England will never rise to so exalted a pitch of glory,
nor will its end be so fatal. The English are not fired with the
splendid folly of making conquests, but would only prevent their
neighbours from conquering. They are not only jealous of their own
liberty, but even of that of other nations. The English were exasperated
against Louis XIV. for no other reason but because he was ambitious, and
declared war against him merely out of levity, not from any interested
motives.

The English have doubtless purchased their liberties at a very high
price, and waded through seas of blood to drown the idol of arbitrary
power. Other nations have been involved in as great calamities, and have
shed as much blood; but then the blood they spilt in defence of their
liberties only enslaved them the more.

That which rises to a revolution in England is no more than a sedition in
other countries. A city in Spain, in Barbary, or in Turkey, takes up
arms in defence of its privileges, when immediately it is stormed by
mercenary troops, it is punished by executioners, and the rest of the
nation kiss the chains they are loaded with. The French are of opinion
that the government of this island is more tempestuous than the sea which
surrounds it, which indeed is true; but then it is never so but when the
king raises the storm--when he attempts to seize the ship of which he is
only the chief pilot. The civil wars of France lasted longer, were more
cruel, and productive of greater evils than those of England; but none of
these civil wars had a wise and prudent liberty for their object.

In the detestable reigns of Charles IX. and Henry III. the whole affair
was only whether the people should be slaves to the Guises. With regard
to the last war of Paris, it deserves only to be hooted at. Methinks I
see a crowd of schoolboys rising up in arms against their master, and
afterwards whipped for it. Cardinal de Retz, who was witty and brave
(but to no purpose), rebellious without a cause, factious without design,
and head of a defenceless party, caballed for caballing sake, and seemed
to foment the civil war merely out of diversion. The Parliament did not
know what he intended, nor what he did not intend. He levied troops by
Act of Parliament, and the next moment cashiered them. He threatened, he
begged pardon; he set a price upon Cardinal Mazarin's head, and
afterwards congratulated him in a public manner. Our civil wars under
Charles