A Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom

110

CHAPTER IX.

THE ENGLAND OF CHARLES I.

Effort of Charles to rule without a Parliament. - The Short

Parliament. Assembling of the Long Parliament. — Its

idea to establish the equilibrium between King, Lords, and
Commons. Arrest of Laud and Strafford. The Grand

Remonstrance. - Attempt to arrest the Five Members.

Outbreak of the Civil War. - Constitution of the two

parties. Edgehill. Low estate of the Parliament.

The Solemn League and Covenant and Marston Moor.

Naseby. The rank and file of the Ironsides. — Their

manifestoes. - Reluctance of the leaders to subscribe to

them. The prayer-meeting of December 22, 1647 .

CHAPTER X.

THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH.

Civil war of 1648.

Siege of Colchester and battle of Pres-
ton. The Grand Army Remonstrance. - Resistance of
Parliament. Pride's Purge. - Ireton's

declarations.

The Agreement of the People. Its anticipation of the
Reform Bill of 1832. — Abolishment of the kingship and
the House of Peers.- Execution of the King. - Republi-
can ideas of the party in power. - Temporary government

of the Rump and the Council of State.- Embarrassments
of the Independents. - Cromwell in Ireland. The cam-
paigns of Dunbar and Worcester. The ocean war with
Holland. - Schism among the Independents. The dis-
solution of the Rump. The autocracy of Cromwell.
Panegyric of Milton. — The Restoration. — Benefits se-
cured by the English Revolution

CHAPTER XI.

THE REVOLUTION OF 1688.

130

Enthusiasm for Charles II. - Reaction from the ideas of
the Commonwealth. - Benefits flowing from the bad char-

acters of Charles II and James II.-The nation forced

into resistance. The Bill of Rights and the Revolution.

William and Mary. - Extinction of liberty elsewhere.

Whigs and Tories. - Important part played by the non-

conformists and commercial classes. - The Huguenots and

other refugees.- Doubtful struggle between Whigs and

Tories. Establishment of modern forms in the polity.—

Rise of the Cabinet. - Unsatisfactory condition of Parlia-

ment. Power of the nobles and men of wealth

CHAPTER XII.

ERA OF PARLIAMENTARY CORRUPTION.

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. 163

Equal responsibility of Whigs and Tories for parliamentary

corruption. Stooping of honest men to bribery.- Degen-

eracy of the county representation. - Decline of yeomen.

- Assumptions of the great land-holders. Bad condi-

tion of the boroughs. - Destruction of the popular fran-

chise. Rotten boroughs. Their growth under the Tu-

dors and Stuarts. — Large towns unrepresented. — Cases

of Buckingham, Bewdley, Oxford, Salisbury, Bath, New

Shoreham, Sudbury. - Condition of Scotland. Case of

the shire of Bute. Price of seats in Parliament. - The

"nabobs." — Testimony of Sir Samuel Romilly. - The peo-

ple unrepresented. Case of Wilkes. - Mass-meetings. ·

Rise of the great newspapers. - Dangers to freedom

CHAPTER XIII.

THE COMING ON OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

177

Condition of the Thirteen Colonies in the first half of

eighteenth century. The approach of the American Rev-

olution. The title to the colonies in the Crown, not in

the Parliament. - Inconsistency of Kings and colonists.

The ecclesiastical grievance. The commercial grievance.

Selfishness of the trading-spirit. The Sugar Act.-

The rights and privileges of Englishmen. — Effect of the

destruction of French power. - Enforcement of customs

regulations. The Writs of Assistance.. The Stamp Act.

- Debate in Parliament. - Burke, Chatham, Camden,

Mansfield. - The question summed up. - Superior appre-

ciation by American statesmen of Anglo-Saxon freedom.

- Leadership of Massachusetts

CHAPTER XIV.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION A STRUGGLE OF PARTIES,

NOT COUNTRIES.

Character of George III. Sympathy of Englishmen with

the American struggle. — A strife on both sides of the

ocean. - Ability and number of pro-American advocates.

- Fear for English liberty if America was conquered.

Position of Burke. The masses pro-American. — Strength

of Tories in America. Their wealth and position. -

Their expatriation. — Pathetic circumstances of their story.

- Victory of the popular party on both sides of the

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

The written Constitution a unique feature of the American

polity. In England Parliament completely unfettered.

Importance of the written Constitution. — History of the

idea. A germ of it in Magna Charta, in guilds of Middle

Ages. Charters of trading-companies. Social compact

of the " Mayflower." -Connecticut precedent. - Vane's

"Healing Question.” — Convention of 1787. — It proceeds

upon English lines. - Careful retention of Anglo-Saxon

forms.- Contrast between constitution-makers in America

and elsewhere. Local forms unchanged. - The President

the English King of the eighteenth century. - The Electoral

College borrowed from Holy Roman Empire. The House

of Representatives compared with the Commons, the Sen-

ate with the House of Lords. The Supreme Court.-

Influence of Montesquieu's " Esprit des Lois." Sir Henry

Maine's admiration of the Constitution

CHAPTER XVI.

THE NEW COLONIAL EMPIRE AND THE REFORM BILL

OF 1832.

French anticipations of England's ruin at close of American
Revolution. How they were frustrated. — Why Canada

232

did not join the United States. - Voyages of Cook. - Dis-
tinctions to be made in the present colonial empire of
Britain. - India, the West Indies, Canada, South Africa,
Australia. Pitt's agitation of parliamentary reform.
The "Friends of the People."- General sympathy with
French Revolution in its early stages. — Reaction on ac-
count of the Reign of Terror. - Cessation of the reaction
at Waterloo. — Agitation for reform. — Passage of the
Reform Bill of 1832. Good effects of passage of the bill.
- Present shape of English polity. — England practically

a republic. Adequacy of the people to their responsi-

bilities. County Councils of 1888.- Henry George's

scheme of reform. - Flexible and rigid constitutions. —

Pitt's colonial bill of 1791. - Freedom of Greater Britain.

- Colonial Exhibition of 1886.- Extension of Anglo-Saxon

freedom to other countries. It must be administered by

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Permanence of the Federal Constitution. — Distrust of leg-

islatures as indicated by the State constitutions. Condi-

tion of the primordial cell of an Anglo-Saxon polity, the

self-government in New England. - Influences which im-

pair the character of the town-meeting. Picture of it

thirty years since. - Tributes to its value. - Settlement

of the West. Ordinance of 1787.-Local self-govern-

ment in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois. - The Township-County

system of the Northwest. -The County system of the

South. — Virginia continues to be typical of the South.-

The Township-County system the perfect type. -Exam-

ination of urban America.-Growth and multiplication

of cities. — Their government the most conspicuous fail-

ure of the United States. -Eagerness to remedy the abuses.

- Views of Hon. Seth Low. -No reason for discourage-

ment

274

ciation by American statesmen of Anglo-Saxon freedom.
-Leadership of Massachusetts

CHAPTER XIV.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION A STRUGGLE OF PARTIES,

NOT COUNTRIES.

ocean.

Character of George III. — Sympathy of Englishmen with
the American struggle. A strife on both sides of the
- Ability and number of pro-American advocates.
Fear for English liberty if America was conquered.
Position of Burke. - The masses pro-American. — Strength
of Tories in America. Their wealth and position. —
Their expatriation. — Pathetic circumstances of their story.
Victory of the popular party on both sides of the

Atlantic.