ESSAY IX.

Of the PARTIES of GREAT BRITAIN.

W

ERE the BRITISH government propofed as a fubject of fpeculation, one would immediately perceive in it a fource of division and party, which it would be almost impoffible for it, under any administration, to avoid. The juft balance between the republican and monarchical part of our conftitution is really, in itself, fo extremely delicate and uncertain, that, when joined to men's paffions and prejudices, it is impoffible but different opinions muft arife concerning it, even among perfons of the beft understanding. Thofe of mild tempers, who love peace and order, and deteft fedition and civil wars, will always entertain more favourable fentiments of monarchy, than men of bold and generous fpirits, who are paffionate lovers of liberty, and think no evil comparable to fubjection and flavery. And though all reasonable men agree in general to preserve our mixed government; yet, when they come to particulars, fome will incline to truft greater powers to the crown, to bestow on it more influence, and to guard against its encroachments with lefs caution, than others who are terrified at the most distant approaches of tyranny and defpotic power. Thus are there parties of PRINCIPLE involved in the very nature of our conftitution, which may properly enough be denominated those of COURT and Country. VOL. I. F*

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The ftrength and violence of each of thefe parties will much depend upon the particular adminiftration. An administration may be fo bad, as to throw a great majority into the oppofition; as a good administration will reconcile to the court many of the moft paffionate lovers of liberty. But however the nation may fluctuate between them, the parties themselves will always fubfift, so long as we are governed by a limited monarchy.

But, befides this difference of Principle, thofe parties are very much fomented by a difference of INTEREST, without which they could fcarcely ever be dangerous or violent. The crown will naturally beftow all trust and power upon thofe, whofe principles, real or pretended, are most favourable to monarchical government; and this temptation will naturally engage them to go greater lengths than their principles would otherwise carry them. Their antagonists, who are disappointed in their ambitious aims, throw themfelves into the party whofe fentiments incline them to be moft jealous of royal power, and naturally carry those sentiments to a greater height than found politics will juftify. Thus Court and Country, which are the genuine offspring of the BRITISH government, are a kind' of mixed parties, and are influenced both by principle and by interest. The heads of the factions are commonly most governed by the latter motive; the inferior members of them by the former. As to ecclefiaftical parties; we may observe, that, in all ages of the world, priests have been enemies to liberty; and it is certain, that this steady conduct of theirs must have been founded on fixed reasons of intereft and ambition. Liberty of thinking, and of expreffing our thoughts, is always fatal to priestly power, and to those pious frauds, on which it is commonly founded; and, by

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an infallible connexion, which prevails among all kinds of liberty, this privilege can never be enjoyed, at least has never yet been enjoyed, but in a free government. Hence it must happen, in such a constitution as that of GREAT BRITAIN, that the established clergy, while things are in their natural fituation, will always be of the Court-party; as, on the contrary, diffenters of all kinds will be of the Country-party; fince they can never hope for that toleration, which they stand in need of, but by means of our free government. All princes, that have aimed at defpotic power, have known of what importance it was to gain the established clergy: As the clergy, on their part, have shewn a great facility in entering into the views of fuch princes*. GUSTAVUS VAZA was, perhaps, the only ambitious monarch that ever depreffed the church, at the fame time that he discouraged liberty. But the exorbitant power of the bishops in SWEDEN, who, at that time, overtopped the crown itself, together with their attachment to a foreign family, was the reason of his embracing fuch an unusual system of politics.

This obfervation, concerning the propensity of priests to the government of a single perfon, is not true with regard to one fect only. The Prefbyterian and Calvinistic clergy in HOLLAND were profeffed friends to the family' of ORANGE; as the Arminians, who were esteemed heretics, where of the LOUVESTEIN faction, and zealous for liberty. But if a prince have the choice of both, it is easy to fee, that he will prefer the episcopal to the presbyterian form of government, both because of the greater

Judæi fibi ipfi reges impofuere ; qui mobilitate vulgi expulfi, resumpta, per arma dominatione; fugas civium, urbium everfiones, fratrum, conjugum, parentum neces, aliaque folita regibus aufi, fuperftitionem fovebant; quia honor facerdotii firmamentum potentiæ affumebatur. TACIT. bift. lib. v. affinity

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affinity between monarchy and epifcopacy, and because of the facility, which he will find, in such a government, of ruling the clergy, by means of their ecclefiaftical superiors *.

If we confider the firft rife of parties in ENGLAND, during the great rebellion, we fhall obferve, that it was conformable to this general theory, and that the species of government gave birth to them, by a regular and infallible operation. The ENGLISH conftitution, before that period, had lain in a kind of confufion; yet fo, as that the fubjects poffeffed many noble privileges, which, though not exactly bounded and fecured by law, were univerfally deemed, from long poffeffion, to belong to them as their birth-right. An ambitious, or rather a mifguided, prince arofe, who deemed all these privileges to be conceffions of his predeceffors, revocable at pleasure; and, in profecution of this principle, he openly acted in violation of liberty, during the courfe of feveral years. Neceffity, at laft, constrained him to call a parliament: The fpirit of liberty arose and spread itself: The prince, being without any fupport, was obliged to grant every thing required of him: And his enemies, jealous and implacable, fet no bounds to their pretenfions. Here then began thofe contests, in which it was no wonder, that men of that age were divided into different parties; fince, even at this day, the impartial are at a lofs to decide concerning the justice of the quarrel. The pretenfions. of the parliament, if yielded to, broke the balance of the conftitution, by rendering the government almost entirely republican. If not yielded to, the nation was, perhaps, ftill in danger of abfolute power, from the fettled principles and inveterate habits of the king, which had plainly appeared in every conceffion that he had been con

* Populi imperium juxta libertatem : paucorum dominatio regiæ libidini proprior eft, TACIT. Ann. lib, vi.

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trained to make to his people. In this question, fo delicate and uncertain, men naturally fell to the fide which was most conformable to their ufual principles; and the more paffionate favourers of monarchy declared for the king, as the zealous friends of liberty fided with the parliament. The hopes of fuccefs being nearly equal on both fides, intereft had no general influence in this conteft: So that ROUND-HEAD and CAVALIER were merely parties of principle; neither of which disowned either monarchy or liberty; but the former party inclined moft to the republican part of our government, the latter to the monarchical. In this refpect, they may be confidered as court and country-party, enflamed into a civil war, by an unhappy concurrence of circumftances, and by the turbulent fpirit of the age. The commonwealth's men, and the partizans of abfolute power, lay concealed in both parties, and formed but an inconfiderable part of them.

The clergy had concurred with the king's arbitrary defigns; and, in return, were allowed to perfecute their adverfaries, whom they called heretics and fchifmatics. The established clergy were epifcopal; the non-conformifts prefbyterian: So that all things concurred to throw the former, without reserve, into the king's party; and the latter into that of the parliament.

Every one knows the event of this quarrel; fatal to the king firft, to the parliament afterwards. After many confufions and revolutions, the royal family was at last reftored, and the ancient government re-established. CHARLES II. was not made wifer by the example of his father; but prosecuted the fame measures, though, at firft, with more fecrecy and caution. New parties arofe, under the appellation of Whig and Tory, which have continued ever fince to confound and diftract our govern