Hi HISTORY, PHILOSOPHICALLY ILLUSTRATED, FROM THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. BY GEORGE MILLER, D.D., M.R.I.A., VICAR GENERAL OF ARMAGH ; FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, AND LECTURER ON MODERN HISTORY. !)trtJ 3 . 97 Roscoe's Life of Leo X., vol. iii. p. 210. 98 ibid., pp . 238 240. " Ibid., pp. 226229. 10 Ibid., p. 258. 101 Ibid., p. 197. 102 Sismondi de la Lilt, du Midi, tome ii. p. 157. 103 Hist, des Repub. Ital., tome xvi. pp. 221223. GEKMANY AND ITALY, 1519 1556. 35 The genius of Tasso, thus rising to our admiration after his country had begun to sink into obscurity, resembled those luminous objects, which the astronomer discovers within the dark part of the lunar orb, catching by their elevation the rays, which could not reach the low surrounding level, and claiming to belong rather to the portion illuminated by the full radiance of the solar light. The splendour of the arts of design was obscured at the same time with that of lite- rature. Michael Angelo was contemporary to Ariosto : his pupils and successors flourished with Tasso ; and genius ceased at the same time to express itself in verse, and by the hand of the artist. Scientific inquiry resisted longer the baneful influence of Italian degradation. Galileo, who was born in the year 1564, gave in the seventeenth century, and under the control of the Inquisition, his confirmation to the theory of Copernicus, and was followed by his pupil Torricelli, who by the invention of the barometer began the philosophy of the atmosphere. The depravation of the Italians, which was consequent to their loss of liberty, was consummated in the practice of chichisbeism, a system of licensed adultery, which polluted all the relations, and poisoned all the enjoyments, of domes- tic life. This profligate usage, introduced in the seventeenth century, by some licentious courts 1W , was generally adopted, as it served to provide occupation for a crowd of younger brothers, who were destitute of employment, because under the influence of Spanish prejudices they had become too proud for commerce, and were at the same time too poor for marriage, all right of inheritance being sacrificed to the claim of primogeniture. The practice, which had thus re- sulted from the debasement of the Italians, spread in the folio whig century from Italy into Spam 105 , where it avenged the wrongs of the dependent country. Perhaps, however it may be thought to have been in a corrupted people a restriction of the grosser immorality, which would otherwise have at- tended the admission of females into general society. Though Italy was the country of the papal residence, and 104 These male paramours are in Spain named cortejos, in Italy, cicisbei. 105 The occasion was the introduction of Italian manners, on the arrival of Charles III. from Naples, in the year 1759. Towns- end's Journey through Spain, vol. ii. p. 249. Dublin, 1792. D 2 36 MODERN HISTORY : multitudes of persons found a direct interest in supporting the papal establishment, yet the reformation of religion had in various parts of the peninsula numerous adherents, espe- cially in Ferrara 106 , where learning had been much encour- aged, and in Venice 107 , which was jealous of the encroach- ments of the papacy, and tolerant through the policy of commerce. In that country, as in Spain, it was suppressed by a persecution, which was there begun in the year 1542, and continued to the end of the sixteenth century 108 . If it had been then established, it would probably have disturbed the political relations of Europe, which were formed amidst the struggles of Protestants and Roman Catholics. Nor does its suppression in that country appear to be entitled to much regret, for the reformed opinions of the Italians were early 109 , and very generally tainted by the doctrine of Soci- nus. The philosophy of Plato 110 , the revival of which had been useful in destroying the authority of the scholastic theology, was so captivating to the ingenious minds of that people, as to have indisposed them for the reception of the revealed truths of the gospel. The suppression of the re- formation in Italy seems indeed to have corresponded to the humiliation of the original church of Greece, as in each case the minds of the people were too much occupied in fanciful refinements for the simplicity of scriptural doctrine. ice M'Crie's Hist, of the Reformation in Italy, p. 86. 107 Ibid., pp. 118128. 108 Ibid., pp. 217347. On this occasion the In- quisition was established at Rome, under the name of the congregation of the holy office, the jurisdiction of which, though long resisted at Ve- nice, was gradually extended throughout Italy. The Italian was milder than the Spanish Inquisition, because the popes, being temporal princes in the states of the church, had no occasion to employ it there to under- mine the secular authorities. On this account its operations were sus- pended in Italy, when the reformation had been suppressed. But the chief difference, while its operations were continued, consisted in this, that in Rome publicity of punishment was avoided, whereas in Spain, the object was to strike terror by public spectacles. 109 Ibid., pp. 177, 180. uo Ibid., p. 182. CHAPTER II. Of the history of Spain and Portugal, from the commencement of the reign of the emperor Charles V. in Spain, in the year 1516, to that of the reign of Philip III. of Spain, in the year 1598. Charles king of Spain, in the year 1516 Cortes of Castile ruined, 1539 Philip prince of Spain, married to Mary of England, 1554 Philip II. king of Spain, 1556 Death of Mary, 1558 Persecution of the Netherlands begun, 1559 The Turks repulsed from Malta, 1565 defeated at Lepanto, 1571 War of the Netherlands begun, 1572 Union of Utrecht formed, 1578 Armada sent against England, 1588 The constitution of Aragon abolished, 1592 The Dutch first sailed to India, 1595 The government of Spain bankrupt, 1596 Portu- guese empire in India completed, 1547 Portugal united with Spain, 1580 Garcilaso de la Vega Cervantes Lope de Vega Calderon Bernardim Ribeyro Camoens. WHEN the principles of the federative policy had been de- veloped in Italy by Lorenzo de Medici for the protection of Florence, it was extended over Europe in two successive periods ; the German, in which the interests of the principal states of the continent were adjusted by the treaty of West- phalia, and those others, which were supplementary to its arrangements, and the French, in which the maritime inte- rests of Europe were combined with the former in a more comprehensive arrangement. In the former of these two operations Germany was the grand agent, and the empire had accordingly acquired a temporary ascendency, which drew forth the efforts of France, in aid of a confederation of some of its own states. In the latter the primary impulse was given by Spain, intimately connected with the maritime interests of Europe, by its possession of the Netherlands, and by its remoter dependencies in the east and west. The reign of Philip II. of Spain was thus the period, in which preparation began to be made for the later adjustment, as that of his father had given a beginning to the former. Pro- vision appears to have been made for the ulterior adjustment so long before the time of the completion of the other, that a sufficient time was allowed, in which the commercial states might improve and collect their resources, and be prepared 38 MODERN HISTORY : to engage with energy and effect in the general struggle of nations. The reign of Philip II. of Spain, which forced into ex- istence and power the republic of the Dutch provinces, and stimulated to exertion the maritime energies of England, is accordingly the grand object of consideration in the present chapter, the Spanish government of Charles and the con- temporary history of Portugal being but introductory to this more important reign. The government of Charles, by re- ducing the ill-arranged constitution of Castile to a simple monarchy, enabled Philip to proceed in his enterprises with less embarrassment ; the Portuguese government completed its great enterprise of oriental dominion, to be transferred to the new republic of the Dutch provinces, when the country should be forced to yield to the ascendency of the neigh- bouring monarchy, and its more distant dependencies should by the common government be abandoned to the enemy. The constitution of the Spanish monarchy was a combin- ation of parts ill fitted for co-operation. The industry of the Moors had filled Spain with cities, which under the dominion of the Christians acquired considerable importance in the cortes, as they alone furnished the public supplies. A numerous and powerful nobility had on the other hand been formed in the long contest with the infidels, which stood in these assemblies opposed to the cities. By these two orders 1 the powers of the crown were so much limited, as to be insufficient for retaining them under any regular control. The natural result was that the adverse interests of the two parties should urge them into opposition so direct and open, that the crown was enabled to establish an entire ascendency over both. This result was accelerated by the discontents of the people. When Charles 2 had, soon after the commencement of his reign, dismissed the Spanish minister, the celebrated Ximenes, and abandoned his subjects of Spain to the un- principled management of his Flemish counsellors, the Cas- tilians were so indignant, that several cities of the first rank entered into a confederacy for the redress of grievances, the beginning of that union of Castile, which two years after- wards shook the government to its foundation. The ad- 1 Hist, of Charles V., yol. ii. p. 34. 2 Ibid., pp. 5368. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1516 1598. 39 vancement of Charles to the imperial throne augmented the jealousy of the Spaniards, who dreaded to see their country reduced to the rank of a dependency on the empire. In the year 1521 these discontents manifested themselves in various insurrections. The nobles 3 at first co-operated with the cities in demanding a redress of the grievances sustained from the sovereign ; but the views of the two orders soon became opposed. The latter, encouraged by success, began to seek also the removal of those oppressions, which they suffered from a feudal nobility. From this time the nobles became attached to the cause of the crown. The insur- rection of Castile accordingly was soon suppressed, and Charles confirmed the triumph of his power by his modera- tion, and the address, with which he accommodated himself to the national feeling. Chievres, the chief of his Flemish ministry, having died in the beginning of these troubles, the emperor was left free to attend to the suggestions of his own politic genius. If Spain had been at this time subject to a single and uniform government, the emperor might have been com- pelled to yield to the insurgents 4 , because these would have been able to act with concert, and to bring their whole power to bear at once upon the throne, while the sovereign was unavoidably engaged in attending to the interest of his other dominions. From this disadvantage however Charles was relieved by the multiplicity and discordance of the local governments of Spain. Not only did the several kingdoms, which had been gradually united under a single prince, re- tain 5 the distinctness of their several governments, but the people continued to cherish their ancient antipathies, and the forms of government were so various, that the grievances of different districts were different, and the people could not agree in any common plan of redress. Aided by divisions, which separated his adversaries, Charles was enabled to put a sudden end to a general commotion, nor did his power afterwards experience any similar resistance. At length, in the year 1539 6 , the nobles of Castile were Hist, of Charles V., vol. ii. p. 243. * Ibid., p. 267. 5 Castile, Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and Navarre, had each its cortes, and Biscay its peculiar states. 6 Hist, of Charles V., vol. iii. pp. 182184. 40 MODERN HISTORY : induced to unite with the representatives of the cities in refusing a supply demanded by the emperor, being anxious to maintain their feudal exemption from taxation. But the sovereign, whose power they had previously exalted against the cities, availed himself of it to depress his unsteady ad- herents, and, dismissing the assembly, ceased to summon to the public councils the nobles and the prelates, as per- sons who should not claim the right of voting in the impo- sition of taxes, which they would not pay. From that time the cortes of Castile consisted only of thirty-six members, the representatives of eighteen cities ; and the assembly, having lost its former dignity and importance, became uni- formly submissive to the crown. The yet more free constitution of Aragon continued to exist more than half a century after the cortes of Castile had been thus ruined ; but in the year 1592 this also was violated by Philip II., who however thought it unnecessary to issue any formal decree of abolition 7 . Availing himself of a sedition, which his own attorney had provoked, this prince sent from Castile a body of troops, the leader of which, without any form of trial, put to death the chief magistrate, named the justiza, confiscated his property, and by a pro- clamation denounced a similar treatment of all, who should presume to dispute the authority of the king. In the year 1713 the constitution was finally abolished 8 , and the govern- ments of Aragon, Valentia, and Catalonia were assimilated to that of Castile. The cortes of Portugal appear to have fallen into disuse probably in imitation of Spain. In another respect also the reign of Charles was prepara- tory to that of his successor, as in it was effected a matri- monial alliance between Philip and Mary of England. The alliance was not of long duration, Mary having died at the end of four years from her marriage ; but, besides that, even within that time, it involved the English in a war with France, which deprived them of Calais, their last possession on the continent, it was the principle of the hostilities after- wards waged by Philip against England, with all their im- portant influences on the interests of these countries. Portugal was in the same interval making its peculiar * Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. ii. p. 322. Dubl., 1777. 8 Coxe's Mem. of the Bourbon Kings of Spain, vol. i. p. 420. 4to. SPAIN AND POKTUGAL, 1516 1598. 41 preparation for the approaching period, in which the penin- sula should become the prevailing agent in adjusting the relations of Europe. It first completed the arrangement of its Indian empire, and then disposed itself to submit to the humiliation of a union with Spain. The history of Portugal in this interval is indeed wholly comprehended within these two classes of transactions, for we read only of its eastern concerns, until that series of disastrous events began, which deprived it of its national existence. Albuquerque, who founded the Indian empire of Portugal, died in the year preceding that, in which Charles succeeded to the crown of Spain ; and it was completed by John de Castro, who died in his government in the year 1547 9 . From this time it began to decline, though it was occa- sionally re-established by the energy of viceroys sent from Portugal. Through all these struggles the Portuguese were encountered with the most obstinate resistance by the Turks and Egyptians, who were united under the same government in the year 1517, when Egypt was reduced by the Turkish sultan. In the year 1526 an adverse power was formed in India itself, the Mogul empire of India 10 , which had been held as it were in suspense during a hundred and twenty- seven years from the invasion of Tamerlane, having been then begun by Baber. The Turks and Egyptians served to restrain within due bounds the first impetuosity of the Portuguese. The Mogul empire, while it served also to control the spirit of conquest, was favourable to the com- mercial interests of Portugal. Having been formed by a nation merely continental, it was not actuated by that com- mercial jealousy, which had sent the Turks and Egyptians into the east to oppose the progress of its people ; and the creed of its founder, though Mohammedan, was so tem- perate n , that it opposed little of a religious antipathy to the intercourse of the two nations. 9 It comprehended the kingdoms of Sofala, Mozambique, and Me- linda, on the Eastern coast of Africa ; the isle of Ormus in the Persian gulf; the whole coast of Malabar with Ceylon ; Malacca with a part of the Molucca islands ; and Macao in China. De la Clede, tome ii. p. 509. 10 Book ii. ch. xi., note 28 . u ' He was of the sect of the Hanisites, in whose doctrine and tenets he was perfectly versed, yielding more to the evidence of reason, than to the marvellous legends of superstitious antiquity. He was not however forgetful of that ra- 42 MODERN HISTORY : Ten years after the completion of the Indian empire of Portugal, began the preparation for its compulsory union with Spain, Sebastian, whose wild ambition effected the ruin of his country, having then succeeded to the throne. This prince being at his accession only three years old, the government was necessarily committed to a regency ; it ap- pears however to have been well administered, first by the grandmother, and then by a cardinal, who was uncle of the king. In this interval, comprehending eleven years, the kingdom is indeed described as enjoying much prosperity, and the capital as daily improving in magnitude and magni- ficence 12 ; but the young king, educated by women and monks, acquired a zeal ' of hostility against infidels, which, acting on a mind naturally ardent and impetuous, resembled mental derangement, rather than ordinary passion. Having at the age of fourteen years received the reins of govern- ment, Sebastian soon manifested the influence of this ruling propensity of his mind. He expressed a design of going to India, and was dissuaded from the distant enterprise, only by proposing that he should rather direct his efforts against the Moors of Africa. In this expedition he perished in the year 1578 : he was succeeded on the throne by his uncle the cardinal, at this time incapacitated by age ; the superan- nuated successor himself died at the end of two years, leaving the kingdom to a regency of five persons, nominated to settle a very disputed succession 13 ; and after a short con- test with these governors, and with Antonio, the illegitimate offspring of a son of king Emmanuel, Philip II. of Spain, the son of a daughter of the same king, possessed himself of the throne of Portugal, and thus in the year 1580 united under his dominion the whole peninsula. It is remarkable that the pretension of the duke of Bra- tional worship, which is due to the great Creator, nor a despiser of those laws and ceremonies, which are founded on sound policy for the benefit of the superficial judges of things.' Dow's Transl. of Ferishta, vol. ii. p. 138. 12 De la Clede, tome ii. p. 51. 13 The prin- cipal claimants were the duchess of Braganza, a grand-daughter of king Emmanuel ; Philip II. of Spain, the prince of Parma, and the duke of Savoy, all great-grandsons of the same king; and Antonio, a grand- son, but illegitimate. Henry, the cardinal-king, was disposed to decide in favour of the duchess ; but he feared the opposition of Antonio, who was favoured by the populace. Hist, of the Revol. of Portugal, prefixed to Sir R. Southwell's account of the Revol. in 1667, pp. 66, 67. Dubl., 1759. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1516 1598. 43 ganza to the throne of Portugal both facilitated the union of the two monarchies in a very important degree, and also prepared remotely its subsequent dissolution. The duke, having married Catherine, a grand- daughter of king Em- manuel, claimed the crown in the right of his wife, who was by one degree of descent nearer to that monarch, than Philip the son of another grand-daughter. This pretension, which, if he had been a man of ability, might have defeated the project of the king of Spain, just served in his case to em- barrass the claim of Antonio, and thus to distract the counsels of the Portuguese. When again the union had been effected, it became the policy of the government to dis- countenance and depress the house of Braganza ; the private wrongs of this distinguished family were accordingly from that time incorporated with the general oppression, by which it was proposed to break and humble the spirit of the na- tion ; and thus, when at the close of sixty years the measure of the public grievances was full, and every heart was ready to brave the peril of the struggle, the grandson of this duke was ready as a leader, convinced that there was no safety for himself but in the restoration of his country, and happily free from the interference of any other pretension. Before the union of Portugal, Philip had governed his hereditary dominions twenty-four years, during which he was busily engaged in various transactions most intimately affecting the general policy of Europe. The house of Austria fortunately was during this time divided into two branches, those of Germany and Spain, the more completely separated 14 as the disgust occasioned by the refusal of Fer- dinand to relinquish the imperial crown to his nephew, had occasioned a visible alienation and rivalry. By the separa- tion the monarchy of Spain was left alone, to prosecute, without a power too great to be controlled, its own schemes of aggrandisement, while Germany enjoyed a long interval of tranquillity, in which it recovered from the agitations of the reformation, and prepared itself for the great war of thirty years, which was the agony of the important treaty of Westphalia. Philip, though succeeding to but a part of the dominions of his father, was yet at his accession much the most power- 11 Hist, of Charles V., vol. iv. p. 343. 44 MODERN HISTORY : ful prince of Europe. Possessing the entire monarchy of Spain ; commanding Italy by the possession of the Neapo- litan and Sicilian territories on the one part, and of the duchy of Milan on the other ; ruling the Netherlands, then the most commercial country of the west ; enjoying, besides other distant dependencies 15 , the sources of treasures 16 which rendered all other governments poor by comparison ; having a navy much more considerable than that of any other state ; and influencing the counsels of England by his mar- riage with the queen ; Philip by all these advantages was sufficiently qualified to assert a superiority, which should provoke the resistance of other states, and thus give being to the arrangements still required for completing the adjust- ment of the interests of Europe. The two sets of move- ments, by which the empire under Charles V., and Spain under Philip II., were instrumental to that adjustment, were essentially distinct, and belonged to successive periods of the federative policy of Europe. They were accordingly executed by distinct agencies. Spain and the Netherlands were indeed, by the separation of the German branch of the house of Austria, rendered less formidable to the other governments ; but they retained all the resources, by which they might affect the interests of commercial states, and these were afterwards augmented by the union of Portugal. As the reformation was the principle of separation, which in the time of Charles V. arrayed in mutual opposition the two contending parties of Germany, and thus gave a begin- ning to the great struggle of the continental interests of Europe, so was it, in the time of his son, the relentless bigotry of that prince, which brought into existence the re- public of the Dutch states, and drew forth against Spain the energies of England, thus creating that combination of com- mercial interests, by which a larger and more perfect adjust- ment was effected, than could be established at the peace of Westphalia. The bigotry of Philip II. was accordingly an efficacious agent in the political arrangements of Europe. 15 Franche-Comte in France ; in Africa, Tunis and Oran, with the Cape-de-Verd and the Canary islands ; in Asia, the Philipine and Sunda islands, and a part of the Moluccas ; in the west, Hispaniola, Cuba, and many others of the American islands. Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. p. 17. 16 The mines of America are stated to have brought to him 25,000,000 guilders annually. Ibid. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1516 1598. 45 The origin of the bigotry of Philip may be traced in the history of his country, though probably it was much strength- ened by his own peculiarity of character. For attaching itself to the cause of Rome, Spain had been prepared by almost eight centuries of hostility waged against infidels. The Christians of that country had indeed, amidst all their zeal for religion, maintained a great degree of independence in regard to Rome 17 , even observing a distinct liturgy, trans- mitted from the Gothic period of their history. The Roman liturgy however, towards the close of the eleventh century found its way into Spain 18 , and with it brought as a conse- quence the acknowledgment of the papal supremacy. Four centuries afterwards the Inquisition was established in that country 19 , for detecting the numerous Jews, who had shel- tered themselves under an exterior profession of Christianity from the violence of those, who were indebted to them, or 17 The old Gothic church of Spain had maintained an entire inde- pendence. Geddes's Tracts, vol. ii. 18 The controversy between the two liturgies was first submitted to a judicial combat, in which the champion of the Gothic liturgy prevailed ; and then to an ordeal of fire, the issue of which was again favourable to the same party, the Gothic liturgy resisting the flames, while the Roman was consumed. The king however, on some slight pretence, ordered that both should be used, the Gothic in the six churches of Toledo, which the Chris- tians had enjoyed under the Moors, and the Roman in all others. The former, being discountenanced by the court, and the superior ecclesiastics, fell gradually into disrepute, and was at length super- seded by the latter. M'Crie's Hist, of the Reform, in Spain, vol. i. pp. 24, 25. The first mass according to the Roman form, was cele- brated in Aragon in the year 1071, and in Castile in the year 1086. Ibid., p. 26. 19 Ibid., p. 87 The bull for establishing the Inquisition in Castile was issued in the year 1478. Ibid., p. 89. The principles of the ancient and modern Inquisition, says doctor M'Crie, were radically the same, but they assumed a more malignant form under the latter than under the former. The leading difference, he adds, between the two institutions consisted in the organization of the latter into one great independent tribunal, which, extending over the whole kingdom, was governed by one code of laws, and yielded im- plicit obedience to one head. The inquisitor-general possessed an au- thority scarcely inferior to that of the king or the pope : by joining with either of them, he proved an overmatch for the other, and, when supported by both, his power was irresistible. The ancient Inquisi- tion was a powerful engine for harassing and rooting out a small body of dissidents : the modern Inquisition stretched its iron arms over a whole nation, upon which it lay like a monstrous incubus, paralysing its exertions, crushing its energies, and extinguishing every other feel- ing than a sense of weakness and terror. Ibid., pp. 103, 104. 46 MODERN HISTORY ! were envious of their wealth. This dreadful tribunal, ori- ginally instituted in the thirteenth century to repress the heretics of the adjacent provinces of France, was then esta- blished in Spain, armed with new terrors, to watch the doubtful fidelity of the Jewish converts ; but it soon ex- tended its jurisdiction, first to the converts from Mohammed- anism, and afterwards over the old Christians, so as to become the scourge of the whole church. The Inquisition, in this more perfect, and therefore more detestable form, was limited to Spain and Portugal, with their dependent territories. Into this country 21 ' a knowledge of the reformation was however soon conveyed by the intercourse subsisting with Germany, then subject to a common sovereign, and nume- rous conversions were effected in various places, especially among persons distinguished by rank or education. It was encountered by the Inquisition, and an unsparing persecu- tion 21 at length in the year 1570 was successful in suppres- ing it. But the blood of the Spanish martyrs, though unavailing to the reformation of their own country, was not shed in vain, for the cruelty 22 , by which their faith was ex- tirpated at home, inspired their fellow-subjects of the Nether- lands with that horror of the Inquisition, which consolidated their resistance, and established in the United Provinces the reformed religion in connexion with civil liberty. We may well believe indeed that this salutary horror was not limited to the people of the Netherlands, but animated the exertions of all, who were struggling for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. It was during the years 1559 and 1560 23 , that the death-blow was given to the reformed religion in Spain ; and in the same time the religious liberties of the Protestants of Germany were finally secured, a reformed church was regularly organised in France, and the cause of religi- ous reformation after a long struggle attained a permanent establishment in Scotland. In England the remembrance of the merciless bigotry of Mary, associated with the reports of Spanish cruelty, supported Elizabeth against the machi- nations of her enemies. For exciting the commercial energies of Europe, Spain 20 M'Crie's Hist, of the Reform, in Spain, vol. i. ch. iv. 21 Ibid., p. 33G. 22 Ibid., p. 345. 23 Ibid., p. 346. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1516 1598. 47 was peculiarly fitted, partly by the possession of the domi- nion of the Netherlands, partly by that of the distant terri- tories, which supp'orted her marine, and furnished the prin- cipal supply of the precious metals. As the Netherlands were just then rising lo the summit of opulence and pros- perity, the connexion of those provinces with Spain afforded that country an opportunity of giving a strong impulse to the commercial interests of the continent. Her other re- sources at the same time enabled her to equip and support navies, with which she might provoke the exertions of the maritime powers of that period ; and her dependencies pre- sented objects, which attracted and rewarded the enterprise of her enemies. The armada, falsely named invincible, roused the naval efforts of the English nation, and the Spanish set- tlements furnished rich prizes for the predatory expeditions of Rawley and of Blake. The curious part of the process is that the operation was not single, but comprehended two commercial states, one of which, the republic of the Dutch provinces, was even in- debted to it for existence. It appears that an insular govern- ment could not, without a preparatory apparatus, be inti- mately engaged in the relations of continental policy ; and that this apparatus was supplied by a commercial state of the continent, necessitated by its situation to concern itself in the continental combinations, which, by furnishing a sovereign to the insular government, should extend to the latter its own federative character. Italy, we have seen, was the organ, which originally formed, and then transmitted to the empire, the earlier combinations of the federative policy of Europe. Those of a later period were prepared, and transferred to the English government, by the republic of the United Provinces. The people of the Dutch provinces had been from early times prepared for asserting their independence. The pro- vinces of the Netherlands 24 , long governed by their respective princes, under the titles of dukes, marquises, or counts, had been engaged in perpetual wars with the neighbouring powers, or among themselves ; and the assemblies of the states, in return for the supplies of money, which these Avars rendered necessary, had obtained such privileges, that their govern- 24 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. pp. 6979. 48 MODERN HISTORY : ments approached more nearly to the republican than to the regal form. After several ages, by the failure of the male lines of some of the reigning families, by intermarriages, and by conquests, these countries came successively under the dominion of the house of Burgundy 23 in the interval between the year 1363 and the year 1477. Still however they re- tained their ancient privileges, the fruits of that commercial opulence, which rendered their prosperity important to their rulers ; and a formal confirmation of them 26 was obtained in the latter of those years from the daughter and heiress of the last duke of Burgundy. The reformation 27 indeed having in the year 1518 spread from Germany into the Netherlands, the emperor Charles V. employed for suppressing it various measures of great severity, which were regarded as infringing the privileges of the provinces ; but these violences, opposed as they were to a strong conviction of religion, served only to excite that spirit of resistance, which was urged to ex- tremity by the more sanguinary proceedings of his son and successor. Philip, born and educated in Spain, did not entertain the predilection for the Netherlands, which had been cherished by his father, who had been born in that country, and had passed in it his earlier years. To his haughty disposition the manners of the people were strange and irksome ; to his love of power the great privileges, which they enjoyed, were offensive ; to his bigotry the free toleration of the new reli- gious opinions appeared insupportable. This last consider- ation 28 determined him to proceed at once to measures of rigorous coercion. He not only republished, in the third year of his reign, certain most severe edicts against the Pro- testants, which Charles had been induced to recal ; but he also established, for the purpose of enforcing them, a tri- bunal 29 of the same nature with the Spanish Inquisition, though not distinguished by the same name. To this grand grievance others were added. For supporting the execution of the edicts 30 the number of the bishops was increased from five to seventeen, the number of the provinces, which offended 38 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., book ii. ch. v. 26 Abrege de la Hist, de 1'Hollande, par Kerroux, tome i. p. 184. Leide, 1778. 27 Ibid., pp. 210, &c. 28 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. pp. 75, 76. 29 Ibid., p. 77. 30 Ibid. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1516 1598. 49 the nobles, as it augmented the influence of the clergy in the council of state, and the monks and abbots, as it both di- minished their importance in the assemblies of the states, and took from them a portion of their revenues for the new en- dowments. The people also 31 , in violation of one of their fundamental privileges, were alienated by the presence of Spanish troops 32 , who exasperated the popular discontent by their intolerable insolence and rapaciousness. William prince of Orange 33 , the leader of the revolution, had been 34 during many years the favourite of the late em- peror, who had early discovered in him those eminent en- dowments, by which he has been rendered illustrious. The confidence of the wise and experienced emperor must have given him an early training in the various duties of govern- ment ; and his favour appears to have given occasion to that fluctuation of religious opinion, which must have disposed him to moderate, as he did, the vehemence of religious par, ties, and to render the struggle a contest for civil indepen- dence, rather than a religious feud. The emperor 35 , who had 31 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. p. 79. M The people of Zealand refused to work at their dykes, saying that they chose rather to be swallowed up by the ocean, than to remain a prey to the cruelty and avarice of the Spanish soldiers. Ibid. M As the representative of the family of Nassau in Germany, this prince had inherited several rich possessions in the Netherlands ; and by the will of his cousin Rene de Nassau et Chalons he had in the year 1544 succeeded to the princi- pality of Orange in Languedoc. All these circumstances appear to have been important to his subsequent destination. His German descent gave occasion to that connexion with the emperor Charles V., to which he was probably indebted for much of his peculiar character ; his large possessions in the Netherlands, situated as they were in the northern provinces, constituted him the leader of the revolution ; and his princi- pality, though belonging to Austria, facilitated a communication with the court of France, to which these provinces in their defection looked for support. The principality of Orange, already seized by Louis XIV. in the war of the Spanish succession, was ceded to France in the treaty of Utrecht by the king of Prussia, in the quality of heir of William III. Abrege de 1'Hist. des Traites, tome i. p. 313. At this time France, not Germany, was the object of apprehension, and the reason of the combination with the Netherlands had ceased to exist. M The em- peror kept him perpetually about his person from the year 1544. Wat- son's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. p. 83. This reminds us of Egbert's resi- dence with Charlemagne, already compared to that of Philip with Epaminondas. 35 Harris's Life of William III., introd. v. Dubl., 1749. VOL. III. E 50 MODERN HISIOKT: taken him from his father in his infancy, caused him to be educated in the religion of Rome, though born of a protestant family ; nor did he, until he was commencing his hostilities against the Spanish government, renounce the tenets of the Roman church. In all respects indeed the prince was emi- nently qualified for guiding the efforts of his countrymen. Possessing extraordinary resources of patience and wisdom, he watched the progress of events and made preparation for every contingency; regardless of his private interests, and even of the safety of his son, who was detained a prisoner in Spain, he devoted his entire soul to the cause of his coun- try ; and he manifested a singular dexterity in conciliating and retaining the affections of men, and in preserving the combination of a confederacy, which, without the influence of his informing spirit, must speedily have been dissolved in its own weakness. Though the prince of Orange was the grand agent in the revolution of the Netherlands, neither he, nor his friends counts Egmont and Horn, began the resistance, by which it was effected. Without their co-operation a confederacy 36 , named the compromise, was formed by many of the other no- bles to oppose the introduction of the Inquisition, while they disclaimed every intention of resisting the legitimate authority of the sovereign. This effort of opposition, however qualified, was immediately encountered by Philip with a violence, which put an end to every plan of moderation. A numerous army was in the following year sent into the Netherlands under the command of the duke of Alva, a man fitted beyond all others to goad a dissatisfied people into open rebellion, and to coerce their first struggles of resistance into the organisa- tion of a settled government. Even then the prince of Orange deemed the season of hostility not yet arrived, and retired to his county of Nassau in Germany. The government of the duke in the mean time proceeded to prepare the crisis of his interposition. Every outrage, which could be offered to the religious and political sentiments of a nation, characterised the administration of the Spanish governor ; and such was its cruelty, that a council 37 , which he established, was denom- 36 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. pp. 175, 176. 37 Of the spirit of this tribunal a judgment may be formed from one of its earliest acts, which was to declare, that to have presented, or subscribed any SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1516 1598. 51 inated by the Flemings the council of blood, an appellation fully justified, more than eighteen hundred persons having within a few months suffered by the hand of the executioner. The prince himself was soon cited to appear before the duke, and, as he refused to obey, his estates in the Netherlands and Franche Comte" were confiscated. In these trying circum- stances the wisdom of the prince was conspicuous. Instead of resorting immediately to hostilities, he entreated the emperor Maximilian to intercede with Philip in his behalf, and in that of the oppressed people of the Netherlands, foreseeing that the haughtiness of the king would confirm the alienation of his subjects, and justify his own resistance. At length, in the year 1568, when he had been during some months solicited by the Flemish exiles to take arms, he resolved to begin the war, and with his brother led into the Netherlands some forces, which they had levied in the protestant districts of Germany. Ten years before this event the death of Mary queen of England, dissolving the connexion with Spain, had left Eng- land free to afford a present asylum to the persecuted people of the Netherlands, and afterwards to support in those pro- vinces the cause of religion and liberty. It was computed that 38 , about the time of the arrival of the duke of Alva, more than a hundred thousand persons fled into foreign countries, and soon afterwards more than twenty thousand others, Avho fixed their residence chiefly in that country, rewarding it with the introduction of the Flemish manufac- tures : and so important was the death of Mary to the re- volution afterwards effected, that the historian of Philip II. 39 petition, against the late erection of bishoprics, or against the edicts and Inquisition, or to have permitted the exercise of the new religion under any pretence whatever, or to insinuate by word of mouth or writing, that the king has no right to abolish those pretended privileges, which have been the source of so much impiety, is treason against the king, and justly merits the severest punishment he shall be pleased to inflict. Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. p. 208. 38 Ibid., pp. 205208, 275. The art of making woollen cloth had been introduced into Eng- land a little before, and about the year 1360, by the Belgians and Flemings, driven from their own country by frequent inundations. On this other occasion the fugitives introduced the arts of weaving the finer stuffs, not only of wool, but also of linen and silk. Anderson's Hist, of Commerce, an. 1567. 39 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. p. 218. E 2 52 MODERN HISTOKY : has declared his opinion, that, if Mary had been still alive, and the Spanish monarch possessed of his former influence over the counsels of England, the people of the Netherlands must have struggled for their liberties in vain. The first effort of the prince of Orange was soon discon- certed 40 on account of the want of funds sufficient for main- taining his forces ; but it served to indicate the deficiency to be supplied, and the infatuated violence, with which the duke of Alva laboured to enforce an oppressive system of taxation 41 , soon procured him partisans, disposed to contri- bute to the expenses of the war. Two years after the first hostilities a numerous party of exiles 42 , who had equipped armed ships to cruise against the Spaniards, being at this time by the oppression of the government much increased in number and importance, placed themselves under the authority of the prince, while he, by the assistance of the protestant preachers, was forming a party, and collecting contributions, chiefly in Holland and Zealand, in which pro- vinces the reformed religion had made the greatest progress, and nature and art had combined to construct a secure asylum for liberty. Elizabeth of England, embarrassed by the movements of her Koman Catholic subjects 43 , with whom the Spaniards maintained a secret correspondence, did not for some time feel herself at liberty to avow herself the friend of the exiles, and was therefore necessitated to comply with the requisition of the duke of Alva, by ordering their ships to quit her harbours, and by prohibiting her subjects from furnishing them with shelter or provisions. The historian has however remarked, that this compliance of Elizabeth eventually favoured the independence of the Dutch provinces, as it forced the exiles to depend only on themselves, determining them to seek in their own country that security, which they could not find abroad. If Elizabeth could have been at this time their avowed protector, they would probably have failed to form an independent government. The war, which was renewed in the year 1572, continued its devastations during thirty-five years, being terminated only in the year 1607, such was the severity of the disci - 40 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. pp. 237, 238. 41 Ibid., pp. 278, &c. 42 Ibid., pp. 292-294. Ibid., pp. 299, 378, 402. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1516 1598. 53 pline, by which the new republicans were trained for inde- pendence. In this long contest two considerations deserve our attention; that of the separation of the seven provinces 14 from the remaining ten, and that of the distinct relations of the two portions. For estimating the importance of the separation of the provinces, by which ten remained subject to the crown of Spain, it should be considered that the distinguishing cha- racter of this period of the policy of Europe, was that the power of the house of Austria should be predominant, so that other governments might be associated to maintain against it their common independence ; and that consequently that policy required that, in the division of the two branches of Austria and Spain, some bond of political connexion should still exist, which might strengthen the feeble tie of consanguinity. This connexion was accordingly maintained by that portion of the Netherlands, which still continued to be a dependency of Spain, these provinces being a detached and distant territory not easily protected by Spain, but ca- pable of receiving from Germany prompt and effectual as- sistance against the attacks of France. This view discovers to us a double application of these provinces, which may well command our admiration. While the seven were united in an independent republic, which should in the succeeding period constitute the bond of the system, the remaining ten in the existing period preserved the connexion of the two branches of the family of Austria, and supported the actual relations of Europe. This is in- deed a repetition of the double agency already traced in the separation of these branches, the one of which maintained the combinations of the earlier period of the federative policy of Europe, and the other prepared those of the period, which should follow. It is however a beautiful instance of analogy, that a corresponding distinction should be discoverable in 44 Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Guelderland, Friesland, Groningen, and Overyssell. They extend about one hundred and fifty British miles from north to south, and about a hundred from west to east, comprehending, it is computed, ten thousand square miles. The re- maining ten are estimated to extend about a hundred and twenty miles from north to south, and about a hundred and eighty from east to west, comprehending seven thousand five hundred and twenty square miles. Pinkerton's Mod. Geogr., vol. i., pp. 290, 467. 54 MODEBN HISTOKY: the division of the dependent territory, which had been be- fore remarked in the separation of the two monarchies. It is further remarkable that, when the earlier period was con- cluded, and different combinations of policy were to be formed, the Spanish Netherlands were transferred to Aus- tria, to be held as a barrier for the protection of the Dutch republic against the then formidable ambition of France. The union of all the provinces, as it would thus have been inconvenient to the general policy of Europe, so would it probably have disqualified the new republic for its pecu- liar function, by giving to it such a degree of intrinsic strength, that it must have been much less dependent for safety on federative combinations, and by rendering it so much a continental power, that it would have been ill fitted for entering into a close connexion of interests with the British government. If on the other hand any of the various negotiations had been successful, by which the people of the seven provinces, in their weakness and despondency, sought a protector against the oppressions of their sovereign, those provinces would have become a mere appendage of some one of the great monarchies of Europe, instead of con- stituting an independent and enterprising republic, necessi- tated to seek its safety in the wisdom of political combin- ations, as it struggled for its soil against the violence of the ocean. Both these extremes were happily precluded. The separation of the provinces preserved the republic from ac- quiring a territorial and continental importance, which would have been unsuitable to its proper function ; and the failure of the negotiations for foreign protection left them to that independence, without which they could not have borne their important part, in arranging the new combinations of Europe. The separation of the seven provinces 45 was chiefly the result of the greater prevalence of the reformed religion in the northern part of the Netherlands, on account of which they had soon begun to be divided into Protestant and Ro- man Catholic states. The prince of Orange indeed, in the year 1576, was so far successful 46 in his efforts to unite all the seventeen provinces, that a treaty of confederacy was concluded at Ghent, comprehending all except Luxemburg ; Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. ii. pp. 47, 68. Ibid., p. 12. SPAIN AND POBTTJGAL, 1516 1598. 55 but this confederacy, which was named the pacification of Ghent, was really a treaty between the Roman Catholic pro- vinces on the one hand, and those of Holland and Zealand on the other, as between two distinct parties. The differ- ence of local circumstances, and the local influence of the prince of Orange, co-operated with the greater prevalence of the reformed religion, to animate the northern provinces with more determined resolution. The towns of these pro- vinces were for the greater part 47 much more difficult of ac- cess by land than those of the others ; and at the same time as they were maritime, the Protestants, who had been driven into exile by the Spanish government, being superior in naval strength, were able to maintain by sea an easy communica- tion. The prince of Orange also 48 having been in the begin- ning of the reign of Philip appointed governor of Holland and Zealand, it is reasonable to believe that his personal in- fluence may have contributed much to excite that superior energy, with which these and the adjacent provinces re- sisted the oppressions of the crown. A separation was for- mally made in the year 1579 49 , when the union of Utrecht was concluded, the original of the republic of the United Provinces. Even after the formation of this union M the seven pro- vinces, despairing of being able to erect an independent government, looked round for the protection of some of the neighbouring sovereigns, but happily in every instance without success. The emperor and the German princes were utterly averse from taking any concern in the affairs of the Nether- lands. The connexion indeed of the two branches of the Austrian family, though it had not hindered the archduke Matthias from accepting the office of governor, before the states had thought of renouncing their allegiance, rendered it impossible for the emperor to countenance their revolt. The same difficulty did not present itself to the duke of An- jou, brother of the king of France, who accordingly accepted the offered sovereignty 51 , though under the condition that it " Watson's Hist of Philip II., vol. i. p. 304. 48 Ibid., p. 83. ** The treaty contained neither any avowal, nor any express renun- ciation of their allegiance to Philip ; but the provinces tacitly assumed to themselves the sovereign authority, and lodged it partly in the general assembly of the states, and partly in the states of the several provinces. -Ibid., vol. ii. p 66. Ibid., pp. 110, &c. 51 Ibid., p. 117. 56 MODERN HISTORY : should not be united to the crown of France. But the situ- ation of France 52 did not permit its monarch to give to his brother any effectual assistance. The finances of that king- dom were embarrassed by the misconduct of the king, and by the calamities of the people : and the struggles of the two religious parties among the French were quite sufficient to exercise the utmost energy of the royal power. Though the aid of France was inconsiderable, and a treacherous at- tempt of the duke of Anjou 53 to render himself a master of several of their towns had alienated the states, so low were they reduced by the death of the prince of Orange, assassi- nated by an emissary of Philip, that they offered the rever- sion of their sovereignty 54 , after the death of the duke, to the king of France himself, abandoning their former anxiety for preserving its distinctness from the crown. The internal dissensions of France protected the independence of the new republic by compelling a reluctant refusal. To Elizabeth 85 of England the same offer was then made. The prudent policy of this princess however, while it determined her to give to the confederacy every possible assistance, determined her also to decline the sovereignty of the new state ; and by an extraordinary correspondence of circumstances it hap- pened, that her general 56 , the earl of Leicester, like the duke of Anjou, outraged her allies by his attempts against their liberties, as if to render it impossible, that the policy of Elizabeth should be warped from her original resolution. Among the particulars of the struggle, two seem to deserve especial attention. One of these is that the first effort of the prince of Orange was unsuccessfully made with a body of forces collected in Germany, after which the enterprise was abandoned during four years ; the other was the assassi- nation of that prince. The bearing of each of these par- ticulars has been distinctly noted. The effect of the former was that the prince 57 , who as a German had naturally under- taken to effect the liberation of the Netherlands by land, connecting himself with the marine fugitives of the oppres- sed provinces, changed his enterprise to a maritime war, and commenced his successes with the reduction of the Brill in 52 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. ii. p. 125. Ibid., p. 138. 64 Ibid., pp. 204, &c. 55 Ibid., pp. 211, &c. > Ibid., p. 242. 87 Tableau des Revol. de 1'Europe, tome ii. p. 53. SPAIN AND POETTJGAL, 1516 1598. 57 the island of Vorn, rendering the new republic maritime in its original construction. It has also been remarked of the assassination of the prince of Orange 88 , that the Spaniards profited of the consternation, which that event produced among the confederates, to recover many provinces of the Netherlands ; and that from that time the general confede- racy insensibly decayed, the union of the seven provinces being alone maintained. The independence of the United Provinces was not re- cognised by Spain, until the year 1609, eleven years after the death of Philip II. ; but the wild ambition of that prince urging him first to attempt the conquest of England, and afterwards to endeavour to acquire France, in the right of his daughter Isabella 59 , had so withdrawn his efforts from the reduction of his revolted subjects, that from the year 1591, the war on their part ceased to be defensive, and the ten provinces were preserved to Spain 60 rather by the ability of the Spanish general, the duke of Parma, than by the power of the Spanish arms. Neither was the prosperity of the United Provinces post- poned to the termination of this protracted contest. A vast multitude of manufacturers from the other Belgic provinces, and from France, where the government continued to per- secute the Protestants, retired into Holland or Zealand, when the maritime provinces had asserted their liberty. The naval superiority of the states soon afterwards determined them to seek in India the original source of the most lucrative com- merce, urged to the enterprise by the restrictive measures of the Spanish government. Early in the sixteenth century 61 the Dutch had actively engaged in exchanging the coarser, but more necessary commodities of the Baltic, for the luxurious produce of Spain and Portugal, the treasures of 58 Tableau des Revol. de 1'Europe, tome ii. pp. 56, 57. M The pre- tension of Philip was founded on his marriage with the eldest daughter of Henry II. of France, the male line of that prince having become extinct in the year 1589, at the death of his youngest son Henry III. When he found that he could not procure the crown for himself, he proposed the brother of the emperor, or any of the princes of the house of Lorraine, offering his daughter in marriage. All his efforts were however frustrated by the conversion of Henry IV. Suppl. to Mari- ana's Hist, of Spain, an. 1593. Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. ii. p. 309. 61 Watson's Hist, of Philip III., pp. 178182. Dubl., 1783. 58 MODERN HISTORY : America, and the spices of the east. NOT was this com- merce at first interrupted by the war of the Netherlands, the advantages derived from it to Spain and Portugal in- ducing the government to connive during many years at the continuance of an intercourse with its revolted subjects. The king of Spain however at last beginning to suspect, that the intercourse was more advantageous to these than to his obedient people, and furnished the resources, by which they were enabled to assert their independence, the Dutch wete excluded from the ports of the peninsula, and driven in the year 1595, to seek by a direct traffic with the powers of India, the most valuable commodities of the commerce, which they had lost. The settlements which the Portuguese had formed in the east, were no longer capable of presenting any powerful resistance to the efforts of the United States. Far removed from the control of their own government, corrupted by the continued enjoyment of prosperity, enervated by an enfeeb- ling climate, and subdued by the artifices and the severities of their ecclesiastical establishment 62 , the Portuguese of India were at this time ill qualified to retain the possessions, which their ancestors had so valiantly acquired 63 . The sub- jection of Portugal to the crown of Spain facilitated and accelerated the loss of these more distant dependencies, for Philip, unable to protect at once all his ancient and his newly acquired settlements, suffered the eastern establish- 82 The Inquisition was established at Goa in the year 1548, chiefly for subjecting to the see of Rome the native Christians, named the Christians of saint Thomas, who are said to have been about two hun- dred thousand in number. The archbishop of Goa, partly by intriguing with the native princes, partly by ordaining a great number of new priests, procured an apparent recognition of the doctrine and autho- rity of Home in a synod convened at Diamper in the year 1599. The Syrian church of India however was not destroyed by this measure, for doctor Buchanan has assured us, that in the year 1806 he found an archbishop of Cranganore presiding over forty-five churches. These Syrian Christians he represents as agreeing with the established church of these countries both in ecclesiastical government and in articles of faith. Christian Researches, pp. 123, 134. 63 The chivalrous spirit which originally animated the Portuguese, is perhaps most remarkably illustrated by the anecdote of the viceroy De Castro, who to procure money for strengthening the citadel of Diu, pledged his beard to the in- habitants of Goa. The security was accepted, and faithfully redeemed. De la Clede, tome i. p. 721. SPAIN AND POETUGAX, 1516 1598. 59 ments of Portugal to fall", without an effort to preserve them, into the hands of the Dutch. The military successes of Portugal had thus prepared the way for the commercial activity of the United Provinces. The traffic of Portugal with the east had been a royal mo- nopoly 65 , as the establishment of their settlements had been a great achievement of military enterprise. Such a system must be ruinous in regard to commerce, and could serve only to form stations for a people of different character. Left to themselves, these settlements must have gradually sunk in their own weakness, amidst the hatred which they had provoked ; but the subjugation of the mother- country, by exposing them unaided to the attacks of the revolted pro- vinces before the period of their natural dissolution, transfer- red them to a nation, whose habits were fitted for rendering them the instruments of a beneficial traffic. The influence of the ambition and bigotry of Philip, in ex- citing a spirit of commercial enterprise, was not confined to the great trading republic of the Netherlands, but was also exercised on England. By driving thither a multitude of manufacturers he had greatly benefited its domestic industry. He afterwards engaged in an enterprise, which eventually excited its naval exertion. Incensed against Elizabeth for the assistance which she had given to his subjects, and the insults which his dominions in America had received from her fleet ; intoxicated with his recent success in reducing Portugal, the maritime power of which country was now added to that of his original dominions ; and anxious also to bring back to their ancient reverence for the Roman see a people, which had been during almost thirty years the chief support of the Protestants of Europe, he sent against England in the year 1588 the so-named invincible armada 66 . A battle M The Portuguese, in the conclusion of the struggle, retained no con- siderable place except Goa and Diu. Mem. sur le Commerce des Hol- landois, p. 132. Amst., 1718. 63 Mickle's Diss. prefixed to his trans- lation of the Lusiad. a This armament ' consisted of one hundred and fifty ships, most of which were greatly superior in strength and size to any that had been seen before. It had on board near twenty thousand soldiers, and eight thousand sailors, besides two thousand volunteers of the most distinguished families in Spain. It carried two thousand six hundred and fifty great guns, was victualled for half a-year, and con- tained such a quantity of military stores, as only the Spanish monarch, enriched by the treasures of the Indies and America, could supply.' Watson's Hist, of Philip II.. vol. ii. p. 258. 50 MODB.KN HISTORY : was fought, which in its circumstances and consequences may be compared to that of Salamis. The Spaniards were forced to abandon in despair their project of invasion, and what the skill and bravery of the English sailors had left unfinished of the destruction of this formidable armament, was completed by storms and various contingencies. So ex- tensively indeed was the calamity felt in Spain, that Philip judged it expedient to abridge by an edict the customary du- ration of domestic mourning 67 . The royal navy of England, which had been founded by Henry VIII., and when it had been neglected by Mary, had afterwards been restored and augmented by Elizabeth, was after this triumph very con- siderably improved in strength and enterprise. In almost every season after the ruin of the armada 68 , the English un- dertook some naval expedition against the dominions of Philip, either in Spain or in America ; and in one of these they even captured and plundered the town of Cadiz, where his naval preparations were principally executed. In the interval between the commencement of persecution in the Netherlands and that of the hostilities to which it gave occasion, the great power of Philip II. was employed in re- pressing the Ottoman government, which had for this time sufficiently discharged its function of acting externally upon the system of Europe 69 . In the beginning of his reign the Ottoman power was at the summit of its exaltation 70 , Solyman, the greatest and the most enlightened of all the sultans, being then in the possession of the throne. This monarch had widely extended his dominions in Persia, in Hungary, and in Africa ; he had expelled the knights of saint John from Rhodes, which they had long defended as a bulwark of Christendom ; he had stripped the Venetians of a great part of their terri- tories ; he had laid waste the coasts even of Italy and Spain ; and he had powerfully strengthened the corsairs of Africa, who under his protection had erected the piratical states of Barbary. The first considerable blow, which was struck against this very formidable power, was the repulse which it sustained in the year 1565, at the memorable siege of Malta, 67 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. ii. p. 269. 68 jtid., p. 385. 69 It acted again in the war of thirty years, and the Turks actually besieged Vienna in the year 1683. 70 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. pp. 96, 97. SPAIN AND POKTUGAL, 1516 1598. 61 where the knights, expelled from Rhodes, had been stationed by the emperor Charles V. In this instance, the power of Spain was but auxiliary, the extraordinary valour of the knights having been previously suffered to break down the impetuosity of the assailants ; but, as the apprehension of the danger, to which his forces must otherwise have been exposed, appears to have determined Philip to observe this selfish caution 71 , that very circumstance affords a proof of the alarming magnitude of the Turkish armament, and of the importance of a powerful government, interested like Spain in reducing the ascendency of the Ottoman empire. This government, which had thus cautiously reserved its forces at the siege of Malta, put forth all its vigour six years after- wards, when, in conjunction with the pope and the Venetians, it defeated the Ottoman fleet in the great battle of Lepanto. Even after this engagement, in which nearly the whole of the Turkish fleet had been taken or destroyed, the sultan was able, at the end of six months, to send out another fleet of considerable strength. But a fatal wound had been in- flicted on the naval power of Turkey ; the admiral declined to engage with the fleet of the Christians; and the succeeding sultan, Amurath III., directed his enterprises against the Persians. Two other operations seem to have been preparatory to that decay, into which the kingdom of Philip sunk, when its functions had been discharged, and its power and activity would but have embarrassed the system. One of these was the ruin of the Moors of Spain, and with them of the industry of the country ; the other was a French war, which completed the exhaustion of its finances. Alarmed by the apprehension of a treasonable correspond- ence between his Moorish 72 subjects and his foreign enemies of the same religion, this prince resolved in the year 1568 to strip the former of their arms, and to prohibit all those usages, by which a distinction was maintained between them and other Spaniards. The results of these attempts were, that the Moors rose in arms against the government ; and that, after a civil war of almost two years, they were overpowered, and reduced either to actual slavery, or to a state of depend- ence little preferable to servitude. Bigoted however as 71 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. p. 155. " Ibid., pp. 242, &c. 02 MODERN HISTORY : Philip II. was, he was yet too politic to resort to a measure so obviously inexpedient as the expulsion of this industrious people ; nor does it appear that the clergy ever recommended it either to him, or to his father 73 . This was reserved for his son and successor, Philip III., who, being influenced much more by bigotry than by policy, sealed in the year 1610 the degradation of his country 74 . It has been remarked 75 , that it was fortunate for Philip II., and perhaps for Christen- dom, that, while he was depressing his infidel subjects, the Turkish sultan would not suffer himself to be diverted from the naval war, which he was then waging against the Vene- tians. No interposition of that potentate could obstruct the more violent measure of Philip III., for the battle of Lepanto, fought in the year 1571, had ruined the power of the Turks in the Mediterranean. The French war, in which Philip was engaged during the last eight years of his reign, was the result of a hope of pro- curing the crown of France, either for himself, or for his daughter Isabella, by taking a part in the domestic dissen- sions of that country. This, added to his other enterprises, while it served to frustrate his ambition, ruined his resources. His forces were diverted from one expedition to another, and his treasures, great as they were, proved inadequate to his multiplied expenses. The possessor of the mines of America was at length re- duced to a direct bankruptcy. During several years he had been necessitated to borrow considerable sums of money from the Italian and Flemish merchants 76 , to whom he mortgaged his revenues. Nearly two years before his death he cancelled these engagements ; but his revenues were still insufficient, and his credit was annihilated. Spain, before deprived of religious and civil freedom, weakened by the dismemberment of the Dutch provinces, ruined in the industrious part of its population, and exhausted in the public resources of the go- vernment 77 , sunk into the imbecility and unimportance suited 73 Watson's Hist, of Philip III., pp. 296, 297. 71 Book ii., ch. iv. 75 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. p. 256. ' 6 Ibid., vol. ii. p. 395. 77 How little the Castilian character was at any time adapted to the pursuits of industry, appears from the romance of Laza- rillo de Tormes, published soon after the commencement of the reign of the emperor Charles V., and consequently before his wars, or the passion for emigrating to America, could have affected the population, SPAIN AND POBTUGAL, 1516 1598. 63 to a country, the chief relations between which and the rest of Europe thenceforward consisted in managing the brokerage of the mines of America, and in supporting the remaining fabric of the church of Rome. The ruin of the national cha- racter was begun with the establishment of the Inquisition, and the expulsion of the Moors was but the completion of the national degradation. Portugal, occupied hi foreign en- terprises, long escaped the destructive influence of that hor- rible tribunal ; but there also it was established in the year 1526 78 , and both in Portugal and India it wrought all its work of intellectual debasement. Brazil, which was saved from its dominion, has, in the great struggle of the peninsula, afforded its protection to the banished government of the mother- country. Amidst the operation of all these causes of national decay we find the literary glory of the peninsula, because in a na- tion, as in an individual, the vigour of the intellect outlasts the maturity of the bodily frame, which it informs. The reign of the emperor Charles V. indeed, although fatal to the freedom of the government, presented some immediate ex- citements to the genius of the Spanish people 79 , as it animated their enthusiasm by the brilliant spectacle of national impor- tance, and by the intercourse of the Italians furnished more correct models of composition. This however was a passing influence, soon abandoning the Spaniards to the inevitable decay of mind, which followed, though at some distance of time, the political ruin of their country ; and the soft languor of the national poetry has been considered as characteristic of a people m t which had then survived its liberty, as Theo- critus followed the loss of Greek, and Propertius and Tibullus that of Roman freedom. The literary function of Spain, before this period, had been to convey to the other nations of the west the influences, which it received from the genius and active enquiry of its Arab conquerors. Its peculiar literature it had yet to form, probably because its people had enjoyed little intercourse wealth, or manners of Castile. In this romance was already displayed that combination of pride, poverty, and indolence, which distinguished the Castilians from the people of Aragon and Catalonia. Sismondi de la Litt. du Midi, tome iii. p. 292. De la Clede, tome i. p. 669. 79 Sismondi de la Litt. du Midi, torrs iii. p. 267. 80 Ibid., pp. 310,311. 64 MODERN HISTOKY : with other Europeans 81 , and therefore received little advan- tage from the causes, which had among them introduced re- finement. The same cause, which appears to have so much retarded the literature of Spain, rendered it more appropri- ately national than any other, and in particular generated a drama, which disclaims all reverence for the restrictions transmitted to us from the practice of the Grecian theatres. Forming their dramatic poetry before they began to hold in- tercourse with other nations, and regarding in it only the gratification of their own taste, they entered, in the middle of the fifteenth century, upon a career of this sort of compo- sition peculiar to themselves, when no other modern nation had yet proceeded beyond the mysteries and moralities of the middle ages 82 . The causes, which excited the national genius in the reign of the emperor Charles V., did not merely improve the poetry of Spain, but absolutely changed the versifica- tion, by substituting the heroic measure of the Italians for the short verses of the Castilian poetry 83 . The change was effected primarily by Juan Boscan Almogaver, an Ara- gonian, who probably felt little partiality for the Castilian dialect, as not his own, and on the other hand found the Italian more analogous to that Provencal poetry, in which he had been educated. Boscan was assisted in effecting this literary revolution by his friend Garcilaso de la Vega, who was like him a disciple of Petrarch, imitating however also Virgil and Sannazzaro, and became the first lyric and pastoral poet of his country. Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 81 Sismondi de la Litt. du Midi, tome iii. p. 252. 82 The Spaniards refer the origin of their dramatic poetry to three sources ; to the mys- teries represented in their churches, to a satirical and pastoral drama named Mingo Rebulgo, but most properly to the dramatic romance of Calixtus and Meliboea, or Celestina. The first act of this strange drama was written by some anonymous person towards the middle of the fifteenth century, and manifested a true talent for comedy long before the dramatic compositions of other modern languages. Fernando de Rosas, about the year 1510, added twenty other acts to the first, which was itself very long, and thus rendered the representation impracticable. Ibid., pp. 255 257. Gil Vicente, a Portuguese, had however in the year 1504 composed a drama in the Spanish language, a religious piece designed to celebrate the birth of a prince of Portugal. He was the single dramatic poet of Portugal. Ibid., tome iv. pp. 447 449. 83 Ibid., tome iii. pp. 268, &c. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1516 1598. 65 the last of a triumvirate of the poets of this time, dis- tinguished himself yet more in prose, by publishing, besides a history of the war of Granada, his Lazarillo de Tormes, the first of those comic romances, in which Castilian gravity appears to have sought its recreation, treating with derision that which is mean and profligate in human life. The reign of Charles was fertile in great poets M ; but a general re- semblance prevailed among them, as they all cultivated pas- toral poetry. Heroic poetry was indeed frequently attempted by the Castilians 85 , and thirty-six epic poems written by them have been enumerated, the most distinguished of which was the Arancana, composed by Alonzo de Hircilla, on the war with the Arancos, the most warlike of the people of Chili. These however were rhymed histories, rather than epic poems, and cannot claim any competition with the productions of Camoens, Tasso, and Milton. The dramatic literature of Spain is that which is most peculiarly national, and has most attracted the attention of recent critics. Devoting itself to the gratification of the people, and disregarding the rules of the learned, it con- tinued barbarous indeed, but it has caused astonishment by its extraordinary copiousness 86 , and in the minds of German critics it appears to have excited by its very irregularity an undue admiration. The great founder of this dramatic literature was Lope de Vega, contemporary to our Shak- speare, having been born in the year 1562, and having died in the year 1635. His dramatic productions are reckoned to have amounted in number to the prodigious sum of two thousand two hundred 87 , for each of which, if his entire life had been employed in them, eight days only could be allowed, and time would still be wanted for twenty-one large volumes of poetry, containing among others five epic poems. Calderon, born in the year 1600, is considered by his countrymen as the king of their theatre, and has been ranked by Schlegel in the very first class of poets ; very different however from that of the German critic is the judgment of Sismondi, who has pronounced him to have been the writer of a corrupted age, and, though endowed 84 Sismondi de la Lilt, du Midi, tome iii. p. 313. 85 Ibid., pp. 436, &c. 86 Ibid., pp. 362, 363. 87 Ibid., tome iv. p. 46. VOL. III. F 66 MODERN HISTOKY : with the most splendid gifts of genius, to have passed in every thing the boundary of nature and of truth. The Spaniards in the seventeenth century were regarded hy the principal nations of Europe as the masters of the dramatic art 88 . This admiration however passed away, be- cause their writers, emulating the extraordinary promptness of Lope and Calderon, rejected the aids of study and cor- rection, and reduced their stage nearly to a level with the extemporaneous comedy of Italy. Of the literature of the Spanish theatre generally Sismondi has pronounced 89 , that it is defective in substituting complication of plot for exhi- bition of character, a fault occasioned perhaps partly by the monotony of character in the old romance, to which the na- tional taste had been familiarised, partly by the extraordinary rapidity, with which the Spanish dramas were composed. The effect of this fault, he remarks, is that, though the apparent richness of the Spanish theatre at first creates surprise, yet the ultimate feeling is that of weariness of its uniformity. The author of Don Quixote, who was born thirteen years before Lope, wrote also for a theatre, but with little success. His fame however can sustain this failure, for he has been immortalised by a romance, which by its irresisti- ble ridicule has closed the series of romantic narrative, and by its faithful representation of characters and manners has become the common and lasting possession of nations. The literature of Spain supported itself under Philip II., Philip III., and Philip IV. * ; and, notwithstanding the deleterious influence of national decay, it sunk only with the last of these princes in the year 1665, from which time to the middle of the eighteenth century the people of Spain appear to have remained under the torpor of a mental lethargy. Long however before the end of the reign of Philip IV. it had exhibited indications of a bad taste, which gradually deprived it of its value. Affectation indeed and pretension appear to have been natural to the writers of 88 The great Corneille formed himself in the Spanish school, and Rotrou, Quinault, Thomas Corneille, and Scarron, gave to the theatre scarcely any except dramas borrowed from those of Spain, the names and manners of Castile even retaining for a long time the exclusive possession of the stage. Sismondi. de la Litt. dn Midi, tome iv. p. 4. 89 Ibid., pp. 216, 217. 90 Ibid., pp. 217219. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1516 1598. 67 Spain 91 , for the Latin writers of that country from the time of Seneca have been charged with these very faults ; the intercourse with the Arabs must also have communicated to them a love of that splendid description, of that daring and extravagant imagery, which in all ages have character- ised oriental composition ; and when the public freedom had been lost, and with it the freedom of the understanding had necessarily perished, the imagination remained uncontrolled by thought, the single faculty which the national genius could longer venture to exercise. The want of a just taste is accordingly perceptible in the earliest, and in the most flourishing period of the Spanish literature, for it is con- spicuous in the works even of Juan de Mena, who died in the year 1456, and Lope de Vega himself sought resources for his amazing fertility of composition in affected expres- sions, and in images, which a sober correction would have rejected. It was rendered the prevailing characteristic of the Spanish writers by the example of Gongora, who was born in the year 1561, and died in the year 1627. The corruption of taste appears to have prevailed both in Italy and in Spain from the common operation of the same cause, the loss of that freedom of intellect, which would have controlled the extravagancies of the imagination. Spain seems to have furnished to Italy the example of literary de- generacy ; but the latter country aggravated the mischief in the former by a reciprocal communication of evil influence. Marini, who began this corruption in Italy, was a Neapo- litan, descended from Spaniards, and educated in Spain ; the school, which he formed in Italy, reacted by its example on Spain, where however bombas'tic pretension and pedantry were indulged to a yet greater excess. The literature of Portugal 93 appears to have been earlier in its commencement than that of Spain, as the force of the national character began sooner to be developed. The Por- tuguese writers accordingly assert that the fifteenth century abounded in romantic poets of their country. These how- ever are unknown to the rest of Europe, and the first dis- tinguished poet of Portugal was Bernardim Rlbeyro, who died in the year 1521, at the early age of twenty-six years. 91 Sismondi, de la Litt. du Midi, tome iv. pp. 53, &c. 92 Ibid, pp. 273, &c. F 2 68 MODERN HISTORY : Ribeyro, who probably imitated the Italian Sannazzaro, excelled chiefly in pastoral poetry, which became the favourite poetry of Portugal, even more than of Spain, as the lan- guage 93 is a softened dialect of that of the neighbouring country. But Camoens was a splendid exception, the glory and the shame of Portugal 94 , as Cervantes was of Spain. His poem, which he has named the Lusiad, or the Affairs of Lusitania, and which indeed embraces all the past history of that country 95 , has assumed and held a place among the epic compositions of modern nations. Its machinery is however grievously vitiated by incongruity, for, in attempting to support his poem by a pagan mythology 96 , the author has rewarded his Christians in an allegorical island of divine jove with all the voluptuousness of a Mohammedan paradise, 93 The Portuguese language may be described as that of Castile deprived of its bones, the middle consonants being generally those which are omitted. Thus dolor, grief, becomes dor; celos, those, ceos ; nello, no, &c. -Ibid., p. 265, note. 94 Camoens in the last period of his life was reduced to the misery of subsisting on the alms, which were begged for him in the streets of Lisbon by an old and at- tached servant a native of Java, a competent fortune, acquired in the east, having been lost in a shipwreck. He died in the short interval between the defeat of Sebastian, and the loss of the independence of his country. Cervantes wrote his inimitable Don Quixote in a prison, in which he was confined for debt. Though the work was admired and extolled by Philip III. and his court, no relief was administered to the wants of the author. Tasso did justice to the merit of his con- temporary Camoens in a sonnet addressed to Vasco de Gama, the dis- coverer of India. 95 Vasco relates to the friendly king of Melinda the previous history of his country, and the remainder, to the time of the composition of the poem, is anticipated in a prophecy, sung by a nymph in the Island of Love. % Camoens has endeavoured to justify his use of pagan machinery by a repeated intimation of its alle- gorical nature. Allegory is however ill assorted with real and substan- tial personages. Tasso has with more success employed magical en- chantment. Milton yet more happily adopted an opinion, once preva- lent, that the gods of the pagans were the fallen angels, and has thus been enabled to connect without impropriety a pagan mythology with the events and characters of a Christian subject. Ginguene has placed Tasso next after Homer and Virgil ; even above Milton, whom he ac- knowledges to have been more sublime, but condemns for -what he con- siders as an unfortunate selection of a subject. Hist. Litt. d'ltalie, tome v. p. 462. The German critics on the other hand are enraptured with the romantic poetry of the Spanish peninsula, and Schlegel has preferred Camoens to Tasso. Lect. on the Hist, of Literature, vol. ii. pp. 108, 109. SPAIN AND PORTTJGAI,, 1516 1598. 69 and because Bacchus was said to have conquered India, he has placed his Mohammedans under the protection of the heathen god of wine. Prosaic composition was not neg- lected by the Portuguese, for their heroic enterprises excited the genius of history. A crowd of writers has accordingly commemorated their achievements 97 , among whom Barros, a passionate admirer of Livy and of Sallust, has been by his countrymen named the Livy of Portugal. Camoens died in the year preceding the union, which subjected his country to the crown of Spain. This revolu- tion would have crushed the poetry of Portugal, if it were not already expiring by a natural decay. Bernardos, the contemporary, though also the survivor of Camoens, has proved by his affectation, that a poetry chiefly pastoral had completed its period, the genuine images of this very limited species of composition having been exhausted. The Spanish peninsula, at the close of the period here reviewed, had fulfilled its great functions in the formation of the system of Europe, and then, as Italy had done be- fore 98 , retired as it were into a state comparatively unim- portant, leaving the other countries of the west to complete their arrangements without interruption and embarrass- ment. It seems as if, in the grand drama of the providential government of the world, the several subordinate characters successively withdrew from the public stage of political life, when their respective parts had been performed, to be again brought forward towards the conclusion, and to find their proper places in the general unity of the plan. 97 Sismondi, de la Litt. du Midi, tome iv. p. 488. Sir W. Scott has ascribed to Vasco de Lobeyra, a Portuguese of the fourteenth century, the composition of Amadis de Gaul, which began a new series of ro- mances, approaching more nearly to the modern novel. Essays on Chivalry, Romance, and the Drama, p. 196. Edinb. 1838. 98 Camoens, while he laments the growing degeneracy of his own countrymen, describes in strong language the actual debasement of the Italians. Canto vii. sect. 8. CHAPTER III. Of the history of France, from the commencement of the reign of Francis I. in the year 1515 to that of the reign of Louis XIII. in the year 1610. Francis I. king in the year 1515 Civil wars begun, 1562 Massacre of saint Bartholomew's day, 1572 Henry III. assassinated and Henry IV. king, 1589 Civil wars ended and Edict of Nantes, 1598 Henry IV. assassinated, 1610. THE due arrangement of a system of federative policy ap- pears to have required, that the house of Austria should from contingent causes acquire a pre-eminence, which should for a time overbear the intrinsic greatness of France. By the lax constitution of the empire alone could the principles of a federative policy be propagated over Europe ; and the maritime dominion, which the Spanish branch of the Aus- trian family acquired by distant discovery, drew forth the maritime energies of the Dutch and of the English, and thus prepared the enginery of a succeeding period. France, first encircled by the widely extended territories of the house of Austria, and then pressed more especially by the power of Spain, was reduced to a temporary inferiority, very unlike to the grandeur, by which it had been distinguished. To Spain indeed, when separated from Germany, it might have been a formidable antagonist, if religious dissensions had not paralysed its power. It is certain that only the extreme exhaustion, which they had caused, could have hindered it from accepting the proffered sovereignty of the Netherlands, and thus defeating the independence of the Dutch republic. The interior adjustment of the French government re- quired that some intervals should occur, in which the at- tention of its rulers might be withdrawn from external con- cerns, and employed in controlling the domestic struggles of the nation. Two such intervals accordingly did occur ; and it is remarkable that the arrangements of the religious and of the political interests of the nation were made in distinct times, instead of being blended together, as in the civil wars of Great Britain and Ireland. In the interval, which was FRANCE, 1515 1610. 71 interposed between the wars of Charles V. and those which preceded the treaty of Westphalia, occurred those civil wars of France, which originated in religious dissension ; and in that shorter interval, which intervened between the treaty of Westphalia and the wars of Louis XIV., occurred the brief war of the Fronde, which was merely political, and was the concluding crisis of the political agitations of the govern- ment. In the British government, in which the two strug- gles were blended, the religious dissension furnished a strong reinforcement of the principle of constitutional liberty ; to the French government this would not have been accommo- dated, and they were accordingly distinct. It is also re- markable, that these two intervals of domestic contention were well accommodated to the foreign relations of the French government, for its activity, if it could in those times have been exercised on foreign interests, would have occa- sioned very inconvenient embarrassment. In the earlier of the two intervals the external activity of France would have interfered with those agencies of Spain by which the Dutch republic was brought into existence, and the maritime ener- gies of England were developed. In the latter, if the go- vernment had not been occupied by a domestic sedition, it must have been too powerful for the languid resistance of the same government, which had outlasted the great war of Germany, and was terminated only by the treaty of the Pyrenees. The doctrines of Luther l began to be propagated in France so early as in the year 1519, or two years after he had begun the reformation in Germany. In the year 1521 they were condemned by the doctors of the Sorbonne 2 , to whom he had appealed ; but this censure served only to attract the attention of the public, and from the year 1523 the new opinions found advocates in every class of society. Even when the bishops had begun to pronounce their anathemas, and the dreadful severity of the stake had at last been em- ployed to subdue conviction, the reformers were only driven to seek a protector, whom they found in the loved sister of 1 Esprit de la Ligue par Anquetil, tome i. pp. 8 13. Paris, 1797. 2 A college instituted for the study of theology in the university of Paris in the reign of Louis IX. It was so named from its founder. Henault, vol. i. p. 194, note. 72 MODERN HISTOKY : the king. The queen of Navarre was the hereditary ad- versary of the papacy, the father of her husband having by a papal decree been deprived of the crown of his little royalty 3 . She was also a princess of very considerable en- dowments, which disposed her to afford protection to the learned men, whom persecution drove into her remaining possessions. Influenced by those, whose genius she re- spected, and whose unhappy condition she commisserated, she at length embraced the doctrines of the reformation, but was afterwards induced to dissemble, and finally to re- nounce, her new faith. The opinions of those who in France embraced the re- formation were probably during some years unsettled and various ; but in the year 1536, when Calvin had published his celebrated Institution, this uncertainty was terminated by the general adoption of his tenets. Francis, anxious to form a political connexion with the protestant princes of Germany, had pleaded in defence of his persecutions, that they were employed only for repressing the extravagance of turbulent enthusiasts; and Calvin published his systematic view of Christian doctrine, that he might repel from himself and his brethren the imputation conveyed in the apology of the king. Calvin indeed does not appear to have been an enthusiast, though of a character very different from that of the German reformer. Not, like Luther, disciplined to the submission of monastic obedience, and gradually by the efforts of an honest and enquiring mind extricating himself from the pre- possessions of his early life, but trained to the contentious study of the law, when he had been previously instructed in the philosophy of the age, he combined with his sincere conviction of the genuine truths of our religion a desire of pronouncing a peremptory judgment on the whole plan of the divine mercy. Luther had contented himself with com- bating the Romish notion of the merit of human works ; Calvin proceeded to determine how God decided the ever- lasting condition of every individual. Nor was the French reformer deterred by any inferences, however alarming, 3 The decree was issued against him professedly for having adhered to the council of Pisa in the schism of the papacy ; really to favour the ambition of Ferdinand of Spain. Schoepflinus de regno Navarrae, pp. 291, &c. in Comment. Hist. The territory on the northern side of the Pyrenees, being protected by France, remained to the family of Bourbon. FBATfCE, 15151610. 