Volume IV Part 5 (2/2)

_Sir John Hawles._[15]

”Certainly it must be granted, that the doctrine that commands obedience to the supreme power, _though in things contrary to Nature_, even to suffer death, which is the highest injustice that can be done a man, rather than make an opposition to the supreme power [is reasonable[16]], because the death of one or some few private persons is a less evil than _disturbing the whole government_; that law must needs be understood to forbid the doing or saying anything to disturb the government, the rather because the obeying that law cannot be pretended to be against Nature: and the Doctor's refusing to obey that implicit law is the reason for which he is now prosecuted; though he would have it believed that the reason he is now prosecuted was for the doctrine he a.s.serted of obedience to the supreme power; which he might have preached as long as he had pleased, and the Commons would have taken no offence at it, if he had stopped there, and not have taken upon him, on that pretence or occasion, to have cast odious colors upon the Revolution.”

General Stanhope was among the managers. He begins his speech by a reference to the opinion of his fellow-managers, which he hoped had put beyond all doubt the limits and qualifications that the Commons had placed to their doctrines concerning the Revolution; yet, not satisfied with this general reference, after condemning the principle of non-resistance, which is a.s.serted in the sermon _without any exception_, and stating, that, under the specious pretence of preaching a peaceable doctrine, Sacheverell and the Jacobites meant, in reality, to excite a rebellion in favor of the Pretender, he explicitly limits his ideas of resistance with the boundaries laid down by his colleagues, and by Mr.

Burke.

_General Stanhope._

[Sidenote: Rights of the subject and the crown equally legal.]

”The Const.i.tution of England is founded upon _compact_; and the subjects of this kingdom have, in their several public and private capacities, _as_ legal a t.i.tle to what are their rights by law _as_ a prince to the possession of his crown.

[Sidenote: Justice of resistance founded on necessity.]

”Your Lords.h.i.+ps, and most that hear me, are witnesses, and must remember the _necessities_ of those times which brought about the Revolution: that _no other_ remedy was left to preserve our religion and liberties; _that resistance was_ necessary, _and consequently just_.”

”Had the Doctor, in the remaining part of his sermon, preached up peace, quietness, and the like, and shown how happy we are under her Majesty's administration, and exhorted obedience to it, he had never been called to answer a charge at your Lords.h.i.+ps' bar. But the tenor of all his subsequent discourse is one continued invective against the government.”

Mr. Walpole (afterwards Sir Robert) was one of the managers on this occasion. He was an honorable man and a sound Whig. He was not, as the Jacobites and discontented Whigs of his time have represented him, and as ill-informed people still represent him, a prodigal and corrupt minister. They charged him, in their libels and seditious conversations, as having first reduced corruption to a system. Such was their cant. But he was far from governing by corruption. He governed by party attachments. The charge of systematic corruption is less applicable to him, perhaps, than to any minister who ever served the crown for so great a length of time. He gained over very few from the opposition.

Without being a genius of the first cla.s.s, he was an intelligent, prudent, and safe minister. He loved peace, and he helped to communicate the same disposition to nations at least as warlike and restless as that in which he had the chief direction of affairs. Though he served a master who was fond of martial fame, he kept all the establishments very low. The land tax continued at two s.h.i.+llings in the pound for the greater part of his administration. The other impositions were moderate.

The profound repose, the equal liberty, the firm protection of just laws, during the long period of his power, were the princ.i.p.al causes of that prosperity which afterwards took such rapid strides towards perfection, and which furnished to this nation ability to acquire the military glory which it has since obtained, as well as to bear the burdens, the cause and consequence of that warlike reputation. With many virtues, public and private, he had his faults; but his faults were superficial. A careless, coa.r.s.e, and over-familiar style of discourse, without sufficient regard to persons or occasions, and an almost total want of political decorum, were the errors by which he was most hurt in the public opinion, and those through which his enemies obtained the greatest advantage over him. But justice must be done. The prudence, steadiness, and vigilance of that man, joined to the greatest possible lenity in his character and his politics, preserved the crown to this royal family, and, with it, their laws and liberties to this country.

Walpole had no other plan of defence for the Revolution than that of the other managers, and of Mr. Burke; and he gives full as little countenance to any arbitrary attempts, on the part of restless and factious men, for framing new governments according to their fancies.

_Mr. Walpole_.

[Sidenote: Case of resistance out of the law, and the highest offence.]

[Sidenote: Utmost necessity justifies it.]

”Resistance is nowhere enacted to be legal, but subjected, by all the laws now in being, to the greatest penalties. 'Tis what is not, cannot, nor ought ever to be described, or affirmed in any positive law, to be excusable; when, and upon what _never-to-be-expected_ occasions, it may be exercised, no man can foresee; _and ought never to be thought of, but when an utter subversion of the laws of the realm threatens the whole frame of a Const.i.tution, and no redress can otherwise be hoped for_. It therefore does and _ought forever_ to stand, in the eye and letter of the law, as the _highest offence_. But because any man, or party of men, may not, out of folly or wantonness, commit treason, or make their own discontents, ill principles, or disguised affections to another interest, a pretence to resist the supreme power, will it follow from thence that the _utmost necessity_ ought not to engage a nation _in its own defence for the preservation of the whole_?”

Sir Joseph Jekyl was, as I have always heard and believed, as nearly as any individual could be, the very standard of Whig principles in his age. He was a learned and an able man; full of honor, integrity, and public spirit; no lover of innovation; nor disposed to change his solid principles for the giddy fas.h.i.+on of the hour. Let us hear this Whig.

_Sir Joseph Jekyl._

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