The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (diy ebook reader .txt) π
Excerpt from the book:
Read free book Β«The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (diy ebook reader .txt) πΒ» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
Download in Format:
- Author: Thomas Babington Macaulay
Read book online Β«The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (diy ebook reader .txt) πΒ». Author - Thomas Babington Macaulay
the word of God.
The recess of the English Parliament lasted six weeks. The day on
which the Houses met again is one of the most remarkable epochs
in our history. From that day dates the corporate existence of
the two great parties which have ever since alternately governed
the country. In one sense, indeed, the distinction which then
became obvious had always existed, and always must exist. For it
has its origin in diversities of temper, of understanding, and of
interest, which are found in all societies, and which will be
found till the human mind ceases to be drawn in opposite
directions by the charm of habit and by the charm of novelty. Not
only in politics but in literature, in art, in science, in
surgery and mechanics, in navigation and agriculture, nay, even
in mathematics, we find this distinction. Everywhere there is a
class of men who cling with fondness to whatever is ancient, and
who, even when convinced by overpowering reasons that innovation
would be beneficial, consent to it with many misgivings and
forebodings. We find also everywhere another class of men,
sanguine in hope, bold in speculation, always pressing forward,
quick to discern the imperfections of whatever exists, disposed
to think lightly of the risks and inconveniences which attend
improvements and disposed to give every change credit for being
an improvement. In the sentiments of both classes there is
something to approve. But of both the best specimens will be
found not far from the common frontier. The extreme section of
one class consists of bigoted dotards: the extreme section of the
other consists of shallow and reckless empirics.
There can be no doubt that in our very first Parliaments might
have been discerned a body of members anxious to preserve, and a
body eager to reform. But, while the sessions of the legislature
were short, these bodies did not take definite and permanent
forms, array themselves under recognised leaders, or assume
distinguishing names, badges, and war cries. During the first
months of the Long Parliament, the indignation excited by many
years of lawless oppression was so strong and general that the
House of Commons acted as one man. Abuse after abuse disappeared
without a struggle. If a small minority of the representative
body wished to retain the Star Chamber and the High Commission,
that minority, overawed by the enthusiasm and by the numerical
superiority of the reformers, contented itself with secretly
regretting institutions which could not, with any hope of
success, be openly defended. At a later period the Royalists
found it convenient to antedate the separation between themselves
and their opponents, and to attribute the Act which restrained
the King from dissolving or proroguing the Parliament, the
Triennial Act, the impeachment of the ministers, and the
attainder of Strafford, to the faction which afterwards made war
on the King. But no artifice could be more disingenuous. Every
one of those strong measures was actively promoted by the men who
were afterward foremost among the Cavaliers. No republican spoke
of the long misgovernment of Charles more severely than
Colepepper. The most remarkable speech in favour of the Triennial
Bill was made by Digby. The impeachment of the Lord Keeper was
moved by Falkland. The demand that the Lord Lieutenant should be
kept close prisoner was made at the bar of the Lords by Hyde. Not
till the law attainting Strafford was proposed did the signs of
serious disunion become visible. Even against that law, a law
which nothing but extreme necessity could justify, only about
sixty members of the House of Commons voted. It is certain that
Hyde was not in the minority, and that Falkland not only voted
with the majority, but spoke strongly for the bill. Even the few
who entertained a scruple about inflicting death by a
retrospective enactment thought it necessary to express the
utmost abhorrence of Strafford's character and administration.
But under this apparent concord a great schism was latent; and
when, in October, 1641, the Parliament reassembled after a short
recess, two hostile parties, essentially the same with those
which, under different names, have ever since contended, and are
still contending, for the direction of public affairs, appeared
confronting each other. During some years they were designated as
Cavaliers and Roundheads. They were subsequently called Tories
and Whigs; nor does it seem that these appellations are likely
soon to become obsolete.
It would not be difficult to compose a lampoon or panegyric on
either of these renowned factions. For no man not utterly
destitute of judgment and candor will deny that there are many
deep stains on the fame of the party to which he belongs, or that
the party to which he is opposed may justly boast of many
illustrious names, of many heroic actions, and of many great
services rendered to the state. The truth is that, though both
parties have often seriously erred, England could have spared
neither. If, in her institutions, freedom and order, the
advantages arising from innovation and the advantages arising
from prescription, have been combined to an extent elsewhere
unknown, we may attribute this happy peculiarity to the strenuous
conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of
statesmen, a confederacy zealous for authority and antiquity, and
a confederacy zealous for liberty and progress.