73 which might be conceived to be deducible from his peculiar tenets, but, rejecting every reserve and qualification, pursued his doctrine boldly through all its fearful details. The extreme opinion of Calvin appears to have been well adapted to the circumstances of France, in which the Pro- testants could effect only a partial and temporary establish- ment*. A more moderate system of doctrine might in cir- cumstances thus unfavourable have been after some time assimilated to the prevailing opinions, and lost in the general prevalence of the religion of Rome. The Socinianism also, with which it was connected in its origin, and in which it has ultimately terminated, possessed the advantage of op- posing a confident reliance on human reasoning to the mental enslavement of the Roman church. Francis I., influenced by the repeated representations of * Attempts have been made, especially by the Jansenists, to combine thisopinion with the doctrines of the church of Rome; but after a struggle of a century the incongruous effort was suppressed. The struggle began in the university of Louvain, where Michael Baius, a professor, hazarded some assertions on the question of the divine grace. Seventy-nine pro- positions, extracted from his theses, were condemned by the see of Rome in the year 1567, and again in the year 1579. Baius retracted, but his disciples endeavoured to elude their condemnation by subtleties founded upon the position of a comma. The Jesuit Molina, in the year 1598, conceived a system, by which he proposed to reconcile the exer- : cise of free will in man with the operation of the divine grace. This doctrine was by the Spanish Dominicans brought before the court of Rome, but after two hundred conferences the pontiff concluded with re- serving to himself the right of pronouncing judgment, when he should deem it proper to do so. Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, occnpied twenty- two years in composing a book on the subject. His doctrine however would probably not have travelled beyond the schools of Louvain, if his friend, the abbe de St. Cyran, had not procured for it a favourable reception among the monks and hermits of Port Royal, of whom he was the director and the oracle. The partisans and adversaries of this doctrine began to agitate France in the year 1644. Five propositions were extracted from the large volume of Jansenius, and these, after an examination continued during two years, were condemned by the pope in the year 1653. Though this decree was generally adopted by the clergy of France, and twice confirmed by the papal see, the school of Port Royal maintained their resistance, pleading that they owed to these decisions of the church only a respectful silence, and not any in- ward belief. The dispute was at length terminated in the year 1668 by the submission of four refractory bishops, who satisfied themselves with secret restrictions. Appendix to Bossuet's Life of Fenelon, Lond., 1810. 74 MODERN HISTOEY: his sister, solicited Melancthon to visit his court 5 . The in- vitation was not accepted, Henry VIII. of England, in his jealousy of the connexion of the French king with the Ger- man princes, having interposed to hinder the journey of the reformer. It had probably indeed been given rather in a spirit of temporising policy, the object of which was to con- ciliate the German Protestants, than in that of a sincere in- quiry after truth, though the king, who by his zeal for the revival of learning had acquired the honourable title of the father of letters, may have been gratified with the idea of inviting to his court a scholar of so great celebrity. If the remark be just, which has been made in regard to the suita- bleness of the opinions of Calvin to the circumstances of the French Protestants, it must follow that the arrival of the advocate of doctrinal moderation could not have had an ad- vantageous influence on them, unless, which is wholly improbable, he should have been successful in changing the religion of the state. That this is improbable has been inferred even from the anxiety of the king to possess the duchy of Milan, which rendered him desirous of concili- ating the favour of the popes. Whatever may have been the motive of Francis, or whatever might have been the effect of the visit of Melancthon, the fluctuation of the con- 'duct of the king was directly conducive to the increase of the new sect, his occasional indulgence inspiring the reformers with confidence, and the severity at other times practised, animating them to cherish those principles, which the arm of power endeavoured to tear from their hearts. The reign of Francis I. is entitled to our consideration in another and more favourable view, besides that in which it was connected with the reformed religion, as he was the pro- fessed friend and patron of learning. The age of this prince is esteemed the first of the three periods of French litera- ture, the others being those of Louis XIV. and of our own time. He accordingly rivalled pope Leo X. in.his efforts to introduce among his people a more general knowledge of the ancient classics. With this view Lascaris, one of the most learned of the Greeks, who had fled from the Turkish con- quest of their country, was employed by him in forming a 8 Burnet's Hist, of the Reform, of the Church of England, vol. iii. pp. 110, 111. FRANCE, 15151610. 75 library at Fontainebleau 6 , and introducing professors of their language into the university of Paris 7 ; and Bude, or Budseus, honoured in his own time with the title of ' prodigy of France,' was confidentially employed and patronized 8 . Nor was this reign thus distinguished only by attention to the literature of antiquity, for Marot in this period composed the earliest French poetry, which could in our time be read with ease and gratification 9 . This writer, in his own time the favourite of the great, has been ennobled to posterity by the commendations of three succeeding poets, Lafontaine, Despre'aux, and J. B. Rousseau, who acknowledged him to have been the inventor of the ballad poetry, and the first of whom has been indebted to him for the simple graces of his fables. Marot was the inventor of the rondeau, and the restorer of the madrigal ; but he became eminent chiefly by his pastorals, ballads, fables, elegies, epigrams, and transla- tions from Ovid and Petrarch. At length, either wearied of the vanities of profane poetry, or rather secretly tinctured with the doctrines of the reformation, he attempted, with the assistance of his friend Theodore Beza, and with the encouragement of the professor of the Hebrew language in the university of Paris, a version of the psalms of David into French rhymes. This translation, which he dedicated to Francis and to the ladies of France, was so favourably received, that the printers could not supply copies with suf- ficient rapidity. In that gay and brilliant court nothing was heard except the psalms of Marot; by each individual of the royal family and of the principal nobility, a psalm was selected, and adapted to some ballad-tune. The psalms of Marot Avere at length prohibited to the Romanists, because they had been adopted by the reformers of Geneva 10 , psal- mody and heresy being from that time considered as synoni- mous terms. The patronage of Francis and the fashion of his court had however furnished the Protestants with the most powerful instrument of the reformation. Though the early propagation of the doctrines of the Protestants had been favoured by the circumstances of the 6 Warton's Hist, of Engl. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 413. ' We find how- ever, says Warton, Gregory Typhernas teaching the Greek language at Paris, in the year 1472. 8 Les Trois Siecles de la Litt. Franc., par Sabatier De Castres, tome i. p. 335. Paris, 1801. 9 Ibid., tome iii. p. 190. 10 Warton, vol. iii. p. 165. 76 MODERN HISTORY : reign of Francis, the form of the government was so very different from that of the German empire, that they could not easily as in Germany, establish themselves securely within any limited district. On the other hand the papal see, involved in a continual contest with the empire, was so careful to manage with prudence the friendship of France, that the abuses of the Romish hierarchy, had never 11 , as in England, been urged to an extreme disgusting the under- standings and feelings of men, and therefore France was not disposed, like England, to adopt the principles of the re- formation as the general religion of the country. All there- fore, which the reformation could effect in France, was to give a beginning to a numerous body of sectaries, which after a strenuous contention was suppressed indeed, but not destroyed. A reformation thus imperfectly successful, appears also to have been all, which the general order of the system could admit in France. By a partial, but authorised establishment of the Reformation, as in Germany, the unity of the govern- ment must have been destroyed, and that mitigated despo- tism could not have existed, which was best adapted to the central and presiding character of France, as best exempting it from the agency of surrounding nations. If again the religion of the Protestants had been adopted as the religion of the state, the connexion of France with the Protestants of Germany, which in the actual circumstances of the former country was preserved with jealousy and suspicion, would have been so intimate and unreserved, as to introduce dis- turbance and confusion into the relation of the two govern- ments. The variable policy of Francis I. was succeeded by the steady severity of his son Henry II., who during the twelve years of his reign exerted every effort, though in vain, to extir- pate the opinions of the Protestants. As these had already been widely diffused under the preceding sovereign, the un- varying severity of Henry, even more than the occasional violence of Francis, contributed to animate the reformers 11 The liberties of the Galilean church were secured by Louis IX. in the pragmatic sanction of the year 1269. Another was concluded in the year 1438 by Charles VII. A concordat was for the same pur- pose concluded by Francis I. in the year 15] 5. FKANCE, 15151610. 77 with the resolution of confessors, and to dispose them to enter into the union of a party. The circumstances of the court of Henry at the same time generated those factions among the great, under which the religious parties of the people were afterwards enlisted. Francis, by availing him- self of the jealousies of the grandees of his court 12 , had en- joyed the most absolute authority; and he is said to have bequeathed to his son Henry, as his last advice, that he should beware of the aspiring ambition of the family of Guise. The weakness of Henry rendered him incapable of observing this prudent counsel. The Guises governed the king through the influence of his mistress the duchess of Valentinois, while the family of Bourbon, the next in con- sanguinity to the throne 13 , was utterly neglected. This family had been discountenanced ever since the defection of the constable of Bourbon in the reign of Francis u , but suffered their actual disgrace with the greater impatience, as it seemed to be the work of a mistress and her favourites. The family of Guise, having effected the marriage of Mary of Scotland, niece to the duke, with the young dauphin, acquired yet more influence under the successor, than they had enjoyed in the reign of the father by the mistress. The family of Bourbon on the other hand, by the marriage of their chief with the daughter of the queen of Navarre, that sister of Francis I., who had protected the reformers, became in the very same year engaged in a connexion, which decided its attachment to the opposite party. Thus, while the people of France were arrayed in two adverse parties by a religious dissension, the intrigues of the court provided them with leaders ; and the country seemed to prepare itself in all its classes for the vehement struggle, which was to ensue. 13 Mably, tome iii. pp. 163 165. 1S Louis IX., who died in the year 1270, had two sons; Philip III., from whom descended the house of Valois, and Robert the ancestor of that of Bourbon. The Valesian family received its appellation from Charles, the second son of Philip III., who was count of Valois ; Robert married the heiress of Bourbon, which gave the denomination to his branch of the royal family. 14 The discontent, which caused the constable to revolt to the emperor in the year 1523, has been traced by the historian of Charles V. to the enmity entertained by Louisa, the mother of Francis I., against Anne of Brittany, the queen of Louis XII., who had manifested a peculiar attachment to that branch of the royal family. Hist, of Charles V., vol.ii.p. 211. 78 MODEB.N HISTORY : During three reigns of weakness and contention, occupying a space of thirty years, the struggle of religious parties raged with its utmost violence. These were all reigns of the sons of Henry II., and were in their character preparatory to the extinc ion of the reigning dynasty, and the introduction of another family to the throne. The first of these reigns, that of Francis II., was a real, though not for a king a legal mi- nority, this prince having been at his accession only sixteen years old, and the reign being terminated by his death at the end of seven months. Of the second also, that of Charles IX., a great part was a minority, the king having been at his accession but about ten years old ; and though his mother 15 caused him to be declared by the parliament of full age be- fore he had completed the established term of fourteen years, yet it was but that he might then transfer to her management the care of the government. The last of the three princes, Henry III., was of full age at his accession, and reigned more than fifteen years ; but such was his weakness, that his reign 16 has been denominated 'the reign of favourites.' He appears indeed to have been just such an example of royal imbecility, as is fitted to close a series of sovereigns, and to make room for a new dynasty. The three princes were not however wholly abandoned to their own weakness, for Catherine de Medici, their mother, exercised over them in succession a controlling superintendence. Labouring under a double dis- advantage, as a female and a stranger, she could not, with all her ability, give vigour to the royal power ; but she was able to soften the shocks, which it sustained from the violence of contending factions. This superior woman died precisely at the time, when the accession of Henry IV., who began the dynasty of Bourbon, would have superseded her exertions. The accession of this prince is an important epoch in the history of France, both as it affected the external relation of the government to Ger- many, and as it concerned the internal arrangement of the religious parties of the state. The combination of circum- stances, by which a protestant prince was then placed upon the throne, seemed to Davila, a stranger and a Roman Catho- lic, so extraordinary 17 , that he has noticed it as a mystery of 15 Renault, vol. i. pp. 415, 416. 16 Ibid., p. 432. " Davila, 1st. delle Guerre Civili di Francia, pp. 406, 407. Roano, 1646. FRANCE, 1515 1610. 79 the divine wisdom. We, who know the events, which have occurred since the time of the historian, especially the great treaty of Westphalia, may discover in it * portion of the plan of the Almighty's providence. The state of religious opinion 18 in France did not admit that the royal power should be exercised by a Protestant. But to the commencement of a system of policy adverse to the house of Austria it appears to have been necessary, that a prince should be placed upon the throne of France, who should be regarded as in heart a Protestant, and should feel that his safety depended on the support of the Protestants among his own subjects, and that it was his interest to seek among the Protestants of Germany auxiliaries against that Austrian power, which encouraged and abetted the discon- tents of the Roman Catholics of France. Francis I., in his great struggle with the emperor Charles V., had sought a connexion with the Protestants of Germany, but could not obtain their confidence, because he was in his own kingdom a persecutor of the reformers. Henry IV. on the other hand, though he had found it necessary to abjure their religion, was not regarded with distrust, and was therefore able to form with them a confidential connexion. After the death of this prince the German Protestants resumed their fears, nor could they be induced to look to the French for assistance, until the death of Gustavus of Sweden had left them without a protestant auxiliary. Even then the renewal of the connexion must have been facilitated, and perhaps could alone have been rendered practicable, by the tolerated establishment of the French Protestants, which had been procured for them by the influence of Henry IV. If now the religious parties of France had been left to maintain their own struggle without the interference of the factions of the great, the most probable result would have been, that the Roman Catholics would have overborne the Protestants, and these would never have found an opportunity 18 Bentivoglio reported to the court of Rome, that the Protestants were in the beginning of the seventeenth century only a fifteenth part of the French nation. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter xx. note 25. About the year 1676 they were estimated by their adver- saries as only 600,000, by themselvea as nearly 2,000,000. Eclaircisse- mens Historiques sur Ics Causes de la Revocation de 1'Edit de Nantes, tome i. p. 125. 1788. 80 MODEKN HISTOEY: of placing a king of their own party on the throne of France. But such was the excessive excitement communicated to the Roman Catholics by this interference, that they were urged to proceedings of a violence so extreme, as drove the reigning sovereign Henry III., though a Roman Catholic, to seek sup- port in a connexion with the chief of the adverse party, and to facilitate his succession. The most curious particular indeed in the conduct of the religious Avar, by which France was harassed at intervals during thirty-six years, was the middle position of the sovereign power. . Roman Catholics contended with Protestants, religious associations were formed on both sides, and the league of the former was opposed to the confederation of the latter, while the monarchy seems to have wavered between the two parties, the sovereign at one time, declaring himself the chief of that league of the Roman Catholics, which he was unable to control, and at another negociating with the Protestants, to whom it was opposed. The unexpected death of Henry II. 19 was so critically fa- vourable to the Protestants of France, that these used to speak of it as a special interposition of the divine providence for their protection. Steadily pursuing his plan of eradicating the new sect, he would probably have been successful, if his reign had been continued to an ordinary length ; but his ca- reer was abruptly terminated by a hurt received in a tourna - ment, and he left for the succession four sons, the eldest of whom was but sixteen years old. From that moment the spirits of the Protestants, commonly distinguished by the name of the Huguenots 20 , began to revive ; and at the same time those factions of the great began to be distinctly formed, which exasperated the contentions of religion. In the reign of Henry II. the party of the Guises had pre- dominated, as the king, notwithstanding all his zeal for re- ligion, indulged himself in a licentious connexion, and this family did not scruple to avail itself of the influence of the mistress. His death afforded an opportunity for a struggle, which had been repressed by his vigour. Francis II., weak 19 Davila, p. 22. 20 Probably derived from that of Eignots, given to those citizens of Geneva, who entered into alliance with the Swiss cantons against the duke of Savoy, the latter being an imperfect form of the German word eidgnossen, signifying confederates. Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 384, note. FRANCE, 15151610. 81 and incapable by nature, though legally qualified by his age to exercise the government, required to be directed by others, and thus became the object of the efforts of the contending parties. The Guises prevailed in this competition, having formed a junction with the queen-mother, the celebrated Catherine de Medici ; and the Bourbon family, being thus excluded from the government, sought in the support of the Protestants a strength 21 , which might enable them to over- throw their rivals. These, who had hitherto been a party merely religious, and were but beginning to recover their spirits since the death of Henry their persecutor, were thus in the year 1560 induced to enter into a conspiracy, the ob- ject of which is stated to have been to surprise the court, and, when they should have killed the duke of Guise and his brother the cardinal of Lorraine, to force the king to com- mit the government to the prince of Conde, brother of Antony of Bourbon, who should then grant to them the free exercise of their religion. The court however, having received in- formation of the conspiracy, was able to defeat it ; and the result was that, instead of advancing the princes of Bourbon to power, the utmost ambition of the duke of Guise was gratified, that nobleman being constituted lieutenant-general with supreme power civil and military, for the purpose of suppressing the malecontents. The Guises soon after brought the Bourbons into their power, and were proceeding to put them judicially to death. But here the hand of God inter- posed by the unlocked for illness and death of the young king ; and the Bourbons were liberated to be the leaders of the Protestants. The death of Francis II., when he had reigned about a year and a half, put an end to the arrangement made at his accession, and introduced the period of the civil wars, which were begun in the year 1562. The two factions were at this time committed in desperate hostility, and the reign of a child, the king being but ten years and a half old at his accession, afforded a fit opportunity for all their vio- lence.. By the death of Francis the Guises had lost that 21 At an extraordinary council, assembled at Fontainbleau in the year 1560, a petition was presented from the Protestants, for which it was alleged that the signatures of one hundred and fifty thousand persons could be presently procured. Davila, p. 33. VOL. III. G 82 MODERN HISTORY : influence, which they possessed through the aid of their niece, the queen of Scots, whom they had married to the king. The new king being a minor 22 , it became necessary that a regency should be constituted, to which the Guises, not being of the royal family, could not regularly aspire. The family accordingly resolved to maintain itself in power by force of arms, which naturally drove the princes of Bourbon to form a contrary confederation. The queen- mother, who assumed the regency, and dreaded alike the ascendency of either faction, endeavoured with great address to moderate the violence of both. The struggle of these factions, which broke out into open hostility after two years from the accession of Charles IX., was interrupted at intervals by plans of pacification, and in particular, at the expiration of eight years from the com- mencement of hostilities 23 , by one which, besides religious liberty granted to the Protestants, permitted the princes of Bourbon to retain for their security four cities during two years. This agreement was on the part of the Roman Ca- tholics a dark and deep-laid scheme of treachery for draw- ing the Protestants to the court, where they might be within the reach of the vindictive malice of their enemies. After much and anxious preparation the massacre of saint Bar- tholomew's day was perpetrated in the year 1572 ^ which 22 Davila, p. 43. Ibid., p. 180. 21 Of the origin and pro- gress of this horrid plot, Anquetil tells us, that the most probable ac- count is, that the original design of the king was to draw the chiefs of the Protestants to his court, with the intention of subjecting them to judicial chastisement for the projects, which they entertained ; that the peaceable conduct of the Protestants, and the confidence which they reposed in him, induced the king to abandon this design, and even disposed him to take pleasure in their society ; that the queen- mother, whether through religion or policy, was alarmed at these con- nexions, and formed a union with the Guises, for the purpose of detaching her son from the sectaries ; that, to commit the king with the Protestants, an attempt was made to assassinate the admiral de Coligni, one of their chiefs, who had visited the court ; and that the king was then persuaded to think, that no middle plan remained for him, but that he must either join with the Roman Catholics for the destruction of their enemies, or expect a new civil war. Esprit de la Ligue, tome ii. pp. 15, &c. To this dreadful massacre the historian De Thou has (tome iv. p. 600. Haye, 1740) happily applied the words of Statius ' Excidat ilia dies asvo, ne postera credant Secula ; nos certe taceamus, et obruta mult Nocte tegi propriae patiamur crimina gentis.' Sylv. v. 88. FRANCE, 1515 1610. 83 has for ever dishonoured the annals of the French govern- ment. Religious dissension had not there, as in our un- happy country, been embittered by a long preceding series of national animosity ; the ignorant populace were not there, as with us, the actors in the bloody tragedy ; nor was the massacre the last result of a bigotry, which had in the beginning proposed to restrain itself within the limits of regular hostility, and was afterwards urged on to savage violence. In this instance a sovereign was the murderer of his own subjects, in a time artfully prepared through a per- fidious accommodation, and by one sudden, though long premeditated act of vengeance. More than ten thousand persons are said to have perished in the massacre of the capital, which was continued during three days. Orders having been previously dispatched into the provinces, vio- lence was there also exercised against the Protestants, though with very various degrees of severity. The entire number of persons slain within a few days is said to have exceeded forty thousand. Charles IX. died in the year 1574, and left the kingdom to his brother Henry III., who in the preceding year had procured for himself the crown of Poland, but returned has- tily into France, that he might exchange an elective for an hereditary sovereignty. The crafty policy of this prince brought to its issue the movement, which had been begun by the sanguinary bigotry of his predecessor. Perhaps in no other combination of history can we more plainly dis- cover a curious co-operation of the influences of the various characters of sovereigns to the production of a peculiar re- sult. The temporary prevalence of a protestant interest in such a government as that of France was indeed a result, which required a very remarkable adjustment of circum- stances. The wavering conduct of Francis I. had accord- ingly permitted the Protestants to acquire strength, though only as a religious sect ; the steady severity of Henry II. had animated them with a spirit of perseverance in their faith, while his weakness permitted their adversaries the Guises to assume a predominance in the government ; the feeble and transient reign of Francis II., short as it was, afforded an opportunity for the union effected by the princes of Bourbon with the Protestants, which converted the latter G 2 84 MODEBN HISTOKY : into a political party ; the minority of Charles IX., giving occasion to a more violent contention of the factions of the court, committed the two religious parties in open hostility, at length exasperated by a perfidious and cruel massacre of the Protestants ; the yet remaining operation was effected by the artful management of Henry III., which determined the party of the Guises, or the Roman Catholics, to seek in the formation of the great association, named the league, a power independent of the crown, and able to control its authority. The preparatory acts of the varying drama were then completed, for the king, when he had first declared himself the chief of the league, was compelled to have re- course for his own safety to that connexion with Henry of Navarre, which procured for the Protestants of France their temporary establishment. The immediate occasion of the formation of the league was a peace 25 , which Henry III. had been induced to con- clude with the Huguenots in the year 1576, by which they obtained an entire toleration of their religion, with the right of eligibility to all offices and dignities, an equal share in the constitution of a court of justice in every parliament 26 , and eight cautionary towns, to be retained until the articles of peace should have been perfectly executed. The king, either influenced by a principle of piety, or perhaps with a political design of concealing the projected measures of his government, had facilitated the association of the leaguers, by introducing the practice of holding meetings of fraterni- ties for purposes of devotion. Nor did he appear to be dis- satisfied, when he was informed that the league had solicited and obtained the protection of the king of Spain, persuading himself that he should be able to establish his own power amidst the struggle of contending factions, and also willing to plead the general discontent of his subjects for annulling the peace recently concluded with the Protestants. These had set the example of seeking foreign aid, by soliciting that of Elizabeth of England, and of the protestant princes of Germany ; and it was imitated by the leaders of the league, who on their part sought the protection of the Roman pontiff and the king of Spain. 25 Davila, pp. 230, 231. There were eight par ii amen t s i n France. Ibid. p. 55. FRANCE, 1515 1610. 85 The party thus associated to overawe the throne, became at length so powerful, that it was determined to offer such terms to the king 27 , as should either transfer to them the whole poVer of the state, or afford a pretext for employing the force of arms to accomplish the same purpose. The king, when he had for some time evaded compliance, was necessitated to acquiesce ; but, when he discovered that the duke of Guise proposed as his ultimate object to be appointed by the states lieutenant general of the kingdom, a'nd thus to be the real and effective sovereign, wearied of his own de- graded condition, he determined to free himself from sub- jection by the desperate expedient of causing his rival to be assassinated, and soon afterwards his brother the cardinal. After this violence no resource remained for the king except in a union with the king of Navarre, who was thus brought into a connexion with the crown, of which he had been du- ring the last five years the nearest claimant in consequence of the death of the brother of the reigning sovereign. Henry III. within a few months fell by the poniard of a bigotted assassin, and thus left the throne open to the pretensions of his new ally. The infhience of these occurrences on the advancement of Henry IV. is not now for the first time assigned, in the refinement of a philosophical speculation on the events of a distant period, but has been long ago contemplated by Da- vila, as constituting one of the most surprising arrangements of the providential government of the world. To the con- siderations, which attracted the admiration of the historian may be added that of the assassination of the king 28 , which has been mentioned by the historian himself, as having de- termined the greater part of the Roman Catholics to decline all accommodation with the league, dishonoured as it was by the unjustifiable deed. The reign of Henry IV. is the period of their history, to which the French nation, so long as they cherished their ancient attachment to royalty, were delighted to look back. The affectionate remembrance of his countrymen has been given to the generous heroism of his character, which seemed to render him forgetful of every personal interest 27 Davila, pp. 344, 345. 28 Ibid., p. 425. 86 MODEBN HISTOHT : and solicitous only for the welfare of his subjects. His well-known wish, that every peasant might have his pullet in the pot, though it may be exploded as chimerical by poli- tical economists, is characteristic of the benevolent dispo- sition, which has endeared his memory to posterity, and has caused him to be described by the poet 29 , as at once the conqueror and the father of his people. Gallant and gay by nature, he interested the feelings of his countrymen as an individual. Formed in the school of adversity to the duties of a sovereign, he exhibited the rare example of a prince, whose energies were excited by difficulty 30 , while his compassion for the sufferings of his subjects all the vio- lence of party was unable to subdue. His very faults were of that attractive character, which contributed to fascinate the affections of his people, so that he seemed to be formed alike in his virtues and in his failings 31 , for harmonising the discordant passions of civil and religious factions, and re- viving in his nation the long forgotten sentiment of political union. If the mingled temperament of various qualities, which fitted him to conciliate the regard of his countrymen, was in any respect unsuited to the serious duties of a prince, the deficiency was abundantly compensated by the grave and steady wisdom of his confidential minister, the cele- brated duke of Sully. The family of this prince seems to have been trained for the issue by a special combination of circumstances. De- scended from the royal line of France, and possessing the nearest claim of succession after the reigning family, it was at the same time by a marriage possessed of the little re- maining territory of the crown of Navarre 32 , which the in- 29 Henriade, liv. vi. chant 1. 30 In the battle of Yvry, fought in the year 1590, the king commanded that the French, as his sub- jects, should be spared, while he caused the Germans, who had de- serted him, to be destroyed without mercy. Davila, p. 464. 31 His facility of temper is indeed represented by Sully, as having done much mischief in encouraging a spirit of disorder among his subjects, so that in the year 1607 it was computed, that four thousand gentlemen had lost their lives in duels since his accession. Mem. of the Duke of Sully, vol. v. pp. 97, 98. Dubl., 1781. This incidental abuse was afterwards corrected by the rigour of the government. In the irregular manners and violent exasperation of that period, it may have served to divert the minds of the people from political contention. 32 The little principality of Bearne in France became connected FRANCE, 1515 1610. 87 terposition of the Pyrenees had sheltered from the ambition of Spain, and was thus rendered favourable to those reformed opinions of religion, which had made a considerable progress in the southern provinces of France. The disposition of the sovereign of this petty state to encourage heresy had been pleaded as the justification of a papal bull, by which Ferdinand of Spain endeavoured to sanctify his usurpation of the Spanish part of his territory ; and, though the father of Henry IV., who married the heiress of the crown, appears to have wavered between the two religions, yet the young prince himself was carefully educated by his mother in the tenets of the Protestants. While this other branch of the royal family of France was thus prepared for introducing into the government an estab- lishment of Protestants, the reigning branch was conducted to its extinction, the three sons of Henry II. 33 having reigned in succession without leaving offspring. The family of Guise, unable to dispute the pretensions of the house of Bourbon, endeavoured to avert the succession of the champion of the Protestants, by supporting the claim of an aged cardinal and archbishop, who was nearer indeed to the throne than the king of Navarre 34 , but a younger branch of his family. This feeble phantom of a claimant, who was then too a prisoner to the king of Navarre, being quite incapable of making any effort to maintain his cause, his nominal advancement just served to support the right of his family against the pre- tenders 35 , who then aspired to the throne. But, notwithstanding all these favourable circumstances, the ancient religion was too deeply rooted in the kingdom, to permit that the Protestants should have on the throne a with the kingdom of Navarre in Spain in the year 1434 by the mar- riage of the Count de Fois, who then possessed the principality, with the heiress of Navarre. Etat de la France, tome ii. p. 351. 33 In almost the same manner the Valesian branch had succeeded to the throne in the year 1328, when the three sons of Philip IV. had died without male offspring. 34 He was a younger brother of the father of Henry IV. 35 In the year 1593 the crown was contested on the one part by the Spanish court, claiming it for the infanta Isa- bella, as the daughter of Elizabeth, who was sister of the last three kings of France ; and on the other by four several princes of the family of Guise. 88 MODERN HISTORY: prince of their profession. The Roman Catholics of the army 36 , which the king of Navarre commanded at the death of Henry III., determined to support his pretension only on receiving an assurance, that he would embrace their faith. He accordingly found himself necessitated to promise, that he would within six months cause himself to be instructed, and, if it should be necessary, would submit himself to the deci- sion of a national council ; nor did he obtain possession of his capital, until he had in the year 1593 abjured the protestant faith, when he had long anxiously deliberated between his fear of the opposition of the Roman Catholics, and his ap- prehension of losing the support of the Protestants, both of France and of foreign countries. Of the reign of Henry IV., which comprehended twenty- one years, nine years were employed in overcoming the re- sistance opposed to his elevation, the struggle of the civil wars not being concluded until the year 1598 ; the remainder was only sufficient for healing the wounds of a country, which had suffered from so long and so violent a contention. The struggle between the two sects was in that year terminated by the edict of Nantes 37 , which drew a line of demarcation between their respective pretensions, granting a large allow- ance of privileges to the Protestants, though bestowing on the Roman Catholics the superiority belonging to the religion 36 Davila, pp. 424426. 37 This edict; consisting of ninety-two general and 'fifty-six particular articles, granted to the Protestants the public exercise of their religion in certain specified places, the Roman Catholics however having also in these places the same liberty ; the en- joyment of all the rights of citizens, with eligibility to all offices ; the establishment of chambers of justice, one half of the members of each of which should be Protestants ; permissson to hold synods under the superintendence of royal commissioners ; the power of levying money for defraying the expenses of synods and of the maintenance of minis- ters, in addition to a royal allowance grante'd for the latter purpose; and, as security, the continued occupation, during the eight ensuing years, of all the places then in their possession, exceeding two hundred in number, with the liberty of maintaining garrisons in them, and an annual payment from the government for the support of the troops. Laval's Hist, of the Reform, in France, vol. iv. pp. 197293. Lond. 1737 1741. The. prosperous state of the Protestants continued to the peace, which followed the reduction of Rochelle in the year 1629. From this time they were subjected to continually increasing restric- tions, and in the year 1685 the edict was recalled. Esprit de la Ligue, tome iii. p. 350. FKANCE, 15151610. 89 of the state. The arrangement indeed was evidently of a temporary nature. A republican confederacy possessing fortified places was constituted within the monarchy ; the government was accordingly from this time composed of two parts, different in religious principles, and mutually opposed in political interests ; and it was inevitable that one of these should after some time prevail over the other, and establish itself exclusively under the protection of the government. The situation of parties was however much changed, for the struggle of the Protestants was, not with the league, but with the crown. The nation was disgusted at the excesses, from which it had suffered so many calamities ; the Menippean Satire 38 had covered the league with ridicule, as the protes- tant sectaries of England were afterwards rendered ridicu- lous by the satire of Butler ; and no third party could again be formed among the people, to controul the sovereign, while it pretended to maintain against heretics the religion of the state. Though Henry felt that the power of Spain had been actively and perseveringly exerted in opposition to his inte- rest, he perceived the expediency of entering into a negoti- ation with the government of that country, and a peace was accordingly concluded in the year 1598 by the treaty of Vervins. Still however the apprehension of the power of the house of Austria rankled in his heart, and his last medi- tations were employed in preparing the execution of a pro- ject, by which it should be for ever so controlled, as to be incapable of disturbing the tranquillity of Europe. The de- tails of this plan 39 have been communicated by Sully, who has informed us that the king had entertained it even from the time, when he was struggling to maintain his right of succeeding to the throne ; but he has added that, if it had not been suggested to him by Elizabeth of England, it had how- ever been long before contemplated by that princess. Henry formally proposed it by letter to Elizabeth in the year 1601, when the queen came to Dover, and the king to Calais, for 38 The Menippean Satire consisted of two parts, one of which was named the Spanish Catholicon, the other the Abridgment of the States of the League. The former was the work of one person ; the latter was the joint production of many. Henault, vol. ii. p. 14. a9 Memoirs, vol. vi. pp. 71, &c. 90 MODEEN HISTORY : the purpose of a more free communication ; and it was after- wards yet more explicitly submitted to her by Sully himself. The death of Elizabeth, which occurred in the year 1603, gave a shock to the scheme ; but Henry still persisted, and by a second embassy of his confidential minister obtained from her successor a passive concurrence, with a zealous as- surance of co-operation from the prince of Wales. The arm of an assassin arrested the enterprise at the moment of exe- cution 40 , and left the interests of Europe to their gradual progress towards the arrangements of the peace of West- phalia. This memorable project proposed in the first place to divest the Austrian family of the empire, and of all its territories in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, but granting to it, with the kingdom of Spain, Sardinia, Majorca, and Minorca, together with its insular territories in the Atlantic, and all its dominions in Africa, America, and Asia, and even all which might afterwards be discovered and acquired in those 40 The death of the duke of Cleves, which occurred in the year 1609, afforded the occasion. The duchy, having been formed by a successive union of six small provinces, Cleves, Juliers, Berg, La Marck, Ravens- burg, and Ravestein, involved such a complication of claims, that as Henry remarked, the succession belonged to almost all Germany. The whole however was claimed by the emperor, who maintained that none of these provinces could descend to female heirs. To France it was very important that they should be held by friendly princes, and such a disposition would have greatly weakened the power of Austria. While Henry wavered about the commencement of his grand project, the German princes held an assembly at Hall in Suabia, to which the Ve- netians, the prince of Orange, the states of Holland, and the duke of Savoy sent deputies ; and it was there determined to send an em- bassy, soliciting the assistance of Henry in opposing the usurpations of the emperor. In the spring of the year 1610, the troops were sent for- ward, and the king gave the signal of his own progress by a letter ad- dressed to the archduke, announcing an intention of marching through the territories of that prince, and requiring to be informed, whether he should be received as a friend or as an enemy. Mem. of Sully, vol. v. pp. 231 267. The dispute of this succession was not finally settled until the year 1666, when, by the mediation of France, the duchy of Cleves, with the counties of La Marck and Ravensburg, was adjudged to the elector of Brandenburg ; the duchies of Juliers and Berg, with a part of the county of Ravestein, were given to the duke of Neuburg ; and the Dutch retained Emmerick, Rees, Wesel, Orsoy, Gennep, and some other places, in the former division, with the city of Ravestein and its dependencies in the latter. Hist, de Hollande, par M. de la Neuvile, tome iii. p. 289. Paris, 1693. FRANCE, 1515 1610. 91 distant regions. It was next proposed that the imperial dig- nity should become purely elective, and that the emperor should be declared the first magistrate of the whole Christian republic ; that the Austrian territories should be distributed among the neighbouring princes and states ; that Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland should be enlarged and strengthened, and that these should all be elective kingdoms, the electors for Hungary and Poland being the pope, the emperor, and the kings of France, England, Denmark, and Sweden, and a new potentate to be denominated king of Lombardy ; that Swisserland, which should be augmented by the addition of some adjacent territories, should be united into a sovereign republic under the arbitration of the emperor, the princes of Germany, and the Venetians ; that the pope should receive all the southern provinces of Italy, and be entitled the im- mediate chief of the whole Italian republic, comprehending also Genoa, Florence, Mantua, Modena, Parma, Lucca, Bo- logna, and Ferrara 41 ; that Lombardy, the Milanese, and Montferrat should be added to the possessions of the duke of Savoy, who should be distinguished by the title of king of Lombardy ; and that a Belgic republic should be consti- tuted of all which should remain of the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands, when certain specified districts should have been formed into principalities. In this manner it was designed, that the number of European powers should be .fifteen, of which six should be great hereditary monarchies 42 , five elective monarchies, and four sovereign republics ; and that the general interests of Europe should be adjusted by a council, composed of about sixty-six persons 43 , to be trienni- ally elected. 41 Genoa, Florence, Mantua, Modena, Parma, and Lucca, -were not to undergo any alteration of their governments, but Bologna and Fer- rara were to be rendered free cities. All these were once in every twenty years to render homage to the pope as the chief, by presenting a crucifix worth ten thousand crowns. Sicily was to have been ceded to Venice, on the condition of homage to be rendered for it to every pontiff- Mem. of Sully, vol. vi. p. 86. * 2 The six hereditary mo- narchies were to be France, Spain, England or Britain, Denmark. Sweden, and Lombardy ; the five elective, the empire, the papacy, Po- land, Hungary, and Bohemia ; the four republics, the Venetian, the Italian, the Swiss, and the Belgic. Ibid., pp. 88, 89. * 3 Henry was of opinion that it should be composed of four commissaries from each of the following powers ; the emperor, the pope, the kings of 92 MODERN HISTORY : It is probable that this project of Elizabeth and Henry embraced all, which human wisdom was then capable of de- vising, for securing the independence, and maintaining the tranquillity of Europe. It was most natural that these sove- reigns, who had both been harassed by the power of Spain, should regard the reduction of the Austrian family as the main and most important consideration in such an arrange- ment. But when we examine their plan at the distance of two centuries, availing ourselves of our knowledge of the events, which have occurred in that most interesting interval, we may discover that it was ill adapted to their purpose. The first and most obvious objection is, that the grand object of the project was the reduction of the power of Spain, al- ready exhausted by the very exertions, at which Elizabeth and Henry had conceived so much alarm. The plan ac- cordingly proposed chiefly to effect that, the necessity of which had ceased to exist. In the next place, that it might receive the concurrence of the Roman pontiff 1 , the plan pro- posed to give to him so much temporal dominion, as would have too much secularised the papacy, and thereby have much impaired its ecclesiastical character. If moreover it had been carried into execution, it must speedily have ceased to retain the governments of Europe in their proposed com- bination, because that combination would have been, by its very adjustment, destitute of the necessary maintaining power, the dread of some overwhelming dominion. In the last place, it would have obstructed, instead of assisting, the progressive adjustment of the interests of Europe, as they have been actually arranged. The powers of Europe were then tending towards an adjustment, in which Austria should be the predominating, and France the rival, or balanc- ing power; but this project would have taken away the dominion of the house of Austria in Germany, where the adjustment was in progress, and would thus have precluded the arrangement. Such, and so limited, is the wisdom of the wisest of mortals ! It is remarkable that the civil wars of England and France were directly contrasted in their respective influences on the France, Spain, England, Denmark, Sweden, Lombardy, and Poland, and the republic of Venice ; and of two from each of the other republics and the inferior powers. FRANCE, 1515 1610. 93 commercial habits of the two nations. In England the in- terregnum formed an important period of the commercial history of the country ; in France the war of the league withdrew the attention of the nation from its marine, and annihilated its foreign commerce. The English commotions, being about eighty years later than those of France, had been preceded by the naval glories of the reign of Elizabeth, which had determined the direction of the public energies, and were contemporary to the commercial greatness of the new republic of the Dutch provinces, which excited the rivalry of the state. No such circumstances having in- fluenced the earlier commotions of the French, the two neighbouring kingdoms appear to have experienced opposite effects from nearly similar causes, and thus to have been diversely disposed to assume their respective stations in the general system of Europe, France as the power controlling the interests of the continent, England as that Avhich op- posed to its predominance the strength supplied by maritime resources. In another respect also, unhappily for France, do the two periods of public agitation appear to have been directly contrasted. In England the serious principles of the Pu- ritans, however pushed to extravagance, seem to have im- parted to the national manners a strong influence of moral regulation, which has been perhaps usefully moderated by the counteracting influence of the voluptuous court of Charles II., but has continued to the present day to maintain among the people a high standard of the public morals. In France, where an opposite influence was widely predominant, the national morals appear to have reached, in the period of the civil war, the last stage of a progressive depravation, from which they have not yet receded. The factitious principles of chivalry had lost their power, and the genuine principles of religious reformation had not been sufficiently introduced into their place. It accordingly appears 44 that before the reign of Charles IX. the men had indeed seduced the women into that vicious intercourse, to which French licentiousness has given the name of gallantry, but that in the time of that prince, irregular amours having become involved in all the political intrigues of the state, the women became the Abrege Chron., tome vi. pp. 328, 329. 94 MODERN HISTORY : seducers, their husbands acquiescing in their profligacy, through interested speculation, or because they were grati- fied with the compensation which they found in the general licentiousness, each husband receiving from it, in the place of one wife, a hundred. In the succeeding reign of Henry III. cruelty was added to licentiousness, the horrid massacre of saint Bartholomew's day having awakened and encour- aged all the malignant passions ; and the mixed subjects of gallantry and violence occupied all the thoughts of the young nobility of the kingdom, constituting even their system of education. More peaceable times brought with them more peaceable habits, but the disregard of conjugal obligations has continued to be the disgraceful characteristic of French society. This corruption, however to be deplored in a moral view, has indeed qualified the French to give to the nations of Europe an example of that amenity of manners, which would bestow a grace on virtue, and can almost cause the want of it to be forgotten. At some future, possibly at no distant period, the influence of the example of our own country may perhaps dispose the neighbouring people to combine the religion and morals of England with the man- ners of France, and become at the same time virtuous and attractive. CHAPTER IV. Of the histories of Russia and Poland, from the commencement of the sixteenth century to that of the German war of thirty years in the year 1618. Siberia acquired by Russia in the year 1581 The Russian church in- dependent, 1588 The crown of Poland simply elective, 1579 Poland united with Sweden, 1592 The union dissolved, 1604. THE four governments of the north of Europe, Russia, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden, with the dependent state of Norway, are reducible into two divisions, one of which should comprehend Russia and Poland, the other the more western countries. These were occupied by the German ETTSSIA AND POLAND, 1500 1618. 95 nations, who had preceded the Slavians in their progress into Europe ; Russia and Poland, on the other hand, were occupied by the Slavians, who possessed themselves of the countries, which the Germans had abandoned. Russia was too remote, and its government was yet too imperfectly formed, to exercise in this period any direct in- fluence on the combinations of the system of Europe ; and therefore, if its immediate agency were alone to be regarded, the consideration of. this state should be reserved for a sub- sequent portion of the investigation. Poland however was in both respects differently circumstanced, and in the Ger- man war of thirty years did actually take a part in adjusting the general arrangements of European policy ; and, as Rus- sia was so closely connected with Poland, that these two governments may be considered as forming a distinct com- bination of states reciprocally affected with various influences, it appears necessary to consider them conjointly, the one as directly acting on the federative adjustment of the policy of Europe, the other as being intimately connected with the former in all the relations of vicinity, of a common origin, and of a common language. Before the beginning of the sixteenth century Russia had been finally rescued from the thraldom, in which it had been long held by the Tatars, and the ascendency of the sove- reign power had been established by a vigorous and enlight- ened monarch. Poland at the same time had been strength- ened by the important accession of Lithuania, the incorpo- ration of which with the Polish government was then nearly perfected, after the lapse of more than a century from its commencement ; but the government was gradually assum- ing more of the character of an elective monarchy, and was thus preparing itself for its subsequent decay and disso- lution. The admiration deservedly bestowed on Peter the Great, for his extraordinary efforts to civilise and aggrandise his people, has given occasion to an erroneous conception of the prior situation of his country. We are accustomed to imagine a genius of a superior order arising among a people, who had made scarcely any progress from the rudeness of a savage life, hurrying them with the rapidity of enchant- ment through the long interval, by which such a people 96 MODEKN HISTORY : must be separated from civilisation and importance, and in- troducing at once into the system of Europe a new mem- ber, sufficiently powerful to influence all its movements, and to control all its operations. This sudden transformation of a great society does not however lie within the ability of the most exalted talents ; nor is it any disparagement of the genius of Peter to say, that he did not do that, which human energy must be unable to accomplish. The habits of a na- tion, as of an individual, must be formed by degrees. It has accordingly been shown of the Russian government l , that even in the reign of that prince, who rescued it from the dominion of the Tatars, a beginning was made of the efforts, to which Russia has been indebted for civilisation and refinement, artists having been even then attracted from Italy. Ivan III., who had delivered his country from slavery and debasement, and had endeavoured to ennoble his government by the introduction of the arts of cultivated life, had marked his greatness by assuming the title of grand prince of Rus- sia 2 ; and his son and successor, who began his reign in the year 1505, characterised in the like manner his increasing aggrandisement by adopting the new title of czar, or sove- reign 3 . This reign was distinguished by the successful energy, with which the renewed strength of the government was exerted in recovering from the Poles the territories, of which they had possessed themselves during its subjuga- tion*. In an interval of external tranquillity that energy was also employed in repressing the republican turbulence of one of the great cities of Russia, and in simplifying and strengthening the administration 5 . The succeeding sovereign Ivan IV., whose reign occupied fifty-one years in the middle of the sixteenth century, from 1 Book ii. chap. via. 2 His title, fully expressed, was grand prince of Volodimir, Moscow, Novgorod, and all Russia ; a title indi- cating the imperfect consolidation of the government. 3 The em- peror Maximilian, in a confederation against Poland, gave Vassili IV., then sovereign of Russia, the title of emperor. From the middle of the sixteenth century the English gave this title to the sovereigns of Russia, and other powers have followed their example. Levesque, tome ii. p. 381. The title of czar was first borne with constancy by Ivan IV. Ibid., tome iii. p. 20. 4 Ibid., tome ii. pp. 371381. 5 Ibid., pp. 373, 374. RUSSIA AND POLAND, 1500 1618. 97 the year 1533 to the year 1584, is described to us by the historian of Russia 6 , as having contributed more than any of his predecessors to the power of the nation. The fero- cious character of this early improver of Russia is a curious object of attention, resembling the rough violence of the celebrated Peter, but exceeding it proportionally in degree, as it operated on the country in a considerably earlier period. Having succeeded to the throne when only three years old, he was necessarily subject to the control of others during a long minority, and exposed to all the wrongs, which avidity might practise on the weakness of childhood in an unsettled government ; but his spirit afterwards rose with indignation against the usurpations, of which his earlier years had been the prey 7 , and when scarcely fourteen years old, he assumed the government with an authority, which at once reduced the intrigues and factions of the court to silence and sub- mission. The discipline of this noviciate appears to have aggravated the stern severity of his original character 8 . By some historians he has been pourtrayed in the colours of a cruel tyrant, but a series of important measures attests the utility of his energetic government. For repressing the efforts of the Tatars he instituted the strelits 9 , the first re- gular troops of Russia, arming them with muskets instead of bows, which had been almost exclusively employed. With this force he effected the ruin of the neighbouring hordes of Tatars, which had continued to infest Russia, ever since that country had been subject to their nation ; and the importance of this achievement to his internal government he boldly proclaimed to his courtiers, in tell- ing them that God had at length strengthened him against them. To supply the deficiencies of his subjects, he in- vited from various parts of Europe persons capable of in- structing them in the arts of life, of accustoming them to subordination, of forming them to the practice of regular war, and leading them to battle 10 . With a barbarous ven- geance he subdued the refractory spirit of the Russian cities, to the ruin indeed of the celebrated Novgorod, the parent- city of the government, sustaining at the same time the 6 Levesque, tome ii. p. 391. 7 Ibid., tomeiii. p. 17. 8 Ibid., p. 18. 9 Ibid., pp. 29, 52, 53. 10 Ibid , p. 73. VOL. III. II 98 MODERN HI8TOKT : united attacks of all the neighbouring nations, amidst ap- pearances of danger so formidable, that our queen Elizabeth deemed it necessary to offer him an asylum within her ter- ritories. A fortunate contingency bestowed on this extraor- dinary reign the splendour of enlarged dominion 11 , by opening the way to the acquisition of Siberia, a region more exten- sive than the original territory. Nor should it be omitted that in this reign also, in the year 1553, the way to the White Sea was discovered by the English 12 , and a commer- cial intercourse was thereby opened between their country and Russia. Levesque, when in his history of Russia he had recited the military events of the reign of Ivan IV., has added that he must proceed to describe this prince as the legislator of his country, and the protector of commerce and the arts, and that it would then only remain to compose a history of him as a savage beast. But the Russians his subjects 13 were at this period savage in their manners, and the historian u has quoted the acknowledgment of a Russian writer, that the actual habits of the nation may have required such a government. The poignant description of the efforts of Peter, that they were the action of aqua fortis upon iron, may indeed with yet greater propriety be applied to those of his predecessor. This savage civiliser of a savage peo- ple, with a fanaticism, which must bring to our recollection the character of the Russian Suwarrow in the Avar of the French revolution, impressed his subjects with a persua- sion 15 , that he acted under the influence of an inspiration from heaven, from which alone he affected to derive his au- thority. When he was solicited to grant a favour, his an- swer was that he would do so, if God should so ordain. His subjects accordingly, in all the extravagancies of his folly or barbarity, learned to reverence the sanctity of his actions, as divinely directed ; and the historian has sup- posed, that at this time began the custom, which prevailed 11 A chief of the Cossacks of the Don, in the course of his depreda- tions, possessed himself of Siberia in. the year 1580, and apprehending that he should not be able to retain his conquest, ceded it in the follow- ing year to his sovereign, who had been ignorant of the enterprise. Levesque, tome iii. p. 134. l - Ibid., p. 154 13 Ibid., p. 101. 14 Ibid., p. 168. 15 Ibid p- 166> RUSSIA AND POLAND, 1500 1618. 99 among the Russians, of saying, when they would profess their ignorance of any thing, God knows it and the czar. The remainder of the sixteenth and the first four years of the seventeenth century were occupied by two reigns, the former of which concluded the earlier dynasty of the Russian sovereigns ; but, as the feeble sovereign, who closed the succession of his family, suffered his brother-in- law 16 , by whom he was succeeded, to govern himself and his dominions, they may both be considered as one reign of twenty-one years, during which the superior ability of the latter monarch was vigorously exerted in prosecuting the designs of Ivan IV. Boris accordingly, the founder of the new dynasty, employed himself through that entire period in inviting from foreign countries 17 those, whom he thought capable of instructing the Russians, in availing himself 18 of every opportunity for promoting the commerce of the coun- try, in improving 19 to the utmost of his power its soldiery and military defences, and in yet further reducing those distinguished families, which gave umbrage to the dignity of the throne. Already, says the historian 20 , might the nation expect to see the arts of war and peace flourish in its bosom ; already had it attracted the attention and con- sideration of the more improved governments of Europe ; and even the haughty Elizabeth of England deemed it de- sirable to cultivate the friendship of this distant, and hither- to obscure people. To this account of the general progress of Russian im- provement in the sixteenth century it should be added, that towards the conclusion of that century, or about the year 1588, the church of Russia 21 experienced a revolution in some degree analogous to that ecclesiastical separation among the other states of Europe, which had there with- drawn the Protestants from the supremacy of Rome. At that time the metropolitan of Russia was raised to the dignity of a patriarch, and the church of that country was thereby rendered independent of the patriarch of Con- 16 Levesque, tome iii. p. 217. Ibid., p. 239. 18 Ibid., p. 253. 19 Ibid., p. 254. 20 Ibid., p. '259. 21 Ibid., p. 217. Hist, de 1' Anarchic de Pologne, par Rulhiere, tome i. p. 106. Paris, 1807. H 2 100 MODEHN HISTOBY: stantinople, to whom it had been subordinate, as the rest of Europe had been subjected to the Roman bishop. But this revolution of the Greek was far inferior to that of the Roman church in the dignity of its origin, as in the im- portance of its consequences. It was not the struggle of awakened reason, for such was the ignorance of the Rus- sian clergy 22 in the middle of the sixteenth century, that three persons only among them were acquainted with the Latin language, and none of them had any knowledge of the Greek, though they belonged to the Greek church. Nor was it the resistance of the virtuous feelings of mankind, indignant at gross practical abuses, for the Greek patriarch, who had never been able to establish an authority equal to that finally erected by the Roman pontiff, had been more than a century involved in the general ruin of his country, and the Russian prelates appear, from the unexceptionable testimony of a Romish Jesuit, to have attracted universal ve- neration by the exemplary regularity of their conduct. It was the simple result of the oppressed and degraded situation of the church of Greece 23 , and was proposed, or conceded, to 23 Levesque, tome iii. p. 163. M The church of Greece neither possessed the power of committing so great abuses, as in that of Rome provoked the reformation, nor the countervailing principle furnished by the doctrine of Augustin, which was confined to the Latin church. An attempt was made by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of Constantinople, who had passed some time in England in the reign of Charles I., to in- troduce a reformation on the principles of Calvin ; and we have a con- fession of faith, which he composed for this purpose in the year 1621. But the Greek church was not prepared for such a measure ; and the church of Rome on the contrary acquired an influence in it, which caused the opinions of Cyril Lucar to be condemned by two synods, one held in Constantinople in the year 1639, the other at Jassy in Moldavia in the year 1 64'2, and by a council assembled at Jerusalem in the year 1672. The influence of Rome, a natural result of the Italian education of the more learned among the Greek clergy, has in- troduced among the later Greeks the doctrine of transubstantiation, which had originated in the Latin church. Monumens Authentiques de la Religion des Grecs, par Aymon. Rycaut's Present State of the Greek church, pref. The church of Greece, with that of Armenia, which was originally a part of it, is represented by Rycaut as, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, retaining only the exterior of religion, and depending more on the rigorous observance of long and frequent fasts, than on the spiritual influence of religious principle. The influence of Rome had, at least three centuries and a half before KUSSIA AND POLAND, 1500 1618. 101 the czar by its pontiff, as the means of conciliating his favour and procuring some assistance. The pretext of the new arrangement is curious, and forms some sort of connexion with the history of the rest of Eu- rope. It was alleged that of the five chiefs of the Christian church, namely the bishop of Rome and the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, the first had fallen from his rank by various heresies, and that it was expedient that his place should be supplied by a patriarch of Russia. Thus, when a large portion of the west had separated itself from the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, the Greek patriarch also pronounced against him his feeble sentence of degradation, and in the pride of superior orthodoxy sought a pretext for renouncing a superiority, which he was no longer able to maintain. This ecclesiastical revolution tended to introduce some disturbance into the simple despotism of the Russian go- vernment, as it gave importance to the clergy, who had been before too humble for ambition. The chief of the church 24 advanced his pretensions to power ; the great families be- gan to introduce some of their members into the ecclesi- astical order ; and the absolute rule of the czars began to feel, that there was in the state a countervailing authority. Peter the Great at length remedied the inconvenience by suppressing the patriarchate, while he preserved the inde- pendence of the church of Russia ; and thus the sovereign of Russia, like the king of England, constituted himself the supreme head of the ecclesiastical establishment of his country. The progress of Russia was at length interrupted, though but for the short space of eight years, in which interval however the country experienced all the mischiefs of in- ternal distraction, and was thereby exposed an unresisting victim to the aggressions of the Poles. It is in giving oc- casion to this disturbance and suffering of Russia, that we perceive the influence of that termination of the ancient dy- nasty, which had just before occurred in the government. Boris, the aspiring author of the revolution, had employed the time of Rycaut, been extended to Armenia ; but this writer denies, that the Armenian church had ever conformed to that of Rome, or ad- mitted the supremacy of the pope. u Rulhiere, tome i. TO. 107. 102 MODERN HISTOKY. assassins to murder the infant brother of the preceding sove- reign, and thus to remove the single impediment, which ob- structed his own advancement, Unhappily for Russia, this act of violence was involved in so much obscurity by the policy of him who had directed it, that the death of the young prince 25 was not ascertained to the conviction of the public, and a series of persons claimed the throne under his name, and. assisted by the intrigues and forces of Poland, carried confusion and desolation into the heart of the country. The death of Boris, after a short reign of seven years, made room for this scene of public confusion, which obscured for a time the bright prospects of Russia. Fedor II., his son and successor, being but a youth of sixteen years, was utterly unable to contend with the difficulties of his situation. His murder accordingly within a year avenged the violence, if not actually offered, at least intended for the young Dmitri, or Demetrius, and placed on the throne a person, who claimed to be that injured individual. The strong an- tipathy entertained by the Russians against the Poles, by whom this claimant had been supported, and their jealousy of the manners of Poland, which he had adopted, soon ex- cited a violent fermentation in the minds of his people. A conspiracy was at the same time formed against him by a prince of the royal family of Russia, and in the following year another murder made way for another sovereign. The reign of this czar, which lasted only four years, was agitated by every disorder, which could convulse a government. The unrelenting vengeance of the new sovereign exasperated those, who had been adverse to his exaltation ; the peasants availed themselves of the public confusion, to attempt the overthrow of the nobles ; seven different impostors, each claiming to be the true Demetrius, advanced pretensions to the throne ; and the Poles, first by clandestine efforts, after- wards by open hostilities, endeavoured to possess them- selves of a part, or the whole, of the territory of an expiring nation. Such was at this time the distress of Russia, that the as- sistance of Sweden was the only resource of the czar for 25 Levesque was of opinion, that the young prince had not been killed, and that he really reigned during a short time. Levesque, tome iii. pp. Ill, &c. RUSSIA AND POLAND, 1500 1618. 103 resisting the aggressions of Poland. This assistance proved ineffectual ; the czar was compelled to abdicate his crown, and the king of Poland was invited to send his son to be the sovereign of Russia. Fortunately for the independence of the nation, the violences practised by the Poles, and the plans of conquest or dismemberment entertained by their monarch, alienated the Russians from this dangerous con- nexion. When they had afterwards with a similar proposal courted the assistance of the rival power of Sweden, the same selfish ambition, which had appeared in the measures of Poland, again fortunately betrayed itself, and determined them to seek among themselves the founder of a new dy- nasty. They then concurred in electing Michael, whose prudent government, in a long reign of thirty-two years, healed the wounds of the nation, and whose descendants have rendered Russia an object of principal importance in the general system. For discovering the bearing of this short, but consider- able, interruption of the progressive improvement of Russia, we must look to the relation, which that country bore to the neighbouring country of Poland, and to the situation, in which the latter was at this time placed in respect of the southern combinations of Europe. It is only in this man- ner, that Russia, in that early period, can be regarded as at all connected with the general arrangements of Europe, being oo remote for direct interference at this stage of improve- nent, as it was also too little advanced for a participation o' distant interests. Various causes had however estab- lished such a facility of action and re-action between that tountry and Poland, that a close and intimate relation must hvve subsisted between them. Sprung from the same Slavian P'pulation, and therefore corresponding in many of their habits ; long accustomed to the same language, for the ge- neal use of the Latin language 26 had not been introduced 26 The general knowledge of the Latin language in Poland has been refeted to the time of Casimir IV., who began his reign in the year 1447 This prince is said to have been so ashamed of his own ina- bility and of that of his courtiers, to reply to a king of Sweden, who had adressed him in Latin, being ignorant of the Polish language, that h> required by proclamation, that it should be studied by all, who aspirecto advancement. Loccenius however, on whose authority this has bee. stated, omitted the anecdote in a later edition of his history. 104 MODERN HISTORY : among the Poles long before the commencement of the six- teenth century ; and separated by no natural boundary, which might have taught each nation to regard the other as aliens, they were incapable of being so insulated, even by the antipathy of their differing churches, that a conducting influence should not convey to either nation some result of every change experienced by the other. In the year 1507 Sigismond I., the illustrious contempo- rary of the emperor Charles V., began in Poland a reign of forty-one years, distinguished as the period, in which this country attained to its highest improvement. The reign of this prince was an uninterrupted series of successful exer- tions for the security and improvement of his people. At his death he left his kingdom to his son Sigismond, who in his lifetime had been elected to succeed him. The same course of wise and vigorous government was then continued during twenty-four years, the time of the reign of the second Sigismond, so that Poland appears to have enjoyed an ex- traordinary degree of prosperity during sixty-five years qf the sixteenth century. The death of the latter prince, who left no issue, terminated in the year 1572, the series of Li- thuanian sovereigns, who were elected indeed, but were all chosen from the same family ; and the throne of Poland was from that time abandoned to the general ambition, not only of the Poles, but also of foreign nations. Of the princes thus simply elected three only were in- cluded within the period of time at present considered ; anc it is observable that these three were not only stranger;, but of three different countries, the first of them havirg been a prince of France, the second of Transylvania, and the third of Sweden. Hartknoch, pp. 82, 83. Some refer it to the time of Stephen Battorf, who began his reign in the year 1576, this prince being himself uneen suffi- cient to generate the revolution without the authoritative in- terference of the crown, the reformation of England would, as in Scotland, have been extreme in principle, and demo- cratical in its ecclesiastical arrangements. Arising, as it actually did, immediately from the will of the sovereign, but among a people well prepared for its reception, it was temperate in its origin, and accepted with an enlightened and willing acquiescence. The seeds of the English reformation had been sown a century and a half before this period by Wicliffe, the leader of the English separatists from the church of Rome, and indeed also in some measure the author of the reform- ation of the continent of Europe, his writings having given occasion to the secession of John Huss, the reformer of Bo- hemia. The followers of Wicliffe however had been much reduced in importance before the reign of Henry VIII. They to be 131,607 6s. 4d. ; but was really ten times greater. The value of the moveables, which was very great, was not included. Burnet'* Hist, of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 257. Lond. 1715. 206 MODERN HISTOHT : had been so long and so cruelly persecuted*, that their num- ber had been much diminished, the persecution having been continued even to the last year of the preceding reign. The civil distractions too, by which England had been convulsed in the interval, must have contributed to divert the minds of the people from speculative subjects, and to indispose them to engage in new contentions. The disciples of Wicliffe also, perhaps influenced by the example of their master, appear not to have been generally desirous of the crown of martyrdom, so that they did not much solicit the attention of the public. The people were therefore just so far pre- pared for separating from the Roman see, that they might be led to it by the authority of such a monarch as Henry VIII., but by no means so far, as to begin the revolution among themselves, and to force it upon the government. The greater part was still attached to the doctrines of the church of Rome, though long alienated from its clergy ; and in the reign of Henry the two parties were played the one against the other, and a great revolution was effected without any mischievous derangement of the public order. Eighteen years of this reign had passed, before that ques- tion arose, which determined Henry to reject the supremacy of Rome. But in this interval preparation was very va- riously made for the change, which occupied the remainder, and the whole reign, comprehending thirty-eight years, will appear to have had a common tendency. The expensive magnificence of the king conciliated the affections of his subjects, and thus increased the popularity already attached to his common descent from the rival families of York and Lancaster : his blind devotedness to his favourite Wolsey, as it transferred to this minister all the power of the crown 8 , raised up an idol for the interested adulation of foreign so- vereigns, which induced the Roman pontiff" to alienate in his favour the prerogatives of the papal see, and thus to set an example of that vicegerency, which Cromwell exercised for Henry after the separation of the English church : and, 2 Henry's Hist, of Great Britain, vol. xii. pp. 8, 9. 3 The king even granted to him the disposal of all the bishoprics of England. Burnet, vol. i. p. 8. At Bruges, whither he had gone as ambassador to the emperor, he was saluted by a merry fellow in these words ; Salve rex regis tui, atque regni sui. Wordsworth's Eccles. Biogr., vol. i. p. 351, note. London, 1818. ENGLAND, 1509 1553. 207 lastly, the schemes of Wolsey, for attaining to the papacy, the highest object of ecclesiastical ambition, gave to the fo- reign politics of Henry a determination, which in his cele- brated suit for a divorce from his first queen excluded him from the indulgence of the papal court, and drove him into a separation from a see, the doctrines of which he continued to maintain. Wolsey had recommended himself to Henry VII. by his zeal and discretion, but the death of that sovereign had in- tercepted his reward. In his successor the aspiring eccle- siastic found a prince of more congenial character, and he was speedily advanced to the summit of the royal favour. Splendid in his expenses, and dissipated in his habits, he gained the affections of the youthful monarch ; learned him- self and a friend to learning, he encouraged the studious pro- pensities and the literary ambition of his master 4 ; and in- defatigable in his application to business, he took upon him- self all the anxiety, which would have interrupted the plea- sures, or the studies of the king. The importance of such a minister was soon perceived by foreign courts. Honours equal to those, with which Henry himself was treated, were bestowed upon the favourite ; and so entire was the attach- ment of the sovereign, that he was gratified even at the bribes, with which the contending princes of Europe endea- voured to win his minister to their interests. Such a man could not rest satisfied with being made an archbishop at the recommendation of his own sovereign, and a cardinal by the influence of the king of France. He accordingly aspired to the highest station of ecclesiastical ambition, and consoled himself under his repeated disap- pointment by engrossing within his own country all the pre- rogatives of the papal supremacy. In the ninth year of this reign he was appointed legate of the Roman see in England with powers 5 greater than had ever before been * His father appears to have occupied him in literature, that he might remove him from the knowledge of public business. Burnet, vol. i. p. 10. 5 His dignity of legate a latere was continued to him by several bulls. In one of these he received the following extraordi- nary powers : of making fifty counts palatine, fifty knights, fifty chap- lains and fifty notaries ; of legitimating bastards ; and of conferring the degree of doctor in each of the faculties of divinity, law, and me- dicine. These were granted to fix him in the interests of the em- 208 MODERN HISTOHY: granted to such an officer ; and he so stretched those pow- ers 6 , that he might almost be considered as an English pope. The existence of this example of ecclesiastical supremacy within the realm, during so many years, may fairly be re- garded as furnishing Henry, attached as he was to the church of Rome, with a precedent of the power, which he after- wards arrogated to himself, while it may have deterred him from adopting the middle measure of establishing a patri- archate for England, as appears to have been contemplated for France 7 . In one remarkable instance the extraordinary power of Wolsey was exerted in a manner, which directly led to the general suppression of the monasteries, a measure indispensable to the success of the reformation. Desirous at once of encouraging letters, and of illustrating his name by the erection of new establishments of learning, the car- dinal procured from the pontiff authority to suppress certain of these societies, for the purpose of founding two magni- ficent colleges, one at Oxford, the other at Ipswich his na- tive town, the Roman see being, as Hume remarks, the more easily disposed to grant this permission, as it had been per- ceived that, for resisting the attacks of the reformers, scho- lars were then more necessary than monks. In the nineteenth year of this reign arose the celebrated question, which drove the reluctant Henry into a separation from the see of Rome 8 . His marriage with the widow of his brother had been sanctioned by one of those dispensa- tions, which had constituted a powerful engine of the papal peror, and probably at the desire of that prince. Henry, vol. xii. p. 144. In the year 1522 the pope, being detained in confinement by the emperor, constituted Wolsey his vicar-general, thus devolving upon him the whole power of the papacy. Ibid., p. 27. 6 ' Among other encroachments he established a court in his own house, called York- house, for all testamentary matters, which almost annihilated both the business and emoluments of the prerogative court of the archbishop of Canterbury. Against this innovation the archbishop remonstrated again and again, in very strong, but decent and respectful terms. But to these remonstrances the haughty vicar-general paid no regard, till he received a message from the king, of whom alone he stood in awe. r Henry, vol. xii. p. 27. 7 Turner's Mod. Hist, of England, vol. ii. p. 322, note 44. Lond., 1827. 8 Henry had in the year 1522, pub- lished his book entitled Assertio Septem Sacramentorum adversus Lutherum ; neither did he ever at any time protest against the doctrine of the church of Rome. ENGLAND, 15091553. 209 supremacy. The controversy therefore about his divorce involved the important consideration of the claim of the papacy to a right of dispensing with a law acknowledged to be of divine authority. In this instance, as in that of the in- dulgences, which had provoked the resistance of Luther, the machine had been stretched too far, and recoiled against the system, which it had been employed to support. That a pontiff should have been induced to grant such a dispen- sation, affords, as Burnet 9 has remarked, an example of the blindness of human policy, and of the overruling providence of God. It had probably been supposed, that the succeed- ing princes of England would have been thereby bound to adhere to the papal authority ; the actual result was that the supremacy and religion of Rome were renounced by that government. The frugal and politic father of Henry, unwilling to re- store the dowry of the Spanish princess, and anxious to se- cxire the alliance formed with her country, had caused her, after the death of his elder son Arthur, to be affianced to the younger. He appears however to have entertained no serious intention of completing a marriage so irregular, having or- dered the young prince to protest against it, so soon as he should arrive at full age, and having on his death-bed so- lemnly charged him to decline the performance of the en- gagement. The passion of the young prince frustrated this policy, and the marriage was completed notwithstanding the injunctions of his father. These injunctions had afterwards indeed an important operation in rendering Henry scrupulous about the transaction, when his passion had subsided, espe- cially when his disappointment in regard to male offspring seemed to be a curse entailed upon the alliance. The at- tractions of Anne Boleyn, who had recently appeared at court, added new force to his scruple, by presenting a more desirable object: but it has lately been proved 10 , that the 9 Hist, of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 35. 10 Turner, vol. i. pp. 10. 57. This was in the year 1527. The first match contemplated by Wolsey for the king was with the duchess of Alen9on, sister of Francis ; the second was with Renee the sister of his queen. Ibid., pp. 134 160. The former appears to have declined the proposal through respect for the feelings of Catherine ; the marriage of the latter seems to have been opposed in the French court, because, as one of the daughters of Anne of Brittany, she was the heiress of one half of that province. In form- VOJ.. III. P 210 MODERN HISTORY : scruple had been previously entertained by Henry, and that it had been suggested to him by the French ambassador, whether in conjunction with Wolsey or not is uncertain, a divorce being at the same time projected by the latter, in favour successively of two different plans of connecting the king by marriage with the royal family of France. Luther's opposition to the church of Rome had arisen from a question connected with the essential doctrine of our re- ligion, and therefore led to a doctrinal reformation. The reformation might afterwards be begun in England on a mere claim of power, as a doctrinal reformation was sure to succeed. The neutrality of the question, which gave occa- sion to the English reformation, was at the same time pro- ductive of two considerable advantages. As it immediately but transferred to the sovereign the authority, which had been exercised by the pontiff, it left to the throne the regu- lation of the subsequent changes, and thus insured their moderation ; and, as the separation from Rome was effected independently of all tenets of religion, it left to the reformers of the English church an entire freedom in making a choice among the separatists of the continent. To this great revolution the foreign engagements of Eng- land appear to have been rendered instrumental by the frus- trated ambition of Wolsey. Disappointed of the papal throne in the year 1522 by the election of Adrian VI., the tutor of the emperor, and again in the following year by that of Clement VII., the cardinal de Medici, Wolsey, who had be- fore paid his court to the emperor, attached himself to his great rival Francis, involving the pontiff-in the struggle, and thus drew upon his sovereign and the pontiff the determined hostility of the former. The papacy, in the progress of the struggle, was completely subjugated to the emperor, espe- cially when the constable de Bourbon, who after his defection from Francis commanded the imperial army in Italy, had been by the necessities and the rapacity of his troops driven to the violence of plundering Rome and imprisoning the pon- tiff. In these circumstances the pontiff was not free to ac- cede to a measure, which would have gratified the king of England by offending the emperor. ing these plans Wolsey appears to have been influenced by resentment against Catherine, who had reproved him for his immoral conduct, and by hatred of the emperor her nephew. ENGLAND, 15091553. 211 With this very pontiff indeed the interest of the French court did at length prevail, and it seemed accordingly in the year 1533 that an accommodation might be effected with England ; but in this important crisis ll the delay of an Eng- lish courier induced the papal court, though the most cautious in Europe, to pronounce against Henry a precipitate sentence, which decided his conduct. In renouncing the supremacy of the see of Rome, which was done by an act of parliament passed in the following year, he burst the bond, which had retained his kingdom in subjection. The appeal, which he was forced to make to the scriptures for the justification of his conduct, was a challenge to a general freedom of religious enquiry ; and all his efforts to prove his unaltered orthodoxy, supported as they were by his extraordinary authority, but served to moderate 12 the first movements of a great revolution of religion and policy, and to preserve the tranquillity of the state. Such was the ascendency, which Henry maintained over his subjects, that he obtained from his clergy an acknowledg- ment of his ecclesiastical supremacy, before it was established by the parliament. The whole body was threatened with the penalties of the proceeding denominated a preemunire, for having submitted to the legatine authority exercised by Wol- sey, and it was intimated 13 , that no application for pardon would be favourably received, if the supremacy of the king were not acknowledged in the petition. In their apprehen- sion of the severity of Henry they complied with the sug- gestion. The king was thus addressed as the head of the church by a body of clergy generally attached to the religion of Rome ; and it remained for himself to determine, when it 11 Burnet, vol. i. p. 131. 12 An important result of this modera- ting influence has indeed prevailed through all the subsequent history of the church in the practice of reading in the pulpit written sermons, which is peculiar to the church of England, or imitated from it in some congregations of protestant dissenters. Those -who in the time of Henry were licensed to preach, being often accused by warm men on both aides-, found it prudent to consider well what they should preach to their congregations, and to be able to prove what had been so delivered ; 'in which, 1 adds the historian, 'if there was not that heat and fire, which the friars had showed in their declamations, so that the passions of the hearers were not so much wrought on by it, yet it has produced the greatest treasure of weighty, grave, and solid sermons, that ever the church of God had.' Ibid., p. 303. l3 Henry, vol. xii. p. 41. P 2 212 MODERN HISTORY: might be expedient to demand from the parliament a formal renunciation of the papal jurisdiction. As Wolsey 14 , desirous of choosing a queen for his master, had not favoured the divorce, when Anne Boleyn was the object, his disgrace and death were natural consequences of the disappointment of the king. The king was then at liberty to choose ministers more favourable to reformation. During the remainder of his reign accordingly his confidence was enjoyed by Cranmer, whom he soon advanced to the primacy of England 15 ; and also during the greater part of it by Thomas Cromwell, to whom, with the title of vicegerent, he delegated the supremacy, which he had wrested from the pope. Cranmer, who appears to have been of a conscientious and disinterested 16 , but a timid and yielding character, was 14 Turner, vol. ii. pp. 254, 273. 