The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (diy ebook reader .txt) π
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a
fine speaker and a fine writer, and was proud of his intellectual
superiority. Both in his character of gentleman, and in his
character of scholar, he looked down with disdain on the common
people, and was so little disposed to entrust them with political
power that he thought them unfit even to enjoy personal freedom.
It is a curious circumstance that this man, the most honest,
fearless, and uncompromising republican of his time, should have
been the author of a plan for reducing a large part of the
working classes of Scotland to slavery. He bore, in truth, a
lively resemblance to those Roman Senators who, while they hated
the name of King, guarded the privileges of their order with
inflexible pride against the encroachments of the multitude, and
governed their bondmen and bondwomen by means of the stocks and
the scourge.
Amsterdam was the place where the leading emigrants, Scotch and
English, assembled. Argyle repaired thither from Friesland,
Monmouth from Brabant. It soon appeared that the fugitives had
scarcely anything in common except hatred of James and impatience
to return from banishment. The Scots were jealous of the English,
the English of the Scots. Monmouth's high pretensions were
offensive to Argyle, who, proud of ancient nobility and of a
legitimate descent from kings, was by no means inclined to do
homage to the offspring of a vagrant and ignoble love. But of all
the dissensions by which the little band of outlaws was
distracted the most serious was that which arose between Argyle
and a portion of his own followers. Some of the Scottish exiles
had, in a long course of opposition to tyranny, been excited into
a morbid state of understanding and temper, which made the most
just and necessary restraint insupportable to them. They knew
that without Argyle they could do nothing. They ought to have
known that, unless they wished to run headlong to ruin, they must
either repose full confidence in their leader, or relinquish all
thoughts of military enterprise. Experience has fully proved that
in war every operation, from the greatest to the smallest, ought
to be under the absolute direction of one mind, and that every
subordinate agent, in his degree, ought to obey implicitly,
strenuously, and with the show of cheerfulness, orders which he
disapproves, or of which the reasons are kept secret from him.
Representative assemblies, public discussions, and all the other
checks by which, in civil affairs, rulers are restrained from
abusing power, are out of place in a camp. Machiavel justly
imputed many of the disasters of Venice and Florence to the
jealousy which led those republics to interfere with every one of
their generals.337 The Dutch practice of sending to an army
deputies, without whose consent no great blow could be struck,
was almost equally pernicious. It is undoubtedly by no means
certain that a captain, who has been entrusted with dictatorial
power in the hour of peril, will quietly surrender that power in
the hour of triumph; and this is one of the many considerations
which ought to make men hesitate long before they resolve to
vindicate public liberty by the sword. But, if they determine to
try the chance of war, they will, if they are wise, entrust to
their chief that plenary authority without which war cannot be
well conducted. It is possible that, if they give him that
authority, he may turn out a Cromwell or a Napoleon. But it is
almost certain that, if they withhold from him that authority,
their enterprises will end like the enterprise of Argyle.
Some of the Scottish emigrants, heated with republican
enthusiasm, and utterly destitute of the skill necessary to the
conduct of great affairs, employed all their industry and
ingenuity, not in collecting means for the attack which they were
about to make on a formidable enemy, but in devising restraints
on their leader's power and securities against his ambition. The
selfcomplacent stupidity with which they insisted on Organising
an army as if they had been organising a commonwealth would be
incredible if it had not been frankly and even boastfully
recorded by one of themselves.338
At length all differences were compromised. It was determined
that an attempt should be forthwith made on the western coast of
Scotland, and that it should be promptly followed by a descent on
England.
Argyle was to hold the nominal command in Scotland: but be was
placed under the control of a Committee which reserved to itself
all the most important parts of the military administration. This
committee was empowered to determine where the expedition should
land, to appoint officers, to superintend the levying of troops,
to dole out provisions and ammunition. All that was left to the
general was to direct the evolutions of the army in the field,
and he was forced to promise that even in the field, except in
the case of a surprise, he would do nothing without the assent of
a council of war.
Monmouth was to command in England. His soft mind had as usual,
taken an impress from the society which surrounded him. Ambitious
hopes, which had seemed to be extinguished, revived in his bosom.
He remembered the affection with which he had been constantly
greeted by the common people in town and country, and expected
that they would now rise by hundreds of thousands to welcome him.
