Part 59 (1/2)

But this Convention did not repeat the error of the Parliament that restored Charles II., and give the crown to the Prince and Princess without proper safeguards and guaranties for the conduct of the government according to the ancient laws of the kingdom. They drew up the celebrated Declaration of Rights, which plainly rehea.r.s.ed all the old rights and liberties of Englishmen; denied the right of the king to lay taxes or maintain an army without the consent of Parliament; and a.s.serted that freedom of debate was the inviolable privilege of both the Lords and the Commons. William and Mary were required to accept this declaration, and to agree to rule in accordance with its provisions, whereupon they were declared King and Queen of England. In such manner was effected what is known in history as the Revolution of 1688.

3. _Literature of the Restoration_.

IT REFLECTS THE IMMORALITY OF THE AGE.--The reigns of the restored Stuarts mark the most corrupt period in the history of English society. The low standard of morals, and the general prodigacy in manners, especially among the higher cla.s.ses, are in part attributable to the demoralizing example of a shockingly licentious and shameless court; but in a larger measure, perhaps, should be viewed as the natural reaction from the over-stern, repellent Puritanism of the preceding period. The Puritans undoubtedly erred in their indiscriminate and wholesale denunciation of all forms of harmless amus.e.m.e.nt and innocent pleasure. They not only rebuked gaming, drinking, and profanity, and stopped bear-baiting, but they closed all the theatres, forbade the Maypole dances of the people, condemned as paganish the observance of Christmas, frowned upon sculpture as idolatrous and indecent, and considered any bright color in dress as utterly incompatible with a proper sense of the seriousness of life.

Now all this was laying too heavy a burden upon human nature. The revolt and reaction came, as come they must. Upon the Restoration, society swung to the opposite extreme. In place of the solemn-visaged, psalm-singing Roundhead, we have the gay, roistering Cavalier. Faith gives place to infidelity, sobriety to drunkenness, purity to profligacy, economy to extravagance, Bible-study, psalm-singing and exhorting to theatre-going, profanity, and carousing.

The literature of the age is a perfect record of this revolt against the ”sour severity” of Puritanism, and a faithful reflection of the unblus.h.i.+ng immorality of the times.

The book most read and praised by Charles II, and his court, and the one that best represents the spirit of the victorious party, is the satirical poem of _Hudibras_ by Samuel Butler. The object of the work is to satirize the cant and excesses of Puritanism, just as the _Don Quixote_ of Cervantes burlesques the extravagances and follies of Chivalry.

So immoral and indecent are the works of the writers for the stage of this period that they have acquired the designation of ”the corrupt dramatists.” Among the authors of this species of literature was the poet Dryden.

IV. THE ORANGE-STUARTS.

1. _Reign of William and Mary_ (1689-1702).

THE BILL OF RIGHTS.--The Revolution of 1688, and the new settlement of the crown upon William and Mary, marks an epoch in the const.i.tutional history of England. It settled forever the long dispute between king and Parliament--and settled it in favor of the latter. The Bill of Rights,-- the articles of the Declaration of Rights (see p. 624) framed into a law, --which was one of the earliest acts of the first Parliament under William and Mary, in effect ”transferred sovereignty from the king to the House of Commons.” It a.s.serted plainly that the kings of England derive their right and t.i.tle to rule, not from the accident of birth, but from the will of the people, and declared that Parliament might depose any king, exclude his heirs from the throne, and settle the crown anew in another family.

This uprooted thoroughly the pernicious doctrine that princes have a divine and inalienable right to the throne of their ancestors, and when once seated on that throne rule simply as the vicegerents of G.o.d, above all human censure and control. We shall hear but little more in England of this monstrous theory, which for so long a time overshadowed and threatened the freedom of the English people.

Mindful of Charles's attempt to reestablish the Roman Catholic wors.h.i.+p, the framers of this same famous Bill of Rights further declared that all persons holding communion with the Church of Rome or uniting in marriage with a Roman Catholic, should be ”forever incapable to possess, inherit, or enjoy the crown and government of the realm.” Since the Revolution of 1688 no one of that faith has worn the English crown.

