BY JftARYJPARMELE. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ChapDil33Copyright No ShelL&3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ENGLAND BY MARY PARMELE Author of "Evolution of Empire Series, Germany, France; " " Who ? When ? What f Literature Chart. " NEW YORK WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, 59 Fifth Avenue 1895 All Rights Reserved I**E library! •* CONGRESS J^HINOTON Published and Copyrighted, 1895, BY WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, 59 Fifth Ave., New York City. PRE89 OF THE PUBLISHERS' PRINTING COMPANY 132-136 W. FOURTEENTH ST. NEW YORK. PEEFAOE. Will the readers of this little work please bear in mind the difficulties which must at- tend the painting of a very large picture, with multitudinous characters and details, upon a very small canvas! This book is mainly an attempt to trace to their sources some of the currents which enter into the life of England to-day ; and to indicate the starting-points of some among the various threads — legislative, judicial, social, etc. — which are gathered into the imposing strand of English Civilization in this closing 19th Century. The reader will please observe that there seem to have been two things most closely interwoven with the life of England. Re- 4 PREFACE. ligion and money have been the great evolu- tionary factors in her development. It has been, first, the resistance of the peo- ple to the extortions of money by the ruling class, and second, the violating of their re- ligious instincts, which has made nearly all that is vital in English History. The lines upon which the government has developed to its present Constitutional form are chiefly lines of resistance to oppressive enactments in these two matters. The dynastic and military history of England, although picturesque and interesting, is really only a narrative of the external causes which have impeded the Nation's growth toward its ideal of "the greatest possible good to the greatest possible num- ber. » M. P. coisrTEisrTS. Chapter I. PAGE Ancient Britain— Caesar's Invasion— Britain a Ro- man Province— Boadicea— Lyndin or London- Roman Legions Withdrawn— Angles and Saxons— Cerdic— Teutonic Invasion— English Kingdoms Consolidated 9 Chapter II. Augustine — Edwin — Caedmon— Baeda— Alfred— Can- ute— Edward the Confessor— Harold— William the Conqueror 25 Chapter III. 'Gilds" and Boroughs— William II.— Crusades- Henry I.— Henry II.— Becket's Death— Richard I.— John— Magna Charta 40 Chapter IV. Henry III.— Roger Bacon— First True Parliament- Edward I.— Conquest of Wales— of Scotland- Edward II. — Edward III. — Battle of Crecy— Richard II.— Wickliffe 51 PAGE 6 CONTENTS. Chapter V. House of Lancaster— Henry IV.— Henry V.— Agin court— Battle of Orleans— Wars of the Roses- House of York— Edward IV.— Richard III. — Henry VII.— Printing Introduced 62 Chapter VI. Henry VIII.— Wolsey— Reformation— Edward VI.— Mary 73 Chapter VII. Elizabeth— East India Company Chartered— Coloni- zation of Virginia— Floddeu Field— Birth of Mary Stuart— Mary Stuart's Death— Spanish Armada — Francis Bacon 82 Chapter VIII. James I.— First New England Colony— Gunpowder Plot — Translation of Bible— Charles I. — Archbish- op Laud— John Hampden— Petition of Right— Massachusetts Chartered — Earl Strafford — Sta r Chamber ^ Chapter IX. Long Parliament — Death of Strafford and Laud — Oliver Cromwell— Death of Charles I.— Long Parliament Dispersed — Charles II 114 Chapter X. Act of Habeas Corpus— Death of Charles II.— Milton— Bunyan— James II.— William and Mary— Battle of Boyne 122 CONTENTS. « Chapter XI. PAGE Anne-Marlborough-Battle of Blenheim-House of Hanover-George I. -George II. -Walpole— Brit- ish Dominion in India— Battle of Quebec-John Wesley Chapter XII. George III. -Stamp Act-Tax on Tea-American Inde- pendence Acknowledged— Impeachment of Hast- ings—War of 1812— First English Railway— George IV. -William IV. -Reform Bill-Emanci- pation of the Slaves 143 Chapter XIII. Victoria— Famine in Ireland— War with Russia-Sepoy Rebellion— Massacre at Cawnpore 159 Chapter XIV. Atlantic Cable-Daguerre's Discovery-First World's Fair— Death of Albert-Suez Canal— Victoria Em- press of India— Disestablishment of Irish Branch of Church of England— Present Conditions 169 HISTORY OF ENGLAND CHAPTER I. The remotest fact in the history of Eng- land is written in her rocks. Geology tells us of a time when no sea flowed between Dover and Calais, while an unbroken conti- nent extended from the Mediterranean to the Orkneys. Huge mounds of rough stones called Cromlechs; have yielded up still another secret. Before the coming of the Keltic- Aryans, there dwelt there two successive races, whose story is briefly told in a few human fragments found in these "Crom- lechs." These remains do not bear the royal marks of Aryan origin. The men were small in stature, with inferior skulls ; and it is surmised that they belonged to the same mysterious branch of the human fam- 10 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ily as the Basques and Iberians, whose pres- ence in Southern Europe has never been explained. When the Aryan came and blotted out these races will perhaps always remain an unanswered queston. But while Greece was clothing herself with a mantle of beauty, which the world for two thousand years has striven in vain to imitate, there was lying off the North and West coasts of the Euro- pean Continent a group of mist-enshrouded islands of which she had never heard. Obscured by fogs, and beyond the horizon of Civilization, a branch of the Aryan race known as Britons were there leading lives as primitive as the American Indians, dwell- ing in huts shaped like beehives, which they covered with branches and plastered with mud. While Phidias was carving im- mortal statues for the Parthenon, this early Britisher was decorating his abode with the heads of his enemies ; and could those shape- less blocks at Stonehenge speak, they would, perhaps, tell of cruel and hideous Druidical rites witnessed on Salisbury Plain, ages ago. 61 A.D. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 11 Rumors of the existence of this people Caesar's reached the Mediterranean three or four 55 rT' hundred years before Christ, but not until Britain * a Roman Caesar's invasion of the Island (55 B.C.) Province, was there any positive knowledge of them. Boldicea The actual conquest of Britain was not one of Caesar's achievements. But from the moment when his covetous eagle - eye viewed the chalk-cliffs of Dover from the coast of Northern Gaul, its fate was sealed. The Roman octopus from that moment had fastened its tentacles upon the hapless land ; and in 45 a.d., under the Emperor Claudius, it became a Roman province. In vain did the Britons struggle for forty years. In vain did the heroic Boadicea (during the reign of Nero, 61 a.d.), like Hermann in Germany, and Vercingetorix in France, resist the de- struction of her nation by the Romans. In vain did this woman herself lead the Brit- ons, in a frenzy of patriotism; and when the inevitable defeat came, and London was lost, with the desperate courage of the bar- barian she destroyed herself rather than witness the humiliation of her race. The stately Westminster and St. Paul's 12 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. did not look down upon this heroic daughter of Britain. London at that time was a collection of miserable huts and entrenched cattle-pens, which were in Keltic speech called the " Fort-on-the-Lake" — or "Llyn- din," an uncouth name in Latin ears, which gave little promise of the future London, the Romans helping it to its final form by calling it Londinium. But the octopus had firmly closed about its victim, whose struggles, before the year 100 a.d., had practically ceased. A civili- zation which made no effort to civilize was forcibly planted upon the island. Where had been the humble village, protected by a ditch and felled trees, there arose the walled city, with temples and baths and forum, and stately villas with frescoed walls and tessellated floors, and hot-air currents converting winter into summer. So Chester, Colchester, Lincoln, York, London, and a score of other cities were set like jewels in a surface of rough clay, the Britons filling in the intervening spaces with their own rude customs, habits, and manners. Dwelling in wretched cabins HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 13 thatched with straw and chinked with mud, they still stubbornly maintained their own uncouth speech and nationality, while they helplessly saw all they could earn swallowed up in taxes and tributes by their insatiate conquerors. The Keltic - Gauls might, if they would, assimilate this Eoman civiliza- tion, but not so the Keltic-Britons. The two races dwelt side by side, but sep- arate (except to some extent in the cities), or, if possible, the vanquished retreated be- fore the vanquisher into Wales and Corn- wall ; and there to-day are found the only remains of the aboriginal Briton race in England. The Roman General Agricola had built in 78 a.d. a massive wall across the North of England, extending from sea to sea, to pro- tect the Roman territory from the Picts and Scots, those wild dwellers in the Northern Highlands. It seems to us a frail barrier to a people accustomed to leaping the rocky wall set by nature between the North and the South ; and unless it were maintained by a line of legions extending its entire length, they must have laughed at such a defence ; 14 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. even when duplicated later, as it was, by the Emperor Hadrian, in 120 a.d. ; and still twice again, first by Emperor Antoninus, and then by Severus. For the swift trans- portation of troops in the defensive warfare always carried on with the Picts and Scots, magnificent roads were built, which linked the Romanized cities together in a network of splendid highways. There were more than three centuries of peace. Agriculture, commerce, and indus- tries came into existence. " Wealth accumu- lated," but the Briton "decayed" beneath the weight of a splendid system, which had not benefited, but had simply crushed out of him his original vigor. Together with Roman villas, and vice, and luxury, had also come Christianity. But the Briton, if he had learned to pray, had forgotten how to fight, — and how to govern; and now the Roman Empire was perishing. She needed all her legions to keep Alaric and his Goths out of Rome. In 410 a.d. the fair cities and roads were deserted. The tramp of Roman soldiers was heard no more in the land, and the HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 15 enfeebled native race were left helpless and alone to fight their battles with the Picts and Scots; — that fierce Briton offshoot which had for centuries dwelt in the fast- nesses of the Highlands, and which swarmed down upon them like vultures as soon as their protectors were gone. In 446 a.d. the unhappy Britons invited their fate. Like their cousins, the Gauls, they invited the Teutons from across the sea to come to their rescue, and with result far more disastrous. When the Frank became the champion and conqueror of Gaul, he had for centuries been in conflict or in contact with Rome, and had learned much of the old Southern civilizations, and to some extent adopted their ideals. Not so the Angles and Saxons, who came pouring into Britain from Schles- wig-Holstein. They were uncontaminated pagans. In scorn of Roman luxury, they set the torch to the villas, and temples and baths. They came, exterminating, not as- similating. The more complaisant Frank had taken Romanized, Latinized Gaul just as he found her, and had even speedily 16 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. adopted her religion. It was for Gaul a change of rulers, but not of civilization. But the Angles and Saxons were Teutons of a different sort. They brought across the sea in those "keels" their religion, their manners, habits, nature, and speech; and they brought them for use (just as the Englishman to-day carries with him a little England wherever he goes). Their religion, habits, and manners they stamped upon the helpless Britons. In spite of King Arthur, and his knights, and his sword "Excalibar," they swiftly paganized the land which had been for three centuries Christianized ; and their nature and speech were so ground into the land of their adoption that they exist to-day wherever the Anglo - Saxon abides. From Windsor Palace to the humblest abode in England (and in America) are to be found the descendants of these dominat- ing barbarians who flooded the British Isles in the 5th Century. What sort of a race were they? Would we understand England to-day, we must understand them. It is not sufficient to know that they were bearded HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 17 and stalwart, fair and ruddy, flaxen-haired and with cold blue eyes. We should know what sort of souls looked out of those clear cold eyes. What sort of impulses and hearts dwelt within those brawny breasts. Their hearts were barbarous, but loving and loyal, and nature had placed them in strong, vehement, ravenous bodies. They were untamed brutes, with noble instincts. They had ideals too; and these are re- vealed in the rude songs and epics in which they delighted. Monstrous barbarities are committed, but always to accomplish some stern purpose of duty. They are cruel in order to be just. This sluggish, ravenous, drinking brute, with no gleam of poetry, no light-hearted rhythm in his soul, has yet chaotic glimpses of the sublime in his ear- nest, gloomy nature. He gives little promise of culture, but much of heroism. There is, too, a reaching after something grand and invisible, which is a deep religious instinct. All these qualities had the future English nation slumbering within them. Marriage was sacred, woman honored. All the mem- bers of a family were responsible for the 18 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. acts of one member. The sense of obliga- tion and of responsibility was strong and binding. Is not every type of English manhood explained by such an inheritance? From the drunken brawler in his hovel to the English gentleman u taking his pleasures sadly," all are accounted for; and Hampden, Milton, Cromwell, John Bright, and Gladstone ex- isted potentially in those fighting, drinking savages in the 5th Century. Their religion, after 150 years, was ex- changed for Christianity. Time softened their manners and habits, and mingled new elements with their speech. But the Anglo- Saxon nature has defied the centuries and change, ^l strong sense of justice, and a resolute resistance to encroachments upon personal liberty, are the warp and woof of Anglo-Saxon character yesterday, to-day and forever. The steady insistence of these traits has been making English History for precisely 1,400 years, (from -195 to 1895,) and the history of the Anglo-Saxon race in America for 200 years as well. Our ancestors brought with them from HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 19 their native land a simple, just, Teutonic structure of society and government, the base of which was the individual free-man. The family was considered the social unit. Several families near together made a town- ship, the affairs of the township being set- tled by the male freeholders, who met together to determine by conference what should be done. This was the germ of the "town-meet- ing" and of popular government. In the " witan, " or " wise men, " who were chosen as advisers and adjusters of difficult questions, exist the future legislature and judiciary, while in the king, or "alder-mann" ("Ealdorman") we see not an oppressor, but one who by superior age and experience is fitted to lead. Cerdic, first Saxon king, was simply Cerdic the "Ealdorman" or k * Alder-mann." They were a free people from the begin- ning. They had never bowed the neck to yoke, their heads had never bent to tyranny. Better far was it that Roman civilization, built upon Keltic-Briton foundation, should have been effaced utterly, and that this 20 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. strong untamed humanity, even cruel and terrible as it was, should replace it. Eoman laws, language, literature, faith, manners, were all swept away. A few mosaics, coins, and ruined fragments of walls and roads are all the record that remains of 300 years of occupation. And the Briton himself — what became of him? In Ireland and Scotland he lingers still; but, except in Wales and Cornwall, England knows him no more. Like the American Indian, he was swept into the re- mote, inaccessible corners of his own land. It seemed cruel, but it had to be. Would we build strong and high, it must not be upon sand. We distrust the Kelt as a foundation for nations as we do sand for our temples. France was never cohesive until a mixture of Teuton had toughened it. Genius makes a splendid spire, but a poor corner-stone. It would seem that the Keltic race, brilliant and richly endowed, was still unsuited to the world in its higher stages of development. In Britain, Gaul, and Spain they were displaced and absorbed by the Germanic races. And now for long HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 21 centuries no Keltic people of importance has maintained its independence ; the Gaelic of the Scotch Highlands and of Ireland, the native dialect of the Welsh and of Brittany, being the scanty remains of that great fam- ily of related tongues which once occupied more territory than German, Latin, and Greek combined. The solution of the Irish question may lie in the fact that the Irish are fighting against the inevitable; that they belong to a race which is on its way to extinction, and which is intended to survive only as a brilliant thread, wrought into the texture of more commonplace but more en- during peoples. It was written in the book of fate that a great nation should arise upon that green island by the North Sea. A foundation of Roman cement, made by a mingling of Kel- tic-Briton, and a corrupt, decayed civiliza- tion, would have altered not alone the fate of a nation, but the History of the World. Our barbarian ancestors brought from Schleswig-Holstein a rough, clean, strong foundation for what was to become a new type of humanity on the face of the earth. 22 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. A Humanity which was not to be Persian nor Greek, nor yet Roman, but to be nour- ished on the best results of all, and to be- come the standard-bearer for the Civilization of the future. The Jutes came first as an advance-guard of the great Teuton invasion. It was but the prologue to the play when Hengist and Horsa, in 449 a.d., occupied what is now Kent, in the Southeast extremity of Eng- land. It was only when Cerdic and his Saxons placed foot on British soil (405 a.d.) that the real drama began. And when the Angles shortly afterward followed and oc- cupied all that the Saxons had not appro- priated (the north and east coast), the actors were all present and the play began. The Angles were destined to bestow their name upon the land (Angle-land), and the Saxons a line of kings extending from Cerdic to Victoria. Covetous of each other's possessions, these Teutons fought as brothers will. Exter- minating the Britons was diversified with efforts to exterminate one another. Seven kingdoms, four Anglian and three Saxon, HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 23 for 300 years tried to annihilate each other; then, finally submitting to the strongest, united completely, — as only children of one household of nations can do. The Saxons had been for two centuries dominating more and more until the long struggle ended — behold, Anglo-Saxon England consolidated under one Saxon king! The other king- doms — Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and Essex — surviving as shires and counties. In 802 a.d., while Charlemagne was weld- ing together his vast and composite empire, the Saxon Egbert (Ecgberht), descendant of Cerdic (the " Alder-mann"), was consolidat- ing a less imposing, but, as it has proved, more permanent kingdom ; and the History of a United England had begun. While Christianity had been effaced by the Teuton invasion in England, it had sur- vived among the Irish-Britons. Ireland was never paganized. With fiery zeal, her peo- ple not alone maintained the religion of the Cross at home, but even drove back the heathen flood by sending missionaries among the Picts in the Highlands, and into 24 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. other outlying territory about the North Sea. Pope Gregory the Great saw this Keltic branch of Christendom, actually outrunning Latin Christianity in activity, and he was spurred to an act which was to be fraught with tremendous consequences. CHAPTER II. The same spot in Kent (the isle of £^** e Thanet), which had witnessed the landing of Hengist and Horsa in 449, saw in 597 a band of men, calling themselves "Stran- gers from Rome," arriving under the lead- ership of Augustine. They moved in solemn procession toward Canterbury, bearing before them a silver cross, with a picture of Christ, chanting in concert, as they went, the litany of their Church. Christianity had entered by the same, door through which paganism had come 150 years before. The religion of Wodin and Thor had ceased to satisfy the expanding soul of the Anglo-Saxon; and the new faith rapidly spread ; its charm consisting in the light it , seemed to throw upon the darkness encom- passing man's past and future. 26 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. An aged chief said to Edwin, king of Nor- thumbria, (after whom "Edwins-borough" was named,) "Oh, King, as a bird flies through this hall on a winter night, coming out of the darkness, and vanishing into the darkness again, even so is our life! If these strangers can tell us aught of what is beyond, let us hear them." King Edwin was among the first to espouse the new religion, and in less than one hun- dred years the entire land was Christianized. With the adoption of Christianity a new life began to course in the veins of the people. Csedmon, an unlettered Northumbrian peasant, was inspired by an Angel who came to him in his sleep and told him to "Sing." "He was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." He wrote epics upon all the sacred themes, from the creation of the World to the Ascension of Christ and the final judgment of man, and English litera- ture was born. " Paradise Lost," one thousand years later, was but the echo of this poet-peasant, who was the Milton of the 7th Century. