LORDS AND THE PEOPLE; OR THE PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT ILLUSTRATED, UNDER THE CONNEXION OF RELIGION WITH THE STATE, AND NOBILITY IN BRITAIN: WHEREIN THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE GRECIAN INDEPENDENCE, AND THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, ARE APPLIED TO THE POLICY OF THE PRESENT TIMES; AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION DISPLAYED UNDER THE CHRISTIAN COVENANT. WITH A VINDICATION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. BY WILLIAM HENRY C. GREY, Esq. = Ιδμεν ψευδέα πολλα λεγειν ετυμοισιν όμοια· 1δμεν δ', ευτ' εθελωμεν, αληθεα μυθήσασθαι. HESIOD. LONDON: W. EDWARDS, 12, AVE MARIA LANE; PARKER, OXFORD; STEVENSON, CAMBRIDGE OLIVER & BOYD, ΤΟ HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY THE KING. SIRE, IMPELLED by a due sense of deferential respect and loyalty to your Majesty's Royal Person, and to the high dignity and grave importance of your official station, and kingly prerogatives, as the Monarch of this powerful and intelligent Christian Kingdom, I have presumed to dedicate the accompanying pages to your Majesty as the supreme head of the State; and I feel, on public grounds, that I should have been wanting in the duty I owed your Majesty, as an Englishman and a subject, had I permitted myself to withhold the frank expression of my conscientious opinions, in sustenance of the import ant premises adduced, at this, the most eventful, and interesting epoch of English history. The fundamental interests of the British constitutional monarchy, its Church and State connexion-the safety of your Majesty's Crown—the integrity of the Protestant Faith-the independence of the hereditary Peeragethe honour of the Commons, and the continuation of the happiness of all classes of your people, and their posterity, are subjects for discussion, which admit of no fastidious reserve, in the needful declaration of principles, founded on the sacred immutability of Truth, at a crisis so momentous; and, when the maintenance of that constitutional authority and those very principles, under which the religion, true liberties, and protective immunities of the inhabitants of these Protestant realms, call so loudly for the united energies of the great, the loyal, and the good, by one combined effort, for one mighty purpose, to arrest the levelling career of evil-to preserve the choice inheritance, which has been transmitted to us by our Christian forefathers! The present position, and marked hostility of political parties, on questions affecting the temporal interests, and the religious faith, of Millions of your Majesty's subjects, connected with civil and ecclesiastical legislation, cannot be otherwise than truly distressing to your Majesty ; but, I trust it may please God, that your Majesty will, ere long, behold that combined Christian Institution, at once the work of ages, and the object of your deep solicitude, and warm affection, sustained with becoming piety and devotion of purpose, both within the Senate and without, triumphant over infidelity, and rising from envy and from persecution, armed with improved power, and shining in increased splendour ! The individual, Sire, who has the boldness to declare the truth, in the present state of public feeling, events, and opinion, may, by the candid avowal of that very truth, become liable to the charge of sinister motives—of illiberal views, or arrogant pretensions, thus, the task may be rendered painful in its execution, yet, the conviction of rectitude of purpose, should encourage the hope of success-give the assurance of utility, and open the prospect of honourable reward, in the good opinion of virtuous and estimable men; whilst it should sustain, with independent pride, the full and free performance of a 3 |