Shakspeare very aptly expresses this kind of
confession, devoid of repentance, from the mouth of an usurper, a
murderer, and a regicide:--
"We are ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence."
Whence is their amendment? Why, the author writes, that, on their
murderous insurrectionary system, their own lives are not sure for an
hour; nor has their power a greater stability. True. They are convinced
of it; and accordingly the wretches have done all they can to preserve
their lives, and to secure their power; but not one step have they taken
to amend the one or to make a more just use of the other. Their wicked
policy has obliged them to make a pause in the only massacres in which
their treachery and cruelty had operated as a kind of savage
justice,--that is, the massacre of the accomplices of their crimes: they
have ceased to shed the inhuman blood of their fellow-murderers; but
when they take any of those persons who contend for their lawful
government, their property, and their religion, notwithstanding the
truth which this author says is making its way into their bosoms, it has
not taught them the least tincture of mercy.
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