has ever been to the dominion of an aristocracy; and the word aristocracy, fatally includes the boldest and most turbulent citizens, who rise by their crimes, and call themselves the best men in the state.  By intrigue, by cabal, and faction, a pernicious oligarchy is sure to succeed, and end, at last, in the tyranny of a single ruler.  Tacitus, the great master of political wisdom, saw, under the mixed authority of king, nobles, and people, a better form of government than Milton’s boasted republick; and what Tacitus admired in theory, but despaired of enjoying, Johnson saw established in this country.  He knew that it had been overturned by the rage of frantic men; but he knew that, after the iron rod of Cromwell’s usurpation, the constitution was once more restored to its first principles.  Monarchy was established, and this country was regenerated.  It was regenerated a second time, at the revolution:  the rights of men were then defined, and the blessings of good order, and civil liberty, have been ever since diffused through the whole community.

The peace and happiness of society were what Dr. Johnson had at heart.  He knew that Milton called his defence of the regicides, a defence of the people of England; but, however glossed and varnished, he thought it an apology for murder.  Had the men, who, under a show of liberty, brought their king to the scaffold, proved, by their subsequent conduct, that the public good inspired their actions, the end might have given some sanction to the means; but usurpation and slavery followed.  Milton undertook the office of secretary, under the despotic power of Cromwell, offering the incense of adulation to his master, with the titles of “director of public councils, the leader of unconquered armies, the father of his country.”  Milton declared, at the same time, “that nothing is more pleasing to God, or more agreeable to reason, than that the highest mind should have the sovereign power.”  In this strain of servile flattery, Milton gives us the right divine of tyrants.  But it seems, in the same piece, he exhorts Cromwell “not to desert those great principles of liberty which he had professed to espouse; for, it would be a grievous enormity, if, after having successfully opposed tyranny, he should himself act the part of a tyrant, and betray the cause that he had defended.”  This desertion of every honest principle the advocate for liberty lived to see.  Cromwell acted the tyrant; and, with vile hypocrisy, told the people, that he had consulted the Lord, and the Lord would have it so.  Milton took an under part in the tragedy.  Did that become the defender of the people of England?  Brutus saw his country enslaved; he struck the blow for freedom, and he died with honour in the cause.  Had he lived to be a secretary under Tiberius, what would now be said of his memory?