450

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

_X.

J6S8.

T

have with deep sorrow owned that interests more preciousthan any political privileges were in jeopardy, and that itmight be necessary to sacrifice even liberty in order to savecivilisation. Meanwhile in our island the regular courseof government has never been for a day interrupted. Thefew bad men who longed for license and plunder have nothad the courage to confront for one moment the strength of aloyal nation, rallied in firm array round a parental throne.And, if it be asked what has made us to differ from others,the answer is that we never lost what others are wildly andblindly seeking to regain. It is because we had a preservingrevolution in the seventeenth century that we have not had adestroying revolution in the nineteenth. It is because we hadfreedom in the midst of servitude that we have order in themidst of anarchy. For the authority of law, for the securityof property, for the peace of our streets, for the happinessof our homes, our gratitude is due, under Him who raisesand pulls down nations at his pleasure, to the Long Parlia-ment, to the Convention, and to William of Orange.