Sec. 223. To this perhaps it will be said, that the people
being ignorant, and always discontented, to lay the foundation of
government in the unsteady opinion and uncertain humour of the
people, is to expose it to certain ruin; and no government will
be able long to subsist, if the people may set up a new
legislative, whenever they take offence at the old one. To this
I answer, Quite the contrary. People are not so easily got out
of their old forms, as some are apt to suggest. They are hardly
to be prevailed with to amend the acknowledged faults in the
frame they have been accustomed to. And if there be any
original defects, or adventitious ones introduced by time, or
corruption; it is not an easy thing to get them changed, even
when all the world sees there is an opportunity for it. This
slowness and aversion in the people to quit their old
constitutions, has, in the many revolutions which have been seen
in this kingdom, in this and former ages, still kept us to, or,
after some interval of fruitless attempts, still brought us back
again to our old legislative of king, lords and commons: and
whatever provocations have made the crown be taken from some of
our princes heads, they never carried the people so far as to
place it in another line.
Sec. 224. But it will be said, this hypothesis lays a
ferment for frequent rebellion.
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