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 27 In the 8th Century, Bseda (the venerable Beda), another Northumbrian, who was monk, scholar, and writer, wrote the first History of his people and his country, and discoursed upon astronomy, physics, me- teorology, medicine, and philosophy. These were but the early lispings of Science ; but they held the germs of the "British Associa- tion" and of the "Koyal Society;" for as English poetry has its roots in Caedmon, so is English intellectual life rooted in Baeda. The culmination of this new era was in Alfred, who came to the throne of his grandfather, Egbert, in 871. He brought the highest ideals of the duties of a King, a broad, statesmanlike grasp of conditions, an unsullied heart, and a clear, strong intelligence, with unusual inclination toward an intellectual life. Few Kings have better deserved the title of "great." With him began the first con- ception of National law. He prepared a code for the administration of justice in his Kingdom, which was prefaced by the Ten Commandments, and ended with the Golden Rule ; while in his leisure hours he gave co- 28 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. herence and form to the literature of the time. Taking the writings of Caedmon, Baeda, Pope Gregory, and Boethius; trans- lating, editing, commentating, and adding his own to the views of others upon a wide range of subjects. He was indeed the father not alone of a legal system in England, but of her culture and literature besides. The people of Wan- tage, his native town, did well, in L849, to celebrate the one-thousandth anniversary of the birth of the great King Alfred. But a condition of decadence was in prog- ress in England, which Alfred's wise reign was powerless to arrest, and which his greatness may even have tended to hasten. The distance between the king and the peo- ple had widened from a mere step to a gulf. When the Saxon kings began to be clothed with a mysterious dignity as "the Lord's anointed," the people were corres- pondingly degraded; and the degradation of this class, in which the true strengtli of England consisted, bore unhappy but natural fruits. A slave or u unfree" class had come with HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 29 the Teutons from their native land. This small element had for centuries now been swelled by captives taken in war, and by accessions through misery, poverty, and debt, which drove men to sell themselves and families and wear the collar of ser- vitude. The slave was not under the lash ; but he was a mere chattel, having no more part than cattle (from whom this title is de- rived) in the real life of the state. In addition to this, political and social changes had been long modifying the struc- ture of society in a way tending to degrade the general condition. As the lesser King- doms were merged into one large one, the wider dominion of the king removed him further from the people; every succeeding reign raising him higher, depressing them lower, until the old English freedom was lost. The "folk -moot" and " Witenagemot"* were heard of no more. The life of the early English State had been in its " folk- moot, "and hence rested upon the individual English freeman, who knew no superior but * Witenagemot — a Council composed of "Witan" or "Wise Men." 30 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. God, and the law. Now, he had sunk into the mere "villein," bound to follow his lord to the field, to give him his personal ser- vice, and to look to him alone for justice. With the decline of the freeman (or of popular government) came Anglo-Saxon degeneracy, which made him an easy prey to the Danes. The Northmen were a perpetual menace and scourge to England and Scotland. There never could be any feeling of perma- nent security while that hostile flood was always ready to press in through an un- guarded spot on the coast. The sea wolves and robbers from Norway came devouring, pillaging, and ravaging, and then away again to their own homes or lairs. Their boast was that they "scorned to earn by sweat what they might win by blood." But the Northmen from Denmark were of a different sort. They were looking for permanent conquest, and had dreams of Empire, and, in fact, had had more or less of a grasp upon English soil for centuries before Alfred; and one of his greatest achievements was driving these HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 31 hated invaders out of England. In 1013, Danish King's under the leadership of Sweyn, they once more poured in upon the land, and after a brief but fierce struggle a degenerate Eng- land was gathered into the iron hand of the Dane. Canute, the son of Sweyn, continued the successes of his father, conquering in Scot- land Duncan (of Shakespeare's "Macbeth"), and proceeded to realize his dream of a great Scandinavian empire, which should include Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and England. He was one of those monumental men who mark the periods in the pages of History, and yet child enough to command the tides to cease, and when disobeyed, was so hu- miliated he never again placed a crown upon his head, acknowledging the presence of a King greater than himself. Conqueror though he was, the Dane was not exactly a foreigner in England. The languages of the two nations were almost the same, and a race affinity took away much of the bitterness of the subjugation, while Canute ruled more as a wise native King than as a Conqueror. 32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. But the span of life, even of a founder of Empire, is short. Canute's sons were de- generate, cruel, and in forty years after the Conquest had so exasperated the Anglo-Sax- ons that enough of the primitive spirit re- turned, to throw off the foreign yoke, and the old Saxon line was restored in Edward, known as "the Confessor." Edward had qualities more fitted to adorn the cloister than the throne. He was more of a Saint than King, and was glad to leave the affairs of his realm in the hands of Earl Godwin. This man was the first great English statesman who had been neither Priest nor King. Astute, powerful, dexterous, he was virtual ruler of the King- dom until King Edward's death in 1066, when, in the absence of an heir, Godwin's son Harold was called to the empty throne. Foreign royal alliances have caused no end of trouble in the life of Kingdoms. A marriage between a Saxon King and a Nor- man Princess, in about the year 1000 A.D., has made a vast deal of history. This Prin- cess of Normandy, was the grandmother of the man, who was to be known as " William HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 33 the Conqueror." In the absence of a di- rect heir to the English throne, made vacant by Edward's death, this descent gave a shad- owy claim to the ambitious Duke across the Channel, which he was not slow to use for his own purposes. He asserted that Edward had promised that he should succeed him, and that Har- old, the son of Godwin, had assured him of his assistance in securing his rights upon the death of Edward the Confessor. A tre- mendous indignation stirred his righteous soul when he heard of the crowning of Harold; not so much at the loss of the throne, as at the treachery of his friend. In the face of tremendous opposition and difficulties, he got together his reluctant Barons and a motley host, actually cutting down the trees with which to create a fleet, and then, depending upon pillage for sub- sistence, rushed to face victory or ruin. The Battle of Senlac (or Hastings) has been best told by a woman's hand in the famous Bayeux Tapestry. An arrow pierced the unhappy Harold in the eye, entering the brain, and the head which had worn the Norman Conquest, 1066. Death of King Harold. 34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. crown of England ten short months lay in the dust, William, with wrath unappeased, refusing him burial. William, Duke of Normandy, was King of England. Not alone that. He claimed that he had been rightful King ever since the death of his cousin Edward the Con- fessor; and that those who had supported Harold were traitors, and their lands confis- cated to the crown. As nearly all had been loyal to Harold, the result was that most of the wealth of the Nation was emptied into William's lap, not by right of conquest, but by English law. Feudalism had been gradually stifling old English freedom, and the King saw himself confronted with a feudal baronage, nobles claiming hereditary, military, and judicial power independent of the King, such as de- graded the Monarchy and riveted down the people in France for centuries. With the genius of the born ruler and conqueror, William discerned the danger, and its remedy. Availing himself of the early legal constitution of England, he placed justice in the old local courts of the HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 35 " hundred" and " shire," to which every free- man had access, and these courts he placed under the jurisdiction of the King alone. In Germany and France the vassal owned su- preme fealty to his lord, against all foes, even the King himself. In England, the tenant from this time swore direct fealty to none save his King. With the unbounded wealth at his dis- posal, William granted enormous estates to his followers upon condition of military ser- vice at his call. In other words, he seized the entire landed property of the State, and then used it to buy the allegiance of the people. By this means the whole Nation was at his command as an army subject to his will; and there was at the same time a breaking up of old feudal tyrannies by a redistribution of the soil under a new form of land tenure. The City of London was rewarded for in- stant submission by a Charter, signed, — not by his name — but his mark, for the Con- queror of England (from whom Victoria is twenty-fifth remove in descent), could not write his name. 36 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. He built the Tower of London, to hold the City in restraint. Fortress, palace, prison, it stands to-day the grim progenitor of the Castles and Strongholds which soon frowned from every height in England. He took the outlawed despised Jew under his protection. Not as a philanthropist, but seeing in him a being who was always accumulating wealth, which could in any emergency be wrung from him by torture, if milder measures failed. Their hoarded treasure flowed into the land. They built the first stone houses, and domestic archi- tecture was created. Jewish gold built Cas- tles and Cathedrals, and awoke the slumber- ing sense of beauty. Through their connec- tion with the Jews in Spain and the East, knowledge of the physical sciences also streamed into the land, and an intellectual life was revived, which bore fruit a century and a half later in Roger Bacon. All these things were not done in a day. It was twenty years after the Conquest that William ordered a survey and valuation of all the land, which was recorded in what was known as " Domesday Book," that he HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 37 might know the precise financial resources of his kingdom, and what was due him on the confiscated estates. Then he summoned all the nobles and large landholders to meet him at Salisbury Plain, and those shapeless blocks at "Stonehenge" witnessed a strange scene when 60,000 men there took solemn oath to support William as King even against their own lords. With this splen- did consummation his work was practically finished. He had, with supreme dexterity and wisdom, blended two Civilizations, had at the right moment curbed the destructive element in feudalism, and had secured to the Englishman free access to the surface for all time. Thus the old English freedom was in fact restored by the Norman Con- quest, by direct act of the Conqueror. William typified in his person a transi- tional time, the old Norse world, mingling strangely in him with the new. He was the last outcome of his race. Norse daring and cruelty were side by side with gentle- ness and aspiration. No human pity tem- pered his vengeance. When hides were hung on the City Walls at Alengon, in insult 38 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. to his mother (the daughter of a tanner), he tore out the eyes, cut off the hands and feet of the prisoners, and threw them over the walls. When he did this, and when he refused Harold's body a grave, it was the spirit of the sea- wolves within him. But it was the man of the coming Civilization, who could not endure death by process of law in his Kingdom, and who delighted to discourse with the gentle and pious Anselm, upon the mysteries of life and death. The indirect benefits of the Conquest, came in enriching streams from the older civilizations. As Eome had been heir to the accumulations of experience in the an- cient Nations, so England, through France became the heir to Latin institutions, and was joined to the great continuous stream of the World's highest development. Fresh intellectual stimulus renovated the Church. Roman law was planted upon the simple Teuton system of rights. Every depart- ment in State and in Society shared the ad- vance, while language became refined, flex- ible, and enriched. This engrafting with the results of an- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 39 tiquity, was an enormous saving of time, in the development of a nation ; but it did not change the essential character of the Anglo- Saxon, nor of his speech. The ravenous Teuton could devour and assimilate all these new elements and be himself — be Saxon still. — The language of Bunyan and of the Bible, is Saxon ; and it is the language of the Englishman to-day in childhood and in extremity. A man who is thoroughly in earnest — who is drowning — speaks Saxon. Character, as much as speech, remains un- altered. There is no trace of the Norman in the House of Commons, nor in the meet- ings at Exeter Hall, nor in the home, nor life of the people anywhere. The qualities which have made England great were brought across the North Sea in those "keels" in the 5th Century. The Anglo-Saxon put on the new civilization and institutions brought him by the Conquest, as he would an embroidered garment ; but the man within the garment, though modified by civilization, has never essentially changed. CHAPTER III. It is not in the exploits of its Kings but in the aspirations and struggles of its people, that the true history of a nation is to be sought. During the rule and misrule of the two sons, and grandson, of the Conqueror, England was steadily growing toward its ultimate form. As Society outgrew the simple ties ot blood which bound it together in old Saxon England, the people had sought a larger protection in combinations among fellow freemen, based upon identity of occupation. »*■" The "Frith-Gilds," or peace Clubs, came into existence in Europe during the 9th and 10th Centuries. They were harshly repressed in Germany and Gaul, but found kindly welcome from Alfred in England. In their mutual responsibility, in their motto, " if any misdo, let all bear it," Alfred saw simply HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 41 an enlarged conception of the "family," which was the basis of the Saxon social structure ; and the adoption of this idea of a larger unity, in combination, was one of the first phases of an expanding national life. So, after the conquest, while ambitious kings were absorbing French and Irish ter- ritory or fighting with recalcitrant barons, the merchant, craft, and church "gilds" were creating a great popular force, which was to accomplish more enduring conquests. It was in the "boroughs" and in these "gilds" that the true life of the nation con- sisted. It was the shopkeepers and ar- tisans which brought the right of free speech, and free meeting, and of equal jus- tice across the ages of tyranny. One free- dom after another was being won, and the battle with oppression was being fought, not by Knights and Barons, but by the sturdy burghers and craftsmen. Silently as the coral insect, the Anglo-Saxon was building an indestructible foundation for English liberties. The Conqueror had bequeathed England wiiiiam n. to his second son, William Rufus, and Nor- 42 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. mandy to his eldest son, Robert. In 1095 (eight years after his death) commenced those extraordinary wars carried on by the chivalry of Europe against the Saracens in the East. Robert, in order to raise money to join the first crusade, mortgaged Nor- mandy to his brother, and an absorption of Western France had begun, which, by means of conquest by arms and the more peaceful conquest by marriage, would in fifty years extend English dominion from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees. William's son Henry (I.), who succeeded his older brother, William Rufus, inherited enough of his father's administrative genius to complete the details of government which he had outlined. He organized the begin- ning of a judicial system, creating out of his secretaries and Royal Ministers a Supreme Court, whose head bore the title of Chancel- lor. He created also another tribunal, which represented the body of royal vassals who had all hitherto been summoned together three times a year. This "King's Court," as it was called, considered everything re- lating to the revenues of the state. Its HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 43 meetings were about a table with a top like a chessboard, which led to calling the mem- bers who sat, "Barons of the Exchequer." He also wisely created a class of lesser nobles, upon whom the old barons looked down with scorn, but who served as a coun- terbalancing force against the arrogance of an old nobility, and bridged the distance between them and the people. So, while the thirty-five years of Henry's reign advanced and developed the purposes of his father, his marriage with a Saxon Princess did much to efface the memory of foreign conquest, in restoring the old Saxon blood to the royal line. But the young Prince who embodied this hope, went down with 140 young nobles in the "White Ship," while returning from Normandy. It is said that his father never smiled again, and upon his death, his nephew Stephen was king during twenty unfruitful years. But the succession returned through Ma- tilda, daughter of Henry I. and the Saxon princess. She married Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. This Geoffrey, called "the hand- some," always wore in his helmet a sprig of 44 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. the broom-plant of Anjou (Planta genista), hence their son, Henry II. of England, was known as Henry Plante-a-genet. This first Plantagenet was a strong, coarse- fibred man; a practical reformer, without sentiment, but really having good govern- ment profoundly at heart. He took the reins into his great, rough hands with a determination first of all to curb the growing power of the clergy, by bringing it under the jurisdiction of the civil courts. To this end he created his friend and chancellor, Thomas a Becket, a primate of the Church to aid the accomplish- ment of his purpose. But from the moment Becket became Archbishop of Canterbury, he was transformed into the defender of the organization he was intended to subdue. Henry was furious when he found himself resisted and confronted by the very man he had created as an instrument of his will. These were years of conflict. At last, in a moment of exasperation, the king exclaimed^ "Is there none brave enough to rid me of this low-born priest!" This was construed into a command. Four knights sped swiftly HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 45 to Canterbury Cathedral, and murdered the Archbishop at the altar. Henry was stricken with remorse, and caused himself to be beaten with rods like the vilest criminal, kneeling upon the spot stained with the blood of his friend. It was a brutal murder, which caused a thrill of horror throughout Christendom. Becket was canonized; miracles were per- formed at his tomb, and for hundreds of years a stream of bruised humanity flowed into Canterbury, seeking surcease of sorrow, and cure for sickness and disease, by contact with the bones of the murdered saint. But Henry had accomplished his end. The clergy was under the jurisdiction of the King's Court during his reign. He also continued the judicial reorganization com- menced by Henry I. He divided the king- dom into judicial districts. This completely effaced the legal jurisdiction of the nobles. The Circuits thus defined correspond roughly with those existing to-day; and from the Court of Appeals, which was also his crea- tion, came into existence tribunal after tri- bunal in the future, including the "Star Chamber" and "Privy Council." 46 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. But of all the blows aimed at the barons none told more effectually than the restora- tion of a national militia, which freed the crown from dependence upon feudal retain- ers for military service. In a fierce quarrel between two Irish chief- tains, Henry was called upon to interfere; and when the quarrel was adjusted, Ireland found herself annexed to the English crown, and ruled by a viceroy appointed by the king. The drama of the Saxons defending the Britons from the Picts and Scots, was repeated. This first Plantagenet, with fiery face, 1 mil-neck, bowed legs, keen, rough, obsti- nate, passionate, left England greater and freer, and yet with more of a personal des- potism than he had found her. The trouble with such triumphs is that they presuppose the wisdom and goodness of succeeding tyrants. Henry's heart broke when he learned that his favorite son, John, was conspiring against him. He turned his face to the wall and died (1189), the practical hard-headed old king leaving his throne to a romantic 1189-1199. