mains of antiquity.[*]

* Such as Rapin Thoyras, Locke, Sidney, Hoadley, etc.

And forgetting that a regard to liberty, though a laudable passion,
ought commonly to be subordinate to a reverence for established
government, the prevailing faction has celebrated only the partisans of
the former, who pursued as their object the perfection of civil
society, and has extolled them at the expense of their antagonists, who
maintained those maxims that are essential to its very existence. But
extremes of all kinds are to be avoided; and though no one will ever
please either faction by moderate opinions, it is there we are most
likely to meet with truth and certainty.

We shall subjoin to this general view of the English government some
account of the state of the finances, arms trade, manners, arts, between
the restoration and revolution.

The revenue of Charles II., as settled by the long parliament, was put
upon a very bad footing. It was too small, if they intended to make
him independent in the common course of his administration: it was too
large, and settled during too long a period, if they resolved to keep
him in entire dependence. The great debts of the republic, which were
thrown upon that prince; the necessity of supplying the naval and
military stores, which were entirely exhausted;[*] that of repairing
and furnishing his palaces: all these causes involved the king in great
difficulties immediately after his restoration; and the parliament
was not sufficiently liberal in supplying him. Perhaps, too, he
had contracted some debts abroad; and his bounty to the distressed
cavaliers, though it did not correspond either to their services or
expectations, could not fail, in some degree, to exhaust his treasury.
The extraordinary sums granted the king during the first years did not
suffice for these extraordinary expenses; and the excise and customs,
the only constant revenue, amounted not to nine hundred thousand pounds
a year, and fell much short of the ordinary burdens of government. The
addition of hearth money in 1662, and of other two branches in 1669
and 1670, brought up the revenue to one million three hundred and
fifty-eight thousand pounds, as we learn from Lord Danby's account: but
the same authority informs us, that the yearly expense of government was
at that time one million three hundred and eighty-seven thousand seven
hundred and seventy pounds.[**]

* Lord Clarendon's speech to the parliament,