feudal militia. We have seen that the
politicians who were at the head of the Long Parliament made, in 1642,
a great effort to accomplish this change by transferring, directly
and formally, to the estates of the realm the choice of ministers, the
command of the army, and the superintendence of the whole executive
administration. This scheme was, perhaps, the best that could then be
contrived: but it was completely disconcerted by the course which the
civil war took. The Houses triumphed, it is true; but not till after
such a struggle as made it necessary for them to call into existence
a power which they could not control, and which soon began to domineer
over all orders and all parties: During a few years, the evils
inseparable from military government were, in some degree, mitigated
by the wisdom and magnanimity of the great man who held the supreme
command. But, when the sword, which he had wielded, with energy indeed,
but with energy always guided by good sense and generally tempered by
good nature, had passed to captains who possessed neither his abilities
nor his virtues. It seemed too probable that order and liberty would
perish in one ignominious ruin.

That ruin was happily averted. It has been too much the practice of
writers zealous for freedom to represent the Restoration as a disastrous
event, and to condemn the folly or baseness of that Convention, which
recalled the royal family without exacting new securities against
maladministration. Those who hold this language do not comprehend the
real nature of the crisis which followed the deposition of Richard
Cromwell. England was in imminent danger of falling under the tyranny of
a succession of small men raised up and pulled down by military caprice.
To deliver the country from the domination of the soldiers was the first
object of every enlightened patriot: but it was an object which, while
the soldiers were united, the most sanguine could scarcely expect to
attain. On a sudden a gleam of hope appeared. General was opposed to
general, army to army. On the use which might be made of one auspicious
moment depended the future destiny of the nation. Our ancestors used
that moment well. They forgot old injuries, waved petty scruples,
adjourned to a more convenient season all dispute about the reforms
which our institutions needed, and stood together, Cavaliers and
Roundheads, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, in firm union, for the
old laws of the land against mil