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Etext prepared by Ken West

The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol. 1 by
Thomas Babington Macaulay.

THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND
FROM THE
ACCESSION OF JAMES II.

BY THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY.

VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA

PORTER & COATES

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
Introduction

Britain under the Romans

Britain under the Saxons

Conversion of the Saxons to Christianity

Danish Invasions; The Normans

The Norman Conquest

Separation of England and Normandy

Amalgamation of Races

English Conquests on the Continent

Wars of the Roses

Extinction of Villenage

Beneficial Operation of the Roman Catholic Religion

The early English Polity often misrepresented, and why?

Nature of the Limited Monarchies of the Middle Ages

Prerogatives of the early English Kings

Limitations of the Prerogative

Resistance an ordinary Check on Tyranny in the Middle Ages

Peculiar Character of the English Aristocracy

Government of the Tudors

Limited Monarchies of the Middle Ages generally turned into
Absolute Monarchies

The English Monarchy a singular Exception

The Reformation and its Effects

Origin of the Church of England

Her peculiar Character7

Relation in which she stood to the Crown

The Puritans

Their Republican Spirit

No systematic parliamentary Opposition offered to the Government
of Elizabeth

Question of the Monopolies

Scotland and Ireland become Parts of the same Empire with England

Diminution of the Importance of England after the Accession of
James I

Doctrine of Divine Right

The Separation between the Church and the Puritans becomes wider

Accession and Character of Charles I

Tactics of the Opposition in the House of Commons

Petition of Right

Petition of Right violated; Character and Designs of Wentworth

Character of Laud

Star Chamber and High Commission

Ship-Money

Resistance to the Liturgy in Scotland

A Parliament called and dissolved

The Long Parliament

First Appearance of the Two great English Parties

The Remonstrance

Impeachment of the Five Members

Departure of Charles from London

Commencement of the Civil War

Successes of the Royalists

Rise of the Independents

Oliver Cromwell

Selfdenying Ordinance; Victory of the Parliament

Domination and Character of the Army

Rising against the Military Government suppressed

Proceedings against the King

His Execution

Subjugation of Ireland and Scotland

Expulsion of the Long Parliament

The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver succeeded by Richard

Fall of Richard and Revival of the Long Parliament

Second Expulsion of the Long Parliament

The Army of Scotland marches into England

Monk declares for a Free Parliament

General Election of 1660

The Restoration

CHAPTER II.

Conduct of those who restored the House of Stuart unjustly
censured

Abolition of Tenures by Knight Service; Disbandment of the Army

Disputes between the Roundheads and Cavaliers renewed

Religious Dissension

Unpopularity of the Puritans

Character of Charles II

Character of the Duke of York and Earl of Clarendon

General Election of 1661

Violence of the Cavaliers in the new Parliament

Persecution of the Puritans

Zeal of the Church for Hereditary Monarchy

Change in the Morals of the Community

Profligacy of Politicians

State of Scotland

State of Ireland

The Government become unpopular in England

War with the Dutch

Opposition in the House of Commons

Fall of Clarendon

State of European Politics, and Ascendancy of France

Character of Lewis XIV

The Triple Alliance

The Country Party

Connection between Charles II. and France

Views of Lewis with respect to England

Treaty of Dover

Nature of the English Cabinet

The Cabal

Shutting of the Exchequer

War with the United Provinces, and their extreme Danger

William, Prince of Orange

Meeting of the Parliament; Declaration of Indulgence

It is cancelled, and the Test Act passed

The Cabal dissolved

Peace with the United Provinces; Administration of Danby

Embarrassing Situation of the Country Party

Dealings of that Party with the French Embassy

Peace of Nimeguen

Violent Discontents in England

Fall of Danby; the Popish Plot

Violence of the new House of Commons

Temple's Plan of Government

Character of Halifax

Character of Sunderland

Prorogation of the Parliament; Habeas Corpus Act; Second General
Election of 1679

Popularity of Monmouth

Lawrence Hyde

Sidney Godolphin

Violence of Factions on the Subject of the Exclusion Bill

Names of Whig and Tory

Meeting of Parliament; The Exclusion Bill passes the Commons;
Exclusion Bill rejected by the Lords

Execution of Stafford; General Election of 1681

Parliament held at Oxford, and dissolved

Tory Reaction

Persecution of the Whigs

Charter of the City confiscated; Whig Conspiracies

Detection of the Whig Conspiracies

Severity of the Government; Seizure of Charters

Influence of the Duke of York

He is opposed by Halifax

Lord Guildford

Policy of Lewis

State of Factions in the Court of Charles at the time of his
Death

CHAPTER III.

