| | | Recorder's feelings for those | who perpetrate them. He is | | disposed to be exceedingly charitable to, or totally to | overlook, the motives of those who found it their | interest to bring about the happy Revolution. Along | with Hallam, he adores King William as a man who did | all that can be called great and good in the most | complete simplicity of motive, and without any feeling | of self-aggrandisement; and considers the imprisonment | and trial of the bishops as one of the most awful cases | of persecution, and one of the grandest exhibitions of | magnanimity, ever produced on the stage of the world. | To the mass of facts possessed by the world on the | subject, Sir James has not made any addition of great | consequence. He frequently quotes from manuscripts | left by Mr. Fox, and (it would appear) from the Stuart | papers with which he was intrusted by Government. | The narrative of interesting and important events, which | few would exchange even for the refined moral | reflections of Sir James Mackintosh, is frequently | interrupted with trains of thought on abstract subjects, | among which is a dissertation at considerable length on | the right of resistance, which shows that the author | might have been a good opponent to L'Estrange or Sir | Robert Filmer. The Editor says in the advertisement, | ~~ | | The portion written by Sir James Mackintosh | commences with some reflections on that extreme | barrenness of everything which can be dignified by the | name of public morality, which characterised the period | of the death of Charles II. It will perhaps be admitted, | that in scarcely any period of the history of any country | is there found a time at which art and force had so | completely subdued a people. In some countries tyrants | have found strength to bind their unwilling, subjects in | a chain, from which they struggle to be free; in others a | despot has calmly reigned without a murmur from | people ignorant of the existence of freedom; but here a | community, naturally of free opinions, which had | before made governors pay dear for their misconduct, | had | | been gradually and by successive steps brought under | the feet of the government, and to all human calculation, | deprived of any remainder of natural vigour, and of any | weapons by which it might ever hope to break its fetters. | The peers, as is the natural consequence of their | situation, were raised a degree higher in the scale of | power by the general oppression, and therefore they | licked the hand of the oppressor. The Commons House | was filled with retainers of Majesty, from powdered | law-officers to powdered lackeys. The Parliament of | Scotland declared that, in consideration of the manner | in which his Majesty's ancestors had for two thousand | years by their sacred authority and power, aided and | assisted by Almighty God, protected the kingdom from | foreign invasion, etcetera | . The loyal University of Oxford had decreed | submission unto Governors, which submission | , and the Church of England was not wanting in | supporting the sacredness of the hand which fed it and | buffeted its enemies. The subdued state of the nation, | and these promulgations of obedience, constitute a | starting point in the History of the Revolution, | extremely useful in considering that event. The general | subjection produced the timid measures, the treachery, | and the awful dependence on accidental events, which | characterised the struggle; while it will be seen that the | professors of the doctrine of obedience considered it | better fitted for others than themselves, and by no | means a speculative principle to be respected when it | ceased to feed and clothe themselves, and to keep them | on an eminence removed from others. The earliest facts | recorded by Sir James, are the cruelties of Kirke and | Jeffreys. If it was still doubted whether James knew | and approved of the Chief Justice's campaign, some | original matter which has been procured by the | historian would certainly place it beyond an ordinary | doubt. Part of the narrative may be worthy of quotation. | ~~ | | | | | Upon the whole there can be little doubt, that James's | guilt in these transactions is founded on pretty complete | historical evidence. As there is now no Jacobite party, | there is probably no-one | who would be prepared to | maintain his innocence; and perhaps Sir James might | have found other investigations of guilt in different | quarters, an impartial statement of which would have | done as much for the cause of truth, had the inquiry | been agreeable. The fact that James was guilty is | however not unimportant, as it is one great evidence for | sifting the real character of the man, from whom the | people, and a great mass | | of the Dissenters, would not accept the proffered gift of | religious liberty. As to what Pollexfen may have done, | there is no doubt that he was a zealous and dutiful | servant to one royal master, until he saw fit to adhere to | another; one of those rough-handed men, fit for all | descriptions of work, whom it was then not difficult to | find. That he should have made any

| "interposition,"

