il.[382]

[Footnote 382: Cecil had taken no formal part in
Mary's government, but his handwriting can be
traced in many papers of State, and in the Irish
department he seems to have given his assistance
throughout the reign. In religion Cecil, like
Paget, was a latitudinarian. His conformity under
Mary has been commented upon bitterly; but there is
no occasion to be surprised at his conduct--no
occasion, when one thinks seriously of his
position, to blame his conduct. There were many
things in the Catholic creed of which Cecil
disapproved; and when his opportunity came, he gave
his effectual assistance for the abolition of them;
but as long as that creed was the law of the land,
as a citizen he paid the law the respect of
external obedience.

At present religion is no longer under the control
of law, and is left to the conscience. To profess
openly, therefore, a faith which we do not believe
is justly condemned as hypocrisy. But wherever
public law extends, personal responsibility is
limited. A minority is not permitted to resist the
decisions of the legislature on subjects in which
the legislature is entitled to interfere; and in
the sixteenth century opinion was as entirely under
rule and prescription as actions or things. Men may
do their best to improve the laws which they
consider unjust. They are not, under ordinary
circumstances, to disobey them so long as they
exist. However wide the basis of a government,
questions will ever rise between the individual and
the state--questions, for instance, of peace or
war, in which the conscience has as much a voice as
any other subject; where, nevertheless,
individuals, if they are in the minority, must
sacrifice their own opinions; they must contribute
their war taxes without resist