the aristocracy, imposed regular limits on royal power, and gradually
introduced some mixture of democracy into the constitution. But even
during this period, from the accession of Edward I. to the death of
Richard III., the condition of the commons was nowise eligible: a kind
of Polish aristocracy prevailed; and though the kings were limited, the
people were as yet far from being free. It required the authority almost
absolute of the sovereigns, which took place in the subsequent period,
to pull down those disorderly and licentious tyrants, who were equally
averse from peace and from freedom, and to establish that regular
execution of the laws, which, in a following age, enabled the people
to erect a regular and equitable plan of liberty. In each of
these successive alterations, the only rule of government which is
intelligible, or carries any authority with it, is the established
practice of the age, and the maxims of administration which are at that
time prevalent and universally assented to. Those who, from a pretended
respect to antiquity, appeal at every turn to an original plan of
the constitution, only cover their turbulent spirit and their private
ambition under the appearance of venerable forms; and whatever period
they pitch on for their model, they may still be carried back to a more
ancient period, where they will find the measures of power entirely
different, and where every circumstance, by reason of the greater
barbarity of the times, will appear still less worthy of imitation.
Above all, a civilized nation like the English, who have happily
established the most perfect and most accurate system of liberty that
was ever found compatible with government, ought to be cautious in
appealing to the practice of their ancestors, or regarding the maxims
of uncultivated ages as certain rules for their present conduct. An
acquaintance with the ancient periods of their government is
chiefly _useful_, by instructing them to cherish their present
constitution, from a comparison or contrast with the condition of
those distant times. And it is also _curious_, by showing them the
remote, and commonly faint and disfigured originals of the most finished
and most noble institutions, and by instructing them in the great
mixture of accident, which commonly concurs with a small ingredient of
wisdom and foresight, in erecting the complicated fabric of the most
perfect government.

NOTES.

[Footnote 1: NOTE A, p. 86. Ry