Scotch parliament representing the nation.  A wise prince might draw from it two lessons of equal utility to himself.  On one side he might learn to dread the undisguised resentment of a generous people who dare openly assert their rights, and who in a just cause are ready to meet their sovereign in the field.  On the other side he would be taught to apprehend something far more formidable:  a fawning treachery against which no prudence can guard, no courage can defend.  The insidious smile upon the cheek would warn him of the canker in the heart.

From the uses to which one part of the army has been too frequently applied, you have some reason to expect that there are no services they would refuse.  Here, too, we trace the partiality of your understanding.  You take the sense of the army from the conduct of the guards, with the same justice with which you collect the sense of the people from the representations of the ministry.  Your marching regiments, Sir, will not make the guards their example either as soldiers or subjects.  They feel and resent, as they ought to do, that invariable, undistinguishing favour with which the guards are treated, while those gallant troops, by whom every hazardous, every laborious service is performed, are left to perish in garrisons abroad, or pine in quarters at home, neglected and forgotten.  If they had no sense of the great original duty they owe their country, their resentment would operate like patriotism, and leave your cause to be defended by those on whom you have lavished the rewards and honours of their profession.  The Praetorian bands, enervated and debauched as they were, had still strength enough to awe the Roman populace, but when the distant legions took the alarm they marched to Rome and gave away the empire.

On this side, then, whichever way you turn your eyes, you see nothing but perplexity and distress.  You may determine to support the very ministry who have reduced your affairs to this deplorable situation; you may shelter yourself under the forms of a parliament, and set the people at defiance; but be assured, Sir, that such a resolution would be as imprudent as it would be odious.  If it did not immediately shake your establishment, it would rob you of your peace of mind for ever.

On the other, how different is the prospect!  How easy, how safe and honourable, is the path before you!  The English nation declare they are grossly injured by their representatives, and solicit your Majesty to exert your lawful prerogative, and give them an opportunity of recalling a trust which they find has been scandalously abused.  You are not to be told that the power of the House of Commons is not original, but delegated to them for the welfare of the people, from whom they received it.  A question of right arises between the constituent and the representative body.  By what authority shall it be decided?  Will your Majesty interfere in a question in which you have, properly, no immediate