ary when we first met, after
a long interval, and found the whole administration one mass of abuses.
It is time to take heed that we do not so pursue our victory over
despotism as to run into anarchy. It was not in our power to overturn
the bad institutions which lately afflicted our country, without shocks
which have loosened the foundations of government. Now that those
institutions have fallen, we must hasten to prop the edifice which it
was lately our duty to batter. Henceforth it will be our wisdom to look
with jealousy on schemes of innovation, and to guard from encroachment
all the prerogatives with which the law has, for the public good, armed
the sovereign."

Such were the views of those men of whom the excellent Falkland may be
regarded as the leader. It was contended on the other side with not less
force, by men of not less ability and virtue, that the safety which the
liberties of the English people enjoyed was rather apparent than real,
and that the arbitrary projects of the court would be resumed as soon
as the vigilance of the Commons was relaxed. True it was,--such was the
reasoning of Pym, of Hollis, and of Hampden--that many good laws had
been passed: but, if good laws had been sufficient to restrain the
King, his subjects would have had little reason ever to complain of his
administration. The recent statutes were surely not of more authority
than the Great Charter or the Petition of Right. Yet neither the Great
Charter, hallowed by the veneration of four centuries, nor the Petition
of Right, sanctioned, after mature reflection, and for valuable
consideration, by Charles himself, had been found effectual for the
protection of the people. If once the check of fear were withdrawn,
if once the spirit of opposition were suffered to slumber, all the
securities for English freedom resolved themselves into a single one,
the royal word; and it had been proved by a long and severe experience
that the royal word could not be trusted.

The two parties were still regarding each other with cautious hostility,
and had not yet measured their strength, when news arrived which
inflamed the passions and confirmed the opinions of both. The great
chieftains of Ulster, who, at the time of the accession of James, had,
after a long struggle, submitted to the royal authority, had not long
brooked the humiliation of dependence. They had conspired against the
English government, and had been attainted of treason. Their immens