Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/20

 the same chapter, where he is defining the difference between Law and some su‬ch‭ private‬ executions can be attributed to nothing‭ ‬but a in the minds of those‭ ‬who order them.

It also appears that one use of a standing Army,‭ ‬in that‭ ‬unhappy Kingdom,‭ ‬is to guard the avenues of streets to prevent the people from discovering the actors as well‭ sufferers‬ at such horrid masked tragedies as I have‭ ‬mentioned‭; ‬and therefore I cannot help remarking the‭ ‬extreme absurdity of that‭ (‬otherwise‭) s‬ensible and‭ s‬hrewd people in boasting of their national military Honour, when even large bodies of their best-disciplined‭ ‬troops,‭ ‬who are Frenchmen also by birth,‭ ‬and have the‭ ‬means in their own hands to render justice and restore‭ ‬liberty to their much‭ ‬-‭ ‬injured countrymen,‭ ‬can yet‭ ‬tamely yield themselves so far to the absolute Will of any‭ ‬man or men on earth,‭ ‬as to become silent accomplices‭ ‬(like the detestable Turkish Mutes of old‭) ‬to the horrid‭ ‬crime of wilful Murder,‭ (‬for such are the secret executions of France,‭) ‬and professed Tools for perpetrating‭ ‬the most abandoned wickedness‭! ‬To such a disgraceful‭ and slavish ‬pitch of passive obedience is that once spirited nation now reduced,‭ ‬that they seem to give up‭ ‬all pretensions to that fundamental Right of human Nature,‭ ‬which alone distinguishes men from brutes‭! ‬I mean‭ ‬the indispensable Right of judging for themselves and of‭ ‬yielding obedience to the impulse of Conscience, according to that natural knowledge of good‭ and evil w‬hich is‭ ‬implanted in all men,‭ (‬French soldiers as well as others,‭) ‬and of which they must one day render a strict account‭ ‬in a separate disbanded state,‭ ‬as individuals,‭ (‬which I have‭ ‬before remarked,‭) str‬ipped of their arms and regimentals‭!

Shall we,‭ ‬then,‭ ‬adopt the Laws of France‭? “quod ‬principi placuit?” &c. It is not impossible that such‭ ‬a measure may,‭ s‬ometime or other,‭ ‬be proposed by an‭ ‬inconsiderate Minister,‭ ‬and that a Parliament‭ (‬through‭