Those who held this language were as ignorant and shallow as people generally are who extol the past at the expense of the present.

A man of sense would have perceived that, if the English of the time of George the Second had really been more sordid and dishonest than their forefathers, the deterioration would not have shown itself in one place alone.

The progress of judicial venality and of official venality would have kept pace with the progress of parliamentary venality.

But nothing is more certain than that, while the legislature was becoming more and more venal, the courts of law and the public offices were becoming purer and purer.

The representatives of the people were undoubtedly more mercenary in the days of Hardwicke and Pelham than in the days of the Tudors.