[To mo Erma or Doi “Erscriroan
SIR,—I quite admit the force of your answer to ray letter of last week on the above. Of course, every question has two sides ; but, while admitting this, I still say that the point is a very difficult one. For instance, what is the answer to my example of the American Colonies P If you are wholly right, England was entirely right in trying to coerce them ! May I now put before you what may have escaped your notice, a quotation from the Daily News, which seems to me to bear closely on this subject. It clashes with your views :-
"The proposition that a majority of the electors is a sufficient authority for abolishing by a mere act of force any legal right or any liberty possessed by the minority is the most dangerous ever put forward in a State. It empties all law of meaning, and there- fore of reverence. No citizen can be called on to respect a law when it avowedly lies always at mercy of the caprice, the passion, or the interest of the momentarily stronger."
—I am, Sir, &c.,
J. M.
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