capable of enduring the greatest fatigues. He excelled in horsemanship
and other exercises; and he possessed all the exterior, as well as many
of the essential qualities which form an accomplished prince.

The tragical death of Charles begat a question, whether the people, in
any case, were entitled to judge and to punish their sovereign; and most
men, regarding chiefly the atrocious usurpation of the pretended judges,
and the merit of the virtuous prince who suffered, were inclined to
condemn the republican principle, as highly seditious and extravagant:
but there still were a few who, abstracting from the particular
circumstances of this case, were able to consider the question in
general, and were inclined to moderate, not contradict, the prevailing
sentiment. Such might have been their reasoning. If ever, on any
occasion, it were laudable to conceal truth from the populace, it must
be confessed, that the doctrine of resistance affords such an example;
and that all speculative reasoners ought to observe, with regard to this
principle, the same cautious silence which the laws, in every species of
government, have ever prescribed to themselves. Government is instituted
in order to restrain the fury and injustice of the people; and being
always founded on opinion, not on force, it is dangerous to weaken, by
these speculations, the reverence which the multitude owe to authority,
and to instruct them beforehand, that the case can ever happen when
they may be freed from their duty of allegiance. Or should it be found
impossible to restrain the license of human disquisitions, it must
be acknowledged, that the doctrine of obedience ought alone to be
inculcated; and that the exceptions, which are rare, ought seldom or
never to be mentioned in popular reasonings and discourses. Nor is there
any danger that mankind, by this prudent reserve, should universally
degenerate into a state of abject servitude. When the exception really
occurs, even though it be not previously expected and descanted on, it
must, from its very nature, be so obvious and undisputed, as to remove
all doubt, and overpower the restraint, however great, imposed by
teaching the general doctrine of obedience. But between resisting a
prince and dethroning him, there is a wide interval; and the abuses
of power which can warrant the latter violence, are greater and more
enormous than those which will justify the former. History, however,
supplies us with examples