Chap. I.} 1778. |
In the process of years the assertion of the supreme power of parliament swiftly assumed an exaggerated form, and was claimed to extend, without limit, over Ireland and over the colonies; so that the theory which had first been used to rescue and secure the liberties of England became an instrument of despotism. Meantime both branches of parliament were but representatives of the same favored class; and the kings awakened no counterpoising sentiment of loyalty so long as the house of Hanover, the creature of parliament, was represented by princes of foreign birth, ignorant of the laws and the language of the land.
In this manner the government was conducted for a half century by the aristocracy, which, keeping in memory the days of Cromwell and of James the Second, were led into the persuasion that the party of liberty, to use the words of Rockingham, was that which ‘fought up against the king and against the people.’
But by the side of the theory of absolute power concentred in parliament, which had twice been the sheet-anchor of the English constitution, there existed the older respect for the rights of the individual, and the liberties of organized communities. These two elements of British political life were brought into collision by the American revolution, which had its provocation in the theory of the omnipotence of parliament, and its justification in the eyes of Englishmen