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 47 dreamer, who could not even speak the lan- guage of his country. Richard (Cceur de Lion) was a hero of ro- Richard i. mance, but not of history. The practical concerns of his kingdom had no charm for him. His eye was fixed upon Jerusalem, not England, and he spent almost the entire ten years of his reign in the Holy Land. The Crusades, had fired the old spirit of Norse adventure left by the Danes, and England shared the general madness of the time. As a result for the treasure spent and blood spilled in Palestine, she received a few architectural devices and the science of Heraldry. But to Europe, the benefits were incalculable. The barons were impover- ished, their great estates mortgaged to thrifty burghers, who extorted from their poverty charters of freedom, which unlocked the fetters and broke the spell of the dark ages. Richard the Lion-Hearted died as he had lived, not as a king, but as a romantic ad- venturer. He was shot by an arrow while trying to secure fabulous hidden treasure in France, with which to continue his wars in Palestine. 48 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. John, 1199-1216. Trince Arthur's Murder, 1203. His brother John, in 1199, ascended the throne. His name has come down as a type of baseness, cruelty, and treachery. His brother Geoffrey had married Constance of Brittany, and their son Arthur, named after the Keltic hero, had been urged as a rival claimant for the English throne. Shakespeare has not exaggerated the cruel fate of this boy, whose monstrous uncle really purposed having his eyes burnt out, being sure that if lie were blind he would no longer be eligible for king. But death is surer even than blindness, and Hubert, his merciful protector from one fate, was power- less to avert the other. Some one was found with "heart as hard as hammered iron," who put an end to the young life (1203) at the Castle of Rouen. But the King of England, was vassal to the King of France, and Philip summoned John to account to him for this deed. When John refused to appear, the French provinces were torn from him. In 120-1 he saw an Em- pire stretching from the English Channel to the Pyrenees vanish from his grasp, and was at one blow reduced to the realm of England. HISTORY OP ENGLAND. 49 When we see on the map, England as she was in that day, sprawling in unwieldy fashion over the western half of France, we realize how much stronger she has been on "that snug little island, that right little, tight little island," and we can see that John's wickedness helped her to be invin- cible. The destinies of England in fact rested with her worst king. His tyranny, brutal- ity, and disregard of his subjects 1 rights, in- duced a crisis which laid the corner-stone of England's future, and buttressed her liber- ties for all time. At a similar crisis in France, two centu- ries later, the king (Charles VII.) made com- mon cause with the people against the barons or dukes. In England, in the 13th Century, the barons and people were drawn together against the King. They framed a Charter, Magna charta, its provisions securing protection and justice to every freeman in England. On Easter Day, 1215, the barons, attended by two thousand armed knights, met the King near Oxford, and demanded his signature to the paper. John was awed, and asked them to 131! 50 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. name a day and place. " Let the day be the 15th of June, and the place Runnymede," was the reply. A brown, shrivelled piece of parchment in the British Museum to-day, attests to the keeping of this appointment. That old Oak at Runnymede, under whose spreading branches the name of John was affixed to the Magna Chart a, was for centuries held the most sacred spot in England. It is an impressive picture we get of John, Wk the Lord's Anointed, 1 ' when this scene was over, in a hurst of rage rolling on the floor, biting straw, and gnawing a stick ! "They have placed twenty-five kings over me," he shouted in a fury; meaning the twenty-five barons who w T ere entrusted with the duty of seeing that the provisions of the Charter were fulfilled. Whether his death, one year later (1216), was the result of vexation of spirit or surfeit of peaches and cider, or poison, history does not positively say. But England shed no tears for the King to whom she owes her liberties in the Magna Charta. CHAPTER IV. For the succeeding 56 years John's son, Henry in. Henry III., was King of England. While this vain, irresolute, ostentatious king was extorting money for his ambitious designs and extravagant pleasures, and struggling to get back the pledges given in the Great Charter, new and higher forces, to which he gave no heed, were at work in his kingdom. Paris at this time was the centre of a great intellectual revival, brought about by the Crusades. We have seen that through the despised Jew, at the time of the Con- quest, a higher civilization was brought into England. Along with his hoarded gold came knowledge and culture, which he had obtained from the Saracen. Now, these germs had been revived by direct contact with the sources of ancient knowledge in Oxford in the Thirteenth 52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. the East during the Crusades ; and while the long mental torpor of Europe was rolling away like mist before the rising sun, Eng- land felt the warmth of the same quicken- ing rays, and Oxford took on a new life. It was not the stately Oxford of to-day, century. but a rabble of roystering, revelling youths, English, Welsh, and Scotch, who fiercely fought out their fathers' feuds. They were a turbulent mob, who gave ad- vance opinion, as it were, upon every eccle- siastical or political measure, by fighting it out on the streets of their town, so that an outbreak at Oxford became a sort of prelude to every great political movement. Impossible as it seems, intellectual life grew and expanded in this tumultuous at- mosphere; and while the democratic spirit of the University threatened the king, its spirit of free intellectual inquiry shook the Church. The revival of classical learning, bring- ing streams of thought from old Greek and Latin fountains, caused a sudden expansion. It was like the discovery of an unsuspected and greater world, with a body of new truth, HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 53 which threw the old into contemptuous dis- use. A spirit of doubt, scepticism, and de- nial, was engendered. They comprehended now why Abelard had claimed the "su- premacy of reason over faith," and why Italian poets smiled at dreams of "immor- tality." Then, too, the new culture com- pelled respect for infidel and for Jew. Was it not from their impious hands, that this new knowledge of the physical universe had been received? Roger Bacon drank deeply from these Roger Bacon fountains, new and old, and struggled like 'opusMajus. a giant to illumine the darkness of his time, by systematizing all existing knowledge. His "Opus Majus" was intended to bring these riches to the unlearned. But he died uncomprehended, and it was reserved for later ages to give recognition to his stupen- dous work, wrought in the twilight out of dimly comprehended truth. Pursued by the dream of recovering the French Empire, lost by his father, and of re- tracting the promises given in the Charter, Henry III. spent his entire reign in conflict with the barons and the people, who were 54 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Beginnings of House of Commons, 1865. First true Parliament, Edward i.. 1272-1307. closely drawn together by the common dan- ger and rallied to the defence of their liberties under the leadership of Simon de Montfort. It was at the town of Oxford that the great council of barons and bishops held its meetings. This council, which had long been called ''Parliament" (from parhr), in the year V2 (J 5 became for the first time a representative body, when Simon de Mont- fort summoned not alone the lords and bishops — but two citizens from every city, and two burghers from every borough. A Rubicon was passed when the merchant, and the shopkeeper, sat for the first time with the noble and the bishops in the great council. It was thirty years before the change was fully effected, it being in the year 1295 (just tiOO years ago now) that the first true Parliament met. But the " House of Lords'' and the germ of the "House of Commons," existed in this assembly at Ox- ford in 1*2 captivity: leaving his wife a pris- oner and his young son dead at Tewksbnry. stabbed by Yorkist lords. Henry VI. died Deathof [ n the Tower, "mysteriously," as did all the Henry VL BouaeofYork, deposed and imprisoned Kings; Warwick was slain in battle, and with Edward LV. the reign of the House of York commenced. Such in brief is the story of the " Wars of the Roses" and of the Earl of Warwick, the " K iny Maker" At the close of the Wars of the Roses, 1461-1485. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 69 feudalism was a ruin. The oak with its «««*, dead roots had been prostrated by the storm The imposing system had wrought its own destruction. Eighty Princes of the blood royal had perished, and more than half of the Nobility had died on the field or the scaffold, or were fugitives in foreign lands. The great Duke of Exeter, brother-in-law to a King, was seen barefoot begging bread from door to door. By the confiscation of one-fifth of the landed estate of the Kingdom, vast wealth poured into the King's treasury. He had no need now to summon Parliament to vote him supplies. The clergy, rendered feeble and lifeless from decline in spiritual enthu- siasm, and by its blind hostility to the intel- lectual movement of the time, crept closer to the throne, while Parliament, with its partially disfranchised House of Commons, was so rarely summoned that it almost ceased to exist. In the midst of the general wreck, the Kingship towered in solitary greatness. Edward IV. was absolute sovereign. He had no one to fear, unless it was his in- 70 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. triguing brother Richard, Duke of Glouces- ter, who, during the twenty-three years of Edward's reign, was undoubtedly carefully planning the bloodstained steps by which he himself should reach the throne. Acute in intelligence, distorted in form and in character, this Eichard was a mon- ster of iniquity. The hapless boy left heir to the throne upon the death of Edward IV., his father, was placed under the guar- dianship of his misshapen uncle, who until the majority of the young King, Edward V. , was to reign under the title of Protec- Richardin., tor. Delthonhe How tbis u P rotec tor" protected his neph- princes in the ews all know. The two boys (Edward V. and Richard, Duke of York) were carried to the Tower. The world has been reluctant to believe that they were really smothered, as has been said; but the finding, nearly two hundred years later, of the skeletons of two children which had been buried or concealed at the foot of the stairs leading to their place of confinement, seems to confirm it beyond a doubt. Retribution came swiftly. Two years HISTORY OF ENGLAND. n later Eichard fell at the battle of Bosworth Field, and the crown won by numberless crimes, rolled under a hawthorn bush. It was picked up and placed upon a worthier head. Henry Tudor, an offshoot of the House of Lancaster, was proclaimed King Henry VII., and his marriage with Princess Elizabeth of York (sister of the princes murdered in the Tower) forever blended the White and the Eed Eose in peaceful union. During all this time, while Kings came and Kings went, the people viewed these changes from afar. But if they had no longer any share in the government, a great expansion was going on in their inner life. Caxton had set up his printing press, and the " art preservative of all arts," was bring- ing streams of new knowledge into thou- sands of homes. Copernicus had discovered a new Heaven, and Columbus a new Earth. The sun no longer circled around the Earth, nor was the Earth a flat plain. There was a revival of classic learning at Oxford, and Erasmus, the great preacher, was founding schools and preparing the minds of the peo- Bosworth Field. House of Tudor, 1485-1603. Henry VII., 1485-1509. Printing Introduced into England. 72 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. pie for the impending change, which was soon to be wrought by that Monk in Ger- many, whose soul was at this time begin- ning to be stirred to its mighty effort at reform. CHAPTER VI. When in the year 1509 a handsome youth Henr y VIIL 1509-1547 of eighteen came to the throne, the hopes of England ran high. His intelligence, his frank, genial manners, his sympathy with the "new learning," won all classes. Eras- mus in his hopes of purifying the Church, and Sir Thomas More in his "Utopian" dreams for politics and society, felt that a friend had come to the throne in the young Henry VIIL Spain had become great through a union of the rival Kingdoms Castile and Aragon ; so a marriage with the Princess Katharine, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, had been arranged for the young Prince Henry, who had quietly accepted for his Queen his brother's widow, six years his senior. France under Francis I. had risen into a state no less imposing than Spain, and 74 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Henry began to be stirred with an ambition to take part in the drama of events going on upon the greater stage, across the Channel. The old dream of French conquest returned. Francis I. and Charles V. of Germany had commenced their struggle for supremacy in Europe. Henry's ambition was fostered by their vying with each other to secure his friendship. He was soon launched in a deep game of diplomacy, in which three in- triguing Sovereigns were striving each to outwit the others. What Henry lacked in experience and craft was supplied by his Chancellor Wol- sey, whose private and personal ambition to reach the Papal Chair was dexterously mingled with the royal game. The game was dazzling and absorbing, but it was unexpectedly interrupted; and the golden dreams of Erasmus and More, of a slow and orderly development in England through an expanding intelligence, were rudely shaken. Martin Luther audaciously nailed on the door of the Church at Wittenberg a protest against the selling of papal indulgences, and the pent-up hopes, griefs and despair of Reformation, 1517, HISTORY OF ENGLAND. • 75 centuries burst into a storm which shook Europe to its centre. Since England had joined in the great game of European politics, she had ad- vanced from being a third-rate power to the front rank among nations ; so it was with great satisfaction that Catholic Europe heard Henry VIII. denounce the new Eefor- mation, which had swiftly assumed alarm- Marriage with . Anne Boleyn, mg proportions. 1533. But a woman's eyes were to change all this. As Henry looked into the fair face of Anne Boleyn, his conscience began to be stirred over his marriage with his brother's widow, Katharine. He confided his scruples to Wolsey, who promised to use his efforts with the Pope to secure a divorce from Katharine. But this lady was niece to Charles V., the great Champion of the Church in its fight with Protestantism. It would never do to alienate him. So the divorce was refused. Henry VIII. was not as flexible and ami- able now as the youth of eighteen had been. He defied the Pope, married Anne (1533), and sent his Minister into disgrace 76 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. for not serving him more effectually. "There was the weight which pulled me down," said Wolsey of Anne, and death from a broken heart mercifully saved the old man from the scaffold he would cer- tainly have reached. The legion of demons which had been slumbering in the King were awakened. He would break no law, but he would bend the law to his will. He commanded a trembling Parliament to pass an act sus- taining his marriage with Anne. Another permitting him to name his successor, and then another — making him supreme head of the Church in England. The Pope was for- Henrya ever dethroned in his Kingdom, and Prot- estantism had achieved a bloodstained victory. Henry alone could judge what was ortho- doxy and what heresy ; but to disagree with him 9 was death. Traitor and heretic went to the scaffold in the same hurdle; the Cath- olic who denied the King's supremacy rid- ing side by side with the Protestant who denied transubstantiation. The Protestant- ism of this great convert was political, not His Supremacy 1536. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 77 religious; he despised the doctrines of Lu- theranism, and it was dangerous to believe too much and equally dangerous to believe too little. Heads dropped like leaves in the forest, and in three years the Queen who had overturned England and almost Europe, Aja %^ ni was herself carried to the scaffold (1536). It was in truth a " Keign of Terror" by an absolutism standing upon the ruin of every rival. The power of the Barons had gone; the Clergy were panic-stricken, and Parlia- ment was a servant, which arose and bowed humbly to his vacant throne at mention of his name! A member for whom he had sent knelt trembling one day before him. "Get my bill passed to-morrow, my little man," said the King, "or to-morrow, this head of yours will be off." The next day the bill passed, and millions of Church property was confiscated, to be thrown away in gambling, or to enrich the adherents of the King. Thomas Cromwell, who had succeeded to Wolsey's vacant place, was his efficient in- strument. This student of Machiavelli's "Prince," without passion or hate, pity or 78 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. regret, marked men for destruction, as a woodman does tall trees, the highest and proudest names in the Kingdom being set down in his little notebook under the head of either "Heresy" or "Treason." Sir Thomas More, one of the wisest and best of men, would not say he thought the mar- riage with Katharine had been unlawful, and paid his head as the price of his fearless honesty. Jane Seymour, whom Henry married the day after Anne Boleyn's execution, died within a year at the birth of a son (Edward VI. ). In 1540 Cromwell arranged another union with the plainest woman in Europe, Anne of Cleves ; which proved so distasteful to Henry that he speedily divorced her, and in resentment at Cromwell's having en- trapped him, by a flattering portrait drawn "by Holbein, the Minister came under his displeasure, which at that time meant death. He was beheaded in 1540, and in that same year occurred the King's marriage with Katharine Howard, who one year later met the same fate as Anne Boleyn. i54i. Katharine Parr, the fifth and last wife, Katharine How arcTs Death. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 79 Death of Henry VIII., 1547. and an ardent Protestant and reformer, also narrowly escaped, and would undoubtedly at last have gone to the block. But Henry, who at fifty-six was infirm and wrecked in health, died in the year 1547, the signing of death-warrants being his occupation to the very end. Whatever his motive, Henry VIII. had in making her Protestant, placed England firmly in the line of the world's highest progress ; and strange to say, that Kingdom is most indebted to two of her worst Kings. The crown passed to the son of Jane Sey- mour, Edward VI., a feeble boy of sixteen, and upon his death six years later (1553), by the King's will to Lady Jane Grey, de- scendant of his sister Mary. This gentle Grey's Death girl of seventeen, sensitive and thoughtful, a devout reformer, who read Greek and Hebrew and wrote Latin poetry, is a pa- thetic figure in history, where we see her, the unwilling wearer of a crown for ten days, and then with her young husband hurried to that fatal Tower, and to death; a brief touching interlude before the crown- Edward VI 1547-1553 Lady Jane 80 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ing of Mary, daughter of Henry and Kath- arine of Aragon. Henry VIII. stoutly adhered to Protes- tantism, and preferred that the succession should pass out of his own family, rather than into Catholic dominion again. Hence his naming of Jane Grey instead of his own daughter Mary, in case of the death of his delicate son Edward. But Henry was no longer there to stem the tide of Catholic sentiment. Lady Jane Grey was hurried to the block, and the Catholic Mary to the throne. Her marriage with Philip II. of Spain quickly overthrew the work of her father. Unlike Henry VIII., Mary was impelled by deep conviction. She persecuted to save from what she believed eternal death. Her cruelty was prompted by sincere fanaticism, mingled with the desire to please the Cath- olic Philip, whose love she craved and could not win. Disappointed in his aim to reign jointly with her, as he had hoped, he with- drew to Spain. Unlovely and unloved, she is almost an object of pity, as with dungeon, rack and fagot she strives to restore the Vary HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 81 Religion she loves, and to win the husband she adores. But Philip remained obdurately in Spain, and while she was lighting up all England with a blaze of martyrs, Calais, Cala ^ ost ' the last English possession in France, was lost. Mary died amid crushing disappoint- ments public and personal, after reigning five years (1553-1558). CHAPTER VII. