John Morrison Davidson

“ At his trial Charles vainly declined to recognize the authority of the court, on the silly pretext that he himself was "the fountain of all law." "If you are the fountain of all law," curtly observed Bradshaw, "the people are the source of all rights." When the Cromwellian coup d'etat took place. Sir Peter Wentworth was, I think, the last man in the House to protest against the violence offered to the representatives of the people; and Bradshaw afterwards told the military usurper to his face, "We have heard what you did, and all England shall know it. ”

“ The American Republic is substantially Sir Charles's "Greater Britain," to which he foresees the hegemony of the English-speaking race is ultimately destined to fall. He believes in the possibility of one omnipotent, all-embracing federation of English-speaking men, of which the United States shall at once supply both the nucleus and the model. ”

“ Sir, you are mistaken in thinking Parliament is dissolved. No power under heaven can dissolve them but themselves. Take you notice of that."
One of Sir Peter Wentworth's sisters was married to Bradshaw's brother; while another, Sybil Wentworth, became the wife of Fisher Dilke, from which union the distinguished representative of Chelsea in Parliament is lineally descended. ”

“ There can be no doubt that royalty was alarmed, that its numerous hangers-on were alarmed, and that the privileged classes generally, whose own existence depends on the maintenance of the monarchical superstition as an article of the popular faith, were thoroughly alarmed.
"Kings most commonly," says Milton, "though strong in legions, are but weak at argument, as they who have ever been accustomed from their cradle to use their will only as their right hand, their reason always as their left. Whence, unexpectedly constrained to that kind of combat, they prove but weak and puny adversaries." ”

“ The anti-monarchical sympathies of the Dilkes, like those of the Taylors, are at least as much inherited as acquired. No fewer than three of the Dilke ancestry were among the judges of Charles I.; viz., the resolute Bradshaw, who presided over the High Court of Justice, Sir Peter Wentworth, and Cawley. All were stem foes of "one-man government," whether that one man were the "divine right" Charles Stuart, or the Puritan Bonaparte, Oliver Cromwell. ”

“ Nay, may it not even be doubted whether in some respects we have not even lost ground? Have we not still bishops thrusting down our throats articles of religion which neither they nor we can understand? ”

“ With respect to the Zulu war, in the session of 1879, he was intrusted with the lead in opposition to the Government policy,—a sufficient indication of the respect entertained for his judgment in critical issues.
In every department he is a friend of economy. In Parliament he is ever vigilant, and never fussy. When he speaks, it is always to contribute some new fact or unused argument to the debate ”

“ To him opposition from men or things is of exactly the same character. It is something to be overcome by patience and pressure in the line of the least resistance. In other words, the member for Chelsea is lacking in sympathy. He is fitted to become a great parliamentary leader rather than a popular agitator. His political aims, it is true, are much the same as were those of passionate old Peter Wentworth, his ancestor ”

“ He has visited every English-speaking corner of the globe, is thoroughly conversant with the condition of our Indian Empire, and is better acquainted with the language, literature, people, and government of Russia than any man in the House. ”

“ If, with all these endowments, he should fail in the not distant future to achieve great things for his country, both I and many other observant sympathizere, "whose judgment cries in the top of mine," will feel just cause for sore disappointment. ”

“ Whoso preferreth it she will be offended with him.' The other, a message is brought into the House either commanding or inhibiting, very injurious to the freedom of speech and consultation. I would to God these rumors and messages were buried in hell; for wicked they are: the Devil was the first author of them, from whom proceedeth nothing but wickedness. ”

“ He is perhaps the first thoroughly competent Englishman who has ever seen and described the men. manners, and institutions of the United States as they really are, and not as they are wont to appear to the jaundiced e^e of national jealousy and aristocratic aversion. ”