And no sooner has a
new rotation of affairs given the superiority to another party, than
another law, equally unreasonable and equally new, is found equally
necessary for a contrary purpose. Thus is our constitution violated by
both, under the pretence of securing it from the attack of each other,
and lasting evils have been admitted for the sake of averting a
temporary danger.
I have been too long acquainted with mankind to charge any party with
insincerity in their conduct, or to accuse them of affecting to
represent their disputes as more momentous than they appeared to their
own eyes. I know, my lords, how highly every man learns to value that
which he has long contended for, and how easily every man prevails upon
himself to believe the security of the publick complicated with his own.
I have no other intention in these remarks, than to show how men are
betrayed into a concurrence in measures, of which, when the ardour of
opposition has subsided, and the imaginary danger is past, they have
very seldom failed to repent.
I do not remember, my lords, any deviation from the established order of
our constitution, which has not afterwards produced remorse in those
that advised it.
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