- I have lived to see
thirty millions of people, indignant and resolute, spurning at
slavery, and demanding liberty with an irresistible voice. Their
king led in triumph and an arbitrary monarch surrendering himself to
his subjects.*
* Another of these reverend gentlemen, who was witness to some
of the spectacles which Paris has lately exhibited, expresses
himself thus:- "A king dragged in submissive triumph by his conquering
subjects, is one of those appearances of grandeur which seldom rise in
the prospect of human affairs, and which, during the remainder of my
life, I shall think of with wonder and gratification". These gentlemen
agree marvelously in their feelings.
Before I proceed further, I have to remark that Dr. Price seems
rather to overvalue the great acquisitions of light which he has
obtained and diffused in this age. The last century appears to me to
have been quite as much enlightened. It had, though in a different
place, a triumph as memorable as that of Dr. Price; and some of the
great preachers of that period partook of it as eagerly as he has done
in the triumph of France. On the trial of the Rev. Hugh Peters for
high treason, it was deposed that, when King Charles was brought to
London for his trial, the Apostle of Liberty in that day conducted the
triumph. "I saw", says the witness, "his Majesty in the coach with six
horses, and Peters riding before the king, triumphing".
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