Wesley Corpus

Yet if you will view even such an affair as the Middlesex election through Mr. Horne's magnifying-glass, it will appear a more enormous instance of oppression than a hundred Star Chambers put together. The parallel does not hold, Fourthly, with regard to the opposers of the King and his ministry. Is Mr. Burke the same calm, wise, disinterested man that Mr. Hampden was? And where shall we find twenty noblemen and twenty gentle men (to name no more) in the present opposition, whom any impartial man will set on a level with the same number of those that opposed King Charles and his ministry. Nor does the parallel hold, Fifthly, in this respect: That was in great measure a contest about religion; at least, about rites, and ceremonies, and opinions, which many supposed to be religion. But all religion is out of the question now : This is generally allowed, both by the one side and the other, to be so very a trifle, that they do not give themselves the least concern about it. In one circumstance more there is an obvious difference. The Parliament were then the King's enemies: Now they are his firmest friends. But indeed this difference may easily be removed. Let the King only take Mr. Wilkes's advice, and dissolve Parliament. The Parliament of 1640, the first which sat after the troubles began, although many therein were much dissatisfied with the measures which had been taken, yet would never have been prevailed upon to join in the schemes which afterwards prevailed. But when that Parliament was so seasonably dissolved, and a few men, wise in their generation, practising with unwearied industry on the heated spirits of the people, had procured a new Parliament to be chosen after their own heart; then it was not long ere the train took fire, and the whole constitution was blown up ! But, notwithstanding the disparity between the present and past times in the preceding respects, yet how surprisingly does the parallel hold in various particulars! 1. An handful of people laid a scheme, which few would have believed had a man then declared it unto them; though indeed it is probable that at the beginning they had no settled scheme at all. 2.