Summary
I have before alluded to the two great struggles in the history of this country, which, occasioned by the arbitrary encroachments of those in power, led to the more sure establishment of our constitutional privileges. These revolutions and their results, which have been the wonder and admiration of all foreign writers, owing to their success, and the sober and resolute method in which they were conducted, were chiefly brought about through the union of all classes in opposition to these encroachments,—a union not marred by selfish and party interests. These great struggles are worthy of the deep and earnest contemplation of every English man and woman who cares for the welfare of our country, and who, conscious of the ever-recurring tendency in human nature to spoliation and aggression, is sternly jealous of the rights and blessings purchased by the efforts and by can never be politically right, they will turn an earnest and searching gaze upon these records of the past, and in doing so cannot fail to be stimulated to hold fast and contend for, even to death if need be, those blessings which were so hardly and so nobly won. The battle which we have now to fight is in its essential character the same as those which resulted formerly in confirmations of our liberties, and in a firmer establishment of a just and virtuous state. The principles arrayed on either side in this conflict are essentially the same as those which inspired the combatants of the past.
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- The Constitution ViolatedAn Essay, pp. 122 - 143Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1871