228 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

chap. admitted in any government : That even in mixtixvl. monarchies, where that supposition seemed most;requisite , it was yet entirely superfluous , sinceno man, on the approach of extraordinary neces-sity, could be at a loss, though not directed bylegal declarations, to find the proper remedy :That even those who might, at a distance,and by scholastic reasoning, exclude all resistance,would yet hearken to the voice of nature; whenevident ruin, both to themselves and to thepublic, must attend a strict adherence to theirpretended principles: That the question, as itought thus to be entirely excluded from alldeterminations of the legislature, was, even amongprivate reasoners , somewhat frivolous , and littlebetter than a dispute of words: That the on£party could not pretend , that resistance oughtever to become a familiar practice; the otherwould surely have recourse to it in great extre-mities : And thus the difference cOuld only turn onthe degrees of danger or oppression, which wouldwarrant this irregular remedy; a difference,which, in a general question, it was impossible,by any language, precisely to fix or determine.

There were many other absurdities in thistest, particularly that of binding men by oath notto alter the government either in church or state ;since all human institutions are liable to abuse ,and require continual amendments, which are,in reality, so many alterations. It is not indeedpossible to make a law, which does not innovate,more or less, in the government. These diffi-