第29章 Letter VIII(3)

The Tories had no longer any pretence of fearing the designs of the Whigs,since the Whigs had sufficiently purged themselves from all suspicion of republican views,by their zeal to continue monarchical government,and of latitudinarian schemes in point of religion,by their ready concurrence in preserving our ecclesiastical establishment,and by their insisting on nothing farther,in favour of the Dissenters,than that indulgence which the Church was most willing to grant.The Whigs had as little pretence of fearing the Tories,since the Tories had purged themselves,in the most signal manner,from all suspicion of favouring popery or arbitrary power,by the vigorous resistance they made to both.They had engaged,they had taken the lead in the Revolution,and they were fully determined against the return of King James.The real essences of Whig and Tory were thus destroyed,but the nominal were preserved,and have done since that time a good part of the mischief which the real did before.The opposition made to the settlement of the crown brought this about.An over-curious enquiry into the motives of this opposition would be a task too invidious for me to undertake.Something however may be said upon it.We may say in general,without offence,that private ambition mingled itself early in the great and national concerns of the Revolution;and that it did so more,as the prospect of a new settlement and of the elevation of the Prince of Orange approached.Expectations were raised,disappointments were given or foreseen,and a variety of motives,of the same kind,began to influence very strongly the conduct of the principal actors.Some endeavoured to lay the foundations of their future fortune by demonstrations of a personal attachment to the Prince,which were carried on,I doubt,a little too independently of the regard due to their country,in some cases;particularly,if I mistake not,in that of the Declaration of Rights,of which we may pronounce,and experience will justify us,that it was too loose,too imperfect,and nothing less than proportionable to the importance of the occasion,and the favourable circumstances of the conjuncture.Others there were,who imagined that the shortest and surest way for them to take,in pursuit of the same view,was to make themselves considerable by opposition,to form a party,and maintain a struggle for personal power,under the pretence and umbrage of principle.

This was,without doubt,the motive of some particular leading men,and could not be,at least at first,the motive of numbers.But there was another motive,which easily became that of numbers,because it arose out of a fund common to all men,the perversity of human nature,according to an observation made in one of these letters.Whilst the event of the Prince of Orange's expedition was undecided,men remained under the full influence of their fears,which had determined them to act against their prejudices.But when the Revolution was secure,and these fears were calmed,these prejudices resumed in some degree their former power,and the more for being revived and encouraged by men of reputation and authority who argued for some,and might as reasonably have argued for all the errors,in contradiction to which most of them had acted,nay and were ready to act.With such views,and by such means,were many brought,at this time,to entangle themselves in a maze of inextricable absurdities.Had they owned candidly and fairly that their principles,as well as those of the Whigs,were carried too high in the former disputes of parties,and that these principles could not be true,since they found themselves actually in a situation,wherein it was not possible to act agreeably to them,without manifest absurdity,the distinction,as well as the difference of Whig and Tory had been at an end.But contrary measures produced a contrary effect.They kept up the appearances,and they could keep up no more,of a Whig and a Tory party,and with these appearances a great part of the old animosity.The two names were sounded about the nation,and men who saw the same ensigns flying,were not wise enough to perceive,or not honest enough to own,that the same cause was no longer concerned,but listed themselves on either side,as their prejudices at first,and their inclinations,or other motives,which arose in the progress of their contests,directed them afterwards:Whigs very often under the Tory standard,Tories very often under the Whig standard.

This general representation,which I have made of the state of parties at the Revolution,is,I am verily persuaded,exactly just;and it might be supported by many particular proofs,which I choose rather to suggest than to mention.But if any doubt remains,let us analyse the several parties of that time a little more,reduce them to their first and real principles,and then pronounce whether we find the Whig or the Tory party subsisting among them.