he interruption of commerce, in which the
nation was supplanted by her allies, as well as invaded by her enemies;
the low ebb of the kingdom's treasure, exhausted in hiring foreign
bottoms, and paying foreign troops to fight foreign quarrels; and the
slaughter of the best and bravest of their countrymen, whose blood had
been lavishly spilt in support of connexions with which they ought to
have had no concern. They demonstrated the mischiefs that necessarily
arose from the unsettled state of the nation. They observed that the
government could not be duly established until a solemn declaration
should confirm the legality of that tenure by which their majesties
possessed the throne; that the structure of parliaments was deficient
in point of solidity, as they existed entirely at the pleasure of
the crown, which would use them no longer than they should be found
necessary in raising supplies for the use of the government. They
exclaimed against the practice of quartering soldiers in private houses
contrary to the ancient laws of the land, the petition of rights, and
the subsequent act on that subject passed in the reign of the second
Charles. They enumerated among their grievances the violation of
property, by pressing transport ships into the service without settling
any fund of payment for the owners; the condition of the militia, which
was equally burdensome and useless; the flagrant partiality in favour
of allies, who carried on an open commerce with France, and supplied the
enemy with necessaries, while the English laboured under the severest
prohibitions, and were in effect the dupes of those very powers
whom they protected. They dwelt upon the ministry's want of conduct,
foresight, and intelligence, and inveighed against their ignorance,
insolence, and neglect, which were as pernicious to the nation as if
they had formed a design of reducing it to the lowest ebb of disgrace
and destruction. By this time, indeed, public virtue was become the
object of ridicule, and the whole kingdom was overspread with
immorality and corruption; towards the increase of which many concurring
circumstances happened to contribute. The people were divided into three
parties, namely, the Williamites, the Jacobites, and the discontented
Revolutioners; these factions took all opportunities to thwart, to
expose, and to ridicule the measures and principles of each other, so
that patriotism was laughed out of doors as an hypocritical pretence.
T