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and a disgraced and decapitated Queen, wore the crown of England. If heredity had been as much talked of then as now, England might have feared the child of a faithless wife, and a remorseless, bloodthirsty King. But while Mary, daughter of Katharine, the most pious and best of mothers, had left only a great blood-spot upon the page of History, Elizabeth's reign was to be the most wise, prosperous and great, the King- dom had ever known. In her complex character there was the imperiousness, au- dacity and unscrupulousness of her father, the voluptuous pleasure-loving nature of her mother, and mingled with both, quali- ties which came from neither. She was a tyrant, held in check by a singular caution, with an instinctive perception of the pres- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 83 ence of danger, to which her purposes always instantly bent. The authority vested in her was as abso- lute as her father's, but while her imperious temper sacrificed individuals without mercy, she ardently desired the welfare of her Kingdom, which she ruled with extraordi- nary moderation and a political sagacity almost without parallel, softening, but not abandoning, one of her father's usurpations. She was a Protestant without any enthu- siasm for the religion she intended to restore in England, and prayed to the Virgin in her own private Chapel, while she was undoing the work of her Catholic sister Mary. The obsequious apologies to the Pope were with- drawn, but the Eeformation she was going to espouse, was not the fiery one being fought for in Germany and France. It was mild, moderate, and like her father's, more polit- ical than religious. The point she made was that there must be religious uniformity, and conformity to the Established Church of England — with its new " Articles," which as she often said, "left opinion free." It was in fact a softened reproduction of 84 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. her terrible father's attitude. The Church, (called an "Episcopacy," on account of the jurisdiction of its Bishops,) was Protestant in doctrine, with gentle leaning toward Catholicism in externals, held still firmly by the "Act of Supremacy" in the controlling hand of the Sovereign. Above all else de- siring peace and prosperity for England, the keynote of Elizabeth's policy in Church and in State was conciliation and compro- mise. So the Church of England was to a great extent a compromise, retaining as much as the people would bear of external form and ritual, for the sake of reconciling Catholic England. The large element to whom this was of- fensive was reinforced by returning refu- gees who brought with them the stern doc- trines of Calvin ; and they finally separated themselves altogether from a Church in which so much of Papacy still lingered, to establish one upon simpler and purer foun- dation; hence they were called "Puritans," and " Nonconformists," and were persecuted for violation of the "Act of Supremacy." The masculine side of Elizabeth's charac- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 85 ter was fully balanced by her feminine foibles. Her vanity was inordinate. Her love of adulation and passion for display, her caprice, duplicity, and her reckless love- affairs, form a strange background for the calm, determined, masterly statesmanship under which her Kingdom expanded. The subject of her marriage was a mo- mentous one. There were plenty of aspi- rants for the honor. Her brother-in-law Philip, since the abdication of Charles V., his father, was a mighty King, ruler over Spain and the Netherlands, and was at the head of Catholic Europe. He saw in this vain, silly young Queen of England an easy prey. By marrying her he could bring England back to the fold, as he had done with her sister Mary, and the Catholic cause would be invincible. Elizabeth was a coquette, without the personal charm supposed to belong to that dangerous part of humanity. She toyed with an offer of marriage as does a cat with a mouse. She had never intended to marry Philip, but she kept him waiting so long for her decision, and so exasperated him with 86 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. her caprice, that he exclaimed at last, "That girl has ten thousand devils in her." He little thought, that beneath that surface of folly there was a nature hard as steel, and a calm, clear, cool intelligence, for which his own would be no match, and which would one day hold in check the diplomacy of the "Escuriar' and outwit that of Eu- rope. She adored the culture brought by the "new learning;'' delighted in the so- ciety of Sir Philip Sidney, who reflected all that was best in England of that day; talked of poetry with Spenser; discussed philosophy with Bruno; read Greek trage- dies and Latin orations in the original ; could converse in French and Italian, and was be- sides proficient in another language, — the language of the fishwife, — which she used with startling effect with her lords and ministers when her temper was aroused, and swore like a trooper if occasion re- quired. But whatever else she was doing she never ceased to study the new England she was ruling. She felt, though did not un- derstand, the expansion which was going HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 87 on in the spirit of the people ; but instinc- tively realized the necessity for changes and modifications in her Government, when the temper of the nation seemed to require it. It was enormous common-sense and tact which converted Elizabeth into a liberal Sovereign. Her instincts were despotic. When she bowed instantly to the will of the Commons, almost apologizing for seeming to resist it, it was not because she sympa- thized with liberal sentiments, but because of her profound political instincts, which taught her the danger of alienating that class upon which the greatness of her King- dom rested. She realized the truth forgot- ten by some of her successors, that the Sov- ereign and the middle class must befriends. She might resist and insult her lords and ministers, send great Earls and favorites ruthlessly to the block, but no slightest cloud must come between her and her "dear Commons" and people. This it was which made Spenser's adulation in the "Faerie Queen" but an expression of the intense loyalty of her meanest subject. Perhaps it was because she remembered 88 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. that the whole fabric of the Church rested upon Parliamentary enactment, and that she herself was Queen of England by Par- liamentary sanction, that she viewed so complacently the growing power of that body in dealing more and more with mat- ters supposed to belong exclusively to the Crown, as for instance in the struggle made by the Commons to suppress monopo- lies in trade, granted by royal prerogative. At the first she angrily resisted the meas- ure. But finding the strength of the pop alar sentiment, she gracefully retreated, de- claring, with royal scorn for truth, that "she had not before known of the existence of such an evil." In fact, lying, in her independent code of morals, was a virtue, and one to which she owed some of her most brilliant triumphs in diplomacy. And when the bald, unmiti- gated lie was at last found out, she felt not the -lightest shame, but only amusement at the simplicity of those who had believed she was speaking the truth. Her natural instincts, her thrift, and her love of peace inclined her to keep aloof HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 89 from the struggle going on in Europe be- tween Protestants and Catholics. But while the news of St. Bartholomew's Eve seemed Massacre of st. Bartholo- to give her no thrill of horror, she still mews, 1572. sent armies and money to aid the Hu- guenots in France, and to stem the perse- cutions of Philip in the Netherlands, and committed England fully to a cause for which she felt no enthusiasm. She encour- aged every branch of industry, commerce, trade, fostered everything which would lead to prosperity. Listened to Raleigh's plans for colonization in America, permitting the New Colony to be called " Virginia" in her honor (the Virgin Queen). She chartered Eastindia ^ <=> t Company the "Merchant Company," intended to ab- chartered, 1606. sorb the new trade with the Indies (1600), CoI v^ nof and which has expanded into a British Empire in India. But amid all this triumph, a sad and soli- tary woman sat on the throne of England. The only relation she had in the world was her cousin, Mary Stuart, who was plotting to undermine and supplant her. The question of Elizabeth's legitimacy was an ever recurring one, and afforded a rally- 90 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ing point for malcontents, who asserted that her mother's marriage with Henry YIII. was invalidated by the refusal of the Pope to sanction the divorce. Mary Stuart, who stood next to Elizabeth in the succession, formed a centre from which a network of intrigue and conspiracy was always menac- ing the Queen's peace, if not her life, and her crown. Scotland, since the extinction of the line of Bruce, had been ruled by the Stuart Kings. Torn by internal feuds between her clans, and by the incessant struggle against English encroachments, she had drawn into close friendship with France, which country used her for its own ends, in harassing England, so that the Scottish border was al- ways a point of danger in every quarrel be- tween French and English Kings. In 1502 Henry VIII. had bestowed the band of his sister Margaret upon James IV. of Scotland, and it seemed as if a peaceful union was at last secured with his Northern neighbor. But in the war with France which soon followed, James, the Scottish King, turned to his old ally. He was killed at HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 91 "Flodden Field," after suffering a crushing FioddenMd, defeat. His successor, James V., had mar- B irth of Mary ied Mary Guise. Her family was the head stuart ' m2 ' and front of the ultra Catholic party in France, and her counsels prohably influenced Edward to a continual hostility to the Protestant Henry, even though he was his uncle. The death of James in consequence of his defeat at "Solway Moss" occurred im- mediately after the birth of his daughter, Mary Stuart (1542). This unhappy child at once became the centre of intriguing designs; Henry VIII. wishing to betroth the little Queen to his son, afterwards Edward VI., and thus for- ever unite the rival kingdoms. But the Guises made no compromises with Protes- tants ! Mary Guise, who was now Regent of the realm, had no desire for a closer union with Protestant England, and very much desired a nearer alliance with her own France. Mary Stuart was betrothed to the Dauphin, son of Francis I., and was sent to the French Court to be prepared by Catharine de Medici (the Italian daughter-in-law of Francis I.) for her future exalted position. 92 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. In 1561, Mary returned to England. Her boy-husband had died after a reign of two years. She was nineteen years old, had wonderful beauty, rare intelligence, and power to charm like a siren. Her short life had been spent in the most corrupt and profligate of Courts, under the combined influence of Catharine de Medici, the worst woman in Europe, — and her two uncles of the House of Guise, who were little better. Political intrigues, plottings and crimes were in the very air she breathed from in- fancy. But she was an ardent and devout Catholic, and as such became the centre and the hope of what still remained of Catholic England. Elizabeth would have bartered half her possessions for the one possession of beauty. That she was jealous of her fascinating rival there is little doubt, but that she was exas- perated at her pretensions and at the au- dacious plottings against her life and throne is not strange. In fact we wonder that, with her imperious temper, she so long hesi- tated to strike the fatal blow. Whether Mary committed the dark crimes HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 93 attributed to her or not, we do not know. But we do know, that after the murder of her wretched husband, Lord Darnley, (her cousin, Henry Stuart), she quickly married the man to whom the deed was directly traced. Her marriage with Bothwell was her undoing. Scotland was so indignant at the act, that she took refuge in England, only to fall into Elizabeth's hands. Mary Stuart had once audaciously said, " the reason her cousin did not marry was because she would not lose the power of compelling men to make love to her." Per- haps the memory of this jest made it easier M ary stuart' to sign the fatal paper in 1587. Death ' 1587 ' When we read of Mary's irresistible charm, of her audacity, her cunning, her genius for diplomacy and statecraft, far exceeding Elizabeth's — when we read of all this and think of the blood of the Guises in her veins, and the precepts of Catharine de Medici in her heart, we realize what her usurpation would have meant for England, and feel that she was a menace to the State, and justly incurred her fate. Then again, when we hear of her gentle patience in her 94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. James VI. , King of Scotland. Defeat of Spanish Armada, 1597. long captivity, her prayers and piety, and her sublime courage when she walked through the Hall at Fotheringay Castle, and laid her beautiful head on the block as on a pil- low, we are melted to pity, and almost re- volted at the act. It is difficult to be just, with such a lovely criminal, unless one is made of such stern stuff as was John Knox. The son of Mary by Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley) was James VI. of Scotland. With his mother's death, all pretensions to the English throne were forever at rest. But Philip of Spain thought the time propitious for his own ambitious purposes, and sent an Armada (fleet) which approached the Coast in the form of a great Crescent, one mile across. The little English "seadogs," not much larger than small pleasure yachts, were led by Sir Francis Drake. They wor- ried the ponderous Spanish ships, and then, sending burning boats in amongst them, soon spoiled the pretty crescent. The fleet scattered along the Northern Coast, where it was overtaken by a frightful storm, and the winds and the waves completed the victory, almost annihilating the entire "Armada." HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 95 England was great and glorious. The revolution, religious, social and political, had ploughed and harrowed the surface which had been fertilized with the "New Learning," and the harvest was rich. While all Europe was devastated by relig- ious wars there arose in Protestant England such an era of peace and prosperity, with all the conditions of living so improved that the dreams of Sir Thomas More's " Utopia" seemed almost realized. The new culture was everywhere. England was garlanded with poetry, and lighted by genius, such as the world has not seen since, and may never see again. The name of Francis Bacon was sufficient to adorn an age, and Francis Bacon ' that of Shakespeare alone, enough to illu- mine a century. Elizabeth did not create the glory of the "Elizabethan Age," but she did create the peace and social order from which it sprang. If this Queen ever loved any one it was the Earl of Leicester, the man who sent his lovely wife, Amy Eobsart, to a cruel death in the delusive hope of marrying a Queen. We are unwilling to harbor the suspicion 96 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. that she was accessory to this deed ; and yet we cannot forget that she was the daughter of Henry VIII. ! — and sometimes wonder if the memory of a crime as black as Mary's haunted her sad old age, when sated with pleasures and triumphs, lovers no more whispering adulation in her ears, and mir- rors banished from her presence, she silently waited for the end. She died in the year 1603, and succumb- ing to the irony of fate, named the son of Mary Stuart — James VI. of Scotland — her successor. CHAPTER VIII. The House of Stuart had peacefully House of reached the long coveted throne of England 1603-1714. in the person of a most unkingly King. Gross in appearance and vulgar in manners, James had none of the royal attributes of his mother. A great deal of knowledge had been crammed into a very small mind. Conceited, vain, pedantic, headstrong, he set to work with the confidence of ignorance to carry out his undigested views upon all subjects, reversing at almost every point the policy of his great predecessor. Where she with supreme tact had loosened the screws so that the great authority vested in her might not press too heavily upon the nation, he tightened them. Where she bowed her imperious will to that of the Commons, this puny tyrant insolently defied it, and swelling with sense of his own great- 98 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ness, claimed, " Divine right" for Kingship and demanded that his people should say "the King can do no wrong," "to question his authority is to question that of God." If he ardently supported the Church of Eng- land, it was because he was its head. The Catholic who would have turned the Church authority over again to the Pope, and the "Puritans" who resisted the "Popish prac- tices" of the Eeformed Church of England, were equally hateful to him, for one and the same reason ; they were each aiming to diminish his authority. When the Puritans brought to him a peti- tion signed by SCO clergymen, praying that they be not compelled to wear the surplice, nor make the sign of the cross at baptism — he said they were "vipers," and if they did not submit to the authority of the Bishops in such matters "they should be harried out of the land." In the persecution implied by this threat, a large body of Puritans escaped to Holland with their families, and from thence came that band of heroic men and F coiony^ h women on the "Mayflower," landing at a New England. p i n t on the American Coast which they HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 99 called " Plymouth" (1620) . A few English- men had in 1607 settled in Jamestown, Vir- ginia. These two colonies contained the germ of the future "United States of America." The persecution of the Catholics led to a plot to blow up Parliament House at a time when the King was present, thinking thus at one stroke to get rid of a usurping tyrant, and of a House of Commons which was daily becoming more and more infected with Puritanism. The discovery of this "Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot," prevented Gunpowder its consummation, and immensely strength- ened Puritan sentiment. The keynote of Elizabeth's foreign policy had been hostility to Spain, that Catholic stronghold, and an unwavering adherence to Protestant Europe. James saw in that great and despotic government the most suitable friend for such a great King as himself. He proposed a marriage between his son Charles and the Infanta, daughter of the King of Spain, making abject promises of legislation in his Kingdom favorable to the Catholics; and when an indignant House Plot, 1605. Francis Bacou. 100 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. of Commons protested against the marriage, they were insolently reprimanded for med- dling with things which did not concern them, and were sent home, not to be recalled again until the King's necessities for money compelled him to summon them. During the early part of his reign the people seem to have been paralyzed and speechless before his audacious pretensions. Great courtiers were fawning at his feet listening to his pedantic wisdom, and hu- moring his theory of the "Divine right'' of hereditary Kingship. And alas! — that we have to say it — Francis Bacon (his Chancel- lor), with intellect towering above his cen- tury, — was hi- obsequious servant and tool, uttering not one protest as one after another the liberties of the people were trampled upon ! But this Spanish marriage had aroused a spirit before which a wiser man than James would have trembled. He was standing midway between two scaffolds, that of his mother (1587), and his son (1649). Every blow he struck at the liberties of England cut deep into the foundation of his throne. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 101 And when he violated the law of the land by the imposition of taxes, without the sanc- tion of his Parliament, he had "sowed the wind" and the "whirlwind," which was to break on his son's head was inevitable. Popular indignation began to be manifest, and Puritan members of the Commons began to use language the import of which could not be mistaken. Bacon was disgraced; his crime, — while ostensibly the "taking of bribes," — was in reality his being the servile tool of the King. In reviewing the acts of this reign we see a foolish Sovereign ruled by an intriguing adventurer whom he created Duke of Buck- ingham. We see him foiled in his attempt to link the fate of England with that of Cath- olic Europe ; — sacrificing Sir Walter Ealeigh because he had t given offense to Spain, the country whose friendship he most desired. We see numberless acts of folly, and but three which we can commend. James did authorize and promote the translation of the Bible which has been in use until to- ^slbfe * day. He named his double Kingdom of Great Britain. England and Scotland "Great Britain." 