Thomas Paine: “Even those who possessed them have disowned the gibberish, and as they outgrew the rickets, have despised the rattle.”

It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.

The animosity of the English nation, it is very well remembered, ran high; and, had the true principles of Liberty been as well understood then as they now promise to be, it is probable the Nation would not have patiently submitted to so…

The Aristocracy had hitherto opposed the despotism of the Court, and affected the language of patriotism; but it opposed it as its rival (as the English Barons opposed King John) and it now opposed the nation from the same motives.

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