his may be done, we
must run over a few varieties of liberty for the benefit of such as do not
enjoy the inestimable blessings of being _free and easy_: we quote these
words, vulgar as they are; for, of all words in our vernacular tongue,
to express comfort and security from ill, commend us to the expletive of
_free and easy_. We had rather not meddle with civil or religious liberty:
they are as combustible as the Cotopaxi, or the new governments, of South
America; and our attempts at reformation do not extend beyond paper and
print, which the unamused reader may burn or not, as he pleases without
searing his own conscience or exciting our revenge. To be sure, a few of
our examples may border on civil liberty; but we shall not seek to find
parallels for the Ptolemaian cages, or the Tower of Famine, in our times;
neither shall we feast upon the horrors of the French Revolution, nor the
last polite reception of the Russians by headless Turks; notwithstanding
all these examples would bear us out in our idea of the love of liberty,
and the evils of the loss of it.

Kings often want liberty, even amidst the multitude of their luxuries.
They are not unfrequently the veriest slaves at court, and liege and loyal
as we are, we seldom hear of a king eating, drinking, and sleeping as
other people do, without envying him so happy an interval from the cares
of state, and the painted pomp of palaces. This it is that makes the
domestic habits of kings so interesting to every one; and many a time have
we crossed field after field to catch a glimpse of royalty, in a plain
green chariot on the Brighton road, when we would not have put our heads
out of window to see a procession to the House of Lords. Some kings have
even gone so far in their love of plain life as to drop the king, which is
a very pleasant sort of unkingship. Frederick the Great, at one of his
literary entertainments adopted this plan to promote free conversation,
when he reminded the circle that there was no monarch present, and that
every one might think aloud. The conversation soon turned upon the faults
of different governments and rulers, and general censures were passing
from mouth to mouth pretty freely, when Frederick suddenly stayed the
topic, by saying, "Peace, peace, gentlemen, have a care, the king is
coming; it may be as well if he does not hear you, lest he should be
obliged to be still worse than you." Our Second Charles was very fond of
liberty, and of drop