It then descends upon the Minister, who shelters himself under a majority in Parliament, which, by places, pensions, and corruption, he can always command; and that majority justifies itself by the same authority with which it protects the Minister.
Paine explains how responsibility in a corrupt system shifts from the monarch to ministers, who are then protected by a bribed parliamentary majority.
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The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
It was Government dethroning Government; and the old one, by attempting to make a new one, made a chasm.
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.