102 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. These two acts, together with his death in "^iW^ 1625, meet with our entire approval. w^imq" Charles I. , son of James, was at least one thing which his father was not. He was a gentleman. Had it not been his misfor- tune to inherit a crown, his scholarly refine- ments and exquisite tastes, his irreproach- able morals, and his rectitude in the per- sonal relations of life, might have won him only esteem and honor. But these qualities belonged to Charles Stuart the gentleman. Charles the King was imperious, false, ob- stinate, blind to the conditions of his time, and ignorant of the nature of his people. Every step taken during his reign led him nearer to its fatal consummation. No family in Europe ever grasped at power more unscrupulously than the Guises in France. They were cruel and remorseless in its pursuit. It was the warm southern blood of her mother which was Mary Stuart's ruin. She was a Guise, — and so was her son James I. — and so was Charles I., her grandson. There was despotism and tyranny in their blood. Their very natures made it impossible that they should com- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 103 prehend the Anglo-Saxon ideal of civil lib- erty. Who can tell what might have been the course of History, if England had been ruled by English Kings, which it has not been since the Conquest. With every royal mar- riage there is a fresh infusion of foreign blood drawn from fountains not always the purest, — until after centuries of such dilu- tions, the royal line has less of the Anglo- Saxon in it than any ancestral line in the Kingdom. The odious Spanish marriage had been abandoned and Charles had married Henri- etta, sister of Louis XIII. of France. The subject of religion was the burning one at that time. It soon became apparent that the new King's personal sympahties leaned as far as his position permitted to- ward Catholicism. The Church of England under its new Primate, Archbishop Laud, A " r ^lJ op was being drawn farther away from Prot- estantism and closer to Papacy ; while Laud in order to secure Eoyal protection advocated the absolutism of the King, saying that James in his theory of "Divine right" had 104 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. been inspired by the Holy Ghost, thus turn- ing religion into an engine of attack upon English liberties. Laud's ideal was a puri- fied Catholicism — retaining auricular con- fession, prayers for the dead, the Real Presence in the Sacrament, genuflexions and crucifixes, all of which were odious to Puritans and Presbyterians. He had a bold, narrow mind, and recklessly threw himself against the religious instincts of the time. The same pulpit from which was read a proclamation ordering that the Sabbath be treated as a holiday, and not a Holy-day, was also used to tell the people that resist- ance to the King's will was " Eternal dam- nation." This made the Puritans seem the defend- ers of the liberties of the country, and drew hosts of conservative Churchmen, such as Pym, to their side, although not at all in sympathy with a religious fanaticism which condemned innocent pleasures, and all the things which adorn life, as mere devices of the devil. Such were the means by which the line was at last sharply drawn. The Church of England and tyranny on one HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 105 side, and Puritanism and liberty on the other. But there was one thing which at this moment was of deeper interest to the King than religion. He wanted, — he must have, — money. Religion and money are the two things upon which the fate of nations has oftenest hung. These two dangerous fac- tors were both present now, and they were going to make history very fast. On account of a troublesome custom pre- vailing in his Kingdom, Charles must first summon his Parliament, and they must grant the needed supplies. His father had by the discovery of the theory of " Divine right," prepared the way to throw off these Parliamentary trammels. But that could only be reached by degrees. So Parliament was summoned. It had no objection to voting the needed subsidies, but, — the King must first promise certain reforms, political and religious, and — dismiss his odious Min- ister Buckingham. Charles, indignant at this outrage, dis- solved the body, and appealed to the country for a loan. The same reply came from 106 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. every quarter. " We wiU gladly lend the money, but it must be done through Parlia- ment." The King was thoroughly aroused. If the loan will not be voluntary, it must be forced. A tax was levied, fines and pen- alties for its resistance meted out by sub- servient judges. John John Hampden was one of the earliest mnio^of victims. His means were ample, the sum xteto- was small, but his manhood was great. "Not one farthing, if it me cost my life," was his reply as he sat in the prison at Gate House. The supply did not meet the King's de- mand. Overwhelmed with debt and >hame and rage, he was obliged again to resort to the hated means. Parliament was sum- moned. The Commons, with memory of recent outrages in their hearts, were more determined than before. The members drew up a w> Petition of Eight," which was simply a reaffirmation of the inviolability of the rights of person, of property and of speech — a sort of second " Magna Charts. " They resolutely and calmly faced their King, the "Petition" in one hand, the HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 107 granted subsidies in the other. For a while he defied them ; but the judges were whis- pering in his ear that the "Petition" would not be binding upon him, and Buckingham was urging him to yield. Perhaps it was Charles Stuart the gentleman who hesi- tated to receive money in return for solemn promises which he did not intend to keep ! But Charles the King signed the paper, which seven judges out of twelve, in the highest court of the realm, were going to pro- nounce invalid because the King's power was beyond the reach of Parliament. It was inherent in him as King, and bestowed by God. Any infringement upon his pre- rogative by Act of Parliament ivas void ! With king so false, and with justice so polluted at its fountain, what hope was there for the people but in Eevolution ? From the tyranny of the Church under Laud, a way was opened when, in 1629, Charles granted a Charter to the Colony of chartered,i629. Massachusetts. With a quiet, stern enthu- siasm the hearts of men turned toward that refuge in America. Not men of broken for- tunes, adventurers, and criminals, but own- 108 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ers of large landed estates, professional men, some of the best in the land, who abandoned home and comfort to face intol- erable hardships. One wrote, "We are weaned from the delicate milk of our Mother England and do not mind these trials.'' As the pressure increased under Laud, the stream toward the West increased in volume; so that in ten years 20,000 Eng- lishmen had sought religious freedom across the sea, and had founded a Colony which, strange to say, — under the influence of an intense religious sentiment, — became itself a Theocracy and a new tyranny, although one sternly just and pure. The dissolute, worthless Buckingham had been assassinated, and Charles had wept passionate tears over his dead body. But his place had been filled by one far better suited to the King's needs at a time when he had determined not again to recall Parlia- ment, but to rule without it until resistance to his measures had ceased. It was with no sinister purpose of estab- lishing a despotism such as a stronger man might have harbored, that he made this HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 109 resolve. What Charles wanted was simply the means of filling his exchequer; and if Parliament would not give him that except by a dicker for reforms, and humiliating pledges which he could not keep, why then he would find new ways of raising money without them. His father had done it be- fore him, he had done it himself. With no Commons there to rate and insult him, it could be done without hindrance. He was not grand enough, nor base enough, nor was he rich enough, to carry out any organized design upon the country. He simply wanted money, and had such blind confidence in Kingship, that any very serious resistance to his authority did not enter his dreams. It was the limitations of his intelligence which proved his ruin, his inability to comprehend a new condition in the spirit of his people. Elizabeth would have felt it, though she did not understand it, and would have loosened the screws, without regard for her personal preferences, and by doing it, so bound the people to her, that her policy would have been their policy. Charles was as wise as the en- 110 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. gineer who would rivet down the safety- valves ! Sir Thomas Wentworth (Earl Strafford), who had taken the place of Buckingham, was an apostate from the party of liberty. Disappointed in becoming a leader in the Commons he had drawn gradually closer to the King, who now leaned upon him as the vine upon the oak. This man's ideal was to build up in Eng- land just such a despotism as Richelieu was building in France. The same imperious temper, the same invincible will and admin- istrative genius, marked him as fitted for the work. While Charles was feebly scheming for revenue, he was laving large and com- prehensive plans for a system of oppression, which should yield the revenue, — and for Arsenals and Forts — and a standing Army, and a rule of terror which should hold the nation in subjection while these things were preparing. He was clear-sighted enough to see that "absolutism" was not to be accom- plished by a system of reasoning. He would not urge it as a dogma, but as a fact. The "Star Chamber," a tribunal for the HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Ill trying of a certain class of offences, was brought to a state of fresh efficiency. Its punishments could be anything this side of death. A clergyman accused of speaking disrespectfully of Laud, is condemned to pay £5,000 to the King, £300 to the ag- grieved Archbishop himself, one side of his nose is to be slit, one ear cut off, and one cheek branded. The next week this to be repeated on the other side, and then fol- lowed by imprisonment subject to pleasure of the Court. Another who has written a book considered seditious, has the same sen- tence carried out, only varied by imprison- ment for life. These were some of the embellishments of the system called "Thorough," which was carried on by the two friends and confeder- ates, Laud and Strafford, who were in their pleasant letters to each other all the time lamenting that the power of the "Star Chamber" was so limited, and judges so timid ! Is it strange that the plantation in Massachusetts had fresh recruits? But the more serious work was going on under Strafford's vigorous management. 112 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. " Monopolies" were sold once more, with a fixed duty on profits added to the price of the original concession. Every article in use by the people was at last bought up by Monopolists, who were compelled to add to the price of these commodities, to compen- sate for the tax they must pay into the King's Treasury. s^pTi°on?y " Ship Money" was a tax supposably for the building of a Navy, for which there was no accounting to the people, the amount and frequency of the levy being discretion- ary with the King. It was always possible and imminent, and was the most odious of all the methods adopted for wringing money from the nation, while resistance to it, as to all other such measures, was punished by the Star Chamber in such pleasant fashion as would please Strafford and Laud, whose creatures the judges were. Hampden, as before, championed the rights of the people in his own person, going to prison and facing death, if it were necessary, rather than pay the amount of 20 shillings. But that the taxes were paid by the people is evident, for so success- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 113 ful was this scheme of revenue that many predicted the King would never again call a Parliament. What would be the need of a Parliament, if he did not require money? The Koyalists were pleased, and the people were wisely patient, knowing that such a financial fabric must fall at the first breath of a storm, and then their time would come. CHAPTER IX. Long Parliament. Strafford Impeached. The storm came in the form of a war upon Scotland, to enforce the established Church, which it had cast out "root and branch" for the Presbyterianism which pleased it. The Loyalists were alarmed by rumors that Scotland was holding treas- onable communication with her old ally, France; and after an interval of eleven years, a Parliament was summoned, which was destined to outlive the King. The Commons came together in stern oper, Pym standing promptly at the Bar of the House of Lords with Strafford's im- peachment for High Treason. The great Earl's apologists among the Lords, his own ingenious and powerful pleadings, the King's entreaties and worthless promises, all were in vain. The King saw the whole fabric of tyranny HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 115 crumbling before his eyes. He was over- awed and dared not refuse his signature to the fatal paper. It is said that as Strafford passed to the block, Laud, who was at the window of the room where he too was a prisoner, fainted as his old companion in cruelty stopped to say farewell to him. There were a few moments of silence, then, — a wild exultant shout. "His head is off — His head is off." The execution of the Archbishop swiftly straffonrs Death followed, then the abolition of the Star Death of Chamber, and of the High Commission Laud# Court; then a bill was passed requiring that Parliament be summoned once in three years, and a law enacted forbidding its dissolution except by its own consent. They were rapidly nearing the conception that Parliament does not exist by sanction of the King, but the King by sanction of Parliament. What could be done with a King whom no promises could bind — who, while in the act of giving solemn pledges to Parliament in order to save Strafford, was perfidiously planning to overawe it by military force? 116 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The attempted arrest of Hampden, Pym, and three other leaders was part of this "Army Plot," which made civil war inevi- table. The trouble had resolved itself into a deadly conflict between King and Parlia- ment. If he resorted to arms, so must they. If Hampden stands out pre-eminent as the Champion who like a great Gladiator fought the battle of civil freedom. Pym is no less conspicuous in having grasped the principL - on which it must be fought. He saw that if either Crown or Parliament must go down, better for En -land that it should be the crown. He saw also, that the vital principle in Parliament lay in the House of Commons. If the King refused to act with them, it should he treated as an abdication, and Parliament must act without him, and if the Lords obstructed reform, then they must be told that the Commons must act alone, rather than let the Kingdom per- ish. This was the theory upon which the fu- ture action was based. Revolutionary and without precedent it has since been accepted HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 117 as the correct construction of English Con- stitutional principles. Better would it have been for Charles had he let the ship sail, which was to have borne Hampden and his Cousin, Oliver Cromwell, toward the " Valley of the Con- necticut." He recalled the man who was to be his evil genius when he gave that order. Cromwell could not so accurately have defined the constitutional right of his cause as Pym had done, nor make himself its adored head as was Hampden; but he had a more compelling genius than either. His figure stands up colossal and grim away above all others from the time he raised his praying, psalm-singing army, until the de- feat of the King's forces at Naseby (1645), the flight of the King and his subsequent surrender. It was at this time that Cromwell began to manifest as much ability as a political as he had done as a military leader. Hamp- den had fallen on the battlefield, Pym was dead, he was virtual head of the cause. Perhaps it needed just such a terrible, un- compromising instrument, to carry Eng- 118 HISTORY OP ENGLAND. land over such a crisis as was before her. Not overscrupulous about means, no trou- blesome theories about Church or State — no reverence for anything but God and " the Gospel/' When Parliament halted and hesitated at the last about the trial of the King, it was the iron hand of Cromwell which strangled opposition, by placing a body of broopsat the door, and excluding L40 doubt- ful members. A Parliament, with the House of Lords effaced, and with 140 ob- structing members excluded, leaving only a small body of nion of the same mind, sus- tained by the moral sentiment of a Crom- wellian Army, — can scarcely be called a Representative body; Qor can it be consid- ered competent to create a Court for the trial of a King! It was only justifiable as a last and desperate measure of self- defence. " lthnf Charles wins back some of our sympathy Charles I., 1649. , _ _ .._ . j r j and esteem by dying like a brave man and a gentleman. He conducted himself with marvellous dignity and self - possession throughout the trial, and at the end of HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 119 seven days, laid his head upon the block in front of his royal palace of Whitehall. That small body of men, calling itself the " House of Commons, " declared England a "Commonwealth," which was to be gov- erned without any King or House of Lords. Cromwell was "Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland." He scorned to be called King, but no King was ever more absolute in authority. It was a righteous tyranny, replacing a vicious one. There was no longer an eager hand dip- ping into the pockets of the people, com- pelling the poor to share his scanty earn- ings with the King. There was safety, and there was prosperity. But there was rage and detestation, as Cromwell's soldiers with gibes and jeers, hewed and hacked at ven- erable altars and pictures, and insulted the religious sentiment of one-half the people. Empty niches, mutilated carvings, and fragments of stained glass, from "Windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light, " show us to-day the track of those profane fanatics. 120 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. When the remnant of the House of Com- mons calling itself a Parliament was not alert enough in its obedience, Cromwell marched into the Hall with a company of musketeers, and calling them names neither choice nor flattering, ordered them to "get out," then locked the door, and put the key into his pocket. Such was the ''dissolu- tion'' of a Parliament which had been strong parliament enough to overthrow a Government, and Dbpened. to sen( ] a King to the Scaffold ! This might be fittingly described as a personal Govern- ment ! He was loved by none but the Army. There was no strong current of popular sen- timent to uphold him as he carried out his arbitrary purposes; no engines of cruelty to fortify his authority; no "Star Cham- ber" to enforce his order. Men were not being nailed by the cars to the pillory, nor mutilated and branded, for resisting bis will. But the spectacle was for that reason all the more astonishing: a great nation, full of rage, hate and bitterness, but silent and submissive under the spell of one domi- nating personality. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 121 He had no experience in diplomatic usages, no skilled ministers to counsel and warn, but by his foreign policy he made him- self the terror of Europe; Spain, France, and the United Provinces courting his friend- ship, while Protestantism had protection at home and abroad. That the man who did this had a com- manding genius, all must be agreed. But whether he was the incarnation of evil, or of righteousness, must ever remain in dis- pute. We shall never know whether or not his death, in 1658, cut short a career which might have passed from a justifiable to an unjustifiable tyranny. A fabric held up by one sustaining hand, must fall when that hand is withdrawn. Cromwell left none who could support his burden. Charles II. , who had been more than once foiled in trying to get in by the back door of his father's kingdom, was now invited to enter by the front, and amid shouts of joy was placed on the throne. Charles II. CHAPTER X. Time brings its revenges. The instinct for beauty, and for joy and gladness, bad been for twenty-one years repressed by harshly administered Puritanism. There was a thrill of delight in greeting a gra- cious, smiling king, who would lift 1 he Bpell of gloom from the nation. Charles did this, more fully than was expected. Never was the law of reaction more fully demonstrated! The Court was profligate, and the age licentious. The reign of ( lharles was an orgy. When he needed more money for his pleasures, he bargained with Louis X IV*. to join him in a war upon Protestant- ism in Holland, for the consideration of 6200,000! We wonder how he dared thus to goad and prod the British Lion, which had de- voured his Father. But that animal had HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 123 grown patient since the Protectorate. Eng- land treated Charles like a spoiled child whose follies entertained her, and whose mis- demeanors she had not the heart to punish. The " Roundheads, " who had trampled upon the "Cavaliers, " were now trampled upon in return. But even at such a time as this the liberties of the people were expand- ing. The Act of " Habeas Corpus" forever A ct of Habeas prevented imprisonment, without showing Cor P us > 1G79 - in Court just cause for the detention of the prisoner. The House of Stuart, those children of the Guises, was always Catholic at heart, and Charles was at no pains to conceal his preferences. A wave of Catholicism alarmed the people, who tried to divert the succes- sion from James, the brother of the King, who was extreme and fanatical in his devo- tion to the Church of Eome. But in 1685, the Masks and routs and revels were inter- rupted. The pleasure-loving Charles, who "had never said a foolish thing, and never done a wise one," lay dead in his palace at Whitehall, and James II. was King of Eng- land. Death of Charles II. 1685. Buuyan. 1*24 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Three names have illumined this reign, in other respects so inglorious. In 1666 New- ton discovered the law of gravitation and created a new theory of the Universe. In Muton and 1667 Milton published " Paradise Lost," and in 1672 Bunyan gave to the world his al- legory, "Pilgrim's Progress. 