38 CHARLES II. 



It is not true, that immediately after the Restoration, all 

 security for the public interests and liberties was neglected. At 

 a subsequent period, and at no great distance of time, Charles 

 shewed himself in his true colours. But it was beyond any 

 ordinary calculation of political probability, that the Monarch 

 thus restored, should happen to be one of the worst men ever 

 entrusted with power in any age or country. 



Among his innumerable errors it was not the least, that his 

 measures almost immediately drove back the Presbyterians into 

 irreconcileable enmity to his Government, and created at the same 

 time a very general, and as we now know, a very just alarm 

 throughout the nation of his disposition towards the re-establish- 

 ment of Popery. 



But the Church of England deceived themselves on this 

 subject; they shut their eyes to the dans^ers on the side of 

 Popery, and looked only to the evils which they had experienced 

 from the prevalence of other sectaries. They persevered in their 

 former support of the Crown, and this the more in proportion as 

 they saw it more strongly assailed by the same adversaries, whose 

 hostility to themselves they knew to be indisputable. 



To this blindness they had well nigh sacrificed the es- 

 tablished religion and the established constitution, to both which 

 they were sincerely attached. But the madness of James the 

 Second at length opened their eyes. His determined purposes 

 of hostility to both could not be mistaken, but his means of 

 giving effect to them were far less than those of his brother; his 

 talents much inferior, his judgment weaker, and his person and 

 character almost universally unpopular. It was then that the 

 Church of England roused herself. The whole kingdom was 

 thus united as one man against his designs, he stood alone against 

 the whole body of his subjects, and the revolution which deprived 

 him of his Crown, was not only peaceable, but unanimous. 



Those whose previous weight, station, and character in the 

 country authorized them to take the lead in such a crisis, had 

 nothing to apprehend ; whatever the public interests demanded 

 might at that moment be safely undertaken and easily accom- 

 plished. Happily, their own tempers and the necessity of 

 avoiding to wound the prejudices and feelings of the various 

 persons and parties to whose co-operations they owed their 

 strength, and the nation its security, alike inclined them to 

 moderation and caution. They proceeded rather to repair than 

 rebuild; they rested on old foundations, trusting, and as ex- 

 perience has shewn us wisely trusting, to the facility with which a 

 Government, such as they established it, might and would 

 accommodate itself to the unforeseen exigencies of succeeding 

 times. 



Here terminate these luminous remarks, for none of your 

 readers will, I think, disagree with my applying this epithet to 

 them. Now it is much to be regretted that such considerations 



