"THE POLITICAL HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT." [e. William Hones "Let willing slaves in golden fetters lie, There's none can save the men who will to die. Yet some there are that would not tamely bow, Who fain would break their chains, if they knew how; And they, from these inspired leaves, may see How they choose bondage when they may go free." The Right Divine of Kings to govern Wrong.-Book I. 70381 DIVITIAS COMITATUR LUXUS, ET LUXUS EXIT IN TYRANNIDEM. ERASMUS. Ex regum immoderatâ libidine INJUSTA bella temerè plerumque suscipiuntur, sceleratè geruntur, turpitèr deponuntur.... In consequence of the Spirit of Despotism among Kings and Grandees, unjust wars are, for the most part, rashly undertaken, wickedly conducted, and, after all, abandoned with defeat and disgrace. BUCHANAN. The Drawing on the Title Page is by Mr. GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. 5836 Lieber Printed by W. Hone, 45, Ludgate Hill. Ir appears to me that if, unhappily, your Counsels are allowed much longer to prevail in the Brunswick Cabinet, they will bring on a Crisis, in which the King may be dethroned or the People enslaved. Experience has shown that the People will not be enslaved-the alternative is the affair of your Employers. 3 Feb. 1821. Of THE AUTHOR "The Political House that Jack Built." EDITOR'S PREFACE. THE "SPIRIT OF DESPOTISM" was privately printed at London in 1795," during the war against France, in a duodecimo volume of 360 pages, without the name of either printer or bookseller, and so effectually SUPPRESSED, that there are only two copies of it, besides my own, in existence. While the book takes a luminous view of the causes and consequences of Despotic Power, its enthusiastic and glowing love of Liberty is unexcelled by any work written since. For clearness, richness, and beauty of style, it is superior to every production of the press within the same period. All that the Author touches, he turns into Gold. I regret to say, that, most probably, I shall never be at liberty to mention his name. Naturally desirous that such a work should be perused by all England, I reprinted it verbatim, without note or comment, from my own copy, in February last; and (although containing as much in quantity as a volume of Gibbon's History of Rome; published it for eighteenpence. The only addition was giving Lord Castlereagh the honour of the Dedication above, and putting the Design on the Title, to denote that, as the fawning spaniel licks the scourge, so a free man who crouches to the oppressor, becomes a slave, and a worshipper of the lash. It is now printed on larger and better paper, to gratify a desire, frequently expressed, for a more handsome Edition. The small paper Edition will be continued on sale as usual. 23d April, 1821. |