Great Change in the State of England since 1685

Population of England in 1685

Increase of Population greater in the North than in the South

Revenue in 1685

Military System

The Navy

The Ordnance

Noneffective Charge; Charge of Civil Government

Great Gains of Ministers and Courtiers

State of Agriculture5

Mineral Wealth of the Country

Increase of Rent

The Country Gentlemen

The Clergy

The Yeomanry; Growth of the Towns; Bristol

Norwich

Other Country Towns

Manchester; Leeds; Sheffield

Birmingham

Liverpool

Watering-places; Cheltenham; Brighton; Buxton; Tunbridge Wells

Bath

London

The City

Fashionable Part of the Capital

Lighting of London

Police of London

Whitefriars; The Court

The Coffee Houses

Difficulty of Travelling

Badness of the Roads

Stage Coaches

Highwaymen

Inns

Post Office

Newspapers

News-letters

The Observator

Scarcity of Books in Country Places; Female Education

Literary Attainments of Gentlemen

Influence of French Literature

Immorality of the Polite Literature of England

State of Science in England

State of the Fine Arts

State of the Common People; Agricultural Wages

Wages of Manufacturers

Labour of Children in Factories

Wages of different Classes of Artisans

Number of Paupers

Benefits derived by the Common People from the Progress of
Civilisation

Delusion which leads Men to overrate the Happiness of preceding
Generations

CHAPTER IV.

Death of Charles II

Suspicions of Poison

Speech of James II. to the Privy Council

James proclaimed

State of the Administration

New Arrangements

Sir George Jeffreys

The Revenue collected without an Act of Parliament

A Parliament called

Transactions between James and the French King

Churchill sent Ambassador to France; His History

Feelings of the Continental Governments towards England

Policy of the Court of Rome

Struggle in the Mind of James; Fluctuations in his Policy

Public Celebration of the Roman Catholic Rites in the Palace

His Coronation

Enthusiasm of the Tories; Addresses

The Elections

Proceedings against Oates

Proceedings against Dangerfield

Proceedings against Baxter

Meeting of the Parliament of Scotland

Feeling of James towards the Puritans

Cruel Treatment of the Scotch Covenanters

Feeling of James towards the Quakers

William Penn

Peculiar Favour shown to Roman Catholics and Quakers

Meeting of the English Parliament; Trevor chosen Speaker;
Character of Seymour

The King's Speech to the Parliament

Debate in the Commons; Speech of Seymour

The Revenue voted; Proceedings of the Commons concerning Religion

Additional Taxes voted; Sir Dudley North

Proceedings of the Lords

Bill for reversing the Attainder of Stafford

CHAPTER V.

Whig Refugees on the Continent

Their Correspondents in England

Characters of the leading Refugees; Ayloffe; Wade

Goodenough; Rumbold

Lord Grey

Monmouth

Ferguson

Scotch Refugees; Earl of Argyle

Sir Patrick Hume; Sir John Cochrane; Fletcher of Saltoun

Unreasonable Conduct of the Scotch Refugees

Arrangement for an Attempt on England and Scotland

John Locke

Preparations made by Government for the Defence of Scotland

Conversation of James with the Dutch Ambassadors; Ineffectual
Attempts to prevent Argyle from sailing

Departure of Argyle from Holland; He lands in Scotland

His Disputes with his Followers

Temper of the Scotch Nation

Argyle's Forces dispersed

Argyle a Prisoner

His Execution.

