They hold an immemorial possession to be no
more than a long-continued, and therefore an aggravated injustice.
Such are THEIR ideas, such THEIR religion, and such THEIR law. But as to
OUR country and OUR race, as long as the well-compacted structure of our
church and state, the sanctuary, the holy of holies of that ancient law,
defended by reverence, defended by power, a fortress at once and a
temple, shall stand inviolate on the brow of the British Sion; as long
as the British monarchy, not more limited than fenced by the orders of
the state, shall, like the proud Keep of Windsor, rising in the majesty
of proportion, and girt with the double belt of its kindred and coeval
towers,--as long as this awful structure shall oversee and guard the
subjected land--so long the mounds and dykes of the low, fat Bedford
Level will have nothing to fear from all the pickaxes of all the
levellers of France. As long as our sovereign lord the king, and his
faithful subjects, the lords and commons of this realm,--the triple
cord, which no man can break; the solemn, sworn, constitutional
frank-pledge of this nation; the firm guarantees of each other's being,
and each other's rights; the joint and several securities, each in its
place and order, for every kind and every quality, of property and of
dignity:--as long as these endure, so long the duke of Bedford is safe:
and we are all safe together--the high from the blights of envy and the
spoliations of rapacity; the low from the iron hand of oppression and
the insolent spurn of contempt.
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