" He now exercised a
more despotic tyranny than this nation suffered either from her Danish
or Norman conquerors. He confined the elective franchise to himself,
creating what he called Parliaments for the sole purpose of making them
ridiculous, and then turning out his mock-legislators with contempt. He
alternately punished and provoked every party; even his own agents and
creatures could not escape his apprehensive suspicions, which, by
indulgence, engendered an insatiable thirst of blood. Yet, combining
great qualities with the meanest vices--the policy of an Augustus and
the enterprize of a Trajan with the dissimulation of Tiberius and the
cruelty of Domitian, he at once awed and dazzled surrounding nations,
and while he subjugated, exalted his own. Never was England more
respected than when unlimited power, undaunted courage, and persevering
activity placed all her resources in the hands of a man who, scarcely
ranked by birth in the patrician order, could make every European
sovereign tremble on his throne.
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