Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/512

 498 IV. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY " the stones. I would not violate with modern polish the " ingenuous and noble roughness of these truly constitu- " tional materials. Tampering is the odious vice of restless " and unstable minds. I put my foot in the tracks of our " forefathers, where I can neither wander nor stumble. " What the law has said, I say. In all things else I am " silent. I have no organ but for her words. If this be " not ingenious, I am sure it is safe." Again, in 1791, speaking of the English Constitution, Burke says : — "We ought to understand this admired Constitution (of " England) according to our measure, combining admiration " with knowledge if we can, and to venerate even where we " are not able presently to comprehend." ^ Than this nothing can be more opposed to Bentham's mode of thought, since he would take nothing for granted, and would not, he said, admit murder or arson or any other act to be wrong unless it could be shown by reasoning to be so. I find in Henry Crabb Robinson's Diary ^ another contemporary illustration of the difficulty of attacking things established, so pertinent that it will excuse its irreverence. He relates that in 1788 a deputation of distin- guished men waited on Lord Chancellor Thurlow to secure his support in their attempt to obtain the repeal of the Cor- poration and Test Act. The Chancellor received them very civilly, and then said : " Gentlemen, I'm against you, by " G —. I am for the Established Church, d — me ! Not " that I have any more regard for the Established Church " And if you can get your d — d religion established, I'll be " for that too ! " This national peculiarity, as well as the natural conservatism of the bar, had been greatly intensified by the French Revolution. As late as 1808 Sir Samuel Romilly, speaking of his own parliamentary labors and dis- couraging experience, says : " If any person be desirous of » Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs. Burke's Works, voL ir., p. 213 (Little, Brown, & Co.'s Ed.).
 * ' than for any other church, but because it is established.
 * having an adequate Idea of the mischievous effects which
 * "Vol. i., chap. XV,, American Ed., p. 243.