escription. The absolute, uncontrolled authority which he maintained
at home, and the regard which he acquired among foreign nations, are
circumstances which entitle him, in some degree, to the appellation of
a great prince; while his tyranny and barbarity exclude him from the
character of a good one. He possessed, indeed, great vigor of mind,
which qualified him for exercising dominion over men; courage,
intrepidity, vigilance, inflexibility; and though these qualities lay
not always under the guidance of a regular and solid judgment, they were
accompanied with good parts and an extensive capacity; and every one
dreaded a contest with a man who was known never to yield or to forgive,
and who, in every controversy, was determined either to ruin himself or
his antagonist. A catalogue of his vices would comprehend many of the
worst qualities incident to human nature, violence, cruelty, profusion,
rapacity, injustice, obstinacy, arrogance, bigotry, presumption,
caprice: but neither was he subject to all these vices in the most
extreme degree, nor was he, at intervals, altogether destitute of
virtues: he was sincere, open, gallant, liberal, and capable at least
of a temporary friendship and attachment. In this respect he was
unfortunate, that the incidents of his reign served to display his
faults in their full light: the treatment which he met with from the
court of Rome provoked him to violence; the danger of a revolt from his
superstitious subjects seemed to require the most extreme severity. But
it must at the same time be acknowledged, that his situation tended
to throw an additional lustre on what was great and magnanimous in
his character; the emulation between the emperor and the French king
rendered his alliance, notwithstanding his impolitic conduct, of great
importance in Europe; the extensive powers of his prerogative, and the
submissive, not to say slavish, disposition of his parliaments, made
it the more easy for him to assume and maintain that entire dominion by
which his reign is so much distinguished in the English history.

It may seem a little extraordinary, that, notwithstanding his cruelty,
his extortion, his violence, his arbitrary administration, this prince
not only acquired the regard of his subjects, but never was the object
of their hatred: he seems even, in some degree, to have possessed to
the last their love and affection.[*] His exterior qualities were
advantageous, and fit to captivate the mul