Authors, English -- 18th century -- Biography; Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731
"It may, perhaps, be thought by some people a digression too remote from
my present pursuit, when I launch out into the crimes of a party; but,
if I am carried into extremes when the memory of king William is
touched, I am altogether careless of making an excuse; and I acknowledge
myself less master of my temper in that case, than in anything I can be
touched in besides. The memory of that glorious monarch is so dear, and
so valuable in the hearts of all true protestants, that have a sense
both of what they escaped and what they enjoy by his hand, that it is
difficult to retain any charity for their principles that can forget the
obligation. His name is a word of congratulation; and 'The immortal
memory of king William,' will be a health, as long as drinking healths
is suffered in this part of the world.
"Let the ungrateful wretch that forgets what God wrought by his hand,
look back upon popery coming in like a flood; property trampled
underfoot; all sorts of cruelties and butcheries in practice in
Scotland, and approaching in England! Let him review the insolence of
the soldiery, the inveteracy of the court party, the tyranny, perjury,
and avarice of governors; and at the foot of the account let him write,
Delivered by king William. Then let him look back on the prince: How
great, how splendid, how happy, how rich, how easy, and how justly
valued by friends and enemies! He lived before in the field glorious,
feared by enemies of his country, loved by the soldiery, having a vast
inheritance of his own, governor of a rich state, blessed with the best
of consorts, and as far as this life could give, completely happy.
Compare this with the gaudy crown we gave him. Had a visible scheme been
laid with it, of all the uneasinesses, dangers, crosses,
disappointments, and dark prospects which that prince found with it, no
wise man would have taken it off the dunghill, or come out of gaol to be
master of it.
"Unhappy Englishmen! Is this the man you reproach? Had he any failing
but that he bare too much with the most barbarous usage in the world?
Had he not the most merit and the worst treatment that ever king in
England met with?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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