第38章 Letter X(2)

Kings had governed Rome,we know,and consuls had succeeded kings,long before the decemviri compiled a body of law;and the Saxons had their monarchs before Edgar,though the Saxon laws went under his name.These,and a thousand other instances of the same kind,will never serve to prove what my lord Bacon would prove by them,'that monarchies do not subsist,like other governments,by a precedent law,or compact;that the original submission to them was natural,like the obedience of a child to his parents;and that allegiance to hereditary monarchs is the work of the law of nature'But that which these examples prove very plainly is,that however men might submit voluntarily in the primitive simplicity of early ages,or be subjected by conquest to a government without a constitution,yet they were never long in discovering that 'to live by one man's will became the cause of all men's misery'.and therefore they soon rejected the yoke,or made it sit easy on their necks.

They instituted commonwealths,or they limited monarchies:and here began that struggle between the spirit of liberty and the spirit of dominion,which always hath subsisted,and,that we may not flatter ourselves nor others,must always subsist,except in those instances,of which the most ancient histories furnish so few,the reigns of a Titus,or a Trajan;for it might look like flattery to quote the present most auspicious reign.

To govern a society of freemen by a constitution founded on the eternal rules of right reason,and directed to promote the happiness of the whole,and of every individual,is the noblest prerogative which can belong to humanity;and if man may be said,without profaneness,to imitate God in any case,this is the case:but sure I am he imitates the devil,who is so far from promoting the happiness of others,that he makes his own happiness to consist in the misery of others;who governs by no rule but that of his passions,whatever appearances he is forced sometimes to put on,who endeavours to corrupt the innocent and to enslave the free,whose business is to seduce or betray,whose pleasure is to damn,and whose triumph is to torment.Odious and execrable as this character is,it is the character of every prince who makes use of his power to subvert,or even to weaken that constitution,which ought to be the rule of his government.When such a prince fills a throne with superior parts,liberty is in the utmost peril;nor does the danger diminish in proportion,if he happens to want them.Such men as we are now to speak of (friends to the government and enemies to the constitution)will be always at hand to supply his defects;for as they are the willing instruments of a wicked prince,they are the ready prompters of a weak one.They may sink into the mass of the people,and disappear in a good and a wise reign,or work themselves into power under false colours.Sed genus immortale manet.

Their race will continue as long as ambition and avarice prevail in the world,and there will be bad citizens as long as there are bad men.The good ought therefore to be always on their guard against them,and whatever disguise they assume,whatever veils they cast over their conduct,they will never be able to deceive those long,who observe constantly the difference between constitution and government,and who have virtue enough to preserve the cause of the former,how unprofitable soever it may be at all times,and how unpopular soever at some.--But I ramble too long in generals.It is high time I should come to those particular measures,by which the men I have described are most likely to carry on their designs against our constitution;after which I shall say something of the methods,by which alone their designs may be prevented,or will be defeated,if a national union oppose itself by such methods as these,in time,to them.

Now that I may do this the better,and make what I have to say the more sensibly felt,give me leave to suppose,though I speak of a remote time,and such an one as we ought to hope will never come,that our national circumstances will be just the same as they are now,and our constitution as far distant as it now is from that point of perfection,to which the Revolution ought to have brought it,might have brought it,and hath given the nation a right to expect that it should be brought.The completion of that glorious deliverance is still imperfect,after five and forty years,notwithstanding the hopes then given,the engagements then taken,and the opportunities that have since arisen.How this hath happened,by what arts this justice to the constitution hath been hitherto evaded,sometimes in favour of one government,and sometimes in favour of another,might easily be shown,and proved too,beyond contradiction.

But I had rather exhort than reproach,and especially at a time when a strong tendency appears among men of all denominations to such a national union,as will effectually obtain the complete settlement of our constitution,which hath been so long delayed,if it be honestly,prudently and vigorously improved.

It is certain then,that if ever such men as call themselves friends to the government,but are real enemies of the constitution,prevail,they will make it a capital point of their wicked policy to keep up a standing army.