Part is occupied with a sketch of the Revolution
of 1789.

* * * * *

REFORM OF EARLY PARLIAMENTS.

Though no language can adequately condemn the base subserviency of
Henry's parliament, it may be reasonably doubted whether his reign
was, in its ultimate consequences, injurious to public liberty. The
immense revolutions of his time in property, in religion, and in the
inheritance of the crown, never could have been effected without the
concurrence of parliament. Their acquiescence and co-operation in the
spoliation of property, and the condemnation of the innocent, tempted
him to carry all his purposes into execution, through their means.
Those who saw the attainders of queens, the alteration of an
established religion, and the frequent disturbance of the regal
succession, accomplished by acts of parliament, considered nothing as
beyond the jurisdiction of so potent an assembly.[4] If the supremacy
was a tremendous power, it accustomed the people to set no bounds to
the authority of those who bestowed it on the king. The omnipotence of
parliament appeared no longer a mere hyperbole. Let it not be
supposed, that to mention the good thus finally educed from such
evils, is intended or calculated to palliate crimes, or to lessen our
just abhorrence of criminals. Nothing, on the contrary, seems more to
exalt the majesty of virtue than to point out the tendency of the
moral government of the world, which, as in this instance, turns the
worst enemies of all that is good into the laborious slaves of
justice. Of all outward benefits, the most conducive to virtue as well
as to happiness is, doubtless, popular and representative government.
It is the reverse of a degradation of it to observe, that its
establishment among us was perhaps partially promoted by the
sensuality, rapacity, and cruelty of Henry VIII. The course of affairs
is always so dark, the beneficial consequences of public events are so
distant and uncertain, that the attempt to do evil in order to produce
good is in men a most criminal usurpation.

[4] The observations of Nathaniel Bacon, or rather of Selden
from whose MS. notes he is said to have written his book,
deserve serious consideration. Bacon on the Laws and
Government of England, chap. 27.

Some direct benefits the constitution owes to this reign. The act
which established a parliamentary representation in so considerable a
territory as Wales may be