Execution of Rumbold

Death of Ayloffe

Devastation of Argyleshire

Ineffectual Attempts to prevent Monmouth from leaving Holland

His Arrival at Lyme

His Declaration

His Popularity in the West of England

Encounter of the Rebels with the Militia at Bridport

Encounter of the Rebels with the Militia at Axminster; News of
the Rebellion carried to London; Loyalty of the Parliament

Reception of Monmouth at Taunton

He takes the Title of King

His Reception at Bridgewater

Preparations of the Government to oppose him

His Design on Bristol

He relinquishes that Design

Skirmish at Philip's Norton; Despondence of Monmouth

He returns to Bridgewater; The Royal Army encamps at Sedgemoor

Battle of Sedgemoor

Pursuit of the Rebels

Military Executions; Flight of Monmouth

His Capture

His Letter to the King; He is carried to London

His Interview with the King

His Execution

His Memory cherished by the Common People

Cruelties of the Soldiers in the West; Kirke

Jeffreys sets out on the Western Circuit

Trial of Alice Lisle

The Bloody Assizes

Abraham Holmes

Christopher Battiseombe; The Hewlings

Punishment of Tutchin

Rebels Transported

Confiscation and Extortion

Rapacity of the Queen and her Ladies

Grey; Cochrane; Storey

Wade, Goodenough, and Ferguson

Jeffreys made Lord Chancellor

Trial and Execution of Cornish

Trials and Executions of Fernley and Elizabeth Gaunt

Trial and Execution of Bateman

Persecution of the Protestant Dissenters

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

I PURPOSE to write the history of England from the accession of
King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory
of men still living. I shall recount the errors which, in a few
months, alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of
Stuart. I shall trace the course of that revolution which
terminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and their
parliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and
the title of the reigning dynasty. I shall relate how the new
settlement was, during many troubled years, successfully defended
against foreign and domestic enemies; how, under that settlement,
the authority of law and the security of property were found to
be compatible with a liberty of discussion and of individual
action never before known; how, from the auspicious union of
order and freedom, sprang a prosperity of which the annals of
human affairs had furnished no example; how our country, from a
state of ignominious vassalage, rapidly rose to the place of
umpire among European powers; how her opulence and her martial
glory grew together; how, by wise and resolute good faith, was
gradually established a public credit fruitful of marvels which
to the statesmen of any former age would have seemed incredible;
how a gigantic commerce gave birth to a maritime power, compared
with which every other maritime power, ancient or modern, sinks
into insignificance; how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at
length united to England, not merely by legal bonds, but by
indissoluble ties of interest and affection; how, in America, the
British colonies rapidly became far mightier and wealthier than
the realms which Cortes and Pizarro had added to the dominions of
Charles the Fifth; how in Asia, British adventurers founded an
empire not less splendid and more durable than that of Alexander.

Nor will it be less my duty faithfully to record disasters
mingled with triumphs, and great national crimes and follies far
more humiliating than any disaster. It will be seen that even
what we justly account our chief blessings were not without
alloy. It will be seen that the system which effectually secured
our liberties against the encroachments of kingly power gave
birth to a new class of abuses from which absolute monarchies are
exempt. It will be seen that, in consequence partly of unwise
interference, and partly of unwise neglect, the increase of
wealth and the extension of trade produced, together with immense
good, some evils from which poor and rude societies are free. It
will be seen how, in two important dependencies of the crown,
wrong was followed by just retribution; how imprudence and
obstinacy broke the ties which bound the North American colonies
to the parent state; how Ireland, cursed by the domination of
race over race, and of religion over religion, remained indeed a
member of the empire, but a withered and distorted member, adding
no strength to the body politic, and reproachfully pointed at by
all who feared or envied the greatness of England.

Yet, unless I greatly deceive myself, the general effect of this
chequered narrative will be to excite thankfulness in all
religious minds, and hope in the breasts of all patriots. For the
history of our country during the last hundred and sixty years is
eminently the history of physical, of moral, and of intellectual
improvement. Those who compare the age on which their lot has
fallen with a golden age which exists only in their imagination
may talk of degeneracy and decay: but no man who is correctly
informed as to the past will be disposed to take a morose or
desponding view of the present.

I should very imperfectly execute the task which I have
undertaken if I were merely to treat of battles and sieges, of
the rise and fall of administrations, of intrigues in the palace,
and of debates in the parliament. It will be my endeavour to
relate the history of the people as well as the history of the
government, to trace the progress of useful and ornamental arts,
to describe the rise of religious sects and the changes of
literary taste, to portray the manners of successive generations
and not to pass by with neglect even the revolutions which have
taken place in dress, furniture, repasts, and public amusements.
I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below
the dignity of history, if I can succeed in placing before the
English of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of
their ancestors.

