Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/156

100 it, without putting on the prince of ’s livery. And therefore it is great ingratitude in thoſe that receive any benefit or protection by this happy revolution, to blemiſh the cauſe of the barons, for it is the ſame they live by; and as for thoſe that had a hand in it, to call the baron’s cauſe a rebellion, is utterly unaccountable, and like men that are not of their own ſide.

therefore, the proper monk of reproaching and reviling both theſe as damnable rebellions, to the people of the court, and the harder work of proving them ſo, I ſhall undertake the delightful taſk of doing ſervice to this preſent rightful government, and at the ſame time of doing right to the memory of our antient deliverers, to whom we owe all that diſtinguiſhes the kingdom of England from that of Ceylon. It had been wholly needleſs to have written one word upon this ſubject, if this affair had ever been ſet in a true light, as it lies in antiquity; or if our modern hiſtorians had not given a falſe turn to ſo much of the matter of fact as they have related, and ruined the text by the comment. Mr. has done this very remarkably; for after he has given us enough of this hiſtory to juſtify the baron’s proceedings, and they had