... he would have been brought to exemplary punishment in the ordinary course of justice, had he not eluded it by corrupting evidence and withdrawing a witness. If this reasoning be just, the house of commons has a right to act in diametrical opposition to the laws in being; and is vested with a despotic power over the lives and fortunes of their constituents, for whose protection they are constituted. Let us therefore reflect upon the possibility of a parliament debauched by the arts of corruption into servile compliance ... — The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett
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