A Character of King Charles the Second Part 5

Those that will be Martyrs for the People, must expect to be repayed only by their _Vanity_, or their _Virtue_.

A Man that will head the Mob is like a Bull let loose, tyed about with Squibs and Crackers.

He must be half mad that goeth about it, yet at sometimes shall be too hard for all the wise Men in a Kingdom: For though good Sense speaketh against Madness, yet it is out of Countenance whenever it meets it.

It would be a greater Reproach to the People that their _Favour_ is short-liv'd, if their _Malice_ was not so too.

The Thoughts of the People have no regular Motion, they come out by Starts.

There is an acc.u.mulative Cruelty in a number of Men, though none in particular are ill-natured.

The angry Buzz of a Mult.i.tude is one of the bloodiest Noises in the World.

_Of_ GOVERNMENT.

An exact Administration, and good choice of proper Instruments doth insensibly make the Government in a manner absolute without a.s.suming it.

The best Definition of the best Government is, that it hath no Inconveniences but such as are supportable; but Inconveniences there must be.

The Interest of the Governors and the Governed is in reality the same, but by Mistakes on both Sides it is generally very differing. He who is a Courtier by Trade, and the Country Gentleman who will be popular, right or wrong, help to keep up this unreasonable Distinction.

There are as many apt to be angry at being well, as at being ill governed.

For most Men to be well governed must be scurvily used.

As Mankind is made, the keeping it in order is an ill-natured Office.

It is like a great Galley where the Officers must be whipping with little Intermission, if they will do their Duty.

It is in a disorderly Government as in a River, the lightest Things swim at the top.

A Nation is best to be judged by the Government it is under at the time.

Mankind is moulded to good or ill, according as the Power over it is well or ill directed. A Nation is a Ma.s.s of Dough, it is the Government that kneadeth it into Form.

Where Learning and Trade flourish in a Nation, they produce so much Knowledge, and That so much Equality among Men, that the Greatness of Dependencies is lost, but the Nation in general will be the better for it: For if the Government be wise, it is the more easily governed; if not, the bad Government is the more easily overturned, by Mens being more united against it than when they depended upon great Men; who might sooner be gained over and weakend by being divided.

There is more reason for allowing _Luxury_ in a Military Government than in another; the perpetual Exercise of War not only excuseth but recommendeth the Entertainments in the Winter. In another it groweth into a Habit of uninterrupted Expences and idle Follies, and the Consequences of them to a Nation become irrecoverable.

CLERGY.

If the Clergy did not live like temporal Men, all the Power of Princes could not bring them under the temporal Jurisdiction.

They who may be said to be of G.o.d Almighty's Houshold, should shew by their Lives that he hath a well disciplined Family.

The Clergy in this Sense, of Divine Inst.i.tution; that G.o.d hath made Mankind so weak that it must be deceived.

RELIGION.

It is a strange thing that the way to save Mens Souls should be such a cunning Trade, as to require a skilful Master.

The time spent in praying to G.o.d, might be better employed in deserving well from him.

Men think praying the easier Task of the two, and therefore choose it.

The People would not believe in G.o.d at all, if they were not permitted to believe wrong in him.

The several Sorts of Religion in the World are little more than so many spiritual Monopolies.

If their Interests could be reconciled, their Opinions would be so too.

Men pretend to serve G.o.d Almighty who doth not need it, but make use of him because they need him.

Factions are like Pirates that set out false Colours, when they come near a Booty Religion is put under Deck.

Most Mens Anger about Religion is as if two Men should quarrel for a Lady, they neither of them care for.

_Of_ PREROGATIVE, POWER _and_ LIBERTY.

A Prerogative that tendeth to the Dissolution of all Laws must be void in itself, _felo de se_; for a Prerogative is a Law. The reason of any Law is, that no Man's Will should be a Law.

The King is the Life of the Law, and cannot have a Prerogative that is mortal to it.

The Law is to have a Soul in it, or it is a dead thing. The King is by his Sovereign Power to add Warmth and Vigour to the meaning of the Law. We are by no means to imagine there is such an Antipathy between them, that the Prerogative, like a Basilisk, is to kill the Law, whenever it looks upon it.

The Prince hath very rarely use of his Prerogative, but hath constantly a great Advantage by the Laws.

They attribute to the Pope indeed, that all the Laws of the Church are in his Breast; but then he hath the Holy Ghost for his learned Counsel, _&c._

The People's Obedience must be _plain_, and without _Evasions_. The Prince's Prerogative should be so too.

King _Charles the First_ made this Answer to the Pet.i.tion of Right, (to the Observation whereof he held himself obliged in Conscience, as well as of his Prerogative.) "That the People's Liberties strengthen the King's Prerogative, and the King's Prerogative is to defend the People's Liberties."

That Prince's Declarations allow the Original of Government to come from the People. Prerogative never yet pretended to repealing.

The first ground of Prerogative was to enable the Prince to do _good_, not to do _every thing_.

If the ground of a King's desire of Power be his a.s.surance of himself that he will do no hurt by it; is it not an Argument for Subjects to desire to _keep_ that which they will never _abuse_?

It must not be such a Prerogative as giveth the Government the Rickets; all the Nourishment to go to the upper part, and the lower starved.

As a Prince is in danger who calleth a stronger than himself to his a.s.sistance; so when Prerogative useth _Necessity_ for an Argument, it calleth in a stronger thing than itself. The same Reason may overturn it.

Necessity too is so plain a thing, that every body sees it, so that the Magistrate hath no great privilege in being the Judge of it. Necessity therefore is a dangerous Argument for Princes, since (wherever it is real) it const.i.tutes every Man a Magistrate, and gives as great a Power of dispensing to every private Man, as a Prince can claim.

It is not so proper to say that _Prerogative_ justifieth _Force_, as that _Force_ supporteth _Prerogative_. They have not been such constant Friends, but that they have had terrible _Fallings_ out.