JAMES THE SECOND.

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they have long given up in despair the attempt to describe, inprecise words, that quantity of risk. They only say that it 168Smust be, not a slight risk, but a risk such as would causeserious apprehension to a man of firm mind; and who willundertake to say what is the precise amount of apprehensionwhich deserves to be called serious, or what is the precisetexture of mind which deserves to be called firm. It is doubt-less to be regretted that the nature of words and the nature ofthings do not admit of more accurate legislation: nor can it bedenied that wrong will often be done when men are judges intheir own cause, and proceed instantly to execute their ownjudgment. Yet who would, on that account, interdict allself-defence? The right which a people has to resist a bad go-vernment bears a closeanalogy to the rightwhich an individual,in the absence of legal protection, has to slay an assailant. Inboth cases the evil must be grave. In both cases all regularand peaceable modes of defence must be exhausted before theaggrieved party resorts to extremities. In both cases an awfulresponsibility is incurred. In both cases the burden of theproof lies on him who has ventured on so desperate an ex-pedient; and, if he fails to vindicate himself, he is justlyliable to the severest penalties. But in neither case can weabsolutely deny the existence of the right. A man beset byassassins is not bound to let himself be tortured and butcheredwithout using his weapons, because nobody has ever beenable precisely to define the amount of danger which justifieshomicide. Nor is a society bound to endure passively all thattyranny can inflict, because nobody has ever been able pre-cisely to define the amount of misgovernment which justifiesrebellion.

But could the resistance of Englishmen to such a prince asJames be properly called rebellion? The thorough-paced dis-ciples of Filmer, indeed, maintained that there was no dif-ference whatever between the polity of our country and that ofTurkey, and that, if the King did not confiscate the contentsof all the tills in Lombard Street, and send mutes with bow-strings to Sancroft and Halifax, this was only because HisMajesty was too gracious to use the whole power which he de-