15 Foreseeing the difficulties and dangers of the situation, he had earnestly declined it, when offered by the king. The oath promising canonical obedience to the pope, which was customary on such an appointment, he scrupled to swear ; but was at length persuaded to do so, having previously, according to the suggestion of certain canonists and casuists, made a formal protest- ation, that he did not intend, by swearing that oath, to restrain himself from doing what he thought to be his duty to God, to his king, and to his country. Burnet, vol. i. pp. 123, 124. The expedient is liable to much objection, but it was at least not the trick of a crafty ambition. 16 In reply to the accusations urged against this prelate by Mr. C. Butler, in his Historical Memoirs of the English Catholics, vol. i. pp. 139 141. Lond., 1819, it may be remarked, 1. that it is not true that Cranmer in any considerable degree adopted the principles of Luther at all during the reign of Henry. It has on the contrary been shown by Strype, that he held the doctrine of Iransubstantiation with the church of Rome to the very last year of that reign, in which year he was in- duced by Ridley to relinquish it. Mem. of Cranmer, ch. xviii. Ridley had been converted by reading the treatise of Bertramn, written in the middle of the ninth century, not by the Lutherans. Wordsworth, vol. iii. p. 302. Nor is it true, 2. that Cranmer employed the subterfuge of privately protesting against his oath of canonical obedience. He had openly objected to the appointment on that very account, and the king had caused his scruple to be referred to canonists and casuists, accord- ing to whose direction he acted, making his protestation, not in a pri- vate room, but in St. Stephen's chapel at Westminster, before some doctors of the canon law, repeating it when he took the oath, and causing it to be enrolled. Burnet, vol. i. p. 1'24. Wordsworth, vol. iii. p. 559. Though, 3. he had, in opposition to the express mandate of the king, argued three days against the bill of the six articles, he did not, as is alleged, continue to cohabit with his wife, but sent her away to Ger- many. Strype's Memoirs of Cranmer, p. 73. Lond., 1694. Burnet, ENGLAND, 1509 1553. 213 of all men the most fitted to influence the counsels of this boisterous and opinionative prince. His learning and virtue conciliated the respect of his sovereign, while his yielding disposition shunned every occasion of offence ; and the im- minent danger, to which notwithstanding all his prudence he was exposed towards the end of this reign, affords a proof that more could not have been done, to draw Henry from his adherence to the doctrines of Rome. Cromwell, though he had not enjoyed, like Cranmer, the advantages of a liberal education, yet, having been trained under Wolsey to habits of business, served Henry in the management of his new supremacy, in which he exercised as much indulgence to the reformers 17 , as was practicable under such a master. The fall of Cromwell, which happened about seven years before the death of Henry, put a period to the office of vice- gerency. No one desired to be placed in a situation so ob- noxious and dangerous ; and the Romish party, which was then in credit, was unwilling to continue an office, which was an obstacle to a reconciliation with the see of Rome. Thenceforward Cranmer remained alone to manage the head- vol. i. p. 313. There is, 4. no authority from Burnet, as is alleged, for saying, that he extorted from Anne Boleyn a confession of a contract, which he knew not to have existed. 5. On the subject of persecution he was deeply guilty, especially in urging Edward to sentence Joan Bocher to the stake ; but it is not truly stated, that he persecuted alike Catholics and Anabaptists, for in no instance does it appear that he per- secuted the former ; nor is it noticed, that he was active in prevailing with Henry to suspend the severities of the statute of the six articles. 6. In regard to the divorce of Anne of Cleves it is impossible to excul- pate him ; but on the other hand the Romish party cannot gain advan- tage from the concession, for the measure was, as Burnet has stated, furiously driven on by them, and the consent of Cranmer was extorted by a well-founded apprehension for his own safety. Ibid., p. 268. And, 7. in respect to the concluding charge of ingratitude and high treason, in endeavouring to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne after the death of Edward, it is not true that he strove to effect this change of the suc- cession appointed by Henry ; but on the contrary he anxiously avoided all participation in the measure, and at length yielded only to the per- sonal importunity of his sovereign, who was solicitous to secure religion from the known bigotry of Mary. May we not then retort the words of Mr. Butler ; ' we are astonished at the effect of party-spirit, and the intrepidity of the writer ?' 17 Before he entered into the service of Wolsey, he had been favourably disposed towards the reformation by studying Erasmus's translation of the N ew Testament. Wordsworth, vol. ii. p. 284. 214 MODERN HISTOKT: strong spirit of Henry, shielded from danger by the esteem, which his learning and virtue had excited in the breast of his sovereign. Here we perceive the influence of the divided ministration of Cromwell and Cranmer. If Cranmer had united with the see of Canterbury the vicegerency exercised by Cromwell, this office would probably have continued to form a part of the English hierarchy, and thus have estab- lished a domestic papacy. The distinctness of the two offices prevented the mischief. The ruin of the vicegerent deterred all from aspiring to the situation, from which he had fallen, and for ever extinguished an office, which must have proved embarrassing and prejudicial. In his long reign of almost thirty-eight years Henry had six wives 18 , of whom two perished by the hand of the ex- ecutioner, two were divorced, and one died shortly after her marriage ; the last, whom he married but four years before his death, survived him. It was accordingly observed by his contemporary Francis I., that he was always marrying and unmarrying himself. Capriciously as these marriages were contracted, or dissolved, they exercised influences, which may be distinctly traced in the history of the reform- ation of England. The repudiation of the first queen, which was agitated during five years, gave occasion to the memo- rable rejection of the supremacy of Rome. Of the two who were beheaded, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, the former was the zealous protectress of the reformers, as the latter was of the Romanists ; and their violent deaths served in turn to restrain the eagerness of either of the two parties then contending for predominance, and that of the former in particular 19 to detach the king from a connexion with the reformers of Germany, which he thought no longer necessary to his interests. Jane Seymour, who died within a year and a half from her marriage, seems to have served only to produce a son, whose right of succession should be 18 Catherine was married in the year 1509, and divorced in the year 1532; Anne Boleyn was then married, and beheaded in the year 1536 ; Jane Seymour was married in the last-mentioned year, and died in that which succeeded ; Anne of Cleves was married in the year 1539, and was divorced in the year 1540 ; Catherine Howard was married in the year 1540, and was beheaded in the year 1542 ; Catherine Parr was inarried in the year 1543, and survived the king, who died in the year 1547. 19 Burnet, vol. iii. p. 116. ENGLAND, 1509 1553. 215 free from the objections attending the two preceding mar- riages of Catherine and Anne Boleyn, an event however of great importance, as that son was to be the minor-king, in whose brief reign the reformed church of England was to be constituted. The marriage of Anne of Cleves, which had been projected by Cromwell 20 , as an expedient for connect- ing Henry with the Protestants of Germany, proved to be one of the numerous instances, in which political men have been deceived in their measures, for the disgust of the king, which soon afterwards caused the queen to be divorced, put almost an end to all intercourse with them 21 , and thus se- cured to England the independence of its reformation. The last queen, Catherine Parr, was a friend of the reformers, and by her extraordinary discretion 22 in avoiding every oc- casion of offending the king, and especially in defeating the malice of her enemies, caused Henry, after all his fluc- tuation, to close his reign in a disposition favourable to the reformation, insomuch that he ordered a new will to be prepared 23 , merely that he might exclude bishop Gardiner, the great champion of the Romanists, from the offices of executor and counsellor of his son and successor. By the ordinance issued for the regulation of religion in the year 1536, which began the reformation of England, the friends of reformation gained important advantages, though much of the doctrine of the church of Rome was retained. The scriptures 24 , together with the three creeds, were con- stituted the standard of doctrine, without any mention of the tradition of the church ; four of the seven sacraments were omitted, penance alone being combined Avith baptism and the eucharist ; and though it was pronounced good and charitable to pray for the dead, yet the doctrine of purgatory was declared to be uncertain, and the superstitious practices connected with it were abolished. Of the Romish system however, besides penance, auricular confession and the doctrine of transubstantiation were still maintained ; the ceremonies of the church were to be continued, as having mystical significations, which might assist in elevating the minds of worshippers to their true object; the use of images 20 Rapin, vol. i. p. 802. 21 Burnet, vol. i. pp. 281, 348. 22 Rapin, vol. i. p. 846. 23 Burnet, vol. i. p. 335. 24 Ibid., pp. 206208. 216 MODERN HISTORY : also was allowed, though the people were to be admonished to address their worship to God ; and prayers were to be addressed to saints for their mediation, though not for ob- taining mercies directly from their power. At this time 25 the people of England were generally attached to the reli- gion of Rome, and a more considerable change might have produced only public confusion. That which was then done, was powerfully assisted by the promulgation of the scriptures in the vernacular lan- guage. Cranmer had in the same year, in which the papal supremacy Avas renounced, obtained permission to procure a translation ; and the work 26 having been executed in the interval, the king in the year 1537 ordered that a copy should be placed in every church, to be read by all who might choose to peruse it, and two years afterwards permit- ted all persons to purchase copies for the use of their fami- lies. The general press too was on this occasion 27 , perhaps for the first time, brought in aid of a great public measure, many treatises adverse to the see of Rome being given to the public, among which were the King's Primer published in the year 1535, and the Bishops' Book published two years afterwards. Some further progress was made in the year 1538 by in- structions sent to the bishops, enjoining them to require of their clergy, that they should warn the people against super- 35 Burnet, p. 335. 26 The Bible, translated by William Tyndal, with the assistance of Miles Coverdale, afterwards bishop of Exeter, had been printed at Hamburg in the year 1532, and again three or four years afterwards. Before the second edition was finished, Tyndal was put to death for his religion, in Flanders in the year 1536. It being then thought prudent to use a feigned name, the book was entitled Thomas Matthew's Bible, though Tyndal before his death had furnished all except the Apocrypha, which was translated by John Rogers, put to death in the reign of Mary, who added also some ma/ginal notes. ' In this Bible were certain prologues, and a special table collected of the common places in the Bible, and texts of scripture for proving the same ; and chiefly the common places of the Lord's supper, the mar- riage of priests, and the mass, of which it was there said, that it was not to be found in the scripture. This Bible, giving the clergy offence, was gotten to be restrained. Some years after came forth the Bible aforesaid, wherein Cranmer had the great hand, which, as I suppose, was nothing but the former corrected, the prologues and table being left out.' Strype's Mem. of Cranmer, pp. 58, 59. 21 Butler's Hist. Mem. of the Catholics, vol. i. p. 54. ENGLAND, 1509 1553. 217 stitious and idolatrous practices, and to cause some of the richest and most venerated shrines to be destroyed. Here however the reformation was arrested in the year 1539 hy the statute of the six articles, which enforced 28 by the seve- rest penalties the remaining doctrines and practices of the Romish church. The severity of this statute indeed 29 in a considerable degree defeated its own purpose, and under the administration of Cromwell it was almost suspended. After the fall of that minister, which occurred in the following year, the influence of Cranmer 30 procured by a commission from the king a declaration of the Christian doctrine ' for the necessary erudition of a Christian man,' which, though it restored the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholics, yet established the true principle of Christian salvation 31 , and defined the catholic church in its proper sense, as compre- hending all assemblies of men over the whole world, who receive the faith of Christ, and become members of the ca- tholic church by a unity of love. As the monks were the great agents of the papacy, the suppression of the monasteries was indispensable to the suc- cessful establishment of the reformation. This important measure was rendered acceptable by the advantages promised to the nation and to individuals. Preparation had been un- intentionally made, as has been already mentioned, by the permission granted to Wolsey, authorising him to dissolve a priory in Oxford 32 , and as many other small religious houses 28 The reformers however were not abandoned to the mercy of the clergy, but were to be tried by a jury. Burnet, vol. i. p. 248. 29 Henry, vol. xii. p. 86. 30 Burnet, vol. i. pp. 272280. 31 God, it is there said, is the chief cause of our justification : yet man, prevented by grace, is by his free consent and obedience a worker towards the attaining his own justification. For, though it is only pro- cured through the merits of Christ's death, yet every one must do many things to attain a right and claim to that, which, though it was offered to all, yet was applied but to a few. Good works were said to be ab- solutely necessary to salvation : these however were not only outward corporal works, but inward spiritual works as the love and fear of God, patience, humility, and the like ; nor were they superstitious and hu- man inventions, nor only moral works done by the power of natural reason ; but the works of charity, flowing from a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. The merit of good works was recon- ciled with the freedom of the divine mercy, by stating that al our works were done bv the grace of God. Ibid., p. 279. 32 Henry, vol. xii. p. 247. 218 MODERN HTSTOKY : as he should choose, that he might be enabled to endow his literary establishments. The cardinal, encouraged by the popularity of this proceeding, solicited and obtained permis- sion 33 to suppress more monasteries for the purpose of erect- ing new bishoprics ; the papal bull was however not issued until the year 1533, whenit had been again solicited by Henry, the cardinal having died in the interval. The renunciation of the papal supremacy in the year 1534 at length gave oc- casion to the general suppression of the lesser monasteries, in number three hundred and seventy-six ** ; and three years afterwards the measure was completed by the suppression of all the more considerable institutions of the same kind. The execution 35 appears to have been facilitated by the sta- tute of the six articles, inasmuch as it indicated, that the king was not unfriendly to the religion of Rome. The total num- ber of monasteries dissolved 36 has been computed to amount to six hundred and forty-five, the yearly income of which, together with that of colleges, chantries, and other establish- ments also suppressed, composed a sum of one hundred and sixty thousand pounds, which was estimated to exceed a third part of all the ecclesiastical revenues of the kingdom. Twenty-seven mitred abbots were by this operation excluded from the house of lords, so that an important change was effected in the political constitution of the country. It was proposed to the parliament, that the lands, which had be- longed to these houses, should be for ever attached to the crown, which should thus be rendered independent of any further supply, to be furnished by the people ; but, fortu- nately for the interest of freedom, the proposal was success- fully resisted by Cromwell, who suggested the expediency 37 of gaining a firm support of the measure by parcelling the abbey-lands among numerous proprietors. Six new bishop- rics however were erected and endowed, of which five still exist, that of Westminster having been since judged unne- cessary. The family of Tudor raised the royal power to a height 88 Burnet, vol. i. pp. 54, 117, 182. ^ Ibid., p. 186. 35 Ibid., p. 248. 36 Parl. Hist., vol. iii. pp. 145 172. 37 The facility, with which Mary set aside the reformation, when these lands had been se- cured to their new proprietors, proves the influence of this appropriation of them in effecting that measure. Ibid., p. 327. ENGLAND, 15091553. 219 before unknown, and in the reign of Henry VIII. it appears to have reached its utmost exaltation. In his latter years this prince was indeed rendered almost absolute by his obse- quious parliament, an act being passed in the year 1540 38 , which gave to the royal proclamations the authority of law, though with a reservation in regard to the lives and rights of individuals, and another being passed three years after- wards 39 , which empowered Henry to regulate at his pleasure the religious opinions of his people. Such unexampled aggrandisement was not indeed unnecessary at such a crisis ; and it has accordingly been remarked that 40 , in this danger- ous conjunction, nothing ensured public tranquillity so much, as the decisive authority acquired by the king, and his great ascendency over all his subjects. Hume however, in his anxiety to justify by precedent the arbitrary conduct of the princes of the house of Stuart, has represented 41 the autho- rity of this monarch as much more arbitrary, than the facts would warrant. His subjects, captivated by the splendour of his exterior qualities, and desirous of conciliating his favour to their respective parties in religion, between which he seemed to be suspended, were ready to adopt and sanction his most capricious measures. The attempt of Wolsey how- ever to interfere personally with the commons in a debate on a money-bill was steadily resisted ; a subsequent effort to levy a tax without the authority of the parliament excited so much discontent, that Henry found it prudent to declare, that he would ask nothing except as a benevolence ; and in all his changes of the ecclesiastical establishment, his di- vorces, and his settlements of the crown, he constantly sought the sanction of the legislature. Fortunately 42 the obsequi- 38 Parl. Hist., vol. iii. p. 152. Great exceptions had been made to the legality of the king's proceedings in the articles about religion, and other injunctions published by his authority, which were complained of as contrary to law, since by these the king had, without consent of par- liament, altered some laws, and had laid taxes on his spiritual subjects. Burnet, vol. i. p. 251. Upon this act, adds the historian, were the great changes of religion in the non-age of Edward VI. grounded. Ibid., p. 252. 39 Burnet, vol. i. p. 192. * Hume, vol. iv. p. 163. 41 In particular he asserts, and he has been followed by doctor Lingard, that Henry received tonnage and poundage several years before it was vested in him by the legislature, whereas it was granted by his first parliament. Hallam's Constit. Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 25, note. Lond., 1829. Millar's Hist. View of the English Gov. vol. ii. pp. 439441. 220 MODERN HISTORY : ousness of the parliament precluded all temptation to exercise the dangerous prerogative, with which he was latterly in- vested, and thus preserved its privileges from the mischief, to which its own imprudence had exposed them It was also fortunate, that the unthinking profusion of Henry so speedily dissipated the treasures, which had been showered on him by the confiscation of the monasteries, and immedi- ately disappointed the hope M , which he held outio the par- liament, that the crown should never again be necessitated to require a subsidy. Such a consequence, if it had even ope- rated during any length of time, must have been fatal to the liberties of England, as it would have deprived the people of their constitutional control. The extraordinary power exercised by Henry was soon effectually restrained by the minority of Edward VI., in the very commencement of whose reign " it was accordingly deemed expedient to repeal a num- ber of rigorous statutes, together with that which gave to royal proclamations the authority of law. As the nation had been in the reign of Henry accustomed to be directed by the government in the concerns of reli- gion, and the disorders of the commencement of a reforma- tion had been repressed by his energetic rule, more liberty might be given for its further progress. The weakness of a minority accordingly, while it permitted the constitution to recover from the injury, which it had sustained in the preceding reign, afforded a useful indulgence to the efforts of the reformers. Edward VI. was however no ordinary minor. Though he was not able to hinder that struggle of political parties, which served to reduce within its proper limits the royal authority, he was sufficiently enlightened and serious to interest himself in the religious question of his time, and is believed to have exercised an influence in effecting the ecclesiastical arrangements, by which his brief reign has been memorably distinguished. To Cranmer especially we look with gratitude as the father of the English reformation, for he principally con- ducted it from its imperfect commencement under Henry to the completion of the established church under Edward, 43 In the very next year after the suppression of the monasteries had been completed, a subsidy of a tenth and a fifteenth was demanded and obtained. Henry, vol. ii. p. 315. u Burnet, vol. ii. p. 38. ENGLAND, 1509 1553. 221 cautiously employing for this purpose the ascendency, which his learning and piety had given him over the former, and openly and directly exerting the influence, which he pos- sessed during the more favourable reign of the latter. The young prince, with a maturity of understanding exceeding his years, was by his education strongly attached to the new opinions ; and the greater part of the council appointed by the testament of his father, particularly his uncle the duke of Somerset, who was soon after the death of Henry chosen protector of the kingdom, were favourable to the views of Cranmer. In these circumstances the archbishop was at length en- abled to give form and consistency to the English church, first by a careful arrangement of its liturgy, and then by a determination of those articles of faith, in which its clergy should be required to concur. A new liturgy was accord- ingly prepared in the year 1548 45 , and four years afterwards a revised form of it was issued, which with some slight al- terations has since continued to be used 46 . In the same year with the revision of the liturgy, articles of faith, forty- two irf number, were also published, which after some omissions 47 were not only the basis of the thirty-nine after- 45 It has been satisfactorily shown by archbishop Lawrence, that Cranmer formed our offices, in most parts in which they deviate from the ancient form, and our articles generally, after the model which had been furnished by Melancthon, correcting however the Lutheran doc- trine of the eucharist, and in some other instances adopting more guarded and scriptural forms of expression. Bampton Lect. Zuingle and the Helvetic church, which he formed, held that the bread and wine in the eucharist are merely commemorative signs of the body and blood of Christ. Calvin and the church of Geneva maintained a real, though spiritual, presence of Christ in that sacrament. Mosheim, Tol. iv. pp. 374 378. The latter opinion was adopted by Cranmer for the church of England. 46 ' If we except some additional prayers and occasional forms, that have since been inserted, the difference be- tween Edward's second book and the present consists principally in verbal or rubrical variations, most of which were made for the sake of removing ambiguities.' Shepherd's Elucidation of the Morning and Evening Prayer, introd. 47 Seven were omitted, relating to grace, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, the obligation of the moral law, the resurrection as not already past, the intermediate state of the soul, the millennium, and the doctrine of universal salvation. Others were at the same time divided. Burnet, vol. ii., Records, pp. 190, &c. 222 MODERN HISTORY: wards authorised in the reign of Elizabeth 48 , but almost verbally the same. An interesting remark of Burnet on the administration of the divine providence, in regard to the general progress of the reformation, may here be introduced. In the be- ginning of the reign of Edward, the reformation seemed in Germany to be almost extinguished by the dissolu- tion of the league of Smalkalde, by the capture of its protectors the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse, and by the interim published and enforced by Charles V. In England however it was then favoured, and an asylum was there afforded to those, who were forced to fly for their religion. Again, a year before the death of Ed- ward, when the persecution of Mary's bigoted reign was approaching in England, the Protestants obtained in Ger- many, by the peace of Passau, a firm and lasting establish- ment, and were in their turn enabled to afford protection to the fugitives of England. 48 These, which were generally taken from the confession of Augs- burg, differ in this particular, that they contain an article on the doctrine of predestination, which was omitted from the former ; but archbishop Lawrence has proved that the true meaning of that article is to maintain the scriptural doctrine generally, without pronouncing on the nature of the decrees of God, whether they are arbitrary or respective. Nor in the revision of the article in the reign of Eliza- beth was there any disposition to favour the doctrine of Calvin, for these words, ' though the decrees of predestination be unknown to us, yet," were omitted, as if to avoid, as much as possible, every thing which could lead the mind to the subject. The ambiguous interpre- tation of Burnet, which even inclines towards the doctrine of Calvin, seems to have been suggested by a political desire of conciliating the Whigs in the dangerous crisis of the revolution. An attempt to gratify the dissenters by an act of comprehension in the year 1689 having failed, it appears to have been judged prudent ten years afterwards, to gratify them with an ambiguous interpretation of the article, which related to the great subject of doctrinal disagreement. The author at the same time, with characteristic management, declined to attach himself to either party, but for his own sentiments referred his readers generally to the early doctrine of the Greek church. It may assist in determining the origin of the ambiguity, that the commentator has himself, in another work, informed us, that his patron William, then the supreme head of the church of England, adhered to the doctrine of absolute decrees. Hist, of His Own Time, vol. ii. p. 179. Dubl. 1734. CHAPTER XI. Of the history of England, from the accession of Mary in the year 1553, to that of James I, in the year 1603. Mary queen in the year 1553 married to Philip of Spain Origin of the Puritans, 1554 Elizabeth queen, 1558 Oath of supremacy re- quired of members of the house of commons, 1562 Separation of the Puritans begun, 1566 Bull issued against Elizabeth by Pius V. and again by Sixtus V., 1570 another issued by Gregory XIII., 1580 penal laws enacted against popery, 1585 Mary of Scotland put to death, 1587 The Spanish armada defeated, 1588 The first poor-law, 1601 Hooker, Spenser, Shakespeare. NOTHING is at the first view so surprising in the history of the English government, as the facility with which the re- ligion of the nation was shifted from the protestant belief of Edward to the popery of Mary, and then again to the pro- testantism of Elizabeth. It appears unaccountable that a nation, which had recently under Edward completed the ar- rangement of its reformed religion, should so easily have ac- quiesced in the accession of Mary, from whom it was natu- ral to apprehend the utmost anxiety to re-establish the reli- gion of Rome. The explanation is however furnished by the melancholy incident of the brief usurpation of the lady Jane Grey. The succession to the crown had been embar- rassed by the two divorces 1 , which, by dissolving the first and second marriage of Henry VIII., had vitiated the titles of his daughters Mary and Elizabeth ; and the difficulty had been increased by the interfering provisions of two acts of parliament, and by those of the last will of Henry, which omitted all mention of the issue of his sister the queen of Scotland. Edward, in his anxiety to protect the protestant establishment from the religion of Mary, ventured amidst this confusion to annul the will of his father, and named for his successor the lady Jane Grey, the grand-daughter of a sister of Henry, who had been educated a Protestant. This lady, just before the death of Edward, had been married to a son of the duke of Northumberland, offensive to the no- bles for his pride, and to the people for his cruelty. The general hatred, which her husband had provoked, drove 1 Rapin, vol. ii. pp. 27, &c. 224 MODEEN IIISTOKY : even the Protestants to seek protection in the succession of Mary, deceived by a promise, which she had given to the people of Suffolk, that no change should be made in the re- ligion of the state. The reluctant and interesting usurper, who soon expiated her offence on the block, was thus the unconscious instrument of advancing a popish queen, in contradiction to the very purpose, for which she had been nominated to the succession. Of the fifty years comprehended within this chapter little more than five belonged to Mary, the remainder constituting the brilliant and important reign of Elizabeth. The brevity of the former reign appears to have been accommodated to the influences, which it exercised upon the religion of Eng- land, in rendering the people by persecution more attached to the reformation, and in giving occasion to the introduction of another sect of reformers, from which afterwards sprang the presbyterian Protestants of the country. As it was the fortune of the English reformation to be received by the people from the government, it may easily be conceived that a short interval of persecution might have a salutary operation in rousing the minds of men to a more lively interest in favour of the new tenets 2 , and thus ren- dering that more generally a personal, which might else have been little more than a political religion. Accustomed as the people had been to be directed by Henry, or by the ministers of Edward, in regard to the precise extent, to which the changes in their religious practices or opinions might be carried, they could not easily have felt the sincerity of religious conviction, if they had not for a time been ex- posed to a persecution, which should teach them to cherish those changes as their own, instead of acquiescing in them as the measures of their government. Every thing contributed to qualify Mary for thus endear- ing to the Protestants of England the reformed church which they had established. The daughter of Catherine, she was even by her birth devoted to the support of the papal pre- 2 This was -anticipated by the martyr Latimer. When this bishop and Ridley were fastened to the stake, at which they suffered death, the former said to the latter, Be of good comfort, master Ridley, and play the man ; we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England, as I trust will never be put out. Wordsworth's Ecdes. Bi'jgr., vol. iii. p. 420r ENGLAND, 1553 1603. .225 tensions, which had been rejected in the divorce of her mo- ther ; connected by the ties of consanguinity with the royal family of Spain, she had imbibed in her infancy every senti- ment of attachment to the religion of Rome, of which that family was then the great support among the governments of Europe ; and by nature extremely confined in her under- standing, she was in herself peculiarly incapable of justly appreciating the tenets of contending churches, or of ex- tending .any indulgence to those, whose opinions differed from her own. To facilitate her elevation, she expressly promised to the men of Suffolk 3 , that she would make no change in regard to religion ; but very soon afterwards, in a declaration made in her council, she promised merely that no force should be employed in the concerns of religion, and in a proclamation she informed her subjects generally, that force should not be employed except with the authority of the parliament. By all the arts of management, influ- ence, and even violence, a parliament was assembled, on which she could depend for support ; and in the second year of her reign was begun a persecution so severe 4 , that her own bishops, and even Philip of Spain, whom she had mar- ried in the interval, were ashamed of the cruelty of her measures, and endeavoured to vindicate themselves from the reproach by reciprocal accusations, the bishops ascribing the guilt to the court, and Philip recriminating on the bishops. That the two princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, should have been permitted, amidst the struggle of contending parties, 3 Rapin, vol. ii. pp. 30 32, 42. 4 The number of those who were burned for religion under Mary, is two hundred and eighty- eight, according to Strype. Nares's Mem. of Lord Burghley, vol. i. p. 768. London, 1 828. Mr. Butler has remarked, that the number of those, who suffered death for their religion, as he represents, under Elizabeth, was calculated by Dodd at one hundred and -ninety-one, and by doctor Milner at two hundred and four. Hist. Mem. vol. i. pp. 177, 178. Either of these numbers is considerably less than that of those, who suffered in the time of Mary ; but the import- ant distinction of the two cases is that the severities of Elizabeth were provoked. It is admitted by Mr. Butler, that the laws adverse to the Roman Catholics were not put into particular activity during the first ten years of her reign, and that during ten more ' the gibbet was not raised, nor the fire kindled.' The bull of Pius V., which was re- newed by two other pontiffs, Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V., began the svstem of violence, and the conduct of Elizabeth was defensive. Ibid., pp. 192, &c. VOL. III. Q 226 MODERN HISTORY: to ascend each in her turn the throne of England, and occa- sion the two alterations of the religion of the state, is a re- markable and curious circumstance, especially as each was indebted even for personal safety to a principal person of the party opposed to her own. Henry, irritated by the re- sistance of Mary, was long disposed to strike terror into his subjects by putting her to death 8 , and was withheld only by the gentle influence of Cranmer. Elizabeth on the other hand owed her safety, in the reign of her sister, to the po- licy of Philip 6 . That prince was probably at first induced to interpose by the desire of conciliating the affections of the English, perhaps that he might become the true, and not merely the matrimonial king, of their country, and after- wards, when he despaired of having children by the queen, by a fear of leaving the succession open to the queen of Scotland, who was to be married to the dauphin of France, and by a hope, which he vainly endeavoured to realise after the death of Mary, of effecting a matrimonial connexion with the sister of his queen. The advancement of Mary to the throne, which was much facilitated, as has been already mentioned, by the great \mpopularity of the duke of North- umberland, with whom her competitor, the lady Jane Grey, had become connected, was also assisted by the divorce of the mother of Elizabeth, which involved her title in the same difficulty with that of Mary, and obliged her to main- tain the validity of the will of her father, as it called her to the throne next after that princess. As many of the English Protestants 7 , as could withdraw from the persecuting fury of Mary, fled into those parts of the continent, in which the prevalence of the reformation encouraged them to hope for a friendly reception. Their 5 Burnet, vol. ii. p. 222. 6 Ibid., p. 267. Gardiner had pro- cured a warrant, signed by some privy-councillors, for the execution of Elizabeth ; but, when the lieutenant applied to the queen to learn her pleasure, she denied all knowledge of it. As Mary however con- tinued to place confidence in Gardiner, it would seem that she would not have been displeased with the execution, if she could have denied all participation in it, and might perhaps have sacrificed those, by whom it had been signed. Elizabeth appears to have been afterwards disposed to act in the same manner in regard to Mary of Scotland. Rapin, vol. ii. p. 38, note. 7 Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 101. Bath, 1793. ENGLAND, 15531603. 227 deviation however from the Lutheran doctrine of the eucha- rist deprived them of the protection of the Lutheran Pro- testants of Germany, and drove them into a connexion with the followers of Calvin. They were not indeed unanimous in embracing the tenets of that leader. At Frankfort, where they were most numerous, they were admitted to the use of the French church, on the condition of adopting the French confession of faith and form of worship ; and from their acceptance of this condition, which occurred in the year 1554, has been dated the rise of the Puritans. The other exiles, who had been settled chiefly at Strasburg, adhered to the liturgy, which had been published by Cranmer in the preceding reign, strenuously resisting the invitation of their brethren at Frankfort to agree to their new regulations. When the accession of Elizabeth allowed the return of these fugitives of religion, they brought home with them the schism, by which they had been divided in the season of their distress. While this division occurred among the exiles, some pre- disposition made preparation at home for the reception of the foreign doctrine. This appears to have been a result of the bigotry of Mary, for it manifested itself among those, whom she had thrown into prison, that they might answer for their faith at the peril of their lives, probably through the excitement of their unhappy circumstances. Those who were thus confined together in the prison of the King's Bench, differing in regard to the doctrine of predestination, one of them, named Bradford, prepared a statement of the doctrine of absolute decrees, which he submitted to the three leaders of the English reformation, Cranmer, Ridley, andLatimer, then imprisoned at Oxford 8 . Of these Ridley alone appears to have sent an answer ; and though his reply is not extant, it has been sufficiently proved to have been unsatisfactory from a subsequent letter of Ridley, which also contains these remarkable words, ' in these matters I am so 8 Authentic Documents relating to the Predest. Controversy, &c., by Dr. Lawrence, Oxford, 1819. The statement of Bradford did not maintain the doctrine of reprobation, into which question he would not enter. Doctor Lawrence has inferred from the use of the words ' iu Christ,' that Bradford did not hold the supralapsarian opinion ; but these words occur also in the Scotish, and even in the Westminster confession of faith. Q 2 228 MODERN HISTORY : fearful, that I dare not speak farther, yea almost none other- wise, than the text doth (as it were) lead me by the hand.' That the previous declaration, contained in the articles of the church, was not then considered as establishing the doctrine, is manifest from the letter, which Bradford sent with his statement, for in that letter he urged the three pre- lates to give their approbation as they might think good, and threatened that he would complain of them unto God in the last day, if they would not, as they might, help some- thing in this behalf. It is a curious fact, that even in this commencement of the separation, and amidst all the horrors of the situation of the prisoners, the doctrine of an absolute predestination is represented in the opposing statement of John Trewe, as exhibiting an evil influence on the conduct of its advocates, for they are described as addicted to gaming of various kinds even in that sad extremity. The reign of Elizabeth is the period, to which an Eng- lishman is accustomed to look back, as the brightest and most cheering in the annals of his country. Schooled by adversity, and stored with that learning 9 , which had been her resource and her consolation, this extraordinary woman preserved almost without interruption the domestic tranquil- lity of her kingdom during almost the half of a century, while the neighbouring countries of the continent were torn by religious contention, maintained almost alone against Spain, Austria, and France, the battle of the Protestants, and first developed those naval energies of her subjects, which have since spread the commerce of this empire over the ocean, and at the close of two centuries upheld the po- litical balance of the world, and saved it from the curse of a universal dominion. In her character frailties and faults have doubtless been discovered. It has been perceived that she was foolishly vain of her person, and haughty and ar- bitrary in her communications with her parliaments ; but these considerations lose their importance when we reflect 9 One day conversing with Calignon, afterwards chancellor of Na- varre, she showed him Latin translations of some of the tragedies of Sophocles and" of two of the orations of Demosthenes, which she had made. She likewise permitted him to take a copy of a Greek epigram composed by herself, and asked his opinion in regard to a few passages of Lycophron, which she was then preparing to translate. Henault's Chron. Abridgm. vol. ii. p. 25. ENGLAND, 1553 1603. 229 on the difficulties of her situation, and the splendour of her government. The ruling principle of her conduct^ amidst all the arrogance of her behaviour and language, was the conciliation of public opinion 10 , but without any timorous spirit of concession. While she studiously and success- fully courted the general approbation of her subjects, she firmly repressed the growing faction of the Puritans. Her reign too, the period of Hooker, Spenser, and Shakespeare, has been crowned with a literary distinction 11 , which cannot be paralleled in our history. So improved was our language in this interesting period, that Johnson has declared his opinion 13 , that from the authors, which rose in her time, a speech might be formed adequate to all the purposes of use and elegance. To her protecting care extended to Ireland 13 , then sunk in barbarism, are its people at this time indebted 10 When she was threatened with the armada of Spain, she appealed to the public opinion by causing the first English newspaper, the Eng- lish Mercuric, to be published, in the form of a small pamphlet. Andrew's Contin. of Henry, vol. i. p. 145, note. Lond., 1796. The French gazette was published in the year 1631, or forty-three years afterwards. Renault, vol. ii. p. 60. The credit of the original inven- tion seems however to be due to Venice, the word gazette having been derived from the name of a small Venetian coin gazetta, which was the price of such a publication. In the year 1821 about eleven millions of copies of the daily newspapers of London alone were circulated. Quart. Rev., No. 55, p. 203. n Hooker, in his Ecclesiastical Polity, ably defended the ecclesiastical establishment of his country against the efforts of those, who laboured to introduce in its place the discipline of the church of Geneva. Of the two great poets of this reign Spenser was the poet of chivalrous sentiments and manners, Shakespeare the bard of general and real nature. Of the language then so highly improved, we may say, in comparing it with the more terse phraseology of France, as Quintilian said of his own language, compared with that of Greece : Non possumus esse tarn graciles ? simus fortiores : subtilitate vincimur ? valeamus pondere : proprietatis penes illos est certior copia ? vincamus ingenio. Nor have we any reason for conceding to that prosaic language the praise of superior adaptation to poetry, as the Roman critic has yielded it to the ex- quisitely musical speech of Greece. To the language of Italy on the contrary we may allow a superior fitness for poetical composition, but must reject from all competition its loose and ill-constructed prose. The French language appears thus to be pre-eminently that of society, the Italian that of poetry, the English the energetic expression both of the reasonings and of the imaginings of the mind. 12 Preface to the Dictionary. la The University of Dublin was founded by her in the year 1593. 230 MODERN HISTORY : for the blessings of a liberal education, and the very oppor- tunity of speculating on her government, which has given being to the present work, may thus be traced directly to her provident bounty. Though Elizabeth owed her safety in the reign of her sister chiefly to the politic protection of Philip, she was partly guarded in this critical interval by her own prudence, as it afterwards facilitated her accession to the throne. She not only abstained with caution from all the concerns of the government, devoting her whole time and attention to literature, but she even conformed to the rites of the reli- gion of Rome, and left it doubtful whether she would ever attempt to renounce them. To this conformity she was the more easily disposed, as she was at all times attached to a splendid ceremonial in religious worship, from which she thought the reformers in the reign of her brother Edward had too far receded. This part of her character particularly disposed her to repress the first efforts of the Puritans, and thus to draw that line of demarcation between the esta- blished church and the Presbyterians, which was so impor- tant in the subsequent operations of the government. It has indeed been maintained that she was in her heart a Roman Catholic 14 , induced only by the circumstances of her situ- ation to espouse the cause of the Protestants ; but the very parts of her conduct, which have given some plausibility to this opinion, may be explained by that prudence, which had marked her earlier life, and was still necessary amidst the difficulties surrounding her throne ; nor can it easily be believed that the daughter of Anne Boleyn should have been really inclined to that religion, by which the marriage of her mother, was proscribed, and her own birth pro- nounced illegitimate. The evasion 15 , with which she replied to the inquiry concerning her opinion of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, sufficiently proves, that she did not hold the doctrine of transubstan- tiation. 14 Milner's Letters to a Prebendary, p. 193. Cork, 1802. 15 Her reply is said to have been this : Christ was the word, that spake it ; He took the bread, and brake it; And what the word did make it, That I believe, and take it. ENGLAND, 15531603. 231 It may easily be understood that the difficulties 16 , which presented themselves to Elizabeth at her accession, would naturally cause some vacillation in her conduct. She had seen the religion, in which she had been educated, pro- scribed by Mary with little opposition, and must therefore have felt that the re-establishment of it would require much management. To her also, as a female, the resumption oi the supremacy of the crown, which had been vindicated by her father, may naturally have appeared a matter of deli- cacy, and even of scrupulous hesitation. In these circum- stances it cannot be deemed surprising, that she should, immediately after her accession, have made a conciliatory notification of that event to the Roman pontiff, though nei- ther can it reasonably be inferred, that in this measure she could have had any further purpose, than to establish a moderated reformation in connexion with that see. For- tunately however for the reformed church of these coun- tries, the papal see was then held by a pontiff, who re- jected all conciliation, and would admit no compromise. Paul IV. 17 replied to her ambassador, that the kingdom of England was held but as a fief of his see ; that she, being illegitimate, had no title to the succession ; that he could not contradict the declarations of preceding pontiffs ; and that she must submit herself absolutely to his free dispo- sition. A conciliatory spirit 18 was manifested two years 16 To the real difficulties of that crisis an imaginary one has been added by Roman Catholics, who have supposed a fatal interruption of episcopal ordination, Kitchen bishop of Llandaff having alone taken the oath of supremacy ; and the objection has been twice urged within a very few years. It has however been proved, that the story of a mock consecration, celebrated on this account at the Nag's Head tavern in Cheapside, is destitute of all reasonable evidence, and that the consecration of Parker in particular to the see of Canterbury was regularly performed by four persons duly invested with the episcopal character, three of them having been bishops in the reign of Edward, though deprived of their sees by Mary, and the fourth being a suffragan bishop of Bedford. It is remarkable that no such difficulty can be at all alleged against the succession of the bishops of Ireland, nine having conformed in the reign of Elizabeth. The validity of English Ordi- nation Established, by Doctor Elrington. Dublin, 1818. 17 Butler's Hist. Mem., vol. i. p. 151. 18 Pius IV. in the year 1560 sent an eminent ecclesiastic to Elizabeth, earnestly entreating her to return to the bosom of the church, and offering 232 MODERN HISTORY : afterwards, by the succeeding pontiff Pius IV., but the op- portunity had been lost by the intractable arrogance of the former, and the reformation of the English church had then been irrevocably decided. It was not in these times contemplated, that the religion of any portion of the people could be permitted to be dif- ferent from that, which was authorised by the state. Eli- zabeth however was not disposed to enforce with rigour the ecclesiastical ordinances of her government. When she was solicited by the emperor and some other princes 19 to grant indulgence to the Roman Catholics, and particularly to allow them to have one church in every town, she pro- fessed general kindness towards them, and intimated an in- tention of endeavouring to cure by connivance their re- fractory spirit. During ten years of her reign 20 the greater part of them continued to attend divine service in the churches of the Protestants. Though this practice was then discontinued, having been condemned by some eminent theologians of the council of Trent, a considerable degree of lenity was still observed by the government, for the clergy of their religion 21 , when they addressed James at his accession to the throne of England, declared that ' the queen always professed to punish none for their religion, and that the first twelve years of her reign, as they were free from blood and persecution, so were they fraught with all kinds of worldly prosperity.' The laws enacted in the reign of Elizabeth, which vir- tually excluded Roman Catholics from the house of com- mons, and proscribed their religion, were not framed with- out urgent provocations. In the year 1562, the fifth of her reign, N an act of parliament was passed, which re- to annul the sentence pronounced concerning the marriage of her mother, to ratify the liturgy by his authority, and to grant to the English the use of the sacrament under both kinds. The eccle- siastic had proceeded as far as Calais, but by a determination of the royal council was refused admission into England. The same pope afterwards urged the queen to send an ambassador to the council of Trent, and permit her prelates to attend. Her answer was, that she could not treat with any power, the authority of which the parliament had declared to be unlawful. Butler's Hist. Mem., vol. i. pp. 152, 153. is Ibid., vol. iii. p. 144. 20 Ibid., p. 171. 21 Ibid., p. 189. ENGLAND, 1553 1603. 233 quired that, besides certain other classes of persons, all members of every future house of commons should swear the oath of the supremacy of the queen 22 , the lords how- ever not being subjected to that obligation, as persons of whose loyalty the queen was sufficiently assured. This law was occasioned by the practices of the agents of Rome 23 , which menaced the tranquillity of the kingdom ; but, though in itself severe 24 , it was administered with much lenity. In the year 1585 25 , a system of penal re- gulations was established, the purpose of which was to suppress throughout the kingdom the religion of Rome, by depriving those who professed it of all ministers for the celebration of its rites, and of all opportunity of re- ceiving education from other countries, while it was denied to them at home. This was indeed a proceeding of ex- treme severity, which only the last necessity of political defence could justify, and this not as against religionists, but as against traitors. That such was the case of the English government has been amply proved. The Roman pontiff, Pius V., by a bull issued in the year 1570, declared 22 The supremacy of Henry VIII. was unanimously acknowledged by the convocation in the year 1530 with this limitation, quantum per Christi legem licet. The limitation was understood by the one party, to confine it to temporal matters, by the other to admit the adminis- tration of those of an ecclesiastical nature, so far as it should be con- formable to the gospel. The king trusted that it would in time be forgotten, as indeed it was. Burnet, vol. iii. pp. 52, 53. About five years afterwards the supremacy was confirmed by an act of parliament without the limitation. Soon after the first session of parliament in the reign of Elizabeth the oath of supremacy was tendered to the bishops, but refused by all except Kitchen bishop of Llandaff. The queen then published injunctions, in which she declared that she claimed only a sovereignty over all manner of persons under God, so that no foreign power had any rule over them. Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 366 369. A cor- responding change was made in the articles, Edward having, in those published in his reign, been declared to be 'after Christ the supreme head on earth of the church of England and Ireland.' M Nares's Mem. of Lord Burghley, vol. ii. p. 290, note. Lond., 1830. 24 To refuse a second time to take the oath was then pronounced to be treason, whereas the refusal had been treasonable only in the third instance. But, with the approbation of the queen, archbishop Parker wrote to his suffragans, directing them to be very careful how they tendered the oath a second time, and desiring that they would, before thjy should do so, inform him of the case. Ibid. 25 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 120. 234 MODERN HISTORY : against Elizabeth all the hostility of the church of Rome ; and for supporting this bull there was an influx of mis- sionary priests from foreign seminaries, which had been established for their education. The bull was the more alarming, as it directed the Roman Catholics to consider it as obligatory only when a favourable opportunity might occur. In the year 1580 Gregory XIII. 26 renewed the bull of Pius V., and issued another to incite the Irish to rebel- lion by a promise of the same plenary indulgence, which had been offered to encourage the crusades. The political situation of Elizabeth and her kingdom was at this time truly alarming. Her throne was menaced by a general confederacy of Roman Catholic powers, especially the pope, the emperor, and the kings of Spain and France ; and Mary of Scotland, the claimant of her succession 27 , presented herself as the object of the combination of these foreign powers, and of the conspiracies of the Roman Catho- lics of England. How far the bigotry of popery could drive men in that age, was sufficiently illustrated by the mas- sacre of Saint Bartholomew's day, perpetrated in France in the year 1572, celebrated as it was by a papal jubi- lee 28 . The struggle of Elizabeth was for independence and safety, and every measure, which the defence of these interests might justify, she was free to adopt. In that struggle were involved the security and the permanence of the reformation, for England was the common protector of persecuted protestants ; but to Elizabeth it presented it- self as a political emergency, and her conduct claims to be judged and estimated by the general principles of justifiable policy. The death of the unfortunate Mary of Scotland has 26 When the armada was almost ready to sail against England. Sixtus V. renewed by another bull the sentence of deposition already pronounced by Pius V. and Gregory XIII. It should be observed that Pius V. was beatified in the year 1672, and canonised in the year 1712. 21 Mary was the grand-daughter of the elder sister of Henry VIII., but had been overlooked in his disposition of the suc- cession, Frances duchess of Suffolk, the daughter of a younger sister, being named in his will to succeed Elizabeth. The latter, by marry- ing after the death of the duke her master of the horse, a young com- moner, had disparaged the pretension which the will had given her. 28 Nares's Mem. of Lord Burghley, vol. ii. p. 612. ENGLAND, 1553 1603. 235 thrown a dark shade of criminality over the conduct of this otherwise brilliant sovereign. It appears that Eliza- beth herself did not think her conduct in this particular wholly justifiable, for she plainly desired that the death of Mary might be effected without her concurrence. The tranquillity, however, which she maintained in her own kingdom amidst circumstances so perilous, and the as- cendency which she preserved over her people to the last moment of so long a reign, sufficiently attest the worldly policy, which regulated her measures ; and it may afford some palliation in another view, that there was not yet in existence any known code of law for regulating the in- ternational intercourse of states, the noble treatise of Grotius not having been published until the year 1625, thirty-eight years after the death of Mary. Concerning that queen it may here be remarked, that her long cap- tivity, by exciting the utmost efforts of the Roman Ca- tholics of England in her cause, threw Elizabeth more and more upon the support of her Protestant subjects ; that her death 29 , by opening the succession to Philip of Spain, whose tyranny was dreaded even by the former, while it stimulated his ambition to the invasion of England, pro- cured for Elizabeth their aid in the defence of the coun- try ; and that the manner of it, as shall be particularly shown hereafter, assisted in furnishing the authority of precedent for the more formal condemnation of her un- happy grandson Charles I. While the government was gradually detaching itself from the Roman Catholics on the one part, it was also on the other separating those Protestants, who had attached themselves to the system of Geneva, from the genuine members of the church of England, as it had been estab- lished by Cranmer, and restored by Elizabeth. From these two ecclesiastical arrangements all the succeeding move- ments of the government have had their origin-. The separation of the Puritans from the established church occurred in the year 1566, four years after the virtual ex- clusion of the Roman Catholics from the house of commons. The act of uniformity, passed in the second year of Eliza- beth, gave occasion to the one, as the act of supremacy had 29 Nares's Mem. of Lord Burghley, vol. iii. p. 282. Loud., 1831. 236 MODEBN HISTORY : given occasion to the other. From the enactment of the former those, who had brought with them from Geneva other notions of ceremonial and discipline, continued to ex- press their discontent, until at length 30 , the enforcement of the act of uniformity having deprived all the ministers, who entertained such sentiments, these resolved in the year 1566 to hold separate assemblies, in which, rejecting altogether the English liturgy, they should worship agreeably to the service-book of Geneva. The Puritans however long che- rished the hope of effecting such a change in the established church, as might render it conformable to their own princi- ples ; nor did they constitute a regular presbytery until the year 1572 31 , when they began to despair of accomplishing their purpose. That no plan of mutual toleration could have been adopted, is evident from the testimony of the historian of the Puritans, who has acknowledged that these were not less anxious for an act of uniformity than the other Protestants 32 , without any indulgence for those, who should differ from themselves, and that the only struggle between the two par- ties was, whether the ritual of Edward VI. or that of Calvin, should be exclusively sanctioned by the legislature. The notion of an enlarged toleration was not suited to the spirit of the time, and misconception must be the conse- quence of judging of its transactions by the application of such a principle. Fortunately for the established church the exiles, while they were on the continent, had been divided in their senti- ments ; and it is remarkable that those M , who had resorted to Strasburg and some other towns for the advantage of visit- ing public libraries, and attending the lectures of professors, adhered to the liturgy of Edward VI. This circumstance much diminished the difficulty, by which Elizabeth was em- barrassed in the formation of her establishment, for a portion of learning and improved talents was thus reserved for its support. Such was notwithstanding the scarcity of qualified ministers 34 , that if this advantage had not presented itself, it might, in separating from the Roman Catholics, have been forced into an incorporation with the Puritans. 30 Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, vol. i. pp. 204, 205. Bath. 1793. 31 Ibid., p. 236. 33 Ibid., p. 127. 33 Ibid., pp. 102, 103. 31 Ibid., pp. 146156, &c. ENGLAND, 1553 1603. 237 The political influence of the principles of the Puritans became even then apparent, in cherishing a spirit of freedom in the house of commons, which had however already been felt to be so important in the government 35 , that about three years before the accession of Mary the sons of peers had been introduced among the representatives of the commons, and that Philip of Spain had expended large sums for secur- ing its concurrence, the first instance on record of such corruption. The first efforts of the Puritans in the house of commons were naturally directed to the alteration of the liturgy ; but in process of time the independent spirit, by which they were actuated in the concerns of religion, began to manifest itself in others merely political. In the thirteenth year of the reign of Elizabeth, this party resisted a violent act of power 36 , by which one of them had been prohibited from appearing in the house of commons, because he had introduced a bill for a further reformation of the church. In this contest the queen was compelled to yield to her op- ponents. Shortly afterwards one of the same party made a motion against an exclusive patent, which had been granted to a company of merchants in Bristol. This proceeding engaged the house in a struggle with the queen which though the house yielded to the claims of prerogative, drew from a resolute Puritan named Peter Wentworth, a manly vindication of the privileges of parliament. Five years after- wards the same member commenced a session with a speech 37 , in which he maintained the rights of the house, and com- plained of the infringements, by which they had been occa- sionally violated. For this refractory behaviour Wentworth was indeed thrown into prison ; but he was after a month's confinement, without any submission, restored to his liberty, and to his place in the representation of his country. Hume, in his anxiety to justify, or palliate, the arbitrary conduct of the princes of the house of Stuart, has gone so far as to compare the government of Elizabeth to the des- potism of Turkey 38 , the sovereign there possessing every power except that of imposing taxes. Professor Millar of Glasgow has however ably exposed the unfairness of the comparison 39 . It is admitted that the queen did sometimes 36 Pa.il. Hist., vol. ill p. 253. ** Hume, vol. v. pp. 185, &c. 37 Ibid., p. 238. 3S Ibid., p. 488. Hist. View of English Govern., vol. ii. pp. 447, &c. 238 MODERN HISTORY : interfere with the freedom of discussion in the house of com- mons, in a manner which would now be considered as de- structive of the public liberties ; but this part of the consti- tution was then unsettled, and she so interfered only in defence of that, which she regarded as her acknowledged prerogative, perhaps considering this as only an anticipation of the negative, which she was authorised to give, when the proceedings of the commons should have been completed. The dispensing power, which in the commencement of her reign she exercised in favour of the Protestants, was very cautiously limited, being exercised only in the short interval preceding the meeting of a parliament, to which the settle- ment of the national religion was again submitted. The ship-money, of which she is represented to have set the precedent to the unfortunate Charles, was in her case the voluntary contribution of the naval means of the country, for resisting an alarming invasion, whereas the assessment of Charles was an audacious attempt to extort money from the people by prerogative, for the avowed purpose of ena- bling the sovereign to rule without the inconvenient control of a parliament. The necessity of the time invested her with extraordinary authority by the appointment of the court of high commission, for exercising her ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which appears to have been indispensable for maintaining the public tranquillity amidst the agitation of religious controversy ; but neither this court, nor the star- chamber, could very generally interfere with the administra- tion of justice in a country, in which juries were established, without exciting such an opposition, as must be sufficient for suppressing the obnoxious tribunal. If Elizabeth said to her parliaments, that she would not permit them to discuss the foreign interests of the state, neither is the legislature even now considered as possessing a direct cognizance of them, and it should be considered that the wisdom, with which they were managed by Elizabeth, secured to her the general approbation of her subjects. The reign of Elizabeth was interposed between the decline of the feudal aristocracy and the rise of the commons ; and, while the crown still retained much of its ancient pretensions of prerogative, the commons had not yet found opportunities of establishing distinct principles of freedom. In these cir- ENGLAND, 1553 1603. 239 cumstances the powers claimed by Elizabeth were doubtless, in many instances, such as would not now be tolerated. But that the paramount authority of the parliament was then acknowledged, appears from the testimony of Sir Thomas Smith, secretary both to Edward VI. and to Elizabeth 40 . Though, as will hereafter be shown, the struggles oc- casioned by the efforts of the Puritans, did essentially con- tribute to the development of the principles of freedom, it is by no means true, as the historian has stated 41 , that the English owe to this sect the whole freedom of their go- vernment. These views of the internal government of Elizabeth ex- hibit to us a wise and vigorous sovereign, guiding a power- ful people through circumstances of the greatest difficulty and danger, almost without an interruption of the public tranquillity, conducting with caution a revolution of religion, repressing with vigilance and firmness the efforts of a dis- contented party, and yielding at the precise moment, when to persist would have committed her with her people. But the splendid views of this important reign are those, in which we behold Elizabeth contending with the leagued potentates 40 ' The most high and absolute power of the realm of England con- sisteth in the parliament." Then, having enumerated the various func- tions of the parliament, he concludes with saying, ' all that ever the people of Rome might do, either in centuriatis comiliis, or tributis, the same may be done by the parliament of England, which representeth, and hath the power of the whole realm, both the head and the body.' Commonwealth of England, book ii. en. ii. ' Did it ever happen,' says Lord John Russell, speaking of this comparison of Hume, ' that a Turkish house of commons prevailed on the sultan to correct the extor- tion of his pachas, as the English house of commons induced Elizabeth to surrender the odious monopolies ? Did queen Elizabeth ever put to death the holders of those monopolies without trial, in order to seize their ill-gotten wealth ? In fact the authority of the house of commons made some advances during the reign of Elizabeth. The very weight of the power that was used to crush their remonstrances, shows the strength of their resistance. The debates of the house of commons during this reign fill a volume and a half of the old parliamentary his- tory.' Essay on the Hist, of the Engl. Gov. and Const., pp. 43, 44. London, 1821. Lord J. Russell has also corrected a misrepresentation of Hume in regard to the imprisonment of Wentworth, by showing, from the authority quoted by the historian, that the queen did not re- store the imprisoned member, but referred his enlargement to the house. ibid., p. 312. " Hist, of Engl., vol. v. p. 193. 240 MODEKN HISTORY: of the continent of Europe, protecting the Protestants of other countries from the violence of their enemies, and tri- umphing over the unwieldy greatness of the Spanish monarchy in its confident effort of hostility. Her foreign policy was however strictly defensive, the security of her own people being her only object. She declined the offered sovereignty of the Dutch, but gave the assistance which secured their independence, because the duke of Alva had intrigued with her domestic enemies 42 , and the safety of her own throne was involved in the support of the Protestants of the conti- nent. The armada, so vainly named invincible, was sent to sub- jugate the state, which had supported the revolution of the Dutch provinces ; but the consequence of its discomfiture was that the plundered colonies and insulted coasts of Spain served to nurture the naval enterprise of England. The attention of Elizabeth, long engaged by other objects, was at length forcibly attracted to Ireland, and the subjugation of the earl of Tyrone, at the very close of her reign, com- pleted the reduction of the island, after a perpetual struggle of nearly four centuries and a half, leaving to her successor only the task of introducing into it the blessings of a regu- lated government. In the forty- third year of the reign of Elizabeth was enac- ted the important statute, which began the system of the poor-laws of England. It has been commonly supposed that the dissolution of the monasteries had created a neces- sity for this legislative provision, by withdrawing funds which had been employed in works of charity ; but, as sixty years had intervened, it may rather be supposed to have been oc- casioned by a considerable increase in the number of the people in the lower classes 43 , which various causes had co- operated to produce 44 . The dissolution of the monasteries 42 Hume, vol. v. pp. 171 206. 43 Judge Harrington on the more Anc. Statutes, pp. 535, &c. 44 From two numerations, one made in the year 1575, the other in the year 1583. it was ascertained that the number of men in England able to bear arms was then about 1,172,000, which number multiplied by 4, would prove the total population to have amounted to 4,688,000, or if multiplied by 5, to 5,860, 000. The.popu- lation in the year 1377 has been estimated from the poll-tax to h;iv amounted but to 2,253,203. The number of the people appears thus to have been doubled in the two intervening centuries. Chalmers's Es- ENGLAND, 1553 1603. 241 may have contributed to this increase ; but the number of the people must have been otherwise much augmented in the absence of all those drains, by which it is generally mo- derated. During almost a century the country had suffered little by war, either foreign or domestic ; nor had those co- lonial establishments been formed, which have since received much of the redundant population of the parent-state. It is an honourable distinction of the English government that, when thus pressed by its population, it has endeavoured to secure all its poor from the miseries of indigence. The policy of such a regulation has indeed latterly been ques- tioned by Mr. Malthus 45 , who contends that the spring of population must always be sufficiently powerful, to multiply the objects of a bounty so liberal, and thus to increase the evil which it endeavoured to remedy. A system of regula- tions, by which the able poor should be furnished with the means of removing themselves and their families to another region, where their labours should be required, seems to be more effectual in regard to the evil, and less burthensome to the other classes of society. The tendency of population to press upon the limit of the means of subsistence, appears to be the appointment of the divine providence for diffusing population over the world, and to point out the proper ex- pedient for obviating the inconvenience, which it may occa- sion. That the reign of Elizabeth was a period distinguished by the literary improvement of England, has been already no- ticed ; but the creation of the English drama appears to re- quire in this place some special consideration. The modern drama has been by later critics divided into two species ; the classical, formed in imitation of that of Greece and Rome, and the romantic, which has sprung from the chivalric poetry of the middle ages of Europe. The Italian and the French drama were constructed in imitation of the classic model, and that of Spain in the spirit of the modern romances. The drama of England, as in truth created by Shakspeare 46 , seems timate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain, pp. 12, 14, 37 39. London, 1804. 4S Essay on the Principle of Population. 46 The first dramatic composition in the English language, after the old moralities, was, until very lately, conceived to have been the low comedy entitled Gammei Gurton's Needle, first printed in the year VOL. III. K 242 MODEEN HISTOEY : to hold an intermediate station, being neither restrained within the limits of the ancient drama, nor abandoned to the wild extravagance of that of Spain. Formed for a people, in which a great variety of human character had been freely developed, it is a faithful representation of the sentiments and actions of living men 47 . The French dramatists, under the restrictions of the classic theatre, have been compelled to supply the deficiency of action by narrations of events sup- posed to have occurred. The artificial complication of in- trigue, and the poetical dialogue of the Spanish drama, were on the other hand inconsistent with that simplicity of truth, which characterises the plays of Shakspeare. Between these two he found a place for his own genius ; and in his dramas we may exercise our affections by contemplating our nature in every condition of life, neither reduced to the tameness of narration, as in the classic theatre, nor heightened by the exaggeration and artificial combination of that of romance. This distinguished writer began his career of fame under the reign of Elizabeth, for his first play is believed to have been composed in the year 1589 ; but he ended it in that of her successor, his last having been written, as is supposed, in the year 1614. As he grew in reputation, he became more sen- sible of his powers, and gave to the world his nobler produc- tions in the reign of James. It is natural to enquire, what was the peculiar influence of two successive female reigns in this interesting crisis of the English history. A satisfactory answer may perhaps be given to the question. The sex of the earlier of the two queens afforded occasion for the temporary connexion with 1551; the first tragedy, named Ferrex and Porrex, was composed in the year 1561. Pref. to Hawkins's Origin of the English Drama. Mr. Collier has however, in a recent history of English Dramatic Poetry, given the priority to a comedy entitled Ralph Roister Doister, a copy of which was discovered in the year 1818. Quart. Rev. Jan. 1830. In forming the English drama Shakspeare was followed by a crowd of writers, among whom Ben Johnson, the earliest, was born ten years after him, and Massinger, the last survivor, died twenty-four years after his death. Between these two were Beaumont and Fletcher. 47 The praise of Shakspeare is that he has been able to do, for every variety of character and situation, that which Horace thought to be so difficult, that he dissuaded from the attempt, communia proprie dicere ; that his characters are not abstractions, but distinguished by all the pe- culiarities of individual existence. ENGLAND, 1553 1603. 243 Spain, as that of Mary of Scotland gave occasion to the simi- lar connexion of 'her country with France ; and this connexion made preparation for that struggle with Spain, which illus- trated the succeeding reign. The sex of Elizabeth on the other hand appears to have exercised a beneficial influence in reducing within proper limits the ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown. This consideration probably determined the appointment of a court of high commission 48 , for the exercise of that supremacy, which had been vested in her father, but which it might seem particularly improper to bestow upon a female. It is certain that, even with this modification, her supremacy furnished a plausible objection to her adversaries, and she herself was accordingly contented to explain it so, as to limit it to an exclusive sovereignty over the persons of all her subjects. When the necessity for such an institution had ceased, the court of high commission was abolished as a grievance ; but the temporary establishment of it had use- fully served to separate from the crown, whatever was ex- cessive in the original notion of the royal supremacy. The sex of Elizabeth may have also contributed to the improve- ment of English manners, especially as the queen was fond of splendid pageantry 49 , and willing to believe herself, even in advanced age, the object of romantic attachment. Such a period of improvement must have most seasonably pre- ceded the struggles of the Puritans, whose fanatical austerity would else have more considerably vitiated the intercourses of society. It only remains to notice, how remarkably the very dif- ferent lengths of the two reigns were -accommodated to the adjustment of the English government. The reign of Mary, a period of violent action opposed to its regular progress, comprehended only five years, whereas that of Elizabeth, in which its ecclesiastical establishment was constituted, and 48 For the establishment of this court accordingly provision was made in the act of supremacy, passed by her first parliament. Such however were the powers actually intrusted to it, that Hume has concluded his account of it with remarking, that it was a real Inquisition. Hist, of England, vol. v. p. 279. 49 Anquetil, writing of the year 1583, has remarked that the ceremonial of the court of England was then much more pompous than that of the court of France. L'Esprit de la Ligue, tome ii. p. 246. The great increase of comfort and luxury in England has been distinctly stated by Hollmshed. Chroii., vol. i.. fol. 85. B 2 ; Ibid., pp. 409, 437, 588. 288 MODEKN HISTORY : first of these letters, which Pius V. issued in the year 1569, Elizabeth was pronounced to be destitute of all right to the throne of England, and her subjects were discharged from all obligation of allegiance. By the second, which Gregory XIII. issued in the year 1580, the same plenary absolution was offered to all, who should aid the enemies of the queen, which had been granted to those, who contended with the Turks for the recovery of the Holy Land. By the third, which Clement VIII. addressed particularly to O'Neal in the year 1601, that chieftain was hailed as the champion of the church, and the papal benedictions were showered upon him, and upon the other princes and nobles, who had en- gaged in the holy cause. The bulls of the pontiffs were supported by the arms of Spain, and the universities of that kingdom were in the year 1603 employed to determine 61 , that the Roman Catholics of Ireland were bound to give their assistance to O'Neal in the war, which he waged against Elizabeth. By these interpositions a principle of bigotry has been planted in this country, which has since produced all its bitter fruits. The great mass of the popu- lation has been set in hostility to the government, and so deeply were the Romish clergy of Ireland impressed with the lesson then inculcated, that within our own time they have been even carried further in their resistance to the control of the state 62 , than the policy of Rome would have urged them to proceed. 61 Mac-Geoghegan, tome ii. p. 593. 62 Mr. Butler has furnished the following chronology of the discussion of the negative, which it was proposed to allow to the crown on the appointment of the Roman Catholic prelates of Ireland. In the year 1799 the measure was up- proved by them. In the year 1808 it was reported by doctor Milner as agreeable to them. In the same year it was declared by them to be inexpedient. In the year 1815 cardinal Litta declared the acquies- cence of the pope in such a measure. To this communication the Irish prelates declared their decided opposition. In the year 181(5 the pope remonstrated with them on the unreasonableness of their appre- hensions. In the year 1817 the Irish prelates remonstrated with the pope, praying for a concordat, which might render the election of their successors domestic and independent. In the year 1818 the pope re- plied to this remonstrance, ordering them to be at ease. This command however appears to have been disregarded, for in the year 1821 the prelates of Leinster, assembled with the clergy of the arch-diocese of Dublin, declared their conscientious uneasiness on the subject. Hist. Mem., vol. iv. pp. 479, &c. IKELAND, 7971603. 289 In comparing the two accessory members of the triple government we observe that, while in Scotland one combi- nation of causes political and religious prepared a presby- terian church, which furnished the support of the whig inte- rest of the principal country, another in Ireland gave a beginning indeed to an established church corresponding to that of England, but at the same time attached the majority of the people to the cause and interest of Rome, and thereby provided an antagonist force for supporting the congenial interest of arbitrary government. The double enginery was thus prepared at the conclusion of the reign of Elizabeth, by which the oscillation of the constitution between those extremes was to be maintained under the family of the Stuarts, so that at the close of seventy-five years it migtit settle in the middle point of regulated freedom. The wisdom of Elizabeth in providing for the improve- ment of Ireland, was long baffled by the public commotions. At length in the year 1584 ffl , when the death of the earl of Desmond, and the reduction of his followers, had afforded a favourable opportunity for executing schemes of political reformation, the government was committed to Sir John Per- rot, a man well acquainted with the interests of his country, and reverenced by all its inhabitants. His wise object was to extend, as much as possible, throughout Ireland the be- nefits of the English laws. Such was the efficacy of this genuine policy, however late adopted, that, though Mary M , with all her attachment to the religion of Rome, had ex- perienced in Ireland as much resistance, as had before been encountered by the protestant Edward, yet in the reign of Elizabeth, a powerful party of the native Irish both disre- garded the call of the Spanish commander Don Juan de'ol Aquila 05 , and supported the cause of loyalty against the domestic enemies of the queen. For promoting the refor- mation of religion little could then be done with any present effect. As it was perceived that the doctrines of religion could be communicated only through a language generally understood, provision was made in the year 1571 for print- ing in the Irish language the New Testament and the Eng- lish liturgy 66 . The former of these works however was not 63 Leland, vol. ii. p. 291. M Mac-Geoghegan, tome ii. p. 375. 65 O'Conor's Hist. Address, parti, pp. 10, &c. a Ricliaidsou's VOL. III. U 290 MODERN HISTORY: accomplished until the year 1602, nor the latter until the succeeding reign, although an Irish catechism had been pub- lished in the interval. For providing a succession of edu- cated ministers of the established church, the university of Dublin was founded in the year 1593; but the institution was engaged in a continued struggle with difficulties until the restoration of Charles II. had quieted the country, and therefore in that earlier period could have little operation in extending the influence of true religion, by sending into the established church a more qualified clergy. CHAPTER XIV. Of the history of Great Britain and Ireland, from the accession of James I. in the year 1603, to that of Charles I. in the year 1625. James I. king in the year 1603 Hampton-Court-conference, 1604 Gunpowder-plot, 1605-rThe king declared absolute in Scotland, and the annexation of church-lands dissolved, 1606 Plantation of Ulster in Ireland, 1609 Ecclesiastical power of the bishops in Scotland esta- blished, 1610 First general parliament Calvinistical articles esta- blished in Ireland, 1615 The Independents, 1616 Articles of Perth, 1618 Protestation of the commons of England, 1621 Bacon. THE reign of the first prince of the family of the Stuarts was distinguished by various movements in the several territories of the triple monarchy, all preparatory to the grand struggle which shortly succeeded. In this reign the party of the Puritans of England became more distinctly developed, and the English house of commons asserted that importance, which afterwards, urged onward by the puritanical spirit of the time, overthrew the authority of the king, the church, and the nobility. In the same reign an injudicious and vio- lent effort to assimilate the ecclesiastical institutions of Scot- land to those of England, provoked a resistance in the former country, which powerfully acted upon the latter, furnishing Short Hist, of Attempts to Convert the Popish Natives of Ireland, pp. 13-18. London, 1712. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 1625. 291 the immediate excitement of its agitations. In this reign also Ireland became prepared to take its part in the commo- tions of England, not only as it was then for the first time reduced in some degree to the order and tranquillity of re- gular government, but also as a puritanical party of Protes- tants was formed within it, to assist in controlling the pre- dominant interest of the Roman Catholics. The right position of the constitution of England was at length ad- justed at the revolution, when two contrary excesses of po- litical movement had carried it to the opposite extremes of republicanism and arbitrary power, the two accessory governments of Scotland and Ireland acting as the escape- ments, which in the machinery of a clock sustain and regu- late the motion of the pendulum. Scotland gave the im- pulse to the puritanical party, as Ireland was the support of the contrary party of the Roman Catholics. It seems to have held a principal place among the pecu- liar advantages, by which the formation of the English go- vernment has been eminently favoured, that the development of its popular principles was hastened, and as it were forced forward, by exciting causes, instead of being left to its own ordinary and regular process. If the struggle of the commons with the monarchy and the aristocracy had been postponed, until it had arisen from a consciousness of strength, not stimulated by any temporary excitement, nor assisted by any extrinsic agency, it must have continued until the constitution should have been finally destroyed. The constitution was indeed for a time overthrown by the violence of the popular part of the government ; but this violence was an occasional and unnatural excitement, and the nation returned spontaneously to the ancient and ac- knowledged principles of civil policy, instructed by the calamity which had been experienced in the convulsion, and guarded against its recurrence. The popular spirit of freedom in England had been de- rived from that Saxon government, the laws of which served as a rallying point in the struggles with the Norman princes, until they were recognised in the great charter. The house of commons, which was afterwards constituted, had gradually acquired more and more importance, so as even before the reign of Elizabeth to be an influential u 2 292 MODERN HISTORY: member of the government. In her reign the religious sect of the Puritans added its strength to that of the advocates of civil liberty. The political efforts of the Puritans in the parliaments of Elizabeth were however confined to the indication of privileges, which were considered as belong- ing of right to the house of commons. The caution, with which in the beginning of the long parliament the views of the Puritans were disclosed, will furnish a yet more direct and conclusive evidence, that these were comparatively an inconsiderable party, acting upon a larger body, and con- cealing from it, as much as possible, that any further object was contemplated, than the vindication of the constitu- tional rights of the commons. While the presbyterian independence and sectarian zeal of the Puritans were thus prompting the commons of Eng- land to exertions in the cause of civil liberty, for which their political importance had prepared them, though not sufficient to urge them into a direct contest with the other orders of the state, the self-conceited pedantry of James, his undisguised demand of arbitrary power, and his un- suspecting ignorance of the weakness of his pretensions, and of the inadequateness of his resources, served to pro- voke an insulted people to repel the encroachments of pre- rogative, and endeavour to erect and secure the land-marks of their liberties. Dazzled by the splendid prospect of his accession to the throne of England, his feeble mind was filled with visions of authority far superior to that, which he possessed amidst the turbulent aristocracy of a poor and narrow territory. The power which was so much greater than the dominion, which he actually exercised, ap- peared to him to be in its nature absolute and unlimited 1 ; and that which he had so long contemplated as the right of his inheritance, seemed to him to be the indefeasible gift of heaven. It appears 2 however that the notion of the divine right of royalty had been originally suggested to James by the misfortunes of his mother. Shocked at the hostility which she had encountered, though it had placed 1 In his speech addressed to the lords and commons in the year 1609, he entered into a detailed comparison of the uncontrolled power of kinps with the attributes of the divine nature. Harris's Life of James I., pp. 187, 188. Lond., \1T>. 2 Basilican Doron. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 1625. 293 himself prematurely on the throne of his country, he was anxious to protect the royal character in his own person from similar aggressions, and loudly proclaimed a doctrine proscribing them in every imaginable case of misconduct. The celebrated Buchanan, the first modern writer 5 , who sought the foundation of the royal authority in the consent of the people, had been employed to superintend the edu- cation of this prince ; but, while such feelings of the past, and such anticipations of the future, occupied his mind, the instructions of this father of the Whigs could have no other influence on his political opinions, than that which the presbyteries of Scotland had on his notions of ecclesias- cal government, driving him into the contrary system, and exciting him to maintain, and to extend it, with the pe- dantry and the violence of a controversialist. ' The great schoolmaster of the land,' as he has himself characterised a sovereign, advanced accordingly the doctrine, that kings, as vicegerents of the Deity, are accountable to him alone, and for the punishment of their crimes must be remitted to his vengeance. This doctrine became the grand maxim of his family, and their inflexible adherence to it provoked that series of struggles, by which the balance of the constitution was at length adjusted. James appears to have proposed to himself three dis- tinct objects in reducing to practice his conceptions of royal greatness. He was anxious to bring the English parlia- ment to a subordination consistent with his own exorbitant pretensions of authority ; he laboured to establish episco- pacy on the ruin of the Scotish presbyteries ; and he thought it indispensably necessary to procure for his son Charles a consort of royal extraction. A more perfect system of conduct could not have been devised for exciting the oppo- sition of the people of England, than that which was thus blindly adopted by the folly of this vain and imprudent 3 Laing's Hist, of Scotland, vol. i. p. 21. Lond., 1800. Bodin, a French writer, who died in the year 1596, claimed the credit of having first asserted the limitation of the power of kings ; but he denied to subjects the right of resistance, allowing it only to other princes. Bayle, art. Bodin. Buchanan died in the year 1582. He in the year 1579 dedicated to James his treatise De Jure Reyni apud Scotos, which he had composed many years before. 