It ought to be remembered that the difference between the two
great sections of English politicians has always been a
difference rather of degree than of principle. There were certain
limits on the right and on the left, which were very rarely
overstepped. A few enthusiasts on one side were ready to lay all
our laws and franchises at the feet of our Kings. A few
enthusiasts on the other side were bent on pursuing, through
endless civil troubles, their darling phantom of a republic. But
the great majority of those who fought for the crown were averse
to despotism; and the great majority of the champions of popular
rights were averse to anarchy. Twice, in the course of the
seventeenth century, the two parties suspended their dissensions,
and united their strength in a common cause. Their first
coalition restored hereditary monarchy. Their second coalition
rescued constitutional freedom.
It is also to be noted that these two parties have never been the
whole nation, nay, that they have never, taken together, made up
a majority of the nation. Between them has always been a great
mass, which has not steadfastly adhered to either, which has
sometimes remained inertly neutral, and which has sometimes
oscillated to and fro. That mass has more than once passed in a
few years from one extreme to the other, and back again.
Sometimes it has changed sides, merely because it was tired of
supporting the same men, sometimes because it was dismayed by its
own excesses, sometimes because it had expected impossibilities,
and had been disappointed. But whenever it has leaned with its
whole weight in either direction, that weight has, for the time,
been irresistible.
When the rival parties first appeared in a distinct form, they
seemed to be not unequally matched. On the side of the government
was a large majority of the nobles, and of those opulent and well
descended gentlemen to whom nothing was wanting of nobility but
the name. These, with the dependents whose support they could
command, were no small power. in the state. On the same side were
the great body of the clergy, both the Universities, and all
those laymen who were strongly attached to episcopal government
and to the Anglican ritual. These respectable classes found
themselves in the company of some allies much less decorous than
themselves. The Puritan austerity drove to the king's faction all
who made pleasure their business, who affected gallantry,
splendour of dress, or taste in the higher arts. With these went
all who live by amusing the leisure of others, from the painter
and the comic poet, down to the ropedancer and the Merry Andrew.
For these artists well knew that they might thrive under a superb
and luxurious despotism, but must starve under the rigid rule of
the precisians. In the same interest were the Roman Catholics to
a man. The Queen, a daughter of France, was of their own faith.
Her husband was known to be strongly attached to her, and not a
little in awe of her. Though undoubtedly a Protestant on
conviction, he regarded the professors of the old religion with
no ill-will, and would gladly have granted them a much larger
toleration than he was disposed to concede to the Presbyterians.
If the opposition obtained the mastery, it was probable that the
sanguinary laws enacted against Papists in the reign of
Elizabeth, would be severely enforced. The Roman Catholics were
therefore induced by the strongest motives to espouse the cause
of the court. They in general acted with a caution which brought
on them the reproach of cowardice and lukewarmness; but it is
probable that, in maintaining great reserve, they consulted the
King's interest as well as their own. It was not for his service
that they should be conspicuous among his friends.
The main strength of the opposition lay among the small
freeholders in the country, and among the merchants and
shopkeepers of the towns. But these were headed by a formidable
minority of the aristocracy, a minority which included the rich
and powerful Earls of Northumberland, Bedford, Warwick, Stamford,
and Essex, and several other Lords of great wealth and influence.
In the same ranks was found the whole body of Protestant
Nonconformists, and most of those members of the Established
Church who still adhered to the Calvinistic opinions which, forty
years before, had been generally held by the prelates and clergy.
The municipal corporations took, with few exceptions, the same
side. In the House of Commons the opposition preponderated, but
not very decidedly.
