V conspicuous in this history, as it was in the lives of the persons who are the principal subjects of it, may perhaps give a momentary alarum; but a little reflection . will dissipate it. At the time when Col. Hutchinson first entered on the great theatre of life, the contest was just begun between the parti~ans of the divine right of the sovereign, ·and the indispensible obligation of the subject to passive obedience and nonresistance, on one side; and the assertors of the claims of the people to command, through their representatives, the public purse, the freedom of debate in parliament, and the responsibility of ministers, on the other. vVhen the sword, the Ratio Ultima Regum, the last appeal of kings, was resorted to by the former, and the latter gained the victory, they very naturally adopted the repnblican system, as concluding, that persons holding such opinions as the princes of the House of Stuart and their adherents did, would never concede to them their franchises, but with a full intention to resume them, whenever they should recover power enough to attempt it with success. The event fully justified tl1is ,·conclusion, and it is now evident to all, that the only thing which could ever give this nation permanent tranquillity, and put an end to those heartburnings which either openly or covertly had existed even from the time of the Norman conquest, was an explicit compact between king and people, which took its elate indeed. from the revolution in 1688, but obtained its consummation at the fortunate accession of the house of Brunswick, when the title of th~ monarch, and the rights of the people, became identified and established on one common basis. Of this truly may be said, . Quod optanti Divum permittere nemo Auderet, voltenda dies en attulit ult1·o. What to his vot'ry not a God dared promise, Revolving years spontaneously p.roduc'd. ' In the reigns of Charles IL and Jamcs IT,
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