294 MODERN HISTORY. king. His claim of arbitrary power in England offended a people, which had received from a remote antiquity, and cherished through successive ages, the spirit of a free go- vernment. His unwise attempt to alter the ecclesiastical establishment of Scotland at once alarmed the English Puritans, and prepared for them in the neighbouring country a powerful and strenuous body of auxiliaries. As if it were designed that nothing should be wanting to establish a complete separation of parties, and to alienate from the interest of his family the great majority of his subjects 4 , his preposterous ambition to connect his son with the royal family of Spain, or France, engaged himself and his family in a connexion with the Roman Catholics, which disquieted his own reign, and proved the ruin of his race. The creditable part of the government of this prince was his management of Ireland, where he was the founder of the public peace and order. When the party adverse to the English government, and eager to effect the reestablish- ment of the church of Rome, had been crushed in the un successful struggle of the earl of Tyrone, an opportunity was afforded for constituting a contrary party, by which it might in future commotions be balanced and controlled. James accordingly, in his northern settlement of six es- cheated counties 5 , gave a beginning to a protestant interest, which could most effectually oppose the Roman Catholics 4 Bentivoglio at this time reported to the court of Rome, that the Roman Catholics of England were only a thirtieth part of the nation. Decline and Fall, &c., chapter xx. note 25. 6 Cavan, Ferma- nagh, Donegal, Tyrone, Armagh, and Londonderry. Pynnar's Survey of Ulster in Harris's Hibernica, part i. ' The confiscation of Tyrone's property, and the same may be said of every confiscation in the reign of queen Elizabeth,' says Mr. Butler, ' was attended with this singular circumstance, that the crown seized not only the demesnes and seig- noral right of the offender, but dispossessed all his tenants and sub- tenants of their lands, and parcelled them out among strangers.' Hist. Memoir of the English, Irish, and Scotish Catholics, vol. ii. pp. 360, 361. But in Ireland, by the laws of tainistry and ga veiling, no individual had any distinct and permanent property in the soil, which truly belonged to the entire clan, and was subjected to a new distribu- tion, whenever a change occurred among the individuals, of whom a clan was composed. Nor is it true that the natives were generally dis- possessed. Considerable tracts were reserved expressly for them, and we have been informed, that the fourth part of the land was not fully occupied by British settlers. Pynnar, p. 236. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND 1603 1625. 295 of the other provinces, while the Roman Catholic con- nexion, which he formed for his son, disposed these on the other hand to look to the crown for protection, and to be transformed into a party prepared to support and maintain the utmost pretensions of prerogative. From that time the province of Ulster has continued to be the most orderly and industrious part of the island, as it is at this day the ac- knowledged dependence of a government solicitous at the same time to conciliate the Roman Catholics. The general pacification of the country, consequent on the wars of the preceding reign, permitted him to convene the first general parliament of Ireland, which was accordingly assembled in the year 1613. For this he found it expedient to make preparation by creating forty boroughs, each sending two representatives ; yet such was then the strength of the Roman Catholic interest, that the Protestants exceeded the Roman Catholic members of the house of commons only by twenty-four, the former being a hundred and twenty-five, the latter a hundred and one. Even in his progress from Scotland to take possession of his new sovereignty, though in such a progress we might expect to find only acts of gracious conciliation, James con- trived to manifest that spirit of arbitrary government 6 , which strongly actuated his mind, by ordering a thief to execution without trial. He was probably admonished that such acts of power would not be tolerated in England, as he never repeated the experiment. By the unprecedented frequency of his proclamations however, not fewer than twelve having been issued within eight or nine months from his accession 7 , he seemed to indicate, that these ordinances should be con- sidered as laws. In convening his first English parliament 3 he yet more distinctly announced the extravagant opinion, which he entertained concerning the plenitude of the royal authority, for both in the writs, and in the proclamation, he took upon himself to prescribe to his people the sort of re- presentatives, which should be returned, and required that the returns should be made to the court of chancery, where their validity should be examined and determined. At the accession of this prince 9 some statesmen were de- 6 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 159. 7 Ibid., pp. 162, 163. 8 Ibid. 9 Sir Walter Raleigh, lord Cobham, sir John Fortescue, and others 296 MODERN HISTORY : sirous of binding him by specific restrictions, but were de- feated by the opposition of others, who perhaps wished to recommend themselves to the new king by an unlimited confidence. The nation however was not yet ripe for such a measure. The laws of the constitution had not yet been sufficiently settled for adjusting the balance of the govern- ment ; and this adjustment would probably have been less complete, if the agitations, by which it was effected, had been moderated by any previous restrictions. It is indeed extremely probable, that restrictions then imposed would have been as little regarded by James, as was the constitu- tion of his native country, which he seized the earliest op- portunity of subverting both in the church and in the state. The king communicated to his first English parliament the plan of his policy, informing it in the speech, with which he commenced the session, that he was disposed to repress the Puritans, and to favour the Roman Catholics. Educated among the Presbyterians of his original country, he had im- bibed the opinions of Calvin, and continued to maintain them as the genuine tenets of the church of England, departing from the guarded moderation of the English reformers, who had anxiously avoided these considerations. But the poli- tical principles of the Presbyterians of Scotland, had so alarmed him, that he even pronounced them to be in this respect a sect 10 , which could not be tolerated in any well- governed commonwealth. For the Roman Catholics n he ex- pressed on the other hand much kindness. He did indeed declare that neither could they be tolerated, so long as they should inculcate the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, and practise the assassination of excommunicated princes ; but he at the same time intimated, that he had already relieved them as much as was in his power, that he meditated to procure from the parliament a favourable modification of the laws of which they were the objects, and that he earnestly wished to promote a plan of religious reconciliation. The orderly hierarchy of the church of Rome appears to have presented itself to his mind, as more suitable to the subor- dination of a monarchical government, than the republican desired, that James might be bound by articles, but were opposed and overruled by Cecil, Northumberland, and others. Harris, p. 51. 10 Parl. Hist., vol. v. p. 29. " Ibid., pp. 30-32. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 162,5. 297 institutions of the Presbyterians ; and he seems to have been on this account anxious to detach the Roman Catholics from the papacy, and to gain them by indulgence to the support of his own power. How vain was this conciliatory policy of James, was evinced in the third year of his reign by the treasonable plot, by which it was designed to blow at once into the air the king, the lords, and the commons of the parliament, when assembled in their legislative character. The plot appears to have had its origin in the disappointed hopes of the Roman Catholics, who had expected from the son of Mary more than he could venture to attempt for their relief. The policy of the king was not however altered by this diabolical scheme of treachery ; perhaps his timidity may have even increased his desire of conciliating a party, which had proved itself so formidable. His disposition to favour them was certainly strengthened, notwithstanding the hor- rible discovery, by his projects for procuring, as a consort for his son, a princess of regal extraction, first from the family of Spain, and then from that of France. Whatever influence the gunpowder-plot may have exercised on the policy of James, there can be no doubt that it served to exasperate the Puritans against the church of Rome 12 , and to alienate them yet more from a sovereign willing to treat that church with indulgence. That he might convince the Puritans of their unreason- ableness in dissenting from the established church, he sum- moned both the parties to a conference at Hampton- Court. In his progress into England he had received from them a petition, which has been named millenary, though really subscribed by but eight hundred persons. The conference was appointed professedly for discussing the merits of this petition. In that meeting, though some attempts were made to render the doctrine of the church Calvinistical 13 , the chief 12 Hume, vol. vi. p. 12. 13 It was proposed that to these -words in the sixteenth article, ' we may depart from grace', should be added neither totally nor finally, which would have exactly reversed the meaning. It was also proposed that the nine articles of Lambeth should be introduced, Neal, vol. ii. p. 14. The articles of Lambeth had been framed in the year 1595, in consequence of a dissension in the university of Cambridge, which had been referred by the head of the university to the arbitration of the archbishop and some other di- 298 MODERN HISTORY: objections were urged against its ceremonies and its dis- cipline. James conceded to the Puritans some minute cor- rections of the liturgy 14 , which he ordained by proclama- tion; but he rejected all their pretensions in very decisive language. An occasion was at this time afforded for the formation of a sect, which afterwards so much exceeded the Presbyterians in their most violent measures of resistance, that it served to drive them back within the limits of the constitution. A book of canons had been prepared, and had been ratified by the convocation 15 , which denounced the penalties of excom- munication against all, who should in any particular deviate from the most strict conformity. Though it was soon dis- vines. They maintained the doctrine of Calvin in its most rigorous form. The queen signified to the archbishop her displeasure at his conduct in permitting the discussion, and commanded that the articles should not be publicly urged. Ibid., vol. i. pp. 497 499. 14 These were ' the expounding of the word absolution by remission of sins, the qualifying of the rubric about private baptism, the adding of some thanksgivings at the end of the litany, and answers at the close of the catechism.' Heylyn's Hist, of the Presbyterians, p. 373. Ox- ford, 1670. James however also consented to a new translation of the bible, provided that it should have no marginal notes, alleging that the translation of Geneva was the worst, as the marginal notes allowed disobedience to kings. Neal, vol. ii. p. 15. This, which is still used, was published in the year 1611. For executing it fifty-four persons were selected from the two universities. Some of these having died soon afterwards, the work was undertaken by forty-seven, who were divided into six companies, each of which undertook a distinct portion. Among the regulations prescribed to them it was directed, that they should adhere as closely as possible to the translation named ' the Bishop's Bible,' which was a revision of that of Cranmer, and had been prepared for the purpose of setting aside that of Geneva. Neal, vol. i. pp. 222, 223 ; vol. ii. p. 89. The Bishop's Bible had been pub- lished in the year 1568, and was so named because eight of the persons employed in preparing it were bishops. 15 Of these canons, as they have never been confirmed in parliament, it has been solemnly adjudged, that, where they are not merely declaratory of the ancient canon law, but are introductory of new regulations, they do not bind the laity, whatever regard the clergy may think proper to pay them. Blackstone's Com., introd., sect. 3. James notwithstanding caused them to be executed generally, as if they were a part of the law of the land. They were collected out of the injunctions and other episcopal and synodical acts of the reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth. Neal, vol. ii. p. 32. The penalty of excommunication was at this time sub- stituted for others less severe. Ibid., p. 34. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 1625. 299 covered to be impracticable to enforce the rigorous observance of these ordinances, as the church would have been deprived of too many of its ministers, they had yet the effect of giving occasion to a new separation, Avhich generated the Indepen- dents. Many ministers having fled for refuge to the Dutch provinces, a church was there formed by an Englishman, named Brown 16 , in which each congregation professed to be itself a church distinct from all other in ecclesiastical govern- ment. From that country the sect was in the year 1616 in- troduced into England, where, besides taking a principal part in the colonisation of North America, it decided the fortune of the civil war. As they who had fled from Mary, found in the ecclesiastical republic of Geneva a suitable re- ceptacle for forming the habits of Presbyterians, so the refu- gees of the reign of James were enabled, under the general tolerance of a commercial government, to arrange the system of the Independents. The first parliament of James very soon, and very perse- veringly, exhibited a spirit of freedom, which interfered with his purpose of employing it only as an instrument of his own authority. Immediately after the hereditary right of the king had been acknowledged by a parliamentary act, it was agreed that a conference of the two houses should be held on the state of the nation 17 , particularly in regard to pur- veyorship, respite of homage, and wardship, all confessedly belonging to the ancient prerogative of the crown. The commons at the same time resisted with firmness an attempt of the king 18 , to carry into execution his plan of controlling 16 From him they were named Brownists. Brown first published his opinions in Norwich in the year 1580. In the year 1592 it was said by Sir Walter Raleigh in parliament, that he feared that there were in England of his sect nearly twenty thousand men, besides women and children. Hist, of Dissenters by Bogue and Bennett, vol. i. p. 130. London, 1808. " Parl. Hist., vol. v. p. 55. 18 Sir Francis Goodwin, who had been elected representative of Buckinghamshire, was rejected by the clerk of the crown as an outlaw, agreeably to a di- rection, which James had given in his proclamation, and Sir James Fortescue was elected under a second writ. The house of commons however immediately confirmed the election of Sir Francis Goodwin, and afterwards refused to hold a conference with the lords on the ques- tion ; and, though they submitted to defend their proceeding before the king, they resolved that they would not hold a conference with the judges, except in the presence of his majesty. It was finally deter- 300 MODERN HISTORY : the election of their members. In the succeeding year the parliament extended its statement of grievances to other par- ticulars of the feudal tenures 19 , proposing to compensate the crown for the relinquishment of all these prerogatives. In the third 20 so great anxiety to discover grievances was mani- fested, that the king remarked, that the commons had sent a crier through the nation to find them. In the seventh the commons complained of two books recently published 21 , which inculcated the most slavish principles of policy. One of these, named the Interpreter, written by doctor Covel, exalted the power of the sovereign above all limitation ; the other, written by doctor Blackwood, went perhaps further, for it taught that the English were all actually slaves from the Norman conquest. A prosecution which had been com- menced against the former of these writers, was discon- tinued on account of the interposition of the king, who had before been understood to have given commendation to his treatise. This parliament at length agreed to allow the annual sum of two hundred thousand pounds required by the king 22 , in return for the concessions, which they had solicited ; but James had become so impatient of its inquisitive spirit, that, relinquishing the arrangement, he abruptly dissolved it in the year 1610. Its vigilance however was sufficiently justi- fied, the king having in its commencement attempted to con- trol the elections of the commons, in which struggle he is- sued an order professedly ' as an absolute king 23 ,' and having afterwards protected and countenanced a writer, whose prin- ciples were destructive of freedom. When the first parliament had been thus dissolved, it was determined to conduct the government without the incon- venient restraint of such an assembly, and more than three years elapsed, before the thoughtless profusion of James had exhausted the various expedients 24 , by which he endeavoured mined, with the concurrence of Sir Francis Goodwin, that there should be a new election. Sir Francis Goodwin was however soon afterwards elected for the town of Buckingham. Parl. Hist., vol. v. pp. 58 87. 19 Ibid., p. 103. 20 Ibid., p. 154. 2l Ibid., pp. 221225. 22 Ibid., pp. 264268. 23 Ibid., p. 81. 21 How he defrayed at this time the expenses of his government is, says the compiler of the Parliamentary History, a secret. Some expedients however have been specified. The king claimed an aid of his subjects, when he gave his GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 1625. 301 to compensate the loss of parliamentary supplies. A parlia- ment assembled in such circumstances being necessarily less favourable than the preceding, the commons proceeded im- mediately to the consideration of the manner 25 , in which money had in the interval been levied upon the people. The king, on the other hand, indignant at the investigation of the commons, dissolved the parliament after a short session, and imprisoned several of the members 26 . The second parliament having been dismissed, the king was again necessitated to have recourse to the most irregular methods of providing money 27 . These however were insuf- ficient to defray the expenses of an armament sent to the relief of the elector palatine, who had married his daughter, daughter Elizabeth in marriage to the elector palatine, in the year 1612. Under the pretext of planting colonies in the north of Ireland he insti- tuted the order of baronets, who, to the number of two hundred, should pay for this dignity each a thousand pounds. He raised the price of English coined gold two shillings in the pound, bringing it, as was al- leged, to the value at which it was received in foreign countries. Lastly, a lottery was drawn, the professed purpose of which was to plant English colonies in Virginia, but it may have been applied to the general use of the government. Parl. Hist., vol. v. pp. 270 272. The ordinary resources of the crown consisted in the crown-lands, the customs, wardships, purveyances, &c. Hume, vol.vi. p. 190. A par- ticular account has been published of James's revenue during the first fourteen years of his reign, from which it appears that his ordinary in- come did not exceed four hundred and fifty thousand eight hundred and sixty-three pounds, and that his ordinary disbursements exceeded his permanent income by thirty-six thousand six hundred and seventeen pounds yearly. In the year 1610 lord Salisbury declared in parliament that the king was burdened with a debt of three hundred thousand pounds. Sinclair's Hist, of the Revenue, vol. i. p. 244. M Parl. Hist., vol. v. p. 287. M Rapin, vol. ii. p. 186. 27 These appear to have consisted in exacting fifty-two thousand nine hundred and nine pounds from the citizens of London, in giving up to the Dutch for a sum of money the cautionary towns, and in receiving money for dis- pensations from penal statutes, for licensing inns, for a monopoly of gold and silver thread, and for grants of concealments. By conceal- ments seem to have been signified lands of ecclesiastical and charitable institutions possessed without authority by individuals. Ibid. pp. 307 345. The Dutch provinces had been indebted to Elizabeth to the amount of eight hundred thousand pounds. Of this sum James had already received two hundred thousand pounds ; and at this time he relinquished for a sum of two hundred and fifiy thousand the towns, which had been given to Elizabeth as a security of the debt. Sinclair, vol i. pp. 24^, W., 302 MODERN HISTORY : and was then involved in the great struggle of the German empire ; and therefore, as the war was popular among the people of England, having been undertaken in support of the Protestants of Germany, he ventured, after an interrup- tion of nearly six years, to try whether he might not then find a parliament more disposed to supply his wants. The third parliament of this reign, assembled in the year 1620, is memorable for a protestation 28 , in which the com- mons asserted their privileges to be the right of their inhe- ritance, in opposition to the pretension of the king, who professed to consider them as revocable at his pleasure. As this parliament resolved to begin with the consideration of the public grievances 29 , postponing that of the supply, for which it had been convened, it was first occupied about the due execution of the laws against popish recusants, and the prosecution of delinquencies in the cases of patents and mo- nopolies. The . necessities of the state were not however neglected, a supply being granted sufficient for the present urgency of the occasion 30 . The commons then proceeded to impeach the lord chancellor, the celebrated Bacon, whose genius has formed an epoch in the history of knowledge, but whose misconduct in his high office has also exhibited a lamentable example of the weakness of the noblest mind. The king appears to have willingly concurred with this parliament in abolishing obnoxious patents 31 , and in punish- ing those persons, who had injured the interests of the na- tion. There was however a subject, in regard to which they could not come to an agreement. The growth of popery, rendered more alarming by the negotiation for a marriage between the heir of the British crown and the infanta of Spain, called forth a remonstrance from the commons, which committed them in a direct struggle with the sovereign. James, who had heard of the intended remonstrance 32 , anti- cipated it by addressing to the speaker a letter, in which he 28 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 204. It is also memorable for the first concerted opposition party in the house of commons. " Such a combination was so novel, that we shall see that the king's minister commenced a prose- cution against its leaders for an illegal cabal ; and to escape detection, the oppositionists resorted to the place of rendezvous with disguised faces." Johnson's Life of Selden, p. 30. London, 1835. 2a Parl. Hist., vol. v. p. 333. 3 Ibid., p. 349. 31 Ibid., pp. 387, 475. 32 Parl. Hist., vol. v. pp. 491, 492, 496, 512. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 1625. 303 forbade the house to intermeddle with affairs of state, and particularly with the marriage of his son. The commons immediately prepared a second remonstrance, requesting that the former, sent at the same time, might be received, and claiming a liberty of discussion, which the letter of the king had threatened to restrain. This second remonstrance was answered by the king with an intimation, that the privileges of the commons had been derived from the favour of the crown, and should be retrenched, if any encroachment were made on the royal prerogative. After a week, when the commons had shewn no disposition to proceed in the business of a supply, the parliament was adjourned by the* king, but not before the commons had prepared a protestation, in which they asserted, that their parliamentary privileges were the birth-right of the people of England, and that all the ar- duous affairs of the government were proper subjects of de- liberation for their assembly 33 . The king, irritated at this declaration, sent for the journal of the commons, and with his own hand tore it from the book 34 . He then published a dissolution by proclamation, stating several reasons, on ac- count of which he had recourse to the measure. The disso- lution was followed by the arbitrary and offensive proceeding of committing to prison those members of the house of commons, who had been most forward in opposing the court, in addition to one who had been imprisoned during the session, though professedly not for his conduct in par- liament. Other members of the opposition were sent in a commission to Ireland, as a lighter punishment ; one was in the like manner despatched to the palatinate ; one, by a policy become familiar in modern times, was taken into fa- vour, and promoted by the king. Two years after this third dissolution, when an attempt had been unsuccessfully made to procure money by a volun- tary contribution 35 , and the expected failure of the negotiation for the marriage with the Spanish infanta promised to re- move the impediment obstructing the agreement of the king 33 The king contended that the word quibusdam, prefixed to the words arduisregm in the writ for assembling the parliament, limited the sub- jects of deliberation to those cases, in regard to which he might choose to consult them. Ibid., p. 516. 34 Ibid. 35 Parl. Hist,, vol. v. pp. 527529. 304 MODERN. HISTORY : and his people, a fourth parliament was assembled. The king was at this time reduced to the necessity of soliciting the advice of the parliament, and of proposing that the sup- ply 36 , to be granted for a war with Austria, should be ex- pended by persons selected by the two houses. The consti- tution had not yet established the responsibility of ministers 37 , by which the expenditure of the public money is now con- trolled, though intrusted to persons appointed by the sove- reign. The only method therefore of controlling it, which then occurred, was to commit to the two houses the nomina- tion of the persons to be employed. James however still required 38 , that he should have a secret council of war, for determining the military purposes, to which the expenditure should be applied. The increasing power of the commons was manifested in this last parliament by the successful impeachment of the lord treasurer Middlesex, whom the king in vain endeavoured to protect. This impeachment having been instigated by the duke of Buckingham and the prince, afterwards the un- fortunate Charles I., the king admonished the latter 39 , that he would live to have enough of parliamentary impeach- ments, a prediction abundantly verified. In this review of the conduct of James towards his se- veral parliaments, we observe the overweening vanity of the king offending his people by advancing pretensions incom- patible with their ancient and hereditary rights ; but the grand cause of dissension was that he imprudently connected himself with the Roman Catholics in opposition to the pre- vailing sentiment of the nation, and particularly to the prin- ciples of the growing party of the Puritans. In his anxiety to secure his succession to the throne of England, he had endeavoured to conciliate the Roman Catholics of that coun- try by assurances of protection, which he afterwards actually afforded to all except the more rigid members of that church, who, in opposition to his own favourite notions of his abso- lute authority, maintained the supremacy of the Roman 36 Parl. Hist., vol. vi. p. 95. 37 The king, addressing the lords in the year 1624 concerning lord Middlesex, said, ' there are divers things laid lo his charge, which were done with my knowledge and approbation ; let him bear no charge for that, for that is mine, and I must bear it." Ibid., p. 195. s 8 Ibid., p. 110. 39 Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 23. Oxford, 1717. GEE AT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 1625. 305 pontiff. Even these he was little disposed to prosecute after the discovery of the plot 40 , which they had formed for the destruction of himself and the parliament, in revenge for the disappointment of their too sanguine expectations. But he was much more deeply involved in obnoxious indulgen- ces to the Roman Catholics by his protracted negotiations for the marriage of his son. It happened that there was not then any protestant princess of royal extraction, and the va- nity of James would not suffer him to think of an inferior alliance. Anxious to procure for his son a consort suitable to his rank, he engaged in a matrimonial negotiation with the court of Spain ; and, when this had been abandoned through the influence of the duke of Buckingham 41 , another was speedily commenced with the court of France, on terms yet more favourable to the Roman Catholics 42 , than had in the former case been required. The family of the Stuarts was thus, by the policy and timidity and vanity of the first of these princes, engaged in a connexion with a party, which afterwards bore its part in the civil Avar, and subsequently urged forward the revolution. The circumstances of the Scotish parliament afforded James a more favourable opportunity for asserting that un- limited prerogative, to which he was so much attached. The commons 43 , recently augmented in number and importance by the introduction of representatives of the lesser barons, adhered to the crown through jealousy of the nobles : the prelates, who had been recalled to their places in the par- liament, though indigent and destitute of authority in the church, were at this time increased to the number of ten, all dependent on the king for protection and the hope of future aggrandisement : the lords of erections, or of mon- astic benefices secularised, were attached to James by gratitude for the favours already received, or by the fear of a revocation : the Roman Catholic lords looked to him for protection against the Presbyterians ; and the nobility in general, unaccustomed to resist their sovereign except in the field, were more disposed to participate his bounty, than to engage in a parliamentary warfare against his claims. The king was accordingly gratified with a declara- 40 Harris, p. 220. 41 Welwood's Memoirs, p. 65. Dublin, 1752. 42 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 235. ^.Laing's Hist, of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 30, 31. VOL. III. X 306 -MODERN HISTORY : tion of his absolute authority, and with a previous abolition of any future statute, which might derogate from, his supreme dominion. The influence of the king was soon afterwards employed in procuring for his authority the support of a well-estab- lished episcopacy. Though, before his accession to the throne of England 44 , he had in very strong terms declared his preference of the Scotish church, the great object of his subsequent government of his native country was to reduce that church to a conformity with the episcopal es- tablishment of his new kingdom, as much more favourable to his pretension of unlimited power. In this scheme he was to a considerable degree successful, having at length, after various efforts, prevailed to restore to the episcopal order of Scotland a small portion of its former revenues 45 , with almost the whole of its ecclesiastical authority. The form of worship however was less manageable, and it was with the utmost difficulty 46 , and when an assurance had been given that no further innovation should be proposed, that five articles of conformity 47 with the more ceremonious worship of the English church were at length adopted. But concessions thus wrested from the Scots served only to excite a reaction against the power so odiously exerted. A gloomy fanaticism pervaded the nation, which in the suc- ceeding reign engendered the celebrated covenant, a reci- procal device for reducing the episcopal church of England to the presbyterian model. Though in Ireland James was the founder of the public peace and order, yet from one great measure of general im- provement, by which the yeomanry of Ireland were emanci- pated from the dominion of the chiefs, and received into the immediate protection of the crown, has been derived that influence of the court of Rome 48 in the appointment 44 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 236. 45 Laing, vol. i. pp. 38, 39, 5861. 46 Ibid., p. 82. 47 1. That the eucharist should be received in a kneeling posture ; 2. that in extreme sickness it should be admin- istered in private ;- 3. that baptism should be privately administered, if necessary ; 4. that episcopal confirmation should be bestowed upon youth; 5. that the descent of the Spirit, -with the birth, passion, re-, surrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, should be commemorated annually in the church. Ibid., p. 71. 48 Columbanus ad Hi- bernos, n. 2, p. xlviii 1, by C. O'Conor. CHEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 1625. 307 of the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, which has cher- ished the alienation of the laity from the government of the country. The native Irish respected James as a right- ful king of Ireland 49 , being descended from Edward Bruce, brother of Robert king of Scotland, who in the beginning of the fourteenth century had been elected and crowned king by their ancestors. The chiefs accordingly from his accession were generally well affected to the state, and might have retained the lower orders in obedience ; but, separated as these were by this measure from the authority of their ancient leaders, they were exposed to the artful re- presentations of those, who laboured to establish among them a system of foreign influence 50 . This influence within our own time seems to have ceased to operate, but the spirit, which it formed, subsists in all its vigour. While James, in laying the foundation of the substan- tial improvement of the country, was by one measure un- intentionally exposing the Roman Catholics to the influence of Rome, he by another, with as little design, prepared a puritanical interest, by which they were opposed and over- powered in the struggle of the succeeding reign. The difficulty of inducing Englishmen to migrate to the new settlement 51 , and the vicinity of Scotland, caused a large proportion of the settlers to be natives of North-Britain, who brought with them the worship and discipline of the presbyterian church. Even the bishops of the settlement were Scots, except the bishop of Derry, who was an Eng- lishman, this county being occupied by a colony of English. The principles of puritanism, thus introduced in the ori- ginal formation of the great settlement of Protestants of 49 Mac-Geoghegan, tome iii. p. 637. M ' Little known in the reign of Edward II., disregarded in that of Henry VIII., the sove- reignty of the holy see became thenceforward more popular, until, in the times of the first James and the first Charles, it was at length in- corporated into the religious belief of the country. Some of the credit of this achievement may be claimed for the industry of the Jesuit missionaries ; but the true solution is, that the antipathy to England, which had hitherto opposed, was now the advocate of the papal claims, and the bull of Adrian proved more powerful as an in- centive to rebellion, than it had ever been as an argument for loyalty.' Doctor Phelan's Hist, of the Policy of the Church of Rome in Ire- land, pp. 14, 15. 51 Leland, vol. ii. p. 430. x 2 308 MODERN HISTORY : Ireland, were favoured by various appointments in the uni- versity and in the church. The first provost of the uni- versity, after the honorary appointment of archbishop Loftus, was Walter Travers, whose puritanical opposition to the celebrated Hooker 52 , then master of the Temple, gave occasion to the composition of the Ecclesiastical Polity. The two succeeding provosts were also Puritans, and pro- vost Bedell, afterwards bishop of Kilmore, who was next appointed, was decidedly Calvinistical in his notions of religion, though strict in conforming to the established ritual. The distinction 53 , which doctor James Usher had acquired by his abilities and learning, caused him to be selected for the important task of framing a confession of faith for the Irish church, though to introduce that already established in England was a more obvious expedient. Usher, who was strongly prepossessed in favour of the opinions of Calvin, availed himself of the opportunity for propagating them, and accordingly prepared a series of one hundred and four articles, including almost literally those which had been framed at Lambeth, though disapproved both by Elizabeth and James. The convocation adopted this confession, and it obtained the ratification of the lord deputy. In the succeeding reign these articles were laid aside 54 , and those of the church of England substituted for them ; but, as they had continued during nineteen years to form the public confession of the Irish church, they had 52 Life of Hooker, prefixed to hts Eccles. Polity, p. 19. Lond. 1666. w Leland, vol. ii. pp. 458, 459. M This change, which was much facilitated by the quiet and yielding temper of the primate, was effected in the year 1634, though almost all the clergy favoured the rejected articles. The presbyterian clergy of the north, who had been admitted to officiate as parochial ministers, the bishops as- sisting at their ordinations as presbyters, were deprived of their benefices by Henry Cromwell, when lord lieutenant, for refusing to swear the oath of submission to the protector. The ejected ministers received at the restoration an annuity of five hundred pounds, which in the year 1690 was augmented to twelve hundred by William ; and Anne added a further annuity of eight hundred for the dissenting ministers in the south. Hist, of Dissenters, vol. ii. pp. 411 41.9. The annual stipend, or regium donum, now given to the ministers of the synod of Ulster, exceeds fifteen thousand pounds, exclusively of other sums allowed for the ministers of the Presbyterians of the south, and for those of the seceding congregations. GEEAT BRITAIN AND IKELAND, 1603 1625. 309 had sufficient opportunity for making a lasting impression on the spirit and conduct of the established clergy. It has been observed of this prince 55 , that, from the dis- covery of the gunpowder-plot, he continued always writing and talking against popery, but acting for it. An inconsis- tency at least equal to this may be remarked in his conduct towards those, who maintained the doctrine of Calvin. In the year 1615, he authorised in Ireland the adoption of Cal- vinistical articles 56 ; in England he sent in the very next year instructions to Oxford for suppressing the authority of Cal- vin in that university ; in the year 1618 he sent deputies to the synod of Dort, to support the Calvinists against the Ar- minians; and again, in the year 1622, he directed that no preachers below the rank of dignitaries should be permitted to preach on the doctrines held by the former. Vacillating because weak, he was at different times, and in different cases, actuated by contrary motives, though that, which he denominated king-craft, was generally predominant. It is obvious that no character could be more fitted to excite the activity of all parties, than that which afforded them encour- agement so inconsistent. It was a favourite object with James to form in the western province of Ireland a plantation similar to that, which he had effected in the north. But in this scheme he was not assisted by circumstances equally favourable, especially as no abortive efforts of insurrection 57 had invested him with 55 Burnet's Hist, of His Own Time, vol. i. p. 9. x Heylyu thought it probable that he had been induced to sanction these articles by the following motives : 1. that he was then much influenced in ec- clesiastical affairs by Abbot archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishop of Bath and Wells ; 2. that he had supported the prince of Orange against the Dutch Arminians ; 3. that the extreme doctrine of Calvinism might best be opposed to the errors of Rome, which were prevalent in Ireland ; and 4. that it was good policy to balance the Puritans against the Papists. Hist, of the Presbyterians, p. 394. 57 The northern counties had-been escheated in consequence of the flight of the earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell, whose scheme of rebellion had been accidentally discovered, and of the suppression of the actual rebellion of Sir Cahir O'Dogherty, the proprietor of the peninsula of Innisowen and the adja- cent district. Mac-Geoghegan has represented this rebellion as a con- trivance of St. Laurence, baron of Howth, to implicate the Irish chief- tains in a plot against the state, for the purpose of procuring a confis- cation of their lands, which was countenanced by the flight of the two earls, suggested with the same view. Hist, de 1'Irlande, tome iii. p. 310 3IODEKN HISTOHY : an unequivocal right of disposing of the land at his pleasure. The lords and gentlemen of Connaught had on the contrary surrendered their estates to Elizabeth 58 , that they might be confirmed in their possession of them by grants from the crown ; and, though they had generally neglected the neces- sary formalities, yet James himself had issued a commission for supplying the deficiency, and, the surrenders having been again made, the patents of confirmation had passed the great seal. "Having thus completed the transaction, James was manifestly precluded from interfering with the property of the province. In his eager desire however of extending the improvement of Ireland, and at the same time of providing for the deficiencies of the public revenue, he resolved to avail himself of the neglect of his own officers, in omitting to enrol the surrenders and patents, though three thousand pounds had been disbursed for that purpose. The proprietors determined to divert the king from his project by supplying his necessities, and a treaty was begun for adjusting the terms of the agreement ; but the negotiation was interrupted by the death of James, and the question of a western planta- tion was left to be an important principle of dissension in the succeeding reign. Such were the measures of this prince, whom his contem- porary Henry IV. of France in derision denominated ' cap- tain of arts and clerk of arms 59 .' All his pretensions and exertions only prepared the agencies of that struggle, in which his son and successor was afterwards overthrown. The spirit of civil liberty was by his open claim of power trained to jealousy and resistance ; the sectarian zeal of the Puritans of England was by his condemnation of their principles ex- cited to increased activity ; the Presbyterians of Scotland, irritated by a compulsory establishment of episcopacy, were predisposed to their subsequent attempt to force their own ecclesiastical system on the English nation ; the Roman Catholics of England were encouraged by his negotiations 642. This account lias however teen refuted by Leland, vol. ii. pp. 423, 424. It may be added, that the act of attainder was moved in the house of commons by Sir John Everard, a recusant, who had been strongly supported by the Roman Calholics in a competition with Sir John Davies for the office of speaker. Ibid., pp. 447 456. 58 Leland, vol.= ii. pp. 477, 478. 59 Sally's Mem., vol. iii. p. 231. CHEAT BHITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 1625. 311 for the marriage of his son with a princess of their church ; and in Ireland, where his government appears in the fairest view, and was really productive of important and lasting benefits, he formed a religious interest, which attached itself to the adversaries of his son. It is well known that the history of Hume is a laboured apology of the government of the Stuarts, representing it as but a continued enforcement of principles already established and acknowledged 60 , which then only began to be questioned, as the puritanical party was rising into importance. But even the princes of the house of Tudor 61 , though they raised the prerogative higher than the earlier sovereigns of England, never ventured to assume the direct power of taxation, nor to conduct the government during any long period without the assistance of a parliament. Still less did they openly assert, as the first of these princes did 6 *, that, as to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, so is it sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power. And, though it were strictly true, as the historian has stated 63 , that the genius of the ancient government allowed scattered instances of such a kind, as would have been totally destruc- tive of the constitution, had they been continued without in- terruption, yet is there an important distinction between the occasional occurrence of acts of power, and a persevering and systematic exercise of prerogatives inconsistent with the very forms of a mixed government. The historian has in- deed represented the utter inability of James I. to support his pretensions by military power 64 , as affording a strong presumption, that they were at least built on what were then deemed plausible arguments ; and it is certain that he seemed to think, that he could lecture the nation into a submission 60 Of the inaccuracy of the narrative of this historian an example may be taken from Dalrymple's Memorials of James I., p. 24. Glasgow, 1766. ' In this session, 1610, the commons," says the historian, 'con- tented themselves with remonstrating against the proceedings of the high-commission court.' It appears however from that writer, that they again passed a bill, which had been rejected in the last, and in the next preceding session, for restraining the execution of ecclesiastical canons not confirmed by the parliament. 61 Millar's Hist. View of the English Gov., vol. iii. p. 317. 62 King James's Works, pp. 529531. Lond. 1616. 63 Hist, of England, vol. vi. p. 181, note. " Ibid., p. 197. 312 MODERN HISTORY : to his claims. But, though, it was most fortunate for the liberty of these countries, that the claims of arbitrary power were urged by a prince so incapable of enforcing them by arms, the folly of the attempt, in the case of one, who, with a very confined understanding, was vain of his scholastic acquirements, and averse from military enterprises 65 , furnishes a very feeble presumption in his favour. Though James, in his anxiety to procure for his son a con- sort of royal extraction, involved himself in connexions with the Roman Catholic governments of Spain and France, he married his daughter to a protestant prince, the elector pala- tine. It is remarkable that, as by the marriage of his son the combination of interests was begun, which ultimately caused the expulsion of his family from the throne, so was that of his daughter the origin of the claim of succession 66 , which after a century established the family of Hanover in its room. So comprehensive are the arrangements, which present themselves to our observation in a philosophical analysis of the moral government of the world, and so much does their prospective character exceed the anticipations of the politician. The reign of James, which was thus interesting in regard to the development of the political and ecclesiastical parties of the state, claims attention also in another view, as it was illustrated by the genius of Bacon, the creator of the modern philosophy of experiment. Looking round with a piercing glance at the whole compass of the knowledge of his age, he discovered that the powers of the intellect had been little successful, because they had been ill directed ; and he pointed to the track, in which Newton afterwards penetrated to the greater mysteries of the universe, and Davy has since de- tected its more subtle wonders. He was not a mathemati- cian like Kepler 67 , nor like Galileo an observer and an expe- 65 He took pleasure in describing himself as a pacific king. His habitual dislike of arms has been ascribed to the shock experienced by his mother at the murder of Rizzio, at which time she was pregnant of this prince. 66 The princess Sophia, daughter of this marriage, became the wife of Ernest Augustus, the first elector of Hanover, and her son became king of England by the title of George I., precisely a century after the marriage of the daughter of James. 67 Apparently influenced by a partiality towards the learning of the continent, Hume has represented Bacon, the father of English philosophy, as inferior to GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1603 1625. 313 rimenter ; but he was in the most enlarged sense of the word a philosopher, for he directed such men as these in the discovery of truth, and his method of inductive reasoning from scientific experiment has indefinitely extended the intel- lectual dominion of his species 68 . While we admire the pre-eminent genius, which could guide future ages in the search of truth, it may be useful to reflect on those basenesses of conduct, which have de- monstrated, that moral rectitude is not necessarily connected with the highest intellectual excellence. It is also interest- ing to remark, that the moral unworthiness of this extraor- dinary man has been instrumental to the improvement of our judicial system, by giving occasion to the first appeals from that court of chancery, which in his adulation he had represented to James as ' the court of his absolute power 69 .' Kepler and Galileo. But these eminent men improved the knowledge of their contemporaries only by their own actual discoveries, and by the example of their success, whereas Bacon has pointed out with precision the track, in which all later philosophers might advance with security in the investigation of truth, and in which they are still continuing to advance. 68 The characteristic excellence of Bacon's inductive rea- soning consists in this, that the enquirer proceeds by experiments so contrived, as to exclude the agency of all other causes than that which is the object of enquiry. With this view he suggested the ingenious and encouraging remark, that a negative or unsuccessful experiment, is more instructive than one, in which an expected result is obtained, because it indicates that a supposed cause does not operate, and thereby narrows the investigation. The investigation of final causes he pro- scribed, because it had been inconveniently blended with that of the efficient causes of natural operations. But this is truly an investigation of effects, as the other is of causes, and consequently belongs as pro- perly to the philosophy of nature. The number of the department of natural philosophy has accordingly, since the time of Bacon, been in- creased by the addition of physiology, which investigates the functions of the several parts of the structure of organised bodies. 69 Black- stone's Comm., book iii. ch. 27. CHAPTER XV. Of the history of Great Britain and Ireland, from the accession of Charles I. in the year 1625, to the commencement of the civil war in the year 1642. Charles I. king in the year 1G25 Petition of right, 1628 Canons in- troduced into Scotland, 1636 Liturgy introduced there, 1637 The Scotish covenant, 1638 First invasion of the Scots, 1640 Irish rebellion, 1641 Bishops excluded from parliament in England, the civil war begun in England, and general assembly of Roman Catho- lics in Ireland, 1642. FOR effecting that adjustment of the British constitution which the philosophic Tacitus had pronounced to be unat- tainable \ it appears to have been necessary, that the people and the sovereign should alternately prevail, so that the ex- perience of the contrary excesses of democracy and despo- tism might dispose the minds of men to rest in some inter- mediate position of reasonable and regulated freedom. This alternation however could scarcely have occurred, if prin- ciples of freedom had not been already formed and settled in the government, which, like the force of gravity in matter, could draw back the pendulous and unsteady constitution from its aberrations. The excesses of democracy would pro- bably have produced their usual and natural result, in esta- blishing a despotism, and the expectation of the Roman his- torian would thus have been justified by the event. It appears that he had not been able to collect from the ill- constructed governments of Greece and Rome, what might be the in- fluence of acknowledged principles of equal right in endear- ing to a people the recollection of ancient institutions, and recalling it from political excesses. These governments, however fitted to draw forth the energies of the human mind, were by no means favourable to public order and security. Their struggles had never any retrospect to former institu- tions, by which the people might be guided as by the land- marks of their liberty, but tended only to establish the 1 Cunctas nationes et urbes populus, aut primores, aut singuli regunt : delecta ex his et constituta republics forma laudari facilius quam eve- nire, vel, si evenit, haud diuturna esse potest. Annal., lib. iv., cap. 33. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 3!5 dominion of one party over another : and the result was uniformly such, as in the mind of a reflecting politician, would forbid the expectation, that an orderly adjustment of opposing interests could be effected, or, if effected, could be long preserved. Even by this consideration, derived from the general phi- losophy of government, the principle may be refuted which, Hume has been anxious to establish for the vindication of the Stuarts, that maxims of civil liberty began at this period, for the first time, to be maintained in the English parliament. If the nation had no acknowledged rights to be maintained. the adjustment, which was finally effected, could never have been accomplished, or at least so as to be permanent, because no force would have acted to restrain the excess of each prevailing party, and reduce both to moderation. It was, on the contrary, because the commons had acknowledged rights, that the Puritans, at first an inconsiderable party, were able to excite a large portion of the people, to oppose the en- croachments of the royal power ; as it was afterwards the operation of the same cause, which, when this opposition had overthrown the ancient government, re-established it after a few years, to experience in turn the extravagances of the other party, which were also hi the like manner to be controlled. It is certain indeed that the commons of England were affected by those causes 2 , which were then in most parts of Europe, though in very different degrees, raising that order of men to a higher rank of political importance ; and it is also certain that the introduction of the puritanical spirit among the English, through the affinity naturally existing between religious and civil independence, had furnished a very powerful stimulant to exertion in the cause of freedom. The people might by these influences have been disposed to require some concessions of that prerogative, which had been so magnified by the princes of the house of Tudor ; but no 2 It has been said by Sanderson, in his Life of Charles I., that the members of the house of commons, in the third parliament of that king, were so rich, that they were able to buy the house of lords three times over. This, though probably an hyperbole, yet is sufficient to show, to what a height of riches the commons of EnglaHd were arrived in those days. Parl. Hist., vol. vii. p. 359. 316 MODERN HISTORY : reason appears for believing that, if the ancient principles of the constitution had been respected by the government, the commons could have been then induced to engage in any measure hostile to the crown. But the two earlier princes of the family of Stuart were precisely fitted to provoke a people so circumstanced into a struggle for superiority. The vanity and pedantry of James most unwisely challenged the discussion of -the great question of the government; and the inflexible obstinacy and evasive insincerity of his son completed 3 , what the weakness of the father had commenced, leading on the opposition through every gradation of legiti- mate resistance, faction, usurpation, and anarchy, to that fatal extremity of bringing the sovereign to the scaffold, and annihilating the monarchy. The marriage of the daughter of James has been noticed, as having given being to the race, by which his direct pos- terity has been superseded on the British throne. The in- fluence of that marriage was not however confined to this remote operation, for the war, in which it involved his son, proved the cause of those pecuniary embarrassments, which alternately drove him to the parliament for relief, and at other times determined him to seek in arbitrary expedients the means of his deliverance. James had declined to maintain the cause of his son-in-law the elector palatine, not merely 3 ' There are two circumstances in his character,' says Hume, vol. vi. p. 247, ' seemingly incompatible, which attended him during his whole reign, and were the chief cause of all his misfortunes : he was very steady and even obstinate in his purpose ; and was easily governed, by reason of his facility, and of his deference to men much inferior to him- self in morals and understanding. His great ends he inflexibly main- tained ; but the means of attaining them he readily received from his ministers and favourites, though not always fortunate in his choice.' This obstinacy was remarkably exemplified in the inflexibility, with which he refused to accede to the treaty of Uxbridge. Welwood's Me- moirs, p. 55. The historian has also acknowledged, in the original edition of his history, that Charles was too apt, in imitation of his father, to consider the promises, which he made to the parliament, as temporary expedients, which after the dissolution of the parliament he was not any farther to regard. Hist, of Great Britain, p. 156, quoted in Harris's Life of Charles I., p. 75. Lond., 1772. This passage has been much softened in succeeding editions of the history. The king by his own express command levied tonnage and poundage without the authority of parliament, though all such exactions had been explicitly relinquished in the consent, which he had given to the Petition of Right. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 317 through aversion for war, but also because he 'deemed so highly of the royal character, that he would not support him in his attempt to possess himself of the throne of Bohemia, and for the restoration of the Palatinate, from which he had been expelled, the king trusted to his negotiations with the court of Spain. Charles was however disposed to assist his brother-in-law with vigour, and in the inevitable expenses of the enterprise he found the occasion of all his difficulties. As these difficulties rendered it impracticable for this prince to persist in his arbitrary plan of governing without a par- liament, we may trace to the war of Germany the preserva- tion of our constitutional liberty in this crisis of its history, so that the same great contest of the continental powers, which in the peace of Westphalia adjusted the general interests of the European system, extended its operation to the domestic concerns of the British government, rescuing its freedom from the grasp of arbitrary power. Engaged in a contest demanding extraordinary supplies, Charles addressed his first parliament with confidence, ex- pecting that a war undertaken for the support of a protestant prince, would be popular with his subjects. In this expec- tation he might not have been disappointed, if numerous causes had not alienated them from him. The jealousy al- ready excited by the pretensions and measures of his father 4 ; the hatred of the duke of Buckingham, the minister and fa- vourite of Charles, as he had before been of James ; the re- cent marriage of the king with a princess of France, to whose religion extraordinary indulgence had been in conse- quence conceded ; a suspicion of the disposition of bishop Laud 5 , the adviser of the king in ecclesiastical affairs, to 4 Rapin, vol. ii. pp. 239 241. 5 James had sufficient sagacity to penetrate the character of Laud, and prudence to resist his advance- ment. ' The plain truth is,' says he, 'that I keep Laud back from all place of rule and authority, because I find he hath a restless spirit, and cannot see when matters are well, but loves to toss and change, and to bring things to a pitch of reformation floating in his own brain, which may endanger the steadfastness of that which is in a good pass, God be praised. I speak not at random, he hath made himself known to me to be such a one : for when three years ago I had obtained of the as- sembly of Perth to consent to five articles of order and decency in correspondence with this church of England, I gave them promise by attestation of faith made, that I would try their obedience no further anent ecclesiastical affairs, nor put them out of their own way, which 318 MODERN HISTORY: effect the restoration of popery ; the attempt to employ the ships of England in reducing Rochelle, then occupied by the Protestants of France ; and the discovery of the misrepre- sentations 6 , by which the duke of Buckingham had in the late reign obtained the concurrence of the parliament in the war with Spain ; all combined in preparing the minds of his subjects for opposing his demands in the very commencement of his government, and drew a petition from both houses against recusants in answer to the speech from the throne. Thus was Charles involved at once in a foreign war, re- quiring liberal contributions from his subjects, and in a do- mestic struggle with his parliament, from which alone these contributions could be regularly obtained. As he appears to have been inflexibly steady in the pursuit of his objects, he would not relinquish either the war, or his maxims of government ; and, when he perceived that the parliament, having granted a small supply, was proceeding to inquire into grievances, instead of furnishing such further aid, as he required, he put an end to its deliberations by an abrupt dissolution. He then resorted to a forced loan, and to a compulsory acceptance of the honour of knighthood, as expedients for enabling him to prosecute the war without listening to the remonstrances of his subjects. The insuffi- ciency of these resources however compelled him, at the custom has made pleasing unto them, with any new encroachments . . . yet this man hath pressed me to invite them to a nearer con- junction with the liturgy and canons of this 'nation ; but I sent him back again with the frivolous draught he had drawn . . . For all this he feared not mine anger, but assaulted me again with another ili- fangled platform, to make that stubborn kirk stoop more to the English pattern : but I durst not play fast and loose with my word.' Bishop Racket's Life of Archbishop Williams, part i. p. 64. London, 1693. That Laud notwithstanding was not inclined to popery, is sufficiently manifest from the efforts, which he successfully exerted to recover Chillingworth, who had been induced to embrace the religion of Rome. Life of Chillingworth, prefixed to his works. London, 174'2. In his defence at his trial he recited a list of twenty-one persons, whom he had converted from popery to the church of England. Carwithen'3 Hist, of the Church of England, vol. ii. p. 421 . London, 1829. 6 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 241. The duke, when he determined to break off the treaty for the Spanish alliance, had represented not only that the court of Spain was insincere in the negotiation, but also that the prince was in danger of being detained all his life in that country. Ibid. p. 225. GBEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 319 close of the first year of his reign, to assemble another par- liament. Though some precaution had been employed for excluding the most active opponents of the court, this assembly soon manifested its determination to attack the duke of Bucking- ham, as the grand author of the public grievances, and to render its power over the supplies instrumental to the public redress. The king immediately committed himself with his people on the great question of the constitution, declaring that he would not permit the conduct of any of his minis- ters to be subjected to parliamentary enquiry, and stating, as a sufficient justification of the duke, that he had acted by his own orders. In the course of the discussion he distinctly denied the right of the parliament to exercise any such con- trol over the administration of the government, even intimat- ing that on its obsequiousness would depend the continu- ance of a parliamentary constitution. The parliament per- sisted in its efforts to procure the removal of the obnoxious minister ; the king was not less resolute in protecting his favourite against the complaints of the parliament ; and an- other dissolution widened the breach between them, while a remonstrance framed by the commons, and a declaration issued by the king, began the appeal to the people. New and more violent expedients than on the former dis- solution, were then employed for exacting money. In dis- regard of a promise made to the parliament, a commission was issued for compounding with popish recusants. To en- force a loan soldiers were quartered on the refractory, the more obstinate of the higher classes were imprisoned 7 , and those of the lower were enrolled in the army. The clergy were at the same time directed to inculcate, as a religious doctrine, the duty of yielding implicit obedience to the royal commands, a measure which increased the hostility of the Puritans to the established church. The necessities created by his foreign engagements, ag- gravated by a war with France, in which the passions of the duke of Buckingham are supposed to have involved him 8 , 1 To the discussion, which arose out of the case of the persons so imprisoned, we owe the continued assertion of the exemption from arbitrary imprisonment, as the right of English subjects, and its ulti- mate establishment by the statute of Charles II. Hallam's Const. Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 524. 8 In his negotiation for the 320 MODEBN HISTORY : soon compelled the king to resort to a third parliament for that more considerable aid, by which he might be enabled to secure an advantageous result. To conciliate it, the persons imprisoned for refusing to contribute to the loan, were previously enlarged, but with so little operation on the public mind, that almost all were elected to serve in the new parliament. The former contests were accordingly renewed with augmented violence. To assert the liberties, which they claimed as their inheritance, the commons prepared a bill, which they named a petition of right 9 , as comprehend- ing only liberties derived from their ancestors, and not de-* pending on the favour or concession of the crown. This decisive proceeding the king first endeavoured to avert by the interposition of the lords, and then to evade by a general and ambiguous answer ; but the commons were inflexible in their demand, and he was at length obliged to express consent in the accustomed form. A new disagreement arose, when they began to enquire into the several grievances, Avhich had given occasion to this formal vindication of the public rights. The parliament was on this account pro- marriage of the king he had been tempted to offer his own addresses to the queen of France, who, it appears, had also received those of the minister, cardinal Richelieu. When therefore th*e duke was making preparations for another visit to Paris, the jealous cardinal procured a message from the king, informing him that he must not think of the journey. The duke, in a passion resembling the extra- vagancies of romantic fiction, rather than the transactions of history, swore that he would see the queen in spite of all the power of France, and from that moment determined to engage the two countries in hos- tilities. Hume, vol. vi. p. 259. By the mismanagement of this war, the command of which had been intrusted to him, the duke fell into great disgrace, and Burnet has, on the authority of the earl of Lau- derdale and the duke de Rohan, referred this mismanagement to the same intrigue. According to this account the cardinal Richelieu pre- vailed with the king of France, to cause his queen to write a fond letter to the duke of Buckingham, assuring him that, if he would suffer Rochelle to fall, he should have leave to come to France. Disap- pointed by the non-performance of the condition, he then resolved to prosecute the war with more vigour, but just at that time fell by the stroke of an assassin. Burnet, vol. L p. 28. 9 The grievances or abuses, to which it refers, are 1. the exaction of money under the name of loans ; 2. the imprisonment of those who refused compliance ; 3. the billeting of soldiers ; and 4. commissions issued for trying mili- tary offenders by martial law. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 321 rogued immediately after a supply had been granted, and was in the following year dissolved after a short session, when the king had already violated the petition of right by levying duties not authorised by statute 10 , and the privileges of parliament by imprisoning some of the most active mem- bers of the house of commons. The dissolution of this third parliament, which occurred about the end of the fourth year of the reign of Charles, was succeeded by an interval of eleven years, in which this monarch felt himself discharged from the obligation of con- vening these obnoxious assemblies ; nor did he afterwards resort to so disagreeable an expedient, but because he had involved himself in a contest with his subjects of Scotland, which he could not maintain without the assistance of the English legislature. The scheme of arbitrary power, which he had originally proposed to realise with the aid of a par- liament, he in this interval determined to execute without its co-operation. When the poignard of an assassin had de- prived him of his favourite, the duke of Buckingham, he found in Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards the earl of Strafford, a more powerful agent of his ambition, and at the same time a more odious object of the public indignation. Laud also, who had been from the beginning of his reign a confidential adviser in the affairs of religion, preserved an uncontrolled influence over his mind. These two counsel- lors, of whom the former, haughty and violent by his natural character, was ready and forward in every plan of despotism, and the latter, though not disposed to become a Roman Catholic, was however eager to introduce ceremonials offen- 10 ' The duties of tonnage and poundage were at first usually granted only for a stated term of years, as for two years in 5 Rich. II. ; but in Henry the sixth's time they were granted him for life by a statute in the thirty-first year of his reign ; and again to Edward IV. for the term of his life also ; since which time they were regularly granted to all his successors for life, sometimes at the first, sometimes at other subsequent parliaments, ' till the reign of Charles I., when, as the noble historian expresses it, his ministers were not sufficiently solicitous for a renewal of this legal grant.' Blackstone's Comm., book i. ch. viii. It appears that Edward IV. and all his successors had been permitted to levy these duties from the commencements of their reigns, though they had not been granted by the parliament. Parl. Hist., vol. viii. pp. 339, 340. This however had been forbidden by the law founded on the petition of right. VOL. Ill T 322 MODERN HISTORY : sive to the Puritans 11 , and favoured a doctrine 12 , which they unjustly considered as connected with popery, aided and en- couraged him -in every measure, which could widen the breach between him and his subjects, and hasten the crisis of the government. Among the political grievances, which in this period of avowed despotism exasperated the public mind, one of the most remarkable, especially as it plainly indicated the dis- position of the king to establish an arbitrary government, was the appointment of Sir Thomas Wentworth to the pre- sidency of the north, accompanied by numerous instructions violating, or exceeding, the established laws. But the mea- sure, which most directly affected the public interest and feeling, was the famous exaction of ship-money. This ex- action was unsuccessfully resisted by Hampden, in an ap- peal to the laws of his country. The alarm however at- tending the perverted administration of the judicial power, thus transformed into an engine of despotism, instead of being the shield of the liberty and property of the people, served, more than any other provocation, to unite with the Puritans those who were sincerely zealous for the preserv- ation of the public interests, and thus to combine a formid- able opposition to the royal pretensions. The single prece- dent, which could be pleaded, was the contribution of armed 11 A rich and large crucifix, embroidered with gold and silver, in a fair piece of arras, was hung up in his majesty's chapel over the altar, to which the chaplains were ordered to make their best bows, Laud himself setting the example. Pictures also were set up in churches, consecrations were used after the Romish manner, and copes were worn at the sacrament. Harris's Life of Charles II. pp. 190, 191. 12 The doctrine of Arminius, which among Protestants was opposed to that of Calvin. As the reformation had been maintained on the denial of the merit of all human performances, the doctrine of Ar- minius, that the Deity will reward men according to their works, though not for any merit belonging to them, was considered by many as ap- proximating to the church of Rome. ' The archbishop,' says Clarendon, ' had all his life eminently opposed Calvin's doctrine in these contro- versies, before the name of Arminius was taken notice of, or his opin- ions heard of; and therefore, for want of another name, they had called him a papist, which nobody believed him to be, and he had more mani- fested the contrary in his disputations and writings than most men had done ; and it may be the other found the more severe and rigorous usage from him, for their propagating that calumny against him.' Hist, of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 93. GUEAT BKITAIX AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 323 shipping, furnished by the maritime towns to Elizabeth, when the armada of Spain had excited great and general apprehension. The demand of Charles was justified only by vague and insufficient pretexts ; it was, in disregard of the enactment founded on the petition of right, a rateable assessment of money ; and it was in the second year ex- tended over every part of the kingdom, instead of being, like the aid afforded to Elizabeth, limited to maritime and trading towns. The war with France, which had been wantonly under- taken, was terminated without difficulty. That with Spain had been in reality abandoned from the time, when the war with France was commenced, the Spaniards also, contented with not being attacked, having refrained from any enter- prises against the English dominions. Being thus at peace with foreign nations, being freed from the domestic embar- rassment of a parliament, and having during three or four years accustomed his English subjects to regard his will as the law, Charles deemed this a favourable opportunity for completing the scheme of reducing the church of Scotland to an entire conformity with the ecclesiastical establishment of England, which had been begun by his father. He ac- cordingly proceeded to rouse the Scots into action, by an attempt at once the most offensive to their sentiments and habits, and the most alarming to the puritanic party of his English subjects, and thus prepared the train, the ex- plosion of which was afterwards to overwhelm in one com- mon destruction his own person and the constitutions of his three kingdoms. The king had already alienated the nobles of Scotland, by his imperfectly successful efforts to accomplish a resumption of the impropriated tithes and benefices I3 , the operation of 13 ' At the reformation no provision had been made for the clergy till a third of the benefices retained by the popish incumbents was ap- propriated for their support. When the monastic benefices were im- propriated, or erected into temporal lordships, the thirds were frequently discharged or commuted, and the provision, which was always scanty, became altogether inadequate on the revival of prelacy, when the thirds of benefices were assigned to the bishops, and the maintenance of the clergy within each diocese was intrusted to their care. On the expe- dition of James to Scotland, a committee of parliament was first ap- pointed, to allot a stipendiary provision to each minister from the tithes of his parish, moderate, yet not inadequate to the times ; but from the 324 MODEKN HISTORY : which was afterwards visible in the union of the nobles with the presbyterian adversaries of the crown. The war of Germany had also provided a military school of officers for that people, which was soon to act upon the government of England, some of their troops u , which in the beginning of that war had served in the Danish army, having enlisted themselves in the service of Sweden under the celebrated Gustavus Adolphus, and others having been sent to his as- sistance by Charles, in the hope of effecting the restitution of the Palatinate. In a nation thus prepared for insurrection, the 15 king pro- cured the enactment of a law, empowering him to regulate the habits of the clergy, which was considered as authoris- ing the introduction of the surplice and the cope. The na- tional sentiment of religion was immediately afterwards yet more alarmed by the Arminian doctrine, which the younger prelates were induced by Laud to inculcate in their ser- mons 16 . The irritation of the malecontents was completed by the trial and condemnation of lord Balmerino 17 , for con- cealing a seditious libel, which was the germ of the cele- interested policy of the commissioners the poverty of the clergy was neither relieved, nor their dependence alleviated.' Laing, vol. i. pp. 91, 92. The resumption of the impropriate tithes from the nobles was favoured by the landholders, who had been oppressed by their rapacity ; but, though the latter had thus acquired a right to sue for a valuation, or modus, and, unless when appropriated to ecclesiastics, to purchase at a valuation of nine years the tithes of their own estates, they were seldom able to cope with the nobles, on account of the tediousuess of litigation and the scarcity of money. If this arrangement had been effected, a revenue of six per cent, out of all tithes was to have been reserved to the crown, which also acquired a right of redeeming at a valuation of ten years the rents of the lands of the church, but was through poverty unable to make these purchases. Ibid., vol. i. pp. 93 96. By the constitution of the church of Scotland, as confirmed at the union, the stipends of ministers are settled by the parliament, to be paid by the heritors, or persons receiving the tithes. Mem. of the Church of Scotland, p. 328. Lond., 1717. " Accordingly, in this par- liament, his (Charles's) tithe policy was finally adjusted upon its present basis, and at the same time he added another inestimable benefit to the Scotish people, in the statute for the endowment of parochial schools." Montrose and the Covenanters, by Mr. Napier, vol. i. p. 99. Lond. 1838. u Laing, vol. i. p. 97. 15 It has been represented that this law had really been rejected, though declared to have passed ; but this has been disproved by Mr. Napier. Ibid., vol. i. pp. 521, &c. 16 Laing, vol. i. p. 105. 17 Napier, vol. i. pp. 103, &c. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 325 brated covenant. Their hopes on the other hand were en- couraged by his pardon. When the Scots had been thus alarmed by the officious promulgation of a religious doctrine repugnant to their prin- ciples, and taught to believe that the perverted administra- tion of justice had left them without any other security, than that which they could procure for themselves, Charles proceeded to prosecute an enterprise, from which James had been compelled to desist, the introduction of a liturgy and canons corresponding to those of the English church 18 . The new liturgy, offensive as the innovation was in itself, was rendered yet more irritating by some injudicious changes. The prelates of Scotland 19 having required that a distinct liturgy should be prepared for their country, as more suitable to the dignity of an independent nation than a mere tran- script of that of England, some slight alterations were intro- duced ; but, perhaps in a persuasion that the church of Rome, though corrupted, was yet the mother- church, to which Protestants by mutual concession might ultimately be reconciled, it unfortunately happened, that these alterations were so many approaches to the Roman missal M . The sudden violence of an old woman began the contest 21 ; a tumult of the populace was followed by a regular associ- 18 In an early period of the reformation the order of Geneva appears to have been adopted in Scotland for public worship ; its prayers how- ever were proposed only as an example for imitation, not enjoined as a form to be strictly observed. An assembly of the prelates had ordained, that the Genevan form should be revised, and a uniform liturgy and canons prepared for the church ; but, on account of the opposition given to the articles of Perth, the execution of this order was suspended dur- ing the reign of James. It was resumed when Charles visited Scotland. The canons were then compiled before the liturgy could be prepared, and absurdly enjoined the use of a liturgy not yet composed. Laing, vol. i. pp.113, 114. 19 Ibid., pp/114, 115. 20 In celebrating the eucharist the priest passed from the northern side of the table to the front with his back to the congregation ; the con- secration of the elements was performed by a prayer expressive of the real presence ; and the elevation of the elements bore the character of an actual oblation then made by the priest. Ibid., pp.115, 116. Mr. Hallam attributes the alterations wholly to the desire of Laud, to prepare the way for similar changes in England. Constit. Hist., vol. iii. p. 427. 21 Villain, said she, dost thou say mass at my lug ? And she immediately threw at the head of the dean the stool, on which she had sat. Laing, vol. i. p. 119. 326 MODEKN HISTOKY : ation of persons of every rank ; and the institution of the tables 23 , to which the council had inadvertently assented, gave strength and stability to their union. Though Charles, by attempting to introduce his liturgy without the consent either of the parliament or of the assembly of the church, had endeavoured to subvert at once the political and the ecclesi- astical constitution of the state, he had provided no force to support the execution of his project ; and unable to enforce it by arms, though resolved not to relinquish it, he eventu- ally transferred to the tables the entire authority of the council. To disconcert the intrigues of the court, and to render their own union more intimate and permanent, the confederates proposed the memorable renewal of the national covenant, which had been first formed in the commencement of the reformation, and had been twice repeated in its progress. Within two months almost all Scotland entered into this solemn engagement, with an additional declaration of hos- tility to the liturgy, the canons, and episcopacy 23 , the origi- nal covenant having been opposed only to the church of Rome. The renewal of the covenant was followed by a series of negotiations, which ended in open hostilities. The king, destitute of a force to oppose the league 24 , neglected to dissolve it by timely concession ; the assembly, when at length permitted to meet, proceeded from opposing the liturgy to attack the prelates ; and the preservation of the episcopal order in Scotland appeared to Charles a sufficient 22 As the late tumults were ascribed to the confluence of persons, who had resorted to Edinburgh to supplicate the council against the liturgy, the supplicants, who had returned thither in much increased numbers, availed themselves of the fuir pretext thus afforded for ap- pointing a few to act as representatives of the whole body. A propor- tion of the nobility was first appointed, and from each county two of the gentry, from each presbytery and borough one or more of the clergy and burgesses, were selected as commissioners for their respective orders. This body, which was distinguished by the name of the tables, was divided into subordinate tables, to attend when required : over whose separate deliberations a general table of four from each of the others was appointed to preside. Laing, vol. i. pp. 125, 126. 23 Cla- rendon, vol. i. p. 111. Laing, vol. i. p. 135. 21 ' A troop of horse and a regiment of foot had prevented all that followed, or rather had by all appearance established an arbitrary government in that king- dom.' Burnet, vol. i. p. 17. - GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 327 reason for collecting a body of English forces, and march- ing them against his Scotish subjects. It was the good fortune of these countries to fight their own quarrel with little interposition from foreign nations. The neighbour- ing states of the continent, being nearly balanced in the struggle of Austria and France, felt little interest in the domestic contention of these islands, and furnished but in- considerable assistance to any of the parties 25 . The contest was therefore a domestic struggle of the yet ill-adjusted members of a complex government, and consequently most fitted to produce a favourable result. After an 26 ineffectual attempt to carry on the Scotish war without resorting to an English parliament for aid, the king found himself reduced to the embarrassing alternative of either conceding all the pretensions of his irritated subjects in the one kingdom, or restoring in the other that parlia- mentary constitution, which after repeated ruptures had been during eleven years wholly disused. It is certain however 27 , notwithstanding the contrary assertion of Hume, that the king might even then have formed an administra- tion in England of the popular leaders, all of whom had agreed to establish the revenue, and one of whom, the earl of Bedford, had undertaken the preservation of the earl of Strafford 38 . But Charles would neither satisfy the Scots, nor intrust the administration of England to the popular leaders. On the contrary, as if desirous of uniting the dis- affected of both countries in one common bond of appre- hension, he alarmed the opposition in each parliament by an unsuccessful effort to subject the leaders to his venge- 25 France, from policy, had fomented the first disorders in Scotland, had sent over arms to the Irish rebels, and continued to give counte- nance to the English parliament; Spain, from bigotry, furnished the Irish with some supplies of money and arms. The prince of Orange, closely allied to the crown, encouraged English officers, who served in the Low Countries, to enlist in the king's army ; the Scotch officers, who had been formed in Germany, chiefly took part with the parliament. Hume, vol. vi. p. 548. M From Napier's Hist, of Montrose and the Covenanters it has recently appeared, that the efforts of the king, were rendered ineffectual by the treachery of the marquis of Hamilton, who was entrusted with the command, vol. i. p. 5s81. 27 Laing, vol. i. p. 204. 28 The negotiation failed, because the king required the preservation of Strafford, as a service to be performed previously to their appointment. Clarendon, vol. i. pp. 210, 211, 254. 328 MODERN HISTORY : ance. In Scotland he endeavoured to arrest the mar- quesses of Argyle and Hamilton, an attempt apparently so desultory 29 , that it has been characteristically denominated the incident ; in England he impeached lord Kimbolton and five members of the house of commons, and rashly and un- constitutionally endeavoured to execute in person the arrest of the latter, a measure regarded by all the historians as the immediate occasion of the subsequent disorders 30 . Thus the domestic war with Scotland completed what the foreign wars with Spain and France had begun, and the reign of Charles appears to have been one connected series of action, all the parts of which had a common tendency to excite against him the resistance of his subjects. His earlier wars, though but faintly prosecuted, had involved him in difficulties, which served him as pretexts for exer- tions of arbitrary power in exacting supplies ; and his struggles with the Scots, while it reduced him to a dependence on the English parliament, brought a whole people into co-oper- ation with the discontented of his English subjects, of whom some were prepared for the junction by a similarity of religious opinion, and all respected the Scots as a nation contending in the same cause of civil and religious liberty. The natural consequences of the measures adopted by the king in Scotland, were the renovation of the presbyterian system and the commencement of military operations 31 . An assembly of the church, to which Charles had most re- luctantly consented, was convened in the year 1638 ; to control the clergy, who might either be obsequious to the prelates, or domineering in regard to the laity, lay-elders were again introduced ; and the assembly, strengthened by the support of the nobility and chief gentry, proceeded, in utter disregard of a dissolution, to abolish the episcopal order with all the accompanying institutions and regula- tions. Charles immediately prepared to reduce the re- fractory assembly by arms, and the Scots made every pre- paration in their power to resist the forces of the king. The earlier plan of the Scots was limited to a defensive war, and it is said that they were tempted to advance into Eng- 29 Laing, vol. i. p. 206. 30 Clarendon, vol. ii. pp. 377, 383. Whitelock's Memorials, p. 51. Lend., 1682. Hume, vol. vi. p. 512. 31 Laing, vol. i. pp. 141 149. Burnet, vol. i. p. 20. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 329 land in the year 1640 by an artifice of lord Saville 32 , who produced an engagement with forged subscriptions of the most considerable men in England, promising a junction. The parliament, which Charles convened in England at the rupture with the Scots, was precipitately dissolved ; but the necessity of his affairs soon compelled him to assemble another, which has been distinguished in history by the name of the long parliament. Meeting in such circum- stances, the new parliament could not fail to adopt some decisive measures of opposition. The angry dissolution of four parliaments, the violation of their necessary privileges, the long discontinuance of such assemblies, the arbitrary exaction of supplies, the perversion of the judicial power, and the violence offered to the religious sentiments of the nation, both in the severity exercised upon Presbyterians, and the indulgence granted to Roman Catholics, all pre- sented themselves as grievances demanding speedy and ef- fectual redress. The presence of a Scotish army within the kingdom, claiming the redress of similar grievances, and professing a disposition to co-operate for the attain- ment of the same objects, assured the parliament of a sup- port, which the king had already found himself unable to withstand. The first measures of the long parliament were directed against those, who were considered as the instigators and chief agents of the public grievances. The earl of Straf- ford and archbishop Laud were accordingly impeached of high treason, Scotish commissioners having stipulated with others of England for both prosecutions 33 , and uniting with the English commons in the accusation of the prelate. In the case of the duke of Buckingham, who had been the favourite and minister of Charles from the commence- ment of his reign until his own death, or during about three years and a half, the removal from the person and councils of the king appears to have been all which was in con- templation with the party opposed to the court. Against the earl of StrafFord, who had succeeded him, a far more violent spirit actuated the commons, and it was resolved to bring him to the block. His superior capacity 34 , alarming 32 Burnet, vol. i. p. 16. 33 Laing, vol. i. p. 186. M Ibid. p. 500. 