Descendants of the Stuarts

PREFACE. XV
SO barbarous ? What more dissimilar characters
could exist than Henry and his two daughters, upon
the one hand, and Charles the First and his two sons,
upon the other ? And yet which monarchs, which
dynasties, were most revered, most appreciated by
their subjects ? The truth is, that nations in semi-
civilized times caress and fear a tyrant. It is only
savage attributes which command their respect and
admiration. They look up to those who astonish and
captivate them by their daring in wickedness, who
strike by terror. Who during the early ages gained the
ascendancy over his tribe ? Was the best, the wisest
man from among them selected ? On the contrary,
was it not rather the boldest and most tyrannical ? To
him men of lesser calibre implicitly bowed, astonished,
subjugated by his daring. And thus it was with the
Stuarts ; they failed to astonish their subjects, and
their subjects consequently failed to reverence them.
They vacillated, they allowed themselves partially
to be governed by sentiments of equity, they conde-
scended to argue with those whom their predecessors
had commanded. Herein lay their weakness, and
the cause of the misfortunes which subsequently
overwhelmed them. The nation thus taught by
their masters, learned to argue also, and as they
considered, unanswerably : necessarily arriving at
different conclusions, both parties had recourse to
arms — the people triumphed, and the banishment
and spoliation of the unhappy Stuarts terminated
this chapter of British history. The people who