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ment for life , have but few claims to the title of just . Yet to deny to them the qualities of political wisdom and courage , is surely , a departure from the truth of history . Throughout the whole of the protracted dispute between the King and the Parliament , the latter displayed a sagacity in the accomplishment of their purposes which has -been seldom equalled . Can we suppose that without the exertion of genius and talents of the highest order , it
would have been possible for them to have succeeded in overthrowing a form of government which was supported by the prejudices of a majority of the nation ? Still less just is it to accuse those men of the want of political courage who ventured upon , and for a time succeeded , in the baldest experiment ever tried in this or perhaps in any other nation , an experiment of the most doubtful aspect , and which placed in the most imminent perils their fortunes and their lives .
The Chapter ( XIII . ) " on the State of the Constitution under Charles II ., * ' is valuable , from the quantity of Parliamentary learning which it contains . During this reign some important controversies occurred between the two Houses , which were carried on with a warmth and violence almost ridiculous . These disputes are detailed at considerable length by Mr . Hallam , who has evidently derived great assistance in this portion of his work from the learned preface prefixed by the late Mr . Hargrave to Lord Hale ' s " Jurisdiction of the Lords . " The remarks with which Mr . Hallam commences
the present chapter , are , perhaps , not altogether so well considered as the other parts of his work . He lays down what he has himself termed * f rather an extraordinary position ; " " that the fundamental privileges of the subject ' were less invaded , and that the prerogative swerved into fewer excesses during the reign of Charles II ., than , perhaps , in any former period of equal length , " Amongst other assertions in support of this position , he tells us , that " the frequent session of PaxU ^ ment , and its high estimation of its own
privileges , furnished a security against illegal taxation . Nothing of this sort has been imputed to the Government of Charles , the first King of England , perhaps , whose reign was wholly free from such a charge . " ( Vol . II . p . 341 . ) Now , in fact , the government of Charles is not free from such a charge , but , on the contrary , it appears from the best evidence , that he made an attempt to raise money by means of a benevolence , or a pretended free-will grant , a mode of taxation said to have been invented by Edward IV ., but declared to be illegal by a statute of Richard III . We learn this
curious fact from the quaint Diary of Pepys , who , under the date of 31 st August , 1661 , has the following entry : "At Court things are in very ill condition , there being so much emulation , poverty , and the vices f drinking , swearing , and loose amours , that I know not what will be the end of it but confusion . And the clergy so high , that all people I meet with do protest against their practice . In short , I see no content or satisfaction any where in any one sort of people . The benevolence proves so little , and an
occasion of so much discontent every where , that it had better it had never been set up . I think to subscribe £ 20 , " ( VoJ . I . p . 115 . ) That this exaction was not confined merely to the persons about Court , or even to the metron polis , but was intended to be a levy upon the nation at large , appears from an anecdote which has been preserved by the compilers of the Parliamentary
History , and whjich js . probably jqujte authentic . The circumstance is gajd to baye happened in ' tt ^ e , year of tt ^ e R ^ estpration . " It . was then thp ^ g ]^ pjSQiper to supply tte pxosent necessities of the King and State , jto send ojfii-i cers about tne kingdom to collect what moftey each person would freely contribute on that occasion , «« d which was ate © called a benevolence * The
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Review . T-Malfam ' * Comtitutimat Hutwy of Englarid . 251
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 251, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/35/
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