Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/106

96 and blushed at his own baseness, and every man was astonished

interest of the public was vigorously supported in the house of lords. Their right to defend the constitution against an incroachment of the other estates, and the necessity of exerting it at this period, was urged to them with every argument, that could be supposed to influence the heart or the understanding. But it soon appeared, that they had already taken their part, and were determined to support the house of commons, not only at the expense of truth and decency, but even by a surrender of their own most important rights. Instead of performing that