330 MODERN HISTORY : the popular leaders, induced them to anticipate against him the severity, which they feared ; that he was a deserter from the popular cause, enhanced the guilt of the long series of arbitrary measures, which he had dictated ; and it happened that he had incurred the hatred also of the two other kingdoms connected with England 35 , the Scots re- garding him and Laud as the advisers of the hostilities against them, and the Irish charging him with various acts of oppression in his government of their country. The commons of England, unable to procure the con- demnation of the earl of Strafford by a regular proceeding, resorted to the expedient of a bill of attainder, to which the king reluctantly assented 36 . Of this assent the king bitterly repented, declaring at his own execution, that he considered the death, which he was then to suffer, as the just judgment of God for his acquiescence. The death of the minister appears indeed to have been a step in the pro- gress towards the consummation of the disorder of the go- vernment, which was accomplished in the death of the king. Elizabeth, by the execution of the Scotish queen, had set the example of the trial and punishment of a sovereign, though not by her own subjects, nor for her conduct in her own government. In the trial and condemnation of the earl of StrafFord 37 a new species of treason, applicable to a so- S5 Hume, vol. vi. pp. 404, 405. 36 The queen appears to have been very directly accessary to his condemnation. ' It was carried to the queen, as if Hollis (in a negotiation with the opposite party) had engaged that the earl of Strafford should accuse her, and discover all he knew : so the queen not only diverted the king from going to the parliament, changing the speech into a message all writ with the king's own hand, and sent to the house of lords by the prince of Wales, which Hollis had said would have perhaps done as well, the king being apt to spoil things by an unacceptable manner ; but to the wonder of the whole world the queen prevailed with him to add that mean postscript, If he must die, it were charity to reprieve him till Saturday, which was a very unhandsome giving up of the whole message. When it was communi- cated to both houses, the whole court-party was plainly against it: and so he fell truly by the queen's means.' Burnet, vol. i. p. 20. 37 The crime of endeavouring to subvert the fundamental laws being then for the first time declared to be treasonable. It has been repre- sented that a clause was introduced into this bill of attainder, enacting that it should never be drawn into precedent ; but that clause related only to the ordinary administration of justice, being expressed in the following words, ' provided that no judge or judges, justice or justices GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 331 vereign equally as to a minister, was invented for the occa- sion. From this the progress was not long to the execution of the sovereign. The charge of levying war against the parliament was not very different from that, on which his minister had suffered death ; and a high court of justice, erected by the triumphant commons, was but an improve- ment of the bill of attainder, which their importunity had before extorted from the other members of the legislature. A more immediate result of this impeachment, which was directly subversive of the constitution, was that it gave oc- casion to the law, by which it was ordained that the parlia- ment should not be dissolved without the consent of the two houses. The ostensible pretext was 35 that those, who had lent money to the government for satisfying the Scotish army, would not be satisfied in regard to their security, if the existence of the parliament were uncertain. The real motive was an apprehension of an intention of the king to dismiss the parliament, and then to exercise his vengeance on those who had opposed the government. The consent given by the king has been with probability ascribed to the shame and alarm, caused by the discovery of a plot for bringing the army from the north to overawe the parliament, and save the impeached minister. With the exception of the attainder of Strafford, it has been admitted, even by Hume 39 , that the earlier measures of this parliament were eminently beneficial. The aboli- tion of the two great engines of tyranny, civil and ecclesi- astical, the courts of star-chamber 40 and of high-commis- whatsoever, shall adjudge, or interpret, any act or thing to be treason, nor hear, or determine, any treason, in any other manner, than he, or they, should, or ought, to have done, before the making of this act.' Welwood's Memoirs, p. 47. " This bill was opposed by Selden and the more moderate lawyers on the liberal side ; and could hardly have been pushed through but for the newly-discovered evidence brought forward by Sir Harry Vane respecting Strafford' s declaration in council, that the king, having tried the affection of his people, was absolved from all rule of government ; and that the army from Ireland might reduce this kingdom to obedience." Lord Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. ii. p. 611. 38 Hallam's Constit. History, vol. ii. pp. 153 156. Burnet has ascribed to the influence of the queen the consent given by the king to the act for protecting the par- liament from the dissolution : vol. i. p. 19. 39 Vol. vi. p. 466. 40 The court of star-chamber, which was of very ancient original, 332 MODERN HISTORY I sion 41 ; the suppression of all other irregular jurisdictions, par- ticularly of the two councils of the north and of Wales 42 ; the establishment of the independence of the judges, a measure adopted and re-enacted after the revolution ; a law ordaining that a new parliament should be assembled at least once in three years 43 ; and the formal prohibition of the assessment of ship-money ; these are measures so constitutional, and so directly advantageous, that no diversity of opinion can well be supposed to exist on the subject. And when it is considered, that some of these important regulations 44 , with received its modern form from a statute of the third year of Henry VII. Its power was much increased by Wolsey in the reign of Henry VIII., and yet more by succeeding sovereigns. Blackstone, book iv. ch. xix. Parl. Hist., vol. ix. pp. 229, 230. The name is derived by Blackstone from a Hebrew word, shetar, signifying a covenant, the contracts of the Jews being ordered to be deposited in certain places, the most considerable of which was probably the room occupied by this court. 41 The court of high-commission was erected by a statute of the first year of the reign of Elizabeth, in the place of a larger jurisdiction, which had been exercised under the authority of the pope. It was intended for the due regulation of the church ; but the words, by which it was constituted, were so general, that the power of the commissioners became almost despotic. Blackstone, book iii. ch. iii. 42 The council of the north, constituted in the thirty-first year of Henry VIII., was occasioned by six insurrections in the north- ern counties, which had followed the suppression of religious houses. In the reign of James I. the commission of the president directed, that it should observe instructions then issued, instead of proceeding as before, according to the law of the land. A new instruction was issued to the earl of Stratford, requiring that the court should observe all the ordinances and determinations, which were, or should be made, by the council, or court of high-commission. Parl. Hist, vol. ix. pp. 267 269. The council of Wales was instituted by the statute of the thirty-fourth of Henry VIII. It pretended to a jurisdiction over the four bordering shires of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Salop. Hallam's Constit. Hist vol. i. p. 448. When the bill for pro- hibiting the dissolution of the long parliament, was sent to the lords, it was there proposed, in reference to this law, to limit its operation to two years, but the commons adhered to their original proposition. Ibid., vol. ii. p. 155. The act itself was repealed after the restoration. 44 The abrogation of the high-commission, the prohibition of arbitrary proclamations, the regulation of the privy council, and the institution of triennial parliaments, were enacted by the Scotish, as by the Eng- lish parliament. The measures of reformation peculiarly belonging to Scotland were the suppression of the lords of articles, and the in- troduction of representatives of the lesser barons, as a third estate, to supply the place of the absent prelates. Laing, vol. i. pp. 166, 202, 203. GEEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 333 others peculiarly demanded by local circumstances, were about the same time adopted by the parliament of Scotland, it must appear with how little reason the historian has ventured to assert 45 , that the disorders in Scotland entirely, and those in England mostly, proceeded from a puritanic abhorrence of a religious ritual. In regard to England in- deed it has been recorded by lord Clarendon 46 , that St. John rejoiced at the dissolution of the parliament, which had im- mediately preceded the long parliament, because it could never have been brought to do what he conceived to be necessary ; and that even the long parliament, when the extirpation of episcopacy was first pressed upon the house of commons by a petition, could only be induced, after a long debate, to determine that the petition should not be rejected. But, though puritanism was not the great and almost ex- clusive cause of the movements of this period, it must be considered as an exciting principle, by which the public zeal for freedom was stimulated to action ; and when, in a com- bination of favourable circumstances, it had urged the mass of the people so far, as a concern for constitutional freedom would have authorised them to proceed, it is natural that it should have acquired so much influence, as to impel them a yet greater length, even to the subversion of that consti- tution, which was originally the object of the struggle. The effort, which overcame the resistance of the royal power, was in this manner continued to its suppression. A political experience of the mischiefs of extreme measures was yet wanted, to enable the people of England to fix with a judi- cious moderation the landmarks of their rights amidst the alternations of contending factions. It accordingly soon appeared, that the parliament was not to be satisfied with the provisions, by which the public grievances had been redressed. The lower house began to question the title of the bishops to sit in parliament, a ques- tion indeed favourably entertained by all, who wished to lessen the royal influence in the house of lords : 47 an act 45 Hume, vol. vi. p. 429. Clarendon, vol. i. pp. 140, 203. 47 As the temporal peers were then less numerous than at present, the bishops greatly influenced the resolutions of the upper house, and frequently caused them to be directly opposed to those of the lower. Rapin, vol. ii. p. 359. 334 MODERN HISTORY : was procured, as has been mentioned, prohibiting the disso- lution of the parliament without its own concurrence, which in effect dethroned the king by rendering the parliament independent : and the commons began to prepare a formal remonstrance on the state of the kingdom, which recapitu- lated the grievances already remedied, and was therefore manifestly designed to effect a final rupture with the crown. The bishops, whose right of sitting in parliament was questioned in the year 1640, were two years afterwards ex- cluded, and thus the political capacity of one of the orders of the state was annihilated. This measure was facilitated, and probably expedited, by the indiscretion of some of the bishops themselves. In the year 1641, when they were sub- jected to alarming insults from the tumultuous crowd assem- bled about Westminster and Whitehall, twelve of them most unwisely protested against all resolutions, which should pass during their enforced absence, and thereby drew upon them- selves from the commons an impeachment for high treason, in having endeavoured to invalidate the authority of the le- gislature. The impeachment seems to have been forgotten in the public confusion ; but the vengeance of the commons was in the following year inflicted upon the whole order by their exclusion from the parliament, to which the king con- sented, persuaded by the queen 48 , who hoped thereby to fa- cilitate her own escape from the kingdom. In this crisis of the government of England the unhappy politics of Ireland entered into the combination. Though the Roman Catholics of Ireland attached themselves to the support of the crown, the impulse, which they gave at this time, decided the struggle in favour of the parliament. An insurrection of that party, for which their leader pleaded a pretended commission from the king 49 , occurring in the year 48 Clarendon, vol. i. p. 428. This princess appears indeed to have been the evil genius of Charles. Burnet has described her as a woman of no judgment, but by the liveliness of her discourse making always a great impression on the king. Vol. i. p. 19. 49 Sir Phelim O'Neal, at his execution in the year 1652, distinctly and solemnly denied, that he had ever received any such commission from the king, though tempted by an offer of being restored to his estate and liberty, if he could pro- duce any material and authentic proof. He at the same time explained how he had deceived his followers, saying that he had affixed to a forged commission a great seal, which had been torn from a patent found in plundering the castle of Charlemont. Leland, vol. iii. pp. 120, 394, GEEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 335 1641, at the moment when the commons of England- were seeking pretexts for a rupture with the crown, was an event the most favourable to the views of the latter, w'hich the imagination could have devised. All the representations which they had made concerning the indulgence shown to Roman Catholics, appeared then to be justified ; all their suspicions of the arbitrary designs of the king to be con- firmed. Charles was unable to withstand the torrent of the public opinion, and to free himself as much as possible from the imputations cast upon him, committed to the parliament the care of Ireland. The commons, availing themselves of the hasty conces- sion, assumed, in violation of the constitution, an executive authority. A formal rupture with the crown being however still necessary for affording a free opportunity for their medi- tated encroachments on the royal prerogative, the remon- strance, which had been partly prepared, was completed and passed, though after a very long debate 50 , and by a majority of only eleven voices. By the publication of the remon- strance the appeal was at length formally made to the peo- ple. So decisive was this measure esteemed, that Oliver Cromwell declared that, if it had been rejected, he would have quitted England for ever. Though the government of Ireland had been tranquil from the conclusion of the reign of Elizabeth, or during almost forty years, causes had been operating through all this interval to produce the catastrophe, which so critically connected the agitations of the two countries. The plan- tation formed by James in the northern province 51 , however beneficial in its general tendency, had excited considerable discontent, not merely as it avowedly deprived the former proprietors of a large portion of their ancient possessions, but also as it subjected them to the fraudulent oppressions of inferior agents, in regard to those portions, which they had been permitted to retain. The discontent thus excited 62 60 Parl. Hist., vol. x. pp. 48, 49. 61 Leland, vol. iii. pp. 88, 89. 52 Ibid. These concessions, which were named graces, were very nu- merous, and would have remedied the various abuses of the Irish go- vernment. The most important were that whereby the subjects were secured in the quiet enjoyment of their lands, by limiting the king's title to sixty years ; that which admitted recusants to sue in the court of wards, and to practice in the courts of law, by taking an oath of 336 MODERN HISTORY : had been extended by the insincerity, with which the favour- able concessions, promised by Charles in the beginning of his reign, were afterwards evaded, especially as it appeared that one motive of this evasion was the design of lord Straf- ford to subvert the title to every estate in Connaught, that he might accomplish the plan of a western plantation M , which James had been induced to relinquish. The arbitrary and violent administration of this chief governor 54 , though pro- ductive of much public advantage in a country little accus- tomed to a regular enforcement of the laws, added much individual irritation to the general disaffection. All these causes co-operated to exasperate the hereditary antipathy to the English government, and the recent antipathy of reli- gious dissension, into a determination to overthrow at once the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of Ireland. It appears from the confession of lord Macguire 55 , that the year 1628 had been first chosen for insurrection, but that the enterprise had been postponed, because cardinal Richelieu, from whom assistance was expected, was still occupied by a protraction of the war in Italy. Again was the design formed in the year 1634 56 , and again abandoned for some reason now unknown. At length the domestic dissensions of the government seemed to promise a favour- allegiance instead of the oath of supremacy ; and that which admitted the inhabitants of Connaught to make a new enrolment of their patents. The king appears to have been insincere in regard to them. They were transmitted to the lord-deputy to be confirmed in a parliament, for holding which a day was named by the king. As this proceeding vio- lated the law of Poynings, which required that a certification of causes and considerations for holding a parliament should have been previously made by the lord-deputy and council of Ireland, the writs of summons were pronounced to be illegal and void. No new writs however were issued, nor was any other time assigned for a legal and regular conven- tion of the Irish parliament, though a voluntary contribution of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds had been accepted as the price of the favours to be conferred. Lord Strafford proceeded to subvert the title to every estate in Connaught. Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 483 488 ; vol. iii. pp. 30, 31. The graces were again transmitted in the summer of the year 1641, but the lords justices contrived to elude them by ad- journing the parliament, so that they could not then be passed, and the peace of Ireland was in the interval interrupted by rebellion. Leland, vol. iii. p. 84. 53 This was abandoned on account of the clamour, which it excited in Ireland, and the increasing disorders of England. Ibid., p. 39. s4 Ibid., pp. 88, 89. 55 Borlase's Hist, of the Irish Rebellion, p. 33. Dublin, 1743. Ibid., p. 2. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 337 able opportunity, independently of foreign succours. It was accordingly determined that, relying on their own re- sources, the Roman Catholics of Ireland should rise against the government in the year 1641. For .the credit of human nature, and of our country, it should be remembered, that the conspiracy was not originally a scheme of massacre", but that on the contrary a determination had been formed, that it should be executed with as little bloodshed as possi- ble ; nor was that carnage begun 58 , which has indelibly dis- 57 Leland, vol. iii. pp. 103, 118. 58 The number of persons de- stroyed in this massacre has been very variously reported. By Sir John Temple it has been most extravagantly exaggerated to a hundred and fifty thousand. By Warner, who has examined the matter with much precision, it has been reduced to four thousand and twenty-eight, besides eight thousand killed by bad usage ; but some part of each even of these numbers he conceived to be not supported by sufficient evi- dence. Warner's History of the Rebellion, vol. ii. pp. 9, 10. Dublin. 1768. Mr. Hallam however considers this estimate as unwarrantably low. Dr. Lingard, he also remarks, has m his own account of the Ulster- rebellion omitted all mention of the massacre. Constitutional History of England, vol. iii, p. 521, note. Roman Catholics have pre- tended that this massacre was perpetrated in retaliation of one pre- viously perpetrated by the Protestants, in Island Magee, where three thousand of their party are said to have perished. This statement hag been refuted by Leland ; and to his arguments it may be added, that lord Castlehaven, against whose authority no objection can be urged, has expressly imputed the massacre to the contrivers of the rebellion, without any allusion to such a palliation. Earl of Castlehaven's Re- view, p. 31. London, 1684. Doctor O'Conor has traced the story to the anonymous author of ' A Collection of some Massacres and Mur- ders committed on the Irish, since the 23rd of October, 1641,' which was published in London in the year 1662, when the Act of Settlement was in contemplation. The author, he remarks, says expressly in his preface, that he had no other than hear-say for what he asserts ; that this hear-say evidence had been collected by him, not in Ireland, but in London ; and that he published it without any further enquiry in Ireland, because that would require time and trouble, and occasion delay. Doctor O'Conor then proceeds to urge against it an overpow- ering force of evidence from the silence of contemporary Roman Ca- tholics, and especially of the supreme council of Kilkenny, which in the year 1642 caused an inventory to be prepared of all murders com- mitted by their enemies since the commencement of the rebellion. Hist. Address, part ii. pp. 232, &c. The Roman Catholic historians, Mac-Geoghegan, Curry, and Plowden, have notwithstanding adopted the story ; and even Mr. Eutler, though he could not venture to com- mit his credit upon it, has yet given it as ' the catholic representation,' leaving it to make its own impression, while he quotes with respect the VOL. III. Z 338 MODERN HISTORY : graced the history of Ireland, until the successful resistance of the English settlers had suggested to the leader of the insurrection, Sir Phelim O'Neal, the inhuman policy of plunging his followers so deep in blood, that retreat and reconciliation might be hopeless. But, amidst all our horror at the atrocity of the conduct of the insurgents, we must not forget the atrocious policy, with which the local government of the country intercepted the gracious purposes of the sovereign, and impelled the dis- contented into rebellion. The executive government of Ire- land was then held by two lords justices, Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase, the latter of whom, being merely a soldier, relinquished to the former the exercise of the civil power. Sir William Parsons, who was thus in effect the sole governor, appears to have been actuated at once by the desire of enriching himself by confiscations, and of gratifying the puritanical party in the English parliament, to which he was indebted for his appointment. He accordingly contrived to elude the intended favour of the king, by intercepting those graces, which were again transmitted in the summer of the year 1641 59 . The parliament had then been adjourned until the following November. In the interval the rebellion broke out. The parliament, when it did assemble, was per- mitted to sit only two days 60 , being prorogued to the twenty- fourth of the following February, without having an oppor- tunity of availing itself of the acquiescence of the crown in the representations which had been transmitted to England. The English parliament also had deemed it right to instruct the Irish government 61 , to offer a general pardon to those rebels, who should submit within a limited time ; but the recommendation was disregarded by the lords justices, who pleaded that two similar proclamations had been already issued without effect. These proclamations however had been so prepared as to be inoperative, the earlier having given no positive assurance of pardon, the later being so re- stricted as to be evidently insidious. The loyal party 62 , con- scious of being strong enough to suppress the rebellion, sent a memorial to the king representing the true state of affairs ; Historical and Critical Review of Curry, in which it is maintained. Hist. Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 371. 59 Leland, vol. iii. p. 84. 60 Ibid., pp. 140143. 61 Ibid., p. 139. 63 Ibid., p. 143- GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 339 but they were counteracted by agents, whom the lords jus- tices had despatched to the leaders of the parliament. The Roman Catholics of the English pale ra were in the mean time irritated by a total neglect of their interests and sentiments, and, being ordered to remove from Dublin, were driven into a communication with the insurgents. The earl of Clanri- carde in particular, a Roman Catholic, who by extraordinary exertions had maintained the tranquillity of Connaught, was refused every assistance 04 , and subjected to every mortifica- tion. Though no effort was used to crush a rebellion, which might be productive, enough was done to provoke and exas- perate ; and parties were sent out, which vied in barbarous violence with the rebels, whom they professed to chastise. While a puritanical governor was for his own purpose, and that of his party, inflaming the public discontent, the Roman Catholic clergy were on the other hand combining the laity of their church in support of the absolute and un- restrained supremacy of the pope, their struggle being to wrest the dominion of the country from a prince, who would not consent to hold it as a fief of the papacy. Clement VIII. 60 had with this view proposed to defeat the succession of that prince by conferring the three kingdoms upon the lady Arabella Stuart, and causing her to marry the cardinal Farnese, who was to be released from his vows ; and was hindered from prosecuting the plan only by failing to gain the assistance of France or Spain. The scheme of eccle- siastical dominion was however earnestly prosecuted. In vain did James relinquish even the qualified supremacy of Elizabeth, by substituting an oath of allegiance for that, by which it was to be acknowledged 66 . In vain was the most entire indulgence given to the attendance on the Romish worship 67 . The contest was not for a liturgy, this would 63 Leland, vol. iii. p. 147. 61 Ibid., p. 137. 65 Butler's Hist. Mem., vol. i. pp. 269, &c. Lady Arabella Stuart was, like James, descended from Margaret, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. The duke of Parma having a wife, the cardinal his brother was to be secularised for the marriage. 66 Dr. Phelan's Hist, of the Policy of the Church of Rome in Ireland, p. 227. Paul V. by a brief pronounced the oath unlawful. This brief was confirmed in the following year by a second of the same pontiff, and was again enforced by the succeeding pope Urban. Ibid., pp, 228 230. 67 ' The whole nation enjoyed the undisturbed exercise of their religion, as long as its ministers abstained z 2 340 MODEKN HISTORY : have been conceded to Elizabeth, but for the power of the Roman see, which could admit no compromise. A portion of the laity had indeed still continued to be attached to the government, satisfied with the preservation of their proper- ties, and with the forbearance still exercised in regard to their religion. This party the clergy proceeded to include in a political union with themselves. A synod of those of Armagh 68 , convened by their primate, declared the war of the Irish to be lawful and pious, and exhorted all persons to unite in their righteous cause. A general synod was then assembled at Kilkenny, by which it was resolved, that a general assembly of the whole nation should be held in the same place. A convention therefore 69 , observing much of the forms of a parliament, though disclaiming the name, did accordingly in the year 1642 assemble at Kilkenny, and chose a supreme council of twenty-four persons for the general management of the government. While the assembly re- nounced the authority of the local government of Ireland, as belonging to a malignant party, it directed that all persons should swear allegiance to the king, whose just prerogatives they professed to maintain. The clergy would have bound the people to consent to no peace, unless the church should have been invested, not only with all its ancient powers, but also with all its ancient possessions. This however was not consistent with the interests of lay-impropriators ; and the assembly was contented with directing, that all persons should swear to defend the free exercise of the Roman Catholic re- ligion. from political intrigue, and from that obtrusive pomp of celebration', which, if not offensive to protestant conscience, was at least an unseemly rivalry with the established church. Dr. Phelan, p, 252. 68 Leland, vol. iii. pp. 180 184. 69 This form of government subsisted from October in the year 1642 to the conclusion of the peace in the year 1648 with the marquess of Ormond, sent over from France by the queen and prince for that purpose, at which time however the general assembly constituted twelve persons, to consider and authorise all public acts together with the lord-lieutenant, provision being made for supplying vacancies. These were to continue in the co-adminis- tration until the articles of peace should have been settled by act of parliament ; and the general assembly was thenceforward convened by the chief governor as a parliament, the executive administration having been resigned. Diss. prefixed to the Mem. of the Marquis of Clanri- carde, pp. xlii. xliii. Dubl., 1744. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1625 1642. 341 The several parties of the triple government were at this time arranged, and their great struggle was already com- menced. The Puritans of the English parliament, supported by the Scotish army, had mutilated one member of the legis- lature by excluding the bishops from the house of lords: the king had erected his standard, and had made his appeal to the general loyalty of the people of England against a puri- tanical house of commons : and the Roman Catholics of Ireland, professing allegiance to the king, were formed into an organized confederacy, which was secretly controlled and directed by their own hierarchy. The arbitrary schemes of the princes of the house of Stuart found support among the Roman Catholics of Ireland 70 , as the republican plans of the English Puritans were aided by the Presbyterians of Scot- land. The two accessory kingdoms were thus engaged in maintaining the struggle of the yet ill-combined orders of the English government, and by adhering to opposite interests contributed to effectuate their balanced adjustment. CHAPTER XVI. Of the history of Great Britain and Ireland, from the beginning of the civil war in the year 1642, to the restoration in the year 1660. Civil war begun in the year 1642 Solemn league and covenant, 1643 Second invasion of the Scots, 1644 Westminster-directory and confession, and self-denying ordinance, 1645 Third invasion of the Scots, 1648 Charles condemned and executed, and the house of lords abolished, 1649 Navigation act, 1650 Ireland and Scotland reduced, 1651 Oliver Cromwell protector, 1653 A united parlia- ment, 1654 Richard Cromwell protector, 1658 his resignation, 1659 The restoration, 1660 Milton Dryden. IF to the adjustment of the constitution it had been only necessary that certain principles should be established, by 70 The estates of the Irish were, according to Sir William Petty, double of those of the English before the rebellion, and their number nearly quintuple, or as eleven to two. He supposed that the number of the Irish was in the year 1641 about 1,200,000, reduced in the year 1652 to 850,000. Petty's Tracts, pp. 312, 317. Dubl., 1769. 342 MODEEN HISTOBT: which the functions of its several members should be re- gulated, and the boundaries of their respective agencies should be ascertained, almost enough had been done in the commencement of the long parliament, nor perhaps would those agitations have been required, to which the govern- ment was subsequently exposed. It is indeed most import- ant that certain principles of constitutional right should be well established, as they serve to guide the public efforts for the preservation, or for the improvement, of the govern- ment ; and Mably has accordingly ascribed much of the in- feriority of the government of France to the want of such an authorised standard of public rights, as was enacted in the great charter of England. Vain however are these ab- stract principles, if they do not practically correspond to the actual condition of the political body, which they should regulate. For the due adjustment of the constitution it was therefore mainly important, that the habits of the govern- ment and of the people should be accommodated to the practical observance of the rules of a balanced system. It was accordingly amidst the agitations of the succeeding period, that the political habits of the community were gradually formed; nor did the government settle in the point of adjustment, until it had alternately vibrated to the contrary extremes of democracy and despotism. The ear- lier of these alternate movements, by which the government was carried on to the extreme of democracy, and thence was brought back to its former position at the restoration of royalty, is the subject of the present chapter. It should not however be supposed, that even at this time some regulations were not yet deficient, which the improved experience of a later period has taught the nation to adopt. The occurrences of this earlier period of the government had not yet suggested the expediency of providing against a wasteful expenditure of the public money by a permanent arrangement, of restricting the number of the forces to be maintained, and of authorising only for a very limited time the application of martial law to the enforcement of military discipline ; nor had the independence of the judges been effectually secured. The expediency of limiting the dura- tion of a parliament had been suggested, and a triennial law had accordingly been enacted by the long parliament GREAT BBIXAIN AND IBELAND, 1642 1660. 343 in the commencement of its operations ; but this law was disregarded by that very parliament, and formally abrogated after the restoration. This, together with the others, re- mained therefore for the revolution, which placed William on the throne, and advanced the constitution to a higher' state of improvement. The disposal of the militia was the question 1 , which im- mediately occasioned the civil war. The parliament would not intrust a power so important to a prince, whose sincerity in redressing public grievances they had reason to suspect, and whose personal resentment their leaders had abundant cause to fear. There was then no mutiny-act, which would at once disband a standing army. The power of the sword must therefore have been given without control to the king, or to the parliament, the happy expedient of intrusting it to the king in subordination to the law, not having yet been suggested by the political experience of the nation. The balance of the British constitution, which has been commonly represented as the result of the direct counter- action of distinct and co-ordinate powers, is really the effect of that reciprocal influence, by which these powers act secretly among themselves, and thus indirectly modify their several operations. Among powers distinct and co-ordinate there must be either concurrence or war; and it was because that the different parts of the English government were then in this situation, that the questions agitated between Charles and his parliament terminated in an appeal to the sword. The public movements, which succeeded, reduced the poli- tical system from a state of adverse counteraction to one of reciprocal influences ; and the true equilibrium, which in maintaining a distinctness of interests preserves also the combination and unity of the government, was thus at length effected. All the great movements of the struggle of the English government appear to have been directly influenced by the presbyterian spirit of the Scotish people. The presence of a Scotish army, which had been first raised, and then drawn into England, by the violent measures of Charles, gave sup- port and encouragement to the Presbyterians among the English commons, which these took care to continue by de- 1 Laing, Yol. i. pp. '216 '218. 344 MODERN HISTORY : laying its return. The actual assistance of the Scotish forces was after some time employed by the parliament to main- tain their contest with their sovereign, the northern army having been induced to march a second time into England in the year 1644. In the year 1648 a third invasion, in support of that king, whom they had twice opposed, and then given up to the English, that they might obtain pay- ment of their arrears 2 , decided the death of the monarch 3 , and created an occasion, which favoured the advancement of Cromwell. To the same agency*, may be referred the condemnation and death of archbishop Laud, for this pre- late, who had been impeached at the same time with the earl of Strafford, was at length condemned to death for the purpose of encouraging the Scots to enter the second time into England. Amidst these Scotish efforts, it should be remarked, arose the appellation, by which a great party in our government has ever since continued to be distinguished, for an insurrection of the western Scots, whose object was to oppose the royalists concerned in the third invasion, gave occasion to the name of Whigs 5 . This extrinsic agency was exercised upon the English government through the affinity existing between the Scots and the presbyterian leaders 6 of the opposition in England; 2 Mr. Hallam professes himself inclined to believe, that the Scots would have delivered up the king, though there had been no pecuniary expectation. And he has remarked, that the party in the house of commons, which sought most earnestly to obtain possession of the king's person, and carried all the votes for payment of money to the Scots, was that which had no further aim than an accommodation with him, though doubtless on terms very derogatory to his prerogative. Hallam's Constit. Hist. vol. ii. pp. 268, 269. 3 Laing, vol. i p. 374. Hist, de Cromwell par Villemain, tome i. p. 180. Paris, 1819. 1 Ludlow's Memoirs, vol* i. p. 72. Edinb., 1751. The judges could not in this case, as in that of the earl of Strafford, pretend even a constructive treason. The impeachment was accordingly changed into an ordinance for his execution. Hallam, vol. ii. p. 229. s Laing, vol. i. pp. 365, 366. 6 The English would have been satisried with a civil league, but the Scots demanded a religious covenant. The first and second article it was found necessary to ex- press in equivocal language, that each party might interpret them in its own sense. The reformation of religion was to be established in England ' according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches ;' and the existing episcopacy was abolished without abjuring the hierarchy, as the Scots had required. Ibid , pp. 232, 233. GKEAT BRITAIN AND IKELAXD, 1642 1660. 345 and if that opposition had been a simple and unmixed party, it must have happened that an ecclesiastical revolution would have been perfected, from which must have resulted a lasting derangement of the political order of the government. The opposition was however by no means simple. Ecclesiastical anarchists, or the Independents, were at first concealed among the Presbyterians, who were themselves a minority in comparison with those, who proposed only the security of their civil liberties. Though however the civil reformers were the more numerous party, the zeal of the Presbyterians was the more active principle. Time and occasion were re- quired for developing the energies of the Independents and their kindred sectaries 7 , who were the Jacobins of a religious age. This successive evolution of party, which appears to be a regular process in every great movement of a people, whe- ther religious or political, was that which most favoured the restoration of the royal government. If the Independents had not come forth from the Presbyterians, and established their own power on the ruin of their former associates, these could not have been induced to unite themselves with the Royalists, and to bring back the monarchy in connexion with an episcopal establishment of the church. The effects of the activity of the Presbyterians would in this case have been permanent, and the original form of the government would not have been restored. But, when this new power was brought to act upon the system, they were gradually driven into co-operation with the friends of episcopacy, the king was again placed upon the throne without any stipulations restraining his authority, and the government was prepared for its other great aberration into the contrary extreme of arbitrary rule. The vigour, with which the Presbyterians resisted the Independents, long restrained the latter from influencing the public measures, insomuch that the first instance of even 7 The chief, according to Baxter, were the Anabaptists and Antino- mians. He mentions others, which however either soon ceased to exist, or were comprehended among the people afterwards known by the name of Quakers. Neal, vol. iii. p. 343. The rise of these is referred to the year 1648, when upon the dissolution of all government, both civil and ecclesiastical, George Fox began to promulgate his peculiar tenets. Ibid., vol. iv. p. 33. 346 MODERN HISTORY ! an obscure reservation in their favour, occurs in the terms, in which the Scotish covenant was received in England. In- stead of engaging to establish a presbyterian system 8 , simi- lar to that of Scotland, Sir Harry Vane contrived to intro- duce the ambiguous declaration, that a reformation should be effected in England and Ireland ' according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches,' a form of expression leaving the field open to every enterprise of change. In little more than a year however from the conclusion of this religious and political alliance 9 , the Inde- pendents by the dexterity of Cromwell obtained a decisive superiority, though only as the instruments of his ambition. The spirit of persecution, which actuated the English and Scotish Presbyterians, drove this sect to seek support, partly in a negotiation with the king, but chiefly in establishing an influence over the army, in which plan they were favoured by the want of military chaplains. Cromwell, perceiving the assistance, which their influence over the army might afford him for his own advancement, artfully employed them to humble the Presbyterians, until he rendered himself the master of both. Though the presence of the Scotish army in England had given support and encouragement to the English parliament in commencing the rupture with the king, yet the parliament was not without difficulty brought to that intimate connexion, which was the object of the solemn league and covenant ; nor was it until, a year after the commencement of hostili- ties 10 , the successes of the royal forces had created a gene- ral apprehension in the minds of the other party, that their leader ventured to negotiate for an aid, which could be ob- tained only on the terms of an ecclesiastical conformity. On this occasion it was found necessary to consult the sen- timents, not only of the Independents, but also of those who were not influenced by any sectarian abhorrence of episco- pacy, and a studied ambiguity was introduced into that part of the treaty 11 , by which the existing government of the church was to be abolished, the clause, by which it was to have been abjured, being purposely omitted. As by the other ambiguity the presbyterian leaders accommodated the Independents, so by this they satisfied the political reformers. 8 Laing, vol. i. p. 232. e Ibid., p. 283. 10 Laing, vol. i. pp. 228, &c. Ibid., p. 233. GBEAT BKITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 347 The direct influence of this federal alliance in regard to England passed away with the revolutionary period, in which it had been formed. On Scotland however it has had a last- ing operation, for in the year 1645 12 there was framed at Westminster a directory prescribing the topics of extempo- rary prayer, and a confession of faith in the utmost rigour of Calvinism, which have continued to be regarded as the standards of the church of that country. The English par- liament was too much influenced by the political reformers and the Independents, to admit the authoritative discipline at the same time proposed, though it was received into the congenial church of their ally. As the earlier defeats of the parliamentary forces had given occasion to the formation of the solemn league and covenant, which procured for the Presbyterians the assist- ance of the Scots, so did the defeat at Newbury 13 facilitate the adoption of the self-denying ordinance 14 , which two years afterwards took from the parliament the control of the army, and eventually transferred the ascendency from them to the Independents. The army had been generally con- verted to independency by the opportunity 15 , which the in- dolence of the presbyterian ministers had afforded their rivals, in disposing them to decline encountering again the hardships of a campaign, when the old regiments had been broken in the service. The functions thus abandoned were discharged by the officers, who depended upon a miraculous influence of the divine Spirit for the instructions, which they preached to the troops. By the self-denying ordinance the army was separated from the parliament, in which the Pres- byterians still prevailed. The overthrow of their power was completed by the very artful management 16 , with which 12 Laing, vol. i. pp. 282, 314. 13 Ludlow, vol. L p. 125. " This ordinance, which excluded all members of the legislature from all offi- ces civil and military, was carried in the house of commons, because lord Essex, the general of the parliament, was thought to wish for peace, and had performed such services, that no measure personally offensive to him could be proposed. Whitelock, p. 113. London, 1682. It was resisted four months in the lords, but was adopted when lord Essex had declared, that he would resign his commission. Harris's Life of Cromwell, pp. 115118. London, 1772. 15 Neal, vol. iii. p. 252. 16 A dispensation of two or three months was first obtained on account of some alleged necessity of his service. This indulgence was afterwards frequently prolonged by order of the parliament. At 348 MODEEX HISTORY: Oliver Cromwell, who had projected the measure, contrived to have himself exempted from its operation. This extraordinary compound of fanaticism, hypocrisy, cunning, military enterprise, and political ambition, was above all other men fitted to bring into co-operation the dis- united factions of the state. Professing to belong to the Presbyterians 17 , and secretly negotiating with the Independ- ents ; attaching to himself the religious zealots by fanaticism, and evading the suspicions of the political zealots by buf- foonery 18 ; selecting all his agents with a consummate know- ledge of character, and with an unerring felicity seizing all his opportunities ; displaying in an advanced period of life a military capacity, which the efforts of a whole life seem necessary to form; and amidst all his enthusiasm 19 , and all his treasonable conduct, preserving a correspondence with the party of the king, until he found it impossible to recon- cile it with his interest in the army ; such was the singular individual 20 , who brought his sovereign to trial and execu- tion, reduced to obedience both the Roman Catholics of Ire- land and the Presbyterians of Scotland, assumed to himself the power, which he had wrested from the constitutional authorities, effected a parliamentary union of the three parts of the triple monarchy, exalted the national dignity and importance among the potentates of Europe, and left a go- vernment so destitute of intrinsic principles, and a people so assimilated after all their violent contentions, that the restoration of the ancient royalty seemed to be almost the spontaneous movement of the nation. The character of Charles himself assisted much in urging the people to extremities, which favoured the schemes of Cromwell. Influenced by a promise made to the queen 21 that no accommodation should be effected except through her mediation, he adhered with obstinacy to his original length he remained in command without permission. Harris, pp. 120 122, 17 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 527. 18 Ludlow, vol. i. p. 207. 19 Ibid., pp. 169, 172, 198, 199. 20 M.Bourienne has annexed to his Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, recently published, a curious treatise composed by the emperor, in which he rejects the notion of a resemblance between his own character, and that either of Cromwell, or of Monk, to each of whom he had been compared, and claims to be considered as fitly compared only to Julius Csesar. '- 1 Laing, vol. i. p. 225. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 349 notions of power ; and confident that in the contention of parties he should be an indispensable umpire 23 , he engaged in complicated and contradictory negotiations with the army, the parliament, and the Scots. A conduct more compliant and more simple might have preserved the life of the king, and restored him to his throne ; nor did Cromwell abandon the expectation of combining his own views with the interest of his sovereign, until the obstinacy and duplicity of Charles had allowed time for such a change in the minds of the soldiery, as determined him to look to a higher object. But, if Charles had connected himself firmly with any of the parties of the state, and had by its assistance been established even unconditionally upon the throne, would any- thing have been done towards amalgamating those parties, and forming them into a people sufficiently capable of poli- tical co-operation ? Were the Independents yet satisfied to acquiesce in the existence of any ecclesiastical establish- ment ? Were the republicans yet contented to forego their schemes of popular government ? Above all, were the Pres- byterians prepared to enter into that combination with the Royalists, which at length effected the re-establishment of the government ? The king might have been restored to his throne, but the government could not have made a pro- gress towards its improvement, because the parties of the state would not have acquired the experience necessary for producing a general conviction of the expediency of mutual concession. The commons and the army began early in the year 1647 23 to constitute two distinct and hostile parties, the king having then been delivered to the former by the Scots, among whom he had sought protection. The Presbyterians, who pre- vailed among the commons, wished to make advantage of their possession of the person of the king by entering into an agreement with him, and with this design proposed to free themselves from the interference of the Independents, by sending a part of the army into Ireland, and disbanding the remainder. The army, instigated by Cromwell, resisted the scheme of the commons ; and the result was that, after a struggle of a few months, it obtained an absolute com- 22 Ludlow, vol i. pp. 171, 175, &c. 23 Rapin, vol. ii. pp. 527, 537, 566. 350 MODERN HISTORY: mand of the deliberations of that assembly, and that in the conclusion of the year 1648 the Independents, supported by the army, effected the expulsion of the presbyterian mem- bers, and exclusively constituted the house. The execution of the sovereign, which occurred early in the year 1649, was a direct consequence of the ascendency of the Independents and the army. But it has been truly observed 24 , that nothing contributed more powerfully to the re-establishment of his family, than his own untimely and violent death. The sympathies of the nation were strongly affected by this extraordinary example of suffering ; a moral action of a generous nature was excited in the bosoms of those, who had contemplated the mere fall from power with indifference ; and a disposition to lament and to restrain the excesses of faction was suddenly created by this very strik- ing exhibition of the violence, to which they conducted. The impression was made more profound by the publication of the EIKOIV Baeri\iKj 25 , which has been eloquently compared by Milton to the testament of Caesar 26 , but the reverential admiration of the portraiture of a good king was a consi- deration far superior to the mercenary gratitude and tumult- uary emotion of the Roman populace. When the popular part of the government had been enabled to overthrow the monarchy, the aristocracy could not long be permitted to subsist, and it was accordingly suppressed within the same year 27 . In erecting the high 24 Laing, vol. i. p. 384. 25 Whether this work, which was published in the name of the king a few days after his execution, had been written by him, or by Doctor Gauden, has been, and still is, strenuously contested. Doctor Wordsworth has lately concluded in favour of the king, and Mr. Hallam in favour of Doctor Gauden. 26 Hume, vol. vii. p. 163. 27 This seems to have been assisted by the negligence of the peers themselves, whom Cromwell wished to support. ' The house of lords,' says Ludlow, vol. i. p. 246, ' becoming now the subject of the consideration and debate of the parliament, lieutenant-general Cromwell appeared for them, having already had a close correspondence with many of them, and it may be, presuming that he might have further use of them in those designs he had resolved to carry on. But they not meeting in their house at the time to which they had adjourned, much facilitated their removal : so that the ques- tion being put, whether the house of commons should take advice of the house of lords in the exercise of the legislative power, it was carried in the negative, and thereupon resolved, that the house of peers was useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished." GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 351 court of justice for the trial of the king the consent of the lords had been pronounced unnecessary ; and, when they desired a conference with the commons to provide for the administration of justice, the commissions of the judges having been determined by the death of the king, the latter, without replying to the message, voted that their assembly was useless, and ought to be abolished. All, except three, rejecting the permission of becoming members of the house of commons 28 , the constitution was left destitute of its aris- tocratic order. The house of commons itself had sustained a considerable diminution both of number and of import- ance by the successive exclusions of the Royalists and the Presbyterians; and thus the parliament, which at its com- mencement was composed of a hundred and twenty-four peers and five hundred and thirteen commoners, was at this time reduced to about eighty persons of the latter descrip- tion, possessing very inconsiderable property. In the struggle of the English parties, the Presbyterians maintained the ascendency from the commencement of the war in the year 1642 to the year 1647, in which the army brought the parliament into subjection. From this time the army, or the Independents, governed six years through the intervention of the parliament. During seven years more a 23 Hallam's Constit. Hist. vol. ii. p. 319. Of the temporal peers fifty-three names appear in the parliament of 1454, the last held before the commencement of the great contest between York and Lancaster. Henry VII. summoned only twenty-nine to his first parliament, and the number in his reign never much exceeded forty. The greatest number summoned by Henry VIII. was fifty-one, which continued to be nearly the average in the two next reigns, and was very little augmented by Elizabeth. James made so many new peerages, that eighty-two peers sat in his first parliament, and ninety-six in his latest. Charles called no less than one hundred and seventeen peers to the parliament of 1628, and one hundred and nineteen to that of November 1640. In the parliament of 1661, we find one hundred and thirty-nine lords summoned. Ibid., vol. iii. pp. 4648. After the violent se- clusion of the constitutional party from the house of commons, on the sixth of December, 1648, very few, not generally more than five peers, continued to meet. Their number was suddenly increased to twelve on the second of January, when the vote of the commons, that it is high treason in the king of England to levy war against the parliament, and the ordinance constituting the high court of justice, were unani- mously rejected. From this time the number varied from four to six. Ibid., vol. ii. p. 317. , 352 MODERN HISTORY : temporary monarchy was established in the person, first of Oliver Cromwell, and then of his son Richard. The whole interval accordingly between the commencement of the civil war and the restoration of the royal family, appears to have been distributed into three nearly equal portions, among the two great parties of the English oppositionists, and that mili- tary usurpation, by which they were at length instructed in the impracticability of their plans, and disciplined to a spirit of mutual accommodation 29 . The Independents, though their principles were more of an extreme character than those of the Presbyterians, were however, as a religious sect, not ill fitted for acquiescing after some time in the re-establishment of the ancient system of religion and policy. As it was their fundamental doctrine, that every religious congregation was independent of every other, toleration was their proper characteristic 30 . Even the re-establishment of episcopacy was not viewed by them with any considerable jealousy ; and, though a republic was natu- rally more agreeable to those who were republicans in religion, so loose and unsystematic were their habits, that they were without much difficulty disposed to coalesce with the general mass of the public, when the Presbyterians had been at length induced to form a junction with the Royalists. The house of commons, which thus usurped the whole authority of the government, had been itself reduced to about eighty members, and in this diminished state was almost wholly dependent on the army. In this condition it was 29 The power of Cromwell was also usefully exercised in crushing a party of levellers, which soon appeared in the army. Rapin, vol. ii. p. 540. 30 The Independents forgot this principle in New Eng- land, but there their congregations did not sufficiently adhere to inde- pendency, acting too much as a body. Hallam's Constit. Hist., vol. ii. p. 276. Mr. Hallam is of opinion, that the Arminians may contest with the Independents the honour of having first maintained the cause of toleration. Introd. to the Literature of Europe, vol. iii. pp. 103, &c. The first famous plea, in England, in favour of toleration was the Dis- course on the Liberty of Prophesying, published by Jeremy Taylor in the year 1647. This was succeeded by the treatise of Grotius De Jure Summorum Principum circa Sacra, published in the year 1661 ; by Bayle's Commentaire Philosophique, sur ces paroles de Jesus Christ, contrainez-les d'entrer, published in the year 1686 ; and by Locke's Six Letters upon Toleration, the first of which appeared in the year 1689. Hist. Memoirs by Butler, vol. i. p. 387. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 353 driven to the necessity of adopting some expedient for rein- forcing its strength. This they chose to effect by permitting the former members to resume their places, on the condition of subscribing an engagement 31 , by which it was supposed that the Royalists and the more rigid Presbyterians would be excluded. That the constitution recovered itself from its aberration into democracy by the intrinsic vigour of its prin- ciples, seems to be confirmed by the determination of this remnant of a parliament not to appeal to the people, by is- suing writs for new elections, to fill the vacant places, though at the hazard of permitting many of their adversaries to re- turn. With the same apprehension of the failure of popular support, they also declined to refer to a jury and to the or- dinary tribunal the trial of some persons of distinction 32 . Cromwell, by whom this new government was overthrown at the close of about four years, had been detained at home 33 , by an order of council, eleven years before, together with Hampden and Haselrigge, two celebrated opponents of the crown, when they were preparing to sail for New England, that they might enjoy in another region their favourite puri- tanism. The earliest intimation of the ambitious design 34 , which he afterwards conceived, seems to have been imparted to Ludlow, when the king was delivered up by the Scotish army. But it is probable that he might never have been able to accomplish his usurpation 35 , if Ireland and Scotland had not presented fields of action, in which he could acquire the glory and the influence of a conqueror. The wars indeed of both these countries influenced the agitations of England through their entire progress. The war of Ireland first af- forded to the parliament an occasion of taking from the crown the command of the army : it then served to encourage, and also by his negotiations with the Roman Catholics of that country 36 , to discredit the king : and it at last afforded Crom- 31 Those who subscribed it, rejected all concessions made by the king, approved of all the proceedings against him. and engaged them- selves to be true and faithful to the commonwealth, as established with- out king or house of lords. Many of the moderate Presbyterians signed it, and resumed their seats in the parliament. Rapin, vol. ii. p. 575. 32 Ibid., p. 574. Neal, vol. ii. p. 316. M Ludlow, vol. i. pp. 160, 163. 35 Villemain, tome i. p. 274. M The articles of the negotiation of the earl of Glamorgan with the confederate Irish were found on the titular archbishop of Tuam, who had been slain by YOL. III. A A 354 MODERN H1STOKY: well an opportunity of attaining, by the reduction of those Roman Catholics, an importance necessary to the usurpation, which he effected in England. Scotland on the other hand in two invasions supported the parliament against the crown; in a third, undertaken for the support of the crown, promoted eventually the advancement of Cromwell : and finally by its subjugation it co-operated with Ireland to invest that usurper with an importance, which overpowered the parliament. When Charles had, in the year 1642, fought with the forces of the parliament the indecisive battle of Edgehill, he judged it expedient to accept the services of the Roman Catholics of Lancashire 37 , and was soon led to speculate on the probability of drawing succours from those of Ireland to oppose the Scots, whom the parliament then invited to their assistance. The Irish insurgents had repeatedly solicited permission to lay their grievances before the king 38 , but were withstood by the lords justices, who saw in the continuance of the insurrection a rich harvest of confiscation. Their pe- tition however at length reached the throne, and the mar- quess of Ormond, agreeably to the command of the king, entered into a negotiation for a cessation of arms, when he had first ascertained, that means could not be provided for a further prosecution of the war. After some opposition from an agent of the pope a treaty was concluded 39 ; but all the advantage received from it by the king, was that it permitted him to withdraw from Ireland a part of his own forces, the confederates refusing to suffer troops, arms, or ammunition, to be sent for the royal service, in the persuasion that Charles might yet be reduced to purchase their assistance by some liberal concessions. The treaty might perhaps afterwards have been conducted to a more satisfactory conclusion by the marquess 40 , if the king had not at the same time reposed his confidence also in another agent, created earl of Glamor- gan, and thus embarrassed his own measures by the duplicity of his conduct. It was however yet more powerfully im- peded by the interposition of Rinnuccini", a papal nuncio, who animated the confederates to stipulate for the most ex- the Scots at the siege of Sligo. The negotiation was disavowed by Charles, but has been fully established by Laing, vol. i. pp. 308, 303. 31 Whitelocke, p. 62. 38 Leland, vol. iii. pp. 191, 192, 203206. 39 Ibid., pp. 208, 217. * Ibid., p. 247. Ibid., p. 256. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 355 travagant conditions 42 . A reinforcement was at last, in the year 1646 ", promised to the marquess of Ormond, who in regard to religion consented only, that Roman Catholics should not be required to swear the oath of supremacy ; but the negotiation had been protracted, until the affairs of the king had been ruined, and the promised aid could no longer be useful. This convention was indeed opposed by the nuncio, and two years afterwards the marquess was induced to comply with almost all the demands of the Roman Catho- lics". Charles however had perished on the scaffold, be- fore the intelligence of the new treaty was conveyed to Lon- don. A severe chastisement was inflicted on the bigotry, which had withheld the expected assistance, Cromwell being sent by the parliament to reduce to obedience the Irish Roman Catholics. He was indeed within a year re- called to England by the apprehension of an invasion of the Scots, but the conquest was in the year 1651 completed by his lieutenants. If the clergy of the Roman Catholics had permitted the moderate party of their church to yield to the representa- tions of the marquess of Ormond, and engage heartily in the support of the royal cause, it is possible that they might have enabled the king, or his son, to recover the throne by arms, which must have been ruinous to freedom ; it is certain that a much more obstinate civil war, exasperated by the utmost violence of religious dissension, would have been waged be- tween the contending parties, which must have produced effects very different from those of the usurpation, by which all men found themselves alike deceived in their expec- tations, and were thus alike disposed to a re-establish- ment of the ancient order. The ruin too, which their dis- loyalty drew down upon their own party, was conducive to 43 The treaty of the earl of Glamorgan, conceded to the Roman Catholics all which could be required for the most ample toleration ; but the nuncio objected, that it contained no mention of a Roman Catho. lie lord-lieutenant, no provision for Roman Catholic bishops and uni- versities, no stipulation for a continuance of the supreme council or government of the confederates Leland, vol. iii. pp. 256, 264. 43 Ibid., pp. 280, 281. All the penal statutes were to be repealed, and the Roman Catholics were secured in the possession of those churches which they then held, until the pleasure of the king should be freely and authentically declared. Ibid., pp. 364, 365. A A 2 356 MODERN HISTORY : the orderly restoration of the government of England, as it withdrew from the king all hope of recovering the throne by their assistance. Scotland, which had sent its third army into England in support of Charles I., acknowledged the royal dignity of the son immediately after the execution of the father. This tardy loyalty, though not capable of effecting the restoration of the young prince, had however an important operation, as it determined him to decline the invitations, with which the marquess of Ormond urged him to repair to Ireland, and try his fortune in that country. It also brought upon Scotland the vengeance of the parliament, and thus, while by the splendour of military success it contributed to the aggran- disement of Cromwell, effectually removed the Scots also from all interference with the settlement of England. Four years after the execution of the king, and two after the reduction of Ireland and Scotland, Cromwell, having found among his friends no encouragement to assume the royal dignity 45 , dissolved the long parliament, and took upon himself the direction of the government, though without any other formal character than that of the lord-general. His ambition at this time proposed an inferior object, which however appeared to be unattainable during the continuance of a parliament 46 . The minds of the people still requiring to be prepared for the new form of government, Cromwell had recourse to an extraordinary convention of a hundred and thirty-nine persons, selected by himself and a council of military officers, but for England with a reference to the proportion of taxation in the several counties 47 . This con- vention, which may be denominated an assembly of notables, seems to have been employed to alarm the two great inter- ests of the law and the church into an acquiescence in the advancement of Cromwell 48 , being urged to engage in very decisive measures of reformation for both departments. When it had done its work, its dissolution was so contrived as to appear a voluntary resignation of its power in a con- viction of its own incompetency ; and the protectorate, for * 5 Parl. Hist., vol. xx. pp. 80, 104. 46 Ibid., pp. 99, 130, 141. 47 The Welsh, Irish, and Scotish members (six for Wales, as many for Ireland, and five for Scotland) appear to have been nominated by the government, without any reference to the divisions of counties. 48 Parl. Hist., vol. xx. p. 240. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 357 introducing which it had been assembled, was immediately assumed by Cromwell, who at the same time published a new constitution, vesting the government in himself and a parliament. Cromwell has obtained credit for rejecting from his constitution the inconsiderable boroughs 49 , and forming a 49 Inconsiderable places have, from the earliest period of the history of the house of commons, sent representatives to that assembly. Fifty- one small towns of the royal demesne were at various times summoned by Edward I. to send their representatives, nor was any objection made to this practice, because these attended only for the purpose of regu- lating the talliages due by their own towns and others of similar tenures. When these members had begun to act with the others in the general measures of the house of commons, it was discovered that this part of the representation might be rendered useful to the government, and the number of inconsiderable places represented in the parliament was gradually increased, especially in Cornwall, where the crown had, on account of the duchy, the greatest influence. Parl. Hist., vol. xxi. pp. 212, &c. The notion of parliamentary reform appears to have originally presented itself to James I., who, in summoning his first English parliament directed the sheriffs not to address their precepts to any borough so decayed, that there were not ' sufficient resyants to make such choice, and of whom lawfull election may be made.' The mon- arch appears however to have been satisfied with having thus delivered a lecture on a constitution, which he could not have understood, for not only all the former boroughs were retained in the representation, but many inconsiderable places Avere at that very time introduced into it. Moore's Hist, of the British Revolution, p. 326. London, 1817. The next reformer was Lilbourne, who in the year 1649 proposed that the representation should be distributed proportionally to the respective parts of the nation, and that none should be excluded from the right of election except servants, those who had received alms, and those who had served the late king either by arms, or by money. Parl. Hist. vol. xix. pp. Ill, &c. Cromwell's plan, while it exclu- ded the small boroughs, differed essentially from that of Lilbourne, by excluding also from the right of voting in elections for counties every person not possessing property of the value of two hundred pounds. Ibid., vol. xx. p. 255. The question was next agitated in the year 1679 by the earl of Shaftesbury as a measure of factious 1 opposition. In the year 1770 lord Chatham, on account of the public discontents, proposed to augment the representation of the counties. Anecdote of the earl of Chatham, vol. ii. p. 58. Dublin, 1792. The question was again revived in the year 1 779 by the discontent excited by the administration of lord North ; and Mr. Pitt, in the year 1785, proposed to transfer to the counties the representation of thirty-six small boroughs. Bp. Tomline's Life of Pitt, vol. i. pp. 51, 450. London, 1821. In the mean time doctor Jebb, and after him Mr. Cartwright, brought forward the principle of personal representation, 358 MODERN HISTORY : fair and free representation of the people ; but such a constitution of the legislature had been previously devised by the long parliament among its latest operations 50 . The object of the usurper was to reconcile the independent spirit of the people to the acknowledgment of his own power. The enterprise proved however too difficult even for the ability of Cromwell. He soon discovered that he had con- structed a government, over which he could not exercise a sufficient control 51 , and that all the success of his crafty ambition had but constituted his life the single impediment opposed to the re-establishment of the legitimate monarchy. Sickening at the personal danger 52 , to which he stood ex- posed, he was blasted in the midst of his greatness, and sunk into the tomb. The new parliament, the first united legislature of the three countries 53 , was assembled in the year 1654, and im- mediately proceeded to examine the power 54 , by which it had been convened. Alarmed at this display of indepen- dence, Cromwell compelled the members, before they could obtain permission to return to their house, to sign a re- cognition of his authority. The parliament nevertheless persisted from day to day, and from month to month, dur- ing the five months of its appointed continuance 55 , in dis- or universal suffrage : and at length, in the agitation of the French revolution, a society entitled the Friends of the People, presented a petition, which, says lord John Russell, was no less than a bill of indict- ment against the constitution. Essay on the Hist, of Engl. Gov. and Const., p. 241. The whole system of the representation has been altered by an act passed in the year 1832, the object of which was to suppress close, or nomination boroughs. so Parl. Hist., vol. xx. p. 121. 51 By this constitution the protector possessed no negative on the proceedings of the parliament, nor the power of dissolving it within five months ; he shared with it, or in the intervals of its sessions with the council, the command of the militia; and he was in the like manner controlled in regard to the selection of the principal officers of his government. Ibid., pp. 248, &c. ; pp. 364369. 5Z The ap- prehension of assassination, by which he was latterly tortured, may be believed to have been caused chiefly by the celebrated pamphlet, in- titled Killing no Murder, dedicated to him by colonel Titus. 65 The number of members for England and Wales was four hun- dred ; twenty-one represented Scotland, and thirty Ireland. It had been ordained that Scotland should, like Ireland, be represented by thirty, but twenty-one only were returned. Ibid., pp. 248 307. 54 Ibid., p. 348. 65 It has been said that Cromwell anticipated GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 359 cussing the several regulations, prescribed in the instrument of government, which he had promulgated, contenting it- self however with determining that the protectorate should be elective 56 , the election to be made by the parliament, or in the interval of two sessions by the council. Weary of the refractory spirit which he had found in this first par- liament, Cromwell governed about nine months with the assistance only of his council. Being then encouraged by an unsuccessful insurrection of the Royalists to seek a re- source in the confiscation of a tenth 57 part of the properties of the insurgents, he divided England into twelve districts, over each of which he placed a major-general to superin- tend this exaction, and also to manage a general system of espionage and police. A war with Spain, which Cromwell commenced at this time, apparently in the hope of obtaining by plunder those supplies 58 , for which he was unwilling to resort to a parlia- ment, drove him by its expensiveness to the adoption of that very measure 59 , and his major-generals, when they had discharged the necessary function of influencing the elec- tions 60 , were dismissed from their office 61 , having become, not only hateful to the nation, but also formidable to the protector. It was soon however discovered that all the in- fluence 62 , which they had exercised, had not been sufficient to procure a parliament, on which the protector could securely depend ; and it was therefore determined that no man should be permitted to take his seat in it, who should not have received from the council of state a certificate of approba- tion. Even with this precaution the assembly proved hostile to his interest 63 , and after a little more than a year and four months was in its turn abruptly dissolved. the appointed time of the dissolution by adopting a military mode of calculation, which allows to each month only twenty-eight days ; but this is stated by Blackstone to be the legal length of a month, unless otherwise expressed. x Pa.il. Hist., vol. xx. pp. 388, 403, 404. " Ibid., pp. 433, 461, &c. 58 Ibid., p. 477. 59 Ibid., vol. xxi. p. 1. Ibid. 61 Ibid,, vol. xx. p. 469; vol. xxi. p. 53. 62 Ibid., vol. xxi. p. 2. 63 It passed i hurried bill, declaring that the determination of the session should lot be a consequence of his acceptance of the bills then presented, which bill was to be first offered for his acquiescence. The Spanish 360 MODERN HISTORY : Notwithstanding the hostility of this other parliament Cromwell twice attempted to raise himself to the throne by its assistance 64 , possibly because he had discovered in the preceding the insufficiency of the protectoral autho- rity, and had since discovered also, that he could not safely rely on merely military power. The earlier proposal of this measure was at once rejected by the house ; but, when it was again submitted, it was very favourably received, the Royalists, it has been concluded 63 , encouraging the scheme, to favour the restoration of the legitimate monarch. The protector hesitated more than two months to declare his acceptance of the much-desired dignity, apparently that he might ascertain the ' sentiments of all parties, before he should reveal his own. He was then compelled by an un- expected remonstrance of the army 66 , to declare that he must withhold his consent. The plan of a royal government being thus abandoned by the protector, the Royalists proposed so to regulate that of the protectorate, as to embarrass the protector. In this scheme 67 , comprehending seventeen articles, it was ar- ranged that the, parliament should in future consist of two houses, one to be composed of members elected by the people, the other of persons nominated by the .protector with the approbation of the existing parliament ; that no person elected to serve in the former should be excluded except by its judgment, nor any new member be admitted into the latter without its consent ; and that no article should be valid, unless all were ratified. By these provi- sions the protector was entangled in difficulties. By rtieir operation about a hundred of the most inveterate enemies of Cromwell 68 , who had been excluded by the want of the approbation of his council, were introduced into the new house of commons ; the other house also became then an object of jealousy to that assembly 69 , in which the interest war soon afterwards requiring supplies, these were voted for a purpose so popular, but a resolution of the house at the same time asserted the rights of the people, by pronouncing that no money should be levied without common consent in parliament. Parl. Hist., pp. 42, 56. Ibid., vol. xxi. pp. 57, &c. 65 Ibid., pp. 127, 128. 65 Ibid., p. 122. 7 Ibid. pp. 129, &c. 68 Ibid., pp. 194, 195. 6U To constitute this house sixty-three persons were sum- moned by writs. Eleven of these were peers ; but one peer alone, the GKEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 361 of the protector had been at the same time weakened, by removing from it to the other some of his ablest agents. It being now manifest that the new frame of the constitution would not work, foreign invasion and domestic conspiracy at the same time menacing the public peace 70 , the usurper hastily terminated his parliament, concluding his address with these remarkable words, ' Let God judge between me and you,' to which many of the commons replied ' Amen.' Seven months after this appeal to the great judge of all men, Cromwell was summoned by death to render his ac- count. The short interval was ennobled by the successes of the national arms, Jamaica and Dunkirk being taken from the Spaniards ; but the agitations of his perilous condition overcame the natural vigour of his constitution, and he perished by a slow fever, the result of mental anxiety. He was immediately succeeded by his son Richard, whom he was said to have designated 11 , though there is reason for believing that he had really nominated Fleetwood. Richard assembled a parliament to provide for sending a fleet into the Baltic 72 , agreeably to an engagement by which his father had bound himself to support Sweden against Denmark. That he might avoid the opposition, which his father had experienced, he summoned the mem- bers of the house of commons agreeably to the ancient practice, summoning two members from each borough, and including in the representation the inconsiderable boroughs. It was still however found impracticable to reconcile the commons to the existence and authority of the new house of lords, which they contemptuously persisted in distin- guishing only by the appellation of ' the other house.' The time of the former assembly was accordingly so engros- sed by the altercations 73 , which this jealousy occasioned, that no measures were adopted for providing for the public exigencies, nor even for the payment of the army, which was itself divided into parties, all eager to have the direc- tion of the government. At length, when the parliament had been assembled little more than two months, the pro- lord Eure, attended ; and Sir Arthur Haselrigge, though summoned to it, chose to take his seat in the house of commons as a member for Leicester. Parl. Hist. vol. xxi. pp. 167, 169. 70 Ibid., pp. 202205. - 1 Ibid., pp. 226, 227. 72 Ibid., pp. 245, 246. " 3 Ibid., pp. 339, 351. 362 MODEKN HISTORY : tector found himself necessitated to communicate to it a re- presentation of a general council of the officers of the army, and shortly afterwards to dissolve it on a promise 74 , that care should be taken of his personal interest. This revulsion of the government, though in the natural order of events, appears to have been much facilitated by the extraordinary imprudence 75 , with which Richard Crom- well had permitted a military council to be held, while the parliament was assembled, thus opposing by his own autho- rity the army to the legislature. Secure however in his un- importance 76 , the protector sunk quietly into private life from an elevation, which he had held about eight months, and lived to the reign of the fourth of the sovereigns, by whom he was succeeded. The expedients even of the fa- ther seem to have been exhausted, and the position, in which he had placed himself, to be no longer tenable by any ability ; but the inoffensive weakness of the son so mitigated the vio- lence of party, that the dangerous descent from power was to him a path of safety. Between the resignation of Richard Cromwell and the restoration of the king elapsed almost a year of doubtful and unsettled government, in which the most important agent was Monk, who at the time of the former of those events commanded the army in Scotland. This general, who appears to have been even then 77 , together with admiral Montague, an object of suspicion to the republican party, was enabled to accomplish this important revolution in the most perfect tranquillity by an impenetrable dissimulation, which to the last moment perplexed his enemies, and even kept his friends in suspense. The army, which usurped the government, unable to find an individual capable of pre- siding over a military administration 78 , was persuaded by the republican party to recall those members of the long parlia- ment, whom itself had expelled in the year 1653. The jea- lousy long subsisting between the two bodies, was however too deeply seated in the difference of their constitutions, to be removed by the recent kindness of the army, and accord- ingly was again apparent, as soon as the restored parliament had begun to feel its power. Monk therefore, by professing 74 Parl. Hist., vol. xxi. p. 355. 7S Ibid., p. 358. 76 Ibid., p. 362. " Ibid., p. 422. 78 Ibid., p. 362. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 363 to be the devoted servant of the parliament, and ever ready to protect it against the efforts of its adversaries, was able to persuade it, jealous as it was of his intentions, to remove to a distance that army, by which it had been restored, and to commit itself wholly to his care. The crafty measures of Monk were completed by the policy 79 , with which he excited against the parliament the discontent of the people of Lon- don, even marching as an enemy into the city, that he might afterwards throw upon the parliament the odium of orders, which himself had suggested. The king would doubtless have been restored without all this artifice, for the greater part of the people of England had become weary of the public agitations, and the interested speculations of ambition had betrayed the selfishness of fanaticism real or affected ; but a falsehood, which no virtuous and honourable mind can approve, became the instrument of a peaceable adjust- ment" , at which every friend of his country must rejoice, though he cannot bestow on the chief agent a higher title than that of the English Themistocles. The Royalists were seasonably hindered from disturbing the operations of Monk by an inconvenient activity in the cause, an insurrection of this party having been suppressed a short time before that general began his march from Scotland 81 . Cromwell, by leaving Monk to complete the reduction of Scotland, and to establish himself in that territory, uncon- sciously prepared the chief agent of the restoration of the king, placing him also in the situation most commodious for observing silently the progress of events. Originally a Roy- alist 82 , though he afterwards engaged in the service of Crom- well, he was an object of expectation to the friends of Charles, and had reason to apprehend the suspicion of his enemies ; and having been engaged in a rivalship with Lambert, whose jealousy was increased by his present authority, he could not hope to preserve his power, if the army in England should prevail. Such a situation would suggest caution to any man ; Monk it inspired with the most extraordinary dissimulation. 79 Parl. Hist. vol. xxii. pp. 107110, 114116, 161. 8 ' It is,' says Mr. Hallam, ' a full explanation of Monk's public conduct, that lie was not secure of the army, chiefly imbued with fanatical principles, and bearing an inveterate hatred towards the name of Charles Stuart.' Constit. Hist., vol. ii. p. 388. B1 Parl. Hist., vol. xii. p. 441. 82 Laing, vol. i. pp. 478, &c. 364 MODERN HISTORY : This dissimulation renders it even now difficult to determine 83 , whether, when he first declared in favour of the parliament, he had already formed the project of effecting the restoration of the king, or whether he had not originally proposed to establish his own power by the assistance of the parliament, and afterwards yielded to the general tendency of the public opinion. Whatever was the real system of his conduct, he contrived by his reserve to hold the nation in suspense until the critical moment, when the re-establishment of the king and the constitution might be accomplished without opposi- tion. Another consequence of this management was 84 , that the king was restored to his throne without condition or li- mitation. But the constitution was not yet sufficiently ma- tured for such stipulations, and to have imposed them at this time could but have embarrassed the subsequent operations of the government, which terminated in a more complete adjustment. The chief agency of Scotland upon the triple government was at this time completed, and the reduction of that coun- try 85 served to suppress in it that spirit of independence, which had performed its part, and would by its continuance have restrained and disturbed the influence of the contrary spirit, which prevailed in England in the succeeding period. The support of Ireland was - to the crown in the succeeding period, what the support of Scotland had been to the par- liament in the preceding, the Romish religion of the greater part of the people of the former connecting itself with the arbitrary views of the sovereign, as the presbyterian religion of the latter had been associated with the projects of the parliament. In preparation for this other period the Roman Catholics of Ireland experienced a severe depression, conse- quent on the part which they had taken in the preceding trou- bles. It may be concluded from the efforts previously made to establish a papal dominion in Ireland independent of the crown 86 , that this experience was necessary for bringing the 83 Laing, vol. i. pp. 481, &c. M ' A motion to consider on what conditions they should receive the king, was overruled by an artful declaration of Monk, that he was no longer responsible for the obedi- ence of the army, or the public tranquillity, if a delay intervened." Ibid., vol. i. p. 484. 85 Ibid., p. 468. BS For preparing fit agents in this plan foreign seminaries were established, in which the candidates for clerical offices were to be educated. The first of these was founded GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 365 Roman Catholics into that connexion with the crown, which gave occasion to the revolution. In England the public commotions created a disposition to moderation and union among the agitating parties of the state. The Presbyterians were taught by their fear of the Independents, to repress their own anxiety for the exclusive establishment of their worship and discipline ; and the In- dependents, on the other hand, were disciplined by the usurpation of Cromwell into a renunciation of their projects of republican government. In the progress however to- wards this conclusion energies were developed, fitted to in- vest the nation with distinction ; and we accordingly find that England, while it was agitated at home by parties ec- clesiastical and political, maintained an ascendency abroad, which rendered it formidable to all the neighbouring coun- tries. The commonwealth, before the usurpation of Cromwell, determined, under the influence of various motives 87 , to en- gage in hostility with the Dutch republic, and with this view framed the celebrated act of navigation 88 , which has multi- at Douay in the year 1568 ; another at Rome in the year 1578 ; similar institutions were formed at Lisbon and Valladolid ; and about the year 1598 was erected the college at St. Omer's. Father Peter Walsh has detailed the unqualified doctrine of papal supremacy, which was taught in these seminaries. Dr. Phelan, p. 282. Though James II. was by his conversion freed from the disqualification of heresy, this would not have protected him against the extravagant pretensions of the Romish clergy of Ireland, if the party had not been enfeebled by the consequences of the restoration. 87 Many members of the par- liament thought, that a foreign war would serve as a pretence for con- tinuing the same parliament : others hoped that it would furnish a reason for maintaining a numerous army ; some on the other hand ex- pected that the great expense of naval armaments would prove a motive for diminishing the military establishment : to divert the attention of the public from domestic quarrels towards foreign transactions seemed also to be good policy : and lastly, the superior power of the English commonwealth, together with its advantages of situation, promised success against the Dutch, and encouraged the parliamentary leaders to hope, that the war might throw a lustre on their establishment, which was new and unpopular. Hume, vol. vii. p. 224. B8 This act, passed in the year 1651, was in the year 1667 considerably modi- fied in favour of the Dutch, who were then permitted to carry to Eng- land as their own produce, all the productions and manufactures of Germany and the Netherlands. By a law enacted in the year 1822 so ooo MODERN HISTORY: plied the commercial marine of England, and consequently has been the principle of its maritime greatness. A naval war accordingly raged during two years between the two republics, in which after the most violent efforts of both nations the superiority was conceded to the English 89 . When the Dutch contest had been honourably concluded by Crom- well, then protector, he looked round for another enemy, and resolved to encounter the force of the Spanish monarchy. For this he has been arraigned as acting contrary to the true interest of his country 90 , in not supporting Spain against the dangerous ambition of France, and contrary to his per- sonal interest, in not maintaining an exact neutrality, and avoiding to provoke foreign enemies. In reply to the former accusation it may be urged, that France had not then be- come the formidable government of Europe, but was the balancing power to the more formidable house of Austria ; in reply to the latter, that the protector seems to have justly felt that some foreign enterprise was necessary to the stabi- lity of his dignity. The war against Spain was commenced with the acquisition of Jamaica, the great strength of the British dominion in the West-Indies. His other acquisition, Dunkirk, had no other influence, than as it brought dis- credit on the commencement of the reign of Charles II., who sold it to France. We have been informed by Burnet 91 , that the protector had proposed to himself, if he should succeed in assuming the royal dignity, to undertake a systematic protection of Protestants in all parts of the world. With this design he many relaxations have been introduced in favour of the extension of commerce, that the principle of the original law has been almost aban- doned, though in the preamble it is acknowledged, that on that prin- ciple ' the strength and safety of the kingdom do greatly depend.' 