which Sir James seems to consider | the natural course of

"an eminent Whig lawyer," |

is not very probable, and in passing by his conduct | in the affair little seems to suggest itself, except a | feeling of humiliation that a revolution in a great nation, | affecting the state of society through hundreds of years, | should have depended in its conduct on such men. | Sir James has given in the Appendix, the Letters of the | Lord Chief Justice referred to, and as moral curiosities, | they are far more interesting than any part of the | narrative. There is a fine Salvator Rosa ruggedness in | some of the expressions. | | | | Now it is a remarkable fact, that the man who penned | this letter, would not become a Roman Catholic to | please the King, or even to promote his own interest; | for he was not and could not have hoped to be in the | councils of the Prince of Orange. The attempts to | convert obsequious courtiers, follow in the course of | the narrative; and others not less ready to serve their | master in temporal matters, were found equally | reluctant to shake the pillars of the established | Episcopal Church. Halifax, who whatever might be the | republicanism of his heart, had no objection to serve | royal masters, was early given up as hopeless. | According to a quotation from Fox's MSS, James told | Barillon, that . Perth, the Chancellor of | Scotland, found arguments sufficient to convert him to | the Roman Catholic faith in the papers produced from | the strong box of Charles II; but others were not so | courteous to the arguments of a living monarch. | | | | If James had a particle of humour in his constitution, | Churchill's coupling his own name with

"the death | of a martyr,"

must have appeared to him infinitely | grotesque. It would be difficult to discover, as | connected with history, a set of more aptly constituted | ruffians from the

"remarkable instance of a man of | honour"

downwards, that the persons thus | commemorated as refusing to become Papists. Sir | James's reflection on the subject must be quoted. ~~ | | That some men knew how to read the sign of

"the | unpopularity of the adverse cause,"

well enough to | believe that James would never be able to complete his | intentions in favour of the Roman Catholic religion, and | that on a knowledge of the effect of popular power they | calculated that their resistance might not | | go without its reward, ~~ may be true. To those who | had not so much foresight, the historian's

| "principles of honour"

have to be applied. It is | well known that all men, however flagitious, have some | restraining principle, although they may be driven a | long way into crime before they arrive at it. Italian | banditti will not insult the image of the Virgin, though | by one snatch at its ornaments, they could procure more | spoil than ten years of watching and fighting would be | likely to throw in the way; and thieves transported for | the third time, have been known to exult in never | having betrayed a comrade. Few monarchs have been | able to drive their courtiers so far back upon the secret | inclosures of their consciences, as James. In England, | Rochester's conscience could not perform all that was | wanted of it; recourse was had to Sunderland, the | barriers of whose conscience were still more hidden; he | stood a good deal of trial and exertion, but even these | barriers were at last reached, and James was obliged to | find in the person of Petre one whose conscience agreed | more exactly with his own. In Ireland, Clarendon after | many services, was obliged to yield the reward to | Tyrconnel. In Scotland, Mackenzie the King's | Advocate had been a laborious-worker in the vineyard | of royalty. He had written philosophy in maintenance | of the royal power; no respect for laws, no dictates of | humanity, had prevented him from labouring in its | support, during a great period of his life; he had boldly | struck at the highest in the land, and unweariedly | pursued to death the common people, till his name was | carried to posterity with the qualification of

"The | bloody Advocate;"

