History of the Early Part of the Reign of James the Second | Page 7

a system condemned equally by reason
and by prejudice: by reason, as wanting freedom; by prejudice, as a
usurpation; and it must be confessed to be no mean testimony to his
genius, that notwithstanding the radical defects of such a system, the
splendour of his character and exploits render the era of the

protectorship one of the most brilliant in English history. It is true his
conduct in foreign concerns is set off to advantage by a comparison of
it with that of those who preceded and who followed him. If he made a
mistake in espousing the French interest instead of the Spanish, we
should recollect that in examining this question we must divest our
minds entirely of all the considerations which the subsequent relative
state of those two empires suggest to us before we can become
impartial judges in it; and at any rate we must allow his reign, in regard
to European concerns, to have been most glorious when contrasted with
the pusillanimity of James I., with the levity of Charles I., and the
mercenary meanness of the two last princes of the house of Stuart.
Upon the whole, the character of Cromwell must ever stand high in the
list of those who raised themselves to supreme power by the force of
their genius; and among such, even in respect of moral virtue, it would
be found to be one of the least exceptionable if it had not been tainted
with that most odious and degrading of all human vices, hypocrisy.
The short interval between Cromwell's death and the restoration
exhibits the picture of a nation either so wearied with changes as not to
feel, or so subdued by military power as not to dare to show, any care
or even preference with regard to the form of their government. All was
in the army; and that army, by such a concurrence of fortuitous
circumstances as history teaches us not to be surprised at, had fallen
into the hands of a man than whom a baser could not be found in its
lowest ranks. Personal courage appears to have been Monk's only
virtue; reserve and dissimulation made up the whole stock of his
wisdom. But to this man did the nation look up, ready to receive from
his orders the form of government he should choose to prescribe. There
is reason to believe that, from the general bias of the Presbyterians, as
well as of the Cavaliers, monarchy was the prevalent wish; but it is
observable that although the Parliament was, contrary to the principle
upon which it was pretended to be called, composed of many avowed
royalists, yet none dared to hint at the restoration of the king till they
had Monk's permission, or rather command to receive and consider his
letters. It is impossible, in reviewing the whole of this transaction, not
to remark that a general who had gained his rank, reputation, and
station in the service of a republic, and of what he, as well as others,

called, however falsely, the cause of liberty, made no scruple to lay the
nation prostrate at the feet of a monarch, without a single provision in
favour of that cause; and if the promise of indemnity may seem to
argue that there was some attention, at least, paid to the safety of his
associates in arms, his subsequent conduct gives reason to suppose that
even this provision was owing to any other cause rather than to a
generous feeling of his breast. For he afterwards not only acquiesced in
the insults so meanly put upon the illustrious corpse of Blake, under
whose auspices and command he had performed the most creditable
services of his life, but in the trial of Argyle produced letters of
friendship and confidence to take away the life of a nobleman, the zeal
and cordiality of whose co-operation with him, proved by such
documents, was the chief ground of his execution; thus gratuitously
surpassing in infamy those miserable wretches who, to save their own
lives, are sometimes persuaded to impeach and swear away the lives of
their accomplices.
The reign of Charles II. forms one of the most singular as well as of the
most important periods of history. It is the era of good laws and bad
government. The abolition of the court of wards, the repeal of the writ
De Heretico Comburendo, the Triennial Parliament Bill, the
establishment of the rights of the House of Commons in regard to
impeachment, the expiration of the Licence Act, and, above all, the
glorious statute of Habeas Corpus, have therefore induced a modern
writer of great eminence to fix the year 1679 as the period at which our
constitution had arrived at its greatest theoretical perfection; but he
owns, in a short note upon the