Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/136

 the Government of a single Person, is not true with regard to one Sect only: The Presbyterian and Calvinistic Clergy in Holland were always profess'd Friends to the Power of the Family of Orange; as the Arminians, who were esteem'd Heretics, were always of the Lovestein Faction, and zealous for Liberty. But if a Prince has the Choice of both, 'tis easy to see, that he will prefer the Episcopal to the Presbyterian Form of Government; both because of the greater Affinity betwixt Monarchy and Episcopacy, and because of the Facility which a Prince finds in such a Government, of ruling the Clergy, by Means of their Ecclesiastical Superiors.

we consider the first Rise of Parties in England, during the Civil Wars, we shall find, that they were exactly conformable to this general Theory, and that the Species of the Government gave Birth to them, by a regular and infallible Operation. The English Constitution, before that Time, had lain in a Kind of Confusion; yet so, as that the Subjects possess'd many noble Privileges, which, though not, perhaps, exactly bounded and secur'd by Law, were universally deem'd, from long