89 Cromwell, in his war with Spain, exercised against the Dutch that right of search for the goods of an enemy, which was contested in the late war, and this even in the case of a ship of war. Burnet, vol. i. p. 41. And also for English subjects on board the ships of strangers. Life of James II., collected from his own Memoirs, vol. i. p. 290. Lond., 1816. 9 Hume, vol. vii. p. 268. 91 He resolved to set up a council for the protestant religion in opposition to the congrega- tion de propaganda fide at Rome, to consist of seven councillors and four secretaries, the world being distributed into four provinces. Chel- sea, which had been erected as a college of controversy, was to be given to them. Life of James II. vol. i. pp. 44, 45. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 367 appears to have cultivated the alliance of the king of Sweden 92 , and to have interposed with the king of France his powerful mediation in behalf of the Protestants of France and Piedmont. The project would however have embar- rassed the political progress of Europe, as it would have introduced an ecclesiastical combination inconsistent with the relations, which policy required. In the great war of Germany, begun from a principle of religion, France had been introduced into a confederacy with the Protestants ; and in a later period the house of Austria was leagued in the grand alliance with Great Britain and the Dutch repub- lic against that kingdom. A political arrangement of Eu- rope was projected by Elizabeth of England and Henry IV. of France, as a religious one was proposed by Crom- well. We can now perceive in the unfitness of both, how imperfect is our view of the present relations of the system, in which we are agents. A protracted struggle in opposition to the government naturally produced writers, who advocated popular princi- ples. We accordingly have the works of Algernon Sidney 93 and Harrington 94 , with some prose compositions of Milton 95 . Hobbes however, who was on the other hand excited by it to defend the cause of monarchy against the people, is the only author of a new theory of society. Assuming, as his first principle, that the natural state of man is a state of war, in which all are equal 96 , he inferred that power alone 93 Villemain, tome ii. pp. 241 244. 9S This writer left a large treatise, which was published in the year 1698, under the title of Dis- courses on Government. It was, like that of Locke, written in answer to the Patriarchs of Sir Robert Filmer, who had derived an arbitrary power to all kings from the patriarchal authority. 9l Of this writer we have several treatises, the most remarkable of which is the Commonwealth of Oceana, dedicated to Oliver Cromwell, when pro- tector. He claimed as his own the discovery of the principle, that power follows the changes of property, conceiving that the troubles of his time arose chiefly from such a change, by which, from the time of Henry VII , the balance was inclining to the commons. M In these perhaps the only thing now worthy of notice, except the elegance of the latinity in a controversy with Salmasius, is that in his Areopa- ffitica, a speech for unlicensed printing, he has suggested the expedient of double elections. % Those are equal, says he, who can equally hurt each other; but those who can do the greatest mischief, namely kill, can do equal hurt ; therefore all men are by nature equal. De Cive, cap. i. sect. hi. The fallacy consists in this, that all men are not 3GS MODEBN HISTORY : constituted right, and that to superior power accordingly men were bound to submit. It is remarkable that from the same notion of the equality of a state of nature Locke after- wards inferred the contrary doctrine, which founds all right of government in the popular consent. From this direct opposition of inferences we may be led to question that re- presentation of the state of nature, in which they agreed. The natural state of man is that, in which the powers of his nature are best developed and exercised, not that in which savages or outcasts may be imagined to have casually ex- isted. The origin of natural right should therefore be in- vestigated in the social combinations of men, not in the forlorn condition of those, who have unhappily been thrown off from the cultivated society of their species. We should begin our systems of political philosophy, like Aristotle 97 , with defining man to be a political animal, and proceed to infer from that nature, which fitted him for political society, that he was naturally subject to those obligations of duty, without which such a state of society could not be main- tained. The energy of mind, excited in such a struggle, would however produce effects extending far beyond the subject of contention. To this period of popular commotion must accordingly be referred the improvement of English versi- fication ; and it was also that of the genius, which imagined equally able to do equal hurt. The doctrine of Hobbes is contained in two treatises ; one composed in the Latin language, and entitled Elementa Philosophica de Give, the other in English, and named Leviathan, a commonwealth being considered as a huge animal. It was not popular with the party of the king, for it favoured all existing power, and therefore maintained the cause of its adversaries, the former treatise having been published in the year 1646, and the latter in the year 1651. The system of Hobbes was elaborately answered by Bishop Cumberland, in his treatise intitled De Legibus Naturae Disquisitio Philosophica, published in the year 1671, in which he maintains, that benevolence is naturally obligatory, and the principle of all our duties. Latterly it has been held, that the bishop has not been as successful in his argument, as he had been long considered, being named from it the Newton of morality. Mr. Carwithen, who remarks that Hobbes followed the second Charles into exile, and then, disgusted with the morals, or dissatisfied with the policy of the royalists, returned to England under the protectorate of Cromwell, states that the Leviathan was at first written in favour of absolute monarchy, but was afterwards modelled to suit the views of the republican party. Hist, of the Church of England, vol. iii. p. 4. Loud. 1833. 97 Polit. lib. i. cap. 2. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1642 1660. 369 and executed the most sublime of merely human composi- tions. Denham and Waller, says Prior 98 , improved our ver- sification, and Dryden perfected it. To Waller has been attributed sweetness", and strength to Denham, the author of the admired description of Cooper's Hill ; to Dryden, who however flourished rather in the period succeeding the restoration, has been ascribed not only the merit of having completed the system of improved versification 100 , which these writers had begun, but also that of having been in his prefaces the father of English criticism, and the praise of having produced in his poem 101 on Alexander's Feast, the noblest ode to be found in our, perhaps in any, language. His critical prefaces also are remarkable for the harmony, which they have given to English prose ; but Mr. Hallam has 102 noticed Sir Thomas More's Life of Edward V. written about 1509, as the first example of good English prose com- position. The great poem of Milton, with little assistance from the graces of diction, arrests our admiration by the grandeur of its conceptions. It sustains with dignity a plan, which has not only the noblest of created beings, but the Creator himself, among its characters, which has not only the whole universe for its scene, but also whatever can be imagined beyond its limits, and has for its subject the greatest interest of our entire species, extended even through everlasting duration. Milton was more especially the poet of a troubled time, from which the unyielding haughtiness of his character seems to have fitted him to receive all the 98 Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. i. p. 76. Lond. 1792. 99 Ibid., p. 277. 10U Ibid., pp. 386, 396, 416. 1()1 Dr. Johnson has given the preference to his poem on the death of Mrs. Killigrew ; but Sir W. Scott has censured it as " mixed with the leaven of Cowley." Life of Dryden, pp. 415, 416. Edinb. 1834. Sir W. Scott, has concluded his life of Dryden with describing him as a man "destined, if not to give laws to the stage of England, at least, to defend its liberties ; to improve burlesque into satire ; to free trans- lation from the fetters of verbal metaphrase and exclude from it the license of paraphrase ; to teach posterity the powerful and varied poe- tical harmony of which the language was capable ; to give an example of the lyric ode of unapproached excellence ; and to leave to English literature a name second only to those of Milton and of Shakespeare." Mr. Hallam denies to either of the two odes the pre-eminence ascribed to it, but without specifying any other as preferable or comparable. Introd. to the Lilt, of Europe, vol. iv. p. 437. loa Ibid., vol. i. p. 621. VOL. III. B B 370 MODERN HISTORY : excitement, which it could supply. His Comus and his Lycidas were indeed produced before the commencement of the civil war ; but his Allegro and Penseroso were given to the world in the midst of its contentions, in which he was himself deeply and earnestly engaged, and through the whole of its continuance he employed himself in meditating and composing that magnificent poem, for which he most appro- priately supplicated the assistance of the Holy Spirit. He is supposed to have directed his mind more particularly to the composition of the Paradise Lost in the year 1655 103 , when he had terminated his political controversies. With- drawn then from the contentions of the age, and by his blindness shut in from all external objects, he brooded over his own sublime imaginations, and produced a poem, which has incorporated with the elegant literature of his country the purest sentiments of religion. Science also claims its portion of the general excitement, for it was amidst that fermentation of talent, which was generated by the agitations of this interesting period, that those earlier meetings of the friends of philosophy were held 104 , which were afterwards rendered permanent by a chartered incorporation. For 105 a somewhat earlier period Scotland, though remote from the scene of contention, boasts her Napier, the inventor of the logarithmic computation, which abridges and facilitates the calculations of the astro- nomer. Ireland, yet 106 unable to urge any pretension for scientific distinction, claims credit however for her Usher, as one of the greatest scholars of his age, and the first or- nament of her recently established university. 103 Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. i. p. 127. 104 The meet- ings, from which the Royal Society originated, commenced about- the year 1645, a number of persons having then begun to assemble for the consideration of all subjects connected with experimental enquiries, questions of theology and policy being expressly precluded. Harris's Life of Charles II., vol. i. p. 7. Lond., 1766. Mr. D'Israeli has traced the plan of such an association to the ideal institution described by Bacon in his philosophical romance, entitled Novus Atlas. Curio- sities of Literature, 2nd series, vol. i. p. 64. Lond. 1823. 105 He died in the year 1617. 106 Boyle, one of the founders of the Royal Society, was born in Ireland, but at the age of eight years was removed to England. CHAPTER XVII. Of the history of Great Britain and Ireland, from the restoration in the uear 1660 to the accession of James II. in the year 1685. Charles II. restored and feudal tenures abolished, in the year 1660 The corporation-act, 1661 The act of uniformity, and in Ireland the act of settlement, 1662 The act of explanation in Ireland, 1665 The test-act, 1673 The prince of Orange married to the princess Mary, 1677 The Roman Catholics excluded from the parliament, 1678 The parties of Whigs and Tories formed, 1680 The Rye- house plot, 1683. So general and earnest was the disposition to restore the royal government after the extravagancies of the common- wealth, that the restored prince * expressed a doubt, whether it was not his own fault, that he had been so long absent. In this state of the public mind it was not difficult for Monk to resist a proposal made by Hale 2 , afterwards the celebrated chief-justice, of reviewing the negotiations, which had been carried on with the late king, and of preparing from them such conditions, as it might at this time be proper to pro- pose. To the rejection of this proposal bishop Burnet has attributed all the errors of the restored prince ; and another writer 3 has remarked that, if due limitations of the preroga- tive had been then established, the revolution perhaps might not have occurred. But, if the proposal of Hale had been adopted, what could it have availed, when the public feeling was not yet prepared for maintaining the restrictions, which it would have imposed ? The due regulation of the great parties of the state was an indispensable preparation for the due adjustment of the constitution of the government ; and to effect this it was necessary that the nation should have experienced the mischief of arbitrary power, as it had already experienced that of republican innovation. The convention-parliament 4 , which placed Charles II. on 1 Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 772. z Burnet, vol. i. p. 50. 3 Harris's Life of Charles II., vol. i. p. 347. 4 This parliament was assembled by writs, which had been issued by the long parliament, when Monk had procured a majority by restoring the excluded mem- bers. The writs had been issued professedly for constituting a govern - B B 2 S72 MODERN HISTORY : the throne, had been too much concerned in the contest with his father, to give way to an undistinguishing censure of all, by whom he had been opposed. Hence it happened, and it is a memorable circumstance 5 ,that the right of resistance was maintained by the very body, by which royalty was re-estab- lished, a severe reprehension being ordered to be addressed to a member, who had asserted, that he who drew his sword first against the king, committed as great an offence, as he who cut off the king's head 6 , and even payment being or- dered of the arrears, due to those who had commanded the parliamentary armies. The same parliament introduced an important improvement of the constitution, for which how- ever preparation had been made by the struggles of the pre- ceding period 7 . During the interruption of the royal go- vernment the feudal claims of wardship had necessarily been suspended 8 , and the possessors of land had thus become liable to intolerable forfeitures. These claims were accord- ingly abolished by the entire abrogation of the feudal tenures, from which they had resulted, a change begun in the year 1159 by Henry II. with the introduction of scutages, and thus at the expiration of five centuries completed by the con- vention-parliament. The excise at the same time, a revenue 5 first established by the long parliament to maintain the civil war, was settled on the crown 10 , the one half in perpetuity as an equivalent for the emolument of wardships, the other during the life of the king. When this parliament, composed chiefly of Presbyterians 11 , had been dissolved, the prevailing sentiment of loyalty in- fluenced the elections, and a parliament was formed, of which it was the characteristic. In a crisis so dangerous to the freedom of the government it most fortunately happened, ment without any chief, or house of lords, Monk being at the same time appointed captain-general.- Parl. Hist., vol. xxii. pp. 140 147. 5 Ibid., p. 287. 6 Harris, vol. i. p. 365. 7 In the year 1656 a bill had been ordered to be brought into the parliament for taking away the court of wards and liveries, and tenures by knight- service. Parl. Hist., vol. xxi. p. 38. The change was indeed a direct result of the temporary republicanism of the government. 8 Harris, vol. i. p. 397. 9 Supposed to have been adopted in mutation of the Dutch. Sinclair's Hist, of the Revenue, vol. i. p. 46. 10 Harris, vol. i. p. 404. u Somerville's Hist, of Polit. Trans, nad of Parties, from the Restoration to the Death of King William, pp. 2, 3. Dublin, 1793. GHEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 16601685. 373 that the earl of Clarendon possessed the confidence, and di- rected the counsels of the king. The moderation of that nobleman accordingly controlled the inconsiderate affection of the parliament 13 , while his wisdom recommended the adoption of salutary laws, which had been introduced in the time of the republic. A regulation borrowed from the prac- tice of that period, by which the power of taxing the clergy was transferred from the 13 convocation to the parliament, the parochial clergy being at the same time permitted to vote at elections of members of the house of commons, was an important improvement, as it simplified the machinery of the government. The same distinguished minister, who was strongly at- tached to the established church, probably exercised his in- fluence in promoting other arrangements 14 , which very di- rectly prepared the great crisis of the succeeding reign. The king, aware that he was to be restored by a junction of the Presbyterians with the Royalists, and desirous of extending some favour to the Roman Catholics, had in a declaration issued at Breda promised indulgence for differences in reli- gious opinion. In the first parliament however, which he assembled, he discovered a disposition to a contrary policy, with which he found it expedient to concur. The disasters of the preceding period had impressed the Royalists very generally with a persuasion, that the interests of monarchy and episcopacy, which had then fallen together, were insep- arably united : a suspicion of the inclination of the king to employ the proposed indulgence of protestant dissenters as an occasion favourable to the religion of Rome, to which he was known to be partial, inflamed their opposition : and the intemperate triumph of their own re-establishment, after a 12 Burnet, vol. i. p. 91. 13 Sinclair's Hist, of the Revenue, vol. i. pp. 318, 319. The convocation was first summoned in the time of Edward I., for raising contributions from the inferior clergy, who had been exempted from the time, when William the Conqueror sub- jected the bishops and religious houses to knights' service. At the time of the reformation the subsidies of the convocation had begun to be con- firmed by the parliament, that they might be enforced by temporal penalties ; and at the same time it began to be convened for a twofold purpose, and by a twofold authority, by the crown for ecclesiastical business, and by the bishops for subsidies, agreeably to clauses in their respective writs. Carwithen, vol. iii. pp. 107 109. u Somer- ville, p. 4. 374 MODEEN HISTORY: long period of depression and distress, disposed them to dis- regard, notwithstanding their recent service, the pretensions of those, to whom they ascribed all their own past calamities. Two acts were accordingly passed, by which protestant dis- senters were excluded from all civil corporations and eccle- siastical offices. By the corporation-act, passed in the year 1661, they were deprived of all opportunity of acquiring municipal privileges ; and by a new and additional act of uniformity 15 , presbyterian ministers were in the following year cut off from all connexion with the established church. Two 16 thousand are said to have found themselves compelled to abandon benefices, of which they were possessed. It de- serves to be remarked, as characteristic of this first parlia- ment of Charles II. 17 , that in the act of uniformity was in- serted an oath of non-resistance, which has however been since repealed. In this manner was conducted the first period of the go- vernment of Charles II., which was concluded by the dis- grace of Clarendon about seven years after the restoration. The king, having been urged by his people into a war with the Dutch 18 , required of his parliament other supplies, be- 15 The act of Charles required a declaration of unfeigned assent and consent to every thing contained in the book of common prayer, which had just before undergone a final revision. This act, it is observed by Carwithen, vol. iii. p. 82, emanated, not from the king, nor from the bishops, nor from the nobility, but from the house of commons. 16 " The most eminent of the presbyterians in the records of science and literature, ultimately were induced to embrace the communion of the church." Carwithen, vol. iii. p. 80. Wilkins, Ward, Cudworth, Lightfoot, Wallis, and Conant, have been particularised by this author. 17 Harris's Life of Charles II., vol. ii. p. 94. 18 'The nation in general approved of this war, from a jealousy of the Dutch en- croaching upon our trade, and the resentment of injuries supposed to have been committed by them against the English East-India-Company. The selfish views of individuals had a considerable influence in pro- moting the first war with Holland. The duke of York, fond of military employment, viewed the injuries committed by the Dutch in aggravated colours, and incensed his brother against them. Life of Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 14. The duke of Albemarle was piqued with the Dutch on ac- count of personal affronts, which he had received while he served in their army, and flattered the court with an unbounded prospect of suc- cess by disparaging their military and naval force. Life of James. The French invidiously fomented the quarrel, expecting that it would furnish them with a pretence for encroaching upon Flanders, by inter- fering in the war, either upon the side of Holland or England, as con- GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 375 yond a very liberal grant already voted for that purpose ; the unexpected demand created in that body an opposition, sufficiently powerful to cause commissioners to be appointed for revising the public accounts ; and the rivals and enemies of Clarendon easily found occasions and pretences for per- suading the king, that by removing the minister he might free himself from embarrassment, and re-establish his autho- rity. The administration thus terminated had exercised im- portant influences on the government. The moderation and wisdom of Clarendon had reduced the state to order from the violent agitations of the preceding period ; and the laws which he seems to have procured, for separating the episco- palian Protestants from the Presbyterians, had a direct ope- ration in preparing the movements of the revolution. By repelling the Presbyterians from the interest, which they had acquired in the ecclesiastical establishment and the corporations, they were formed into a party resolute to resist the arbitrary pretensions of the crown, though disciplined into moderation by their experience of the futility of their past enterprises against the constitution. By giving to the episcopalian Protestants on the other hand the exclusive possession of those advantages, they were disposed to in- dulge that extravagant loyalty, by the results of which they were afterwards practically instructed to seek in a temperate accommodation of opposite systems the reconciliation of order and freedom. If there had been no distinct party of Presbyterians, there would not have been a power in the people ready to vindicate the constitution. If the Episco- palians had not been disengaged from the Presbyterians, there would not have been a sufficient experience of the mischief of an excessive attachment to the interest of the crown. When this had been effected, the fall of Clarendon, freeing the king from the restraint of his presence and advice, left him at liberty to manifest all his desire of arbi- trary power, and his brother to avow his adherence to the church of Rome. For the entire development of the party attached to the tingent events should direct. Secret History of Europe, vol. i. The success of the English at sea in the beginning of the war, and their treaty with the bishop of Minister, determined the French to declare in favour of Holland.' Ibid Somervilie, p. 8, note. 376 MODERN HISTORY : crown, it was necessary that it should be separated from the Presbyterians on the one hand, and on the other, that the government should be detached from the Roman Catholics, whom Charles II. was much inclined to favour 19 . The for- mer operation, begun, as has been shown, by Clarendon, was completed by the test-law, enacted after his disgrace ; the latter was afterwards effected by the alarm of the popish plot. When both had been accomplished, the loyalty of the Episcopalians was freed from all reserve, being moderated neither by an association with the Presbyterians, nor by a jealousy of the Roman Catholics. In the year 1673, six years after the fall of Clarendon, we find in the parliament a steady opposition 20 , excited by a jealousy of the conduct of the court in regard to the Ro- man Catholics. The test-law was accordingly enacted 21 , the Presbyterians giving it their support, though to their own prejudice, that they might exclude the Roman Catho- lics from the confidence of the crown. A bill was indeed afterwards brought in for the relief of the former, but it was defeated by a disagreement of the two houses, and the con- sequent adjournment of the parliament, and the Presbyterians 19 The house of commons in the year 167'2, presented an address to the king, in which they not only complained of the increase of popish recusants, and of the great resort of priests and Jesuits into the kingdom, but also represented that they were disheartened at seeing such popish recusants advanced into employments of great trust and profit, and especially into military commands. Harris's Life of Charles II., vol. ii. p. 82. Both this prince and his brother James II. seem to have been predisposed to the religion of Rome in consequence of that article of the treaty of the marriage of Charles I., by which the queen, Henrietta of France, was to have the direction of the education of the children of the marriage, until they should attain the age of thirteen years. Car- withen, vol. ii. p. 267. 20 In Ireland, where the protestant interest was weak, the test was imposed late, and early removed ; the former in the year 1703, the latter in the year 1780. In England, the test-act was repealed in the year 1828. 21 The test-law required, as a qualifi- cation for all civil offices of trust that the sacrament of the eucharist should be received according to the form of the church of England, and that the doctrine of tran substantiation should be renounced. The duke of York, who had become a Roman Catholic in the year 1669, and had openly renounced the protestant religion in the year 1672, pro- cured a provision to be inserted in the act, excepting himself from its operation. Life of James II., from the original MSS. in Carleton House, vol. i. pp. 440, 630. Burnet, vol. i. pp. 245, 246. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 377 remained subject to that disqualification, which they had as- sisted to impose upon the Roman Catholics. When the jealousy of the Roman Catholics had served to complete the separation of the Presbyterians by giving birth to the test-law, they were themselves yet more effectually ex- cluded from participation in the government by the pretended discovery of the popish plot. A charge of a plot to assassi- nate the king, massacre the Protestants, and place on the throne the duke of York, in subordination tq the pope 22 , brought forward in the year 1678, found in the fears of the people an abundant compensation for that real deficiency of evidence, which has caused it to be rejected by historians as a gross imposture. The king was forced to yield to the vio- lence of the public opinion, and consent to the formal ex- clusion of Roman Catholics from both houses of the parlia- ment of England. From this time accordingly a free oppor- tunity was afforded to the episcopalian Protestants, to discover experimentally the mischievous tendency of that disposition, by which they were impelled to magnify the authority of the crown. The king in the mean time employed every expedient for overthrowing at once the constitution and the religion of his country. That he might extricate himself from the con- trol of his parliament, he had jn the year 1668 entered into an ignominious negotiation, by which two years afterwards he became a pensioner of the French court 23 , and then com- posed a confidential administration of five persons **, which received the apt denomination of the cabal, a word formed of the initials of their respective designations. The resources of the king however proved insufficient for defraying the expenses of the government, when he had twice committed an act of bankruptcy by shutting his exchequer 25 , and had 22 Another plot, called the meal-tub-plot, from the place where some papers belonging to it were found, was brought forward in the following year, but has been rejected by all historians. It was pretended that this was a plot of the Presbyterians. M The stipulated pension was two hundred thousand pounds. The king of France was also to assist the king of England with troops, if his subjects should rebel. Somerville, p. 18, note. M Sir Thomas Clifford, the earl of Arlington, the duke of Buckingham, Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury, and the earl of Lauder- dale. 25 The exchequer was shut up from the eighth of January, 1672, to the thirty-first of December in the same year, and again from the latter day to the sixth of May, 1673. Somerville, p. 23, note. Hume has cai- 378 . MODEKN HISTOKY : attempted to capture a rich fleet of the Dutch before any declaration of hostilities. He was accordingly in the year 1673 compelled to assemble his parliament, though in the long interval of its sessions he had offended the people by various acts of arbitrary power, particularly by publishing a declaration for liberty of conscience, and had excited the jealousy of the house of commons by causing the chancellor of the exchequer to issue writs by his own authority, for supplying the vacancies in that body. An opposition ap- peared as soon as the parliament had assembled, and a leader singularly qualified for animating and directing its efforts, speedily placed himself at its head. The earl of Shaftesbury, endowed with all the qualities which could enable him to lead a party, was restrained by no principle from availing himself of every expedient for attaining his object 26 . Originally a royalist, he in the civil war attached himself to the parliament ; he was after the restoration selected to be a member of that odious adminis- tration, which was named the cabal ; and three years after- wards, when he had suggested to the king almost all the most violent measures of his government 27 , he became the champion of the adverse party, probably alarmed by some indications of unsteadiness in the monarch 28 , who had begun culated the advantage gained by this transaction only at 1,200,000 ; but it appears from the interest paid for the money thus withheld, that the principal must have been 1,328,526. The interest was paid until about a year before the death of the king. It was then suspended dur- ing twenty-five years, after which time the half of the original debt was charged upon the hereditary revenue, so that the total loss sustained must have been about 2,800,000. Sinclair's Hist, of the Revenue, vol. i. pp. 314, 315, 397399. 26 Shaftesbury, said the king to him, when he filled the office of chancellor, you are the greatest rogue iu the kingdom. I am of any subject, replied the chancellor. Somer- ville, p. 33. Mr. Fox, who seems to have regretted that he could not represent him as a true patriot, and contends that he was very far from .being the devil he is described, acknowledges that he was very destitute of public virtue, and espoused with indifference monarchical, arbitrary, or republican principles, as best suited his ambition. Hist, of James II., postscript to his preface. Lond., 1808. 27 He has been by later writers acquitted of shutting the exchequer, which appears to have been proposed by lord Clifford. 28 It is probable that his alarm was occasioned chiefly by the unsteadiness of the king in regard to the writs. It is asserted that, when the new writs were issued by the speaker, he refused for some days to seal them, declaring it to be an GEEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 379 to shrink from the enforcement of his counsels. His ardour long supplied the place of principle in maintaining his credit, his followers forgetting his past versatility in his present vehemence. In the prudent and moderate conduct of the opposition in the new parliament the influence of the political experience of the nation is plainly discoverable. The commons com- plied with the desire of the king in the choice of a speaker ; they unanimously voted a liberal supply for the relief of his necessities ; and they addressed him in the language of the most loyal and affectionate attachment. They were not however backward in resisting the arbitrary measures of the king. They excluded the members returned upon the writs irregularly issued by the chancellor of the exchequer, and remonstrated boldly against the declaration of indulgence, which the king had professed himself determined to main- tain. This firm moderation disconcerted the cabal. Shaftes- bury, its most able member, attached himself to the rising party, and commenced a systematic opposition to the minis- try, which was indeed overpowered at the end of ten years, but was soon afterwards renewed with recovered energy, to bear a part in the public deliverance. In the course of the opposition, thus maintained against the crown, a lasting and most valuable improvement was introduced 29 , by the enactment of the law known by the name of the act of habeas corpus. The long parliament had abolished the courts, which exercised a formally arbitrary jurisdiction ; the present restrained the constitutional tri- bunals from the arbitrary exercise of their acknowledged powers. A modification of this restriction was however re- quired, because the exercise of an arbitrary power of im- prisonment must occasionally become necessary to the public safety. This further improvement was afterwards introduced by William 30 , by obtaining from the parliament a temporary suspension of its operation. intrenchment upon prerogative ; and when he was obliged to do it by his majesty's positive command, he -went home, and turned his back upon the sealers. Somer's Tracts, vol. vii. p. 370. Lend., 1750. 29 This act however was not scrupulously observed, until the revolu- tion had given its sanction to the rights and liberties of the people. Life of Lord W. Russell, by Lord John Russell, vol. i. p. 164. Lond., 1 820. 30 Somerville, p. 343. 380 MODERN HISTORY : The commentator of the laws of England 31 has indeed remarked, that we may distinguish the year 1679, as the precise time in which the constitution attained its theoreti- cal perfection, though those which immediately succeeded, were times of great practical oppression. The abolition of the feudal tenures, which freed the estates of subjects from the incumbrances of the ancient vassalage, and the act of habeas corpus, which ensured protection to their persons, he considered as together constituting a second charter, as be- neficial, and as effectual, as that obtained at Runnemede ; and the year 1679 he selected, because the latter of these regulations had then been adopted, and the act for licensing the press 32 had expired. Mr. Fox 33 has from this state of the government, perfect in theory and in practice oppressive, drawn the conclusion which would naturally present itself to a man, who has passed his life in struggling for power, that men are more important than measures. A juster in- ference may be made in remarking, that mere laws, however perfect, are not sufficient for constituting a good govern- ment, but that it is also necessary that the sentiments and 31 To the advantages mentioned in the text, the writer says he may add ' the abolition of the prerogatives of purveyance and pre-emption; the statute for holding triennial parliaments ; the test and corporation acts, which secure both our civil and religious liberties ; the abolition of the writ de hceretico comburendo ; the statute of frauds and perjuries, a great and necessary security to private property ; the statute for dis- tribution of intestates' estates ; and that of amendments and jeofails, which cut off those superfluous niceties, which so long had disgraced our courts ; together with many other wholesome acts that were passed in this reign, for the benefit of navigation and the improvement of foreign commerce.' And from the whole he concludes, that the people had at this time from the laws sufficient power for asserting their liberties, if invaded by the royal prerogative ; as was proved at the revolution. Blackstone's Comm., book iv. ch. xxxiii. To this it may be added that, in the same period, lord Nottingham (Finch) began, as lord chancellor, the systematic formation of that law of equity, which the altering necessities of the people had begun to demand. Lives of the Lord Chancellors, by Lord Campbell, vol. iii. pp. 424, 425. 3 * The act had passed in the year 1662, having been copied, with some few alterations, from the parliamentary ordinances, which had been them- selves taken from the practice of the suppressed court of star-chamber. It was revived in the first year of James II., and continued till 1692. It was then continued for two years more ; but from ] 694 the press has been free. Ibid., ch. xi. note. 33 Hist, of James II., p. 22. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 381 habits of the people and the combinations of parties should be accommodated to them. It seems however to have been a peculiar felicity of the English government, that the im- provement of the laws preceded the adjustment of parties, so that, when the latter was afterwards effected, the im- proved system of the laws was ready for immediate ope- ration. From the struggle at this time maintained arose in the year 1680 the first formal division of the two parties 34 , dis- tinguished by the appellations of Whigs and Tories, the former taken from the Presbyterians of Scotland, the latter from the Roman Catholic banditti of Ireland 33 . These de- signations, given at first in derision, but afterwards adopted as proper appellations, indicate the quarters, from which the two parties disposed to control, or to magnify the power of the sovereign, had originally received, or expected support. Though time and experience moderated the principles of both parties, they continued to subsist in vigour more than a century, until the revolution of France, by developing principles of a more violent character, gave a shock to the Whigs of England, from which they recovered slowly and with difficulty. The reaction of popular excitement has however in the present day brought forward the party in all its former energy. The opposition, which at this time resisted the measures of the crown, gave occasion to a systematic corruption, which was practised on the part of the crown without shame or reserve 36 . The intrigues of France on the other hand cor- rupted the opposition, and converted into a faction, which we are compelled to censure, that which jnight else have been honoured in the annals of our government as a band of patriots. The king, in the expectation of recovering the declining affections of his subjects, had been induced to consent that his niece, the daughter of the duke of York, should be married to his nephew the prince of Orange. 34 Hume, vol. viii. p. 132. 35 The name was originally ap- plied to the remains or descendants of the plunderers of the Irish war, who had concealed themselves in the bogs or mountains of Ireland. Leland, vol. iii. p. 475. 36 Somerville, pp. 39 72. Lord Danby is said to have increased the sum allowed for corrupting mem- bers of parliament from 12,0007. to 20,0001. Life of Lord W. Russell, Tol. i. p. 152. 382 MODERN HISTORY : This alliance co-operated with a general apprehension of the irresolution of the English monarch, to determine the king of France to seek, in a secret intrigue with the opposition 37 , some security against the danger, that he might be persuaded to yield to the prevailing sentiment of the nation, which was favourable to the Dutch. The opposition on the other hand was placed in a situation peculiarly embarrassing, which disposed it to listen to the overtures of a foreign prince. Deprived of all confidence in their sovereign, the persons opposed to his government were afraid to intrust him with the army, which would be necessary for hostility against France ; and aware of his disgraceful and mischievous connexion with that country, they were themselves induced to enter into a connexion with the same government, by which his machinations against their religion and liberty might most effectually be counteracted and defeated. This double intrigue rendered the measures both of the court and of the opposition more violent 38 , and accelerated the crisis of the constitution. The king, in his reliance on the pecuniary aid of France, was encouraged to disregard the resistance of the parliament ; and the opposition, in- volved in a similar engagement, was at length hurried to that extremity, which turned the affections of the nation, and for a time established the despotism of the crown. It is a curious circumstance, that the leaders of the oppo- sition were ruined, and their party discredited, in conse- quence of a vague connexion with another party 39 , which, 37 Barillon the French ambassador, in his report of the sums ex- pended in this intrigue, has mentioned Sidney and Hampden as having received money from his sovereign. But it has been justly remarked that the agent was an interested witness, and that neither the cha- racter of Sidney, nor the property of Hampden, is consistent with such a statement. Life of Lord William Russell, en. x. 38 Somerville, p 135. 30 'If my opinion,' says lord John Russell, ' is well founded, there existed indeed both in the higher and lower orders, a great number of discontented persons : this discontent pro- duced consultations on the state of the nation, and the practicability of resistance amongst the leaders, and wild talk about taking off the king and duke amongst indigent and unprincipled men. But there never was a formed plan, either for assassinating the king, or raising the country, except in the heads of Rumsey and West, and lord Howard and lord Grey.' Life of Lord W. Russell, vol. ii. p. 148. Lord Rus- sell has admitted that, at the desire of the duke of Monmouth, he went GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 383 without the concurrence or even privity of the former, con- certed a scheme for assassinating the king and his brother. The discovery of this conspiracy, which from the intended scene of execution has been named the Rye-house plot, in- volved in the same common accusation and destruction both those who were really concerned, and those others also, who had been driven to consider generally, whether a forcible re- sistance ought not to be opposed to the tyranny of the go- vernment, but had never harboured the thought of assassi- nation, and had even declined, as bloody and unwarrantable, the expedient of surprising the guards of the king. Among the latter fell the virtuous lord Russell, whose general esti- mation was such, that his name would in the opinion of the public have justified an open resistance, and whose apparent connexion with a band of assassins disparaged and disgraced for that very reason the party in opposition, beyond what could have been effected by the plainest conviction of any other individual. Even the consultation however about a plan of resistance, though abundantly provoked by the abuses of a government, which had become subservient to a foreign state for the purpose of executing a plan of domestic des- potism, was yet destitute of the indispensable justification, which can alone be afforded by the general concurrence of the people. The necessity of resistance had not yet been generally felt by the community : an insurrection therefore must then have been an unavailing struggle against the ex- isting authorities ; and the project served only to hasten, by the ruin of the opposition, the arrival of a crisis, which spread through the whole nation one common conviction of the duty of effecting a revolution. From the dissolution of the last parliament of this reign, which occurred nearly four years before the death of Charles 40 , the influence of the party in opposition had begun to de- cline. The more sober part of the nation began from that time to repent of the cruelties, into which it had been hur- ried by the clamour of the popish plot ; the unexpected firmness of the king, in resisting the strenuous exertions to a meeting for the purpose of hindering violent resolutions, and that at this meeting there were things said by some, with much more heat than judgment, which he did sufficiently disapprove. Ibid., p. 118. 10 bomerville, p. lofi. 384 MODERN HISTORY : employed for excluding his brother from the succession, disconcerted the timorous ; and the apparent fairness, with which he professed a disposition to yield every other conces- sion for the security of the established religion, conciliated the moderate party. It was accordingly then that Charles began to execute that audacious system of measures, by which the liberties of the people were destroyed, and the very principles of constitutional independence were proscribed. As the independent interest was powerful in the city of London 41 , and a great proportion of criminal causes was brought to trial within its precincts, the first effort of the court was employed to acquire the nomination of its sheriffs, for the purpose of forming juries disposed to concur with the wishes of the crown. The effort was successful, and was followed by the most vindictive exercise of the power thus obtained, particularly in enforcing with rigour the laws enacted against the protestant dissenters. For enabling the king however to support a system of arbitrary power 42 , an expedient was necessary, which should corrupt the consti- tution of parliaments, and render them wholly subservient, the bounty of France being not only precarious, but also inadequate to the expenses of the court 43 , and the people of England being too much attached to parliaments, to endure their total suppression. For this purpose the charters of corporations, in the first instance that of the metropolis, were assailed by writs of quo warranto ; and some were wrested from them by judicial decisions, some were extorted by compulsory resignations. It was at this critical period that the leaders of the late opposition were ruined by the detection of the plot for as- sassinating the king, with which they had no real connexion. 41 Somerville, p. 163. 42 Ibid., p. 166. ' We are however much indebted to the memory of Barbara duchess of Cleveland, Louisa duchess of Portsmouth, and Mrs Eleanor Gwyn. We owe a tribute of gratitude to the Mays, the Killigrews, the Chifflnches, and the Grammonts. They played a serviceable part in ridding the kingdom of its besotted loyalty. They saved our forefathers from the slar-chamber, and the high-commission-court; they laboured in their vocation against standing armies and corruption ; they pressed for- ward the great ultimate security of English freedom, the expulsion of the house of Stuart.' Hallam's Constit. Hist. vol. ii. p. 479. The expenses occasioned by these persons had also a beneficial influence, as they created the necessities of the king. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 385 This event discomfited all the efforts of the party. The spirit of the nation, now deprived of leaders, was broken and subdued, and the party of the court became triumphant over the prostrate liberties of the people. Nor was the triumph of the court confined to the merely practical supe- riority, which it had obtained over all its adversaries, but was blazoned in the formal promulgation of the doctrine of passive obedience 44 . On the very day of the execution of lord Russell, the university of Oxford published its famous decree 45 , which, comprising in twenty-seven propositions every principle urged in any case to justify resistance, con- demned all as false, seditious, and impious, and most of them as heretical and blasphemous, infamous to the Chris- tian religion, and destructive of all government in church and state. Hume has attributed to this monarch the merit of pro- posing to reform his government, just when he had accom- plished his favourite scheme of unlimited power 46 . The rumour of such an intention, he says, is confirmed by king James's memoirs. But in the original narrative of the life of that king, recently published, the situation of Charles is described as at that time affording him unmixed satisfac- tion 47 , his enemies having been reduced to the most entire submission, and his brother cordially and indefatigably as- sisting him in the public business. Welwood has mentioned a transient expression of impatience, uttered by Charles a few days before the commencement of his last illness 48 , which was accompanied by a declaration that, if he should live but a month longer, he would find a way to make him- self easy for the rest of his life. Though we should suppose 44 In the beginning of this reign the royalists had inserted in three several acts of parliament an oath of non-resistance, by which they proposed to guard against the principles of non-conformists. As how- ever the character of the king became more developed, the royalists felt themselves less secure of his adherence to the religion and con- stitution of the state, and became less disposed to magnify his au- thority. Accordingly in the year 1675, when it was proposed to ren- der the oath almost universal, the measure was carried in the house of lords by a majority of only two voices ; its further progress was ar- rested by a dispute which occurred between the two houses. 45 Ra- pin, vol. ii. pp. 730, 731. This was in the year 1683. 46 Hist. of England, vol. viii. p. 220. 47 Life of James II., vol. i. p. 746. 48 Memoirs, p. 95. VOL. III. C C 386 MODERN HISTOEY: that this declaration implied an intention of an entire change of measures, we may notwithstanding deem it advantageous and seasonable that the king was then withdrawn, and that his bro- ther, a prince as arbitrary, and more bigoted, succeeded with- out any interval of reformation. The voluntary change of the counsels of Charles, which perhaps would have consisted in withdrawing his favour from the Roman Catholics 49 , and restoring it to the established church, could but have tended to obstruct the mutual adjustment of the several parties of the state. If James had afterwards succeeded, it could have produced no permanent effect ; if he had been set aside for the duke of Monmouth, there might have been no revolution, with its beneficial influences. The history of Scotland from the restoration to the union is scarcely at all connected with the affairs of England 50 . It was indeed soon perceived, that the force of the former country might be rendered instrumental in establishing arbi- trary power in the latter, and with this design an act was procured from its enslaved parliament, for embodying a militia of twenty-two thousand men 51 , and empowering the privy council to send them whithersoever the honour or safety of the king might require. It was natural that, as they had been baffled by the Independents in their original plan of establishing their covenant in the neighbouring country, they should become the zealous supporters of that royalty, by which their more successful rivals had been in their turn depressed. The Scotish parliament accord- ingly 52 , which was convened soon after the restoration, pro- ceeded at once to establish in their utmost extent the pre- rogatives of the crown ; and, as the acts of two former parliaments were inconsistent with the design of altering the ecclesiastical part of the constitution, and the particular repeal of their acts might cause an inconvenient alarm, a rescissory law was enacted for repealing the parliaments themselves, as injurious to the prerogative, or irregular in form. But, fortunately for the development of the English 49 Welwood has mentioned a rumour of an intention of recalling his illegitimate son, the duke of Monmouth, and sending away the duke of York, which began to prevail at that time, and some circumstances, which gave it probability. p. 95. 50 Laing, vol. ii, p. 1. Ibid., pp. 55, 64. 53 Ibid., pp. 7, 8. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 387 government, the affections of the Scots were wholly alien- ated by the extraordinary tyranny of their government, so that no disposition could exist among them, to support in the neighbouring country the pretensions of the common sovereign. Charles, though adverse to the presbyterian system of religion, was too little interested in matters of this kind, to be inclined to interfere with the existing arrangements of the church of Scotland. To the influence of Clarendon 53 accordingly has been chiefly attributed the determination to suppress that ecclesiastical establishment, which the king had solemnly accepted at the death of his father. Instead of merely claiming a presidency in the presbyteries 54 , which continued to be assembled, the prelates, whom James had thus moderately introduced, assumed under Charles II. an exclusive authority, the presbyters being reduced to act only as their officials. Three hundred and fifty ministers 55 were, for opposing this alteration of the ecclesiastical system, ejected from their benefices ; the people, dissatisfied with their successors, began to hold conventicles in the fields, that they might attend the worship of their former pastors 56 ; 53 Laing, vol. ii. pp. 4, 18, 19. M Ibid., pp. 21, 22. 55 Ibid., pp. 27, 44. M Of the persecutions in Scotland the most dreadful accounts have been transmitted. In the year 1664 an ambulatory court was constituted on the plan of the Inquisition, and the western counties, which continued refractory, were subjected to the violence of the soldiery at intervals during three years. Ibid., pp. 34, 35. In the year 1676 letters of intercommuning were issued, by which the absent were cut off from all the intercourses of society. Seventeen thousand persons of either sex, and of every rank and de- scription, were harassed in the west for attendance on conventicles, or for absence from church ; and numbers of persons outlawed them- selves, or, terrified at the proscription of others, abandoned their re- sidences, and contracted the savage habits of an unsettled and vagrant life. Ibid., pp. 68, 69. In the year 1685 a sanguinary period began, from which ' historians have averted their eyes with horror :' nor has any certain computation been preserved of the number of the sufferers. The massacres too, which were begun in this reign, became more violent in that which succeeded ; and an expression ascribed to James was repeated with horror, that it never would be well with Scotland, until the country south of the Forth were reduced to a hunting-field. Laing, vol. ii. pp. 136 1-38. Hume has stated, that in the year 1682 more than two thousand persons were outlawed, on pretence of having had intercourse with rebels. Hist., vol. viii. p. 183. o c 2 390 MODERN HISTORY : might supply the deficiency to the rest. Three years after- wards the measure was completed by an act of explanation, which was soon found to be necessary for amending and perfecting that of settlement. In this manner was effected a revolution of property, by which the ascendency of the Protestants was placed on the solid basis of territorial pos- session, the estates of the English 62 , which before the war were but equal to half of those of the Irish 63 , being at the conclusion of this arrangement more than double those of the other party. To this severe measure the king was driven by the neces- sity of compensating services, which he could not but ac- knowledge. He had however no disposition to depress the Roman Catholics, and even resisted the efforts of the Irish commons to exclude them from their house 64 . But for adopting a system of administration favourable to that party, it was necessary that the duke of Ormond should be removed from the government. This nobleman had fulfilled his ho- nourable duty by carrying into execution the embarrassing arrangements of the acts of settlement and explanation, by recovering the protestant church of Ireland from the presby- terian 65 ministry, established in it by the commonwealth 62 Tracts by Sir W. Petty, p. 31 7. 63 Sir W. Petty computed that Ireland contained of Irish measure 7,500,000 acres of good land ; and that of this quantity the Protestants in the year 1672 possessed 5,140,000 acres, the Irish 2,280,000, and that nearly 80,000 remained in the common stock. Ibid., p. 302. u A bill, which had been transmitted for imposing on their members an oath of qualification, calculated for this purpose, was suppressed in England as unseasonable. A subsequent resolution of the commons, that no members should sit in their house, who had not taken the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, though it artfully involved other persons, obnoxious for having sat in the pretended high courts of justice, was condemned by the justices as an invasion of the prerogative, in requiring qualifications different from those, which the king had expressed in his writ. Leland, vol. iii. p. 421. This parliament, which had been assembled in the year 1662, was prorogued in the following year ; it was reassembled in the year 1665, and dissolved in the year 1666, from which time until the year 1692, no parliament was assembled in Ireland, except that irregularly convened by James II. The dissolution was occasioned by a dispute about ceremonies to be observed in conferences of the two houses. Hist, of the Irish parliament by Lord Mountmorres, vol. ii. pp. 138, 144 148. London, 1792. The interruption appears to have been ad- vantageous, as it withdrew the legislature from the struggle of parties. 64 Leland, vol. iii. p. 411. As the protestant interest in Ireland de- GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 391 when the episcopal clergy had been swept away by the re- bellion of the Roman Catholics, by directing and encouraging the industry of the nation 66 , when the ignorant jealousy of the English had thrown it upon its own resources by pro- hibiting the importation of Irish cattle 67 , and by restoring and protecting the university, which had necessarily expe- rienced a violent shock amidst the public confusion. He was at length disgraced by the influence of the cabal administra- tion, which had previously succeeded in overpowering his friend the earl of Clarendon. Lord Berkeley, who after the transitory government of lord Robarts succeeded to the lieutenancy of Ireland, began the scheme of forming in that country a popish party 68 , to support the plan of arbitrary power, which the king had al- ready conceived. With this view he gave all the countenance of his government to that bigoted portion of the Roman pended on the support of England, it was important that the legal es- tablishment of religion should be preserved in correspondence with it. A secondary establishment was however formed for the presbyterian church by the grant named the regium donum, which was at this time begun. M With this view he established a woollen-manufactory at Clontnel, the capital of his county palatine of Tipperary, and another at Carrick, a town also belonging to him ; and for this purpose Grant, known by his observations on the bills of mortality, was employed to procure five hundred Walloon protestant families to remove from Can- terbury to Ireland. His principal object however was to restore the linen-manufacture, which had been begun by Strafford, but had been ruined by the public disorders. He engaged Sir W. Temple to send to Ireland from Brabant five hundred families, skilled in that manu- facture ; and others were procured from Rochelle, the isle of Rhe, Jersey, and the neighbouring parts of France. Convenient tenements were erected for them at Chapel-Izod near Dublin. Leland, vol. iii. pp. 449, 450. 67 It was found that the rents of England had latterly decreased to the annual amount of 200, 0001. Of this diminution there were many obvious causes. Persecution had banished to Holland and America many industrious Puritans; the trade with Spain had been diminished and interrupted ; an unfavourable balance of the trade with France amounted nearly to a million annually ; the Dutch war had embarrassed commerce ; the plague had lessened the consumption of provisions ; and the gaiety and dissipation of the court had seduced the nobility to London. The annual value of the cattle sent to England was on the other hand far less than the deficiency of rents : and before the troubles of England far greater numbers had been imported without causing any diminution of them. The complaint in this case was en- couraged by some great men, who wished to drive Ormond from the government of Ireland. Ibid., pp. 442 448. 6B Ibid., p. 458. 390 MODERN HISTORY : might supply the deficiency to the rest. Three years after- wards the measure was completed by an act of explanation, which was soon found to he necessary for amending and perfecting that of settlement. In this manner was effected a revolution of property, by which the ascendency of the Protestants was placed on the solid basis of territorial pos- session, the estates of the English 62 , which before the war were but equal to half of those of the Irish 63 , being at the conclusion of this arrangement more than double those of the other party. To this severe measure the king was driven by the neces- sity of compensating services, which he could not but ac- knowledge. He had however no disposition to depress the Roman Catholics, and even resisted the efforts of the Irish commons to exclude them from their house 64 . But for adopting a system of administration favourable to that party, it was necessary that the duke of Ormond should be removed from the government. This nobleman had fulfilled his ho- nourable duty by carrying into execution the embarrassing arrangements of the acts of settlement and explanation, by recovering the protestant church of Ireland from the presby- terian 65 ministry, established in it by the commonwealth 62 Tracts by Sir W. Petty, p. 317. M Sir W. Petty computed that Ireland contained of Irish measure 7,500,000 acres of good land ; and that of this quantity the Protestants in the year 1672 possessed 5,140,000 acres, the Irish 2,280,000, and that nearly 80,000 remained in the common stock. Ibid., p. 302. M A bill, which had been transmitted for imposing on their members an oath of qualification, calculated for this purpose, was suppressed in England as unseasonable. A subsequent resolution of the commons, that no members should sit in their house, who had not taken the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, though it artfully involved other persons, obnoxious for having sat in the pretended high courts of justice, was condemned by the justices as an invasion of the prerogative, in requiring qualifications different from those, which the king had expressed in his writ. Leland, vol. iii. p. 421. This parliament, which had been assembled in the year 1662, was prorogued in the following year ; it was reassembled in the year 1665, and dissolved in the year 1666, from which time until the year 1692, no parliament was assembled in Ireland, except that irregularly convened by James II. The dissolution was occasioned by a dispute about ceremonies to be observed in conferences of the two houses. Hist, of the Irish parliament by Lord Mountmorres, vol. ii. pp. 138, 144 148. London, 1792. The interruption appears to have been ad- vantageous, as it withdrew the legislature from the struggle of parties. 64 Leland, vol. iii. p. 411. As the protestant interest in Ireland de- GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 391 when the episcopal clergy had been swept away by the re- bellion of the Roman Catholics, by directing and encouraging the industry of the nation 86 , when the ignorant jealousy of the English had thrown it upon its own resources by pro- hibiting the importation of Irish cattle 67 , and by restoring and protecting the university, which had necessarily expe- rienced a violent shock amidst the public confusion. He was at length disgraced by the influence of the cabal administra- tion, which had previously succeeded in overpowering his friend the earl of Clarendon. Lord Berkeley, who after the transitory government of lord Robarts succeeded to the lieutenancy of Ireland, began the scheme of forming in that country a popish party 68 , to support the plan of arbitrary power, which the king had al- ready conceived. With this view he gave all the countenance of his government to that bigoted portion of the Roman pended on the support of England, it was important that the legal es- tablishment of religion should be preserved in correspondence with it. A secondary establishment was however formed for the presbyterian church by the grant named the regium donum, which was at this time begun. M With this view he established a woollen-manufactory at Clonmel, the capital of his county palatine of Tipperary, and another at Carrick, a town also belonging to him ; and for this purpose Grant, known by his observations on the bills of mortality, was employed to procure five hundred Walloon protestant families to remove from Can- terbury to Ireland. His principal object however was to restore the linen-manufacture, which had been begun by Strafford, but had been ruined by the public disorders. He engaged Sir W. Temple to send to Ireland from Brabant five hundred families, skilled in that manu- facture ; and others were procured from Rochelle, the isle of Rhe, Jersey, and the neighbouring parts of France. Convenient tenements were erected for them at Chapel-Izod near Dublin. Leland, vol. iii. pp. 449, 450. 67 It was found that the rents of England had latterly decreased to the annual amount of 200, 000. Of this diminution there were many obvious causes. Persecution had banished to Holland and America many industrious Puritans; the trade with Spain had been diminished and interrupted ; an unfavourable balance of the trade with France amounted nearly to a million annually ; the Dutch war had embarrassed commerce ; the plague had lessened the consumption of provisions ; and the gaiety and dissipation of the court had seduced the nobility to London. The annual value of the cattle sent to England was on the other hand far less than the deficiency of rents : and before the troubles of England far greater numbers had been imported without causing any diminution of them. The complaint in this case was en- couraged by some great men, who wished to drive Ormond from the government of Ireland. Ibid., pp. 442 448. 68 Ibid., p. 458. 392 MODEBN HISTORY : Catholics, which under the direction of the pope 69 was op- posed to those, who professed to renounce every tenet incon- sistent with their civil allegiance, and especially the power of deposing princes claimed by the see of Rome. He ac- cordingly granted to them commissions of the peace 70 , he admitted them to dwell and trade in corporate towns, and he procured for them not only admission into the corporation of the metropolis, but even the command of that body. This indulgence naturally inspired the hope of reversing the recent settlement of the property of the country, and a petition for that purpose was accordingly transmitted to the king 71 . The people of England however clamoured against the conduct of the Irish government, and a remonstrance of the parlia- ment of that country compelled the ministers to withdraw for a time their favour from the Roman Catholics. When the government of lord Berkeley had received this check an intrigue of the court most unexpectedly restored the duke of Ormond to the lieutenancy, the duke of York finding no other competitor 72 , who might be opposed with success to the solicitation of his illegitimate brother the duke of Monmouth, of whom he was jealous. This appointment immediately preceded the alarm of the popish plot, which 69 On the restoration some of the Roman Catholic prelates and clergy commissioned Peter Walsh, a Franciscan friar, to present an address to the king, congratulating him on the event, and imploring the benefits of the peace concluded with Ormond in the year 1648. Walsh, to obviate the objection, which might be drawn from the conduct of many of his brethren in violating that peace, prepared a representation, which was named the Remonstrance of the Roman Catholic Clergy of Ireland. It was immediately subscribed by one bishop and twenty-four of the other clergy, then in London : and afterwards by another bishop and forty-two priests, together with twenty-one peers and a hundred com- moners of the laity. The influence of the pope was however soon ex- erted to suppress a declaration of allegiance, which disclaimed all knowledge of his assumed power of deposing princes. The clerical remonstrants were accordingly dispossessed of their cures and stations, and Walsh and his associates were denounced as excommunicated per- sons. That the right even to the temporal dominion of Ireland was not relinquished by the Roman see, appears from this, that O'Broudin maintained it in a work printed in Rome by permission in the year 1722, and that this work has been highly praised by another Irish bishop, the author of the Hihernia Dominicana, in the year 1762. O'Conor's Hist. Address, part i. p. 251. 70 Leland, vol. iii. pp. 463, 464. 71 Ibid., pp. 465, 466. Ibid., p. 472. GREAT BHITAIN AND IBELAXD, 1660 1685. 393 required all the prudence and the moderation of that able statesman. When the alarm had passed away, and the de- tection of the Rye-house plot had discredited the opposite party, another agent was selected for executing the favourite schemes of the king. The death of the king however, which immediately followed, transferred to his successor the care of accomplishing his designs. While the domestic policy of Charles II. was disposing the government to a revolution, by developing a scheme of arbitrary power, and by preparing for its support the Roman Catholics of Ireland, his foreign policy was on the other hand unconsciously preparing that distinguished prince, who soon afterwards became the leader of the party, by which the scheme was frustrated. All the measures of this king ap- pear thus to have strangely co-operated to the same catas- trophe, his love of power and attachment to the church of Rome offending and alienating his subjects, and his wars and negotiations, however various and even contradictory, all bringing forward the piince, who should vindicate their vio- lated liberties. The king was in the year 1664 driven into a war with the Dutch republic by the commercial jealousy of his people 73 , aided by the military ambition of the duke of York, and per- haps by his own desire of reinstating his nephew, the young prince of Orange, in the authority possessed by his ancestors and of thereby bringing the republic into a dependence on England. This war, in which the acquisition of New York was an important advantage gained by the English 74 , was terminated in the year 1667 by the peace of Breda. Though it did not re-establish the young prince, it shook the influence of the party 75 , which then governed the republic, and dis- posed the Dutch to look to him as the most eligible presi- dent of their state. In the following year the foreign policy of the king took a contrary direction, in negotiating the triple alliance with the Dutch republic and Sweden for resisting the ambition of 13 Hume, Tol. vii. pp. 424,425. 74 Ibid., p. 451. 75 Five provinces expressed an opinion, that to incline the king of England to a speedy peace, it would be proper to elevate his nephew to the station of captain-general. The measure was however then defeated by the influence of Holland. Kerroux, tome iii. pp. 726, Til. 394 MODERN HISTOET : France, which had just then begun to be displayed in the invasion of the Spanish Netherlands. The Dutch were by this alliance withdrawn from that French connexion, which had supported the party opposed to the family of the prince. This party continued indeed to hold the government, but no longer aided by the influence of the court of France. This popular and wise policy did not long continue to guide the counsels of the king, for in the year 1670 the cabal persuaded him to seek in a close alliance with France the means of establishing arbitrary power at home, and of chang- ing the religion of the state. War was accordingly de- clared against the Dutch in the year 1672; and the result was that in the same year the prince was placed at the head of the republic, and his adversaries, the De Wits, were massacred by the populace. Two years afterwards the necessity of his affairs constrained the king to endeavour to conciliate his people by concluding a peace with the republic ; and in the year 1675 he was in- duced by the same consideration to ejitertain a proposal, for marrying the prince to the elder daughter of his brother, whom, with her sister 76 , he had, to satisfy the nation, obliged his brother to educate in the protestant faith. The marriage was completed in the year 1677, which connected the prince with a princess, who would probably inherit the crown, the king having no legitimate children, and the duke no male issue. By this extraordinary combination of successive events was the prince first gradually raised from obscurity to power in his own country, and then closely connected with the crown of England, to which he had already some claim by his maternal descent from the father of the king. It has been remarked by Hume ", that Charles might, at the time of this marriage, have with ease preserved the 76 That sister, afterwards queen Anne, was in the year 1684, married to another Protestant, prince George brother of the king of Denmark, the king being then anxious to confirm by such an alliance the popula- rity, which he had acquired since the detection of the Rye-house plot. That the two princesses were educated protestants is attributed by Car- withen to the influence of Compton, bishop of London, vol. iii. p. 169. In favour of the marriage of Mary, it was urged to the king, that it would lead the people to regard the religion of the presumptive heir of the crown as personal, not political. Kerreux, tome iii. p. 171. " Hist, of England, vol. viii. p. 33. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1660 1685. 395 balance of Europe ; and it may be admitted that he might have maintained it for the time. But this consideration does not detract from the importance of the revolution of Eng- land, in its relation to the general policy of Europe. That event connected the domestic policy of the British govern- ment with the maintenance of a general system of equili- brium, and thus engaged these countries in a combination, which insured its permanence. Charles might, for his own time have restrained the ambition of the French king. Wil- liam, by effecting the revolution of England, established a durable equipoise of political power. CHAPTER XVIII. Of the history of Great Britain and Ireland from the accession of James II. in the year 1685 to the revolution in the year 1688. James II. king, in the year 1685 Argyle's invasion of Scotland, and Monmouth's invasion of England, in the same year The revolution, 1688 Flamstead Newton Locke. THOUGH but a few years before a bill for excluding James II. from the throne on account of his religion, had twice passed the house of commons, his accession on the death of his brother was as tranquil, as if no apprehension of his bigotry had ever been entertained. The spirit of the oppo- sition had yielded implicitly to the ascendency of the crown ; and as James had been supposed to possess great influence during the latter years of the preceding reign, it was natural to expect, that his government would be but a continuation of the system of measures, in which the nation had already acquiesced. Several correspondencies may be observed in the charac- ters of these two princes. They were both eagerly desirous of arbitrary power, both became proselytes to the religion of Rome, and both were contented to seek pecuniary resources 396 MODERN HISTORY : in a dishonourable dependence on the court of France 1 . But a yet more considerable diversity may also be discerned. Charles, dissipated and indolent, was desirous of uncontrolled power, chiefly as the means of undisturbed enjoyment : James, devoted to the religion for which he had forsaken that of his country, appears to have regarded the aggrandise- ment of his political power 2 chiefly as the means of bringing back the country to the ecclesiastical system of Rome. The former was incapable of adopting a violent and hazardous plan of action, and was, on one occasion, overheard, as he declared himself unfitted for executing some counsel of this nature 3 ; the latter soon threw off the slight disguise of fair profession, with which he had thought it necessary to com- mence his reign 4 , and boldly and openly pursued the great object of his policy. This diversity was well accommodated to the difference of the parts, which the two princes sustained in the political drama of the constitution, for the licentious gaiety of Charles, aided as it was by favourable circum- stances, could best bring to present., submission the yet ill- regulated temper of the nation, and the violent bigotry of James 5 was precisely the quality, which could best expose 1 James was indeed in this respect little successful, having received only 800,000 livres. App. to Mr. Fox's Hist., p. 126. Louis XIV. was then reigning in peace, and did not feel any need of an expensive connexion. Ibid., p. 120. 2 This, in contradiction of the representation of Mr. Fox, has been proved by Mr. Hallam. Consti- tutional History, vol. iii. p. 74, note. 3 Brother, said Charles, I am too old to go again to my travels ; you may, if you choose it. Hume, vol. viii. p. 220. * In addressing the privy council at his accession, James expressly promised to maintain the church of England as then by law established ; this speech, at the desire of the privy council, lie caused to be printed, and distributed among the peo- ple ; and in opening his parliament he renewed his declaration in favour of the established church. To the Scotish parliament he con- veyed by letter a similar assurance. Rapin, vol. ii. pp. 741 745. * ' The prejudice, which the two last Stuarts had acquired in favour of the Roman religion, so often deplored by thoughtless or insidious writers as one of the worst consequences of their father's ill fortune, is to be accounted rather among the most signal links in the chain of causes, through which a gracious providence has favoured the consoli- dation of our liberties and welfare. Nothing less than a motive more universally operating than the interests of civil freedom, would have stayed the compliant spirit of this unworthy parliament, or rallied, for a time at least, the supporters of indefinite prerogative under a banner they abhorred.* Hallam, vol. iii. p. 72 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 397 the mischiefs of passive obedience, and give being to a re- generated spirit of constitutional resistance. How important to the approaching crisis was the personal character of James II., may be estimated from the observa- tion of Mr. Fox, that in the difficulty of determining, at the death of Charles II., what might be the future fortune of the government, he who should have expected a favourable re- sult, must have directed his attention to the character of the new prince, not to the circumstances of the public. The rashness of the sovereign, in avowing and pressing forward the offensive cause of popery, he regarded as the redeeming principle of the state, which could be counteracted only by a want of moderation in the opposite party. Under the in- fluence however of this principle with most extraordinary rapidity was that gloom dissipated, which had settled on the prospects of the nation, for four years had not elapsed, when the revolution constituted the brightest epoch of the liberties of England. The peculiar character of James was not indeed left to operate by its own influence, unaided by the excitement of contingent circumstances. Within a very few months from the commencement of his reign, two simultaneous invasions of Scotland and England, of the former country under the duke of Argyle, of the latter under the duke of Monmouth, gave by their discomfiture that strength and encouragement to the king, which are always the results of unsuccessful re- bellion. With the lives of these two noblemen 6 every hope of resisting the absolute power of the king seems to have been terminated ; and the king appears to have then felt himself sufficiently secure to take decided measures in favour of the Roman Catholics, though at the hazarfc of offending the party of the established church, by which he had been hitherto supported against all dissenters. Lord Rochester accordingly, the son of the lord chancellor Clarendon, and high in the esteem of the party of the church, declared that from the defeat of the rebellion he had ceased to be intrusted 6 Fox's Hist, of James II., p. 276. It is remarkable that the counsels of the malecontents appear to have been precipitated by the interference of James with his son-in-law, the prince of Orange, in procuring their dismissal from his court, if not their banishment from the republic. Carwithen, vol. iii. p. 251. 398 MODEBN HISTORY : with the confidential communications of the king, being consulted only on the business of the office of treasurer, which he held. As the destruction of the popular leaders in the preceding reign had made room for the free indulgence of the arbitrary disposition of Charles, so did the discomfiture of the two in- vasions encourage James to display the true spirit of his character, outraging the humanity of his subjects by the vio- lences of his vengeance 7 , and alarming their religious prin- ciples by his undisguised exertions for subverting the eccle- siastical establishments of the two kingdoms. The agents were however different, as the process of unconstitutional government was more advanced. When the ruin of the do- mestic leaders of the public discontent had exalted the power of the sovereign above all opposition, the ruin of invaders alone could add to its aggrandisement, and lead the infatuated sovereign onward to his degradation. The combination of circumstances assisting in effecting the revolution, was not however limited to domestic agencies. Within the very same year the king of France, by revoking the edict of Nantes, which eighty-seven years before had granted protection to the Protestants of that country, spread over Europe an alarming apprehension of the faithless bigotry of his church. The Protestants of Great Britain in particular were warned by the arrival of fifty thousand fugitives 8 , to be apprehensive of the measures of their own sovereign, who not only professed himself the faith of Rome, but was begin- ning to manifest his determination, that the same faith should be the general and authorised profession of his subjects. When they saw too that their king anxiously cultivated a friendly intercourse with the government, which had thus disgraced itself, they might most naturally expect to be them- selves objects of similar violences. While Louis XIV. thus alarmed the Protestants of Great Britain, his overbearing ambition, in grasping at the dominion of the continent of Europe, raised into importance that dis- tinguished prince, who rescued from oppression the liberties 7 In the famous western assize of Jefferies 330 were executed, and 835 transported, besides many left in custody for want of evidence. Those transported were sold as slaves in the colonies. Hallam's Cou- stit. Hist., vol. iii. p. 93, note. 8 Laing, vol. ii. p. 159. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 399 of these countries. So long as Spain was formidable, the protection of France was desirable to the Dutch republic, and a French interest accordingly predominated in the govern- ment ; but when France at length became the object of ap- prehension, the party connected with France was deprived of authority, and the prince of Orange, whose family that government had persecuted, found his personal interest iden- tified with the independence of his country. The other continental states were at the same time suf- ficiently interested in observing the same plan of policy. Aus- tria and Spain were alarmed at the ambition of France ; the protestant states were specially excited to resistance by the complaints of the exiled Huguenots ; and even the Roman pontiff, forgetting the merit of persecution in his indignant sense 9 of the independent and refractory spirit of the eldest son of the church, perhaps also apprehensive of the head- long precipitancy of James 10 , was favourably disposed to- 9 ' According to ancient custom the ambassadors of catholic princes, residing at Rome, enjoyed an exemption from the jurisdiction of that court, and immunities connected with that privilege, which were called the franchises. By imperceptible degrees these were extended, not only to the servants and household of the ambassador, but to every other person received under his protection, and were at last found to encroach far upon the dignity and domestic authority of the papal court. Bent upon his own personal grandeur, more than upon the extension of his power over distant kingdoms, Innocent XI. most anxiously solicited the catholic princes to resign a privilege, which tended to the disparage- ment of his honour, and the limitation of his immediate jurisdiction. The house of Austria set that example of obsequiousness, which was followed by the other catholic princes in Europe. The king of France alone, with inflexible obstinacy, contended for the maintenance of all those honours, which, by long prescription, were claimed by his am- bassadors. The solicitations of the English ambassador were interposed in behalf of France, and instead of softening Innocent, involved James in a participation of the guilt and odium of his ally.' Somerville, p. 236. This pontiff had been already alienated from the king of France by the edict sanctioning the declaration of the French clergy, framed in the year 1683, concerning ecclesiastical power, which stated, first, that the pope has no authority over the temporalities of kings ; secondly, that a general council is superior to the pope ; thirdly, that the exercise of his power ought to be regulated by the canons without infringing the liberties of ths Gallican church ; fourthly, that the decisions of the pope in matters of faith are not infallible, until they have been approved by the church. Henault, vol. ii. p. 194. 10 'It was suggested to Innocent, that by a revolution in England he might expect, not only to obtain the gratification of private resentment, but the advancement 400 MODERN HISTORY 1 wards an expedition, which should dethrone a Roman Catho- lic in favour of a Protestant. This prince felt that all his combinations would be ineffectual, unless the power of Great Britain were enlisted in the struggle. The revolution ac- cordingly, which adjusted the constitution of England, be- came an essential part of the great system of operations, which was necessary for arranging the general policy of Europe. The two distinct processes, one of which perfected a free government, and the other combined a system of ba- lanced policy among independent nations, were thus united in that memorable event ; and the English government be- gan to maintain a permanent and important connexion with the interests of the continental states, from the time when it had completed its interior agitations, and was fitted to influ- ence by the example of regulated freedom the public mind of European society. That all his attachment to his own religion should have prompted James to endeavour to render it predominant, must appear most surprising when it is considered, that the Roman Catholics were judged by Sir William Temple to be scarcely the hundredth part of the population of England 11 , and not to be even the two-hundredth part of that of Scot- land. His immediate dependence was placed on that doc- trine of absolute submission 12 , which was professed by the of the catholic interest in that kingdom. A toleration, which was agreeable to the avowed principles of William, would secure their per- sonal safety, and the undisturbed exercise of their religion to all the disinterested and sincere friends of the Roman church, whereas the violence and precipitancy of James might one day rouse the fury of the nation, and terminate in the final extirpation of those, whom he wished to cherish.' Somerville, p. 238. n ' Hume, vol. viii. p. 8. ' There is a return of persons of different persuasions in England, made a few years after, when the whole number of Catholics fit to bear arms in the provinces of Canterbury and York, was only 4940.' Moore's History of the British Rev., p. 173. " This doctrine was maintained by Luther, though he assented to the league of the Pro- testants as a defensive confederacy, when it had been represented to him that resistance in such a case was permitted by the laws. Sleidani Comm., p. 195. It first manifested itself among the es- tablished clergy of the English Protestants in the convocation, which James consulted in the beginning of his reign about the lawfulness of assisting the Dutch against the Spaniards. Welwood's Mem., p. 36. In the reign of Charles II. advantage began to t'e taken of this principle, about the time of the popish plot, to procure support lor GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 401 established church ; nor did it occur to him that this tenet, which had been embraced in opposition to the protestant dissenters, might give way when it should be rendered in- strumental to the triumph of the church of Rome. But his grand dependence was placed on the superior number of the Roman Catholics in Ireland 13 . In that part of his triple the government, and it was eagerly propagated as the tenet of the church. Ibid., p. 88. The university of Oxford in the year 1683, on occasion of the rye -house plot, asserted the doctrine in the most explicit terms ; and at the execution of the duke of Monmouth, in the year 1685, the clergymen who attended him, required an acknowledgment of the un- lawfulness of resistance, as an indispensable article of the faith of a member of the church of England. Mr. Fox's Hist., pp. 263, &c. From this very time however the church ceased to cherish this tenet, as the king began to manifest his hostility to the ecclesiastical establishment. In the very following year the preachers every where began to declaim against popery ; and in the crisis of the revolution the bishops declined to disown the declaration of the prince of Orange, which stated that he had been invited *by divers of lords, both spiritual and temporal,' and refused to concur in a declaration expressing abhorrence of his enterprise. Rapin, vol. ii. p. 776. The change of opinion, which had thus preceded the revolution, was naturally carried further after that event. Hoadly, who in the year 1710 was recommended to queen Anne by the house of commons, and was afterwards advanced to the bishop- ric of Bangor, was the most distinguished in that party of the church, which maintained the lawfulness of resisting abuses of power, alleging that the sacred scriptures recognised a reciprocal duty on the part of the government, the violation of which discharged the subjects from the duty of submission. 13 Sir W. Petty estimated the whole popu- lation of Ireland for the year 1672, as about 1,100,000 persons, and the proportion of the Roman Catholics to the Protestants to have been then that of eight to three. The entire number of the Roman Catho- lics therefore he estimated as about 800,000 persons, and consequently he must have supposed that they had among them more than 100,000 men of a military age. The population of England and Wales at the time of the revolution was estimated by Gregory King at 5,500,000 persons, which however Mr. Chalmers thinks should have been com- puted at 6,000,000, or nearly 7,000,000, too small a number of inhabit- ants having been allowed for each house in that computation. It has been concluded by King, that the population of England was then five-fold that of Scotland, and six-fold that of Ireland, and consequently that the combined population of these two countries was less than two- fifths of that of England. The conclusion of King, compared with the estimate of Sir W. Petty for Ireland, would give 6,600,000 for Engfand. From a document found by Sir John Dalrymple in the cabinet of kin^ William it appears probable, that in England the proportion of protestant dissenters to conformists was nearly as one to twenty-three, and that of Roman Catholics to Protestants nearly as one to a hundred and eighty- VOL. III. D D 402 MODEKN HISTOBY C empire he knew that he should have the greater portion of the population on his side, and thence he hoped to draw forces, by which he should be enabled to crush any resist- ance opposed to him in Great Britain. As the bigotry of James, considered in its influence upon the improvement of the constitution, required some support, it was evidently conducive to the general welfare, that this support should have been placed in a separate part of the triple empire, rather than that it should have been scattered through the population of that country, in which the processes of the constitution were to be performed. Before the invasion of Monmoxith the English parliament had been disposed to comply with all the wishes of the king, and had unanimously settled a revenue on him for his life, without noticing the illegality, with which he had pre- viously levied taxes. That event however having encou- raged him to manifest his intentions in regard to the religion of Rome 14 , a spirit of jealousy and resistance began imme- diately to display itself in the house of commons 15 , though with a guarded moderation that assembly proposed to indem- nify by law those Roman Catholics, who had served in the army against Monmouth, and even to reward them with pen- sions. The lords presently caught from the commons the new spirit of freedom, and determined to reconsider the speech delivered by the king at the commencement of the session, in which they had overlooked an intimation of his intention of dispensing with the tests. James then became so alarmed with the apprehension of a parliamentary oppo- sition to his favourite measure, that he determined to forego an uncompleted grant of seven hundred thousand pounds, and to free himself from the embarrassment by an imme- diate prorogation, which after four others was followed by a dissolution. The king, having failed to procure a sanction from the parliament, had recourse to the judges, for which purpose a seven. Chalmers's Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain, pp. 37, 56 58 ; with the Political Conclusions of G. King, annexed, p. 37. u James then declared his purpose of employing Roman Catholic officers in his army in England : in Scotland he re- quired of the parliament, that Roman Catholics should be released from all restraints : in Ireland he caused the protestant militia to be dis- banded. 