d to truth, and has dared to expose her, without
covering or disguise, to the eyes of the prejudiced public. Even that
party amongst us which boasts of the highest regard to liberty, has not
possessed sufficient liberty of thought in this particular; nor has been
able to decide impartially of their own merit, compared with that
of their antagonists. More noble perhaps in their ends, and highly
beneficial to mankind they must also be allowed to have often been less
justifiable in the means, and in many of their enterprises to have paid
more regard to political than to moral considerations. Obliged to court
the favor of the populace, they found it necessary to comply with
their rage and folly; and have even, on many occasions, by propagating
calumnies, and by promoting violence, served to infatuate as well as
corrupt that people to whom they made a tender of liberty and justice.
Charles I. was a tyrant, a Papist, and a contriver of the Irish
massacre: the church of England was relapsing fast into idolatry:
Puritanism was the only true religion, and the covenant the favorite
object of heavenly regard. Through these delusions the party proceeded,
and, what may seem wonderful, still to the increase of law and liberty;
till they reached the imposture of the Popish plot, a fiction which
exceeds the ordinary bounds of vulgar credulity. But however singular
these events may appear, there is really nothing altogether new in any
period of modern history: and it is remarkable, that tribunitian arts,
though sometimes useful in a free constitution, have usually been
such as men of probity and honor could not bring themselves either to
practise or approve. The other faction, which, since the revolution, has
been obliged to cultivate popularity, sometimes found it necessary to
employ like artifices.

The whig party, for a course of near seventy years, has, almost without
interruption, enjoyed the whole authority of government; and no honors
or offices could be obtained but by their countenance and protection.
But this event, which in some particulars has been advantageous to
the state, has proved destructive to the truth of history, and has
established many gross falsehoods, which it is unaccountable how
any civilized nation could have embraced with regard to its domestic
occurrences. Compositions the most despicable, both for style and
matter, have been extolled, and propagated, and read; as if they had
equalled the most celebrated re