Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/48

38 difficulties into which you have been betrayed? the destruction of one man has been now, for many years, the sole object of your government, and if there can be any thing still more disgraceful, we have seen, for such an object, the utmost influence of the executive power, and every ministerial artifice exerted without success. Nor can you ever succeed, unless he should be imprudent enough to forfeit the protection of those laws to which you owe your crown, or unless your minister should persuade you to make it a question of force alone, and try the whole strength of government in opposition to the people. The lessons he has received from experience, will probably guard him from such excess of folly; and, in your Majesty's virtues, we find an unquestionable assurance, that no illegal violence will be attempted.

from suspecting you of so horrible a design, we would attribute the continued violation of the laws, and even the last enormous attack upon the vital principles of the constitution, to an ill-advised, unworthy, personal resentment. From one false step, you have been betrayed into another; and, as the cause was unworthy of you, your ministers were