God, nor of the chearful concurrence of all good people, and of the undeceived part of the army, whose arrears and future advancement they would procure, fuffering no impofition or force on any man's confcience."

from

If I am charged with inconfiftency in deprecating the acts of the effective government of the nation, during this tyrannical ufurpation of twenty years, after having established the principle, that the acts of the majority are conclufive upon the whole, I firft oppose to it that unexceptionable maxim, that there can be no real government, which is not admitted by the free confent of the majority of the people. Now to prove, that the scenes of bloodshed, cruelty, and tyranny the year 1641 to the year 1660, were not by the free affent of the majority of the nation, I fhall beg leave to adduce the following authorities in evidence. «The number of the commons, that paffed their act for the king's trial were but forty-fix, not the tenth part of a houfe of commons duly conftituted; and if the people had been afked one by one, not one in a hundred would have confented to the king's murder, or chofen fuch reprefentatives (if they might have had a free choice),

* D. Brady's Hift. of the Succeffion, p. 357-

The rebellion' not the free act of the majority of the nation.

as would have consented to it; and yet this charge is drawn up and urged against the king, as the act of the commons and all the people of England; or laftly, who can deny, that they published for law and right whatsoever they did or faid, though it were never fo treasonable, vile, or wicked." In the answer of the house of commons to King Charles the Second's letter, or declaration from Breda, we fhall hear fome more authentic accounts of the fewness of the actors and abettors in these fcenes of horror and tyranny. * " And we beseech your majefty, we may add this farther for the vindication of parliaments, and even of the last parliament convened under your royal father of happy memory, when as your majesty well obferves, through mistakes and misunderstandings, many inconveniences were produced, which were not intended; that those very inconveniences could not have been brought upon us by thofe persons, who had defigned them, without violating the parliament itself; for they well knew it was not poffible to do a violence to that facred perfon, whilst the parliament, which had vowed and covenanted for the defence and safety of that perfon remained entire. Surely Sir, as the

* Vid. Clar. Hift. of the Civil Wars, b. xvi. Vol. iii. P. 592.

perfons

perfons of our kings have ever been dear unto parliaments, fo we cannot think of that horrid act committed against the precious life of our late fovereign, but with fuch a deteftation and abhorrency, as we want words to express it; and next to wishing it had never been, we wish it may never be remembered by your majefty, to be unto you an occafion of forrow, as it will never be remembered by us, but with that grief and trouble of mind, which it deferves; being the greatest reproach, that ever was incurred by any of the English nation, an offence to all the protef tant churches abroad, and a scandal to the profeffion of the truth of religion here at home; though both profeffion and true pro- The whole nafeffors, and the nation itself, as well as the parliament, were moft innocent of it, it hav ing been only the contrivance and act of some few ambitious and bloody perfons, and fuch others, as by their influence were misled. And as we hope and pray, that God will not impute the guilt of it, nor of all the evil confequences thereof, unto the land, whofe divine justice never involves the guiltless with the guilty."

Though Dr. Prieftley finds occafion of exultation and triumph in the annual commemoration of the 30th of January, yet in ano

tion not guilty.

The murderers

of King Charles

a faction, and tives of the na

not reprefenta

tion.

ther part of his works he owns, that from the nature of things it was neceffary, that the oppofition to King Charles's government should begin from a few, who might therefore be called a faction, for whom there was no fafety fhort of his death. * "For," fays he, "it is to be regretted, that the fituation of things was fuch, that the fentence could not be passed by the whole nation, or their reprefentatives folemnly

* Priestley upon Government, p. 39.

affembled

+ Lord Clarendon relates the following anecdote, not irrelevant to the present subject, which happened on the first day of King Charles's trial. Hift. of the Civil Wars, vol. iii.. b. xi. p. 196." When all those, who were commiffioners had taken their places, and the king was brought in, the first ceremony was, to read their commiffion, which was the ordinance of parliament for the trial; and when the judges were all called, every man answering to his name, as he was called, and the prefident being first called and making anfwer, the next who was called being the general, Lord Fairfax, and no answer being made, the officer called him the fecond time, when there was a voice heard that faid, he had more wit than to be there;' which put the court into fome diforder; and fomebody afking who it was, there was no answer, but a little murmuring; but presently, when the impeachment was read, and that expreffion used, of all the good people of England,' the fame voice in a louder tone anfwered, No, nor the hundredth part of them;' upon which one of the officers bid the foldiers give fire into that box, whence thofe prefumptuous words were uttered; but it was quickly discerned, that it was the general's wife the lady Fairfax, who had uttered both those sharpe fayings, who was prefently perfuaded or forced to leave the place, to prevent any new disorder.

She

affembled for that purpose. I am fenfible indeed that the generality of the nation at that time would not have voted for the death of their fovereign."

From what I have already faid, may we collect a specimen of the deadly fruit, which this faction would produce, if the growth of the plant were in any manner encouraged in this country. Some of the most noxious herbs, under the disguise of improper names, find their way into the faireft gardens; but one fatal instance of their deadly poison, induces the melancholy but requifite caution to prevent their future progress to maturity. Thus eonfident am I, that the abufive application of the term religious to these feditious and rebellious political fectaries, has alone procured the admiffion, adoption, or toleration of them in our constitution. We have

She was of a very noble extraction, one of the daughters and heirs of Horace Lord Vere of Tilbury, who having been bred in Holland, had not that reverence for the church of England, as the ought to have had, and so had unhappily concurred in her husband's entering into rebellion, never imagining what mifery it would bring upon the kingdom, and now abhorred the work in hand as much, as any body could do, and did all fhe could to hinder her husband from acting any part in it. Nor did he ever fit in that bloody court, though he was throughout overwitted by Cromwell, and made a property to bring that to pass, which could very hardly have been otherwise effected."

Seditious pories mafked unappellation.

litical fecta

der a religious