Wesley Corpus

Is he steady and uniform in his conduct; always one thing? Is he attached to no party, but determined at all events singly to pursue the general good of the nation? Is he a lover of the King? Is he remarkably grateful to him, from whom he has received no common favours? If not, though he has a strong under standing, and a large share of manly eloquence, still it may be doubted, whether he and his friends would behave a jot better than the Ministers we have already. And suppose the King were to dissolve the Parliament, what hope is there of having a better, even though the nation were as quiet and peaceable as it was ten years ago? Are not the pre sent members, generally speaking, men of the greatest property in the land? And are they not, the greater part of them at least, as honest and wise as their neighbours? How then should we mend ourselves at any time; but especially at such a time as this? If a new Parliament were chose during this epidemic madness, what probability of a better than the present? Have we not all the reason in the world to apprehend it would be a much worse? that it would be the Parliament of 1641, instead of the Parliament of 1640? Why, this is the very thing we want, the very point we are aiming at. Then would Junius and his friends quickly say, “Sir King, know your place! Es et ipse lignum.* Take your choice 1 Be King log, or to the block l” Does it not then appear, upon the whole, that it is by no means in the power of the King, by any step which he can possibly take, to put a stop to the present commotions; that especially he cannot make concessions without making a bad matter worse; that the way he has taken, the standing his ground, was as wise a method as he could take, and as likely to restore the peace of the nation, as any the wit of man could devise?