Franco-Gallia | Page 3

appear in my own Colours, to make a
publick Profession of my Political Faith; not doubting but it may agree
in several Particulars with that of many worthy Persons, who are as
undeservedly aspers'd as I am.
My Notion of a Whig, I mean of a real Whig (for the Nominal are worse
than any Sort of Men) is, That he is one who is exactly for keeping up
to the Strictness of the true old Gothick Constitution, under the Three
Estates of King (or Queen) Lords and Commons; the Legislature being
seated in all Three together, the Executive entrusted with the first, but
accountable to the whole Body of the People, in Case of Male
Administration.
A true Whig is of Opinion, that the Executive Power has as just a Title
to the Allegiance and Obedience of the Subject, according to the Rules
of known Laws enacted by the Legislative, as the Subject has to
Protection, Liberty and Property: And so on the contrary.
A true Whig is not afraid of the Name of a Commonwealthsman,
because so many foolish People, who know not what it means, run it
down: The Anarchy and Confusion which these Nations fell into near
Sixty Years ago, and which was falsly called a Commonwealth,
frightning them out of the true Construction of the Word. But Queen
Elizabeth, and many other of our best Princes, were not scrupulous of
calling our Government a Commonwealth, even in their solemn
Speeches to Parliament. And indeed if it be not one, I cannot tell by
what Name properly to call it: For where in the very Frame of the

Constitution, the Good of the Whole is taken care of by the Whole (as
'tis in our Case) the having a King or Queen at the Head of it, alters not
the Case; and the softning of it by calling it a Limited Monarchy, seems
a Kind of Contradiction in Terms, invented to please some weak and
doubting Persons.
And because some of our Princes in this last Age, did their utmost
Endeavour to destroy this Union and Harmony of the Three Estates,
and to be arbitrary or independent, they ought to be looked upon as the
Aggressors upon our Constitution.
This drove the other Two Estates (for the Sake of the publick
Preservation) into the fatal Necessity of providing for themselves; and
when once the Wheel was set a running, 'twas not in the Power of Man
to stop it just where it ought to have stopp'd. This is so ordinary in all
violent Motions, whether mechanick or political, that no body can
wonder at it.
But no wise Men approved of the ill Effects of those violent Motions
either way, cou'd they have help'd them. Yet it must be owned they
have (as often as used, thro an extraordinary Piece of good Fortune)
brought us back to our old Constitution again, which else had been lost;
for there are numberless Instances in History of a Downfal from a State
of Liberty to a Tyranny, but very few of a Recovery of Liberty from
Tyranny, if this last have had any Length of Time to fix it self and take
Root.
Let all such, who either thro Interest or Ignorance are Adorers of
absolute Monarchs, say what they please; an English Whig can never
be so unjust to his Country, and to right Reason, as not to be of Opinion,
that in all Civil Commotions, which Side soever is the wrongful
Aggressor, is accountable for all the evil Consequences: And thro the
Course of his reading (tho my Lord Clarendon's Books be thrown into
the Heap) he finds it very difficult to observe, that ever the People of
England took up Arms against their Prince, but when constrain'd to it
by a necessary Care of their Liberties and true Constitution.
'Tis certainly as much a Treason and Rebellion against this Constitution,

and the known Laws, in a Prince to endeavor to break thro them, as 'tis
in the People to rise against him, whilst he keeps within their Bounds,
and does his Duty. Our Constitution is a Government of Laws, not of
Persons. Allegiance and Protection are Obligations that cannot subsist
separately; when one fails, the other falls of Course. The true
Etymology of the word Loyalty (which has been so strangely wrested in
the late Reigns) is an entire Obedience to the Prince in all his
Commands according to Law; that is, to the _Laws themselves_, to
which we owe both an active and passive Obedience.
By the old and true Maxim, that the King can do no Wrong, nobody is
so foolish as to conclude, that he has not Strength to murder, to offer
Violence to Women, or Power enough to dispossess a Man wrongfully
of his