yet he too was obliged to | renounce the reward of all his labours; . He | retired to the fields and brooks, and wrote on the vanity | of ambition. | The course of the narrative shows the Legislature at last | driven to extremities by the King, and for the first time | evincing a spirit of disaffection to royal commands, on | the introduction of the scheme for abolishing the Test | and Penal Laws. When the ordinary principles of | honesty which regulate the conduct of men are gone, | their consciences are found acting strange parts, and if a | stranger could be presented with a narrative of these | events without initiating him into party feelings, it | would be curious to hear his reflections on the | circumstance, that the Legislature could not be roused | to vindicate its independence, until it was proposed to | establish liberty of conscience. James finding his loyal | Lords and Commons unwilling to aid him in the | business, resolved to do it himself. This was a period | of difficulty for well-thinking men, and for those who | were not persecutors. In the course | | of his investigations on this part of the subject, Sir | James has discovered something to the honour of the | Bar. The celebrated addresses from the Middle and | Inner Temple, published in the Gazette, are not found | on an investigation of the Records, and are therefore | presumed to be forgeries. , says the author, | . If the addresses were not voted ~~ and the | forgery of them would certainly have been a very vain | piece of trouble ~~ the act of publishing them was one | of those impertinent liberties which the monarch would | not have taken with a body likely to resent or gainsay it. | But of all the sets of men, the situation of the Dissenters | at that critical period was perhaps the most trying. That | after thousands of their numbers had rotted in jails, they | should have accepted the Declaration of Indulgence is | natural; that they should have thanked the giver was not | less so; and it is even wonderful that a calculation of | distant consequences should have prevented the country | from ringing with their acclamations. Many not only | accepted the boon, but returned congratulatory | addresses. Of these some may have conceived that the | toleration granted was sincere; others may have been | willing to accept a helping hand to lift them to a | situation where by being placed more nearly on a level | with their persecutors they might be better able to | defend themselves from attacks, whether from | Episcopalians or Catholics; others may have rejoiced at | the downfall of the Church of England; as among those | who declined the boon, there may have been few whose | hatred of the ascendancy of the Church of Rome | overcame all other feelings. Sir James says ~~ | | | But to resist the importunities for congratulatory | addresses, was not the only act of those Dissenters who | foresaw the natural event of James's proceedings, or | objected to the laws being made and unmade by the | King. History has been as unmindful at the | Episcopalian church proved itself ungrateful, regarding | their support in the opposition of the bishops. James | when he called upon the clergymen to read his | Declaration, probably little dreamed that they would | resist. They had done such things before, but not where | the command tended to undermine the Established | Church. In compliance with an order in council, they | had read Charles the Second's apologies for the | dissolution of his two last Parliaments, on one of which | occasions the King had censured a Resolution against | the prosecution of Protestant Dissenters. They had read | the declaration of Charles on the Rye-House Plot, and | thereby sanctioned the shedding of blood. But James | did not clearly see the distinction of the two sets of | cases. The church was placed in considerable | perplexity. There was a choice of two measures, ~~ | either to obey the King without according to | Jeffreys's term, give up all religious prejudices, and | trust to the reward which would follow when James | should be able to make the whole nation equally | subservient to his will, ~~ or trust to the power of the | Church Establishment, as a protector to those who | should do their best to preserve its privileges | immaculate, and keep the monopoly in existence in | preference to one in expectancy. The consciences of | the prelates were generally in favour of the latter | alternative; and those who had any foresight might have | seen from the disposition of the people, its | preferableness in a prudential view. Yet they vacillated, | and their ultimate decision was perhaps partly owing to | accident. Sir James gives the following sketch of their | councils, in which he adopts the Livy-like plan of | supplying them with arguments, and certainly shows | considerable knowledge of, and sympathy with, the | reasons which an English bishop has for supporting an | established church. | | | | | Strange analogies are often made by the students of | history; and many have not hesitated to compare the | wrangling of this conclave of priests trying to discover | whether it was a better plan for the support of their | episcopal hierarchy, to do as they were bid by a Roman | Catholic King or to do otherwise and trust to his | feebleness, ~~ to Pym's Charge of Grievances, or | Hampden's Trial. Admitting all merit to their resistance | which the most high-flown constitutionalist can claim, | still they encouraged the evil before they tried to stem it. | The doctrines which they had inculcated against the | people, were an invitation of the blow directed against | themselves; and it was not till the tyranny they had | fostered approached their own door, that they gave it a | trembling opposition. But it will appear from reflection | on the above passage, that James had not so very far | miscalculated the obedience of that church which he | had previously eulogized as favourable to monarchy. | L'Estrange, who seems much puzzled how to connect | the cause and effect of the matter, remarked at the time, | | | . Sir James complains that the Scotch bishops | were wanting at this juncture in the support of | episcopacy, and that they were to be found among the | enemies of the English Church; but he should have | considered the different situations of the two | establishments. That of Scotland was a pent-up | garrison, which warred with and devastated the country | round. A bishop's hand was against every man, and | every man's hand against him. Such prelates had no | room in their philosophy for the question whether it | was fit to obey a King to the extent of toleration; | without his assistance they would fall headlong from | their eminence, but with his assistance they would be | able to keep up a hierarchy of some sort or other; so | after two of them had been suspended for preaching | against papacy, the rest profited by their example, and | held forth the hand of friendship to those whose blood | they had for years been seeking. Nor were there | wanting among those who held rich benefices in the | Church of England, some who would willingly have | gratified the King. It appears that the poorer clergy | made the sturdier resistance. | | With the usual attempt at theatrical effect which has | been repeated with variations from the days of Hume | downwards, Sir James tries to rival precursors in a | description of the conveyance of the bishops to the | Tower, their imprisonment and trial, detailing all the | minute circumstances of their magnanimity, down to | their refusal of the usual fees because they had been | treated with unpoliteness in the Tower. It is true these | men were imprisoned, suffered some