"The right of election is the very essence of the constitution. To violate that right, and, much more, to transfer it to any other set of men, is a step leading immediately to the dissolution of all government. So far forth as it operates, it constitutes a House of Commons which does not represent the people. A House of Commons so formed would involve a contradiction, and the greatest confusion of ideas; but there are some ministers, my lord, whose views can only be answered by reconciling absurdities, and making the same proposition which is false and absurd in argument true in fact."--Let. 11. I give the following dilemmas: _Paine._ "If you make the necessary demand at home, your party sinks; if you make it not, you sink yourself; to ask it now is too late, and to ask it before was too soon; and, unless it arrive quickly, will be of no use. In short, the part you have to act can not be acted."--Crisis, ii. _Junius._ "This confession reduces you to an unfortunate dilemma. By renewing your solicitations, you must either mean to force your country into a war at a most unseasonable juncture, or, having no view or expectation of that kind, that you look for nothing but a private compensation to yourself."--Let. 25. But those methods of argumentation are only a species of antithesis, and may all be reduced to the one fundamental form of comparison. This may remind us of the fact that all improvement arises from comparison, whether in language, government, or personal experience. I have one marked feature of argumentative figure to point out, and this is, _interrogation_. This is insinuation without direct attack, a sort of flank movement, when charges are made that can not be proven, or when too evident to need proof. This style is also not only common to both Mr. Paine and Junius, but so prominent that it attracts attention at once. * * * * * It is frequently the case with Mr. Paine and Junius that "_language fails_," that is, it is poured forth in such torrents of abuse that the reader is made painfully aware of it, and to recapture the mind of the reader, they artfully charge it to the impossibility of doing justice to so bad a subject. For example: _Paine._ "There are cases that can not be overdone by language, and this is one."--Crisis, i.