Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/186

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
176
LETTERS OF

judicature, viz. elections, returns, &c.—and he allows it in such contempts as immediately interrupt their proceedings, or, as Mr. Noye expresses it, falling out in their view in parliament.

They who would carry the privileges of parliament farther than Junius, either do not mean well to the public, or know not what they are doing. The government of England is a government of law. We betray ourselves, we contradict the spirit of our laws, and we shake the whole system of English jurisprudence, whenever we entrust a discretionary power over the life, liberty, or fortune of the subject, to any man, or set of men, whatsoever, upon a presumption that it will not be abused.

PHILO JUNIUS.