arises from bad motives we do not feel certain that charles and james were any worse in this respect than their of the established church who and were engaged in carrying on these but for their conduct in church and state both charles and james may have some excuse in the doctrines of divine right passive obedience and non resistance so diligently by the church as we have just seen and also by the parliament and the university of oxford to a sovereign inclined to tyranny and persecution there can be no stronger temptation than the assurance that he can indulge his bad passions with this assurance the church the parliament and the university of oxford endeavoured to furnish the first parliament chosen after the restoration passed an act that the power of the sword was solely in the king and declared that in no extremity whatever could the parliament be justified in resisting him by force by another act all and officers of were required to declare on oath their belief that it was not lawful upon any pretence whatever to take arms against the king and their of the position of taking arms by the king s authority against his person or against those by him a motion to the word before was rejected the of oxford in full passed a decree against certain books and doctrines destructive to the sacred persons of princes their state and government and all human society the doctrines condemned consist of twenty seven taken from the works of milton and several others one of these is that when kings the constitution of their country and become absolute they their right to the government and may be resisted this and other sim no vn of june they declare to be scandalous and to the christian religion they forbid the students to the writings of those authors and order their books to be burnt one would suppose the parliament the church university of oxford were for slavery charles and james had some excuse for taking them at their word the history of thb period has a peculiar interest for as being essentially connected with their own the revolution of was not less a from power for new england than for old the tyranny of sir had become so that he was and imprisoned before the success of the was known here but though the revolution was a great blessing to the colonies yet some of them had much reason to of the government under the new settlement could not obtain a restoration of her though deprived of it by a judgment acknowledged to be and unjust sir so noted as a tyrant in was rewarded by being sent out as governor of virginia the act so essential to freedom was passed by the general court of but was and by the committee of at the head of which was the famous lord it seems to have been the opinion of this great constitutional lawyer that the act of did not extend to the colonies and that they could not have this security of freedom except from the of the crown the character of william of orange the great hero of the revolution the idol of the and in former times the of the is drawn at great length and in the most favorable colors he seems indeed with some faults and disagreeable qualities to have been on the whole hie best and most able of the great public men of the age he was ua and liberal in his views of religion and church � a great merit in that age a wise and far sighted with an invincible courage and perseverance in a contest which was the cause not only of england and holland but of the greater part of europe against the ambition of louis the in this case as well as some others has availed himself oi important sources of infer s of england which do not seem to have been known to any other historian and attributes to him more amiable qualities than william was supposed to possess a very picture is given of him by the which we quote merely as showing the extravagance of party zeal dr johnson according to pronounced to be most worthless of all but then it is to be recollected that the doctor had an extraordinary veneration for charles the second s character of william more point and vivacity than is often found in his history and probably shows the sentiments of the of that age the following is s view of the government of certain it is he involved these in foreign connections which in all probability will be productive of their ruin in order to establish this favorite point he not to employ all the engines of corruption by which the morals of the nation were totally he procured a sanction for a standing army which now seems to be in the constitution he introduced the practice of upon remote funds an expedient that necessarily a brood of and stock to prey upon the of their country he upon the nation a growing debt and a system of politics big with misery despair and destruction to sum up his character in a few words � william was a in religion in war in politics dead to all the warm and generous emotions of the human heart a cold relation an indifferent husband a disagreeable man an prince and an imperious sovereign the account of william s intimacy with james and his concern m some acts of oppression by the king his and court ladies will excite much surprise and probably resentment in some quarters if the charges are true it is proper they should be made known if they are and are abundantly able to his character his reputation would bear a considerable and yet leave him one of the best among the of his age says that it had been the 