He remembered the good will which the soldiers had always borne
him, and flattered himself that they would come over to him by
regiments. Encouraging messages reached him in quick succession
from London. He was assured that the violence and injustice with
which the elections had been carried on had driven the nation
mad, that the prudence of the leading Whigs had with difficulty
prevented a sanguinary outbreak on the day of the coronation, and
that all the great Lords who had supported the Exclusion Bill
were impatient to rally round him. Wildman, who loved to talk
treason in parables, sent to say that the Earl of Richmond, just
two hundred years before, had landed in England with a handful of
men, and had a few days later been crowned, on the field of
Bosworth, with the diadem taken from the head of Richard. Danvers
undertook to raise the City. The Duke was deceived into the
belief that, as soon as he set up his standard, Bedfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Cheshire would rise in arms.339 He
consequently became eager for the enterprise from which a few
weeks before he had shrunk. His countrymen did not impose on him
restrictions so elaborately absurd as those which the Scotch
emigrants had devised. All that was required of him was to
promise that he would not assume the regal title till his
pretensions has been submitted to the judgment of a free
Parliament.
It was determined that two Englishmen, Ayloffe and Rumbold,
should accompany Argyle to Scotland, and that Fletcher should go
with Monmouth to England. Fletcher, from the beginning, had
augured ill of the enterprise: but his chivalrous spirit would
not suffer him to decline a risk which his friends seemed eager
to encounter. When Grey repeated with approbation what Wildman
had said about Richmond and Richard, the well read and thoughtful
Scot justly remarked that there was a great difference between
the fifteenth century and the seventeenth. Richmond was assured
of the support of barons, each of whom could bring an army of
feudal retainers into the field; and Richard had not one regiment
of regular soldiers.340
The exiles were able to raise, partly from their own resources
and partly from the contributions of well wishers in Holland, a
sum sufficient for the two expeditions. Very little was obtained
from London. Six thousand pounds had been expected thence. But
instead of the money came excuses from Wildman, which ought to
have opened the eyes of all who were not wilfully blind. The Duke
made up the deficiency by pawning his own jewels and those of
Lady Wentworth. Arms, ammunition, and provisions were bought, and
several ships which lay at Amsterdam were freighted.341
It is remarkable that the most illustrious and the most grossly
injured man among the British exiles stood far aloof from these
rash counsels. John Locke hated tyranny and persecution as a
philosopher; but his intellect and his temper preserved him from
the violence of a partisan. He had lived on confidential terms
with Shaftesbury, and had thus incurred the displeasure of the
court. Locke's prudence had, however, been such that it would
have been to little purpose to bring him even before the corrupt
and partial tribunals of that age. In one point, however, he was
vulnerable. He was a student of Christ Church in the University
of Oxford. It was determined to drive from that celebrated
college the greatest man of whom it could ever boast. But this
was not easy. Locke had, at Oxford, abstained from expressing any
opinion on the politics of the day. Spies had been set about him.
Doctors of Divinity and Masters of Arts had not been ashamed to
perform the vilest of all offices, that of watching the lips of a
companion in order to report his words to his ruin. The
conversation in the hall had been purposely turned to irritating
topics, to the Exclusion Bill, and to the character of the Earl
of Shaftesbury, but in vain. Locke neither broke out nor
dissembled, but maintained such steady silence and composure as
forced the tools of power to own with vexation that never man was
so complete a master of his tongue and of his passions. When it
was found that treachery could do nothing, arbitrary power was
used. After vainly trying to inveigle Locke into a fault, the
government resolved to punish him without one. Orders came from
Whitehall that he should be ejected; and those orders the Dean
and Canons made haste to obey.
Locke was travelling on the Continent for his health when he
learned that he had been deprived of his home and of his bread
without a trial or even a notice. The injustice with which he had
been treated would have excused him if he had resorted to violent
methods of redress. But he was not to be blinded by personal
resentment he augured no good from the schemes of those who had
assembled at Amsterdam; and he quietly repaired to Utrecht,
where, while his partners in misfortune were planning their own
destruction, he employed himself in writing his celebrated letter
on Toleration.342
The English government was early apprised that something was in
agitation among the outlaws. An invasion of England seems not to
have been at first expected; but it was apprehended that Argyle
would shortly appear in arms among his clansmen. A proclamation
was accordingly issued directing that Scotland should be put into
a state of defence. The militia was ordered
fine speaker and a fine writer, and was proud of his intellectual
superiority. Both in his character of gentleman, and in his
character of scholar, he looked down with disdain on the common
people, and was so little disposed to entrust them with political
power that he thought them unfit even to enjoy personal freedom.
