many more inconveniences, must now be removed, unless the people of
Great Britain be already so far corrupted that they will not accept of
freedom when offered to them, seeing the King, on his restoration, will
refuse nothing that a free Parliament can ask for the security of the
religion, laws, and liberty of his people.

"It is now time to conclude; and I shall do it with this reflection.
Civil wars are ever attended with rancour and ill-will, which party rage
never fails to produce in the minds of those whom different interests,
principles or views, set in opposition to one another. I, therefore,
earnestly require it of my friends to give as little loose as possible
to such passions: this will prove the most effectual means to prevent
the same in the enemies of my royal cause. And this my declaration will
vindicate to all posterity the nobleness of my undertaking, and the
generosity of my intentions."

There was much truth in the open charges preferred in this declaration
against the existing government. The sovereigns of the house of Hanover
had always shown a marked predilection for their Continental
possessions, and had proportionally neglected the affairs of Britain.
Under Walpole's administration the imperial Parliament had degenerated
from an independent assembly to a junta of placemen, and the most
flagitious system of bribery was openly practised and avowed. It was not
without reason that Charles contrasted the state of the nation then,
with its position when under the rule of the legitimate family; and had
there not been a strong, though, I think, unreasonable suspicion in the
minds of many, that his success would be the prelude to a vigorous
attack upon the established religions of the country, and that he would
be inclined to follow out in this respect the fatal policy of his
grandfather, Charles would in all probability have received a more