Part 18 (1/2)
”Robert Ket was not a mere craftsman: he was a man of substance, the owner of several manors; his conduct throughout was marked by considerable generosity; nor can the name of patriot be denied to him who deserted the cla.s.s to which he might have belonged or aspired, and cast in his lot with the suffering people.”--CANON DIXON, _History of the Church of England_.
[48] ”There was something in the temper of these celebrated men which secured them against the proverbial inconstancy both of the Court and of individuals.... No Parliament attacked their influence. No mob coupled their names with any odious grievance.... They were, one and all, Protestants. But ... none of them chose to run the smallest personal risk during the reign of Mary. No men observed more accurately the signs of the times.... Their fidelity to the State was incorruptible. No intrigue, no combination of rivals could deprive them of the confidence of their Sovereign.”--MACAULAY, _Burleigh, his Times._
[49] ”The Tudor monarchs exercised freely their power of creating boroughs by charter. They used their Parliaments, and had to find means of controlling them. In the creation of 'pocket' or 'rotten' boroughs, Queen Elizabeth was probably the worst offender. She had much influence in her Duchy of Cornwall, and many of the Cornish boroughs which obtained such a scandalous reputation in later times were created by her for the return of those whom the lords of her council would consider 'safe' men.”--ILBERT, _Parliament._
[50] Elizabeth's popularity steadily diminished in her last years. The death of Ess.e.x, ecclesiastical persecutions, increased taxation, and the irritations caused by royal expenditure were all responsible for the discontent. James I. failed from the first to secure the goodwill of the people.
[51] Oxford men all three. Sir John Eliot was at Exeter College, 1607; John Hampden at Magdalen, 1609; and John Pym at Broadgate Hall (later called Pembroke), 1599.
[52] Clarendon, _History of the Great Rebellion_.
[53] ”The same men who, six months before, were observed to be of very moderate tempers, and to wish that gentle remedies might be applied, talked now in another dialect both of Kings and persons; and said that they must now be of another temper than they were the last Parliament.”--CLARENDON, _ibid._
[54] Macaulay, _Hallam's Const.i.tutional History_.
[55] ”The great rule of Cromwell was a series of failures to reconcile the authority of the 'single person' with the authority of Parliament.”--ILBERT, _Parliament_.
[56] ”A very large number of persons regarded the struggle with indifference.... In one case, the inhabitants of an entire county pledged themselves to remain neutral. Many quietly changed with the times (as people changed with the varying fortunes of York and Lancaster). That this sentiment of neutrality was common to the greater ma.s.s of the working cla.s.ses is obvious from the simultaneous appearance of the club men in different parts of the country with their motto: 'If you take our cattle, we will give you battle.'”--G.P. GOOCH, _History of Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century_.
[57] See _Memorial of English Affairs_.
[58] ”By its injudicious treatment of the most popular man in England, Parliament was arraying against itself a force which only awaited an opportunity to sweep it away.”--G.P. GOOCH, _History of Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century_.
[59] ”So die the Leveller corporals. Strong they, after their sort, for the liberties of England; resolute to the very death.”--CARLYLE.
[60] ”Then ensued a scene, the like of which had in all probability never been witnessed in an English court of justice, and was never again to be witnessed till the seven bishops were freed by the verdict of a jury from the rage of James II.”--S.R. GARDINER, _History of the Commonwealth_.
[61] Professor C.H. Firth, Lilburne in _Dict. Nat. Biography_.
[62] Winstanley's _New Law of Righteousness_, 1649.
[63] Palgrave. Introduction to Erskine May, _Parliamentary Practice_.
[64] Sir John Eliot, 1629.
[65] Edward II., in 1327, and Richard II., in 1399, had not been deposed without the consent of Parliament.
[66] ”The monarchical regime which was revived under Charles II. broke down under James II. It was left for the 'glorious Revolution' of 1688, and for the Hanoverian dynasty, to develop the ingenious system of adjustments and compromises which is now known, sometimes as cabinet government, sometimes as parliamentary government.”--ILBERT, _Parliament_.
[67] G.P. Gooch, _Annals of Politics and Culture_.
[68] Palmerston's influence in the House of Commons was about as bad in the nineteenth century.--_See_ BAGEHOT, _The English Const.i.tution_.
[69] ”Here and there we find an eminent man, whose public services were so notorious that it was impossible to avoid rewarding them; but putting aside those who were in a manner forced upon the Sovereign, it would be idle to deny that the remainder and, of course, the overwhelming majority, were marked by a narrowness and illiberality of sentiment, which, more than anything else, brought the whole order into contempt. No great thinkers, no great writers, no great orators, no great statesman, none of the true n.o.bility of the land, were to be found among those spurious n.o.bles created by George III. Nor were the material interests of the country better represented. Among the most important men in England those engaged in banking and commerce held a high place; since the end of the seventeenth century their influence had rapidly increased.... But in the reign of George III. claims of this sort were little heeded.”--BUCKLE, _History of Civilisation_.
[70] ”They, the friars, and especially the Franciscans, largely influenced politics. The conception of individual freedom, upon which the life of St.