My Lord Commissioner chuses to let slip no opportunity of exposing
what he takes to be an error in ecclesiastical management. Either way,
however, I am not displeased to find that his main thesis keeps its
ground; and that, even according to his own account of the matter, the
nation, when it gave up the supremacy to the king, was in possession of
a free and legal constitution.
On the whole, you give me leave then to presume that the
considerations, now offered to you, afford a reasonable account of that
despotic form under which the _English_ government has appeared, from
the union of the two roses down to the subversion of the constitution
in CHARLES the First’s time.
Other causes concurred; but the Reformation was the chief prop and
pillar of the imperial dignity, while the constitution itself remained
the same, or rather was continually gaining strength even by the
necessary operation of those principles on which the Reformation was
founded. Religious liberty made way for the entertainment of civil, in
all its branches. It could not be otherwise. It disposed the minds of
men to throw off that sluggishness, in which they had slumbered for
many ages. A spirit of inquiry prevailed. Inveterate errors were seen
through; and prejudices of all sorts fell off, in proportion to the
growth of letters, and the progress of reason.
The increasing trade and wealth of the nation concurred with the
temper of the times. The circulation of property brought on a natural
relaxation of the feudal system. The plan of liberty was extended and
enlarged; and the balance of power soon fell into the hands of the
people. This appeared very plainly from the influence of parliaments,
and the daring attacks of many particular members on the highest and
most favoured claims of prerogative. Our kings were sensible of the
alteration: but, instead of prudently giving way to it, they flew into
the opposite extreme, and provoked the spirit of the times by the
very reluctance they shewed on all occasions to comply with it. Every
dormant privilege of the crown, every phantom of prerogative, which had
kept the simpler ages in awe, was now very unseasonably conjured up,
to terrify all that durst oppose themselves to encroaching royalty.
Lawyers and church-men were employed in this service. And in their
fierce endeavour to uphold a tottering throne by false supports, they
entirely overthrew it. The nation was out of all patience to hear the
one decree the empire of the kings of _England_ to be absolute and
uncontrolable by human law: and the other gave more offence, than they
found credit, by pretending that the right of kings to such empire
was divine[32]. Every artifice indeed of chicane and sophistry was
called in to the support of these maxims of law and theology. But the
season for religious and civil liberty to prevail over the impotent
attempts of each, was at hand. The near approach of the _divine form_
created an enthusiasm, which nothing could resist. It frustrated the
generous views even of her first and sincerest worshipers. In the
career of those ecstatic orgies, the unhappy king could not prevent his
ministers, first, and afterwards the constitution itself, from falling
a victim to that fury, which, in the end, forced off his own head.
Such was the issue of this desperate conflict between prerogative
and liberty. The wonder was, that this fatal experience should not
have rectified all mistakes, and have settled the government on a
sure and lasting basis at the Restoration. The people were convinced,
that nothing more was requisite to their happiness, than the secure
possession of their ancient legal constitution. The re-called family
were not so wise. And in their attempts to revive those old exploded
claims, which had succeeded so ill with their predecessors, they once
more fell from the throne, and left it to the possession of that
glorious prince whom the greatly-injured nation has now called to it.
This then will be considered by grateful posterity as the true æra of
_English_ liberty. It was interwoven indeed with the very principles of
the constitution. It was inclosed in the ancient trunk of the feudal
law, and was propagated from it[33]. But its operation was weak and
partial in that state of its infancy. It acquired fresh force and
vigour with age, and has now at length extended its influence to every
part of the political system.
Henceforward, may we not indulge in the expectation that both prince
and people will be too wise to violate this glorious constitution:
the only one in the records of time, which hath ever attained to the
perfection of civil government? All the blessings of freedom which
can consist with kingly rule, the people have: all the prerogatives
of royalty, which can consist with civil freedom, are indulged
to the king. From this just intermixture of the popular and regal
forms, planted together in the earliest days, but grown up at length
to full maturity, there arises a reasonable hope that the _English_
constitution will flourish to the latest ages; and continue, through
them all, the boast and glory of our country, and the envy and
admiration of the rest of the world.