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4 (1855)
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11
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WILLIAM AND MAIlY.

11

the affection of the Whigs than from the disaffection of theTories. Enmity can hardly he more annoying than querulous,jealous, exacting fondness; and such was the fondness whichthe Whigs felt for the Sovereign of their choice. They wereloud in his praise. They were ready to support him with purseand sword against foreign and domestic foes. But their attach-ment to him was of a peculiar kind. Loyalty such as hadanimated the gallant gentlemen who fought for Charles theFirst, loyalty such as had rescued Charles the Second fromthe fearful dangers and difficulties caused hy twenty years ofmaladministration, was not a sentiment to which the doctrinesof Milton and Sidney were favourable; nor was it a sentimentwhich a prince, just raised to power by a rebellion, could hopeto inspire. The Whig theory of government is that kings existfor the people, and not the people for the kings; that the rightof a king is divine in no other sense than that in which the rightof a member of parliament, of a judge, of a juryman, of amayor, of a headborough, is divine; that, while the chiefmagistrate governs according to law, he ought to be obeyedand reverenced; that, when he violates the law, he ought tobe withstood; and that, when he violates the law grossly,systematically and pertinaciously, he ought to be deposed. Onthe truth of these principles depended the justice of Williamstitle to the throne. It is obvious that the relation betweensubjects who held these principles, and a ruler whose accessionhad been the triumph of these principles, must have beenaltogether different from the relation which had subsistedbetween the Stuarts and the Cavaliers. The Whigs lovedWilliam indeed: but they loved him not as a King, but as aparty leader; and it was not difficult to foresee that theirenthusiasm would cool fast if he should refuse to he the mereleader of their party, and should attempt to be King of thewhole nation. What they expected from him in return for their