«i6 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

C II A

i.xxr,

ALLS.

were secured; and he sent over governors in-,wiled with absolute power. The arbitrary prin-,eiples of that monarch appear in every part ofhis administration.

The people, during these two reigns, were,in a great measure, cured of that wild fanaticism,by which they had formerly been so much agi-tated. Whatever new vices they might acquire,it may be questioned, whether, by this change,they were, in the main, much losers in point ofmorals. By the example of Charles II. and thecavaliers, licentiousness and debauchery becameprevalent in the nation. The pleasures of thetable were much pursued. Love was treatedmore as an appetite than a passion. The one sexbegan to abate of the national character of chas-tity, without being able to inspire the otherwith sentiment or delicacy.

The abuses in the former age, arising fromoverstrained pretensions to piety, had much pro-pagated the spirit of irreligion; and many of theingenious men of this, period lie under the im-putation of deism. Besides wits and scholars byprofession, Shaftesbury , Halifax, Buckingham,IVIulgrave, Sunderland, Essex, Rochester, Sidney,Temple are supposed to have adopted these prin-ciples.

The fame factions , which formerly distractedthe nation, were revived, and exerted themselvesin the most ungenerous and unmanly enterprisesagainst ' each other. King Charles being in hiswhole deportment a model of easy and gentleman-