SPEECH ON THE MIDDLESEX ELECTION
FEBRUARY, 1771
Mr. Speaker,--In every complicated Constitution (and every free
Constitution is complicated) cases will arise, when the several
orders of the State will clash with one another, and disputes will
arise about the limits of their several rights and privileges. It
may be almost impossible to reconcile them.
Carry the principle on by which you expelled Mr. Wilkes, there is
not a man in the House, hardly a man in the nation, who may not be
disqualified. That this House should have no power of expulsion is
a hard saying. That this House should have a general discretionary
power of disqualification is a dangerous saying. That the people
should not choose their own representative, is a saying that shakes
the Constitution. That this House should name the representative,
is a saying which, followed by practice, subverts the constitution.
They have the right of electing, you have a right of expelling; they
of choosing, you of judging, and only of judging, of the choice.
What bounds shall be set to the freedom of that choice? Their right
is prior to ours, we all originate there.
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