His punishment
in that case would not only have been just, but conducted in a just and
unexceptionable manner. But we are told, that a ridiculous opinion at
that time prevailed in the nation, (and it is plainly supposed by
Sir Walter in his apology,) that, by treaty, war was allowed with the
Spaniards in the Indies, though peace was made in Europe: and while that
notion took place, no jury would have found Raleigh guilty. So that had
not the king punished him upon the old sentence, the Spaniards would
have had a just cause of complaint against the king, sufficient to have
produced a war, at least to have destroyed all cordiality between the
nations.

This explication I thought necessary in order to clear up the story of
Raleigh; which, though very obvious, is generally mistaken in so gross a
manner, that I scarcely know its parallel in the English history.]

[Footnote 55: NOTE CCC, p. 458 This parliament is remarkable for being
the epoch in which were first regularly formed, though without acquiring
these denominations, the parties of court and country; parties which
have ever since continued, and which, while they often threaten
the total dissolution of the government, are the real causes of its
permanent life and vigor. In the ancient feudal constitution, of which
the English partook with other European nations, there was a mixture,
not of authority and liberty, which we have since enjoyed in this
island, and which now subsist uniformly together; but of authority and
anarchy, which perpetually shocked with each other, and which took place
alternately, according as circumstances were more or less favorable to
either of them. A parliament composed of barbarians, summoned from their
fields and forests, uninstructed by study, conversation, or travel;
ignorant of their own laws and history, and unacquainted with the
situation of all foreign nations; a parliament called precariously by
the king, and dissolved at his pleasure; sitting a few days, debating a
few points prepared for them, and whose members were impatient to return
to their own castles, where alone they were great, and to the chase,
which was their favorite amusement: such a parliament was very little
fitted to enter into a discussion of all the questions of government,
and to share, in a regular manner, the legal administration. The name,
the authority of the king alone appeared, in the common course of
government; in extraordinary emergencies, he assumed,