The other provisions of the bill, following closely the language of the Declaration, forbade the king to levy taxes or keep an army in time of peace without the consent of Parliament; demanded that Parliament should be frequently a.s.sembled; reaffirmed, as one of the ancient privileges of both Houses, perfect freedom of debate; and positively denied the dispensing power of the crown, that is, the authority claimed by the Stuarts of exempting certain persons from the penalty of the law by a royal edict.

All of these provisions now became inwrought into the English Const.i.tution, and from this time forward were recognized as part of the fundamental law of the realm.

SETTLEMENT OF THE REVENUE.--The articles of the Bill of Rights were made effectual by appropriate legislation. One thing which had enabled the Tudors and Stuarts to be so independent of Parliament was the custom which prevailed of granting to each king, at the beginning of his reign, the ordinary revenue of the kingdom during his life. This income, with what could be raised by gifts, benevolences, monopolies, and similar expedients, had enabled despotic sovereigns to administer the government, wage war, and engage in any wild enterprise just as his own individual caprice or pa.s.sion might dictate. All this was now changed. Parliament, instead of granting William the revenue for life, restricted the grant to a single year, and made it a penal offence for the officers of the treasury to pay out money otherwise than ordered by Parliament.

We cannot overestimate the importance of this change in the English Const.i.tution. It is this control of the purse of the nation which has made the Commons--for all money bills must originate in the Lower House--the actual seat of government, const.i.tuting them the arbiters of peace and war. By simply refusing to vote supplies, they can paralyze instantly the arm of the king. [Footnote: For the _Mutiny Bill_, enacted at this time, see _Glossary_.]

JAMES ATTEMPTS TO RECOVER THE THRONE: BATTLE OF THE BOYNE (1690).--The first years of William's reign were disturbed by the efforts of James to regain the throne which he had abandoned. In these attempts he was aided by Louis XIV., and by the Jacobites (from _Jacobus_, Latin for James), the name given to the adherents of the exiled king. The Irish gave William the most trouble, but in the decisive battle of the Boyne he gained a great victory over them, and soon all Ireland acknowledged his authority.

PLANS AND DEATH OF WILLIAM.--The motive which had most strongly urged William to respond to the invitation of the English revolutionists to a.s.sume the crown of England, was his desire to turn the arms and resources of that country against the great champion of despotism, and the dangerous neighbor of his own native country, Louis XIV. of France.

The conduct of Louis in lending aid to James in his attempts to regain his crown had so inflamed the English that they were quite ready to support William in his wars against him, and so the English and Dutch sailors fought side by side against the common enemy in the War of the Palatinate (see p. 595).

A short time after the Peace of Ryswick, broke out the War of the Spanish Succession (see p. 596). William, as the uncompromising foe of the ambitious French king, urged the English to enter the war against France.

An insolent and perfidious act on the part of Louis caused the English people to support their king in this plan with great unanimity and heartiness. The matter to which we refer was this. James II. having died at just this juncture of affairs, Louis, disregarding his solemn promises, at once acknowledged his son, known in history as the ”Pretender,” as ”King of Great Britain and Ireland.”

Preparations were now made for the war thus provoked by the double sense of danger and insult. In the midst of these preparations William was fatally hurt by being thrown from his horse (1702). Mary had died in 1694, and as they left no children, the crown descended to the Princess Anne, Mary's sister, who had married Prince George of Denmark.

2. _Reign of Queen Anne_ (1702-1714).

WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (1701-1714).--The War of the Spanish Succession covered the whole of the reign of Queen Anne. Of the causes and results of this war, and of England's part in it, we have spoken in connection with the reign of Louis XIV. (see p. 596); and so, referring the reader to the account of the contest there given, we shall pa.s.s to speak of another event of a domestic character which signalized the reign of Queen Anne.

UNION OF THE PARLIAMENTS OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND (1707).--We refer to the union of England and Scotland into a single kingdom, under the name of Great Britain (1707). It was only the two _crowns_ that were united when James I. came to the English throne: now the two _Parliaments_ were united. From this time forward the two countries were represented by one Parliament, and in time the name ”British” becomes the common designation of the inhabitants of England, Wales, and Scotland. The union was advantageous to both countries; for it was a union not simply of hands, but of hearts.