A Character of King Charles the Second Part 6

All Powers are of G.o.d; and between _Permission_ and _Appointment_, well considered, there is no real difference.

In a limited Monarchy, Prerogative and Liberty are as jealous of one another as any two neighbouring States can be of their respective Incroachments.

They ought not to part for small Bickerings, and must bear little Jealousies without breaking for them.

Power is so apt to be insolent, and Liberty to be saucy, that they are very seldom upon good Terms.

They are both so quarrelsome that they will not easily enter into a fair Treaty. For indeed it is hard to bring them together; they ever quarrel at a distance.

Power and Liberty are respectively managed in the World in a manner not suitable to their Value and Dignity.

They are both so abused that it justifieth the Satires that are generally made upon them. And

They are so in Possession of being misapplied, that instead of censuring their being abused, it is more reasonable to wonder whenever they are _not_ so.

They are perpetually wrestling, and have had their Turns when they have been thrown, to have their Bones broken by it.

If they were not both apt to be out of Breath, there would be no living.

If Prerogative will urge Reason to support it, it must bear Reason when it resisteth it.

It is a Diminution instead of a Glory, to be above treating upon equal Terms with Reason.

If the People were designed to be the sole Property of the supream Magistrate, sure G.o.d would have made them of a differing and subordinate Species; as he hath the Beasts, that by the Inferiority of their Nature they might the better submit to the Dominion of Mankind.

If none were to have Liberty but those who understand what it is, there would not be many freed Men in the World.

When the People contend for their Liberty, they seldom get any thing by their Victory but new Masters.

Liberty can neither be got, nor kept, but by so much Care, that Mankind generally are unwilling to give the Price for it. And therefore, in the Contest between Ease and Liberty, the first hath generally prevailed.

_Of_ LAWS.

Laws are generally not understood by three Sorts of Persons, _viz._ by those that make them, by those that execute them, and by those that suffer, if they break them.

Men seldom understand any Laws but those they _feel_.

Precepts, like Fomentations, must be rubbed into us; and with a rough Hand too.

If the Laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the Lawyers in the first Place.

There is more Learning now required to explain a Law made, than went to the making it.

The Law hath so many Contradictions, and Varyings from itself, that the Law may not improperly be called a Law-breaker.

It is become too changeable a thing to be defined: it is made little less a _Mystery_ than the _Gospel_.

The Clergy and the Lawyers, like the Free-Masons, may be supposed to take an Oath not to tell the Secret.

The Men of Law have a Bia.s.s to their calling in the Interpretations they make of the Law.

_Of_ PARLIAMENTS.

The Parliaments are so altered from their original Const.i.tution, that between the Court and the Country, the House, instead of being united, is like Troops of a contrary Party facing one another, and watching their Advantage.

Even the well-meaning Men who have good Sense too, have their Difficulties in an a.s.sembly; what they offer honestly for a good End, will be skilfully improved for an ill one.

It is strange that a gross Mistake should live a Minute in an a.s.sembly; one would expect that it should be immediately stifled by their discerning Faculties. But Practice convinceth that a Mistake is no where better entertained.

In Parliaments, Men wrangle in behalf of Liberty, that do as little care for it, as they deserve it.

Where the People in Parliament give a good deal of Money in exchange for any thing from the Crown, a wise Prince can hardly have an ill bargain.

The present Gift begetteth more; it is a Politick kind of Generation; and whenever a Parliament does not bring forth, it is the Unskilfulness of the Government, that is the cause of the Miscarriage.

Parliaments would bind and limit one another, and enact that such and such things shall not be made _Precedents_. There is not a word of Sense in this Language, which yet is to be understood the Sense of the Nation, and is printed as solemnly as if it was Sense.

_Of_ PARTIES.

The best Party is but a kind of a Conspiracy against the rest of the Nation. They put every body else out of their Protection. Like the _Jews_ to the _Gentiles_, all others are the Offscowrings of the World.

Men value themselves upon their Principles, so as to neglect Practice, Abilities, Industry, _&c._

Party cutteth off one half of the World from the other, so that the mutual Improvement of Mens Understanding by conversing, _&c._ is lost, and Men are half undone, when they lose the advantage of knowing what their Enemies think of them.

It is like Faith without Works; They take it for a Dispensation from all other Duties, which is the worst kind of _dispensing Power_.

It groweth to be the Master Thought; the Eagerness against one another at home, being a nearer Object, extinguisheth that which we ought to have against our foreign Enemies; and few Mens Understandings can get above overvaluing the Danger that is nearest, in comparison of that more remote.

It turneth all Thought into talking instead of doing. Men get a habit of being unuseful to the Publick by turning in a Circle of Wrangling and Railing, which they cannot get out of: And it may be remarked, that a _speculative_ c.o.xcomb is not only unuseful, but mischievous: A _practical_ c.o.xcomb under discipline may be made use of.

It maketh a Man thrust his Understanding into a Corner, and confine it till by degrees he destroys it.

Party is generally an Effect of Wantonness, Peace, and Plenty, which beget Humour, Pride, _&c._ and that is called Zeal and publick Spirit.

They forget insensibly that there is any body in the World but themselves, by keeping no other Company; so they miscalculate cruelly. And thus Parties mistake their Strength by the same reason that private Men overvalue themselves; for we by finding fault with others, build up a partial Esteem of ourselves upon the Foundation of their Mistakes: So Men in Parties find faults with those in the Administration, not without reason, but forget that they would be exposed to the same Objections, and perhaps greater, if it was their Adversary's turn to have the fault-finding part.

There are Men who s.h.i.+ne in a Faction, and make a Figure by Opposition, who would stand in a worse light, if they had the Preferments they struggle for.

It looketh so like _Courage_ (but nothing that is like is the same) to go to the _Extream_, that Men are carried away with it, and blown up out of their Senses by the wind of popular Applause.

That which looketh _bold_ is a great Object that the People can discern; But that which is _wise_ is not so easily seen: It is one part of it that it is not seen, but at the _End_ of a Design. Those who are disposed to be wise too late, are apt to be valiant too early.

Most Men enter into a Party rashly, and retreat from it as shamefully. As they encourage one another at first, so they betray one another at last: And because every Qualification is capable of being corrupted by the Excess, they fall upon the extream, to fix mutual Reproaches upon one another.

Party is little less than an Inquisition, where Men are under such a Discipline in carrying on the common Cause, as leaves no Liberty of private Opinion.