History of the Early Part of the Reign of James the Second | Page 6

it was intended the
office of king should be abolished, and consequently that no person
should be in the situation to make it the rule of his conduct. Besides,
the miseries attendant upon a deposed monarch seem to be sufficient to
deter any prince, who thinks of consequences, from running the risk of
being placed in such a situation; or, if death be the only evil that can
deter him, the fate of former tyrants deposed by their subjects would by
no means encourage him to hope he could avoid even that catastrophe.
As far as we can judge from the event, the example was certainly not
very effectual, since both the sons of Charles, though having their
father's fate before their eyes, yet feared not to violate the liberties of
the people even more than he had attempted to do.
If we consider this question of example in a more extended view, and
look to the general effect produced upon the minds of men, it cannot be
doubted but the opportunity thus given to Charles to display his
firmness and piety has created more respect for his memory than it
could otherwise have obtained. Respect and pity for the sufferer on the
one hand, and hatred to his enemies on the other, soon produce favour
and aversion to their respective causes; and thus, even though it should
be admitted (which is doubtful) that some advantage may have been
gained to the cause of liberty by the terror of the example operating
upon the minds of princes, such advantage is far outweighed by the zeal
which admiration for virtue, and pity for sufferings, the best passions of
the human heart, have excited in favour of the royal cause. It has been
thought dangerous to the morals of mankind, even in fiction and
romance, to make us sympathise with characters whose general conduct
is blameable; but how much greater must the effect be when in real
history our feelings are interested in favour of a monarch with whom,
to say the least, his subjects were obliged to contend in arms for their
liberty? After all, however, notwithstanding what the more reasonable
part of mankind may think upon this question, it is much to be doubted
whether this singular proceeding has not as much as any other
circumstance, served to raise the character of the English nation in the
opinion of Europe in general. He who has read, and still more, he who
has heard in conversation discussions upon this subject by foreigners,

must have perceived that, even in the minds of those who condemn the
act, the impression made by it has been far more that of respect and
admiration than that of disgust and horror. The truth is that the guilt of
the action--that is to say, the taking away of the life of the king, is what
most men in the place of Cromwell and his associates would have
incurred; what there is of splendour and of magnanimity in it, I mean
the publicity and solemnity of the act, is what few would be capable of
displaying. It is a degrading fact to human nature, that even the sending
away of the Duke of Gloucester was an instance of generosity almost
unexampled in the history of transactions of this nature.
From the execution of the king to the death of Cromwell, the
government was, with some variation of forms, in substance
monarchical and absolute, as a government established by a military
force will almost invariably be, especially when the exertions of such a
force are continued for any length of time. If to this general rule our
own age, and a people whom their origin and near relation to us would
almost warrant us to call our own nation, have afforded a splendid and
perhaps a solitary exception, we must reflect not only that a character
of virtues so happily tempered by one another, and so wholly unalloyed
with any vices, as that of Washington, is hardly to be found in the
pages of history, but that even Washington himself might not have been
able to act his most glorious of all parts without the existence of
circumstances uncommonly favourable, and almost peculiar to the
country which was to be the theatre of it. Virtue like his depends not
indeed upon time or place; but although in no country or time would he
have degraded himself into a Pisistratus, or a Caesar, or a Cromwell, he
might have shared the fate of a Cato, or a De Witt; or, like Ludlow and
Sidney, have mourned in exile the lost liberties of his country.
With the life of the protector almost immediately ended the government
which he had established. The great talents of this extraordinary person
had supported during his life