15 Somerville, pp. 183, 184. GREA.T BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 403 concerted action was brought against a Roman Catholic, Sir Edward Hales 1G , who had accepted the commission of colonel. Though a dispensing power was acknowledged by the law of England to belong to the crown, and was indeed first ex- cluded by the bill of rights, which followed the revolution, yet the case of the power exercised by James was so pecu- liar, that it was deemed necessary to displace four of the judges, before this cause should be brought forward for trial. A decision favourable to the pretension of the crown was then obtained ; but the public felt that a dispensing power exercised so extensively was in effect a power of repealing, which would destroy the legislative character of the parlia- ment, and that if it could be applied to a statute, which was regarded as the barrier of the established religion under a popish sovereign, all the security of that religion was aban- doned to the discretion of the crown. In Ireland the measures of James were even less reserved, as it was chiefly from that country that he proposed to draw the force, by which he hoped to quell the opposition of his English subjects. Scotland had performed its part in the triple system, by affording its support to that presbyterian party, which in the civil war first overturned, and then re- established the monarchy. The part of Ireland was to be performed at this time, in encouraging by the prospect of its assistance those efforts of bigotry, which could alone withdraw the Protestants of the church of England from the influence of their cherished notion of passive obedience. In Ireland accordingly the military struggle of the revolu- tion was fought, and there the contest was at length con- cluded by the reduction of Limerick in the year 1691, more than two years after the crown had been transferred to the prince of Orange in each of the kingdoms of Great Britain. We may even discover in the relation of the Irish Roman Catholics to the English government some correspondence to the double agency of the Presbyterians of Scotland, for as the latter first supported the party of the republicans, and were then active in restoring the monarchy, so did the Roman Catholics of Ireland first by their strength en- courage the bigotry of James II., and then by their vio- 16 Hume, vol. viii. pp. '256262. D B 2 404 MODEKN HISTORY : lence excite that apprehension for the national religion, which drove him from his throne. The duke of Ormond had formed in Ireland a protestant militia 17 , which might best support the new settlement of that country and its connexion with England. Such a force however did not suit the purpose of James, when the discomfiture of Monmouth had freed him from the restraint, under which he had commenced his reign. Pre- tending therefore that the contagion of the rebellion was widely diffused, he recalled the arms of the militia. He then proceeded to introduce Roman Catholics into corpora- tions, and invest them with magistracies and judicial offices, in disregard of the law requiring that in these cases the oath of supremacy should be administered. Talbot, a Roman Catholic, created earl of Tyrconnell, was next commissioned to regulate the army independently of the lord lieutenant, which he executed by composing it almost wholly of per- sons professing his own religion ; and was soon afterwards himself intrusted with the government, the popish delegate of a popish sovereign, while fifteen hundred families of Pro- testants judged it necessary to abandon their country in the train of his predecessor. From this time the most violent measures were employed for transferring to the Roman Ca- tholics the ascendency 18 , which had been enjoyed by the Protestants. At length Tyrconnell proposed to assemble a parliament for the express purpose of repealing the act of settlement ; but this scheme was successfully resisted in the privy council of England. While Ireland was thus actively concerned in the opera- tions, which ended in the revolution, the direct agency of Scotland was suspended 19 , except so far as the invasion of Argyle forced onward that of Monmouth. When James held the government of that country he had, in hostility to the Presbyterians, procured the enactment of a test, which recognised, together with the ecclesiastical supremacy of the king, his uncontrolled and absolute dominion. An atrocious tyranny, ecclesiastical and civil, had subdued that spirit of 17 Leland, vol. iii. pp. 492 509. 18 The admission of Roman Catholics into the corporations had proceeded slowly during the govern- ment of lord Clarendon. Ibid., pp. 503, 504. 19 Laing. vol. ii. pp. 108, 146175. GREAT BIUTAIN AND IKELAND, 1685 1688. 405 independence, which formerly had operated so powerfully on the government of England, except only when the here- ditary persecution of the duke of Argyle, considered as the chief of the Presbyterians, drove him into his rash and un- successful enterprise. It had indeed been a favourite scheme of the royal brothers to convert that country, equally as Ireland, into an instrument of the subjugation of England ; and with this view an act had in the preceding reign heen procured from its enslaved parliament for embodying a mi- litia of twenty-two thousand men 20 , and committing the dis- posal of it to the privy council. But the example of op- pressive government exhibited in that country produced a contrary effect, alarming the apprehensions of the English, and giving additional force to the representations, by which their patriots were endeavouring to excite among them a spirit of resistance. The tyranny of the government of Scotland, it is remark- able, gave being in that country to a law of entails 21 , which in England it had been long customary to elude. The nobles, who had been basely subservient to the crown in creating a multiplicity of retrospective treasons, began at length to fear, that they might become the victims of their own ser- vility, and passed an act for securing the succession of lands, that their families at least migh^t be protected from ruin. This act is still in full operation, and it is estimated that more than a fifth, or even a third part of the territory, is covered by such provisions. Entails, which in England had been a result of the independence of a feudal nobility, and had lost their operation in the change of the character of the aristocracy, were thus in Scotland the late effect of modern oppression. The king, in the second year of his reign, found himself involved in a struggle with the established church of Eng- land, to which he had been mainly indebted for his succes- sion to the crown. When he had discovered that the mea- sures, which he had taken in favour of the church of Rome", especially in Ireland, had excited its jealousy and opposition, he issued an order inhibiting inflammatory sermons. When again the bishop of London had refused to enforce this 20 Laing, vol. ii. p. 55. 21 Ibid., pp. 149, 150. 22 Hume, vol. viii. pp. 266268. 406 MODEKN HISTOHY: order by summarily suspending an obnoxious preacher, he established an ecclesiastical commission with unlimited au- thority over the church, though such a commission had in the reign of Charles I. been abolished by law, with an ex- press prohibition of creating any similar jurisdiction in all future time. By this commission both the bishop and the preacher were suspended, and the king proceeded in his course. Not content with granting dispensations to indi- viduals 23 , he issued a declaration of general indulgence, sus- pending at once every penal statute in ecclesiastical affairs, though in the preceding reign the remonstrances of the par- liament had twice caused such a proceeding to be retracted. On this occasion James sought the support of the protestant dissenters ; but their eyes had been opened to the ultimate mischief of the measure by the unreserved conduct of the king in the government of Scotland 21 , where the implicit submission of the parliament had appeared to render cau- tion less necessary. The whole power in Ireland having been committed to the Roman Catholics 25 , the chief ministers in Scotland hav- ing been converted to popery, and in England every great office, civil and military, having been gradually transferred from the Protestants, it remained only that the Roman Ca- tholics should be introduced into the establishments con- nected with the church 01 England, to complete the triumph of their religion. In this concluding effort however James experienced a resistance, which he was unable to overcome. His first attempt of this kind was to require 26 , that a pen- sioner should be received on the fund of the hospital of the Charter-house, without any declaration of conformity to the church of England, or oath of allegiance. Though this step had been taken at a cautious distance, he was effectually opposed by the trustees. He then demanded that the uni- 23 Hume, vol. viii. pp. 269271. u The king first demanded of the Scotish parliament an indulgence for the Roman Catholics alone. When this demand was resisted, he published a proclamation of indulgence, which included the Presbyterians ; but even in this measure he be- trayed the secret purpose of his mind, for, as if popery were already predominant, he declared that he never would use force, or invincible necessity, against any man on account of his persuasion, or the pro- testant religion. Ibid., p. 272. 25 Ibid., p. 277. * 8 Somer- ville, pp. 191194. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 407 versity of Cambridge should admit to the degree of master of arts a Benedictine monk without administering any oath whatever ; and he again failed. Massey, a recent convert, he collated to the deanery of Christ-Church in Oxford, with an ample dispensation from all the statutes of uniformity and other ecclesiastical laws 27 , and he finally enjoined Magdalen-College in the same university to receive a Jesuit priest as president ; but the obedience of the university here found that limit, which had been so expressly dis- claimed, and the royal mandate was disregarded. The king, having been also disappointed in his efforts to obtain a parliament 28 , which would sanction his measures, determined finally to rely boldly upon his military power, and with this view brought out of Ireland some entire re- giments, and filled many vacancies in his English regiments with Roman Catholic officers from the same country. In executing this determination he issued a second declaration of a general indulgence, which perhaps he might have been able to maintain, if he had not resolved, as if under the in- fluence of an infatuation, to render the established church the instrument of its own downfall, by requiring the bishops to cause it to be published in the churches. This mandate, so fitted to expose the clergy to hatred and contempt, ex- ceeded their notion of obedience. It was resisted, and the power of James was at an end. The archbishop of Can- terbury and six of the bishops petitioned to be excused 29 ; the king brought them to trial for uttering a seditious libel 27 Hallam' s Constit. Hist. vol. iii. p. 89. Instances of similar dis- pensations are mentioned in a note in the same page. 28 Rapin, vol. ii. p. 768. 29 Eighteen other bishops either sent their direct approbation of their petition, or testified it by declining to distribute the declaration among their clergy. Of the eight remaining dioceses, York and Oxford Avere vacant. Six bishops complied, Carwithen, vol. iii. p. 324. But, though the archbishop and the six bishops conceived it to be their duty to refuse compliance, and afterwards concurred in inviting the prince of Orange into England, one bishop alone of this number transferred his allegiance. The archbishop and four of the bishops accordingly began the schism of the Nonjurors, and were after some time deprived of their sees. These appear to have been joined by three other bishops and about four hundred of the clergy. Hallam, vol. iii. p. 148. One of the petitioning bishops died in the very crisis of the revolution. 408 MODERN HISTORY : in presenting their petition 30 ; and their acquittal, which was hailed by the acclamations even of his own army, was the signal of the revolution. A few days before the acquittal of the bishops an event had occurred, which disposed the minds of the Protestants to adopt some decisive measure for their security. So long as the king had no male issue, they consoled themselves with the hope, that their interest might be retrieved under his daughter, who had been educated a Protestant, and was married to a prince of the same religion. By the birth of a son this hope was taken from them, and they began to feel, that the security of their religion required some inter- position, by which the regular course of the royal succes- sion should be interrupted. The Roman Catholics at the same time, as they conceived a more sanguine hope of the permanence of their present prosperity, were encouraged to act with greater violence, and thus to alarm yet more the apprehensions of the Protestants. Some mysterious cir- cumstances also accompanying the 'birth of the prince, in- volved the king in the odious imputation of imposing upon his people a supposititious child, and seeking thus the grati- fication of his bigotry even in the violation of natural affec- tion. These were the immediate effects of the appearance of a male heir. Its remoter operation consisted in furnish- ing a future pretender to the crown, by which the alarm of the Protestants was maintained long after the revolution. As the precipitate violence of James brought the govern- ment to the crisis of revolution, so had the fittest imaginable agent been prepared for effectuating the change. In his infancy divested of his dignities in consequence of the hos- tile requisitions of Cromwell 31 , who persecuted him for his connexion with the Stuarts, and afterwards sacrificed to the advantage of a connexion with France by the very princes, whom his father had assisted in restoring to the throne of the triple kingdom, the prince of Orange was detached equally from the two extreme parties, which contended for the government. He was by birth and profession a Pres- 30 The archbishop however, to guard himself against this imputa- tion, had used the precaution of writing the petition with his own, hand. Hist, de la Revolution de 1688 en Angleterre par Mazure, tome iii. p. 447. Paris, 18'25. 81 Hume, vol. vii. p. 252. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 409 byterian, but his habits had been formed in a tolerating go- vernment, and a liberal toleration was the avowed principle of his conduct 32 . As the arbitrary and bigoted schemes of the two latter princes of the house of Stuart had rested on a dishonourable connexion with the government of France, so was the whole policy of William, by the very necessity of his peculiar situation, inseparably united with the cause of the protestant religion, and the maintenance of the liberties of Europe. Even the possession of the throne of these countries appeared to him important, only as it might render him more able to secure these two grand objects of his existence. Cold and uninteresting, he attracted no party by popularity of manners ; but these countries had been long in a state of violent excitement, and the phleg- matic virtues of William may have administered the best sedative to the public agitations. Even his frequent want of success in military operations may be considered as be- longing to his character, as the negotiator, rather than the warrior of Europe, for success, if it did not tempt him to assume the latter character, would at least have rendered him less dependent on the combinations of policy. In reviewing the causes, which co-operated to effect the British revolution, the mind must be astonished at their number, their diversity, and their extent. The ambition of Louis XIV. had disposed not only the Dutch to seek in the revolution of the British government new means of re- sistance, but also the other states of the continent to unite with the republic in a confederacy, which occupied the at- tention of France, and concealed the preparations of the prince of Orange. While a political interest influenced generally the confederated states, an additional and more powerful motive was furnished to the Protestants by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, which sent every where among them the victims of the bigotry and violence of the French monarch ; the very money necessary for defraying the expenses of the expedition 33 , was supplied without delay from the private funds of those refugees of religion, who 32 This however did not extend to the admission of Roman Catho- lics into situations of trust and power, though he would have consented to the repeal of the penal statutes. Somerville, pp. 231, 232. 33 The prince had obtained a credit of four millions of gilders, to be paid in four years, and the zeal of the refugees furnished the money in as many days. Moore's Hist, of the British Revol., p. 143. 410 MOBEKN HISTORY: had sought protection in the provinces of the Dutch. The Roman pontiff on the other hand, dissatisfied with the in- dependence of the Gallican church, and offended by the haughtiness of the French monarch, was induced to coun- tenance the overthrow of the most zealous champion of his faith, as he was protected hy that prince. The individual, who led the revolution, was recommended to the people of Great Britain by his double connexion with the royal family, both of descent and marriage ; and the republic, over which he presided, was sufficiently powerful to guard the change of the British government against the evils of public dis- order, yet not enough to menace the country with conquest. The birth of an English prince, occurring in the very crisis, inspired the Roman Catholics with more violence, and filled the Protestants with new apprehensions, while the circum- stances of the event subjected the king to the dishonourable imputation of attempting to deceive his people. The storm, which dispersed the invading fleet, and turned back the prince of Orange, afforded to James an opportunity of mani- festing to his subjects 34 , how little reliance could be placed on the promises, which he had made in the hour of appre- hension. So deeply again was the prince himself impressed with a sense of the extraordinary combination of circum- stances, which favoured his voyage, that on his landing he demanded of Burnet 35 , whether he did not then believe in predestination. It was on the other hand a result of the indecision of James 36 , that the king of France had not crushed the enterprise by an invasion of the territory of the Dutch republic ; and his precipitate 37 desertion of the 34 'The bishop of Winchester, pursuant to the king's order, having caused a citation to be fixed on the gates of Magdalen-College, to recall Doctor Hough and the ejected fellows of that society, was recalled for some frivolous pretence, and the restoration of the college was deferred. But afterwards, the news proving false, the king resumed his pretended affection for the university, and the college was restored. Rapin, vol. ii. p. 773. 35 Burnet's Hist, of His Own Time, vol. ii. p. 434. 36 Hallam's Constit. Hist. vol. iii. pp. 108 111. Louis had discovered that James had even privately offered, about 'the end of September, to join the alliance against him. Mazure, tome iii. p. 104. 37 It ought never to be forgotten, says Mr. Trever, that, besides having thrown himself on the protection of France, James, had not left the next heir to the crown in the hands of the nation, the queen having previously conveyed him to that country. Life and Times of William III. vol. i. p. 342. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 411 throne, while it confounded his friends, and encouraged his enemies, not only put a bloodless conclusion to the agita- tions of the country, but also extricated the revolution from the embarrassment of a metaphysical discussion. The existence of an original contract between the sove- reign and the people was indeed asserted by the commons, and was, though reluctantly, admitted by the lords ; and surely, though Paine presumed to assert, that we have no constitution, because we have no detailed specification of principles of government, systematically arranged in a for- mal distribution of powers, yet never has a nation existed, which could boast so repeated, and so ancient recognitions of its liberties. But, though the doctrine of an original contract was opposed to the pretension of a divine and indefeasible authority, and had even been long before main- tained by Hooker 38 , in opposition to the pretension of the divine right of the presbytery in the church, yet so cauti- ously did the English commons avoid the metaphysical sub- tleties, which have since become popular, that they contented themselves with asserting simply the truth of the principle, while they inferred the vacancy of the throne, with a de- signed ambiguity, from the violation of fundamental laws, and from the voluntary departure of the king, as well as from his infraction of this original contract. Even in pro- ceeding on all these grounds 39 it was the opinion of the celebrated Somers, afterwards lord Somers, that the world could be satisfied only by showing, that they were justified by a precedent, which had occurred almost a century before in the government of Sweden, when Sigismond and his family were renounced in circumstances differing from thpse of James only in being less aggravated 40 . 38 That a formal contract existed in the Scotish government between the king and the people, had been maintained by Buchanan in his treatise De Jure Regni apud Scotos. The same was afterwards main- tained in regard to the English government by lord Somers, in his tract entitled the Judgment of whole Kingdoms and Nations concern- ing the Rights, Power, and Prerogative of Kings, and the Rights, Privileges, and Properties of the People. 39 Gray's Debates, vol. ix. p. 16. Loud., 1769. Sigismond, king of Poland, having suc- ceeded to the kingdom of Sweden, endeavoured to change the reli- gion of the latter country for that of Rome, to which he had conformed in Poland ; but experiencing a resistance among the Swedes, he with- drew to his other kingdom. * He had not withdrawn into the 412 MODEKN HISTOKY : The Scots 41 , who could not allege that James had with- drawn himself from a kingdom, in which he had not resided, and who had been outraged by the severe oppression exer- cised ever since the restoration, indulged the original inde- pendence of their principles in the adoption of the more explicit declaration, that James by his misconduct had for- feited the crown. As the force of Ireland had been enlisted on the part of the king, its unhappy destiny was to become the scene of the hostile struggle of the rejected sovereign and his people, and, in the subsequent depression of the majority of its own population, to suffer the heavy penalty of its adherence to a cause disowned by the constitution. The separate movements of the British government were at this time sufficiently completed, for enabling it to sustain an important part in the general combinations of Europe and of the world. In these it was at once engaged by the ad- vancement of the prince of Orange to the throne, for this prince was the prime agent of all the negotiations, by which the independence of the other states of Europe was main- tained against the ambition of France. Wonderful indeed was the adaptation of independent operations, by which the general arrangement of the policy of the continent and the special modifications of the British government were brought severally to a crisis, at the same precise time, and in the person of the same prince, so that it was a natural and direct result, that the two systems of movements should be then connected, and the British government, in its improved form, be immediately constituted a principal agent in a new and improved order of political relations. In a period of eighty- five years, beginning with the accession of the first prince of the family of the Stuarts to the throne of England, the conti- nental states maintained the great struggle of the German war, and arranged the combinations of the peace of Westphalia, by which it was concluded ; and in the same period the British government experienced the two alternate movements, by the one of which it was carried to the extreme of republi- canism, by the other to the contrary extreme of despotism. While these two processes were separately performed, pre. territory of a foreign prince : nor does it appear that he had violated the political constitution of the government. 41 Laing, vol. ii. pp, 189 J91. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 413 paration was also made for their combination by the forma- tion and growth of the Dutch republic, and by the connexions, which procured for its stadtholder an interest in the succes- sion of the British crown. An ancient infidel is said to have been converted from atheism to a persuasion of the existence and providence of God, by contemplating the wonderful con- trivance of the human skeleton. Here is the skeleton of a most interesting period of the history of our species. The living men, who were its muscles and its tendons, have long perished ; nothing remains except the dry and naked skele- ton preserved in the records of a by-gone age ; but in this are manifested an arrangement and an adaptation, which be- speak a wisdom and foresight far exceeding the speculations of the human intellect. Two important distinctions appear to characterise the period of the federal policy of Europe, which was at this time commenced. One of these is obviously that it gave to the system a central body, which might best maintain its movements, the external and internal resources of France best qualifying and entitling it to act as the principal mem- ber ; the other, that it constituted a maritime and commercial state the restraining power, which should control the ambi- tion of the principal state of the continent. When the sys- tem had been adjusted to a natural centre, those shocks were precluded, which must have resulted from the natural greatness of France and the contingent aggrandisement of some other continental state 42 ; and when on the other hand the British government had become the secondary or re- straining power, the struggles of the system were moderated by the pacific spirit of a commercial people, interested in maintaining tranquillity, and shut out from the allurements of military enterprise. The balance thus constituted resem- bled the distribution of the surface of the globe, on which we live. The sea was balanced against the land ; and, while the due equipoise of the whole was preserved about a natu- ral centre, the energies of commerce were allowed their full expansion, to animate the industry, and to exercise the ca- pacities of man. It has been said of the great philosopher of antiquity, that he threw himself into the Euripus, because he could not dis- 43 Mably, tome v. p. 68. 414 MODERN HISTORY: cover the principle of its complicated tides. The tradition seems aptly to describe the mere politician of this world. Ignorant of the guiding causes of political changes, he sus- pects not that he should look to heaven for the controlling influences ; and, distracted by their inexplicable appearances, he plunges blindly into their current, and is borne away in its course. The distinguished philosopher of modern ages, who dis- covered the cause of the appearances, which have been said to have thus perplexed the great sage of antiquity, was the glory of that period of the English history, which has been considered in this and the preceding chapter. The penetrat- ing genius of Newton presented at this time the most com- plete and important examples of the plan of philosophical enquiry, which in the earlier part of the sixteenth century had been pointed out by Bacon. Among the minuter phe- nomena of nature he examined with surprising ingenuity the properties of light tt , applying his grand discovery of the difference of refrangibility to the improvement of the tele- scope ; and in the greater operations of the material universe he first perceived the connexion of the planetary movements with the principle of terrestrial gravitation 44 , and was thus enabled to construct a system of physical astronomy, which 43 His discoveries concerning light were communicated to the Royal Society in the year 1671, though his treatise of Optics was not published until the year 1704. His reflecting telescope, which he had constructed to avoid the confusion arising from the different refrangibility of the component parts of solar light, was afterwards superseded by the achro- matic or colourlesstelescope of Dollond. As however it was found im- practicable to form compound lenses, such as he proposed, sufficiently large, the principle of reflection was again adopted by Herschel for telescopes of great power. It seems probable that even for this purpose the invention of Dollond may hereafter be preferred, the distinguished son of Herschel having recently discovered, that the difficulty consisted, not in the numerous imperfections incidental to flint-glass, as had been supposed, but in the want of a parabolic figure of the lenses, to which they have since been ground. w By proving the identity of the force attracting the moon with that of weight at the surface of the earth, he could measure the former, and thence the other planetary forces. It may be here remarked that this discovery could not have been made if the earth were not accompanied by a moon, moving in an elliptic orbit having the earth in one focus; and that the calculations, by which the theory of the solar system has been perfected, have sprung from the numerous -CUM! -complicated perturbations of that satellite. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 415 later mathematicians have perfected and verified. The very processes, by which he attained his purposes, were not less novel than his discoveries. In forming his theory of light he devised experiments unlike any, which had been previ- ously instituted. In constructing his mathematical system of the universe he perfected the geometrical reasoning of the ancients 45 , and, when the powers of geometry and of the ordinary algebra proved insufficient for his sublime enquiry, he invented another mode of reasoning * 6 , by which he pro- secuted his investigations. If the mathematicians of the continent have since provided a method of reasoning more convenient in its use, and more extended in its application, we have reason to believe, that its principle was originally suggested to Leibnitz by a communication from Newton 47 , in which he had obscurely intimated his own discoveries. If they have prosecuted their method with an acknowledged 45 In his method of prime and ultimate ratios, explained in the lem- mas, which he has prefixed to his mathematical principles of natural philosophy, first published in the year 1687. The principle of this mode of reasoning may indeed be traced to the earliest period of geometry, and examples of it in its less perfect form may be found in the writings of Archimedes. 46 The method of fluxions. Of this method, or the differential calculus, to which it gave occasion, Sir F. W. Herschel has remarked, that " it has supplied a means of discovery, bearing the same proportion to the methods previously in use, that the steam-engine does to the mechanical powers employed before its invention." " Whichever way," he adds, "we turn our view, we find ourselves compelled to bow before his genius, and to assign to the name of Newton a place in our veneration, which belongs to no other in the annals of science." Pre- liminary Discourses on the Study of Nat. Philos. in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia. Lond. 1831. How abruptly this great genius arose out of the darkness of ignorance and error, and how much the latter has contributed to the advancement of knowledge, may appear from this, that his attention, we are told, was first turned to the study of mathe- matics by a desire to enquire into the truth of judicial astrology. Brewster's Life of Newton, p. 13. Lond., 1831. 17 It was the judg- ment of Montucla, in regard to the,very contested claim of priority of invention, that the results of the fluxional reasoning, communicated by Newton without any explanation of his process, led Leibnitz to dis- cover the differential and integral calculus, being however assisted by the previous discoveries of Fermat, Barrow, and Wallis. Hist, des' Mathem. tome iii. p. 109. It seems thus that the littleness in the mind of Newton, which withheld the knowledge of his new mode of reason- ing, eventually proved the occasion of a great improvement of mathe- matical science, by sending the mathematicians of the continent into a different track. 416 MODERN HISTORY: superiority, we here discover the influence of the mind of Newton. Foreign mathematicians have been roused to an honourable emulation, while those of the British empire, re- verencing the fame of their great philosopher, have too long lingered in his path. In noticing the progress of philosophical discovery it may be interesting to remark of the boast of Archimedes, that he could move even the globe of the earth by his mechanic skill, if he could find a place, in which to stand ; that we now know from the system of Newton the condition to be perfectly needless, and the boast wholly nugatory, since without any such position, and without any mechanical con- trivance, every the slightest motion generated by whatever cause on the surface of our earth, must by the universal agency of gravitation move, not only the earth itself, but the whole planetary, and perhaps also the whole sidereal system. It is a curious correspondence in the appearance of dis- tinguished men, that as Tycho, the author of practical as- tronomy, had furnished Kepler with the means of discover- ing, though still unable to explain, the laws of the planetary motions, so 48 Flamsteed, an English astronomer, provided with the aid of the telescope, which had been unknown in the time of Tycho, more accurate and extended observations, enabling Newton to subject to analysis the lunar inequalities, and to constitute astronomy a physical science by demon- strating its laws. From the year 1675, in which Flamsteed was nominated astronomer royal, the modern astronomy may properly be dated, the observations of Tycho, made about a century before without the telescope and the use of clocks, having been very rough and imperfect. After all which Newton has accomplished, the superior power of his mind may seem to be best estimated from that, which in the actual state of physical science he could only conjecture, because in these instances he has most out- stripped the general intelligence of his age. From their respective degrees of power in refracting light 49 , he was led to conceive that the diamond is wholly, and water partly, composed of an inflammable substance ; and the improved 48 See account of the Rev. John Flamsteed by F. Baily, Esq., Loud. 1835. * 9 Optice, lib. ii. part iii. prop. 10. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 417 chemistry of our age has accordingly ascertained, that the former is pure carbon, and may be wholly consumed, and that the latter is formed partly of inflammable air. In his own science of light also he was, from the peculiarity of the refractive power of Iceland-crystal 50 , led to anticipate the discovery of the polarisation of the rays of light, which at- tributes to corpuscles, minute beyond all imagination, sides possessed of contrary qualities, like the contrasted poles of magnetic substances. While Newton was thus engaged in disclosing to the world the secrets of material nature, Locke was applying to the examination of the human mind the same process of observation, and giving a beginning to the modern metaphy- sics. Encouraged by the bold independence of the French philosopher Des Cartes, but with equal independence reject- ing the novel theories 51 , which that philosopher had substi- tuted for the old, he investigated by actual experience the proceedings of the understanding in the acquisition of know- ledge, prescribed methods of removing the difficulties op- posed by the imperfections and abuses of language, and even marked the limits, by which the researches of our reason must naturally be bounded and confined. Defects, at the close of much more than a century, may now doubtless be 50 Optice, lib. ii. part iii. quaest. 29. 51 Locke has strenuously combated two theories of Des Cartes, one relating to spirit, the other to matter. In regard to spirit he has effectually disproved the notion of innate ideas, and in regard to matter he has with equal success main- tained that the ideas of body and extension had been improperly confounded. He seems however to have failed in his effort to prove that the soul does not always think, which he conceived, though erro- neously, to be necessary to his argument disproving the existence of innate ideas. The recurrence, so commonly experienced, of an idea to the mind, when the effort to recover it had been abandoned as hopeless, and the attention had been directed to a wholly different train of thought, or perhaps suspended in sound sleep, seems explicable only by supposing, that the former train of thought had been continued after consciousness had ceased, and again attracted attention, when it had reached the desired idea. The analogical argument, that the act of thinking is not more necessary to the mind than the act of moving to the body, is destitute of foundation, for vitality is not separable from motion of some kind. Nor can a power so frequently auxiliary to memory as unconscious thought, be deemed useless; and surely the belief of its perpetual and inherent activity exalts our conception of the human soul. VOL. III. E E 418 MODERN HISTORY: perceived in his Essay on the Human Understanding, but it still remains a noble and instructive monument of original and practical observation. The same philosopher, in the same year in which he pub- lished this work 52 , gave also to the world his Treatise on Civil Government, which was long esteemed as the justifica- tion of the British revolution. While the succession estab- lished by that event was threatened by the pretensions of the exiled family, and the world had not yet been instructed in the evils of a subverted government, the principles of this treatise were not very jealously examined and it was ad- mitted to be the plea of those, who had rescued the consti- tution from the tyranny and bigotry of James II. It has however been since perceived, that the theory of govern- ment, which it proposes, is irreconcilable to the cautious and moderate conduct of the statesmen 53 , whom it professes to vindicate, and that the principle of free consent, which it maintains, tends by very direct inference to relax all the bands of political society. The principles of the true theory of our social relations appear to be, that every civilised man is born in, and for society ; that every social combination of men, which possesses the efficient vigour of a government, is preferable to anarchy, and therefore is entitled to support ; and that revolution is justifiable only when a government has, from whatsoever cause, so lost its efficiency, that vio- lence cannot be necessary for accomplishing the change. These principles are sufficient to justify the British revolution, 52 Both were published in the year 1690. The treatise on civil government appears to have been composed to vindicate the revolution, when the nonjuring bishops had revived an absurd treatise of Sir Robert Filmer, which traced the right of kings to the authority of the patriarchs. That on the human understanding had been long meditated and composed at Amsterdam before the revolution. In the former Locke appears to have combined the notion of the natural equality of men, maintained by Hobbes, with Hooker's notion of consent as the foundation of government. M The whole history of the revolution manifests an anxious desire to deviate as little as possible from the ordinary practice of the government, and even to disguise as much as was practicable the irregularity, which could not be avoided. There was accordingly no mention of cashiering the king. It was on the contrary earnestly insisted, that there was no dissolution of the govern- ment; and assemblages of the populace, though favourable to the revolution, were prohibited by proclamation. Moore's History of the Brit. Revol.., ch. iii. Burke's Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs. GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1685 1688. 419 for the military force employed was competent only to the prevention of disorder. Modern experience would not en- courage us to embrace others less favourable to the stability of existing governments. Of these two founders of English philosophy it should be remarked, that both were strongly attached to the Christian religion, and both exercised their faculties hi illustrating the sacred writings. If the metaphysician was too eager to persuade himself, that the truths of religion must be strictly consonant to the natural apprehensions of his reason, yet the greater Newton M was sincere and zealous in his belief of its mysterious doctrines. The philosophy of the British empire has been from its first formation the ally of religion. CHAPTER XIX. Of the history of France, from the accession of Louis XIII. in the year 1610 to the death of cardinal Mazarin in the year 1661. Louis XIII. king, in the year 1610 Richelieu minister, 1624 The Protestants finally reduced, 1629 Cardinal Mazarin minister, 1642 Louis XIV. king, 1643 War of the fronde begun, 1648 ended, 1652 The death of cardinal Mazarin, 1661. THE history of France has been reviewed to the death of the celebrated Henry IV., which occurred eight years before the commencement of the great war of Germany. From that time, through the long period of fifty-one years ending with the death of cardinal Mazarin, the government seems to have made preparation for the splendid exertions of the reign of Louis XIV., which procured for France the predominance in the later period of the federative policy of Europe. By the death of the cardinal the king became emancipated from 54 " We know," says Sir David Brewster, " that Sir Isaac Newton was greatly offended at Mr. Whiston, for having represented him as an Arian ; and so much did he resent the conduct of his friend in ascribing to him heretical opinions, that he would not permit him to be elected a fellow of the Royal Society, while he was president." Life of Sir I. Newton, p. 284. London," 1831. K E 2 420 MODERN HISTORY : the tutelage, in which he had been held by the cautious policy of that minister, and was left at liberty to engage in those enterprises of ambition, which changed the general system of political relations. The edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed to the Pro- testants of France a political existence, and even a kind of republican independence 1 in the heart of the kingdom, could be but a temporary arrangement 2 . It gave to the Protestants the habit of acting as a body, and it animated them with the confidence belonging to successful resist- ance ; but it presented them to the government in a hos- tile and alarming position, and was sure to bring against them the full exertion of its power, as soon as they should have lost Henry IV. their friend and protector. Louis XIII. accordingly was scarcely seated on the throne, when the court began to adopt measures unfriendly to the Protestants. As the king was then only nine years old, the government was administered by his mother in the character of regent. This princess immediately embraced a new plan of policy, by courting the alliance of Spain, with the royal family of which country she negotiated two treaties of marriage, one for the young king, the other for his sister. Her change of policy alarmed the Protestants 3 , already by the assassina- tion of Henry IV. convinced of the relentless bigotry of their adversaries ; and they in consequence commenced hostilities, which at the end of seventeen years were concluded by the entire reduction of their party. The reign of Louis XIII., which was extended to thirty- three years, may notwithstanding be considered as a per- petual minority, the superior mind of Richelieu having suc- ceeded to the authority previously exercised, first by the queen regent, and then by a favourite, and having to the end of his life, which preceded the death of the king by only six months, maintained an entire ascendency. Even after the death of this minister 4 his influence survived, and deter - 1 After the apostasy of Henry IV. they refused to nominate another protector from the great, committing the management of their interests to a sort of states general of the sect. Eclaircissemens Historiques sur les Causes de la Revocation de 1'Edit de Nantes, tome i- pp. 12, 13. 3 Mably, tome iii. pp. 263, &c. Eclairc. Hist., tome i. pp. 14, 15. :i Mably, tome iii. p. 261. 4 L'Intrigue du Cabinet sous Henri IV. et Louia XIII. par Anquetil, tome iii. pp. 135, 136. Paris, 1780. FKANCE, 16101661. 421 mined the choice of his successor, the cardinal Mazarin. Richelieu indeed deserved to govern the kingdom and the king. Comprehensive in his views, and vigorous in his measures, he reduced to order an unsettled government, developed and improved its yet latent energies, and directed them with success to the adjustment of the political interests of Europe. Louis on the other hand does not seem to have been de- ficient in understanding, and, having acquired the surname of the just, must have been respected for his moral qualities 9 . Though indeed he appears to have been by nature 6 destined to be directed by others, he was however far from being a mere puppet 7 , guided mechanically by whoever happened to be near him. He is described by historians 8 as passive in the general habits of his character, but yet struggling from time to time against the ascendency of his minister, and yielding to him only in a conviction of the wisdom of his measures. Inert, but not destitute of the ability of a sove- reign ; sensible of the merit of his minister, yet struggling against his superiority ; such was the monarch, whose reign, begun by a feeble and distracted regency, was afterwards by the genius of Richelieu rendered the period of the exaltation of the royal authority at home, and distinguished abroad for the successful exertion of the power of France in adjusting the interests of Europe. To the actual circumstances of his country he was particularly suited 9 . He would have been too weak for the embarrassing situation of his father Henry IV., and too circumspect for the brilliant career of his son Louis XIV. ; but his cold and cautious prudence qualified him to establish the yet tottering throne of the one, and to prepare his country for the splendid exertions of the other. The regency of the queen-mother, and the ministry of the favourite, by whom she was succeeded, formed a fit prelude 5 St. Simon has related an instance, in which this prince very deci- sively repulsed a proposal made to him by his father, of negotiating an intrigue between him and a Mademoiselle d'Hautefort, to whom he was much attached. Supp. au M^moires, tome ii. p. 343. 6 L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome ii. p. 77. 7 When Richelieu, having lost Corbie to the Spaniards, would have retired beyond the Seine, he overruled the minister. St. Simon, Supp., tome ii. p. 336. 8 Renault, vol. ii. p. 88. L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome ii. pp. 195, &c. Renault, vol. ii. p. 88. 422 MODERN HISTORY : for the administration of Richelieu. Fond of intrigue, but ignorant of true policy, the queen, herself an Italian 10 , aban- doned herself to a partiality for an obscure native of her own country, and drove from her court into a sort of imperfect rebellion 11 the grandees of both the great parties, which had long agitated the state. These grandees were however very different from their fathers, who had contended for dominion. Theirs was a struggle only for ascendency at court 12 , for they had already proved by their subserviency to a favourite, that they were actuated by no other principle than an unsatisfied avidity. To pacify the malecontents 13 an assembly of the states Avas convened, the last except that which in the year 1789 subverted the government. Destitute of all interest in the public welfare 14 , this assembly just served to prove to the people of France its entire inutility, and to explode all reliance upon an expedient so unavailing. But at the moment 15 , in which these cabals seemed to threaten the kingdom with the calamities of a distracted government, ap- peared the superior genius, by whose commanding adminis- tration every thing was rectified, these very agitations being rendered instrumental to the exaltation of the royal au- thority. The ecclesiastical state, in which Richelieu had engaged 16 , forbade him to aspire to the possession of independent power, and in France it would not then have been practicable to establish the dominion of the church. The minister accord- ingly devoted to the aggrandisement of his sovereign all the resources of a mind, capable of defying and subduing the resistance of a discontented nobility. The king on the other hand, who, when he first assumed the government had at- tached himself for a short time to a favourite 17 as little capa- ble of directing it, as the favourite of his mother, confided thenceforward, though not implicitly, the management of 10 She was the daughter of Francis, great duke of Tuscany. 11 Henault, vol. ii. p. 34. I/Intrigue du Cabinet, tome i. pp. 319, c. 12 L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome i. pp. 290, &c. 13 In the year 1614, an assembly of the notables equally frivolous was convened at Rouen, and another at the Thuilleries in the year 1626. Ibid., tome ii. pp. 7881, 259. u Mably, tome iii. pp. 277279. 15 Ibid., p. 285. 16 He was bishop of Lu9on in the year 1616, when he was made secretary. In the year 1624 he became a cardinal. 17 The constable de Luynes. PBA3TCE, 16101661. 423 affairs to the zeal of his minister. The vigour of the minister was controlled by the circumspection of the monarch, while the violent measures employed for the reduction of a turbu- lent aristocracy, were felt by the public to have been rather suggested by the minister, than dictated by the sovereign. The reduction of the Protestants 18 was a principal object of his administration, for their privileges rendered them formidable to the state, and useful allies to every party of the discontented. He proposed this object however as a politician, not as a persecutor. He resolved 19 to deprive them of all political strength as a party, but he did not exclude them from an entire toleration as a sect. In ac- complishing this purpose, he made preparation for that other, of reducing the nobles, which was at the time per- ceived by one of that order. For bringing the nobility to depend upon the crown 20 , he extended over the whole kingdom an active system of espionage, and employed even the administration of justice as the instrument of his policy, reducing to practice the maxims of government, which Machiavel had inculcated, and either destroying on the scaffold, or sending into exile, every noble, who would not be subservient to his will. Even the mother of the king 21 , forced into a necessitous banish- ment, exhibited a striking example of the futility of all attempts to oppose this extraordinary minister, which con- founded the schemes of his enemies. The assembly of the states, convened in the year 1614, seems as if it had been held only for justifying the arbi- trary policy of Richelieu, by demonstrating that the aggran- disement of the royal power was the only constitutional improvement accommodated to the circumstances of France. The great trunk of the modern policy of Europe appears to have been unavoidably disqualified for those nicer processes of political combination, which might be elaborated in some of its branches. The feudal habits, which were indispensably prevalent in the central government of the system, seem to have been incapable of furnishing any other result, consist- ently with the unity of the government, than the establishment of a military monarchy. In this government accordingly the 19 Mably, tome iii. p. 287. 19 Eclairc. Hist., tome i. pp. 16, 17. 20 Mably, tome iii. p. 293. 21 L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome ii. p. 87. 424 MODERN HISTORY : administration of Richelieu was, what the revolution of the year 1688 was in our own, the crisis which closed the long series of the public agitations, and gave to the constitution the perfection belonging to its principles. It did not erect a system of civil liberty, for the ground- work of civil liberty did not exist among the French ; but it gave consistency and vigour to the monarchy, enabling it to be 'the instrument of much domestic improvement, and to maintain with Aus- tria a successful struggle for predominance in the general combination of European policy. The beneficial effects of his government were in part achieved by Richelieu himself. He 32 procured the establish- ment of the French academy, and furnished it with endow- ments and privileges, which secured its stability. To him 23 was France indebted for the first encouragement of mari- time commerce, when it had been wholly suppressed by two centuries of foreign or domestic war. To animate the enterprise of the people, he caused himself to be appointed superintendent of commerce, interested himself in the un- dertakings of mercantile companies associated under his protection, and a short time before his death formed by the consolidation of all these societies the company of the Indies. But the splendid and distinguished object of his administration was his strenuous exertion of the power of France for the reduction of the then predominating great- ness of the house of Austria. To this all the measures of his policy appear to have been subordinate. The French Protestants he deprived of an independence not compatible with the unity of the government ; the great nobles he brought down from their feudal haughtiness to an acknow- ledgment of the supremacy of the royal authority ; the various resources of the country, which he governed, he sedulously cultivated and improved : all these efforts how- ever found a common result in the exertions, by which the ambition of Austria was resisted, and compelled to confine itself within limits prescribed by the general interests of Europe. As the administration of Richelieu constituted in the history of France a crisis, corresponding to that of the 22 L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome ii. p. 437 ; tome iii. p. 139. 23 Ibid., tome ii. p. 489. The marine, which he began, was suffered to decay in the time of Mazarin. L'Esprit de la Fronde, tome iii. p. 38. Paris. 1772. FRANCE, 1610 1661. 425 revolution in the history of England, so was it likewise the period, in which the government of the former country was successfully opposed to the predominance of Austria, as to- wards the close of the same century the reign of William, with similar success, opposed the resources of the improved govern- ment of these countries to the usurping ambition of France. It was perhaps unavoidable, that the first efforts to con- stitute a system of federative policy should be perverted by that unprincipled policy, which regards expediency as a sufficient justification of unprovoked aggression. It is indeed not unnatural that a statesman, who must be guided by a consideration of expediency even in maintaining an un- equivocal right, should be brought to think, that it is in every case a justifying principle of political conduct. A melancholy series of unwarrantable aggression may accord- ingly be traced from Richelieu's encroachment on the in- dependence of Savoy 24 , through the treaty proposing to partition the territories of Spain at the close of the same century, and the actual partitions of Poland in that which succeeded, to the grand consummation of this mischievous policy in the establishment of the dominion of France over almost the whole of western Europe. May we hope that mankind, instructed by the calamities with which this spurious policy at length overwhelmed the continent of Eu- rope, will learn to separate from it the true principles of a balanced policy, and to form a system not containing within itself the cause of its own dissolution ? It is remarkable that three contemporary monarchs of this period suffered themselves to be guided by their re- spective ministers ; the king of France by cardinal Richelieu, the king of Spain by count Olivarez, and the king of Eng- land by the duke of Buckingham. It may be added, that the very various characters of the ministers appear to have borne an apt correspondence to the respective situations of 24 In the struggle between France and Austria it was the interest of Savoy to remain neuter. This however did not suit the views of the French minister, and he assumed, through the influence of the widow of the duke, sister of the king of France, an entire and absolute do- minion over the counsels of that state, being perhaps says Anquetil, the first politician, who exhibited to the world the scandalous example of usurpation covered by the appearance of protection. L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome iii. pp. 26 37. 4ZO MODERN HISTORY : the three countries. France, which was then struggling to repress the inordinate ambition of Austria, and to place itself in the station of protector of the liberties of Europe, was governed by the profound and energetic policy of Richelieu. Spain, which assisted in maintaining the cause of Austria, but was in each successive year receding further from the pre-eminence, which it had enjoyed in the pre- ceding century, was administered by the rash vigour of Olivarez, an unequal, but not contemptible antagonist. England, which had then little or no concern with the poli- tical interests of the continent, and was tending rapidly towards the crisis of its domestic agitations, was directed by the vain imbecility of Buckingham. The active genius of the cardinal appears to have been exerted in every di- rection around the country, which he superintended. While he negotiated with the Dutch, the Danes, and the Swedes, and assisted them in their hostilities against Austria in Ger- many, he attacked the Austrian power in Italy, he waged a successful war against Spain, he supported, though he did not instigate 25 , the insurrection of Calabria, and he con- nected himself with the Puritans of England 26 , with the Covenanters of Scotland 27 , and probably with the Roman Catholics of Ireland. Louis XIII., who had been so much guided by this extra- ordinary minister, survived him but a few months, and then transmitted his kngdom to a minority, of which another car- dinal exercised the exclusive direction. Historians appear to have delighted in contrasting the subtle and insinuating policy of Mazarin to the bold and overbearing energy of Richelieu. No two able ministers could have been more different, yet the system of the public measures 28 was not changed. Mazarin had been the pupil of Richelieu, he had adopted in all things his principles of policy, and he pursued them with not less ardour and constancy, though with a cautious and temporising address. The artful management 25 This appears from the narrative of Assarino, in his Rivolutioni di Catalogna, Bologna, 1648. 26 This is positively asserted by White- locke, in his Memorials, p. 22. 27 Hallam's Constit. Hist., vol. ii. p. 20, note. 28 II (le cardinal de Mazarin) se fit un principe de demeurer uni avec tout ce qui avoit tenu au cardinal de Richelieu, qu'il appeloit toujours son maitre. Mem. de St. Simon. Supp. tome ii. p. 215. FRAXCE, 16101661. 427 of the Italian accordingly completed what had been begun by the daring vigour of the French cardinal, the two eccle- siastics being alike disposed to exalt the royal authority on the humiliation of the nobles and the parliament of Paris. Mazarin could not have adequately discharged the function of his predecessor, who had died at the end of the year 1642, between five and six years before the termination of the pro- tracted negotiations of Westphalia. When however these negotiations had begun to be important, and the war to be subordinate to their progress, the crafty genius of Mazarin was best fitted to conduct the great struggle to a conclusion which is the true epoch of the federative policy of Europe. New disturbances occurred in France in the same year, in which the peace of Westphalia was concluded ; but these were of a kind well accommodated to the timid and artful character of the latter minister, who so managed them as to lead them to an issue favourable to the power of the crown. These disturbances too, it should be remarked, were just sufficient to incapacitate France for making such an impres- sion on the Spanish territory, the war with Spain being still continued, as might have impaired the independence of that government, without however disabling it for strengthening its own frontiers, both on the north and on the south, by various important acquisitions. The leader of the new disturbances of France was, like the minister, an ecclesiastic. He was at length raised to the rank of cardinal, and is commonly mentioned by the title of the cardinal de Retz ; but at this time he was coadjutor of the archbishop of Paris, and his great instrument of sedition was the influence 29 , which he exercised over the turbulent spirits of the capital, by the agency of the parochial clergy, who were attached to him for his hypocritical zeal and emi- nent ability. The last struggle of the parties of France was thus maintained under the direction of two ecclesiastical leaders, Mazarin supporting the authority of the crown, while the malecontents were headed by De Retz. The eccle- siastical character of the ministry since the advancement of 29 This he had gained by favouring the Jansenists, who had been persecuted by Kichelieu, and were on that account hostile to Mazarin, whom they considered as his pupil. L'Esprit de la Fronde, tome ii. pp. 214216. Paris, 1772. 428 MODERN HISTORY : Richelieu had separated the executive authority from the nobility ; and that of the leader of sedition seems to have had a similar operation in detaching the malecontents from so close connexion with the nobles, as might have led them to an open rebellion. Thus on both parts was the feudal aristocracy of France excluded from political importance. These disturbances, in which the discontent generated by the severe government of Richelieu feebly exploded, have been distinguished by the name of ihefronde, an appellation ludicrously derived from the daily contests between the police-guard of Paris and the children 30 , who amused them- selves with discharging stones from slings in the trenches of that capital, the alternate boldness and timidity of these young combatants having suggested a comparison between them and the unsteady opponents of the minister. They were indeed maintained by a party so incongruous, that no systematic plan of action could be steadily pursued, and no one distinct object, except the removal of the minister, could even be proposed 31 . Richelieu, in suppressing all opposition to the prerogative, repelled the pretensions of the parliament of Paris, which had with unabated perseverance endeavoured to raise itself from the rank of a judicial tribunal to that of a national council, the approbation of which should be necessary for sanctioning the ordinances of the crown. In this struggle the parliament was forced to yield to a minister, by whom the Protestants and the nobles had been already humbled ; but their discontent, which fermented in secret, manifested itself when a minor sovereign, and a minister less daring, and as a foreigner less supported by connexions, afforded a more favourable opportunity for vindicating their claims. Even then however it was necessary for them to seek assist- ance, wherever it could be procured. An unnatural union was accordingly effected by this society of magistrates with the discontented nobles 32 , and, as if to render the combina- tion as heterogeneous as possible, the whole machine of se- dition was directed by the intrigues of an ambitious eccle- siastic. The result was, as Mably has justly characterised it, perhaps the most ridiculous war, which has been recorded 30 L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome iii. pp. '217, 218. 31 Ibid., p. 311. 32 Mably, tome iii. pp. 294296. FRANCE, 16101661. 429 in history. De Retz, anxious to possess himself of that exalted station, which had been successively occupied by two ecclesiastics, took care to direct to the removal of Ma- zarin the general clamour of his party, but without particu- larising his successor, or specifying the principles, which he should be required to observe ; and, while a war was waged against the confidential minister of the crown 33 , all his ad- versaries were eager to testify their unshaken fidelity to the sovereign. This strange assemblage of faction may be regarded as completing by its discomfiture the success of the administra- tion of Richelieu. The French became weary of all opposi- tion to the royal pleasure. Experience had amply taught them the futility of their endeavours to introduce into their government the principles of freedom ; and they were at length prepared to seek in the splendour of the reign of Louis XIV. the consolation of a brilliant servitude. Among the remarkable peculiarities of this insurrection was the important influence exercised by the women, pre- paratory, as it seems, to the ascendency enjoyed by them in the succeeding century. The female sex had begun to attend the court of France almost a century and a half before this time 34 , having been drawn thither by Anne of Brittany, the queen of Louis XII. ; but, as that prince did not give them much attention, their brilliant appearance commenced in the reign of his successor Francis I. Three female regencies afterwards enhanced the credit of the sex, which acquired yet more influence from the amorous propen- sities of Henry IV. When the women had thus been intro- duced into all the intercourses of society, the endless cabals of the fronde afforded an ample opportunity for exercising their influence. A woman was the soul of every council 35 , and a revolution in the heart of a female announced almost uniformly another in the public affairs. A curious conversa- tion 36 , between Mazarin the French minister and Don Louis de Haro the prime minister of Spain, contrasts in a very striking manner the ladies of the two countries, in one of 33 L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome iii. p. 368.. L'Esprit de Ja Fronde, tomeii. p. 229. M Renault, vol. i. p, 383. 35 Thomas surles Femmes, p. 160. Paris, 1772. 36 L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome iii. pp. 382, 383. 430 MODERN HISTOKY: which they had become politicians, in the other had con- tinued to maintain merely the social importance of the sex. The French congratulates the Spanish minister on the good fortune of his country, in being exempted from a cause of confusion, greater than any which had been known at Babel. The Spaniard in reply expresses his thankfulness for the different disposition of the women of his country, who, if they received money from their husbands, or from their gallants, were completely satisfied, and felt no ambition of concerning themselves with the interests of the state. The conduct of these female politicians of France was not very scrupulously regulated by decorum. Their interviews were almost always held at night 37 , and the ladies in their beds received their negotiators ; and such is the force of the pre- judice of party, as De Retz the great master of faction has well observed, that the public allowed these violations of decency to pass without any animadversion. It has been 38 well observed of the spirit of female intrigue, which had thus been generated in France, that it made the women in general agreeable intelligent companions, and sometimes inestimable friends ; but that the neglect of all the severer virtues so deteriorated the female character, and so banished all truth of principle from its social relations, that perhaps nothing less than the dreadful remedy administered by the revolution could have awakened them to a sense of their real interests, and restored the women of France to their true and appropriate consideration in society. An insurrection, the professed object of which was the removal of the obnoxious minister of a regency, was natu- ally concluded in the year preceding that, in which the sovereign received the crown. The royal authority 39 , strengthened by the very shocks, which it had sustained, began from this time to display that vigour, which continu- ally increased through the protracted reign of Louis XIV. All opposition had been discomfited and discredited, nor did any domestic discontent remain to divert the attention of the government from the enterprises of foreign ambition. The administration of Mazarin was however continued about nine 37 L'Intrigue du Cabinet, tome iv. p. 69. 39 England and France, &c., vol. i. p. 167. Lond. 1834. 39 L'Esprit de la Fronde, tome v. pp. 813, 814. FKANCE, 16101661. 431 years longer, during which time his peculiar character was actively exercised in making preparation for the subsequent efforts of this important reign. The predominant passion of Richelieu had been the love of aggrandising the power of the crown, that of Mazarin was an anxiety to improve its finances 40 . The former principle having produced its full effect, the latter was then required to make preparation for great military exertions. It is impossible to review the history of France during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, without being forcibly impressed by the different circumstances and results of the struggles of the religious and political parties of that country and England, which yet in some particulars exhibited a cor- respondence. In each country a sect of presbyterian Pro- testants opposed the established religion, and was led by its ecclesiastical principles to assert a civil independence ; and in each was also formed apolitical party 41 , which laboured to transform the monarchy into a republic. But in the history of England we observe these two parties struggling with united efforts to reduce the power of the crown ; in that of France we see them exerting their efforts in two distinct periods, the religious struggle of the league having been con- cluded nineteen years before the commencement of the poli- tical struggle of the fronde. In England accordingly a great impulse was given to the government, which after an alternate movement settled in the central position of a regulated free- dom, whereas in France the two parties separately exhausted their powers, the religious party having been first reduced to submission. The causes of these distinctions, so important in regard to the subsequent fortunes of the government, may be satisfac- torily assigned. The Presbyterians of England contended for liberty under a government of Protestants, with the inde- pendent party of whom they could for a time coalesce into one powerful opposition within the constitutional forms of the country. Those of France were opposed to a govern- ment of Roman Catholics, from all the orders, and even the 40 This distinction was marked in the following epigram : Fata duos regni nobis rapuere ministros ; Sustulit ille bonos, abstulit iste bona. L'Esp. de la Fr. v. p. 706. *' Ibid., p. G4. 432 MODERN HISTOKY : factions of which, they were necessarily alien, and not affording any national assembly, in which their pretensions could be proposed and discussed. The assemblies of the states 42 had been so degraded in the public estimation, that their nature and character were forgotten. The parliament, in attempting to assume a legislative character, was impelled to connect itself with malecontents, wherever to be found ; but the Protestants 43 stood aloof from a body, which had ordained an annual commemoration of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day 44 , and established a regular Inquisition for the detection of Protestants ; and left them to demon- strate, by their vain, and even ludicrous efforts, how incapable was the French people of maintaining a struggle for free- dom 45 . A single instance sufficiently characterises the difference of the two nations in their political proceedings. The independent party in England proceeded against the earl of Strafford by a parliamentary impeachment, but that of France could devise no better expedient for freeing them- selves from an obnoxious minister, than to outlaw him, and set a price upon his head 46 . The administration of Mazarin lasted just long enough after the termination of the fronde, for concluding the war with Spain by the peace of the Pyrenees, a principal article of which was the stipulation for the marriage of the king with the infanta. Fourteen years before, when the cardinal was directing the negotiations of Westphalia 47 , this alliance had been a favourite object of his policy, as leading with 42 Mably, tome iii. p. 185. 43 L'Esprit de la Fronde, tome v. p. 763. ** Mably, tome iii. p. 185. 45 The party of the nobles, by which the parliament endeavoured to strengthen itself, is disgrace- fully distinguished in history by having given birth to the character and appellation of the petit maitre, the personified frivolity of the nation. Le Siecle de Louis XIV., tome i. p. 78. Londres, 1752. 46 It is creditable to the nation, that this price, 150,000 livres, did not tempt any individual to offer violence to the cardinal, though in the time of the league a similar proscription had caused the death of the admiral de Coligny. Mazarin may indeed have been indebted for his safety to his character of a prince of the church, on account of which the clergy of France declaimed vehemently against the edict. He was also protected by ridicule, Marigny having published a tarif, specifying the several portions of the sum, to which various lesser injuries, inflicted on the person of the cardinal, might afford pretensions. L'Esprit de la Fronde, tome iv. pp. 728, 729. * 7 Renault, vol. ii. p. 136. FRANCE, 1610 1661. 433 much probability to the succession of the crown of Spain. He was then disappointed by the obstinacy, with which the Spaniards refused to accede to the treaty, and the war was continued, until they had been reduced to a more compliant temper. In this interval occurred the sedition of the/ronefe, which the patient address of the minister enabled him to sustain, while he conducted a languid war against the wasted power of that foreign enemy, being assisted in it by the dis- content of the turbulent Catalonians * 8 . The same minister had thus the extraordinary fortune of concluding the peace of Westphalia, which first established a balance of power in Europe by opposing France to Austria ; of suppressing, or rather of exhausting, the last remnant of domestic dis- content, and thus preparing France for the uncontrolled ex- ertion of the whole power of the government ; and of ac- complishing the Spanish negotiation, which eventually transferred the Spanish crown from the reigning family of Austria to that of France, and thus established the predo- minance of the latter in the combinations of Europe. The functions of this minister appear to have been dis- charged in the completion of these important measures, after which his administration was speedily terminated by his death. Within little more than a year from the con- clusion of the peace of the Pyrenees, the death of Mazarin left Louis XIV. at liberty to develope all the energies of his government, and to give a beginning to a new period of the policy of Europe. Austria was accordingly by his efforts removed from that pre-eminence of power, which had been adjusted by the treaty of Westphalia; and, while France assumed the station of the principal member of the system, a distinct series of events constituted the British go- vernment the rival state, and the protector of the general independence. 48 The French had availed themselves of it to establish themselves within their province, which they ceased to occupy only a few months before the suppression of the troubles of their own country. Mem. de Louis XIV. et XV., par Millot, tome L p. 318. Paris, 1777. VOL. III. F F CHAPTER XX. Of the history of France, from the death of cardinal Mazarin in the year 1661 to the grand alliance formed against France in the year 1689. War of the right of devolution, in the year 1667 Triple alliance and peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1668 War with the Dutch, 1672 Alliance against France, 1674 Peace of Nimeguen, 1678 Chamber of re- union, 1680 Liberties of the Gallican church asserted, 1682 Re- vocation of the edict of Nantes, 1685 League of Augsburg, 1686 First grand alliance, 1689. THE age of Louis XIV. claims to be considered as the fourth of those distinguished periods of the history of our species, which form the fertile oases of its intellectual progress amidst the uniform and wearying wastes of violence and ambition. It is consoling to the philosophic student of history to dis- cover these refreshing interruptions of the tiresome series of national contentions, especially as they have regularly oc- curred just when those contentions had reached an extreme of violence, which threatened an hopeless succession of savage animosity. The concluding age of the great contest of Greece and Persia, the age of Philip and Alexander, was the most bril- liant period of those illustrious republics, to which every friend of human refinement is accustomed to look back with almost religious veneration. The age of Augustus, which closed the devastations of Roman ambition, was adorned with such a combination of mental excellence, that it has furnished an appellation for every succeeding period of men- tal improvement. The age of Leo, which followed the feudal barbarity of modern Europe, was the bright dawn of returning literature and art. The period of those mighty struggles, which established for a century the federative re- lations of Europe, was distinguished by an expansive energy of intellect which corresponded in dignity to the great crisis of the political history of the west. In all these cases indeed the principles of intellectual im- provement had first been introduced, and were afterwards but developed by the strong excitement of the public agita- FEANCE, 1661 1689. 435 tion. Uncivilised man appears to be doomed to follow one unvarying course of violence, which no more improves his social situation, than the ravages of the brute inhabitants of the forest tend to raise them to the condition of humanity. It is when the principles of intellectual improvement have been previously mingled in the mass, that the strong fer- mentation, generated in the combination of human passions, sends forth the powers, which exalt and adorn our nature. The disturbed scene of political struggle then constitutes a moral chaos, over which the spirit of our Maker moves, as over the primordial mass of the material world ; and the light of intellectual refinement springs at the high bidding of his providential government from the elemental conflict of the violences of his creatures. France, at the decease of cardinal Mazarin, was in a con- dition, which especially qualified it for claiming and main- taining an ascendency among the states of Europe. Having just then concluded the last of its civil contentions, it pos- sessed all the spring of character, which would enable it to make a powerful impression on the neighbouring govern- ments ; and the final suppression of the pretensions of every order of subjects had placed at the disposal of the sovereign the whole of the resources of that rich and populous coun- try. The administration of Richelieu had humbled the Huguenots and the nobles ; that of Mazarin had exhausted in a commotion, which was even ludicrous, the ambition of the parliament and the sedition of the capital ; and the French of every class were at this time prepared to regard the authority of the sovereign as the only principle of the public measures, and eager to direct to some external object that spirit of enterprise, which could no longer find employ- ment at home. In circumstances thus favourable began the immediate go- vernment of a sovereign, who seems to have been specially gifted for the station, which he filled. Fond of the pageantry of a court 1 , and possessing those personal qualities, which fitted him to excel in its pompous ceremonial, he attracted the reverence of the multitude, and commanded the respect of his courtiers ; indefatigable in his application to business, he drew the consideration of all public affairs to himself, and 1 St. Simon, tome i. p. 11. f F 2 436 MODERN HISTOIIY: rendered his ministers but the agents of the determinations, which they had assisted him to form ; and, though dazzled hy the glare of ambition, and bigoted in his notions of reli- gion, yet being sincerely desirous of advancing the interests of his people, he gave a steadiness to the political machine, which enabled it to withstand the most formidable shocks. He does not appear to have possessed extraordinary talents 2 ; but he was capable of deriving improvement from every ex- ample of excellence, and he was the universal patron of literary genius 3 . His private conduct was licentious, and encouraged the abuses of a pleasurable court ; but he never wholly abandoned his respect for decorum, and the recovered virtue of his mind at length directed him to an attachment, of which virtue combined with talent constituted the at- traction. If Louis XIV. had been one of those extraordinary men, who seem to have been formed to decide the destinies of nations, the ascendency, which he must have acquired, might have been fatal to the liberties of Europe. Instead of this he was 4 , in the commencement of his actual government, surrounded by men endowed with all the talents, which the preceding agitations of the country had been fitted to draw forth, and to improve. Of the services of these survivors of the public commotions he availed himself in the earlier part of his government, in which he alarmed the other powers of Europe into a general combination of resistance ; and, when these superior men had been removed from the political scene, his jealousy of self-direction, which would not suffer them to be succeeded by others like themselves, relaxed the efforts so formidable to the neighbouring states, and reduced him to a necessity of yielding to that arrangement of the general interests, which constituted the new order of federa- - St. Simon, tome i. pp. 9, 32, 33. 3 The duke de St. Aignan having remarked to the king, that cardinal Richelieu had sent presents to some learned foreigners, by whom he had been eulogised, he recom- mended to his ministers to select a number of persons, Frenchmen and foreigners, distinguished for literature, to whom he should send proofs of his generosity. A list of sixty persons was accordingly prepared, to some of whom presents were given, to others pensions. Among the foreigners were J. Vosshis, the historiographer of the United Provinces, and Huygens the mathematician. Siecle de Louis XIV., tome ii. p. 37. 4 St. Simon, tome i. pp. 9, 10. FEANCE, 1661 1689. 437 tive policy. The reign of this prince, from the death of the cardinal Mazarin, appears accordingly to be divisible into two parts of directly opposite characters, the earlier a period of haughty and alarming ambition, the later a period of pub- lic embarrassment and confusion. Throughout the two he acted for himself, and with the same views of vain-glorious aggrandisement ; but he acted in them with instruments of very unequal powers, and consequently with very unequal efficacy. It is deserving of attention, that in the year preceding that of the death of cardinal Mazarin the family of the Stuarts was restored to the throne of these countries. The time was then approaching, when William was to engage the British government in the antigallican alliances of the continent, and to transfer to it from his own republic the office of op- posing and controlling the overbearing violence of France. Preparatory to this function of the British government was the close connexion, which the re-establishment of the Stuarts occasioned for a time between the future rivals in the Euro- pean system. Depending on the treacherous assistance of France for support, in their unwarrantable enterprises against the freedom and the religion of their people, these ill-directed monarchs at once alarmed the prince of Orange with the ap- prehension of a confederacy dangerous to the independence of Europe, and their own subjects with the dread of tyranny and persecution. The later period of the British dynasty of the Stuarts was accordingly coincident in its commencement with the active government of the sovereign, whose ambition was to be restrained by the revolutionized government of Britain. The grand action and the underplot of the political drama began and proceeded together. Louis, in the very commencement of his immediate go- vernment, manifested the high tone, which he chose to as- sume among the potentates of Europe. The Spanish court was compelled to desist from a pretension of precedency maintained by its ambassadors in London, and even to an- nounce its humiliation by despatching an extraordinary am- bassador to the court of France. The court of Rome too, once so much dreaded by the secular governments, was treated with the same air of commanding superiority. The attendants of the French ambassador in Rome having in- 438 MODEKN HISTORY : suited the police-guard of the pontiff, the violence was re- taliated by an assault committed on the residence and the equipage of the ambassador. The county of Avignon was immediately seized by the French monarch, for the purpose of enforcing the satisfaction, to which he deemed himself entitled, and the 5 pope was reduced to the necessity of com- plying with the most mortifying demands. The year 1667, which was six years later than the death of Mazarin, was the epoch of those aggressions, which alarmed the apprehensions of Europe, and gave occasion to the com- bination, by which the new system of its interests was ar- ranged. Upon the death of the king of Spain, who by a former consort had been father to the queen of France, a claim was advanced to the inheritance of the Spanish Nether- lands, founded on an alleged usage peculiar to some of those provinces 6 . The Spanish monarch having had by his second queen a male successor, it was reserved for a later period of the reign of Louis XIV. to aspire to place a prince of the house of Bourbon on the throne of that country. The al- liance negotiated for Louis XIV. by the crafty Mazarin thus procured for the crown of France pretensions to the same territories, which about a century and a half before had so essentially contributed to the greatness of Austria. These two pretensions were the hinges, on which turned the ar- rangement of the French period of the policy of Europe. The war occasioned by the pretension to the Netherlands brought forward the illustrious prince of Orange, and gave being to the combination of the freedom and power of the British government with the independence of the continent : that occasioned by the claim of the succession of Spain on the other hand established the ascendency of France, by 5 He was compelled to banish from Rome his own brother, to send his nephew, the cardinal Chigi, as a legate a latere, to make satisfaction to the king, to disband the Corsiean guard, and to erect in Rome a pyramid, on which were recorded the injury and the reparation ; some years afterwards however Louis permitted the pyramid to be destroyed. The court of Rome was likewise compelled to restore Castro and Con- ciglione to the duke of Parma, and to indemnify the duke of Modena for his claims on Commachio, the king thus drawing from an insult the honour of being the protector of the princes of Italy. Siecle de Louis XIV., tome i. pp. 133, 134. 6 By this, usage property devolved to the children of a first marriage, when the parent had engaged in a second. FRANCE, 16611689. 489 transferring the monarchy of that country from the family of Austria to that of Bourbon. The king of France, aided by Colbert, who had multiplied the resources of the state, and by Louvois, who first reduced to a system the war-department of the government, made a deep impression on the distant and ill-protected dependen- cies of the decaying monarchy of Spain. The influence of the balancing policy was however speedily manifested 7 , a treaty of triple alliance being suddenly concluded between Great Britain, the Dutch republic and Sweden. Alarmed at this combination, the French king deemed it necessary to accede to a proposal of the allied powers ; but by the treaty concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle in the following year he re- tained possession of Spanish Flanders, which enabled him to command an entrance into the United Provinces. This earliest confederacy was speedily dissipated, though the three powers had engaged to guarantee the treaty. Charles II. of England was soon seduced from it by Louis, who undertook to supply the necessities of his profusion, and Sweden was without much difficulty brought back to its habitual dependence on the subsidies of France. The emperor also being at this time occupied by the disturbances of Hungary, the United Provinces, distracted by the strug- gles of the republicans and the partisans of the house of Orange, were exposed without any protection to the resent- ment 8 and the ambition of the neighbouring monarch. Some pretended insults were alleged to justify the aggressions of a new confederacy, in which France was aided by Great Britain and two German principalities adjacent to the re- public. Three of the seven provinces were then almost im- mediately overrun. Amsterdam itself appears to have been saved only by a brief opportunity of inundating the neigh- bouring country 9 ; and the more considerable families began 7 The contracting powers agreed to compel the two belligerents to consent to certain terms of accommodation, which they should propose. 8 The determination of the confederated states, engaged in the triple alliance, to compel the consent of France, was one of the principal causes of the war afterwards waged by Louis against the republic. Abrege de 1'Hist. des Traites, tome i. pp. 189, 190. 9 One instant of diligence, says Voltaire, would have placed Amsterdam in the power of the king, The delay was caused by the war-minister Lou- vois, who wished to proceed regularly with the fortified places, leaving 440 MODERN HISTORY : to take measures for seeking in Batavia that independence, which seemed to have been lost in Europe. From this immense disproportion of the means of attack and of resistance the divine Providence appears to have drawn forth the arrangements of the new system of policy. If the United Provinces had been more able to struggle with their enemies, other governments would have been less alarmed, and therefore less disposed to enter into the combi- nations, which generated the new political order. The chief too of a more considerable state might have been to the people of Great Britain an object of political apprehension, instead of being hailed as their deliverer from tyranny and persecution. If on the other hand the British nation had not been brought into an impolitic connexion with France by princes, whom it justly regarded as the enemies of its free- dom and religion, it would probably have been alienated by commercial rivalry from a political connexion with the United Provinces. Perhaps the whole range of human history does not pre- sent two distinguished and eminent characters more per- fectly contrasted than Louis XIV. and the prince of Orange, nor more remarkably adapted to their respective situations. The French monarch, vain-glorious, ambitious, and bigoted, was fitted to cherish the pride of his own subjects and to alarm the apprehensions of other nations. The Dutch prince, indifferent to pageantry, cold and repulsive in his demeanour, tolerant in his notions of religion, and solicitous only for the independence of Europe, could neither flatter the vanity of his countrymen, nor excite in other states dis- trust and resistance. The characteristics of his spirit were fortitude, which no danger could dismay, integrity, which malignity could not discredit, patient perseverance, which opposition and embarrassment could not exhaust. His ag- grandisement was the work of the exigencies of his country and of Europe, not of personal ambition. Though the splendour of an ostentatious monarchy has bestowed upon this period the name of the age of Louis, a philosophical in- quirer must discover in the Dutch prince the informing soul of all its political arrangements. The war, begun with the Dutch in the year 1672, was garrisons in them as they were reduced. Siecle de Louis XIV., ton: i. pp. 182, 192, 193. FRANCE, 1661 1689. 