Thomas Paine: “They sprung not from the filth of rotten boroughs, nor are they the vassal representatives of aristocratical ones.”

The meaning, then, good people, of all this, is: That government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases.

A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was wanting to give it real existence was opportunity.

The Parliaments on their part insisted that they had not only a right to remonstrate, but to reject; and on this ground they were always supported by the nation.

Nothing can be more terrible to a Court or Courtier than the Revolution of France.