1 ' There was no inspiration to genius in the cause of King and Cavaliers. But the stern prob- lems of Puritanism touched two souls with the divine afflatus. The sacred Epic of Milton, sublime in treatment as in concep- tion, must ever stand unique and solitary in literature; while "Pilgrim's Progress," in plain homely dish served the same heav enly food. The theme of both was the problem of sin and redemption with which the Puritan soul was gloomily struggling. The reign of James II. was the last effort of royal despotism to recover its own. He tried to recall the right of Habeas Corpus; — to efface Parliament — and to overawe the Clergy, while insidiously striving to estab- lish Papacy as the religion of the Kingdom. Chief Justice Jeffries, that most brutal of men, was his efficient aid, and boasted that HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 125 he had in the service of James hanged more traitors than all his predecessors since the Conquest ! The names Whig and Tory had come into existence in this struggle. Whig standing for the opponents to Catholic dom- ination, and Tory for the upholders of the King. But so flagrantly was the Catholic policy of James conducted, that his up- holders were few. In three years from his accession, Whig and Tory alike were so alarmed, that they secretly sent an invita- tion to the King's son-in-law, William, Prince of Orange, to come and accept the Crown. William responded at once, and when he landed with 1-1,000 men, James, paralyzed, powerless, unable to raise a force to meet him, abandoned his throne without a strug- gle and took refuge in France. The throne was formally declared vacant and William and Mary his wife were in- vited to rule jointly the Kingdom of Eng- land, Ireland and Scotland (1689). The House of Stuart, which seems to have brought not one single virtue to the throne, James II. Deposed. William and Mary 1689-1702. 126 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. was always secretly conspiring with Catholi- cism in Europe. Louis XIV., as the head of Catholic Europe at this time, was the natural protector of the dethroned King. His aim had long been, to bring England into the Catholic European alliance, and, of course, if possible, to make it a dependency of France. A. conspiracy with Louis to ac- complish this end occupied England's exiled King during the rest of his life. But European Protestantism had for its leader the man who now sat upon the throne of England. In fact he had prob- ably accepted thai throne in order to further his Larger plans lor defeating the expanding power of L^uis XIV. in Europe. Broad and comprehensive in his statesmanship, noble and jusl in character, an able military leader, England was safe in his strong hand. Conspiracies were put down, one French army after another, with the des- picable James at its head, was driven back; the purpose at one time being to establish .lames at the head of an independent King- dom in Catholic Ireland. But that would - be King of Ireland was humiliated and sent HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 127 back to France by the battle of Boyne Battle of MfiQm Boyne, 1690, {LovV). BUI of Rights. As important as was all this, things of even greater moment were going on in the life of England at this time. As a wise householder employs the hours of sunshine to repair the leaks revealed by the storm, just so Parliament now set about strength- ening and riveting the weak spots revealed by the storms which had swept over Eng- land. What the " Magn a Charta" and "Petition of Right" had asserted in a general way, was now by the "Bill of Rights," estab- lished by specific enactments, which one after another declared what the King should and what he should not do. One of these Acts touched the very central nerve of English freedom. If religion and money are the two impor- tant factors in the life of a nation, it is money upon which its life from day to day depends! A Government can exist without money about as long as a man without air ! ^o the act which gave to the House of Commons exclusive power to grant supplies, 128 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. and also to determine to what use they shall be applied, transferred the real au- thority to the people, whose will the Com- mons express. The struggle between the Crown and Parliament ends with this, and the theory of Pym is vindicated. The Sovereign and the House of Lords from that time could no more take money from the Treasury of England, than from that of France. Hence- forth there can be do differences between King and people. They must befriends. A Ministry which forfeits the friendship of the Commons, cannot stand an hour, and sup- plies will stop until they aro again in accord. In other words, the Government of England had become a I Government of the p< ople. William regarded these enactments as evidence of a lack of confidence in him. Conscious of his own magnanimous aims, of his power and his purpose to serve Eng- land as she had not been served before, he felt hurt and wounded at fetters which had not been placed upon such Kings as Charles T. and his sons. We wonder thai a man so exalted and so superior, did not HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 129 see that it was for future England that these laws were framed, for a time when perhaps a Prince not generous, and noble, and pure should be upon the throne. William was silent, grave, cold, reserved almost to sternness. He had none of the qualities which awaken personal enthusi- asm. He was one of those great leaders who are worshipped from afar. Besides, it is not an easy task to rule another's house- hold. Benefits however great, reforms however wise, are sure to be considered an impertinence by some. Then — there might be another "Restoration," and wary ambi- tious nobles were cautiously making a rec- ord which would not unfit them for its benefits when it came. He lived in an atmosphere of conspiracy, suspicion, and loyalty grudgingly bestowed. But these were only the surface currents. Anglo- Saxon England recognized in this foreign King, a man with the same race instincts, the same ideals of integrity, honor, justice and personal liberty, as her own; qualities possessed by few of her native sovereigns since the good King Alfred. loO HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The expensive wars carried on against James and his confederate, Louis XIV.. compelled loans which were the begin- ning of the National Debt. That and the establishing of the Bank of England, form part of the history of this reign. In 1702 William died, and Mary having also died a few years earlier, the succession passed to her si^trr Anm\ who was to be the last JSuvei'L-iij-u ui" the House ui' Stuart. CHAPTER XI. William's policy had not been bounded by Anne, Queen his Island Kingdom. It included the cause of Protestant Europe. An apparently in- vincible King sat on the throne of France, gradually drawing all adjacent Kingdoms into his dominion. When in defiance of past pledges he placed his grandson upon the vacant throne of Spain, and declared that the Pyrenees should exist no more, even Catholic Austria revolted, and begin- ning to fear Louis more than Protestantism, new combinations were formed, England still holding aloof, and striving to keep out of the Alliance. But that all-absorbing King had long ago fixed his eye upon Eng- land as his future prey, and when he re- fused to recognize Anne as lawful Queen and declared his intention of placing the " Pretender 1 ' (illegitimate son of James) 132 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. upon the throne, there could be no more hesitation. This Jupiter who had removed the Pyrenees, might wipe out the English Channel too ! Hitherto the name Whig had stood for the adherents to the war policy, and Tory for its opponents. Now, all was changed. Even the stupid Anne and her Tory friends saw that William's policy must be her policy if she would keep her Kingdom. Fortunate was it for England, and for Marlborough. Europe at this time that a " Marlborough" had climbed t<> distinction by a Blender, and not too reputable ladder. This man, John Churchill, who a few yoars ago had been unknown, without training, almost with- out education, was by pure genius fitted to becomr. upon the death of William, the guiding spirit of the Grand Alliance. He had none of the qualities possessed by William, and all the qualities that leader had not. He had no moral grandeur, no stern adherence to principles. Whig and Tory were alike to him, and he followed whichever seemed to lead to success, and to the richest rewnrds. He was perfectly sor- did in his aims, invincible in his good na- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 133 ture, with a careless, easy bonhomie which captured the hearts of Europeans, who called him "the handsome Englishman." As adroit in managing men as armies, as wise in planning political moves as cam- paigns, using tact and diplomacy as effec- tually as artillery, he assumed the whole direction of the European war; managed every negotiation, planned every battle, and achieved its great and overwhelming success. "Blenheim" turned the tide of French Battle of victory, and broke the spell of Louis' invin- cibility. The loss at that battle was some- thing more than men and fortresses. It was prestige, and that self-confidence which had made the great King believe that nothing could resist his purposes. It was a new sensation for him to bend his neck, and to say that he acknowledged Anne Queen of England. Marlborough received as his reward the splendid estate upon which was built the palace of "Blenheim." Then, when in the sunshine of peace England needed him no more, Anne quarrelled with his wife, her Blenheim, 1704. 134 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. adored friend, and cast him aside as a rusty sword no longer of use. But for years Eu- rope heard the song "Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre," and his awe, inspiring name was used to frighten children in France and in England. His passionate love for his wife, Sarah Churchill, ran like a golden thread of ro- mance through Marlborough's stormy ca- reer. On the eve of battle, and in the first flush of victory, he must first and last write her; and he would more willingly meet 20,- 000 Frenchmen than his wife's displeasure! Indeed Sarah seems to have waged her own battles very successfully with her tongue, and also to have had her own diplomatic triumphs. Through Anne's infatuation for her, she was virtually ruler while the friend- ship lasted. But to acquire ascendancy over Anne was not much of an achievement. It is said that there was but one duller person than the Queen in her Kingdom, and that was the royal Consort, George, Prince of Denmark. Happy was it for England that of the seventeen children born into this royal household, not one survived. The sue- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 135 cession, in the absence of Anne's heirs, was pledged to George, Elector of Hanover, a remote descendant of James I. It was during Anne's reign that English literature assumed a new character. The stately and classic form being set aside for a style more familiar, and which concerned itself with the affairs of everyday life. Let- ters showed with a mild splendor, while Steele, Sterne, Swift, Defoe and Fielding were writing, and Addison's "Spectator" was on every breakfast-table. In the year 1714 Anne died, and George a— dieMTii I , of the House of Hanover, was King of England,— an England which, thanks to the great soldier and Duke, would never more be molested by the intriguing designs of a French King, and which held in her hand Gibraltar, the key to the Mediterranean. King George I. was a German grandson ^^ of Elizabeth, sister of Charles I. Deeply Ge or g ei. attached to his own Hanover, this stupid old man came slowly and reluctantly to as- sume his new honors. He could not speak English; and as he smoked his long pipe, his homesick soul was soothed by the ladies 130 HIsTORY OF ENGLAND. of his Court, who rut caricature figures out of paper for his amusement, while Robert Walpole relieved him of affairs of State. As ignorant of the politics of England as of its language, Walpole selected the King's Min- isters and determined the policy of his Government; establishing a precedent which has always been followed, since that time it has been the duty of the Prime Minister to form the Ministry: and no sovereign Bince Anne has ever appeared at a Cabinet Council, nor has refused assent to a single A!' royal dulness which set in from Hanover in 1711, came as a great blessing at the time. It enabled England to be ruled for thirty years by the party which had since the usurpation of James I. stood for the rights of the people. whip mi... Walpole created a Whig Government. The Whigs had never wavered from certain principles upon which they had risen to power. There must be no tampering with justice, nor with the freedom of the press, HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 137 nor any attempt to rule independently of Parliament. Thirty years of rule under these principles converted them into an in- tegral part of the national life. The habit of loyalty to them was so established by this long Government of the Whig party, that Englishmen forgot such things could be, that it was possible to infringe upon the sacred liberties of the people. However much " Whig" and " Tory" have seemed to change since we first hear of them in the time of James I., they have in fact remained essentially the same; the Whigs always tending to limit the power of the crown, and the Tories to limit that of the people. At the time of Walpole the Tories had been the supporters of the Pretender and of the High Church party, the Whigs of the policy of William and Protestantism. Their predecessors were the " Cavaliers" and "Roundheads," and their successors to-day are found in the "Liberals" and "Conserva- tives." There was at last peace abroad and pros- perity at home. The latter was interrupted for a time in 1720 by the speculative mad- 138 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Sourh-Sea Bubble. 17^0. Death of GeorK' ness created by the " South-Sea Bubble." Men were almost crazed by the rise in the value of shares from 6100 to 61,000; and then plunged into despair and ruin when they suddenly dropped to nothing. The suffering caused by this wreck of fortu: was great. But industries revived, and prosperity and wealth returned with little to disturb them again until the death of George I. in 1727; when another George came over from Hanover to occupy the English throne. rge II. bad one advantage over his father. He did speak the English languaj r was he content to smoke his pipe and entrust his Kingdom to his Ministers, which was a doubtful advantage for the nation. But Ids clever wife, Queen Caroline, believed thoroughly in Walpole, and when Bhe was controlled by the Minister, and then in turn herself controlled the policy of the King, that simple gentleman supposed that he, — George II., — was ruling his own King- dom, liis small, narrow mind was inca- pable of statesmanship; but he was a good soldier. Methodical, stubborn and passion- Pretender. 1 1746. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 139 ate, he was a King who needed to be care- fully watched, and adroitly managed, to keep him from doing harm. There was a young "Pretender" in these The "Young days (Charles Edward Stuart), who was con- spiring with Louis XV., as his father had done with Louis XIV., to get to the English throne. We see him flitting about Europe from time to time, landing here and there on the British Coast — until when finally de- feated at " Culloden Moor," 1746, this wraith cuUodenMoor, of the House of Stuart disappears — dying ob- scurely in Rome; and " Wha'll be King but Charlie," and "Over the Water to Charlie," linger only as the echo of a lost cause. There was a time of despondency when England seemed to be annexed to Hanover, following her fortunes, and sharing her misfortunes in the "seven years' war" over " seven^Years* the Austrian succession, as if the Great Kingdom were a mere dependency to the little Electorate ; and all to please the stub- born King. Desiring peace above all things England was no sooner freed from one en- tanglement, than she was plunged into an- other. War. 140 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. British Dominion in India. 1757. Battle of Quebec, 1760. In India, the English "Merchant Com- pany," chartered by Elizabeth in 1600, had expanded to a power. One of the native Princes, jealous of these foreign intruders in Bengal, and roused, it was said, by the French to expel them, committed that deed at which the world has shuddered ever since. One hundred and fifty settlers and traders, were thrust into an air-tight dungeon — an Indian midsummer. Maddened with heat and with thirst, most of them died be- fore morning, trampling upon each other in frantic efforts to get air and water. This is the story ol* the " Black Hole of Calcutta ;" which led to the victories of Clive, and the establishment of English Empire in India, 1757. Two years later a quarrel over the boun- daries of their American Colonies brought the French and English into direct conflict. Gen. Wolfe, the English Commander, was killed at the moment of victory in scaling the walls of Quebec. Montcalm, the French commander, being saved the humiliation of seeing the loss of Canada (1700), by sharing the same fate. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 141 The dream of French Empire in America was at an end; and with the cession of Florida by Spain, England was mistress of the eastern half of the Continent from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. So since the days of Elizabeth, and from seed dropped by her hand, an Eastern and a Western Em- pire had been added to that island King- dom, whose highest dream had been to get back some of her lost provinces in France. Instead of that it was to be her destiny to girdle the Earth, so that the Sun in its en- tire course should never cease to shine upon British Dominions. Side by side with the aspiration which uplifts a nation, there is always a tendency toward degradation, which can only be ar- rested by the infusion of a higher spiritual life. Strong alcoholic liquors had taken the place of beer in England (to avoid the ex- cessive tax imposed upon it) and the grossest intemperance prevailed in the early part of this reign. John Wesley introduced a re- JohnWesiey. generative force when he went about among the people preaching " Methodism," a pure 142 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. and simple religion. Not since Augustine had the hearts of men been so touched, and a new life and new spirit came into being, better than all the prosperity and territorial expansion of the time. Walpole had passed from view long be- fore the stirring changes we have alluded to. A new hand was guiding the affairs of State; the hand of William .Pitt. CHAPTER XII. At the close of the Seven Years' War, Eng- land had driven the French out of Canada, — her ships which had traversed the Pacific from one end to the other, (Capt. Cook) had wherever they touched, claimed islands for the Crown; she had projected into the heart of India English institutions and civilization. Mistress of North America, and of the Pa- cific Isles, and future mistress of India, she had left in comparative insignificance those European States whose power was bounded by a single Continent. And all this, — in the reign of the puniest King who had ever sat upon her throne ! As if to show that Eng- land was great not through — but in spite of, her Kings. When in 1760, George III. came to the George in. throne, thirteen prosperous American Col- onies were a source of handsome revenue to 1760-1820. 144 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. the mother country, by whom they were regarded as receptacles for surplus popula- tion, and a good field for unsuccessful men and adventurers. These children were fre- quently reminded that they owed England a great debt of gratitude. They had cost her expensive Indian and French wars for which she should expect them to reimburse her as their prosperity grew. They were to make nothing themselves, not so much as a horseshoe; but to send their raw ma- terial to Kuglish mills and factories, and when it \va> retained to them in wares and manufactured articles, they were to pay such taxes as were imposed, with grateful hearts to the kind Government which was so good as to rule them. If the Colonics had still needed the pro- tection of England from the French, they might never have questioned the propriety of their treatment. They were at heart in- tensely loyal, and the thought of severance from the Mother Country probably did not exist in a single breast. But they had since the fall of Quebec a feeling of security which was a good background for inde- 1765. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 145 pendence, if their manhood required its as- sertion. They were Anglo-Saxons, and per- fectly understood the long struggle for civil rights which lay behind them. So when in 1765 they were told that they must bear their share of the burden of National Debt which had been increased by wars in their behalf, and to that end a " Stamp Act" had stamp Act. been passed, they very carefully looked into the demand. This Act required that every legal document drawn in the Colonies, will, deed, note, draft, receipt, etc., be written upon paper bearing an expensive Govern- ment stamp. The thirteen Colonies, utterly at variance upon most subjects, were upon this agreed : They would not submit to the tax. They had read the Magna Charta, they knew that the Stamp Act violated its most vital prin- ciple. This tax had been framed to extort money from men who had no representation in Parliament, hence without their consent. Pitt vehemently declared that the Act was a tyranny, Burke and Fox protested against it, the brain and the heart of Eng- land compelled the repeal of the Act; Pitt Tax on Tea. 146 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. declaring that the spirit shown in America was the same that in England had with- stood the Stuarts, and refused "Ship Money/' There was rejoicing and ringing of bells over the repeal, but before the echoes had died away another plan was forming in the narrow recesses of the King's brain. George III. had read English History. He remembered that if Parliaments grow obstructive, the way is not to right them but to pa they fought at Lei ington and at Bunker Hill, the idea of some- thing more than resistance was born — the idea of inch /» nd\ m A letter from the Government addressed to the Commander-in-Chief as "George Washington, Esq.," was Benl back unopened. Battles were losl and won. the courage and resources of the Americana holding out for wars as if by miracle, until when rein- forced by France the end drew near; and was reached with the defeat of Lord Corn- wallis at Yorktown. It was a dreary morning in 1782 when a humilated King stood before the House of HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 149 Lords and acknowledged the independence independence of the United States of America! c °~ 82 e ge ' Thus ended a contest which the Earl of Chatham had said "was conceived in in- justice, and nurtured in folly." It was during the American war that the Press rose to be a great counterbalancing power. Popular sentiment no longer find- ing an outlet in the House of Commons, sought another mode of expression. Public opinion gathered in by the newspapers be- came a force before which Government dared not stand. The "Chronicle," "Post," "Herald" and "Times" came into existence, philosophers like Coleridge, and statesmen like Canning using their columns and com- pelling reforms. The impeachment of Warren Hastings, impeachment conducted by Burke, Sheridan, and Fox, led H^angs/iras. to such an exposure of the cruelty and cor ruption of the East India Company, that the gigantic monopoly was broken up. A "Board of Control" was created for the ad- ministration of Indian affairs, thus absorb- ing it into the general system of English Government (I78rt). 