annoyances, and | were brought to a trial a not improbable consequence of | which was, that | | they might have been compelled finally to yield with | some ignominy. But their having brought the blow on | their own heads by assisting in the attacks upon the | people, would itself be sufficient to disentitle them to | all sympathy. But another consideration here obtrudes | itself. For many years previously, thousands of the | Dissenters and Roman Catholics had, without the pomp | of processions or of public martyrdom, been hurried to | secret dungeons, where their lives were protracted | through scene of unknown and unnoticed misery, or | terminated by the most terrible of all deaths, the | wasting of the body in an unwholesome dungeon. Penn | said that during the reigns of James and Charles, more | than 5000 persons had died in bonds for matters of | mere conscience; ~~ and all this was done by the men, | whose triumphant procession to prison, their | intercourse with all the most powerful persons in the | country while there, and final acquittal, are held up to | the world as a series of noble resistance and final | triumph from the excellence of their cause. But there is | still another aspect in which the conduct of the Church | has to be viewed, ~~ that of treachery. Along with the | other support which the bishops received from the | Dissenters, they were visited by ten Nonconformist | clergymen in the Tower. After their acquittal they | entered into regular terms with the Dissenters, which | were foully broken. ~~ | | | | Even before they had an opportunity of making a | legislative resistance to the claim of the Dissenters for | the performance of their promises, they showed a | disposition to shake off such unwelcome auxiliaries. | The establishment of a Calvinistic king, they dreaded | more than that of a Roman Catholic. At the landing of | the Prince of Orange the poor bishops were put to a | most severe trial of ecclesiastical logic, ~~ Calvinism | on the one hand, Papistry on the other. But being | promised the restoration of their own privileges, they | preferred him who considered the Episcopal church | favourable to monarchy, and left the people and the | Dissenters to fight their own battles. So much for the | conduct of the bishops in this memorable transaction. It | is probable that they were personally men just of | ordinary virtue, and that all parts of their history arose | from the situation in which they were placed, and from | their not being above, rather than from their being | inferior to ordinary men. There was one at least whose | heart was surely good, whatever may be said of his | head. Bishop Kenn had been long the advocate, if not | of anything approaching to toleration, at least of mercy; | and he had frequently opposed the unjust acts of that | prince, in pertinacious adherence to whose divine right | he gave up his honours. Nor should it be forgotten, that | Sancroft vindicated his opinions by a similar sacrifice. | The motives of James have afforded, and so long as the | subject continues to be of any interest, will afford, | matter for ceaseless speculation and discussion by | historians. It is perhaps impossible for any candid man | to say he has made up his mind, so as not to have any | stray doubts of the accuracy of his opinion on the | subject. Sir James Mackintosh says, ~~ | | | | The sentiments of the author of the Continuation are of | a somewhat more decided nature, but it will be seen | that many of them are founded more on an angry | contempt for the opinions which have been maintained | by Sir James Mackintosh and others, than on a calm | consideration of the facts. | | | | That many historians, and among the rest Sir James | Mackintosh, have made his being of the Roman | Catholic persuasion a constituent part of the | mal-administration of James, ~~ is true; though very few | people will now support the fallacy. But admitting that | James was as much entitled to be a Roman Catholic as | to be of any other persuasion, still there was danger to | the people in the circumstance of his being so. Because | Fenelon was liberal in France, it is not at all to be | presumed that James would improve the charity of the | Anglican Church from his being a Catholic. Leaving | the question of his absolute aims with regard to his | Church, it cannot be overlooked that his principles were | despotic, ~~ that despots like to bring their subjects | over to their own opinions, ~~ and that in nothing are | they so zealous to make their faithful people think right | and along with themselves, as in matters of religion. It | must be allowed too, that at that period the Roman | Catholic Church was a more dangerous one for a | monarch to be a member of, than the Episcopalian. Not | because it made him more illiberal; but because it was a | more full-grown hierarchy, and from the state of | Europe invested Kings with greater powers for fighting | against the people. That he was a dangerous man from | being a Roman Catholic, was not the fault of James | himself, but of that government which allowed the | speculative opinions of one man so far to affect the | community. | | | | Setting aside the question of the motives of the Whigs, | if these arguments are merely used against the Bishops, | who never disobeyed the King till he called on them for | tolerance, they may be very sound. If they are | arguments against the act of driving James from the | Throne and chusing the Prince of Orange as the better | alternative, their soundness may be disputed. Arguing | from previous circumstances, ~~ and from previous | circumstances a nation must argue on the character of | its monarch, just as a master does on that of his | | servant, ~~ there is every reason to presume that if | James had thought his measures would stop at the | establishment of toleration, he never would have | commenced them. During his administration in | Scotland, he was a most zealous agent in the | persecution of the Presbyterians, and effected acts of | more extended scrutiny into private conduct than | Lauderdale had ever been able to achieve. Among his | acts was the prosecution of Argyle, which he has | himself condescended to vindicate on the ground that | he wanted, not his life, but his money. He considered | the Presbyterian religion not favourable to monarchy; | ~~ it is indeed probable that he may have looked on the | Episcopal persuasion as worthy of comparative | protection, from being in this respect the better of the | two. On his accession, the sword of persecution was | not sheathed. In his letter to the Scotch Parliament of | 1685, he hopes to be able to protect of his | subjects . In conformity with this declaration, | Woodrow and others have recorded many instances | which show that the mantle of Charles had not departed. | A fierce Presbyterian who took advantage of the | Indulgence to vent his long boiling wrath, records his | sense of James's mercies in these pithy sentences. | | . James had more subservient and more powerful | friends in Scotland, than he had in England, and | accordingly his attempts to procure indulgence were | more distinctly in favour of the Roman Catholics, for he | was in a situation more explicitly to express his wishes. | In a communication to the Parliament of 1686, in which | he proposes an oblivion to the unslaughtered remainder | of the adherents of Argyle, he says | | . James was unfortunate again in his calculations | of the extent to which royal authority could give urge to | toleration. The Parliament which never disobeyed him | in persecution, debated his request for indulgence, and | modified their acquiescence to the extent of what their |

