The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

ENTERTAINMENT.
LONDON

It is remarkable of the English nation, that they will suffer a great deal from their Princes before they take any measures to oppose them. They have often permitted their Princes to go great lengths towards overturning their Rights and Liberties: but have ever roused themselves at last, when their affairs come to a kind of crisis, and prevailed against all attempts of arbitrary powers. And this exertion of the people does, I apprehend, proceed, in a great measure, from the spirit of their Constitution: for as the natural dispositions of men are altered, and formed into different moral characters by education, so the spirit of a Constitution of Government, which hath been confirmed, improved and strengthened by many ages, and a long course of events, will ever have a proportionable influence on the reasoning, the sentiments, and the conduct of the people who are subject to it. A different spirit, and contrary prejudices, may prevail for a time; but the spirit and principles of the Constitution will at last, overcome. By the application of rewards and punishments, and many other secondary means and corrupt measures, a Constitution, that is even unnatural and absurd, may maintain, for a long time, both its spirit and principle: but if the spirit and principles of a Constitution be agreeable to nature, and the true ends of Government, which is the case of the Constitution of the English Government, they want no such corrupt means to make them prevail: They not only flourish without them, but would fade and die away with them. As Liberty is nourished and supported by such a spirit, and such principles, so they are propagated by Liberty. Truth and reason are often able to get the better of authority in particular minds; but truth and reason, with authority on their side, will carry every thing, bear down all prejudices, and become the very genius of a people. Truth and reason are the basis of our Constitution; which hath been so far cleared up by the Revolution that it remains no longer a mystery. The power of the Crown is now exactly limited, the chimæra of Prerogative removed, and the Rights of the subject are no longer problematical, though sometimes things necessary to the more effectual security of them are now still wanting.

PUBLICUS.