226 on parliament ar-y reform, -^^g- 21. 



However, that no man may go a step farthet 

 xvith me than he chooses, I ftiall reverse the ordi- 

 nary mode of proceeding in these cases, and distinct- 

 ly give a decided opinion in the beginning, instead of 

 the end of my discourse, by an afsertion equally 

 bold and true, that as all writers, whether natives 

 or foreigners, who have treated of the BrJtifh con- 

 stitution, unanimously agree, that it is the best ever 

 jet devised by bu?nan wisdom, a fact which even mo- 

 dern innovators acknowledge at the very time they 

 modestly propose to better it on theoretic princi- 

 ples ; I say admit only the above data, which I be- 

 lieve have never yet been disputed, and I will ven- 

 ture to afsert, that an attempt to correct what i? 

 allowed to be the most perfect work of frail and 

 fallible man, will probably be the greatest ex- 

 ample of human vanity ever yet given to the asto- 

 niftied world ; and I fhould be sorry to add of human 

 folly, which laying violent hands on the venerable 

 "structure without proof of real not supposed delin- 

 quency, will pofsibly make but too applicable. You 

 will observe, Sir, that I combat the question of ex- 

 pediency, not of right ; and flatter myself, that I have 

 a decided majority of at least seven or eight milli- 

 ons of Britifh subjects on my side, and can afsure 

 •rou, Mr Editor, that foreigners are in utter astonifh- 

 ment to hear, that in a country where the meanest 

 subject cannot be condemned without legal proof of 

 guilt, the object most dear to Britons, their far fa- 

 med constitution, to which all nations do homage, 

 fliould be threatened with rude theoretic correction, 

 "jaithout any species of legal proof being given of its 



