The History and Proceedings of the House of Lords from the Restoration in 1660 to the Present Time: Containing the Most Remarkable Motions, Speeches, Debates, Orders and Resolutions, Volume 5

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Page 210 - ... there are two different colours, but we cannot easily discover where the one ends, or where the other begins. There can be no great and immediate danger from the licentiousness of the stage. I hope it will not be pretended, that our Government may, before next winter, be overturned by such licentiousness, even though our stage were at present under no sort of control.
Page 214 - Tis true, the Court had, at that Time, a great deal of Wit; it was then indeed full of Men of true Wit and great Humour; but it was the more dangerous; for the Courtiers did then, as thorough-paced Courtiers always will do, they sacrificed their...
Page 216 - ... where they may be detained for fourteen days, and even then he may find them returned as prohibited goods, by which his chief and best market will be for ever shut against him, and that without any cause, without the least shadow of reason, either from the laws of his country, or the laws of the stage.
Page 216 - Cause, without the least Shadow of Reason, either from the Laws of his Country, or the Laws of the Stage. These Hardships, this Hazard, which every Gentleman will be exposed to who writes any thing for the Stage, must certainly prevent every Man of a generous and free Spirit from attempting any Thing in that Way; and as the Stage has always been the proper Channel for Wit and Humour, therefore, my Lords, when I speak against this Bill, I must think I plead the Cause of Wit, I plead the Cause of Humour,...
Page 203 - ... instil into the minds of the vulgar and ignorant such enthusiastical notions as are inconsistent with all government, by making sedition and rebellion a principle of their religion.
Page 154 - That an humble addrefs be prefented to his majefty, that he will be gracioufly pleafed to give directions...
Page 218 - Constitution of every free Country, for warning the People of their Danger. When these preparatory Steps are once made, the People may then, indeed, with Regret see Slavery and arbitrary Power making long Strides over their Land, but it will then be too late to think of preventing or avoiding the impending Ruin.
Page 209 - One of the greatest blessings we enjoy, one of the greatest blessings a people, my lords, can enjoy, is liberty ; but every good, in this life, has its alloy of evil. Licentiousness is the alloy of liberty : it is an ebullition, an excrescence : it is a speck upon the eye of the political body, which I can never touch but with a gentle, with a trembling hand, lest I destroy the body, lest I injure the eye upon which it is apt to appear.
Page 215 - Throne, on account of his Religion. — The City of London too, was made to feel the partial and mercenary Licentiousness of the Stage at that Time; for the Citizens having at that Time, as well as now, a great Deal of Property, they had a Mind to preserve that Property, and therefore they opposed some of the arbitrary Measures which were then begun, but pursued more openly in the following Reign; for which...
Page 209 - ... it is a speck upon the eye of the political body, which I can never touch but with a gentle, with a trembling hand, lest I destroy the body, lest I injure the eye upon which it is apt to appear. If the stage becomes at any time licentious, if a play appears to be a libel upon the Government, or upon any particular man, the King's Courts are open, the law is...