1603.

by which her fex is diftinguished. But the true CHAг. method of estimating her merit, is to lay afide all XLIV. thefe confiderations, and confider her merely as a rational being, placed in authority, and intrufted with the government of mankind. We We may find. it difficult to reconcile our fancy to her as a wife or a mistress; but her qualities as a fovereign, though with fome confiderable exceptions, are the object of undifputed applause and approbation.

Appendix

III.

of England.

Government of England-Revenues-Commerce-Military force-Manufactures-Learning.

THE HE party among us, who have diftinguished themselves by their adhering to liberty and a Government popular government, have long indulged their prejudices against the fucceeding race of princes, by bestowing unbounded panegyrics on the virtue and wifdom of Elizabeth. They have even been fo extremely ignorant of the tranfactions of this reign, as to extol her for a quality, which, of all others, she was the leaft poffeffed of; a tender regard for the constitution, and a concern for the liberties and privileges of her people. But as it is scarcely poffible for the prepoffeffions of party to throw a veil much longer over facts fo palpable and undeniable, there is danger left the public fhould run into the oppofite extreme, and fhould entertain an averfion to the memory of a princefs, who exercised the royal authority in a manner fo contrary to all the ideas, which we at prefent entertain of a legal conftitution. But Elizabeth only fupported the prerogatives, tranfmitted to her by her predeceffors: She believed that her subjects were entitled to no more liberty than their ancestors had enjoyed: She found that they entirely acquiefced in her arbitrary administration And it was not natural for her to find

fault with a form of government, by which the Appendig herself was invested with fuch unlimited authority. In the particular exertions of power, the queftion ought never to be forgotten, What is beft? But in the general diftribution of power among the feveral members of a conftitution, there can seldom be admitted any other question, than What is established? Few examples occur of princes, who have willingly refigned their power: None of those who have, without ftruggle and reluctance, allowed it to be extorted from them. If any other rule than established practice be followed, factions and diffenfions muft multiply without end: And though many conftitutions and none more than the British, have been improved even by violent innovations, the praise, bestowed on thofe patriots, to whom the nation has been indebted for its privileges, ought to be given with fome referve, and furely without the leaft rancor against those who adhered to the ancient conftitution'.

By the ancient conftitution, is here meant that which prevailed before the fettlement of our prefent plan of liberty. There was a more ancient conftitution, where, though the people had perhaps lefs liberty than under the Tudors, yet the king had alfo lefs authority: The power of the barons was a great check upon him, and exercised great tyrar.ny over them. But there was ftill a more ancient conftitution, viz. that before the figning of the charters, when neither the people nor the barons had any regular privileges; and the power of the government, during the reign of an able prince, was almost wholly in the king. The English conftitution, like all others, has been in a state of continual

In order to understand the ancient conftitution of England, there is not a period which deferves more to be studied than the reign of Elizabeth. The prerogatives of this princefs were fcarcely ever difputed, and fhe therefore employed them without fcruple: Her imperious temper, a circumftance in which fhe went far beyond her fucceffors, rendered her exertions of power violent and frequent, and discovered the full extent of her authority: The great popularity, which he enjoyed, proves, that she did not infringe any established liberties of the people: There remains evidence fufficient to afcertain the moft noted acts of her administration: And though that evidence must be drawn from a fource wide of the ordinary hiftorians, it becomes only the more authentic on that account, and ferves as a ftronger proof, that her particular exertions of power were conceived to be nothing but the ordinary course of administration, fince they were not thought remarkable enough to be recorded even by contemporary writers. If there was any difference in this particular, the people, in former reigns, feem rather to have been more fubmiffive than even during the age of Elizabeth:

64

2

In a memorial of the ftate of the realm, drawn by fecretary Cecil, in 1569, there is this paffage : Then "followeth the decay of obedience in civil policy, which being compared with the fearfulness and reverence of all "inferior eftates to their fuperiors in times paft, will astonish any wife and confiderate perfon, to behold the defperation "L of reformation. Haynes, p. 586. Again, p. 588.

66

III.

It may not here be improper to recount fome Appendix of the ancient prerogatives of the crown, and lay open the fources of that great power, which the English monarchs formerly enjoyed.

ONE of the most ancient and most established inftruments of power was the court of Star-chamber, which poffeffed an unlimited difcretionary authority of fining, imprisoning, and inflicting corporal punishment, and whofe jurifdiction extended to all forts of offences, contempts, and diforders, that lay not within reach of the common law. The members of this court confifted of the privy council and the judges; men, who all of them enjoyed their offices during pleasure: And when the prince himself was prefent, he was the fole judge, and all the others could only interpose with their advice. There needed but this one court in any government, to put an end to all regular, legal, and exact plans of liberty. For who durft fet himself in oppofition, to the crown and ministry, or afpire to the character of being a patron of freedom, while expofed to fo arbitrary a jurisdiction? I much question, whether any of the abfolute monarchies in Europe contain, at prefent, fo illegal and defpotic a tribunal.

THE Court of High Commiffion was another jurifdiction ftill more terrible; both because the crime of herefy, of which it took cognizance, was more undefinable than any civil offence, and because its methods of inquifition and of adminiftering oaths, were more contrary to all the