The municipal corporations of
that universal kingdom are not morally at liberty at their pleasure, and
on their speculations of a contingent improvement, wholly to separate
and tear asunder the bands of their subordinate community, and to
dissolve it into an unsocial, uncivil, unconnected chaos of elementary
principles. It is the first and supreme necessity only, a necessity that
is not chosen, but chooses, a necessity paramount to deliberation, that
admits no discussion, and demands no evidence, which alone can justify a
resort to anarchy. This necessity is no exception to the rule; because
this necessity itself is a part too of that moral and physical
disposition of things to which man must be obedient by consent of force:
but if that which is only submission to necessity should be made the
object of choice, the law is broken, nature is disobeyed, and the
rebellious are outlawed, cast forth, and exiled from this world of
reason, and order, and peace, and virtue, and fruitful penitence, into
the antagonist world of madness, discord, vice, confusion, and
unavailing sorrow.
PRESCRIPTIVE RIGHTS.
The crown has considered me after long service; the crown has paid the
duke of Bedford by advance. He has had a long credit for any service
which he may perform hereafter. He is secure, and long may he be secure,
in his advance, whether he performs any services or not.
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