monster that never existed, except in the wild imagination of some theorist. It cannot be
admitted, because it is a perversion of the fundamental principle, that every power given for
the protection of the people below should be responsible to the power above. It is to
suppose that the people shall have no laws with regard to him, yet, when he comes to be
tried, he shall claim the protection of those laws which were made to secure the people
from his violence,—that he shall claim a fair trial, an equitable hearing, every advantage of
counsel, (God forbid he should not have them!) yet that the people under him shall have
none of those advantages. The reverse is the principle of every just and rational procedure.
For the people, who have nothing to use but their natural faculties, ought to be gently dealt
with; but those who are intrusted with an artificial and instituted authority have in their
hands a great deal of the force of other people; and as their temptations to injustice are
greater, so their moans are infinitely more effectual for mischief by turning the powers
given for the preservation of society to its destruction: so that, if an arbitrary procedure be
justifiable, (a strong one I am sure is,) it is when used against those who pretend to use it
against others.
My Lords, I will venture to say of the governments of Asia, that none of them ever had an
arbitrary power; and if any governments had an arbitrary power, they cannot delegate it to
any persons under them: that is, they cannot so delegate it to others as not to leave them
accountable on the principles upon which it was given. As this is a contradiction in terms, a
gross absurdity, as well as a monstrous wickedness, let me say, for the honor of human
nature, that, although undoubtedly we may speak it with the pride of England that we have
better institutions for the preservation of the rights of men than any other country in the
world, yet I will venture to say that no country has wholly meant, or ever meant, to give this