Neither party wanted strong arguments for the course which it was
disposed to take. The reasonings of the most enlightened
Royalists may be summed up thus:-"It is true that great abuses
have existed; but they have been redressed. It is true that
precious rights have been invaded; but they have been vindicated
and surrounded with new securities. The sittings of the Estates
of the realm have been, in defiance of all precedent and of the
spirit of the constitution, intermitted during eleven years; but
it has now been provided that henceforth three years shall never
elapse without a Parliament. The Star Chamber the High
Commission, the Council of York, oppressed end plundered us; but
those hateful courts have now ceased to exist. The Lord
Lieutenant aimed at establishing military despotism; but he has
answered for his treason with his head. The Primate tainted our
worship with Popish rites and punished our scruples with Popish
cruelty; but he is awaiting in the Tower the judgment of his
peers. The Lord Keeper sanctioned
The recess of the English Parliament lasted six weeks. The day on
which the Houses met again is one of the most remarkable epochs
in our history. From that day dates the corporate existence of
the two great parties which have ever since alternately governed
the country. In one sense, indeed, the distinction which then
became obvious had always existed, and always must exist. For it
has its origin in diversities of temper, of understanding, and of
interest, which are found in all societies, and which will be
found till the human mind ceases to be drawn in opposite
directions by the charm of habit and by the charm of novelty. Not
only in politics but in literature, in art, in science, in
surgery and mechanics, in navigation and agriculture, nay, even
in mathematics, we find this distinction. Everywhere there is a
class of men who cling with fondness to whatever is ancient, and
who, even when convinced by overpowering reasons that innovation
would be beneficial, consent to it with many misgivings and
forebodings. We find also everywhere another class of men,
sanguine in hope, bold in speculation, always pressing forward,
quick to discern the imperfections of whatever exists, disposed
to think lightly of the risks and inconveniences which attend
improvements and disposed to give every change credit for being
an improvement. In the sentiments of both classes there is
something to approve. But of both the best specimens will be
found not far from the common frontier. The extreme section of
one class consists of bigoted dotards: the extreme section of the
other consists of shallow and reckless empirics.
There can be no doubt that in our very first Parliaments might
have been discerned a body of members anxious to preserve, and a
body eager to reform. But, while the sessions of the legislature
were short, these bodies did not take definite and permanent
forms, array themselves under recognised leaders, or assume
distinguishing names, badges, and war cries. During the first
months of the Long Parliament, the indignation excited by many
years of lawless oppression was so strong and general that the
House of Commons acted as one man. Abuse after abuse disappeared
without a struggle. If a small minority of the representative
body wished to retain the Star Chamber and the High Commission,
that minority, overawed by the enthusiasm and by the numerical
superiority of the reformers, contented itself with secretly
regretting institutions which could not, with any hope of
success, be openly defended. At a later period the Royalists
found it convenient to antedate the separation between themselves
and their opponents, and to attribute the Act which restrained
the King from dissolving or proroguing the Parliament, the
Triennial Act, the impeachment of the ministers, and the
attainder of Strafford, to the faction which afterwards made war
on the King. But no artifice could be more disingenuous. Every
one of those strong measures was actively promoted by the men who
were afterward foremost among the Cavaliers. No republican spoke
of the long misgovernment of Charles more severely than
Colepepper. The most remarkable speech in favour of the Triennial
Bill was made by Digby. The impeachment of the Lord Keeper was
moved by Falkland. The demand that the Lord Lieutenant should be
kept close prisoner was made at the bar of the Lords by Hyde. Not
till the law attainting Strafford was proposed did the signs of
serious disunion become visible. Even against that law, a law
which nothing but extreme necessity could justify, only about
sixty members of the House of Commons voted. It is certain that
Hyde was not in the minority, and that Falkland not only voted
with the majority, but spoke strongly for the bill. Even the few
who entertained a scruple about inflicting death by a
retrospective enactment thought it necessary to express the
utmost abhorrence of Strafford's character and administration.
But under this apparent concord a great schism was latent; and
when, in October, 1641, the Parliament reassembled after a short
recess, two hostile parties, essentially the same with those
which, under different names, have ever since contended, and are
still contending, for the direction of public affairs, appeared
confronting each other. During some years they were designated as
Cavaliers and Roundheads. They were subsequently called Tories
and Whigs; nor does it seem that these appellations are likely
soon to become obsolete.
It would not be difficult to compose a lampoon or panegyric on
either of these renowned factions. For no man not utterly
destitute of judgment and candor will deny that there are many
deep stains on the fame of the party to which he belongs, or that
the party to which he is opposed may justly boast of many
illustrious names, of many heroic actions, and of many great
services rendered to the state. The truth is that, though both
parties have often seriously erred, England could have spared
neither. If, in her institutions, freedom and order, the
advantages arising from innovation and the advantages arising
from prescription, have been combined to an extent elsewhere
unknown, we may attribute this happy peculiarity to the strenuous
conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of
statesmen, a confederacy zealous for authority and antiquity, and
a confederacy zealous for liberty and progress.
