s the First pleaded that to pass the bill of
attainder against the Earl of Strafford was against his conscience, that
remarkable character of "boldness and impiety," as Clarendon
characterizes Williams, Archbishop of York, on this argument of
_conscience_ (a simple word enough), demonstrated "that there were _two
sorts of conscience_, public and private; that his public conscience as
a king might dispense with his private conscience as a man!" Such was
the ignominious argument which decided the fate of that great victim of
State! It was an impudent "confusion of words" when Prynne (in order to
quiet the consciences of those who were uneasy at warring with the king)
observed that the statute of twenty-fifth Edward the Third ran in the
singular number--"If a man shall levy war against _the king_, and
therefore could not be extended to _the houses_, who are many and public
_persons_." Later, we find Sherlock blest with the spirit of Williams,
the Archbishop of York, whom we have just left. When some did not know
how to charge and to discharge themselves of the oaths to James the
Second and to William the Third, this confounder of words discovered
that there were _two rights_, as the other had that there were _two
consciences_; one was a providential right, and the other a legal right;
one person might very righteously claim and take a thing, and another as
righteously hold and keep it; but that _whoever got the better_ had the
_providential_ right by possession; and since all authority comes from
God, the people were obliged to transfer their allegiance to him as a
king of God's making; so that he who had the providential right
necessarily had the legal one! a very simple discovery, which must,
however, have cost him some pains; for this confounder of words was
himself confounded by twelve answers by non-jurors! A French politician
of this stamp recently was suspended from his lectureship for asserting
that _the possession of the soil_ was a right; by which principle, _any
king_ reigning over a country, whether by treachery, crime, and
usurpation, was a _legitimate sovereign_. For this convenient principle
the lecturer was tried, and declared not guilty--by persons who have
lately found their advantage in a confusion of words. In treaties
between nations, a "confusion of words" has been more particularly
studied; and that negotiator has conceived himself most dexterous who,
by this abuse of words, has retained an _arriere-pe