The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-02-05 00:00:00

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peach,' 'lady el the--seience of Onvehnerist,
i very Camden eteesideration of the English CNN
stitaileas
To decide est the question of Ferliansentety OM.
+Mem", to take ewer, in any conceivalslemsse, the
esters!, haltered, original rights of a People, it le
proper sOlinquireinto what ire the respective insporb
of the word Constitution, and Parliament.
If these be indeed reel entities, and notithedows
or dreams, or onfathomable mysteries, therm...fed.
'mit of definition and esplenetino..."Now a CON.
STITUTIQN.,4I that system of polity, by which a
free People agree to govern themselves ; that iss
through the medium of lieponeotatiost, to impose en
themselvea all the laws they shall observe, and ell
the tales they shall pay; and of which system all the
principles of troth and justice, so necessary to pee.
serve the COisalinity's liberty and So promote in
well.beipg, ore she very life and soul.
Their CONSTITUTION is, therefore, neeenerily
the'criterion, in that tornmonity, of political rani.
tude ; a sacred law to their legislature; a 66 Polkas
lion.' of its authority it cannot without erimisality
pan; sod on all occasions an indispeosable rule for
its conduct, and that of ell other tenetionarkm of this
State. Such being the CONSTITUTION, we nest
enquire, what is PARLIAMENT the fore.
going definition of the coNsrITUTION, as in a
mirror, we see the outline of its image. Farther to
explain it, we say it is a &lutes in the ordinary work.
of legislation for the 'Denotement of public affairs;
as well as in the superintendence of all ningistracy
and .all :lodine! proceedings ; far. harped" NW moral
runclioikaries to their duty.
It is not necessary to descend to agnates, touching
any distribution of its offices, between the Lords sad
the Commons!. but it is proper to remark that, al.
though PARLIAMENT is competent to enact suck
Statute Lew in the management of public atairs, ac.
cording to the CONSTITUTION, as may In ex.
pedietst, it would be manifestly absurd to admit,
that it path authority to take away, or for one mo•
meat to suspend oue iota of the ConstitatioN • or
ender say • pretence whatever, to violate a sitsgh
principle thereof ; for it is a maxim of law, that',
66 If one principle be violated, all are shakes."
The Statutes in a free 'swims, like the bye.latts
in a corporatioa, can declare principles, and can
supply what is wanting to regulation, hut cannot
lake away what etas fundamental to the individuals
anterior to their becoming explassatorq. _

I trust, Sir, it is now-apparent, that PARLIA-
MENT, which is a mere creature of the People,
their trustee, their agent, merely to officiate in their
service, for their benefit; end bath no other function
whatever, and which in an especial mariner iv hound
to officiate, and as limited by the CONS [ITU.
TION ; bath no more right, or no more authority,
to violate that Constitution, and deprive ore People
of their liberties, than your attorney er your steward
bath to embezzle the title-deeds of your estate, to
withhold from you to their, ewe nee the estate itself ;
end as the Archyshop of Canterbury dared to my of
the People, impudently to proclaim you mad, mid
thereupon to pot you in irony, to thrust yen into a
solitary dungeon, to treat yens as a felon, jam as lees
and as often all they should think it.
I know indeed, that it is to be found in books
written by Lawyers, that PARLIAMENT is "rib's
solute"—that it iv " dcepotic,"-r-that it " see
change and create afresh the CONSTITUTION of
the k ingdom* ;" that is (for nor less cell be tho meas.
ing of these words), that at its will end pleasure,
for the Constitution of England, it can give es the
Constitution of Spain, with its Holy Inquisition ;
or of Algiers, with its sabre justice ; or of Mo-
rocco, where men's beads are struck off for Royal
amusement.

Nay—and for the consolation of our Bible Sods.
ties, tell this in Galls, publish it in the stemma ei
.4skalon,—these lawyers also affirm, directly in so
many wordy affirm, that " Parliament can alter the
Established Religion of the land;" words which must
meets, that it can abolish homage to a Deity infinite
In perfection, and set up a Moloch to be worshipped
with human sacrifices; and, to say the truth, we
have seen the way paved for such an alteration in the
Religion of the land, by certain devotees of Moloch,
chile professing more than ordinary sanctity.
The same lawyer who penned the contemptibly
ignorant positions L have quoted, as if to reach the
climax of absurdity, likewise declared that " Pesti*.
meet could change and create afresh ()SELF," that
is, it could at one and the same time be cause and
effect ; the potter and the put.
But lawyers do net write, and plead, and exposed
nonsense for nothing. Nonsense is a fog which they
have epeieliar art of raising in exhalations from the
quagmires of their own sophistry, for confounding
the minds of men to some evil end; and never halls
snore Wickedness,wr more tyranny, worked its weyv
than is this law fog of prelq*Flokarliaasentery en.
nipotcnce. .
Traces of the infernal mischief are distinctly seen
in all the present Attorney-General's political
menis; In which are introduced with a disgusting,
a nauseating reiteration, this miserable nonsense--
" the Constitution, as by, law established ;" a phrase
utterly unknown to the lawyers themselves; even so
late, as when, in oar own time, Hardy, Tooke,
Theltcall, and they others, were indicted for Hie*
Treason, in 1794. _
The very first appearance of this contemptible jar.
goo, tiels gross absurdity, was is the Gagging Acts
of Parliament of the following year, into which Acts
it was foisted, as i have been credibly informed, as
an amendment, by that paragon of Scripture -peso.
(lists, that most learned of the lest*, the present
lissrd High Cbaccallor.,.
'l•he drift batll evq7 beM NOR visible to alt
but the wilttehy Parliesgeet•at its *amen
could change the t laic* ;..-enit IF a RatteW
Borough Oligarchy could onetemerpoli the fenstisee
end. authority of Parliament. (oat pool coold be
wanting to the complete eatabliebment of, a Roue.
Borough Constitution, composed of all that is cord'
ropt end tyrannical ; with Statute, to declase ell
Parliamentary Reformists traitors to 0,4 ;Reties
Borough Nejesties ?

For mere then twenty years Parliamentary 'RN
formic,. have been uniformly objects of slander and
ipersecation; nor shaft I ever forget certain 'ignitor

• Blacks. Com. 1. 160.

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