The events which I propose to relate form only a single act of a
great and eventful drama extending through ages, and must be very
imperfectly understood unless the plot of the preceding acts be
well known. I shall therefore introduce my narrative by a slight
sketch of the history of our country from the earliest times. I
shall pass very rapidly over many centuries: but I shall dwell at
some length on the vicissitudes of that contest which the
administration of King James the Second brought to a decisive
crisis.1

Nothing in the early existence of Britain indicated the greatness
which she was destined to attain. Her inhabitants when first they
became known to the Tyrian mariners, were little superior to the
natives of the Sandwich Islands. She was subjugated by the Roman
arms; but she received only a faint tincture of Roman arts and
letters. Of the western provinces which obeyed the Caesars, she
was the last that was conquered, and the first that was flung
away. No magnificent remains of Latin porches and aqueducts are
to be found in Britain. No writer of British birth is reckoned
among the masters of Latin poetry and eloquence. It is not
probable that the islanders were at any time generally familiar
with the tongue of their Italian rulers. From the Atlantic to the
vicinity of the Rhine the Latin has, during many centuries, been
predominant. It drove out the Celtic; it was not driven out by
the Teutonic; and it is at this day the basis of the French,
Spanish and Portuguese languages. In our island the Latin appears
never to have superseded the old Gaelic speech, and could not
stand its ground against the German.

The scanty and superficial civilisation which the Britons had
derived from their southern masters was effaced by the calamities
of the fifth century. In the continental kingdoms into which the
Roman empire was then dissolved, the conquerors learned much from
the conquered race. In Britain the conquered race became as
barbarous as the conquerors.

All the chiefs who founded Teutonic dynasties in the continental
provinces of the Roman empire, Alaric, Theodoric, Clovis, Alboin,
were zealous Christians. The followers of Ida and Cerdic, on the
other hand, brought to their settlements in Britain all the
superstitions of the Elbe. While the German princes who reigned
at Paris, Toledo, Arles, and Ravenna listened with reverence to
the instructions of bishops, adored the relics of martyrs, and
took part eagerly in disputes touching the Nicene theology, the
rulers of Wessex and Mercia were still performing savage rites in
the temples of Thor and Woden.

The continental kingdoms which had risen on the ruins of the
Western Empire kept up some intercourse with those eastern
provinces where the ancient civilisation, though slowly fading
away under the influence of misgovernment, might still astonish
and instruct barbarians, where the court still exhibited the
splendour of Diocletian and Constantine, where the public
buildings were still adorned with the sculptures of Polycletus
and the paintings of Apelles, and where laborious pedants,
themselves destitute of taste, sense, and spirit, could still
read and interpret the masterpieces of Sophocles, of Demosthenes,
and of Plato. From this communion Britain was cut off. Her shores
were, to the polished race which dwelt by the Bosphorus, objects
of a mysterious horror, such as that with which the Ionians of
the age of Homer had regarded the Straits of Scylla and the city
of the Laestrygonian cannibals. There was one province of our
island in which, as Procopius had been told, the ground was
covered with serpents, and the air was such that no man could
inhale it and live. To this desolate region the spirits of the
departed were ferried over from the land of the Franks at
midnight. A strange race of fishermen performed the ghastly
office. The speech of the dead was distinctly heard by the
boatmen, their weight made the keel sink deep in the water; but
their forms were invisible to mortal eye. Such were the marvels
which an able historian, the contemporary of Belisarius, of
Simplicius, and of Tribonian, gravely related in the rich and
polite Constantinople, touching the country in which the founder
of Constantinople had assumed the imperial purple. Concerning all
the other provinces of the Western Empire we have continuous
information. It is only in Britain that an age of fable
completely separates two ages of truth. Odoacer and Totila, Euric
and Thrasimund, Clovis, Fredegunda, and Brunechild, are
historical men and women. But Hengist and Horsa, Vortigern and
Rowena, Arthur and Mordred are mythical persons, whose very
existence may be questioned, and whose adventures must be classed
with those of Hercules and Romulus

