to question the necessity and truth of any communication from the Deity, and yet professing to rely for its sanction on a supposed miraculous interposition of that very kind.'

Political Science :-Buchanan, Spenser, Raleigh.

86. It was impossible but that the general intellectual awakening which characterised the period should extend itself to political science. The doctrines of civil freedom now began to be heard from many lips, and in every direction penetrated the minds of men, producing convictions which the next generation was to see brought into action. Not that these opinions were wholly new, even the most advanced of them. To say nothing of the ancients, the great Aquinas, in his treatise De Regimine Principum, had said, as far back as the middle of the thirteenth century, that 'Rex datur propter regnum, et non regnum propter regem,'1 and had declared the constitutional or limited form of monarchy to be superior to the absolute form. But the class to which literature appealed in the thirteenth century was both too small, and too much absorbed in professional interests, to admit of such views becoming fruitful. After the invention of printing and the revival of learning they were taken up by many thinkers in different parts of Europe, and rapidly circulated through the educated portion of society. In 1579, the stern old George Buchanan, James I.'s pedagogue, crowned a long and adventurous life, in which his liberal opinions had brought on him more than one imprisonment, besides innumerable minor persecutions and troubles, by the publication, in his seventy-fourth year, of the work, De jure Regni apud Scotos.2 This treatise, which is in Latin, is in the form of a dialogue between the author and Thomas Maitland, upon the origin and nature of royal authority in general, and of the authority of the Scottish crown in particular. In either case, he derives the authority, so far as lawful, entirely from the consent of the governed; and argues that its abuse-inasmuch as its possessor is thereby constituted a tyrant-exposes him justly even to capital punishment at the hands of his people, and that not by public sentence only, but by the act of any private person. Views so extreme led to the condemnation and prohibition of the work by the Scottish parliament in 1584. It may be granted that Buchanan's close connection with the party of the Regent Murray, whose interest

1 The king exists for the sake of the kingdom, not the kingdom for the sake of the king.'

2. Upon Scotch Monarchical Law.'

it was to create an opinion of the lawfulness of any proceedings, to whatever lengths they might be carried, against the person and authority of the unhappy Queen, then in confinement in England, was likely to impart an extraordinary keenness and stringency to the anti-monarchical theories advocated in the book. Nevertheless similar views were supported in the sixteenth century in the most unexpected quarters; the Jesuit Mariana, for instance, openly advocates regicide in certain contingencies; and it was quite in character with the daring temper of the age to demolish the awe surrounding any power, however venerable, which thwarted the projects of either the majority or the most active and influential party in a state.

William Bellenden, after writing a treatise which he called Ciceronis Princeps, on monarchy, -another, Ciceronis Consul, on aristocracy,—and a third, De Statu Prisci Orbis, on the politics of the ancient world generally, cast the three treatises into one, and published them under the title Bellendenus de Statu (1615). Mr. Hallam (Lit. of Eur. iii.) gives considerable praise to Bellenden as a political reasoner. The book was republished, with a violent preface by Dr. Parr, in 1787.

87. Among the political writings of this period there is none more remarkable than Spenser's View of the State of Ireland, which, though written and presented to Elizabeth about the year 1596, was not published till 1633. This is the work of an eye-witness, who was at once a shrewd observer and a profound thinker, upon the difficulties of the Irish question,-that problem which pressed for solution in the sixteenth century, and is still unsolved in the nineteenth. Spenser traces the evils afflicting Ireland to three sources, connected respectively with its laws, its customs, and its religion; examines each source in turn; suggests specific remedial measures; and, finally, sketches out a general plan of government calculated to prevent the growth of similar mischiefs for the future.

88. In England, the active and penetrating mind of Raleigh was employed in this direction among others. It is very interesting to find him, in his Observations on Trade and Commerce, advocating the system of low duties on imports, and explaining the immense advantages which the Dutch, in the few years that had elapsed since they conquered their independence from Spain, had derived from free trade and open ports. The treatise on the Prerogative of Parliament, written in the Tower, and addressed to the King, was designed to induce James to summon a Parliament, as the most certain and satisfactory mode of paying the crown debts. It is true, he adapts the reasoning in some places to the base and tyrannical mind which he was attempting to influence; saying, for example, that although the

King might be obliged to promise reforms to his Parliament in return for subsidies, he need not keep his word when Parliament was broken up. But this Machiavelian suggestion may be explained as the desperate expedient of an unhappy prisoner, who saw no hope either for himself or for his country except in the justice of a free Parliament, and, since the King alone could call Parliament together, endeavoured to make the measure as little unpalatable as possible to the contemptible and unprincipled person who then occupied the throne. Much of the

historical inquiry which he institutes into the relations between former parliaments and English kings is extremely acute and valuable. In the Maxims of State, a short treatise, not written, like the one last mentioned, to serve an immediate purpose, Raleigh's naturally honest and noble nature asserts itself. In this he explicitly rejects all the immoral suggestions of Machiavel, and lays down none but sound and enlightened. principles for the conduct of governments. Thus, among the maxims to be observed by an hereditary sovereign, we read the following:

15. To observe the laws of his country, and not to encounter them with his prerogative, nor to use it at all where there is a law, for that it maketh a secret and just grudge in the people's hearts, especially if it tend to take from them their commodities, and to bestow them upon other of his courtiers and ministers.