"conscience"

would permit. The declaration | of liberty of conscience which he then proclaimed in | Scotland, made considerable distinctions in the license | it permitted. This document bears that, , | . | | These circumstances are alluded to, not for the purpose | of maintaining that the declaration of indulgence ought | to have been rejected, supposing the country entirely at | the will of the King and able to do nothing but simply | receive or reject it; but for the purpose of showing that | notwithstanding the declarations of indulgence, James | was altogether a person of whom the sooner the people | got rid the better. The author of the Continuation has | some singular remarks on his stretches of power. ~~ | | | | That of a suppositious heir, was certainly one of the | most despicable excuses ever adopted by men | transferring their service from a falling master to one | who was rising. This point has been given up by the | strongest admirers of the principles of the Revolution; | but it has been the custom of historians to throw a | hideous glare over all the acts of misgovernment | committed by James, that the comparative superiority | of William's reign may appear glorious in relief, and the | infamy of his adherents be overlooked. Yet it is paltry | to vituperate through page after page, the insane | misgovernment of James. James had recourse to | Parliaments and Judges, because no Prince however | arbitrary, can do all things himself. He must have his | machinery of government and his working men, to | whom it will be his business to teach his views. He | accomplished what he wished, by disfranchising | incorporations, closeting Members, and chusing Judges | who would do what they were ordered. That only four | Judges were nominated by him before the case of | Colonel Hales, was simply because the other eight were | persons he could trust to. He found Judges very | convenient people, and would perhaps have had no | objection to have depended on them for his revenue, | instead of on the House of Commons. That he | vacillated for some time between a compliant House of | Commons and the use of force, is pretty clear. Sir | James Mackintosh, with a reference to Fox's MSS, says, | ~~ | | | William does not appear on the stage before almost the | concluding pages of Sir James Mackintosh's portion of | the history. Although there is no direct picture of his | character, it is evident that Sir James intended to have | adorned it. The terms of respect used towards him are | so scattered among miscellaneous matters, that it is | difficult to quote a characteristic passage. The | following may be more properly termed a hint of the | opinion which the author is to give, than simply an | opinion. ~~ | | The character of William is perhaps more easily | understood than that of James, for it is of a far more | ordinary description. That he had talents of a very high | order, and that they were carefully cultivated, few are | prepared to deny. In most good qualities, indeed, he | was somewhat above the average of kings in general. | His honesty, when contrasted with that of courtiers | whom he came to lead, appears in a favourable view, | yet his morality was, in all respects, that of kings. At | the battle of St. Denis, he showed no more regard for | treaties, than what is generally paid, by making a | calculation of the ultimate advantage of keeping or | breaking them. In not endeavouring to bring to | punishment the murderers of the De Witts, he showed | that he could excuse those who committed crimes | favourable to his own advancement, or that he could | abstain from doing justice when it was his interest to | avoid it. He certainly countenanced what he must have | known to be a falsehood, when he admitted it to be said | that one of the grounds of his interference was the | imposition of a false heir to the crown, and Sir James | Mackintosh has not been able to disprove, what must | naturally be presumed from the circumstances, that he | passively countenanced the expedition of Monmouth. | He was in all respects | | an ambitious man, and of despotical inclinations. But | he was a despot of a different order from the Stuarts. | Instead of a wish to be surrounded by slaves breathing | fictions of divine right, he chose to be the leader and | governor of a country exerting great energies at home | and abroad, and by his own endeavours and their | success increasing his power. It is only, however, in | contrast that he appears a great man; and considering | his education, his good sense, and the examples so | vividly set before him, he certainly went as far in | indulging the lust of power, as he can be presumed with | any prudence to have gone. His dissolution of the | Parliament which refused the revenue for life, and his | sealed orders to increase the forces beyond the vote of | the Commons, are acts too much resembling those, | from the consequences of which he has received the | credit of saving the country. When a king, at least one | of William's power, gives his veto to an act of the | legislature, he may not commit an act so inimical to | liberty as is generally imagined; but by negativing the | Bill for free and impartial proceedings in Parliament, he | at least insulted the country. Mr. Hallam says ~~ | | Few men had persons about him more proper objects of | suspicion and distrust; but the situation in which he was | placed, and the causes of his succession, are the very | worst excuses for his exercise of arbitrary power | against the people. He has been praised for his | liberality in religion; ~~ he certainly did not exhibit a | disposition to be an active persecutor. When the | Presbyterians of Scotland, mad with success, wished | that he should bind himself by his coronation oath to | root out heretics, he answered that he would not | become a persecutor; and the Irish Catholics obtained | from him terms, better perhaps than most Protestant | princes would feel inclined to grant. On the other hand, | he wanted either courage or will to free the English | Dissenters, and resigned the subject after the first | opposition, without the tithe of the anxiety which he | displayed about his Dutch guards. On his religious | toleration, the author of the Continuation makes some | just remarks. ~~ | | | Again ~~ | | The term

