JAMES THE SECOND.

67

judging the past by the present. The former is the error ofminds prone to reverence whatever is old, the latter of mindsreadily attracted by whatever is new. The former error mayperpetually be observed in the reasonings of conservative poli-ticians on the questions of their own day. The latter errorperpetually infects the speculations of writers of the liberalschool when they discuss the transactions of an earlier age.The former error is the more pernicious in a statesman, andthe latter in a historian.

It is not easy for any person who, in our time, undertakesto treat of the revolution which overthrew the Stuarts, to pre-serve with steadiness the happy mean between these two ex-tremes. The question whether members of the Roman Ca-tholic Church could be safely admitted to Parliament and tooffice convulsed our country during the reign of James theSecond, was set at rest by his downfall, and, having sleptduring more than a century, was revived by that great stirringof the human mind which followed the meeting of the Natio-nal Assembly of France. During thirty years the contestwent on in both Houses of Parliament, in every constituentbody, in every social circle. It destroyed administrations,broke up parties, made all government in one part of theempire impossible, and at length brought us to the verge ofcivil war. Even when the struggle had terminated, the pas-sions to which it had given birth still continued to rage. Itwas scarcely possible for any man whose mind was under theinfluence ofthQse passions to see the events of the years 1687and 1688 in a perfectly correct light.

One class of politicians, starting from the true propositionthat the Revolution had been a great blessing to our country,arrived at the false conclusion that no test which the states-men of the Revolution had thought necessary for the pro-tection of our religion and our freedom could be safelyabolished. Another class, starting from the true propositionthat the disabilities imposed on the Roman Catholics had longbeen productive of nothing but mischief, arrived at the falseconclusion that there never could have been a time whenthose disabilities could have been useful and necessary. The

chap.

vn.

1687 .