the characteristic distinction of a popular representative. This belongs equally to all parts of government, and in
all forms. The virtue, spirit, and essence of a House of
Commons consists in its being the express image of the
feelings of the nation. It was not instituted to be a
control upon the people. It was designed as a control
for the people. Privilege of the crown and privilege of
Parliament are only privilege so long as they are exercised
for the benefit of the people. The voice of the people
is a voice that is to be heard, and not the votes and
resolutions of the House of Commons. He would preserve
thoroughly every privilege of the people, because it is
a privilege known and written in the law of the land;
and he would support it, not against the crown or the
aristocratic party only, but against the representatives of
the people themselves. This was not a government of
balances. It would be a strange thing if two hundred peers
should have it in their power to defeat by their negative
what had been done by the people of England. I have
taken my part in political connections and political
quarrels for the purpose of advancing justice and the
dominion of reason, and I hope I shall never prefer the
means, or any feelings growing out of the use of those
means, to the great and substantial end itself. Legislators
can do what lawyers can not, for they have no other
rules to bind them but the great principles of reason and
equity and the general sense of mankind. All human
laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they may
alter the mode and application, but have no power over
the substance, of original justice. A conservation and
secure enjoyment of our natural rights is the great and
ultimate purpose of civil society.
"The great inlet by which a colour for oppression has entered into the world is by one man's pretending to determine concerning the happiness of another. I would give a full civil protection, in which I include an immunity from all disturbance of their public religious worship, and a power of teaching in schools as well as temples, to Jews, Mahometans, and even Pagans. The Christian religion
