Edmund Burke: “Property will be most energetically restored by the ancient proprietors of that kingdom.”

This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.

It therefore secures both an hereditary crown and an hereditary allegiance.

The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.

This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.