第35章 Letter IX(5)

Such was the state of King and people before the Revolution.By the Revolution,and the settlement since made,this state hath received considerable alterations.A King of Britain is now,strictly and properly,what kings should always be,a member,but the supreme member,or the head of a political body:part of one individual,specific whole,in every respect,distinct from it,or independent of it in none:

he can move no longer in another orbit from his people,and,like some superior planet,attract,repel,influence,and direct their motions by his own.He and they are parts of the same system,intimately joined and co-operating together,acting and acted upon,limiting and limited,controlling and controlled by one another;and when he ceases to stand in this relation to them,he ceases to stand in any.The settlements,by virtue of which he governs,are plainly original contracts.His institution is plainly conditional,and he may forfeit his right to allegiance,as undeniably and effectually,as the subject may forfeit his right to protection.There are no longer any hidden reserves of authority,to be let out on occasion,and to overflow the rights and privileges of the people.The laws of the land are known,and they are the sole springs,from whence the prince can derive his pretensions,and the people theirs.It would be to no purpose to illustrate any farther a matter which begins to be so well understood;or to descend into a more particular enumeration of the advantages that result,or may result,from our present settlement.No man,who does not prefer slavery to liberty,or a more precarious security to a better,will declare for such a government,as our national divisions,and a long course,seldom interrupted,of improvident complaisance to the crown,had enabled King James the Second to establish against such a government as was intended by the subsequent settlement:and if there be any such man,I declare that I neither write to him nor for him.

I may assume therefore,without fearing to be accused of begging the question,that the constitution under which we now live,is preferable to that which prevailed at any time before the Revolution.We are arrived,after many struggles,after a deliverance almost miraculous,and such an one as no nation hath reason to expect twice,and after having made some honest improvements on the advantages of our new constitution,very near to that full security,under which men who are free and solicitous to continue so,may sit down,not without watchfulness,for that is never to be suffered to relax under such a government as ours,but without anxiety.The sum therefore of all these discourses,and of all our exhortations to one another,is,and ought to be,that we should not stop short in so important a work.It was begun at the Revolution;but he who thinks it was perfected then,or hath been perfected since,will find himself very much mistaken.The foundations were laid then.We proceeded for some time after that,like the Jews in rebuilding their temple;we carried on the holy work with one hand,and held our swords in the other to defend it.That distraction,that danger is over,and we betray the cause of liberty without any colour of excuse,if we do not complete the glorious building,which will last to ages yet remote,if it be once finished,and will moulder away and fall into ruins,if it remain longer in this imperfect state.

Now that we may see the better how to proceed in the cause of liberty,to complete the freedom,and to secure the duration of our present constitution,it will be of use,I think,to consider what obstacles lie,or may hereafter lie,in our way,and of what nature that opposition is,or may hereafter be,which we may expect to meet.In order to this,let us once more analyse our political divisions;those which may possibly exist now,or hereafter,as we did those which were formed at the Revolution.

One possible division then is that of men angry with the government,and yet resolved to maintain the constitution.This may be the case at any time;under the present wise,virtuous and triumphant administration,and therefore to be sure at any other.

A second possible division is that of men averse to the government,because they are so to the constitution,which I think can never be the case of many.