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Collectanea. Parly Reform. Not Measures but Men! – From Fox's History, p.23

The reign of Charles the second forms one of the most
singular as well as of the most important periods of history. It is
the æra of good laws and bad Government. The abolition of the Court
of Wards, the repeal of the writ De Heretico Comburendo, the triennial
parliament bill, the establishment of the rights of the House of
Commons in regard to impeachment, the expiration of the License
Act, and above all, the glorious Statute of Habeas Corpus, have therefore
induced a modern writer of great eminence to fix the year 1679
as the period at which our Constitution had arrived at its greatest theoretical
perfection; but he owns, in a short note upon the passage
alluded to, that the times immediately following were times of
great practical oppression. What a field for meditation does this
short observation, from such a man, furnish? What reflections
does it not suggest to a thinking mind, upon the inefficacy of human
laws, and the imperfection of human Constitutions? We are called
from the contemplation of the progress of our Constitution, and our
attention fixed with the most minute accuracy to a particular point,
when it is said to have risen to its utmost perfection. Here we are
then at the best moment of the best Constitution that ever human
wisdom framed. What follows? A time of oppression and misery,
not arising from external or accidental causes, such as war, pestilence,
and or famine, nor even from any such alteration of the laws
as might be supposed to impair this boasted perfection, but from
a corrupt and wicked administration, which all the so much
admired checks of the Constitution were not able to prevent. How
vain then, how idle, how presumptuous, is the opinion, that laws
can do everything! and how weak and pernicious the maxim
founded upon it, that measures, not men, are to be attended to.

Identifier: | JB/109/132/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 109.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	109	Main Headings	Parliamentary Reform
Folio number	132	Info in main headings field	Collectanea Parly Reform Not Measures but Men! From Fox's History p. 23
Image	001	Titles
Category	Collectanea	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner		Watermarks	JOHN DICKINSON & CO 1813
Marginals		Paper Producer	A. Levy
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1813
Notes public	[[notes_public::"Copy to the end of the paragraph viz to "to be attended to." Get it onto this one page" [note in Bentham's hand]]]	ID Number	35787
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