19 June 1811

Abdication

Blackstone

5

9

35

The doctrine thus delivered is as from so pure and unexceptionable a source, let us apply it to the case of the Honourable House.

No office consists in a share of the supreme power in the state, and forasmuch as among the duties of it is that of superintending the conduct of the holder of that other branch of the supreme power which in one /some/ points of view may be said to be the highest, it is not without its pretensions to the character /stile and title/ of the highest also.

Now, Sir in relation to this office of supreme controul, the position /positions/ I have to maintain is /are/ that by the present holders of it, it has been forfeited, forfeited both /not only/ by misuser and non-user: forfeited and not only forfeited but moreover abdicated: by misuser /non-user/ as well as by non-user /mis-user/ forfeited, by non-user not only forfeited but abdicated beyond all descent: forfeited and abdicated, not to speak of that other mode of {dereliction} which to some eyes might seem applicable to the purpose and which consists in the “surrender of its franchises into the hands of the King, which,” according to our Commentator “is a kind of suicide”.