Without clearly understanding the state of parties which then distracted
that unhappy country, it will not be possible clearly to understand the
position of Claverhouse; and without a clear understanding of his
position, it will certainly not be possible to form a just estimate of
his character. It is by too readily yielding to the charm of a writer,
who had not then for his purpose the impartial estimate of a human
character so much as the embellishment of a political principle, that
public opinion has been for many years content to accept a savage
caricature in place of a portrait. It would be impertinent to say that
Macaulay did not understand the circumstances into which Claverhouse was
forced, and the train of events which had caused them; but it would not
have suited his purpose so clearly and strictly to have explained them
that others might have traversed the verdict he intended to be
established. He heard, indeed, and he determined to hear, only one side
of the case: indeed, at the time he wrote, there was not much to be
heard on the other; and on the evidence he accepted the verdict was a
foregone conclusion. It is impossible altogether to acquit Claverhouse
of the charges laid to his account, nor will any attempt here be made to
do so; but even the worst that can be proved against him, when
considered impartially with the circumstances of his position and the
spirit of the time, will, I think, be found to take a very different
complexion from that which has been somewhat too confidently given to
them.
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