441 terminated six years afterwards by the peace of Nimeguen, the terms of which were dictated by France, though, in the design of detaching the United Provinces from the con- federacy formed for their protection 10 , Maestricht and its de- pendencies, all which remained of the conquests made from the republic, were surrendered to the Dutch. The combi- nation, which afterwards gave birth to the grand alliance against France, was yet but beginning to be formed. The government of Great Britain was at this time connected with France, though the people were desirous of resisting its ambition ; the emperor was too much occupied by the disturbances in Hungary, which are said to have been fo- mented by the emissaries of Louis ; and the prince of Orange, though not too young to have acquired an influence over his own countrymen, was not yet enabled to exercise a similar influence over their allies. Even if the powers, afterwards united in the grand alliance, had been at this time sufficiently prepared for acting against France, yet so difficult is it to combine in a common cause the exertions of independent governments, that a course of discipline was still necessary for training them to a steady and effectual co- operation. The progress of French ambition to that limit, at which it was finally repressed, exhibits a remarkable correspondence to the successive advances of imperial usurpation, which led to the treaty of Westphalia. The emperor, in the great war of thirty years, first triumphed over the resistance of the German princes, and then crushed the interposition of the king of Denmark ; nor was it until the imperial power ap- peared to be established on the ruin of all opposition, that the confederacy was formed with France and Sweden, which adjusted the interests of the empire and of Europe. It seems in this respect to be in politics, as in mechanics. A body may with a considerable velocity find a way through the yield- ing atmosphere, by which we are surrounded ; but the re- sistance is increased with the violence of the power, by which that motion is impressed, and may at length be so aug- mented, as to present an impenetrable barrier. 10 This was composed of the emperor, the king of Spain, the elector of Brandenburg, and the states of the empire. Tableau des Revol. de 1'Europe, tome ii. pp. 173, 174. Denmark also acceded to it. Abrege de 1'Hist. des Traites, tome ii. p. 205. 442 MODERN HISTORY : At the conclusion of the peace of Nimeguen, in the year 1678, Louis was at the summit of his grandeur. Having been successful in all his enterprises, and during the six preceding years the terror of Europe, he had then dic- tated to his confederated enemies the terms of pacification, enlarging his own dominions by the addition of Franche- Comt6 and a moiety of Flanders. But the impulse, which had urged him thus far, continued to excite him to new ag- gressions, until he provoked that more powerful alliance, which fixed for a century the political relations of Europe. Not satisfied with the accessions of territory conceded to him by the treaty, he established tribunals of re-unions, for deciding on the pretensions, which he advanced in regard to other districts, as having formerly appertained to these. Spain and the empire he outraged by demands, which were not even palliated by so slight a pretext, but were urged only as agreeable to the spirit of the treaty. The Roman pontiff he treated with the most contemptuous indignity, because he had been connected with the Austrian interest. He endeavoured also to procure for one of his creatures the electorate of Cologne, and he advanced a claim of the Pala- tinate in behalf of his sister-in-law the duchess of Orleans. These multiplied indications of an insatiable ambition at length produced their natural effect in the formation of the league of Augsburg, which William was thus enabled to accomplish two years before our memorable revolution. This league prepared the way for the grand alliance, which fol- lowed three years afterwards, as it favoured the revolution of the British government, which enabled William to effect that larger confederacy. By the league of Augsburg the power of France was diverted from interfering for the protection of James II. of England, and William was permitted to prosecute without obstruction the important enterprise, which, while it rescued our liberty and religion from domes- tic oppression, placed him in a position, by which he could secure against France the general independence of Europe. But the formation of this important confederacy against French ambition was aided by another and more powerful principle than merely political apprehension, one which ad- dresses itself to the hearts of individuals, and prompts them to disregard the most painful privations, and to bid defiance FRANCE, 1661 1689. 443 to the menaces of danger. Here also we perceive a remark- able correspondence to the circumstances of the earlier ad- justment of the interests of Europe, which had been effected by the German government. The motives of human po- licy on that occasion actuated the counsels of princes, but their subjects were instigated by an anxiety for securing re- ligious interests, felt to be important in every gradation of society. The great division of religious sentiment, occasioned by the reformation, was not indeed in the time of Louis XIV. sufficiently recent, to act of itself with so much power on the minds of the people of Europe, as might strengthen and extend the combinations of merely political interest; but the bigotry of this monarch supplied the deficiency occasioned by the lapse of time, and kindled among his ene- mies a fervour of religious feeling, as in the very crisis of the reformation. The first and most important of the measures of the royal bigotry was the revocation of the edict of Nantes, which in the year 1598, or eighty-seven years before, had constituted the Protestants an organised body in the state. If they had still continued in the situation, in which they had been placed by the edict, the measure would have been justified by the interest of the public ; but all which was politically dangerous in that arrangement, had been annulled before the reign of Louis XIV., for Richelieu 11 had at length taken from them the cautionary towns, when the limited term, for which they had been conceded, had been renewed, and had again expired. That they had ceased to be objects of political apprehension, appears indeed from the testimony of Louis himself, for in his memoirs addressed to his son 12 , he has enumerated all the various embarrassments, under which he assumed the direction of the government, and in this recital has made no mention of the Protestants. The animosity of their adversaries 13 however was not moderated by any consideration of their inability to cause disturbance. Though in many places a happy harmony subsisted between the two churches, yet the spirit of the league still prevailed among the multitude, and Louis, in recalling the edict of Nantes, and in suffering his minister to proceed even to the Eclairc. Hist., tome i. pp. 15, 16. 12 Ibid., pp. 2630. 13 Ibid., tome ii. pp. 3336. 444 MODERN HISTORY: violences of persecution, but yielded to the sentiment of the great majority of his people. This proceeding has been ascribed to the combined in- fluence of Louvois the minister of war 14 , of Madame de Maintenon, whom the king had privately married within the two preceding months, and of the Jesuits. The minister appears to have taken upon himself the management of this part of the affairs of the government, as soon as he disco- vered that the interest of religion had begun to prevail in the mind of the king 18 . Madame de Maintenon, originally a Protestant, found it necessary to her advancement, that she should, as she has herself remarked, approve things very repugnant to her real sentiments. The Jesuits may well be supposed to have exercised their influence in the same cause, for the clergy had been actively employed during the six- teen preceding years in recommending this policy. The grand motive of the king appears to have been the same with that, which had prompted him to enter into his extraordinary mar- riage with the widow of Scarron. Disgusted with the retro- spect of the licentiousness of his past life, he seems to have sought in this marriage a more reasonable and moral engage- ment for his private hours, and in his severe treatment of his protestant subjects the consolation of believing, that he was effacing the scandals of his former conduct by his present zeal for the cause of religion. He had indeed been per- suaded, that the conversion of his protestant subjects might be effected without any actual violence 16 , and was by degrees led on to the extremity, which has dishonoured his name, and more than any other cause defeated the hopes of his ambition. The revocation of the edict of Nantes, and the subsequent persecution of the French Protestants, sent abroad into the protestant countries of Europe the victims of his violence, to excite everywhere against him the most deter- mined resistance. Nor was this the only proceeding, by which he alarmed the apprehensions of the Protestants of Europe. His in- terference with the duke of Savoy, to induce him to perse- cute the original Protestants in the vallies of Piedmont, confirmed the persuasion of his general hostility to all, who 14 Louis XIV., sa Cour, et le Regent, par Anquetil, tome ii. p. 172. Paris, 1793. 16 Eclairc. Hist., tome i. pp. 113, 198, 207. 16 Siecle de Louis XIV., tome i. p. 264. FRANCE, 1661 1689. 445 differed from the church of Rome. The devastation of the Palatinate 17 and some neighbouring districts, though only a measure of unfeeling policy, spread among the Protestants of Germany a horror of his name. His close and intimate connexion with James II. of England, who was openly en- deavouring to subvert at once the religion and liberty of these countries, presented him to the view of protestant Eu- rope as a most formidable enemy. Even among the Roman Catholic states, of which the confederacy combined against him was partly composed, he contrived to excite a religious alienation by his offensive treatment of the Roman pontiff. We seem indeed, when we are surveying the conduct of this monarch in all its bearings, to be contemplating one of the characters described to us in the fictions of romance, as lured by some supernatural agency to the pursuit of a great and splendid object, and impelled at the same time to seek it in a course of action, which frustrates the aspirings of their irregular ambition. The Protestant of Ireland, when he reviews the reign of Louis, may derive a melancholy consolation from observing, that the penal code, which disgraced the Irish history through the greater part of the last century, had a more than adequate precedent in the government of the boasted monarch of the French. Children were admitted at the age of seven years to become independent of their parents by abjuring their religion 18 ; and military execution was employed to enforce a conformity to the religion of the state 19 , while the miser- able resource of a voluntary exile was prohibited. It is a very curious fact, that the preservation of the reli- gion of Protestants in these circumstances was the result of an outrageous declaration of the succeeding sovereign, which rendered their marriages void 20 . The Roman Catholics of France, regarding the ceremony of marriage as one of the sacraments of their church, were obliged by their principles to refuse it to the Protestants, as heretics, who accordingly were by this decree placed in a singular state of proscription 17 These ravages comprehended all the Palatinate, a part of the elec- torate of Treves, a part of the margravate of Baden, and the greater part of the countries adjacent to the Rhine. Abrege de 1'Hist. des Traites, tome i. p. 232. 18 Eclairc. Hist., tome i. p. 187. 19 Ibid, p. '206. 20 Ibid., tome ii. pp. 36, &c. 446 MODERN HISTORY: from all the legal obligations of domestic connexion. Re- volting at the violence thus offered to their best feelings, the Protestants from that time rejected the semblance of prose- lytism, under which they had sought concealment, and main- tained their own sect, Avith its discipline, its ministries, and its registries, to the time of the revolution. It is remarkable that the church of France, which waged against Protestants this war of persecution, had been three years before established in a considerable, degree of indepen- dence in regard to the papacy, by the system of regulations ascertaining its liberties. The ambition of the Roman pon- tiffs having been more particularly directed against the em- pire, as it claimed the sovereignty of Rome, France had been generally treated with much forbearance, that it might afford support to the pontiffs in that their principal struggle. Boni- face VIII. had indeed attempted to extend over France the papal claim of dominion ; but Philip the Fair, assembling the states general of his kingdom in the years 1302 and 1303, maintained by their assistance the independence of his crown. Among the subjects of contention with the court of Rome was the right named the regale 21 , by which the king received the revenues of the vacant prelacies, and collated during the vacancies to the benefices comprehended within their patron- age. In the reign of Louis XIV. two bishops 22 , claiming to be exempt from its application, invoked the protection of pope Innocent XL, who accordingly addressed to the king very strenuous representations in their favour. Irritated at this interference, the king in the year 1682 convened an as- sembly of 'the clergy, which, besides confirming the universal application of the disputed right, established the four famous principles of the liberties of the Gallican church. By these it was pronounced, that the pope possesses no temporal au- thority over the church, that his spiritual authority is sub- ordinate to that of a general council, that his authority is also limited by the canons, customs, and constitutions of the kingdom and church of France, and that in matters of faith his judgment is not infallible. Richelieu, who first reduced the power of the French Pro- 21 The German emperors Otho IV. and Frederic II. had renounced the regale in the years 1209 and 1213. Tableau des Revol. de 1'Europe, tome i. p. 327, note. a * Ibid., tome ii. pp. 181, 182. FKANCE, 1661 1689. 447 testants, is said to have meditated to create a patriarch in France 23 , and thus to separate the national church from that of Rome, nattering himself with the hope of effecting a com- promise of doctrine with the Protestants. Louis XIV. on the other hand, without any disposition, either to attempt such a compromise, or to withdraw formally from the autho- rity of the church of Rome 24 , asserted for his own church a real independence of the control of the papacy. It seems as if, though religious dissension was still important in its in- fluence on political movements, yet in the French period of the federative combinations of Europe the system was so far improved, as neither to require, nor to admit, the direct as- cendency of Rome. It may now also be concluded, that the independence then established was preparatory to later changes, by which the national church of France has been recently overthrown, and the way seems to have been opened in that country for the free propagation of a purer form of the religion of Christ. The edict of Nantes was revoked in the year 1685, and in the succeeding year was concluded the league of Augs- burg, which united against France the emperor, the king of Spain, the Dutch republic, Sweden, Savoy, and the principal states of the empire. This combination was formed by the prince of Orange, then meditating his enterprise against the government of England. With the success of that enter- prise it was intimately connected, for on the one hand it 23 Eclairc. Hist, tome i. p. 81. 24 If any such disposition did exist, it was in the year 1713 suppressed by the influence, which the Jesuits then exercised over this prince, enfeebled by age and disap- pointment. At the desire of Louis, the Roman pontiff Clement II. is- sued the bull Uniyenitus, to condemn a French translation of the New Testament, published by Paschasius Quenel, which favoured the tenets of the Jansenists ; and this bull established the peculiar doctrines and practices of the religion of Rome with so much distinctness, that all modifications were rendered hopeless. Mosheim, vol. vi. pp. 13 15. This bull was not indeed received in France without much opposition, whence arose a correspondence between doctor du Pin and archbishop Wake concerning a union of the English and Gallican churches, but without any other consequence than as it may serve to prove, how il- lusory such a project should be deemed. Doctor Kenney has well shown, that Bossuet, who endeavoured so to palliate the peculiar doc- trines of Rome, as to render them acceptable to Protestants, was at the same time the justifier and panegyrist of the savage persecution of the Protestants of France. Facts and Documents, &c. London, 1827. 448 MODEEN HISTORY : united in its favour those very states, which might otherwise for religious considerations have been adverse to the success of that prince, and on the other it directed against the em- pire that attention, which France should have employed in watching and counteracting his designs. The minister of the marine had urged the king to prepare for this purpose two considerable armaments 25 , one by sea, the other by land. Fortunately however for the religion and liberty of these countries, and for the general policy of Europe, the advice of the minister of war prevailed. About two months before the Dutch expedition a French army of eighty thousand men was accordingly sent against the empire under the command of the dauphin, and William was most surprisingly left to prosecute without any molestation an enterprise, which would enable him effectually to control, by a yet more pow- erful combination of forces, the ambition of his great ad- versary. It was supposed that the Dutch would not send away their fleet, when a war had broken out in their vici- nity ; and perhaps it was judged expedient to make a di- version in favour of the Turks, then engaged in a war with the empire. The grand alliance, concerted against France in the year 1689, was a direct result of that enterprise, which placed William on the throne of these countries. William was the soul of the resistance opposed to French ambition, and by the success of his expedition he was enabled to bring these countries into a confederacy against France with the empe- ror, the empire, the Dutch republic, Spain, and Savoy. By the formation of this confederacy the second period of the federative policy of Europe was commenced. France had by the two preceding wars been placed in the situation of the predominating power of the system, but the British go- vernment was then for the first time constituted the leading power of the confederacy, by which that predominating power was to be controlled. The British revolution, as it commit- ted these countries in a struggle with France, the attached auxiliary of James II., and at the same time engaged them in a temporary connexion of political interests with the Dutch republic, the adversary of the French power, was ac- cordingly the immediate occasion of a new arrangement of 25 Abreg de 1'Hist. des Traites, tome i. pp. 230, 231. COLONISATION AND COMMERCE, 1500 1688. 449 policy, in which the British government became the antag- onist of the great power of the continent. CHAPTER XXI. Of the history of colonisation and commerce, from the com- mencement of the sixteenth century to the British revolution. The American slave-trade begun in the year 1503 Mexico conquered, 1521 Peru conquered, 1533 Canada settled, 1603 Virginia set- tled, 1606 Barbadoes settled, 1614 New England settled, 1620 Emigration of the Puritans, 1621 Portuguese dominion in India begun, 1507 The Mogul empire begun, 1526 The Dutch trade begun, 1595 The English company formed, 1600 The Dutch company, 1602 The Dutch settlements begun, 1605 The English factory formed at Surat, 1611 The French trade begun, 1665. THE fifteenth century closed with two most important dis- coveries, that of a western continent, and that of a maritime communication with India. The former of these brought within the knowledge of Europeans a considerable portion of the world, the very existence of which had been until that time unknown ; and the latter introduced them by a much more practicable route to that opulent region, which had been from the earliest ages the grand source of com- mercial prosperity. It is now necessary to trace the form- ation of colonial establishments in these countries through the two succeeding centuries, and the great extension of commerce, to which they were instrumental, the power sup- plied by commerce having mainly influenced the policy of Europe in its later period. The two great discoveries of the fifteenth century were as much contrasted in the political circumstances, as in the geographical positions, of the countries, to which they re- lated, and thus afforded a most various field for that spirit of adventure, which was to bring into those countries the industry and activity of Europe. The western continent* which by its proximity was more conveniently situated for the migrations necessary for forming great colonial estab- VOL. III. G G 450 MODERN HISXOKY : lishments, was peopled by tribes so far inferior to the Euro- peans in the arts of life, as to present only a resistance, which might preserve their civilisation from wasting itself by spreading into a boundless extent. India on the other hand was possessed by nations civilised and even refined, and invited commercial activity, rather than colonisation. The earlier establishments of Europeans in India were ac- cordingly mere factories, and their more extended posses- sions were slowly acquired by conquest or intrigue, not sud- denly wrested from a feeble resistance, or simply occupied by an overflowing emigration. The two discoveries however conjointly formed a combination most favourable to the de- velopement of European industry and activity. The long established opulence of the east afforded an immediate ex- citement to maritime enterprise ; the wild regions of the western continent opened an indefinite field for the exertions of a succeeding period. America also in the mean time furnished that augmented supply of the precious metals, without which the commerce of India could not have been extended, this being the merchandise chiefly demanded by the people of the east. The acquisition of the precious metals was indeed the object, which originally drew the views of men even towards northern America, and it was long before the importance of colonisation, in distinction from this object, began to be appreciated. It is remarkable that the two great discoveries of the east and west were effected, and the first great establishments formed in those distant regions, by nations which have never become considerable in the commerce of Europe. Spain, the discoverer of the western world, sunk very soon after- wards into a state of imbecility, from which it has never since been restored ; and Portugal, after a short, but splendid career, of eastern enterprise, yielded to the ascendency of the Dutch, and became degraded to a state of inefficiency even inferior to that of the other kingdom of the peninsula. It has been commonly maintained, that the possession of the mines of America must necessarily have been ruinous to the industry of the nations, by which they had been ac- quired. This has been latterly shown to be an error 1 , the 1 Brougham s Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the European Powers, vol. i. p. 449. COLONISATION AND COMMEECE, 1500 1688. 451 mischievous influence of such possessions appearing to arise from injudicious attempts to prohibit the exportation of the precious metals, and to monopolise treasures merely repre- sentative. But so long as it was agreeable to our nature, that such possessions should give occasion to these erroneous measures of restriction, the trade must have been inconsistent with commercial prosperity, and would have been fatal to the well-being of nations even more favourably circum- stanced in other respects than those of Spain and Portugal. The erroneous conception of the advantage to be derived from possessing mines of the precious metals, was indeed in that age the great spring of the discovery and colonisation of distant countries. So obstinate was this prejudice, that more than a century after the discovery of Columbus 2 , the English settlement of Virginia was considerably embarrassed by the delusive notion of mines of gold, by which the minds of the adventurers were engrossed. According then to the actual dispositions of the human heart it was conducive to the general improvement of the system, that the mines of America should be possessed by nations, which other causes disqualified for becoming considerable in commerce. It has been remarked 3 , that Providence appears to have cast the parts of the several nations of Europe, which have acted upon the stage of America. The Spaniard, proud, lazy, and magnificent, is possessed of an extensive region, in which he enjoys a luxurious climate, and is enriched by a profusion of those metals, which may procure for him every indulgence without any laborious effort : the Portu- guese, indigent at home, and enterprising rather than in- dustrious abroad, possesses treasures like the Spaniard, but employs them to more useful purposes : the English, at- tentive to business, and yet fond of a rural life, occupied a wide tract of country, which furnishes neither gold nor silver, but affords ample room for the exercise of agriculture, and supplies in sufficient abundance the materials of commerce : the French, active, enterprising, and politic, had a country, in which a peddling traffic required a constant motion, and in the islands had an opportunity of displaying all the effi- 1 Anderson, rol. ii. pp. 213, 304. 3 Account of the European Settlements in America, vol. ii. pp. 57, 58. Lund.. 1777. G G 2 452 MODERN HISTOKY : cacy of their policy ; and the Dutch had just room enough to manifest the miracles of frugality and diligence. To these remarks others may be added concerning the distribution of southern America between the two nations of the Spanish peninsula, by which the Portuguese became possessed of the nearer, the Spaniards of the more distant portion. The first efforts of maritime discovery, exerted by the Portuguese, were directed along the coast of Africa, in search of that communication with India, of which the Cape of Good Hope at length presented a joyful assurance. In the prosecution of this great enterprise the coast of Africa was occupied by their settlements, so that, when Brazil 4 was afterwards accidentally discovered, they enjoyed advan- tages, beyond those of any other nation, for supplying with slaves the labours of the colony there established, while Brazil was by its proximity most conveniently situated for receiving the importation. To this consideration should be added that of the superior activity of the Portuguese, which qualified them beyond the Spaniards, for improving the natu- ral resources of a country so favourably placed for a com- mercial connexion with Europe. The extraordinary changes of later years have pointed out yet another, and a more im- portant influence, of the connexion of Portugal with the nearer coast of southern America, in facilitating the tempo- rary removal of the court of Portugal to that country, when it had become necessary that the British power should oc- cupy its place for the deliverance of the peninsula, and sub- sequently the permanent establishment of a European sove- reignty on the further side of the Atlantic. The peculiar fitness of the Portuguese for the part, which they have acted in forming colonial establishments, is how- ever more conspicuous in their eastern enterprises. India was not, like America, almost open to the occupancy of the first European settlers. There was to be encountered all the opposition, which could be presented by the Moham- medans, already possessed of the rich commerce of India, 4 Account of the European settlements, vol. i. pp. 308, 310. Their trade in slaves seems to have been begun so early as in the year 1503, when a few slaves were sent from the Portuguese settlements in Africa into the Spanish colonies in America. Robertson's Hist, of America, vol. i. p. 318. COLONISATION AND COMMERCE, 1500 1688. 453 and established in its stations of trade. Even a Christian power was combined with the Mohammedans in resisting the Portuguese, the Venetians having, for the preservation of their interest in the existing traffic, entered into the mea- sures of the sultan of Egypt, and permitted him to cut down timber in their forests of Dalmatia, his own country not supplying materials for equipping a fleet in the Red Sea. Obstacles so considerable could be surmounted only by a power, which had been trained to military, rather than to commercial habits. In the conduct of the Portuguese ac- cordingly the military character predominated. No company of merchants was formed for regulating the concerns of the commerce of India, but these were directed by the military officers of the government, and soon became the object of their unbridled rapacity. The Portuguese were qualified to be the precursors of trading nations, by breaking down the power, which had pre-occupied the commerce of India, not to become themselves commercial agents, for maintaining the communication of its advantages to Europe. The manner, in which the oriental possessions of Portugal were afterwards transferred to the Dutch, is in this view par- ticularly curious. If they were to be forcibly wrested from a military nation, they must have fallen to a nation yet more military, and consequently so much less qualified for the oc- cupations of commerce. Some peculiar circumstances there- fore were required, for transferring them with little effort to a nation of traders. These were furnished by the reduction of Portugal itself under the dominion of Spain, which oc- curred seventy-three years after the commencement of the Portuguese dominion in India 5 . The success, with which Philip II. grasped the entire command of the Spanish pe- ninsula, served but to expose without protection the remoter dependencies of the conquered territory, and thus to aggran- dise his revolted subjects of the Dutch provinces. As the military enterprise of the Portuguese was exercised in acquiring establishments in India, so was that of the Spa- niards in overcoming the American empires of Mexico and Peru 6 , for the original inhabitants of those countries were 5 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. ii. p. 100. 6 Mexico was conquered by Cortes in the year 1521, Peru twelve years afterwards by Piiarro. In tiie former the right of private property was well estu.- 454 MODERN HISTORY : not wandering savages living by the chace, but nations com- paratively civilised, and even in some small degree acquainted with the arts. In these circumstances 7 the patient fortitude of the Spaniards was not less indispensable to a successful issue, than the ardent daring of the Portuguese was necessary for effecting a revolution in the commercial intercourse with India. In comparing the original circumstances of the Spanish territories in America with those colonised by the English, it occurs to remark, that the difference is not destitute of a discoverable correspondence in their subsequent fortunes. blished, there were many cities of considerable magnitude, the arts were separately practised by several persons, a distinction of ranks was mi- nutely and ceremoniously observed, and a vigorous superintendence was exercised under the authority of a sovereign, supported by a regu- lated system of taxation. Peru contained only one city, and consequently the separation of the arts was less complete, and the intercourse of com- merce less active ; agriculture however was more improved than in Mexico, and superior ingenuity was displayed in buildings, in commu- nications by roads and bridges, and in ornamental arts. Robertson, vol. iii. pp. 271, &c. Of the tribes, which founded the government of Mexico, the Toultees appeared first in the year 648, the Chichimecks in the year 1179, the Nahnaltees in the year 1178, the Acolhues and Aztecs in the year 1 196. From materials furnished by Humboldt Lap- lace collected, that the duration of the solar year, as computed by these nations, was very nearly the same with that found by the astronomers of Almamon. The traveller supposes that other tribes existed in Mexico before the arrival of the Toultees ; but these he traces for their origin to Siberia. The migration from Asia, he has shown, might have been effected \xithout going higher than the parallel of thirty-five degrees, and without a passage of more than twenty-four or thirty-six hours, the northwest winds, between the latitudes of thirty and sixty degrees, favouring such a navigation during a great part of the year. The area of the kingdom of Mexico under Montezuma, its last sovereign, he has estimated at 15,000 square leagues. The present territory of Mexico is five times larger than that of Spain. Polit. Essay on the kingdom of New Spain, vol. i. pp. 11, 13, 133, 135 -, vol. ii. p. 389, note. Peru, at the time of the Spanish invasion, extended more than fifteen hundred miles along the shore of the Pacific Ocean, but in breadth was limited to the space included between that ocean and the Andes. When the Spaniards arrived, four hundred years according to tradition from the commencement of the government, but probably at little more than half of that interval, the prince, who by the conquest of Quito had almost doubled the power of the empire, had, by dividing his dominions be- tween two sons, given occasion to a civil war, which favoured the efforts of Pizarro. Robertson, vol. iii. pp. 126 133, 326. 7 Account of the European Settlements, vol. i. p. 67. COLONISATION AND COMMENCE, 1500 1688. 455 The Spaniards have occupied, rather than enjoyed, a most extensive range of territory 8 , and amidst all the embar- rassment of domestic decay, have held it as it were in de- posit for the accommodation of the other nations of Europe. Such a possession was evidently facilitated by the remaining habits of political co-operation, which survived the destruc- tion of the empires of Guatimozin and Atahualpa. Great indeed was the waste of the native population ; but it has since been successfully cherished by the Spanish govern- ment 9 , has formed to the present time a part of the same community with the Spaniards 10 , and has been preserved as a counterpoise to the otherwise dangerous power of the ne- groes ll . The other settlements of Europeans, less remote from their original countries, and belonging to governments more capable of affording them support, or important only as containing the germs of future industry and independence, have been left to acquire consistency and vigour for them- selves, with little mixture of a race so far inferior in civili- sation. The wild hunters of the woods however were useful, though in a very different manner, to the formation of these other settlements. They hung upon the colonists in their 8 It comprehends seventy-nine degrees of latitude, extending from 41 43' of south to 37 48' of north latitude, equalling the length of Africa, and much surpassing the breadth of the Russian empire. The dominions of the king of Spain in America accordingly exceeded in extent the Russian empire, or the Indian empire of Great Britain. Polit. Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. i. pp. 5 7. 9 It is certain, says Humboldt, that the population of New Spain has made the most extraordinary progress, and among the proofs he alleges the increased amount of the Indian capitation. Ibid., p. 99. ' In no code of laws,' says Robertson, vol. iv. p. 43, 'is greater solicitude displayed, or precautions multiplied with more prudent concern, for the preserva- tion, the security, and the happiness of the subject, than we discover in the collection of the Spanish laws for the Indies.' These regulations indeed, he admits, have been often ineffectual, especially in Peru ; but the oppression, he adds, is not general, and many of the Indians enjoy ease, and even affluence. 10 From the year 1542, in which Charles V. issued his regulations, the Indians have been reputed freemen, and entitled to the privileges of subjects. Ibid., p. 37. They were indeed required to pay a capitation tax, averaging among the several provinces at nearly four shillings, and to perform certain services, for which how- ever they received an equitable recompense. n Account of the Eu- ropean settlements, vol. i. p 257. The Indians and the negroes, it is also there stated, are forbidden under the severest penalties to marry, or have any unlawful commerce. 456 MODEBN HISTORY : progress into the forest, and by the dread of the tomahawk and the scalping knife prevented a dispersion, which would else have retarded and enfeebled their political combination. It was soon discovered by the Spaniards, that the feeble natives of their new settlements were not adequate to the labours required of them. As the Portuguese had already availed themselves of their establishments on the coast of Africa, to begin a traffic in the persons of their fellow-men, it occurred, not only to the avarice of the Spanish settlers, but also to the inconsistent humanity of Las Casas, the ad- vocate of the oppressed Americans, to substitute in the toils of their settlements the negroes of Africa for the aborigines of the western continent. The circumstances of the original country of the negroes appear to have qualified them 12 , be- yond all other human beings, for enduring the severity of labour and the malignity of climate. It may therefore be maintained, though without any disposition to justify, or even to palliate, this abominable traffic, that advantage has been derived from it to the improvement of Europe, and conse- quently to the general improvement of the world, if the ex- tension of commerce was facilitated by the supply of labour thus procured for the mines and plantations of America. On Africa the slave-trade of the western states of Europe has unquestionably exercised a deteriorating influence, for the robbery of men, which it has instigated, must have thrown that country yet further back in civilisation, than it had been already placed by its natural disadvantages. The Atlantic slave-trade however, though its victims are sub- jected to much severer sufferings than the other slaves of Africa, is but a small part of the traffic in men 13 , which 13 Brougham's Inquiry into the Colonial Policy, vol. ii. p. 449. 13 The Atlantic slave-trade, we have been informed by Burckhardt, is trifling in comparison with the slavery prevailing in the interior of Africa, the Mohammedan nations of that country being prompted by their religion to make war upon the idolatrous negroes, requiring for their accommodation a constant supply of servants and shepherds, and considering slaves as a medium of exchange in the place of money. There is moreover an annual exportation of fifteen or twenty thousand slaves from the eastern side of Africa to Egypt and Arabia. Travels in Nubia, pp. 344, 442. Lond., 1819. Slavery however in the east, this writer remarks, has little dreadful in it except the name, though females indeed suffered much from the jealousy of their mistresses. Ibid., p. 341. COLONISATION AND COMMERCE, 1500 1688. 457 prevails in that unhappy country ; and it seems as if the country were naturally so circumstanced, that it could never emerge from its barbarity by any internal efforts, but must continue for ever to supply other regions with its enslaved population, unless it should be assisted by the re-action of that improvement, which it had thus aided to create. For satisfying in this respect the feelings of our humanity, we must accordingly look either to that influence of an extended commerce, which may introduce industry into the interior of the country, or perhaps rather to some future communi- cation with the negroes of the West- Indies, or their de- scendants, when these shall have attained to improvement moral and political. The American settlements of France and England, as they were later in their origin than those of the Spaniards and the Portuguese, so were they altogether different in regard to the spirit, in which they were formed. They were not the result of magnificent enterprises 14 , prompted by a romantic ambition combined with an insatiable thirst for gold, but were speculations in industry and independence. These also differed among themselves in regard to the cir- cumstances, in- which they had originated, and the spirit with which they were respectively conducted. The French settlements were formed under the direction of a systematic policy, guiding the efforts of an active industry; the English were the work of liberty, actuating the natural character of the people. It has indeed been remarked by Volney 15 , that his countrymen are not well qualified by national character and habit for the business of colonising in a wild and un- settled country, being incapable of the phlegmatic perse- verance, which such an enterprise requires, and impatient 14 Account of the European Settlements, vol. ii. p. 60. 15 View of the Climate and Soil of the United States of America, pp. 382, &c. Lond., 1804. This writer has accordingly observed, that of fourteen or fifteen instances of French farmers, whom he had heard mentioned, only two or three had any prospect of success ; that all the villages heretofore formed on the frontiers of Canada or Louisiana, and left to their own resources, had failed ; and that visiting and talking are from habit so essential to a Frenchman, that throughout the whole frontier of these countries there is not one settler of that nation to be found, whose house is not within reach, or within sight, of some other. Ibid., pp. 365, 366, 386. 458 MODEEN HISTOEY : of that separation from social intercourse, which must be the condition of original planters. It will accordingly ap- pear, that France has been engaged in schemes of colonis- ation only so far, as might bring her interests into collision with those of Great Britain, her great adversary in the struggle of nations. This collision occurred in the very first effort of the French to establish themselves in the West-Indies, for they and the English took possession of different parts of the same island 16 , that of Saint Christopher. In North Ame- rica again a very curious and remarkable relation existed between the settlements of the two nations. While the English settlers occupied all that range of country, which extends from the gulf of Saint Lawrence to the Floridas, the French, after an unsuccessful attempt to establish them- selves in Carolina, formed a settlement in Canada ; and at a subsequent period 17 they took possession of Louisiana, in the intention of opening, by the Mississippi and its tributary rivers, an interior communication with their northern colony. The English settlements were thus inclosed within a cir- cumvallation of the same people, to which the mother- country was opposed in Europe. They were thereby com- pelled to a closer combination, than the dread of the wan- dering natives was capable of effecting, and they were at the same time taught to cling to the mother country for that protection, which in these circumstances was necessary for their security. Virginia, so named by Raleigh from the celibacy of his sovereign, was the first scene of the continental colonisation of the English ; but the states of New England, which were peopled by their religious dissension, most fully exhibited the enterprising vigour of the national character. Fleeing from a restraint, which was repugnant to the independence of their principles, both of religion and policy, the Puritans of England sought in the forests of America an asylum, in which they might enjoy their favourite opinions without molestation, and carried with them the germs of that liberty, which a hundred and sixty-three years afterwards established an independent republic in the western continent, the com- 16 Edwards's Hist, of the West-Indies, vol. i. p. 454. Lond., 1807. 17 In the year 1698. COLONISATION AND COMMERCE, 1500 1688. 459 mencement of new combinations of states, and of new systems of policy. The Puritans of New England soon forgot to allow to others that religious liberty, which they had so loudly claimed for themselves. The early history of that state is a history of the most gloomy and intolerant fanaticism, nor did the baleful influence of this malignant spirit begin to be mode- rated 18 , until its violence had been exhausted in a series of iniquitous persecutions for the imaginary crime of witchcraft, of the absurdity and wickedness of which the people at length became ashamed. But this spirit, absurd and crimi- nal as it was, had its utility in assisting the work of colon- isation. As the persecution 19 , which they had experienced at home, drove the first settlers to seek a retreat in New England, so did the intolerant violence of the colonists them- selves drive away from the original stock several parties of settlers, who had joined in the emigration, though they did not precisely agree with the genuine Puritans in their notions of religion. Happily for our establishments 20 , the bigotry of the French government would not suffer it to perceive the advantage of affording to the Protestants of France a refuge in America. If the religious fervour and commercial industry of the Hu- guenots had been indulged with the same opportunity of in- dependence and exertion, which was enjoyed by the Puritans of England, the English colonies must have been so pressed by the rival settlements of France, that they could not have attained to the prosperity, which soon rendered them con- siderable. Instead however of adopting this liberal policy, the French government drove its protestant subjects into other countries of Europe, into which they introduced their own habits of manufacturing industry. The struggle between the French and the English was, in the eighteenth century, not less strenuous in the eastern, than in the western world. But in the period of time com- prehended within the present chapter, the great struggle of the English was with the Dutch, who had succeeded the Portuguese in almost all their oriental establishments. The United Provinces began in the year 1595 a commercial in- 18 Account of the European Settlements, vol. ii. pp. lf>5, &c. Ibid., pp. 146, &c. 20 Ibid., p. 236. 460 MODERN HISTORY : tercourse with India, when they had been excluded by Philip II. from the port of Lisbon, from which they had previously conveyed the produce of the east to the other markets of Europe ; and the rivalry of the two nations soon gave occa- sion to mutual hostilities, the result of which was that the Dutch speedily became possessed of the Spice Islands, and formed a settlement in Ceylon. The English, less depend- ent on commerce than the Dutch, were less forward to en- gage in this distant traffic. Seven years 21 accordingly had passed from the time of the first voyage of the Dutch, when the circumnavigations of Drake and Cavendish excited the English merchants to send out their first fleet, that they also might procure for themselves the rich and gratifying mer- chandise of India. This delay 22 , small as it was, had allowed to the Dutch sufficient time for becoming masters of the Spice Islands. The English were thereby compelled to seek continental, rather than insular settlements, and, notwith- standing the resistance of the Portuguese, the first English factory was, with the consent of the Mogul governor, es- tablished in the year 1611 at Surat in the province of Cam- bay. The struggle of the two nations terminated, after an obstinate contest, in leaving the islands of India for the most part to the Dutch 23 , and the continental settlements to the English. The French were at length in the year 1665 excited by the success of other nations to engage in the profitable com- merce of India : but following the Dutch and the English at the distance of more than half a century, they found the sta- tions and connexions of trade in a great degree pre-occupied. Their establishments accordingly were neither extensive, nor permanent. After a transient prosperity, derived from the zealous patronage of their minister Colbert, they were by a rapid declension of their affairs reduced almost to the pos- session of Pondicherry, the future rival of the English settle- ment at Madras. The transition of the trade of India from the Portuguese to the Dutch anH the English, gave occasion to an important change in the manner, in which it was conducted. By the Portuguese this trade was managed as the business of the 21 Maurice's Modern History of Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 262. London, 1809. 22 Ibid., p. 265. 23 Ibid., p. 277. COLONISATION AND COMMERCE, 1500 1688. 461 government, not of the merchants ; and it accordingly de- clined, as the fervour of that spirit of military enterprise abated, by which it was supported. The efforts of the Dutch and English on the other hand, being made by mer- chants, were of a commercial, not of a military character. It was accordingly soon judged necessary to give them the combination, which could belong only to a chartered incor- poration. As in England the unity of a monarchical govern- ment was combined with a spirit of mercantile enterprise, the plan of an incorporation of the merchants trading with India was, in the year 1600, there first adopted 24 ; but at the close of two years more the Dutch imitated the example by establishing a company for their own traders. Of these the English company, which has created in the east a subordinate empire of vast extent and population, has exhibited to the world the extraordinary spectacle of a society of merchants managing imperial concerns at the distance of the half of the globe'. That it has been efficient to the creation of that em- pire has been proved by experience ; and the absorption of so much means of influence, as would have been furnished to the crown by the possession of so great patronage civil and military, cannot but have been salutary to the independ- ence of the constitution. To all these changes the native history of Hindostan has been in a very remarkable manner auxiliary. Exactly a century before the appearance of the Portuguese, the irrup- tion of Timour, or Tamerlane, had shaken to its centre the Mohammedan empire of Delhi, though it failed to establish a Tatarian dominion. All India, within the half of a cen- 24 The Whigs in the year 1698 availed themselves of their superiority to increase their influence by establishing a new company. Somerville, p. 623. On this occasion the opposition of the former was defeated by a ridiculous occurrence, many of their friends having gone to see a tiger baited, for the majority exceeded the other party, by only ten votes. Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 62. London, 1818. The two companies were incorporated into one in the year 17ul. Thaf the English company has so efficiently administered the affairs of India has been attributed to its separation from the influence of the parties of the parliament, whereas the colonies of the Dutch were sacrificed to the cupidity and sordid feelings of a democracy. Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. May, 1833. The imperial character of the English company seems to have been created by the charter granted by Charles II. in the year 1661. 4G2 MODEHN HISTORY : tury from that invasion 25 , was accordingly divided into in- dependent states, only a small district about Delhi remaining to the nominal sovereign. Such a state of affairs was evi- dently favourable to the enterprises of the Portuguese, as the Mohammedans were not united in the combination of a com- mon government, and some of the native princes were left at liberty to connect themselves with the traders of Europe. The favourable disposition of affairs in India, which had been thus begun so long before the arrival of the Portuguese, was completed within twenty-eight years after that event, by the commencement of the Mogul dynasty of sovereigns of India 26 , which willingly entered into commercial relations with the Europeans, not being, like the preceding, connected with their rivals of the Mediterranean. In that interval the Portuguese had successfully availed themselves of the fa- vourable disposition of the native princes 27 , to procure for themselves an establishment so secure, that they were enabled to acquire possession of the commercial stations of the Mo- hammedans. The renown of the Portuguese at length reached the imperial court, in the reign of the illustrious Akber, the third of the Mogul sovereigns ; and this prince, while he reduced to subjection the rajahs of India 28 , en- couraged by his powerful protection the merchants of Por- tugal 29 . The Mogul empire of India began to decline at the death of Aurungzeb, which happened in the year 1707. This vigorous sovereign, with a crusading spirit unknown to his predecessors, attacked the religion, not less than the inde- pendence of the native princes of India. He succeeded in reducing the once powerful kingdoms of Visapore and Gol- conda 30 , but in his struggle with the rising power of the Mahrattas he exhausted the resources of his own government, and prepared it for the ruinous influence of the dissension and the weakness of his successors. The decline of the Mogul empire was however not less favourable to European 25 Maurice, vol. ii. p. 66. 2G It is remarkable that this revo- lution was the result of the degeneracy and decay of the original sove- reignty of the Moguls in Tatary itself. The Moguls, forced to yield to the ascendency of the Usbeck Tatars, sought in India a refuge from their conquerors. Ibid. 27 Ibid., p. 232. 28 Ibid., pp. 172, 174. - 9 Ibid., p. 187. 30 Sullivan's Analysis of the Polit. Hist, of India, p. 175, note. London, 1784. Maurice, vol. ii. pp. 492, &c. COLONISATION AND COMMERCE, 1500 1688. 463 enterprise, than its establishment. The field was left more open for the efforts of the French and English, and an op- portunity was presented for the gradual formation of a Eu- ropean sovereignty in Hindostan. From this retrospect it appears that, at the time of the British revolution, Spain and Portugal had completed those American settlements, which had a permanent, though a circuitous connexion, with the great interests of commerce ; that in the east the acquisitions of Portugal had been trans- ferred to the Dutch, whose habits of mercantile dealing ena- bled them to derive the advantage, which these settlements were fitted to bestow ; and that the settlements of the French and English were then merely incipient, and to receive their strength and importance in the succeeding century, when the governments, to which they respectively belonged, should have been engaged in the struggle of the federative policy of Europe, the former contending for pre-eminence, the latter for independence. CHAPTER XXII. Of the histories of Turkey and Persia, from the accession of Solyman I. to the throne of Turkey in the year 1520 to the peace of Constantinople concluded in the year 1700. Alliance concluded with France by Turkey in the year 153f> Battle of Lepanto fought, 1571 The chief aggrandisement of Persia from 1585 to 1627 Persia ceased to maintain an equal struggle with Turkey, 1637 Turkish war of Candia from Id45 to 1669 Vienna besieged by the Turks and relieved by the Poles, 1683 Peace of Carlowitz concluded by the Turks, 1699 Peace of Constantinople, 1700. THE history of these two governments has been already re- viewed to the time, when Solyman I. became the sovereign of the former, and with Charles V. of Germany, Francis I. of France, Henry VIII. of these countries, and the Roman pontiff Leo X., composed that assemblage of illustrious contemporaries noticed by Robertson, to which the historian might have added Ismail, the founder of the modern king- 464 MODERN HISTORY : dom of Persia, if that kingdom had been comprehended within his view of history. The consideration of the two Mohammedan governments 1 is now to be continued to the conclusion of the seventeenth century, at which time both ceased to exercise any active influence on the interests of the Christian states, and Persia was governed by the last of the sopliis, the dynasty founded by Ismail. The general operation of the government of Turkey on the formation of the European system has been described, as consisting in that agency of compression, which seems to be a powerful principle of our social improvement ; and that of Persia in so controlling and regulating the action of Turkey, that it should not press too violently, or at unsea- sonable times, on those combinations of policy, to the ad- justment of which it was thus indirectly instrumental. A double apparatus appears to have been in this manner at the fitting season annexed to modern Europe, which by a very curious mechanism, if the term may be applied to the com- binations of voluntary and free agents, has increased, or relaxed, the intensity of its operation, in such manner as might best correspond to the movements of the system, on which it operated. As the system of Europe was internally balanced by religious opposition, so was this exterior bal- ance constituted in a similar manner. The religion of Mo- hammed divided itself into two sects irreconcilably opposed, and the dissension of the followers of Omar and of Ali sup- ported the struggle of the two Mohammedan governments of Turkey and Persia. In this combination of the two Mohammedan governments two remarkable distinctions may be observed. The Persian government was not, like that of Turkey 2 , adverse to re- 1 European Turkey comprehends 182,560 square miles, inhabited by eight millions ; Asiatic Turkey 470,400, inhabited by ten millions of people ; so that the whole territory of Turkey includes 652,960 square miles, and the entire population amounts to eighteen millions. The area of Persia may be estimated to exceed that of the whole Turkish empire, the country extending from east to west more than 1200, from south to north about 1000 miles; the population however probably ex- ceeds but little that of Asiatic Turkey. Pinkerton's Mod. Geogr., vol. i. p. 452 ; vol. ii. pp. 18, 320, 325. 2 Even however in the history of the Turks we discover some traces of attention given to music and poetry. It is recorded of Anvurath IV. that to a musician, found among a multitude of captives taken at the reduction of Bagdad in the TUEKEY AND PEKSIA, 1520 1700. 465 finement, for poetry appears to have been constantly cher- ished by the Persians even to the present time. From this people the Arabs in their progress of conquest acquired their taste for the refinement of literature ; and, though from the beginning of the fifteenth century the literary dis- tinction of Persia must be considered as obscured, yet the people are still devotedly fond of poetry 3 , and the mean- est artisan can even now recite passages of the eminent bards of his country, the rudest soldier will leave his tent to listen to the strain of the minstrel. The distractions of an arbitrary, and therefore unsettled government, have interrupted the succession of genius ; but the national love of poetry re- ceived notwithstanding some encouragement from the spirit of the dynasty of the sophis, for the doctrine of sooffeeism*, which they introduced into the religion of Mohammed, was a mysticism essentially poetical, and has accordingly been happily described by the modern historian of Persia 5 to be ' the belief of the imagination.' The other distinction of the two governments was, that the power of the Persian sovereign was not controlled even by a restraint so imperfect, year 1637, he granted not only his own life, but also the lives of all who had not been massacred ; and this musician is represented as having introduced into Turkey his Persian music. The instrument, which he used, is described as a psaltery or sort of harp, having six strings on each side, whence it was named scheachdar. Cantimir, tome iii. pp. 102, 103. Amurath was not indeed a very rigid Turk, for he indulged himself to excess in drinking. Ibid., p. 90. In the reign of Mustapha II., which began in the year 1695, we find mention of an academy of poetry established at Constantinople. Ibid., tome iv. p. 383. The neglect of architecture is ascribed to a contempt of every mechanic art. Ibid., tome iii. p. 446. 3 Sir J. Malcolm's Hist, of Persia, vol. ii. pp. 398, 539. * This mystic doctrine, which was probably derived from India, inculcated the duty of seeking communion with the Deity, in the hope of being finally re-absorbed into his essence, of which it teaches that the soul of man is a part; and it maintains the possibility of attaining even in this life to a state of celestial beati- tude through a superior piety. It appears from Mohammedan authors, that this enthusiasm has been coevai with their religion, the establish- ment of which it may have much assisted. The sooffees have however since been considered as its most dangerous enemies, and their number has latterly increased so much in Persia, that the Mohammedan Divines have called on the reigning king to defend the true faith from their attacks, and measures of severity have been accordingly employed with apparent success, though probably in reality with a contrary influence. Ibid., pp. 382388. * Ibid., p. 387. VOL. III. H H 466 MODERN HISTORY : as that which limited the sovereignty of the Turks. In that country no oulamdh 6 , or body of the church and law, ex- isted ; and it would be considered as treason to affirm, that the sovereign was subject to any restraint, except such as might be imposed by his own conscience or discretion. One cause of this difference appears to have been that, in sup- porting the pretensions of Ali to the caliphate, the Persians have been led to disregard the four great law-givers 7 who erected on the Koran the superstructure of the ordinances of the Turks. Another probably was that the influence even of the Koran itself was much weakened by the preva- lence of the mystical doctrine of soaffeeism, the tenets of which were mixed with those of the national faith from the very commencement of the dynasty of the sophis. This twofold distinction may easily be shown to have corresponded well to the different relations of the two Mo- hammedan governments. The government of Persia, not coming into collision with the system of Europe, but affect- ing it only indirectly by occasionally restraining the violence of Turkey, did not require to be of that ruder character, which was essential to the agency of the Ottoman empire, while on the other hand, as it was the central government of Asia, some degree of refinement was necessary to it, that the Asiatics might be preserved from sinking into absolute barbarity 8 . A more despotic government was at the same time suited to the circumstances of Persia. Turkey, en- gaged in a perpetual struggle with the Christian states, de- manded some portion of the permanent vigour resulting from political control. Persia, but occasionally employed in restraining the operations of Turkey, might better be sub- jected to an unlimited authority, which should at one time be relaxed in the weakness of an effeminate voluptuary, at another be invigorated by the energy of a prince fitted tc command. The duration of the dynasty of the sophis was in a very remarkable manner accommodated to that of the vigour of the Turkish government, which it occasionally controlled. Its commencement occurred in the interval between the re- 6 Sir J. Malcolm's Hist, of Persia, vol. ii. p. 429. " Ibid., p. 352. 8 The Persian language is still through all the courts the medium of polite communication. TUKKEY AND PERSIA, 1520 1700. 467 duction of Constantinople 9 , which established the Turkish government within the limits of Europe, and the conquest of Egypt, which completed its strength, having preceded the latter event by fifteen years. The commencement of the new monarchy of Persia may therefore be considered as contemporary to that of the great power of the Ottoman government. The peace of Carlowitz, concluded in the year 1699, is on the other hand marked as the epoch 10 , from which the Turkish power for ever ceased to be formidable to the Christian states ; and at this time reigned in Persia the last of the sophis, who, after a reign of weakness, was in the year 1722 driven from the throne by an invasion of the neighbouring tribes of the AfFghans. Early in the sixteenth century the Turks had acquired the possession of all the countries adjacent to the Mediter- ranean, from the top of the Adriatic to the desert of Barca in Africa. The piratical states of Barbary, afterwards es- tablished under their protection, completed a chain of dominion, which embraced the whole of this area of an- cient commerce except the small portion bordered by the Christian states of Europe. This position naturally placed them in opposition to the commerce of the Christians. A sense of common interest indeed soon induced them to confirm to the Venetians the great privileges of com- merce 11 , which that people had enjoyed in Egypt under the government of the Mamelukes, and even to assist them in their endeavours to repress the efforts, by which the Por- tuguese were opening a new and more advantageous com- munication with the east. But, though the Turks were thus induced to favour the declining commerce of the Vene- tians, and thoiigh various nations of Christians have main- tained some languid traffic with the Levant, the general influence of the predominance of the Turkish power on the shores of the Mediterranean has had a contrary tendency, operating decisively to propel into the ocean the maritime exertion of the western nations, and thus to urge into acti- vity that spirit of distant enterprise, which animated the 9 The reduction of Constantinople was effected in the year 1453, the dynasty of the sophis was begun in the year 1502, and the Mamelukes of Egypt were subjugated in the year 1517. 1(l Abrepe de I'Hist- des Traites, tome iv. pp. 3, 4. n Robertson's Disquisition, p. 181. H H 2 468 MODERN HISTORY : sixteenth century. What barbarism and violence could do, has been accordingly effected. The resources of the richest countries in the world have been exhausted by an oppressive and ignorant government ; the springs of commercial credit have been broken and destroyed by the capricious tyranny of an arbitrary administration ; and a system of piratical depredation has been protected and encouraged, which, while it overpowered the weaker of the trading nations of the Christians, transferred the still remaining commerce of the Mediterranean to those more considerable states 1Z , whose marine had been aggrandised by the more extended com- merce of the ocean. While this was the general relation of the new govern- ment of Constantinople to the Christian nations, it main- tained a special relation to the German empire in particular, through which it exercised an important influence on the internal arrangements of the system, in which the Christian nations were beginning to be combined. It is in regard to this particular relation, that the consideration of the dis- tant government of Persia becomes necessary to a compre- hensive view of the progress of European society. That Persia controlled the agency of Turkey, as it operated upon the empire, was so strongly felt in the sixteenth century, that Busbequius, who was during eight years ambassador of the Austrian court at Constantinople, has expressly repre- sented the dread of that country as alone withholding the Turks from an overwhelming invasion of Germany 13 , but affording it a respite, not a deliverance. The German empire, on which that of Turkey exercised this special agency, was, it must be remembered, the great organ, by which the relations of a federative policy were ex- tended over Europe. The Ottoman government, it appears therefore, was so circumstanced, as to bear most directly on the most influential member of the growing system of the west, and by acting on that state, which was as it were the heart of the great Christian confederacy, to affect generally 13 De Witt, the celebrated statesman of the Dutch, regarded the Turkish corsairs as securing to his country the monopoly of the trade of the Mediterranean. The True Interest and Political Maxims of the Republic of Holland, pp. 134, 135. 13 Busbequii Epist. pp. 174, 175. TURKEY AND PERSIA, 1520 1700. 469 the entire system. And it is observable, that the duration of the prosperity and power of European Turkey corres- ponded to this action upon the system, as that of the modern kingdom of Persia corresponded to the duration of the Turkish power, which it controlled. The Turks, who had established themselves in Europe soon after the middle of the fifteenth century, became early in the sixteenth formidable neighbours to the western nations, when the extraordinary aggrandise- ment of the house of Austria was giving a beginning to the combinations of the modern policy of Europe. The peace of Carlo witz again, concluded in the year 1699, which on the other hand marked the termination of the Ottoman great- ness, occurred about two years after the peace of Ryswick, which decided the great struggle between France and the empire, by adjusting in favour of France the mutual relations of these two governments in a new period of the system of Europe, in which France, not Germany, should hold the ascendency. The consideration of this relation of Turkey to the Ger- man empire discovers to us at the same time those which the fine, but unfortunate countries of Hungary, Walachia, and Moldavia, and the yet more barbarous regions adjacent to the Adriatic, have borne to the general system of Euro- pean society. The former may be regarded as composing the debatable ground of the two empires. Governments so adverse in all their principles and usages could not be brought into an immediate vicinage, without exercising a hostility so unappeasable and uninterrupted, as could have been terminated only by subjugation of one of the two states. The continuance of their independent existence therefore, as combined with the action of the one upon the other, re- quired, that they should be kept at a considerable distance by the interposition of countries, on which the violence of their fury might be exhausted, and yet incapable of consti- tuting a barrier, by which the action of either upon the other might be precluded. Such a function appears to have been discharged by Walachia and Hungary u ; Moldavia may per- 14 The princes of Walachia and Moldavia acknowledged sometimes the sovereignty of Hungary, or of Poland, sometimes that of Turkey, until they were conquered by Solyman in the sixteenth century. Ab. de 1'Hist. des Traites, tome i. p. 419. In the year 1541 the same prince, 470 MODERN HISTORY. haps be considered rather as maintaining a similar relation to the northern governments of Poland and Russia. Wala- chia and Moldavia may indeed also be considered, as serving by their interposition to separate Hungary from the Black Sea, and thus at once to maintain that country in its con- nexion with the German empire, and to hinder it from inter- fering too much with the interests of Turkey. While Hungary, Walachia, and Moldavia constituted a field of contention between Turkey and the Christian states, the yet ruder countries near to the Adriatic composed a bar- rier, which on that side completely separated the Christians and Mohammedans. In this their near approximation, where the narrow sea, by which they were divided, might have sup- plied an easy communication, the local circumstances of the Turkish frontier aggravated even to savageness the general barbarism, andssecured the distinctness of the adverse powers by the absolute interruption of all the usages of civilised life. An open frontier would here have probably interfered with the German relation of Turkey, by directing to Italy, as a more attractive and more attainable object, the ambition of the Ottoman government. On this side accordingly com- munication was barred by the extreme savageness of a rude and impracticable region. In examining the manner, in which Germany was affected by the efforts of Turkey and Persia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, our attention is naturally attracted to three distinct periods of hostility among the Christian states, which exercised important influences on the general interests of Europe. The first of these comprehended the availing himself of a disputed pretension to the crown of Hungary, pos- sessed himself of the greater part of that kingdom, together with Scla- vonia, abandoning some districts of the former, with Transylvania, to the prince whom he had received under his protection. By the truce concluded with the Turks in the year 1562, Ferdinand king of the Romans, who had claimed the whole kingdom in the right of his queen, was even constrained to pay to them an annual tribute for the portion which he retained. Ab. de 1'His. des Traites, tome ii. p. 158. In the year 1686 the Austrians recovered from the Turks all that portion of Hungary which these had possessed, and in the following also Tran- sylvania and Sclavonia : and in the latter year the crown, which had been elective, was declared hereditary in the family of Austria, in con- sideration of the efforts exerted in rescuing the country from the Turks. Ibid., pp. 277, 278. TURKEY AND PERSIA, 1520 1700. 471 wars of the emperor Charles V. in the earlier part of the six- teenth century, which, while they favoured the efforts of religi- ous reformation, gave a beginning to the arrangements of the Austrian period of the European system : the second com- prised the great war of thirty years in the earlier part of the seventeenth, which brought the Austrian system to its ad- justment, and at the same time prepared the subsequent ascendency of France : the third, towards the conclusion of the latter century, included those aggressions of Louis XIV., by which he established the ascendency of France over the empire, and began the second and improved period of the federative policy of Europe. In some or all of these periods of the agitation of Germany we might naturally expect to discover the action of Turkey on the German empire ; and if iu any of them that action should appear to have been sus- pended by the vigour and hostility of Persia, we might ex- pect to perceive some special reason, why in that particular case it would have been inconvenient and embarrassing. Solyman, who ascended the throne of Turkey in the year following that, in which Charles V. was placed on the throne of the German empire, undertook in the first year of his reign 15 to extend his empire from Constantinople westward into Europe, as far as it had already been extended towards the east ; and with this design invaded Hungary and reduced Belgrade. This expedition occurred in the first campaign of the war of Charles and Francis I., as if to prove that Turkey was prepared to assist the operations of France by distressing the adverse government. The Turkish sovereign then left the two Christian princes to their own contention, turning his arms against Khodes, occupied at that time by the knights of saint John of Jerusalem. These after an ob- stinate resistance were expelled, after which they were by the emperor stationed in Malta. When this decisive success had been gained in the Mediterranean, Hungary became again the field of enterprise for the Turks, who proceeded even to lay siege to Vienna. How aptly these incursions of the Turks were accommodated to the great struggle of the Protestants of Germany, has been already noticed in the review of the reign of the emperor Charles V., and needs not to be mentioned in this place. Sixteen years however 15 Cantimir, tome ii. pp. 284, &c. 472 MODERN HISTORY : elapsed from the earlier invasion of Hungary, before the French monarch could overcome his repugnance to an alli- ance with the infidels. Necessity at length subdued his re- luctance ; a treaty of mutual assistance was concluded be- tween France and Turkey ; and Solyman became directly engaged in the political combinations of the Christian states. The Turkish prince, who survived ten years the abdica- tion of the emperor Charles V., employed this interval in collecting his resources for making a great and general im- pression on the empire 16 . This would however have been unseasonable, the struggle of the Protestants having been concluded ; and we accordingly find that, when Solyman had just begun to execute his long meditated enterprise, the stroke of death arrested his career, and transferred his sceptre to his son. From this time moreover we find the power of Turkey directed to other objects through an interval of more than a century, which elapsed between the death of Solyman, in the year 1566, and the expedition undertaken against Vienna by Mohammed IV., in the year 1682, an interval com- prehending, it must be observed, the German war of thirty years. It is nowto be considered, whether any peculiar circum- stances so distinguished this second period of German agita- tion from the preceding, as to constitute a case, in which that external agency of Turkey, which appears to have been then withheld, would have been embarrassing and prejudicial. In the war of thirty years the protestant government of Sweden could, much better than a Mohammedan people, co- operate with the Protestants of Germany, then a privileged portion of its people, and be instrumental in facilitating a coalition between them and the Roman Catholics of France. "Whoever shall recollect the jealousy, with which even Gus- tavus was originally regarded, and the difficulty, with which the Protestants of Germany were afterwards brought to place reliance on the assistance of French Roman Catholics, will be convinced, that an army of infidels would have been rejected as an unsuitable and odious instrument of protection, and must have proved to be incapable of effecting that com- bination of political interests, by which France was consti- tuted the protector of the Protestants of Germany. In the long interval of a hundred and twenty-six years, 16 Cantimer, tome ii. pp. 337, 338. TURKEY AND PERSIA, 1520 1700. 473 which intervened between the conclusion of the first and the commencement of the last of the three grand periods of German agitation, the power of Turkey was effectually with- held by various causes from molesting the empire, but specially by the intervention of Persia in that important part of it, which was occupied by the German war of thirty years, when its interference would have been thus inconvenient and disturbing. Of this interval the ten remaining years of the reign of Solyman have been already described, as employed in preparing for a renewal of his German enterprises, which was however prevented by his death. In the reign of his successor Selim II. the Turkish arms were occupied with the war of the Mediterranean, fortunately also for Spain", at the time engaged in the last struggle with the Moors, to whom the sultan had promised to afford assistance 18 , as soon as he should have effected the conquest of Cyprus. That island was reduced in the following year, but the Venetians in the famed battle of Lepanto, fought in the year 1571, struck a blow at the naval power of Turkey, such as that empire had never sustained since the defeat of Bajazet. The maritime strength of Turkey being then for ever enfeebled, the succeeding sovereign, Amurath III., abandoning Euro- pean enterprises, turned his arms against the Mohammedan heretics of Persia. Ten years after the commencement of the reign of this prince began that of the great Abbas in Persia, which was extended through forty-two years, and constituted the period of the highest exaltation of that country, coincident too with four successive reigns of transi- tory princes on the Turkish throne. During the long reign of Abbas, and almost the whole of that which succeeded, the Turks were sufficiently occupied by the great power of Persia; and soon afterwards, or in the year 1645, hostilities were resumed against the Venetians, who still retained pos- session of Crete, or Candia, in the Archipelago. Though the conquest of the other parts of Candia was speedily effected, the capital was not reduced until the year 1669, when it had been vigorously assaulted during thirteen years. From this time the Turks were engaged with Poland and Russia 19 in disputes about the Cossacks, who had solicited their pro- 17 Watson's Hist, of Philip II., vol. i. p. 256. 18 Cantimir, tome iii. p. 8. 19 Ibid., pp. 133, &c. 474 MODERN HISTORY : tection, until in the year 1682 they were invited into Hungary by an insurrection 20 , when they again attacked the emperor. Among the engagements, by which in this interval the power of Turkey was withheld from assailing the empire of Germany, we find a considerable place occupied by the wars of Persia, and we find the period of the great prosperity of Persia, the reign of the illustrious Abbas II., in that part of the interval which was extended from the year 1585 to the year 1627. While that prince was meditating 21 to deliver from the encroachment of the Turks some of the provinces of his empire, which they had reduced, two English knights Sir Anthony and Sir Robert Sherley, with twenty-six fol- lowers, happening to arrive in Persia 22 , engaged in his service. By these men a body of infantry was disciplined, capable of encountering the Turkish janizaries, and the Persians were instructed in the management of artillery, in which they had been hitherto inferior to the Turks. The enterprising mind of Sir Anthony Sherley however was not satisfied with adding so much to the military strength of the government, to which he had thus attached himself. Agree- ably to his own desire he was in the year 1602 deputed by Abbas to the Christian sovereigns of Europe 23 , by whom he was warmly welcomed for the grateful intelligence of the designs of that prince, the Turks being then the terror of Europeans. Nor were these designs unaccomplished, for from this time to his death the Persian prince not only checked the movements, of the Turks, but also drove them successively from all their numerous and extensive pro- 20 Cantimir, tome iii. p. 226. A cession of forty-eight villages, gained from the Poles in the year 1672, has been noticed as the last of their ac- quisitions of territory, and their decline is considered as having from that time commenced. Ibid., p. 141. 21 Sir J. Malcolm, vol. i. p. 568. 22 Sir Anthony Sherley had been encouraged by the earl of Essex to proceed with some soldiers of approved valour, to aid the duke of Ferrara against the pretensions of the pope, and the contest having been decided before his arrival by the submission of the duke, was then advised by the earl to go to Persia, which, on account of the commerce maintained by land with Turkey and Russia, and by sea with the Portuguese and Dutch, had about this time become ah object of atten- tion to the English. Sir J. Malcolm, vol. i. pp. 531, 532. 23 The Mohammedan prince evinced his tolerant disposition in a very remarkable manner, by becoming godfather to the first-born child of Sir Robert Sherley, to whom he had given a Circassian lady as his wife. Ibid., p. 559. XTTEKEY AXD PERSIA, 15501700. 475 vinces 24 , which they had wrested from Persia. The govern- ment of Persia continued also to control tVat of Turkey ten years after the termination of the reign of ^.bbas, the year 1637 being assigned as the precise time, at xVhich it ceased to maintain an equal struggle 23 . The commencement of the modern monarchy of Persia was but seventeen years antecedent to the ele\i O n of the emperor Charles V., and the wars excited by the\ri va lry of this prince and Francis I. The rise of such a goW nmen t could not fail to present to Turkey an object of jeaY us a p_ prehension, and the efforts of the Ottoman empire Xpord- ingly were soon directed against this eastern rival ; but\ ese aggressions, though attended with immediate success,\ a( j only the effect' of deterring the Turks from seeking in fc a t direction the further gratification of their ambition 2 inducing them to look for easier conquests in Egypt anc Europe. In the reign of Abbas II. Persia was strong enou^ to be the assailant ; and it is observable that this reign not terminate until the German war of thirty years hac been already waged nine years, and that the ascendency of ^ that country was sufficient during the ten succeeding years for controlling the power of Turkey. During nineteen years therefore of the thirty, Turkey was by Persia effectually withheld from interposing in the German war. The war of Candia, with its memorable siege, soon succeeded to occupy the Turkish arms, having been commenced in the year 1645. In the third of the three periods of German hostility we find on the contrary the interposition of the Turkish govern, ment powerfully and decisively exercised, Vienna itself being besieged in this period 27 , as in that of the emperor Charles V. As Louis XIV. was then pressing the emperor with various pretensions, which the latter 28 , embarrassed by the hostilities of the Turks, was forced to concede, that inter- position assisted in reducing the power and importance of the empire, when the rivalry of the political system of Eu- rope was to be maintained under the presidency of France 24 The Turks were successively driven from their possessions along the shores of the Caspian, from Aderbijan, Georgia, Kurdistan, Bag- dad, Moosul, and Diabekir. Sir J. Malcolm, vol. L, p. 541. 25 Cantimir, tome iii. p. 88. M Revol. of Persia by Krusinski, vol. i. pp. 18, 22. 27 In the year 1683. 28 Pfelfel, tome ii. p. 405. 476 MODERN HISTORY : and Great Britain, the empire having descended to an in- ferior station. It had a further and important operation in disabling the pmpire for assisting the prince of Orange against the Fjench, as it thereby drove that prince into a close connexion with Great Britain, which involved its go- vernment in all the combinations of continental policy, and gave a bep- nnm g to the later arrangements of the federative policy of ^urope. If Virfina had sunk under the attack of the infidels, too deep u impression would have been made upon the system O f th; Christian states. If it had been delivered by the enegv of the German government, the attack, thus defeated, m^ht have consolidated and invigorated that government, instead of assisting to reduce it to the secondary station, w iich it has since that time occupied. Both these conse- c-iences were precluded in the actual result, for Vienna was aved, and yet by no energy of its own government. The ambition of the visier 29 who aspired to establish for himself a new Mohammedan empire in the west, induced him to repress the ardour of his troops, that the treasures, which he already regarded as his own, might not in a successful assault become the prey of their rapacity. During the delay occasioned by this speculation, the fear of the common danger, and the promises of the German emperor and the Roman pontiff, prevailed with the Poles to compose the dissensions 30 , by which their government had been recently paralysed, and to march under the conduct of the heroic Sobieski to the relief of Vienna and of Christendom. Nor is it less remarkable among the occurrences of this interesting crisis, that the two governments, by which the Austrian capital was thus assailed and delivered, ceased from that very time to possess any considerable importance among the powers of Europe. Of this war it has been observed 31 , that it effected an entire change in the policy of the Chris- tian powers, as it regarded the Turks, the balance being from that time inclined so decidedly in favour of the former, 29 Cantimir, tome iii. pp. 250 257. so It was represented to the queen of Poland, that the emperor would give his daughter in mar- riage to her son, who by the united influence of the emperor and the pope should be nominated to succeed his father. Hist, of Poland, p. 190. 31 Abre"ge de 1'Hist. des Traites, tome iv. pp. 3, 4. TURKEY AND PERSIA, 1520 1700. 477 that it became much more the object of those powers to devise means for retaining the latter in Europe, than to ex- pel them. Turkey indeed ceased altogether from this time to act as a power of external compression, wMch could not continue to be necessary, when the system oj Europe was assuming its later and improved arrangement. Mn the year 174 1 32 the Ottoman court even invited the Christian princes to enter into relations of peace and amity, urging Xpon their attention the grievous calamities of war, and enforcing in the language of Christian morality the obligation o\ main- taining the general society of mankind. The history ^f Po- land from the same time has been that of civil disserteion, carried to the utmost excesses, which can be imagined V a people ; beginning with proscribing all native princes ftpm aspiring to the sovereignty, proceeding to a public offer! of the crown for sale to the agents of foreign courts 33 , ad concluding, as might have been expected from so disgraceful preliminaries, in the partition of the territory among th\ neighbouring potentates. The ascendency acquired by\ Sobieski might indeed have secured to his family the suc-\ cession of Poland, and thus have given some stability to an \ ill constituted government, if the intrigues of his consort V in favour of a younger son had not obstructed the establish- \ ment of his family, and afforded to the radical vices of the ' constitution an opportunity of manifesting all the malignity of their influence. During this struggle, in which Turkey acted a part so important, Persia was withheld from all interference by the weakness and decay consequent to the strictly arbitrary cha- racter of the government, which rendered the public welfare wholly dependent on the personal qualities of the sovereign. The four princes 34 , who succeeded the illustrious Abbas, were immured in the harem with women and eunuchs, until they were called to the government of the empire. Weak or dissolute, they suffered all the principles of the public 32 Mably, tome vi. p. 83. 33 The crown was actually exposed for sale in the year 1698. The pretenders bade for it to a degree of extravagance, but the avarice of the nobles was too great to be satisfied. After a long and violent struggle between the prince of Conti and the elector of Saxony, the latter .gained possession of the throne. Hist, of Poland, pp. 235, 246. M Sir J. Malcolm, vol. i. p. 576. 478 MODERN HISTORY : prosperity to perish by a continual decay. In vain did the policy and the toleration of Persia invite strangers from countries more improved, for no improvement could be na- turalized under such a government; and at length, in the year 1722, a few rude tribes of Affghans, which on the com- mon border of Persia and Hindostan had maintained a con- siderable degree of independence, put an end to this suc- cession cf imbecility 35 and possessed themselves of the dominion of a wasted people. The importance of the power of Persia, as a balance to that of Turkey, had ceased, when the letter no longer acted in compressing the system of Europe, or rather at a yet earlier period, when the agency of Turkey no longer required to be controlled. The peace of Carlowitz concluded in the year 1699, which hutibled the pride of Turkey, was the fruit of a larger con- feleracy of Christian governments than the union merely a' Germany and Poland, the Venetians having acceded to hat alliance in the year 1684, and the Russians having two years afterwards formed a league with the Poles. It was favoured also by yet more extensive combinations 36 , for, while the peace of Ryswick, concluded with France in the year 1697, left the emperor at liberty to employ his whole force in Hungary, a war, which had arisen on the side of Persia, rendered the court of Constantinople anxious to accommodate its differences with the powers of Europe, which was accordingly effected by the mediation of the British government and of the Dutch republic. By the peace negotiated in these circumstances Transylvania, Scla- vonia, and almost the whole of Hungary 37 , were preserved to the emperor, who on his part was solicitous to prosecute his pretension to the crown of Spain. To the Poles the 35 Fourteen years afterwards Nadir Shah expelled the barbarians, and began the regeneration of Persia. This revival however appears to have had relation, not to Turkey, but to Russia, the genius of Nadir having been exercised in defeating projects of the latter government, originally conceived by Peter the Great. Sir J. Malcolm, vol. ii. pp. 21, 280. The north-western provinces of Persia were from the time of that prince an object of ambition to Russia. 36 Abrege de 1'Hist. des Traites, tome iv. p. 11. 37 The bannat of Temeswar alone was reserved to the Turks. The Maroch, the Theysse, the Save, and the Unna, were constituted the boundaries of the two empires. Tabl. des Revol. de 1' Europe, tdme ii. p. 281. TURKEY AND PERSIA, 1520 1700. 479 territory formerly acquired from them by the Turks, was restored ; to the Venetians the Morea 38 which they had con- quered in the war, was ceded ; with the Russians a truce of two years was concluded ; which in the next year, by the peace of Constantinople 39 , was extended to thirty. 38 By the peace of Passarowitz, however, concluded in the year 1718, the Morea, which three years before had been reconquered by the Turks, was silently abandoned by the Venetians, and Tutkey was re-established in its dominion of Greece. 39 By this trVaty the important city of Azof, which commanded the communicatioli with the Black-Sea, was ceded to the Russians, who had reduced it in the year 1696. In the year 1711, Azof was recovered by the Turks^md in the year 1774 it was restored to the Russians, together with some other places adjacent to that sea. Tabl. des Revol. de 1'Europe, tome ii. pp. 268, 271, 397. The temporary possession of Azof appears to have inspired Peter with his ambition of maritime greatness, forW gaining it he equipped his first fleet. A communication howevW having been in that interval opened with the Baltic, the loss of Azo served to direct the efforts of the Russians to that side, from whicll they might receive their greatest improvement ; and the subsequent^ recovery of this place was accommodated to that increase of resources, which enabled them to grasp at maritime greatness on both sides of their extensive territory. END OF VOLUME THE THIED. A 000074302 1