It is a curious circumstance that this man, the most honest,
fearless, and uncompromising republican of his time, should have
been the author of a plan for reducing a large part of the
working classes of Scotland to slavery. He bore, in truth, a
lively resemblance to those Roman Senators who, while they hated
the name of King, guarded the privileges of their order with
inflexible pride against the encroachments of the multitude, and
governed their bondmen and bondwomen by means of the stocks and
the scourge.
Amsterdam was the place where the leading emigrants, Scotch and
English, assembled. Argyle repaired thither from Friesland,
Monmouth from Brabant. It soon appeared that the fugitives had
scarcely anything in common except hatred of James and impatience
to return from banishment. The Scots were jealous of the English,
the English of the Scots. Monmouth's high pretensions were
offensive to Argyle, who, proud of ancient nobility and of a
legitimate descent from kings, was by no means inclined to do
homage to the offspring of a vagrant and ignoble love. But of all
the dissensions by which the little band of outlaws was
distracted the most serious was that which arose between Argyle
and a portion of his own followers. Some of the Scottish exiles
had, in a long course of opposition to tyranny, been excited into
a morbid state of understanding and temper, which made the most
just and necessary restraint insupportable to them. They knew
that without Argyle they could do nothing. They ought to have
known that, unless they wished to run headlong to ruin, they must
either repose full confidence in their leader, or relinquish all
thoughts of military enterprise. Experience has fully proved that
in war every operation, from the greatest to the smallest, ought
to be under the absolute direction of one mind, and that every
subordinate agent, in his degree, ought to obey implicitly,
strenuously, and with the show of cheerfulness, orders which he
disapproves, or of which the reasons are kept secret from him.
Representative assemblies, public discussions, and all the other
checks by which, in civil affairs, rulers are restrained from
abusing power, are out of place in a camp. Machiavel justly
imputed many of the disasters of Venice and Florence to the
jealousy which led those republics to interfere with every one of
their generals.337 The Dutch practice of sending to an army
deputies, without whose consent no great blow could be struck,
was almost equally pernicious. It is undoubtedly by no means
certain that a captain, who has been entrusted with dictatorial
power in the hour of peril, will quietly surrender that power in
the hour of triumph; and this is one of the many considerations
which ought to make men hesitate long before they resolve to
vindicate public liberty by the sword. But, if they determine to
try the chance of war, they will, if they are wise, entrust to
their chief that plenary authority without which war cannot be
well conducted. It is possible that, if they give him that
authority, he may turn out a Cromwell or a Napoleon. But it is
almost certain that, if they withhold from him that authority,
their enterprises will end like the enterprise of Argyle.
Some of the Scottish emigrants, heated with republican
enthusiasm, and utterly destitute of the skill necessary to the
conduct of great affairs, employed all their industry and
ingenuity, not in collecting means for the attack which they were
about to make on a formidable enemy, but in devising restraints
on their leader's power and securities against his ambition. The
selfcomplacent stupidity with which they insisted on Organising
an army as if they had been organising a commonwealth would be
incredible if it had not been frankly and even boastfully
recorded by one of themselves.338
At length all differences were compromised. It was determined
that an attempt should be forthwith made on the western coast of
Scotland, and that it should be promptly followed by a descent on
England.
Argyle was to hold the nominal command in Scotland: but be was
placed under the control of a Committee which reserved to itself
all the most important parts of the military administration. This
committee was empowered to determine where the expedition should
land, to appoint officers, to superintend the levying of troops,
to dole out provisions and ammunition. All that was left to the
general was to direct the evolutions of the army in the field,
and he was forced to promise that even in the field, except in
the case of a surprise, he would do nothing without the assent of
a council of war.
Monmouth was to command in England. His soft mind had as usual,
taken an impress from the society which surrounded him. Ambitious
hopes, which had seemed to be extinguished, revived in his bosom.
He remembered the affection with which he had been constantly
greeted by the common people in town and country, and expected
that they would now rise by hundreds of thousands to welcome him.
