The great restraining Statutes which exist in England have grown out of aggressions made by those in power; and were not some unusual aggressions periodically to call for the renewal of such restraints, our Constitution might slip out of our hands without our being aware of it. Such restraints as these are as necessary now as they were in ancient times; nor will the progress of civilisation or the diffusion of education ever preclude the necessity of such ever-renewed restraints. For no diffusion of the ideas of liberty, no universal admission and universal acceptance of the doctrine of personal freedom, no acuteness of perception of the necessity of political equality for the very existence of a State, can ever eradicate from the hearts of men those passions and instincts which have been, in all ages and in all countries, the cause of the destruction of liberty. For liberties are not undermined for the sake of undermining liberties. The Constitution is not attacked with the motive of destroying it; but in all ages and in all countries liberties have been undermined, and constitutions have been invaded, not for those ends directly, but for the immediate end of some private passion or some private lust which is inconsistent with public liberty, and which can only be gained by its overthrow. Let me therefore press upon my readers to remember that when we have obtained the repeal of these obnoxious Statutes, our work is then only half done. Besides that negative action, a positive action is called for, and means have to be taken to prevent the recurrence of such an invasion and such a struggle. Unless this be done, we are not safe for more than a generation. When we who have fought this battle are laid in our graves, when at some future time those who succeed us may be less vigilant or more enduring than we, and when at the same time men in power may be actuated by the same ever-recurring instincts of passion and self-interest—instincts which are always at the root of the destruction of freedom,—then our liberties may be irretrievably lost, and we shall be to blame for it, unless we have at the present crisis, as our forefathers have done, placed on the records of Parliament a solemn and binding agreement between the people and its rulers, whereby each shall be strictly bound to conform to their respective obligations.