Vindication of the English Constitution in a Letter to a Noble and Learned Lord

Your Lordship has honoured me by a wish that some observations which I have made in conversation on the character of our constitution might be expressed in a more formal and more public m^iner. When I transmit you this long letter, I fear you may repent your friendly suggestion; but the subject has given rise to so many reflections, that I did not anticipate, that what I originally intended for a pamphlet has^ I fear, expanded almost into a volume.

The polity of England, which has established the most flouriahing society of modern ages, and regulated the destinies of a nation which, for many centuries, has made a progressive advance in the acquisition of freedom, wealth, and glory, undoubtedly presents one of the most interesting subjects of speculation in political philosophy. Nor is it one that has been neglected; and illustrious foreigners have emulated- our native authors in their treatises of the English Constitution. Our own constitutional writers may, in general, be divided into two classes: firstly, the mere antiquaries whose labours however are inestimable; and, secondly, that order of political writers who have endeavoured, in an examination of what they style the theory of the Constitution, to promulgate the opinions and maintain the interests of the party in the state in whose ranks they have been enrolled: the dissertations upon our constitution have therefore been either archaiological treatises or party manifestoes.