He remembered the good will which the soldiers had always borne
him, and flattered himself that they would come over to him by
regiments. Encouraging messages reached him in quick succession
from London. He was assured that the violence and injustice with
which the elections had been carried on had driven the nation
mad, that the prudence of the leading Whigs had with difficulty
prevented a sanguinary outbreak on the day of the coronation, and
that all the great Lords who had supported the Exclusion Bill
were impatient to rally round him. Wildman, who loved to talk
treason in parables, sent to say that the Earl of Richmond, just
two hundred years before, had landed in England with a handful of
men, and had a few days later been crowned, on the field of
Bosworth, with the diadem taken from the head of Richard. Danvers
undertook to raise the City. The Duke was deceived into the
belief that, as soon as he set up his standard, Bedfordshire,
Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Cheshire would rise in arms.339 He
consequently became eager for the enterprise from which a few
weeks before he had shrunk. His countrymen did not impose on him
restrictions so elaborately absurd as those which the Scotch
emigrants had devised. All that was required of him was to
promise that he would not assume the regal title till his
pretensions has been submitted to the judgment of a free
Parliament.
It was determined that two Englishmen, Ayloffe and Rumbold,
should accompany Argyle to Scotland, and that Fletcher should go
with Monmouth to England. Fletcher, from the beginning, had
augured ill of the enterprise: but his chivalrous spirit would
not suffer him to decline a risk which his friends seemed eager
to encounter. When Grey repeated with approbation what Wildman
had said about Richmond and Richard, the well read and thoughtful
Scot justly remarked that there was a great difference between
the fifteenth century and the seventeenth. Richmond was assured
of the support of barons, each of whom could bring an army of
feudal retainers into the field; and Richard had not one regiment
of regular soldiers.340
The exiles were able to raise, partly from their own resources
and partly from the contributions of well wishers in Holland, a
sum sufficient for the two expeditions. Very little was obtained
from London. Six thousand pounds had been expected thence. But
instead of the money came excuses from Wildman, which ought to
have opened the eyes of all who were not wilfully blind. The Duke
made up the deficiency by pawning his own jewels and those of
Lady Wentworth. Arms, ammunition, and provisions were bought, and
several ships which lay at Amsterdam were freighted.341
It is remarkable that the most illustrious and the most grossly
injured man among the British exiles stood far aloof from these
rash counsels. John Locke hated tyranny and persecution as a
philosopher; but his intellect and his temper preserved him from
the violence of a partisan. He had lived on confidential terms
with Shaftesbury, and had thus incurred the displeasure of the
court. Locke's prudence had, however, been such that it would
have been to little purpose to bring him even before the corrupt
and partial tribunals of that age. In one point, however, he was
vulnerable. He was a student of Christ Church in the University
of Oxford. It was determined to drive from that celebrated
college the greatest man of whom it could ever boast. But this
was not easy. Locke had, at Oxford, abstained from expressing any
opinion on the politics of the day. Spies had been set about him.
Doctors of Divinity and Masters of Arts had not been ashamed to
perform the vilest of all offices, that of watching the lips of a
companion in order to report his words to his ruin. The
conversation in the hall had been purposely turned to irritating
topics, to the Exclusion Bill, and to the character of the Earl
of Shaftesbury, but in vain. Locke neither broke out nor
dissembled, but maintained such steady silence and composure as
forced the tools of power to own with vexation that never man was
so complete a master of his tongue and of his passions. When it
was found that treachery could do nothing, arbitrary power was
used. After vainly trying to inveigle Locke into a fault, the
government resolved to punish him without one. Orders came from
Whitehall that he should be ejected; and those orders the Dean
and Canons made haste to obey.
Locke was travelling on the Continent for his health when he
learned that he had been deprived of his home and of his bread
without a trial or even a notice. The injustice with which he had
been treated would have excused him if he had resorted to violent
methods of redress. But he was not to be blinded by personal
resentment he augured no good from the schemes of those who had
assembled at Amsterdam; and he quietly repaired to Utrecht,
where, while his partners in misfortune were planning their own
destruction, he employed himself in writing his celebrated letter
on Toleration.342
The English government was early apprised that something was in
agitation among the outlaws. An invasion of England seems not to
have been at first expected; but it was apprehended that Argyle
would shortly appear in arms among his clansmen. A proclamation
was accordingly issued directing that Scotland should be put into
a state of defence. The militia was ordered
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