The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part E.: From Charles I. to Cromwell
David Hume · en
which he is constrained to make, is regarded as a temporary tribute paid
to faction and sedition, and is secretly attended with a resolution of
seizing every favorable opportunity to retract it. Nor should we imagine
that opportunities of that kind will not offer in the course of human
affairs. Governments, especially those of a mixed kind, are in continual
fluctuation: the humors of the people change perpetually from one
extreme to another: and no resolution can be more wise, as well as more
just, than that of employing the present advantages against the
king, who had formerly pushed much less tempting ones to the utmost
extremities against, his people and his parliament. It is to be feared,
that if the religious rage which has seized the multitude be allowed
to evaporate, they will quickly return to the ancient ecclesiastical
establishment; and with it embrace those principles of slavery which it
inculcates with such zeal on its submissive proselytes. Those patriots
who are now the public idols, may then become the objects of general
detestation; and equal shouts of joy attend their ignominious execution,
with those which second their present advantages and triumphs. Nor ought
the apprehension of such an event to be regarded in them as a selfish
consideration: in their safety is involved the security of the laws. The
patrons of the constitution cannot suffer without a fatal blow to the
constitution: and it is but justice in the public to protect, at any
hazard, those who have so generously exposed themselves to the utmost
hazard for the public interest. What though monarchy, the ancient
government of England, be impaired, during these contests, in many of
its former prerogatives: the laws will flourish the more by its decay;
and it is happy, allowing that matters are really carried beyond the
bounds of moderation, that the current at least runs towards liberty,
and that the error is on that side which is safest for the general
interests of mankind and society.