Save for Johnson and Gibbon, that was apparent to every first-class mind in England.

But the obstinate king prevailed; and Burke's great protest remained no more than material for the legislation of the future.

Yet it was something that ninety years after his speech the British North America Act should have given his dreams full substance.
Ireland had always a place apart in Burke's affections, and when he first entered the House of Commons he admitted that uppermost in his thoughts was the desire to assist its freedom.

He saw that here, as in America, no man will be argued into slavery.

A government which defied the fundamental impulses of men was bound to court disaster.