第13章 Letter IV(3)

These two points were the prosecution of persons involved in the Popish Plot,and the exclusion of the Duke of York.The first of these had prepared mankind for the second.The truth is,that if nothing which affected the Duke had been produced,besides Coleman's letters,these proofs of his endeavours to subvert the religion and liberty of the people he pretended to govern,joined to so many others of public notoriety,which showed the whole bent of soul,and the whole scheme of his policy,would have afforded reason more than sufficient for sacrificing the interest,or even the right (if you will call it so)of one man to the preservation of three kingdoms.I know how partial we are in the judgments we make,conceding ourselves,and our own interests.I know that this partiality is the immediate effect of self-love,the strongest spring in the human,nay in the whole animal system;and yet I cannot help being surprised that a man should expect to be trusted with a crown,because he is born a prince,in a country where he could not be trusted by law,and ought not to be trusted in reason,with a constable's staff,if he was born a private person.Let me add,that such an expectation must be deemed more unreasonable in a descendant of Henry the Fourth of France,if possible,than in any other man.The hereditary title of the house of Bourbon,on the extinction of that of Valois,was certainly as clear,and much better established by the laws and usages of France,than the hereditary right of any prince of the house of Stuart to the crown of England;and yet Henry the Fourth,with all the personal qualifications which could recommend a prince to the esteem and love of his subjects,would never have been received into the throne by the French nation,if he had not been of the religion of that nation.On what foundation then could it be expected that a Protestant and a free people should be less animated by religion and liberty both,than their neighbours had been by religion alone;for liberty had nothing to do in that contest?Our fathers were thus animated,at the time I am speaking of.The long Parliament projected the exclusion;and if the design had been carried on,in the spirit of a Country party,it would probably have been carried on with a national concurrence,and would consequently have succeeded in effect,though not perhaps at once,nor in the very form at first proposed.