27/82 Liberty finds its level in the social world, like the waves in the common bed of the ocean. One nation is not free with impunity--one people is not in bondage with impunity--all finally compares and equalises itself. Nature and its institutions had conferred upon it men worthy of its laws. Lord Chatham, sometimes leading the opposition, sometimes at the head of the government, had expanded the space of parliament to the proportions of his own character and his own language. Never did the manly liberty of a citizen before a throne--never did the legal authority of a prime minister before a people display themselves in such a voice to assembled citizens. |