第5章 Letter II(2)

The state was subverted,instead of being reformed;and all the fury of faction and enthusiasm was employed to destroy the constitution to the very foundations.

A natural consequence followed.If the principles of King James'and King Charles'reigns had been disgraced by better,they would not have risen again:

but they were only kept down for a time by worse;and therefore they rose again at the Restoration,and revived with the monarchy.Thus that epidemical taint,with which King James infected the minds of men,continued upon us:

and it is scarce hyperbolical to say,that this prince hath been the original cause of a series of misfortunes to this nation,as deplorable as a lasting infection of our air,of our water,of our earth,would have been.The spirit of his reign was maintained in that of his son (for how could it well be otherwise,when the same ministers were continued in power?),and the events of both produced the civil war.The civil war ended in the death of the King,and the exile of his family.The exile of these princes reconciled them to the religion of Rome,and to the politics of foreign nations,in such degrees as their different characters admitted.Charles sipped a little of the poisonous draught,but enough however to infect his whole conduct.As for James,Ille impiger hausit Spumantem pateram,he drank the chalice off to the lowest and foulest dregs.

That principles as absurd as those in their nature,and as terrible in their consequences,such as would shock the common sense of a Samovede,or an Hottentot,and had just before deluged the nation in blood,should come into vogue again at the Restoration,will not appear strange to those who carry themselves back as it were to that point of time.The wounds of the civil war were bleeding,and the resentments of the cavaliers,who came into power at court and in Parliament,were at their height.No wonder then if few men had,in such a ferment as this,penetration enough to discern,or candour enough to acknowledge,or courage enough to maintain,that the principles we speak of were truly and primarily the cause of all their misfortunes.

The events,which proved them so,were recent;but for that very reason,because they were recent,it was natural for men in such a circumstance as this,to make wrong judgments about them.It was natural for the royal party to ascribe all their and their country's misfortunes,without any due distinction,to the principles on which King Charles and even King James had been opposed;and to grow more zealous for those on which the governments of these two princes had been defended,and for which they had suffered.Add to this the national transport,on so great a revolution;the excess of joy which many felt,and many feigned;the adulation employed by many to acquire new merit;and by many to atone for past demerit;and you will find reason to be surprised,not that the same principles of government,as had threatened our liberties once,and must by necessary consequence do so again,were established;but that our liberties were not immediately,and at once given up.That they were saved,we owe not to Parliament,no not to the Convention Parliament,who brought the King home;but to those great and good men,Clarendon and Southampton.Far from taking advantage of the heat and fervour of the times to manage Parliaments into scandalous jobs,and fatal compliances with the crown,to their immortal honour,with gratitude and reverence to their memories be it spoken,they broke the army,stinted the revenue,and threw their master on the affections of his people.--But I return.

Besides these reasons,drawn from the passions of men,others of a more sober kind may be given to account for the making a settlement at the Restoration upon principles too near akin to those which had prevailed before the war,and which had in truth caused it.Certain it is,that although the nonconformists were stunned by the blow they had just received,and though their violence was restrained by the force of the present conjuncture;yet they still existed.

Symptoms of this appeared,even whilst the government was settling,and continued to appear long after it was settled.Now,every symptom of this kind renewed the dread of relapsing into those miseries,from which the nation had so lately recovered itself;and this dread had the natural effect of all extreme fears.It hurried men into every principle,as well as measure,which seemed the most opposite to those of the persons feared,and the most likely,though at any other risk,to defeat their design,and to obviate the present danger,real or imaginary.May we not fairly conjecture,for it is but conjecture,something more?In such a temper of mind,and such a situation of circumstances,might not even those,who saw how groundless and dangerous such extravagant notions about the right,power and prerogative of kings were,imagine however that it was a part of prudence to give way to them,and to countenance them in the present conjuncture;to suffer the opinions of the nation to be bent too far on one side,as they had been bent too far on the other;not that they might remain crooked,but that they might become straight?

The same spirit and much the same reasons that determined our settlement,at the Restoration,upon such high principles of monarchy,prevailed relatively to our religious differences,and the settlement of the Church.I shall speak of it with that freedom which a man may take,who is conscious that he means nothing but the public good,hath no by-ends,nor is under the influence of serving any particular cause.