The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

We confess ourselves at a loss how to act, or in what language to express our sentiments of the dreadful crisis to which the madness of faction has brought us. We are now brought to the precipice of our fate; and the question is, whether we shall for two days more enjoy the constitution which has for so long a time made us the pride and envy of the world? The branch of the legislature which is our own—that branch which flows from us, which is in fact ourselves—by which we speak, by which we have individually our shares in framing the laws, and imposing the burthens that are necessary for the maintenance of the community—that branch is the evidence, the criterion of our freedom. Our house of commons is that which makes us different from, and lifts us above, all other nations. Take that from the English constitution, and what remains to make us free? To degrade it from its office, rank, and utility in the legislature, is as complete an overthrow of our liberties, as to annihilate it altogether. France has its parliaments, and those parliaments have the exercise of the tongue—They frequently speak a spirited language, but what avails it? In the end they register the edicts by which the slaves are governed.

Can we forget the memorable expressions of the Earl of Wetmorland, who in moving for an address to the King after the riots in the year 1780, said "that it ought to excite the most grateful acknowledgements from every man, that his Majesty had not taken the opportunity of the confusion to imitate the example of the King of Denmark, and seize on the liberties of the people." The noble Earl was censured for supposing it possible that such an idea could be formed.