150 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. James Watt had introduced (in 1769) steam into the life of England, with conse- quences dire at first, and fraught with such tremendous results later, changing all the industrial conditions of England and of the world. In 1789 England witnessed that terrific outburst of human passions in France, which culminated in the death of a King and a Queen. An appalling sight which made Republicanism seem odious, even to so ex- alted and just a bouI as Burke, who de- nounced it with words of thrilling eloquence. Then came Napoleon Bonaparte, and his swift ascent to imperial power, followed by his audacious conquesl almosl of Europe, until Arthur Wellesley, the I Hike of Wel- lington, led the allied annv at Waterloo, and Napoleon's sun went down. In 1812 the United States for a second time declared war against England. That country had claimed the right to search for British-horn seamen upon American >hij>s, in order to impress them into her own ser- vice and recruit her Navy. The " right of search'' was denied, and the British HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 151 forces landed in Maryland, burned the Cap- itol and Congressional Library at Washing- ton, but met their " Waterloo" at New Orleans, where, under General Andrew Jackson, they were defeated, and the "right of search" is heard of no more. Long before this time George III. had been a prey to blindness, deafness, and in- sanity, and in 1820 his death came as a welcome event. Had he not been blind, deaf, and insane, in 1775, Englrnd might not have lost her fairest possession. The weight of the enormous debt incurred by the long wars fell most heavily upon the poor. One-half of their earnings went to the Crown. The poor man lived under a taxed roof, wore taxed clothing, ate taxed food from taxed dishes, and looked at the light of day through taxed window-glass. Nothing was free but the ocean. But there must not be cheap bread, for that meant reduced rents. The farmer was "protected" by having the price of corn kept artificially above a certain point, and fur- ther "protected" by a prohibitory tax upon foreign corn, all in order that the landlord 152 HISIORY OF ENGLAND. might collect undiminished rentals from his farm lands. But, alas! there was no "pro- tection" from starvation. Is it strange that gaunt famine was a frequent visitor in the land? — But men must starve in silence. — To heg was crime. "Alas, that bread should be so dear, And flesh and blood so cheap I" Children six years old worked fourteen and fifteen hours daily in mines and fac tories, beaten by overseers to keep them awake over their tasks; while others five and six years old, driven by blows, crawled with their brooms into narrow soot-clogged chimneys, and sometimes getting wedged in narrow flues, were mercifully suffocated and translated to a kinder world. A ruinous craving was created for stimu- lants, which took the place of insufficient food, and in these stunted, pallid, emaciated beings a foundation was laid for an en- feebled and debased population, which would sorely tax the wisdom of statesman- ship in the future. If such was the condition of the honest HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 153 working poor, what was that of the crimi- nal? It is difficult now to comprehend the ferocity of laws which made 235 offenses — punishable with death, — most of which we should now call misdemeanors. But per- haps death was better than the prisons, which were the abode of vermin, disease and filth unspeakable. Jailers asked for no pay, but depended upon the money they could wring from the wretched beings in their charge for food and small alleviations to their misery. In 1773 John Howard commenced his work in the prisons, and the idea was first conceived that the object of punishment should be not to degrade sin- sick humanity, but to reform it. Far above this deep dark undercurrent, there was a bright, shining surface. John- son had made his ponderous contribution to letters. Francis Barney had surprised the world with "Evelina;" Horace Walpole, (son of Sir Robert) was dropping witty epigrams from his pen; Sheridan, Gold- smith, Cowper, Burns, Southey, Coleridge, Wordsworth, in tones both grave and gay, were making sweet music; while Scott, 154 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Byron, Shelley added strains rich and melodious. As all this was passing, George Stephen- son was pondering over a daring project. Fulton had completed his invention in 1 B07, and in 1819 the first steamship had crossed the Atlantic. If engines could be made to plough through the water, why might they not also he made to walk the earth? It was thoughl an audacious experiment when he put this iron fire-devouring monster on First English wheels, to draw loaded cars. Not until 1830 was his plan realized, when his new locomo- tive — "The Rocket" — drew the first railway train from Liverpool to Manchester, the Duke of Wellington venturing his life on the trial trip. In the y.ar L782 Ireland was permitted to have its own Parliament; but owing to a treasonable correspondence with France, a few years later, she was deprived of this legislative independence, and in 1801, after a prolonged Btruggle, was reunited to Great Britain, and thenceforth sent her represen- tatives to the British Parliament. The laws against Roman Catholics which Railway. 1880. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 155 had been enacted as measures of self-defence from the Stuarts, now that there was no longer a necessity for them had become an oppression, which bore with special weight upon Catholic Ireland. By the oath of "Supremacy," and by the declarations against transubstantiation, intercession of Saints, etc., etc., the Catholics were shut out from all share in a Government which they were taxed to support. Such an ob- vious iDJustice should not have needed a powerful pleader ; but it found one in Daniel O'Connell, who by constant agitation and fiery eloquence created such a public senti- ment, that the Ministry, headed by the Duke of Wellington, aided by Sir Eobert Peel in the House, carried through a measure in 1828 which opened Parliament to Catholics, and also gave them free access to all places of trust, Civil or Military, — excepting that of Regent, — Lord Chancellor— and Lord Lieu- tenant of Ireland. There is nothing to record of George IV. except the irregularities of his private life, over which we need not linger. He was a dissolute spendthrift. His illegal marriage Oppression of Roman Catholics. Daniel O'Connell. George IV., 1820-1830. L56 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. with Mrs. Fitzherbert. and his legal mar- riage with Caroline of Brunswick from whom he quickly freed himself, are the chief events in his history. His charming young daughter, the Prin- cess Charlotte, had died in 1^17, soon after her marriage with Prince Leopold of Saxe- Coburg. She had been adored as the future Queen, but upon the death of George IV. in L830, the Crown passed to his sailor brother William. W wl William IV. was ,ixty-five when he came to the throne. He was no! a oourtier in his manners, nor much of a tine gentleman in his tastes. But his plain, rough sincerity was not unacceptable, and his immediate espousal of the Reform Act, then pending, won him popularity at once. The efficiency and integrity of the House of Commons had long been impaired by an effete system of representation, which had been unchanged for 500 years. Boroughs were represented which had long disappeared from the face of the earth. One had for years been covered by the sea! Another existed as a fragment of a wall in a gentle- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 157 man's park, while towns like Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and nineteen other large and prosperous places, had no represen- tation whatever. These "rotten boroughs" as they were called, were usually in the hands of wealthy landowners; one great Peer literally carrying eleven boroughs in his pocket, so that eleven members went to the House of Commons at his dictation. — It would seem that a reform so obviously needed should have been easy to accomplish. But the House of Lords clung to the old system as if the life of the Kingdom de- pended upon it. And when the measure was finally carried the good old Duke of Wellington said sadly, "We must hope for the best ; but the most sanguine cannot be- lieve we shall ever again be as prosperous." By this Act 56 boroughs were disfran- chised, and 43 new ones, with 30 county constituencies, were created. It was in the contest over this Keform Reform bui, 1832 Bill that the Tories took the name of " Con- servatives" and their opponents "Liberals." Its passage marks a most important transi- tion in England. The workingman was 158 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. by it enfranchised, and the House of Com- mons, which had hitherto represented prop- erty, thenceforth represented manhood. Nor were political reforms the only ones. Human pity awoke from its lethargy. The penalties for wrongdoing became less brutal, the prisons less terrible. No longer did gap- ing crowds watch shivering wretches brought out of the jails every Monday morning, in batches of twenty and thirty, to be hung for pilfering or something oven less. Little children were lifted out of the mines and factories and chimneys and placed in schools, which also began to lie created for the poor. Numberless ways were devised for making life less miserable for the unfortunate, and for improving the social conditions of toiling men and women. BUyw While white slavery in the collieries and factories was thus mitigated, Wilherforce removed the stain of negro slavery from England in securing the passage of a Bill which, while compensating the owners (who received B20,000,000), set 800,000 human beings free (1833). Emancipated, CHAPTER XIII. William IV. died at Windsor Castle, and at 5 o'clock on the morning of June 20th, 1837 (just 58 years from the day this is written), a young girl of eighteen was awakened to he told she was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Victoria was the only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, brother of William IV. Her marriage in 1840 with her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe- Coburg, was one of deep affection, and se- cured for her a wise and prudent counsellor. On account of the high price of corn, Ire- land had for years subsisted entirely upon potatoes. The failure of this crop for sev- eral successive seasons, in 1846 produced a famine of such appalling dimensions that the old and the new world came to the rescue of the starving people. Parliament voted £10,000,000 for food. But before re- Accession of Victoria, 1837. Famine in Ireland, 1846. 160 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. lief could reach them, two millions, one- fourth of the population of Ireland, had per- ished. The anti-corn measures, championed by Richard Cobden and John Bright, which had been bitterly opposed by the Tories under the leadership of Disraeli, were thus reinforced by unexpected argument; for- eign breadstuffs were permitted free access and free trade was accepted as the policy of England. Nicholas, the Czar of Russia, was, after the fashion of his predecessors (and his suc- cessors), always waiting for the right mo- ment to sweep down upon Constantinople. England had become only a land of shop- keepers, France was absorbed with her new Empire, and with trying on her fresh im- perial trappings. The time seemed favor- able for a move. The pious soul of Nicholas was suddenly stirred by certain restrictions laid by the Sultan upon the Christians in Palestine. He demanded that he be made the Protector of Christianity in the Turkish Empire, by an arrangement which would in fact transfer the Sovereignty from Con- stantinople to St. Petersburg. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 161 That mass of Oriental corruption known as the Ottoman Empire, held together by no vital forces, was ready to fall into ruin at one vigorous touch. It was an anachronism in modern Europe, where its cruelty was only limited by its weakness. That such an odious, treacherous despotism should so strongly appeal to the sympathies of Eng- land that she was willing to enter upon a life- and-death struggle for its maintenance, let those believe who can. — Her rushing to the defence of Turkey, was about as sincere as Russia's interest in the Christians in Pales- tine. The simple truth beneath all these diplo- matic subterfuges was of course that Russia wanted Constantinople, and England would at any cost prevent her getting it. The keys to the East must, in any event, not belong to Russia, her only rival in Asia. France had no Eastern Empire to protect, so her participation in the struggle is at first not so easy to comprehend, until we reflect that she had an ambitious and parvenu Emperor. To have Europe see him in con- fidential alliance with England, was alone Russia, 1854. 162 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. worth a war ; while a vigorous foreign pol- icy would help to divert attention from the recent treacheries by which he had reached a throne, war with Such were some of the hidden springs of action which in 1854 brought about the Crimean War, — one of the most deadly and destructive of modern times. Two great Christian kingdoms had rushed to the de- fence of the worst Government ever known, and the best blood in England was being poured into Turkish soil. The Russians soon found that the English were no less skilled as fighters, than as shop- keepers. They were victorious from the very first, even when the numbers were ill- matched. But one immortal deed of valor must have made her tremble before the spirit it revealed. Six hundred cavalrymen, in obedience to an order which all knew was a blunder, dashed into a valley lined with cannon, and charged an army of 30,000 men! "Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldiers knew Some one had blundered. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 163 Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do, — and die, As into the Valley of Death Rode the six hundred." The horrible blunder at Balaklava was not the only one. One incapable general was followed by another, and routine and red-tape were more deadly than Eussian shot and shell. Food and supplies beyond their utmost power of consumption, were hurried to the army by grateful England. Thousands of tons of wood for huts, shiploads of clothing and profuse provision for health and com- fort, reached Balaklava. While the tall masts of the ships bearing these treasures were visible from the heights of Sebastopol, men there were perishing for lack of food, fuel and clothing. In rags, al- most barefoot, half-fed, often without fuel even to cook their food, in that terrible winter on the heights, whole regiments of heroes became extinct, because there was not sufficient administrative ability to con- vey the supplies to a perishing army ! So wretched was the hospital service, that 164 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. to be sent there meant death. Gangrene car- ried off four out of five. Men were dying at a rate which would have extinguished the entire army in a year and a half. It was Florence Nightingale who redeemed this national disgrace, and brought order, care and healing into the camps. When England recalls with pride the valor and the victories in the Crimea, let her remember it was the manhood in the ranks which achieved it. When all was over, war had slain its thousands, — but official incapacity its tens of thousands! It was a costly victory: Eussia was hu- miliated, was even shut out from the waters of her own Black Sea, where she had hitherto been supreme. To two million Turks was preserved the privilege of oppressing eight million Christians; and for this, — twenty thousand British youth had perished. But — the way to India was unobstructed ! England's career of conquest in India was not altogether of her own seeking. As a neighboring province committed outrages upon its British neighbors, it became neces- sary in self-defence to punish it; and such HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 165 punishment, invariably led to its subjuga- tion. In this way one province after an- other was subdued, until finally in the absorp- tion of the Kingdom of Oude (1856) the natural boundary of the Himalaya Moun- tains had been reached, and the conquest was complete. The little trading company of British merchants had become an Em- pire, vast and rich beyond the wildest dreams of romance. The British rule was upon the whole be- neficent. The condition of the people was improved, and there was little dissatisfac- tion except among the deposed native princes, who were naturally filled with hate and bitterness. The large army required to hold such an amount of territory, was to a great extent recruited from the native pop- ulation, the Sepoys, as they were called, making good soldiers. In 1857 the King of the Oude and some sepoy of the native princes cunningly devised a plan of undermining the British by means of their Sepoys, and circumstances afforded a singular opportunity for carrying out their design. Rebellion, 1857-1858. 166 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. A new rifle had been adopted, which re- quired a greased cartridge, for which ani- mal grease was used. The Sepoys were told this was a deep-laid plot to overthrow their native religions. The Mussulman was to be eternally lost by defiling his lips with the fat of swine, and the Hindu, by the indig- nity offered to the venerated Cow. These English had tried to ruin them not alone in this world, but in the next. Thrilled with horror, terror-stricken, the dusky soldiers were converted into demons. Mutinies arose simultaneously at twenty-two stations; not only officers, but Europeans, Massacre at were slaughtered without mercy. At Cawnpore was the crowning horror. After a siege of many days the garrison capitu- lated to Nana Sahib and his Sepoys. The officers were shot, and their wives, daugh- ters, sisters and babes, 206 in number, were shut up in a large apartment which had been used by the ladies for a ballroom. After eighteen days of captivity, the hor- rors of which will never be known, five men with sabres, in the twilight, were seen to enter the room and close the door. There Cawnpore. