complied with his demands, he would have recourse to them; but that
any ill usage on their part would set him free from those measures
of government, which he seemed to regard more as voluntary than as
necessary. It must be confessed, that no parliament in England was ever
placed in a more critical situation, nor where more forcible arguments
could be urged, either for their opposition to the court, or their
compliance with it.

It was said on the one hand, that jealousy of royal power was the very
basis of the English constitution, and the principle to which the nation
was beholden for all that liberty which they enjoy above the subjects of
other monarchies: that this jealousy, though at different periods it may
be more or less intense, can never safely be laid asleep, even under
the best and wisest princes: that the character of the present sovereign
afforded cause for the highest vigilance, by reason of the arbitrary
principles which he had imbibed; and still more, by reason of his
religious zeal, which it is impossible for him ever to gratify without
assuming more authority than the constitution allows him: that power
is to be watched in its very first encroachments; nor is any thing ever
gained by timidity and submission: that every concession adds new
force to usurpation; and at the same time, by discovering the dastardly
dispositions of the people, inspires it with new courage and enterprise:
that as arms were intrusted altogether in the hands of the prince, no
check remained upon him but the dependent condition of his revenue;
a security, therefore, which it would be the most egregious folly
to abandon: that all the other barriers which of late years had been
erected against arbitrary power, would be found without this capital
article, to be rather pernicious and destructive: that new limitations
in the constitution stimulated the monarch's inclination to surmount the
laws, and required frequent meetings of parliament, in order to repair
all the breaches which either time or violence may have made upon that
complicated fabric: that recent experience during the reign of the
late king, a prince who wanted neither prudence nor moderation,
had sufficiently proved the solidity of all these maxims: that his
parliament, having rashly fixed his revenue for life, and at the same
time repealed the triennial bill, found that they themselves were
no longer of importance; and that liberty, not protected by national
assembl