Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Poetry; Ireton, Henry, 1611-1651 -- Poetry
In pursuing the train of thought connected with his subject, the author
has been led to touch upon the comparative value of republicanism and
monarchy, as conducive in the spirit of their institutions, to advance
that perfectibility of the social system which he believes it the duty
of every true patriot steadily to pursue. And he could not blink the
question so far, (claiming to give an honest opinion) as to refrain from
avowing that upon the abstract question of theoretical preference he is
decidedly favourable to republicanism; at the same time declaring,
unequivocally and unreservedly, that he will yield to no man in a
cheerful, cordial, and loyal attachment and obedience to the mixed
government under which he lives; identified as it is with the most
generous feelings of his countrymen; and calculated, as in his
conscience he believes it to be, to promote in a superlative degree the
glory and happiness of a people with such habits and dispositions; and
above all with such a condition of moral and intellectual attainment, as
characterizes the community of Englishmen. Nor will he shrink from
avowing, that, individually, he should feel himself necessitated by a
sense of duty, unresistingly (as far as relates to the employment of
physical means,) to obey any form of government, however despotic, under
which he should live, so long as such government had the support and
approbation of the decided majority of his fellow citizens. It might be
his duty to SUFFER in bearing an honourable testimony against tyrants
and tyranny; but at this point, in his individual capacity he must
stop;--though acting in concert with the true _vox-populi_, in
resistance to the encroachments of ambitious power, or the exactions of
established despotism, he would not stop at any thing short of its
certain abridgement or final extinction.
To this spirit in our ancestors we owe the revolutions of 1640 and
1688--as individuals they suffered long and grievously for the sake of
conscience, and the rights of man in civil society: but individual
suffering became at last so identified with the general feeling of
disgust and indignation at the despotism of the government, that its
character ceased longer to be that of private suffering, or its
remonstrance or resistance the effect of personal consideration: hence a
legitimate opposition to authority on that great principle, that the
public weal forms the only true measure of political allegiance, was
aroused; sanctioning such an appeal to force, as under other
circumstances, would have been justly stigmatized as treason and
rebellion. And it is worthy of remark, that, principally to these two
great events, as regenerating the political constitution of our country,
and unfettering the conscience and intellect of man; are owing, under
providence, most of those stupendous discoveries in science--and those
sublime achievements of philanthropy, which are rapidly changing in our
day, the moral aspect of the whole world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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