Upon this he the rather determined, as
Flora's advice favoured his doing so, and because he felt inexpressible
repugnance at the idea of being accessory to the plague of civil war.
Whatever were the original rights of the Stuarts, calm reflection told
him, that, omitting the question how far James the Second could forfeit
those of his posterity, he had, according to the united voice of the
whole nation, justly forfeited his own. Since that period, four monarchs
had reigned in peace and glory over Britain, sustaining and exalting the
character of the nation abroad, and its liberties at home. Reason
asked, was it worth while to disturb a government so long settled and
established, and to plunge a kingdom into all the miseries of civil
war, for the purpose of replacing upon the throne the descendants of a
monarch by whom it had been wilfully forfeited? If, on the other hand,
his own final conviction of the goodness of their cause, or the commands
of his father or uncle, should recommend to him allegiance to the
Stuarts, still it was necessary to clear his own character by showing
that he had not, as seemed to be falsely insinuated, taken any step to
this purpose, during his holding the commission of the reigning monarch.
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