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 167 were wild cries and shrieks and groans. Three times a hacked and a blunted sabre was passed out of a window in exchange for a sharper one. Finally the groans and moans gradually ceased and all was still. The next morning a mass of mutilated re- mains were thrown into an empty well. Two days later the avenger came in the person of General Havelock. The Sepoys were conquered and a policy of merciless retribution followed. In that well at Cawnpore was forever buried sympathy for the mutinous Indian. When we recall that, we can even hear with calmness of Sepoys fired from the can- non's mouth. From that moment it was the cause of men in conflict with demons, civilization in deadly struggle with cruel, treacherous barbarism. We cannot advo- cate meeting atrocity with atrocity, nor can we forget that it was a Christian nation fighting with one debased and infidel. But terrible surgery is sometimes needed to ex- tirpate disease. Greed for territory, and wrong, and in- justice may have mingled with the acquisi- 168 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. tion of an Indian Empire, but posterity will see only a majestic uplifting of almost a quarter of the human family from debased barbarism, to a Christian civilization; and all through the instrumentality of a little band of trading settlers from a small far-off island in the northwest of Europe. CHAPTER XIV. But there were other things besides fam- ine and wars taking place in the Kingdom of the young Queen. A greater and a subtler force than steam had entered into the life of the people. A miracle had happened in 1858, when an electric wire threaded its way Atlanta cable, across the Atlantic, and two continents con- versed as friends sitting hand in hand. Another miracle had then just been m Z^m achieved in the discovery of certain chem- ical conditions, by which scenes and objects would imprint themselves in minutest detail upon a prepared surface. A sort of magic seemed to have entered into life, quickening and intensifying all its processes. Enlarged knowledge opened up new theories of dis- ease and created a new Art of healing. Surgery, with its unspeakable anguish, was 170 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. First World's Fair, 1851. Death of Prince Albert, 1861. rendered painless by anaesthetics. Mechan- ical invention was so stimulated that all the processes of labor were quickened and im- proved. In 1851 the Prince Consort conceived the idea of a great Exposition, which should under one roof gather all the fruits of this marvellous advance, and Sydenham Palace, a gigantic structure of glass and iron, was erected. In literature, Tennyson was preserving English valor in immortal verse. Thack- eray and Dickens, in prose as immortal, were picturing the social lights and shadows of the Victorian Age. In 1861 a crushing blow fell upon the Queen in the death of the Prince Consort. America treasures kindly memory of Prince Albert, on account of his outspoken friend- ship in the hour of her need. During the war of the Rebellion, while the fate of our country seemed hanging in the balance, we had few friends in England, where people seemed to look with satisfaction upon our probable dismemberment. We are not likely to forget the three HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 171 shining exceptions : — Prince Albert — John Bright— and John Stuart Mill. It was while that astute diplomatist, Dis- raeli (Lord Beaconsfield) was Prime Min- ister, that French money, skill and labor opened up the waterway between the Mediterranean and the Eed Sea. It would never do to have France command such a strategic point on the way to the East. England was alert. She lost not a moment. The impecunious Khedive was offered by telegraph $20,000,000 for his interest in the Suez Canal, nearly one-half of the whole capital stock. The offer was accepted with no less alacrity than it was made. So with the Arabian Port of Aden, which she al- ready possessed, and with a strong enough financial grasp upon impoverished Egypt to secure the right of way, should she need it, England had made the Canal which France dug, practically her own. Lord Beaconsfield had crowned his dra- matic and picturesque Ministerial career by placing a new diadem on the head of the widowed Queen, who was now Empress of India. His successor, William Ewart Glad- Suez Canal. Victoria Crowned Empress of India, 1876, 172 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Disestablish- ment of Irish Branch of Church of England, 1869. stone, the great leader of the Liberal party, was content with a less showy field. He had in 1869 relieved Ireland from the unjust bur- den of supporting a Church the tenets of which she considered blasphemous; and one which her own, the Eoman Catholic, had for three centuries been trying to over- throw. We cannot wonder that the mem- ory of a tyranny so odious is not easily effaced ; nor that there is less gratitude for its removal, than bitterness that it should so long have been. The disestablishment of the English Church in Ireland was one of the most righteous acts of this reign. Whether the great English Statesman will be equally successful in securing Home Rule for that unhappy land, upon which he has staked the final effort of his life, remains to be seen. The Irish question is such a tangled web of wrong and injustice complicated by folly and outrage, that the wisest and best-inten- tioned statesmanship is baffled. Whether the conditions would be improved by giving them their own Parliament, can only be de- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 173 terinined by experiment; and that experi- ment England is not yet willing to try. History affords few spectacles of its kind more impressive than Mr. Gladstone at 86, with the ardor and energy of youth, bat- tling for a measure he believes so vitally necessary to the Nation. It is a pity that for Americans his greatness is tarnished and belief in the infallibility of his judgment shaken, by the memory that he upheld the attack upon our National life in 1860; and that he, seemingly without regret, prophe- sied our downfall. The work of Parliamentary reform com- menced in 1832 has moved steadily on through this reign. By successive acts the franchise has extended farther and farther, until a final limit is almost reached ; and side by side with this has been a correspond- ing increase in educational facilities, "be- cause," as a Peer cynically remarked, "we must educate our Masters!" So many reforms have been accomplished during this reign, the time seems not far distant when there will be little more for Liberals to urge, or for Conservatives and 174 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. the House of Lords to obstruct. Monarchy is absolutely shorn of its dangers. The House of Commons, which is the actual ruling power of the Kingdom, is only the expres- sion of the popular will.. We are accustomed to regard American freedom as the one supreme type. But it is not. The popular will in England reaches the springs of Government more freely, more swiftly, and more imperiously, than it does in Eepublican America. It comes as a stern mandate, which must be obeyed on the instant. The Queen of England has less power than the President of the United States. He can form a definite policy, se- lect his own Ministry to carry it out, and to some extent have his own way for four years, whether the people like it or not. The Queen cannot do this for a day. Her Ministry cannot stand an hour, with a pol- icy disapproved by the Commons. Not since Anne has a sovereign refused signature to an Act of Parliament. The Georges, and William IV., continued to exercise the power of dismissing Ministers at their pleas- ure. But since Victoria, an unwritten HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 175 law forbids it, and with this vanishes the last remnant of a personal Government. The end long sought is attained. The history of no other people affords such an illustration of a steadily progres- sive national development from seed to blossom, compelled by one persistent force. Freedom in England has not been wrought by cataclysm as in France, but has unfolded like a plant from a life within; impeded and arrested sometimes, but patiently bid- ing its time, and then steadily and irresist- ibly pressing outward ; one leaf after an- other freeing itself from the detaining force. Only a few more remain to be unclosed, and we shall behold the consummate flower of fourteen centuries; — centuries in which the most practical nation in the world has steadily pursued an ideal! The ideal of individual freedom subordinated only to the good of the whole. The triumph of England has been the triumph not of genius, nor of intellect, but of character. It is those cross-threads of stubborn homely traits, the tenacity of pur- pose, the reluctance to change, the adher- 176 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ence to habit, usage and tradition, which have toughened the fabric almost to inde- structibility. These traits are illustrated in the persistence of the hereditary principle in the royal line. We look in vain for an- other such instance. The blood of Cerdic, the first Saxon "Ealdorman" (±95), flows in the veins of Victoria. She is 38th remove from Egbert, first Saxon King of consoli- dated England (802), 26th from William the Conqueror (1066), and 9th in descent from that picturesque and lovely criminal, Mary Stuart (1587). There have been wars, and foreign invasions, — a Danish and a Norman conquest, the overturning of dynasties, and Revolutions, and a ''Protectorate," and yet — there sits upon the throne to-day a Queen descended by unbroken line from Cerdic the Saxon! Queen Victoria is undoubtedly indebted to the wise counsel and guidance of the Prince Consort in the early decades of her reign. Not one act of folly has marred its even current. She has held up to the na- tion a high ideal of wifehood, motherhood, and of domestic virtue. None of her prede- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 177 cessors have bound their people to them with ties so human, her griefs and experi- ences moving them as their own. We think of her more as an exalted type of Woman, than as Sovereign of the most marvellous Empire the World ever saw ; — its area three times that of Europe, representing every zone, all products, and every race ! How long England will be capable of sending out a vital current sufficient to nourish such distant extremities none can tell ; or whether the far-off Colonies of Aus- tralia, Canada, and New Zealand will in- crease their independent life, until they become detached Sovereignties like the United States. If that day ever comes, like the Mother of a generation of grown chil- dren, with independent homes of their own, —England will sit with folded hands, her life-work done. Let no American forget, that England before the Eestoration is as much our England as theirs. That the memories of Crecy, of Blenheim, of Marston Moor and Naseby, are our great inheritance too. That Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, belong to 178 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. the humblest American as much as to Vic- toria. The branch has grown far from the pa- rent tree since the 17th Century; and the England of Tennyson and Herbert Spencer is only a very distant cousin. She has not always treated us well, has not been chary of criticism, nor prodigal of praise, nor did . she sympathize with us in the day of our peril and misfortune. But for all that — sharing the same great heritage of race and of literature, speaking in the same lan- guage the same thoughts and impulses, there must always exist between us a tie, such as can bind us to no other nation upon the earth. MARY PARMELE'S WORKS. Evolution of Empire Series, BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH. pRANCE, (jERriANY. Price, Cloth, each 75 cents. J^HESE little books are intended to give us in a few pages, pictures of those modern world States which we call France and Germany. It is suggested that students should read them before going into a more elaborate study of French and German history in order that they may have the outline in mind before attempting to fill in the details. WHO? WHEN? and WHAT? BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF CIVILIZATION, 1250 TO 1850. Authors, Inventors, Discoverers, Artists and Musicians. SHORTEST ROAD YET OPENED TO KNOWLEDGE. Price, SO Cents. Charts Mounted on Muslin for Walls, 75 Cents. WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, 59 Fifth Avenue, New York. OflEMEGE ADJUSTABLE Book Cover. (Patented U. S., Canada and England.) Is made of an extra heavy strong manila paper, *elf -sealing and easily adjustable to all sizes of school or library books. Being in one piece, it has no joints on back or sides to come apart. It will remain in place even when unsealed, and can therefore be used without danger of its coming off if by chance it is improperly sealed. The sides form pockets inside the cover suitable for the library card, or with school or college books, for memoranda or notes. All exposed edges are of double thickness and almost impossible to be torn. The edges of the book covered cannot touch the shelf. For absolute protection — simplicity of design-— durability and all necessary qualifications for a per- fect cover, the " One Piece " cover is unequaled. Mr. Boyd, Secretary of the Board of Home Mis- sion of the Presbyterian Church, says of these cov- ers that they are " the only practical covers he has ever seen. No. 1. Fits all ordinary sizes. Price, per 100 $1 50 No. 2 Extra large size for bound magazines, etc. Price, per 100 2 50 No. 3. Extra large size for large geographies.. Price, per 100 3 50 Sent postpaid upon receipt of price to all parts United States or Canada. Sample sent upon receipt of 2c. stamp. For sale by all booksellers. WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, School Books and School Supplies, 59 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK. Pocket Pedagogical Library. A SERIES OF NECESSARY TEACHERS' HANDBOOKS PUBLISHED IN A CONVENIENT POCKET FORM. No. i. Education in its Physical Relations. By William Jolly, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. 25 cents. 44 A series of rapid suggestions addressed to earnest practical educators." (^From Pre/ace.) Inspector Jolly discusses in a practical way such questions as Ventilation — Desks — General Attitudes of Children— Music — Class Drill — Cleanliness — Physical Exercises, etc. No. 2. Physiology of Writing. By Dr. Javal, - - - - 25 cents. The authorized report of Commission appointed by the French Government to examine into and report upon Vertical Writing. Contains very valuable suggestions. No. 3. Upright versus Sloping Writing. By John Jackson, - - 10 cents. Author of the Standard Vertical Writing System. An inquiry into the respective merits of Sloping and Upright or Vertical Writing. No. 4. The Teaching of Geography and Use of Relief Maps. From Guyot's Teacher's Guide. 25 cents. Guyot's Teacher's Guide has been considered by teachers the best book of suggestions in geography ever made. This little book is an abridgement of the larger work and is designed es- pecially to assist in the modern method of teaching and use of relief maps. WM. BEVERLEY HAR1SON, 59 Fifth Ave., N. Y. Books on Vertical Penmanship. By JOHN JACKSON, F. E. I. S., M. C. P. Theory and Practice of Handwriting, - $1.25 Vertical vs. Sloping Writing, - .10 New Style Vertical Writing Copy Books, 10 numbers, perdoz., .96 Harison's Vertical Penmanship Pads, per doz. . 96 "The Theory and Practice of (Vertical) Handwriting. This is probably the most comprehensive work on penmanship that has appeared since the revival of vertical writing set in. It comprises an elaborate presentation of the claims of this writing, with a history of its former use and its revival, and instructions for teaching it. No teacher who desires to be in complete touch with the foremost educational thinkers of the day can afford to pass it by unread." — Edward G. Ward, Associate Superintendent of Schools, Brooklyn, N. Y., in Educational Review, November, i8q<;. Javal's Physiology of Writing (Report of the French Commission) 25 cents. Harison's Vertical Writing Pens. No. 1 Fine. - - No. 2. Medium. F>©r Gross, Post-Paid, - $1.00. (Sample Dozen 10c.) With a smooth, carefully finished point— every pen war- ranted perfect. These pens cost as much or more than any other school pens— try them and see why! WM. BEVERLEY HARISON, 59 Fifth Avenue, New York. French Songs and Games, PER SET, 50 CENTS. Verbal Quartettes, PER SET, 50 CENTS. By ALICE WERNER STEINBRECHER. The aim of the FRENCH SONGS AND GAMES is to amuse and at the same time familiarize pupils with the niceties of French pronunciation. The songs and many of the games are with music and are a careful selection from the most popular in use in Paris. "VERBAL QUARTETTES" is a game to be played in French, German, or English, for the purpose of promoting conversation in either language; it is similar to the game of "Authors." FLEXIBLE BLACKBOARD "NATURAL SLATE." Per Square Yard, - 75 Cents. Cheapest and Best Blackboard Material Made. A DULL BLACK Surface Resembling Natural Slate. DJSSEGTEB UNITED STATES. EUROPE On similar scale, per set, - $1.00 United States or Europe, separate, - .50 THE separate States are entirely blank, mak- ing it an exceedingly useful exercise to put the map together and name the different States and Countries. As both are on same scale, sections of Europe and United States can be compared with each other, and many inter- esting facts acquired, not easily obtainable in any other way. New York: WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, 59 KifthL Avenue. KLEMM'S RELIEF PRACTICE MAPS. North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia v PALESTINE, New England, Middle Atlantic, South Atlantic and East Central States. Per 100, plain, $5.00 ; Water-proofed, $10.00 ; (Express paid.) United States, Western Europe, Roman Empire, British Isles. Per 100, plain, $10.00 ; Water-proofed, $15.00 ; (Express paid.) PALESTINE . . . -AND THE- .... ORIENT FOR BIBLE STUDY. Price, per doz., plain, 75c; Water-proofed, $1.35, postpaid. To learn by doing is especially desirable, it promotes interest, and facts so acquired are not easily forgotten. On a map which gives mountains, hills and valleys in actual relief, accurately embossed, it is fascinating to follow the travels of St. Paul, the wanderings of the children of Israel, &c, and gradually to fill in the map for one's self. NEW YORK: WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISOtf, School and. College Text Books, No. 59 FIFTH AVENUE. DESCRIPTION OF THE MAPS. These maps are made in two forms, both with beautifully executed relief (embossed) — the cheaper ones of plain stiff paper similar to drawing paper (these are to be substituted for and used as outline map blanks), the others covered with a durable water-proof surface that can be quickly cleaned with a damp sponge, adapted to receive a succession of markings and cleansings. Oceans, lakes and rivers, as well as land, appear in the same color, white, so as to facilitate the use of the map as a geographical slate. It is desirable, nay, imperatively necessary, that the pupil's attention be centred upon the particular matter under consideration, and that the matter of instruction appear to him in parts. In other words it should be graded, as the difficulties in reading, arithmetic, grammar, etc., are graded. Geographical knowledge has for ages been wrested from overstocked flat maps. The child has found much diffi- culty in reading maps. He has had to search painfully among a bewildering mass of data and facts for those which were to be learned. A systematic or methodical progress, step by step, was, if not impossible, certainly very difficult. These Raised Practice Maps do away with the diffi- culty mentioned. They facilitate the grading of the matter of instruction, and present opportunities for the gradual up- building of a geographical knowledge, as gained item by item by the child. Upon these maps may be entered, as upon a slate, the data to be learned by the pupils, and thus an opportunity is afforded to the child to become a self- active participator in the lesson. When the lesson is com- pleted, all marks or names can be erased, and the new map is open for a new lesson or a review. The water- proof, cleansable surface of the maps will stand wear and tear a long time, if it be not wilfully scratched or otherwise roughly treated. foreigner's Manual of English. BY H. F. CLARK 8vo, Cloth. Introduction Price, 75 Cents. IT is a generally conceded fact that any language may be taught more successfully by employing that lan- guage only. Gouin has demonstrated that the most direct method iB that associating the object or action with the spoken words, thus giving a mind picture and leading to thought in the language to be acquired ; also he lays great stress upon the systematic building up of a vocabulary by fre- quent repetition and use of the simple words and phrases, practically as a child first learns to talk. For the purpose of teaching English to foreigners, especially where classes may be composed of several nation- alities, as in our large city public schools, the want of a practical method capable of being used by an English teacher has long been felt. It is quite impossible to obtain teachers with sufficient command of the several languages, as well as English, to prepare the children of our foreign pop- ulation so that they may take their place in the regular classes ; in recognition of this fact the Foreigner's Manual has been prepared. Hanson's Vertical . . . . Penmanship Pads, (Patent applied for.) The purpose of these pads is to enable the teacher to give as much practice as may be deemed necessary with any particular set copy, the pupil writing- one, two or more sheets, if it is thought advisable to do so, before exposing a new model. It is advisable, also, to avoid the discouragement, incident to failure. By the use of these pads failures may be removed, and a new copy sheet used, or several of them, until it is deemed advisable to proceed to the next step. Pads will be made to order in any of the different rulings that may be desired ; when not otherwise ordered, the double guide lines will be furnished on the first numbers of the series only, single ruling on the higher numbers — the "finishing" numbers to be on unruled pads. The copies are compiled from the JACKSON system for the reason that it is considered well to follow what has been found best after many years experience. The position considered best is that assumed in drawing, viz : — With the body straight before the desk, the copy slightly to the right and set squarely before the pupil, the pen held so that both points of the nib are in constant action, the pen handle inclined slightly away from the direction of the shoulder. WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, 59 Fifth Avenue, N. Y. City. SCHOOL BOOKS SCHOOL SUPPLIES OF ALL PUBLISHERS. OF ALL KINDS. "One Piece " Patent Adjustable School Book Covers. HOME STUDY IN NATURE. Child's Hand=Book For Collecting Pictures and Stories of Animals. Part I.— MAMMALS. For collecting and preserving, in a classified form, Pictures and Stories of all the Mammals. This book is about 8xio inches in size, with a strong- cloth binding, with numerous illustrations and the entire classification of Ihe Mammals, so arranged that it can be easily understood, and used as a guide in placing pictures and stories on the blank pages. This gives the children something to do, and the universal propensity to make collections of things y is here utilized in a pleasant and profitable way. Filling up the blank pages of this attractive volume, with choice pictures and stories, will be a source of great delight, and will foster a desire to read about all animals. This volume will be followed by others covering the entire Animal Kingdom. PRICE, POSTPAID, $1.00 NET. WILLIAH BEVERLEY HARISON, 59 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK. 5MSBS ^c2^ MM ^ i-'x ^ sr 5^ mjmBmmB : wmmm» LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 933 882 A