It would have been well for Charles I. if he had laid this maxim to heart before attempting to levy ship-money. Again:

17. To be moderate in his taxes and impositions; and when need doth require to use the subjects' purse, to do it by parliament, and with their consents, making the cause apparent to them, and showing his unwillingness in charging them. Finally, so to use it that it may seem rather an offer from his subjects than an exaction by him.

A political essay, entitled The Cabinet Council, was left by Raleigh in manuscript at his death, and came into the hands of Milton, by whom it was published with a short preface. Though acute and shrewd, like all that came from the same hand, this treatise is less interesting than those already mentioned, because it enters little into the consideration of general causes, but consists mainly of practical maxims, suited to that age for the use of statesmen and commanders.

Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) was the attempt of an intelligent and humane man to convince his countrymen of the large part which imposture played in the annals of witchcraft, and of the cruelty and absurdity of the treatment often dealt out to the witches.

CHAPTER IV.

CIVIL WAR PERIOD.

1625-1700.

1. THE literature of this period will be better understood after a brief explanation has been given of the political changes which attended the fall, restoration, and ultimate expulsion of the Stuart dynasty.

The Puritan party, whose proceedings and opinions in the two preceding reigns have been already noticed, continued to grow in importance, and demanded with increasing loudness a reform in the Church establishment. They were met at first by a bigotry at least equal, and a power superior, to their own. Archbishop Laud, who presided in the High Commission Court,1 had taken for his motto the word 'Thorough,' and had persuaded himself that only by a system of severity could conformity to the established religion be enforced. Those who wrote against, or even impugned in conversation, the doctrine, discipline, or government of the Church of England, were brought before the High Commission Court and heavily fined; and a repetition of the offence, particularly if any expressions were used out of which a seditious meaning could be extracted, frequently led to an indictment of the offender in the Star Chamber (in which also Laud had a seat), and to his imprisonment and mutilation by order of that iniquitous tribunal. Thus Prynne, a lawyer, Bastwick, a physician, and Burton, a clergyman, after having run the gauntlet of the High Commission Court, and been there sentenced to suspension from the practice of their professions, fined, imprisoned, and excommunicated, were in 1632 summoned before the Star Chamber, and sentenced to stand in the pillory, to lose their ears, and be imprisoned for life. In 1633 Leighton, father of the eminent Archbishop Leighton, was by the same court sentenced to be publicly whipped, to lose both ears, to have his nostrils slit, to 1 Established by Queen Elizabeth to try ecclesiastical offences.

be branded on both cheeks, and imprisoned for life. In all these cases the offence was of the same kind ;-the publication of some book or tract, generally couched, it must be admitted, in scurrilous and inflammatory language, assailing the government of the Church by bishops, or the Church liturgy and ceremonies, or some of the common popular amusements, such as dancing and playgoing, to which these fanatics imputed most of the vice which corrupted society.

In

To these ecclesiastical grievances Charles I. took care to add political. By his levies of ship-money, and of tonnage and poundage-by his stretches of the prerogative,—by his long delay in convoking the Parliament, and many other illegal or irritating proceedings, he estranged most of the leading politicians, the Pyms, Hampdens, Seldens, and Hydes,-just as by supporting Laud he estranged the commercial and burgher classes, among whom Puritanism had its stronghold. November 1640 the famous Long Parliament met; the quarrel became too envenomed to be composed otherwise than by recourse to arms; and in 1642 the civil war broke out. Gradually the conduct of the war passed out of the hands of the more numerous section of the Puritan party-the Presbyterians -into those of a section hitherto obscure-the Independents -who were supported by the genius of Milton and Cromwell. This sect originally bore the name of Brownists, from their founder, Robert Browne (1549-1630): they went beyond the moderate Puritans in regarding conformity to the Establishment as a sin, and therefore forming, in defiance of the law, separate congregations. But their later writers, such as Milton and Owen, compensated for this indomitable sectarianism by maintaining the doctrine of toleration; against the Presbyterians they argued that the civil magistrate had no right to force the consciences of individuals. They took care, indeed, to make one exception; there was to be no toleration for the Roman Catholic worship. As for what you mention about liberty of conscience,' said Cromwell to the delegates from Ross, I meddle not with any man's conscience. But if by liberty of conscience you mean a liberty to exercise the mass, I judge it best to use plain dealing, and to let you know, where the Parliament of England have power, that will not be permitted.' Still it was a great thing to have the principle once boldly asserted and partially applied; for Catholics as well as others were sure to benefit sooner or later from its extension.

2. In the civil war, the clergy, four-fifths of the aristocracy 1 See Carlyle's Letters and Speeches of Cromwell.