which was the principle of the King's public conduct the
unscrupulousness with which he adopted any means which might
enable him to attain his ends, the readiness with which he gave
promises, the impudence with which he broke them, the cruel
indifference with which he threw away his useless or damaged
tools, made him, at least till his character was fully exposed,
and his power shaken to its foundations, a more dangerous enemy to
the Constitution than a man of far greater talents and resolution
might have been. Such princes may still be seen, the scandals of
the southern thrones of Europe, princes false alike to the
accomplices who have served them and to the opponents who have
spared them, princes who, in the hour of danger, concede
everything, swear everything, hold out their cheeks to every
smiter, give up to punishment every instrument of their tyranny,
and await with meek and smiling implacability the blessed day of
perjury and revenge.

We will pass by the instances of oppression and falsehood which
disgraced the early part of the reign of Charles. We will leave
out of the question the whole history of his third Parliament,
the price which he exacted for assenting to the Petition of
Right, the perfidy with which he violated his engagements, the
death of Eliot, the barbarous punishments inflicted by the Star-
Chamber, the ship-money, and all the measures now universally
condemned, which disgraced his administration from 1630 to 1640.
We will admit that it might be the duty of the Parliament after
punishing the most guilty of his creatures, after abolishing the
inquisitorial tribunals which had been the instruments of his
tyranny, after reversing the unjust sentences of his victims to
pause in its course. The concessions which had been made were