danger of
a tyranny. Both my nature, as I am an Englishman, and my reason,
as I am a man, have bred in me a loathing to that specious name
of a republic; that mock appearance of a liberty, where all who
have not part in the government, are slaves; and slaves they are
of a viler note, than such as are subjects to an absolute
dominion. For no Christian monarchy is so absolute, but it is
circumscribed with laws; but when the executive power is in the
law-makers, there is no further check upon them; and the people
must suffer without a remedy, because they are oppressed by their
representatives. If I must serve, the number of my masters, who
were born my equals, would but add to the ignominy of my bondage.
The nature of our government, above all others, is exactly suited
both to the situation of our country, and the temper of the
natives; an island being more proper for commerce and for
defence, than for extending its dominions on the Continent; for
what the valour of its inhabitants might gain, by reason of its
remoteness, and the casualties of the seas, it could not so
easily preserve: And, therefore, neither the arbitrary power of
One, in a monarchy, nor of Many, in a commonwealth, could make us
greater than we are. It is true, that vaster and more frequent