"level"

is peculiarly applicable; ~~ | he did not carry his liberality beyond what was infused | into him by education. It is unnatural that he should | have shown much persecuting bigotry. A bishop of the | Church of England, however zealous, would be startled | by the proposal of an Inquisition, and a Presbyterian | does not dream of an Ecclesiastical Commission. | The author of the Continuation paints with considerable | force and spirit, and with no sparing hand, the conduct | of those whose fate it was, in changing masters, to bring | about the Revolution. ~~ | | Excepting Churchill and Godolphin, both of whom | were unmatched in their vocation, Halifax appears to | have been one of the most brazen of revolutionists. ~~ | | | | But others of smaller talent were not undistinguished by | similar exhibitions of the art of changing masters. ~~ | | Among those who are combining in aid of despotism, | there can indeed be no honesty; they are persons | content to join in the subversion of all freedom, on the | chance that it may turn out to them to have more slaves | under them, than they have masters above, and such | being their principle of action, | no-one can depend on | their services, if it is possible for him to be outbid. A | sad and humbling lesson is taught to human nature, | | when it is seen how speedily and effectually the united | vice and folly of the governor and of his servants, could | subvert all principles of public spirit and of morality, | and make a nation, which not thirty years before was | moral and well governed at home, and feared abroad, at | once an object of detestation and of contempt to Europe. | Nor did the effects of

"the Happy Restoration" |

terminate with the reigns of the two wretched | brothers. The poison which they had infused into the | vitality of government engendered diseases, of which it | is hard to say when it was, or rather | will be cured. When a strong party at court was | offended, and a grand object of aristocratic respect was | struck at by the king, a foreign prince was called over | without stipulation. By those who were most earnest | for the necessity of a change of government, he would | have been allowed to reign as untrammeled as his | predecessors; and chance and subsequent opposition | brought about the few partial pledges with which the | nation was content from the individual to whom it had | given the crown. It remained for the reign of the new | monarch to exhibit the most renowned specimens of | treachery that human genius has ever achieved. To | govern men who were only fit to be the tools or victims | of prerogative, methods of deception and corruption | were devised which arbitrary governments do not | require, and free governments do not know; but which | in this country have become part of the morality of the | land, and still vegetate in great measure undecayed.