s and triumphs. Nor ought
the apprehension of such an event to be regarded in them as a selfish
consideration: in their safety is involved the security of the laws. The
patrons of the constitution cannot suffer without a fatal blow to the
constitution: and it is but justice in the public to protect, at any
hazard, those who have so generously exposed themselves to the utmost
hazard for the public interest. What though monarchy, the ancient
government of England, be impaired, during these contests, in many of
its former prerogatives: the laws will flourish the more by its decay;
and it is happy, allowing that matters are really carried beyond the
bounds of moderation, that the current at least runs towards liberty,
and that the error is on that side which is safest for the general
interests of mankind and society.

The best arguments of the royalists against a further attack on the
prerogative, were founded more on opposite ideas which they had formed
of the past events of this reign, than on opposite principles of
government. Some invasions, they said, and those too of moment, had
undoubtedly been made on national privileges: but were we to look for
the cause of these violences, we should never find it to consist in the
wanton tyranny and injustice of the prince, not even in his ambition or
immoderate appetite for authority. The hostilities with Spain, in which
the king on his accession found himself engaged, however imprudent and
unnecessary, had proceeded from the advice, and even importunity of the
parliament; who deserted him immediately after they had embarked him in
those warlike measures. A young prince, jealous of honor, was naturally
afraid of being foiled in his first enterprise, and had not as yet
attained such maturity of counsel, as to perceive that his greatest
honor lay in preserving the laws inviolate, and gaining the full
confidence of his people. The rigor of the subsequent parliaments had
been extreme with regard to many articles, particularly tonnage and
poundage; and had reduced the king to an absolute necessity, if he would
preserve entire the royal prerogative, of levying those duties by his
own authority, and of breaking through the forms, in order to maintain
the spirit of the constitution. Having once made so perilous a step, he
was naturally induced to continue, and to consult the public interest
by imposing ship money, and other moderate though irregular burdens and
taxations. A sure proof th