At length the darkness begins to break; and the country which had
been lost to view as Britain reappears as England. The conversion
of the Saxon colonists to Christianity was the first of a long
series of salutary revolutions. It is true that the Church had
been deeply corrupted both by that superstition and by that
philosophy against which she had long contended, and over which
she had at last triumphed. She had given a too easy admission to
doctrines borrowed from the ancient schools, and to rites
borrowed from the ancient temples. Roman policy and Gothic
ignorance, Grecian ingenuity and Syrian asceticism, had
contributed to deprave her. Yet she retained enough of the
sublime theology and benevolent morality of her earlier days to
elevate many intellects, and to purify many hearts. Some things
also which at a later period were justly regarded as among her
chief blemishes were, in the seventh century, and long
afterwards, among her chief merits. That the sacerdotal order
should encroach on the functions of the civil magistrate would,
in our time, be a great evil. But that which in an age of good
government is an evil may, in an ago of grossly bad government,
be a blessing. It is better that mankind should be governed by
wise laws well administered, and by an enlightened public
opinion, than by priestcraft: but it is better that men should be
governed by priestcraft than by brute violence, by such a prelate
as Dunstan than by such a warrior as Penda. A society sunk in
ignorance, and ruled by mere physical force, has great reason to
rejoice when a class, of which the influence is intellectual and
moral, rises to ascendancy. Such a class will doubtless abuse its
power: but mental power, even when abused, is still a nobler and
better power than that which consists merely in corporeal
strength. We read in our Saxon chronicles of tyrants, who, when
at the height of greatness, were smitten with remorse, who
abhorred the pleasures and dignities which they had purchased by
guilt, who abdicated their crowns, and who sought to atone for
their offences by cruel penances and incessant prayers. These
stories have drawn forth bitter expressions of contempt from some
writers who, while they boasted of liberality, were in truth as
narrow-minded as any monk of the dark ages, and whose habit was
to apply to all events in the history of the world the standard
received in the Parisian society of the eighteenth century. Yet
surely a system which, however deformed by superstition,
introduced strong moral restraints into communities previously
governed only by vigour of muscle and by audacity of spirit, a
system which taught the fiercest and mightiest ruler that he was,
like his meanest bondman, a responsible being, might have seemed
to deserve a more respectful mention from philosophers and
philanthropists.

The same observations will apply to the contempt with which, in
the last century, it was fashionable to speak of the pilgrimages,
the sanctuaries, the crusades, and the monastic institutions of
the middle ages. In times when men were scarcely ever induced to
travel by liberal curiosity, or by the pursuit of gain, it was
better that the rude inhabitant of the North should visit Italy
and the East as a pilgrim, than that he should never see anything
but those squalid cabins and uncleared woods amidst which he was
born. In times when life and when female honour were exposed to
daily risk from tyrants and marauders, it was better that the
precinct of a shrine should be regarded with an irrational awe,
than that there should be no refuge inaccessible to cruelty and
licentiousness. In times when statesmen were incapable of forming
extensive political combinations, it was better that the
Christian nations should be roused and united for the recovery of
the Holy Sepulchre, than that they should, one by one, be
overwhelmed by the Mahometan power. Whatever reproach may, at a
later period, have been justly thrown on the indolence and luxury
of religious orders, it was surely good that, in an age of
ignorance and violence, there should be quiet cloisters and
gardens, in which the arts of peace could be safely cultivated,
in which gentle and contemplative natures could find an asylum,
in which one brother could employ himself in transcribing the
Æneid of Virgil, and another in meditating the Analytics of
Aristotle, in which he who had a genius for art might illuminate
a martyrology or carve a crucifix, and in which he who had a turn
for natural philosophy might make experiments on the properties
of plants and minerals. Had not such retreats been scattered here
and there, among the huts of a miserable peasantry, and the
castles of a ferocious aristocracy, European society would have
consisted merely of beasts of burden and beasts of prey. The
Church has many times been compared by divines to the ark of
which we read in the Book of Genesis: but never was the
resemblance more perfect than during that evil time when she
alone rode, amidst darkness and tempest, on the deluge beneath
which all the great works of ancient power and wisdom lay
entombed, bearing within her that feeble germ from which a Second
and more glorious civilisation was to spring.