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.

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.

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 despe

rate 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.

A political treatise, which was overlooked in its proper place, may be noticed here. This is the Governour of Sir Thomas Elyot, a courtier in the time of Henry VIII. The book is dedicated to the king, and was first published in 1531. Experience and reading of the ancients, he tells us, have qualified him, and inclination incited him, to write of the form of a juste publike weale.' Such an opening makes us think of Plato's Republic, or More's Utopia, or, at the least, Fortescue's Absolute and Limited Monarchy. But the promise was not kept, nor could it well have been kept; for who that had any regard for his life, and was not hopelessly servile in nature, could have written freely and fully on political questions under the horrible despotism of Henry VIII.? After the first few pages, the author slides into the subject of education for the remainder of the first book; the second and third books, again with the exception of a few pages, form an ethical treatise on virtues and vices, with but slight reference to the bearing of these on the work of government. In the brief portion which is political, Elyot argues on behalf of ranks and degrees among men from the examples of subordination afforded in the kingdoms of nature. Superior knowledge he deems to be, in itself, the best and most legitimate title to superior honour. Monarchy, as a form of government, he sets above aristocracy and democracy. He draws an argument from a beehive:

·

In a little beaste, whiche of all other is most to be mervailed at, I meane the Bee, is lefte to man by nature a perpetual figure of a just governaunce or rule; who have among them one principall bee for their governour, which excelleth all other in greatnesse, yet hath he no pricke or stinge, but in him is more knowledge than in the residewe.'

CHAPTER IV.

CIVIL WAR PERIOD.

1625-1700.

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,' 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

'Established by Queen Elizabeth to try ecclesiastical offences.

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 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.

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. In 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. In the following year, London being completely in the power of the Parliament, the Puritans were able to gratify their old grudge against the play-writers by closing all the theatres. Gradually the conduct of the war passed out of the hands of the more numerous section of the