APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



345 



tensions to those liberties which 

 were acquired by our forefathers, 

 after so many struggles and so 

 many sacrifices. 



" Either the House of Com- 

 mons is authorized to dispense 

 with the laws of the land ; or it is 

 not. If the constitution be of so 

 delicate a texture, so weak a 

 frame, so fragile a substance, that 

 it is to be only spoken of in terms 

 of admiration, and to be viewed 

 merely as a piece of curious but 

 unprofitable workmanship ; if 

 Magna Charta and all the whole- 

 some laws of England be a dead 

 letter ; in that case, the affirmative 

 of the proposition may beadmitted: 

 but if the constitution lives, and is 

 applicable to its ends ; namely, 

 the happiness of the community, 

 the perfect security of the life, 

 liberty, and property of each 

 member, and all the members of 

 the society ; then the affirmative 

 of the proposition can never be 

 admitted ; then must we be free- 

 men ; for we need no better se- 

 curity, no more powerful protec- 

 tion for our rights and liberties, 

 than the laws and constitution. 



" We seek for, and we need 

 seek for, nothing new ; we ask for 

 no more than what our forefathers 

 insisted upon as their own; we 

 ask for no more than what they 

 bequeathed unto us ; we ask for no 

 more than what they, in the testa- 

 ment which some of them had 

 sealed, and which the rest of them 

 were ready to seal,with their blood, 

 expressly declared to be the birth- 

 right of the people of England : 

 namely, the laws of England. To 

 these laws, we have a right to look 

 with confidence, for security ; to 

 these laws, the individual now im- 

 prisoned has, through me, applied 

 for redress in vain. Those who 

 have imprisoned him have refused 



to listen to my voice, weakly ex- 

 pressing the strong principles of 

 the law, the undeniable claims of 

 this Englishman's birthright. 

 •• Yourvoicemaycomewith more 

 force ; may command greater re- 

 spect ; and I am not without hope 

 that it may prove irresistible, if it 

 proclaim to this House of Com- 

 mons, in the same tone as the 

 tongues of our ancestors pro- 

 claimed to the kings of old, nolu- 

 mus leges Angiice mutari ; or, in 

 our own more clear and not less 

 forcible language, the taws of 

 England shall not be changed. 



" The principle, fellow-citizens, 

 for which we are now contending, 

 is the same principle for which 

 the people of England have con- 

 tended from the earliest ages, and 

 their glorious success in which 

 contests is down upon record m 

 the great charter of our rights and 

 liberties, and in divers other sub- 

 sequent statutes, of scarcely less 

 importance. It was this same 

 great principle which was again 

 attacked by Charles the First, in 

 the measure of ship-money, when 

 again the people of England and 

 an uncorrupted House of Com- 

 mons renewed the contest ; aeon- 

 test which ended iu the imprison- 

 ment, the trial, the condemnation, 

 and the execution, of that ill-ad- 

 vised king. The self-same prin- 

 ciple it was, that was so daringly 

 violated by his son James the 

 Second ; for which violation he 

 was compelled to flee from the 

 just indignation of the people, who 

 not only stripped him of his crown 

 but who prevented that crown from 

 descending to his family. In all 

 these contests, the courage, per- 

 severance, and fortitude of our 

 ancestors, conspicuous as they 

 were, were not more so than their 

 wisdom ; for, talk as long as we 



