No nation, it is true, was ever blessed with a more
golden opportunity of establishing and securing its liberties for ever
than the conjuncture of Eighty-eight presented to the people of Great
Britain. But the disgraceful reigns of Charles and James had weakened and
degraded the national character. The bold notions of popular right which
had arisen out of the struggles between Charles the First and his
Parliament were gradually supplanted by those slavish doctrines for which
Lord Hawkesbury eulogizes the churchmen of that period, and as the
Reformation had happened too soon for the purity of religion, so the
Revolution came too late for the spirit of liberty. Its advantages
accordingly were for the most part specious and transitory, while the
evils which it entailed are still felt and still increasing. By rendering
unnecessary the frequent exercise of Prerogative,--that unwieldy power
which cannot move a step without alarm,--it diminished the only
interference of the Crown, which is singly and independently exposed
before the people, and whose abuses therefore are obvious to their senses
and capabilities. Like the myrtle over a celebrated statue in Minerva's
temple at Athens, it skilfully veiled from the public eye the only
obtrusive feature of royalty. At the same time, however, that the
Revolution abridged this unpopular attribute, it amply compensated by the
substitution of a new power, as much more potent in its effect as it is
more secret in its operations.
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