112

HISTORT OF ENGLAND.

chap, gemblies, public discussions, and all the other checks by' 1685. which, in civil affairs, rulers are restrained from abusingpower, are out of place in a camp. Machiavel justly imputedmany of the disasters of Venice and Florence to the jealousywhich led those republics to interfere with every act of theirgenerals.* The Dutch practice of sending to an army de-puties , without whose consent no great blow could be struck,was almost equally pernicious. It is undoubtedly by no meanscertain that a captain, who has been entrusted with dictatorialpower in the hour of peril, will quietly surrender that powerin the hour of triumph; and this is one of the many consi-derations which ought to make men hesitate long before theyresolve to vindicate public liberty by the sword. But, if theydetermine to try the chance of war, they will, if they are wise,entrust to their chief that plenary authority without which warcannot be well conducted. It is possible that, if they givehim that authority, he may turn out a Cromwell or a Napo-leon. But it is almost certain that, if they withhold from himthat authority, their enterprises will end like the enterprise ofArgyle.

Some of the Scottish emigrants, heated with republicanenthusiasm, and utterly destitute of the skill necessary to theconduct of great affairs, employed all their industry and in-genuity, not in collecting means for the attack which theywere about to make on a formidable enemy, but in devisingrestraints on their leader’s power and securities against hisambition. The self-complacent stupidity with which they in-sisted on organizing an army as if they had been organizing acommonwealth would be incredible if it had not been franklyand even boastfully recorded by one of themselves.**meniVfor At length all differences were compromised. It was de-tempi'on t erm ' nc d that an attempt should be forthwith made on theEngland

anti Scot- * Discorsi sopra la prima Deca di Tito Livio, lib. ii. cap. 33.land. ** g ee gj r p a t r j c ii Hume’s Narrative, pastim.