It ought to be remembered that the difference between the two
great sections of English politicians has always been a
difference rather of degree than of principle. There were certain
limits on the right and on the left, which were very rarely
overstepped. A few enthusiasts on one side were ready to lay all
our laws and franchises at the feet of our Kings. A few
enthusiasts on the other side were bent on pursuing, through
endless civil troubles, their darling phantom of a republic. But
the great majority of those who fought for the crown were averse
to despotism; and the great majority of the champions of popular
rights were averse to anarchy. Twice, in the course of the
seventeenth century, the two parties suspended their dissensions,
and united their strength in a common cause. Their first
coalition restored hereditary monarchy. Their second coalition
rescued constitutional freedom.
It is also to be noted that these two parties have never been the
whole nation, nay, that they have never, taken together, made up
a majority of the nation. Between them has always been a great
mass, which has not steadfastly adhered to either, which has
sometimes remained inertly neutral, and which has sometimes
oscillated to and fro. That mass has more than once passed in a
few years from one extreme to the other, and back again.
Sometimes it has changed sides, merely because it was tired of
supporting the same men, sometimes because it was dismayed by its
own excesses, sometimes because it had expected impossibilities,
and had been disappointed. But whenever it has leaned with its
whole weight in either direction, that weight has, for the time,
been irresistible.
When the rival parties first appeared in a distinct form, they
seemed to be not unequally matched. On the side of the government
was a large majority of the nobles, and of those opulent and well
descended gentlemen to whom nothing was wanting of nobility but
the name. These, with the dependents whose support they could
command, were no small power. in the state. On the same side were
the great body of the clergy, both the Universities, and all
those laymen who were strongly attached to episcopal government
and to the Anglican ritual. These respectable classes found
themselves in the company of some allies much less decorous than
themselves. The Puritan austerity drove to the king's faction all
who made pleasure their business, who affected gallantry,
splendour of dress, or taste in the higher arts. With these went
all who live by amusing the leisure of others, from the painter
and the comic poet, down to the ropedancer and the Merry Andrew.
For these artists well knew that they might thrive under a superb
and luxurious despotism, but must starve under the rigid rule of
the precisians. In the same interest were the Roman Catholics to
a man. The Queen, a daughter of France, was of their own faith.
Her husband was known to be strongly attached to her, and not a
little in awe of her. Though undoubtedly a Protestant on
conviction, he regarded the professors of the old religion with
no ill-will, and would gladly have granted them a much larger
toleration than he was disposed to concede to the Presbyterians.
If the opposition obtained the mastery, it was probable that the
sanguinary laws enacted against Papists in the reign of
Elizabeth, would be severely enforced. The Roman Catholics were
therefore induced by the strongest motives to espouse the cause
of the court. They in general acted with a caution which brought
on them the reproach of cowardice and lukewarmness; but it is
probable that, in maintaining great reserve, they consulted the
King's interest as well as their own. It was not for his service
that they should be conspicuous among his friends.
The main strength of the opposition lay among the small
freeholders in the country, and among the merchants and
shopkeepers of the towns. But these were headed by a formidable
minority of the aristocracy, a minority which included the rich
and powerful Earls of Northumberland, Bedford, Warwick, Stamford,
and Essex, and several other Lords of great wealth and influence.
In the same ranks was found the whole body of Protestant
Nonconformists, and most of those members of the Established
Church who still adhered to the Calvinistic opinions which, forty
years before, had been generally held by the prelates and clergy.
The municipal corporations took, with few exceptions, the same
side. In the House of Commons the opposition preponderated, but
not very decidedly.
Neither party wanted strong arguments for the course which it was
disposed to take. The reasonings of the most enlightened
Royalists may be summed up thus:-"It is true that great abuses
have existed; but they have been redressed. It is true that
precious rights have been invaded; but they have been vindicated
and surrounded with new securities. The sittings of the Estates
of the realm have been, in defiance of all precedent and of the
spirit of the constitution, intermitted during eleven years; but
it has now been provided that henceforth three years shall never
elapse without a Parliament. The Star Chamber the High
Commission, the Council of York, oppressed end plundered us; but
those hateful courts have now ceased to exist. The Lord
Lieutenant aimed at establishing military despotism; but he has
answered for his treason with his head. The Primate tainted our
worship with Popish rites and punished our scruples with Popish
cruelty; but he is awaiting in the Tower the judgment of his
peers. The Lord Keeper sanctioned
Free e-book: Β«The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (diy ebook reader .txt) πΒ» - read online now on website american library books (americanlibrarybooks.com)
Similar e-books:
Comments (0)