They protected Henry the Fifth from death, at Agincourt, and received that death themselves. They covered the extreme weakness of Henry the Sixth, who _never said a good thing, or did a bad one_, with the mantle of royalty; when a character like his, without a crown, would have been hunted through life: they gave him the title of _good king Henry_, which would well have suited, had the word _king_ been omitted; they sought him a place in the kalendar of saints, and made _him_ perform the miracles of an angel when dead, who could never perform the works of a man, when living. The people shewed their attachment to Henry the Eighth, by submitting to the faggot and the block, at his command; and with their last breath, praying for their butcher. Affection for Charles the First, induced four of his friends to offer their own heads, to save his.--The wrath, and the tears of the people, succeeded his melancholy exit. When James the Second eloped from the throne, and was casually picked up at Feversham, by his injured subjects, _they remembered he was their king_. The church and Queen Anne, like a joyous co-partnership, were toasted together. The barrel was willingly emptied to honour the queen, and the toaster lamented he could honour her no more. The nation displayed their love to Charles the Second, by latticing the forests. His climbing the oak at Boscobel, has been the destruction of more timber than would have filled the harbour of Portsmouth; the tree which flourished in the field, was brought to die in the street. Birmingham, for ninety years, honoured him with her vengeance against the woods; and she is, at this day, surrounded with mutilated oaks, which stand as martyrs to royalty. It is singular, that the oak, which assisted the devotion of the Britons, composed habitations for the people, and furniture for those habitations; that, while standing, was an ornament to the country that bore it; and afterwards guarded the land which nursed it, should be the cause of continual riots, in the reign of George the First. We could not readily accede to a line of strangers, in preference to our ancient race of kings, though loudly charged with oppression. Clubs and tumults supported the spirit of contention till 1745, when, as our last act of animosity, we crowned an ass with turnips, in derision of one of the worthiest families that ever eat them. Power, in the hand of ignorance, is an edge-tool of the most dangerous kind. The scarcity of provisions, in 1766, excited the murmurs of the poor. They began to breathe vengeance against the farmer, miller, and baker, for doing what they do themselves, procure the greatest price for their property. On the market day, a common labourer, like Massenello of Naples, formed the resolution to lead a mob.