strength the nucleus While Charles was thus striving to stifle the voice of the Charles English democracy in those cities and towns in which it was ened the still able to express itself, he was careful to provide against guards, the might of the people in another form by strengthening the of present standing guards, a standing military force retained in the royal service army; when the army of the Commonwealth was disbanded after the Restoration, and consisting of Monk's Foot Regiment known as the Coldstream, and another of horse, to which was added still another formed from troops brought from Dunkirk. The body thus made up, amounting in 1662 to five thousand men, was swelled by the addition of the garrison of Tangier, recalled to England in 1684, to about seven thousand foot and seventeen hundred cavalry and dragoons, the nucleus of the regarmy of the present day. When in the midst of such prosperous conditions, with his enemies cowering at his feet, Charles was called upon to meet the inevitable, he gave the clue to his mysterious dealings with France, which began in 1670 with the making of the secret treaty of Dover, by a communion profession of the faith of the Church of Rome, in communion with Rome with which he died February 6, 1685.1 1 See the accounts in Lingard, vol. x. pp. 107-110; and in Green, Hist. of the Eng. People, vol. iv. pp. 65, 66. died in February 6, 1685. Origin of the social contract theory; its essence as stated by Hobbes; CHAPTER II. JAMES II. AND THE ATTEMPT AT REACTION. I. IN the midst of the great upheaval that overturned the monarchy and established the Commonwealth, the modern school of English political theory begins with the speculations of Hobbes, who developed in his "Leviathan "1 the then novel idea that civil society had its origin in an original contract between its members, by virtue of which each, in order to secure the boon of living in peace with all the rest, agreed to give up so much of his natural rights as was inconsistent with such a state. Then, for the purpose of constituting "a common power to keep them in awe, and to direct their actions to the common benefit," a further surrender was supposed to have been made upon the part of all of the right of governing the whole in favor of some person or body, "and he that carsovereign rieth this person is called sovereign, and hath sovereign power; and subject; and every one besides, his subject." "The sovereign, which is the person of the commonwealth," commands his subjects through civil law, defined to be "those rules which the commonwealth hath commanded him by word, writing, or other sufficient sign of the will, to make use of for the distinction of right and wrong; that is to say, of what is contrary and what is not contrary to the rule." And thus the important conclusion is reached that right and wrong, in the legal sense, is nothing more than that which the law of the state allows and forbids. As Aristotle accomplished the separation of ethics separation from politics, so Hobbes worked out the further separation of of policy policy from legality, of that which is wise and expedient from that which is allowed by positive law. At that point he fell 1 In 1651 appeared the "Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil, with a quaint frontispiece. of a crowned giant, made up of tiny figures of human beings and bearing sword and crozier in the two hands." right and wrong in the legal sense; from legality; Not until the theory of the Contrat Social had passed through the hands of Locke did Rousseau make it "one of the most successful and fatal of political impostures."- Sir F. Pollock, Hist. of the Science of Politics, p. 75 division as Holland; sumption in tion; In inalienable into confusion by attempting to swallow up policy, and to a great extent even morality, in positive law, an error that made process of it necessary for Austin and Holland to carry the process of extended by division further by a fresh analysis, which rigidly separates the Austin and general science of law from the ethical part of politics.1 When after the Revolution of 1688 it became necessary for Locke to Locke's asjustify what had been done, he, adopting with many reserva- defence of tions Hobbes' social contract theory as a starting-point, rested the Revoluhis defence of the proceedings of the convention upon the assumption that the people, even after the delegation of the supreme power to the state, always reserve to themselves the right to withdraw it whenever it has been used for purposes inconsistent with the end for which society was formed. that event he claimed that the people had a right to resist the right of the people; prince, and, acting through their supreme legislative assembly,3 to visit upon him the consequences of an abuse of their trust. In order to counteract the effect of such doctrines so danger- counter ous to monarchy, it became necessary after the Restoration to indefeasible revive and intensify the political theory of the indefeasible hereditary right hereditary right of kings, which was supposed to flow from the divine institution of the royal office, an assumption that lifted the succession to the crown above the supremacy of the legislature. And in order to give still greater security to kingship, that doctrine was supplemented by the obligation of supplepassive obedience even to the worst of sovereigns, which, first after the taught as a religious duty, finally passed from the homilies Restorato the statute-book. When the University of Oxford, on the of passive day of Russell's execution, published its famous decree 5 in support of passive obedience, it was at the same time careful to consign to everlasting reprobation the doctrine that all civil social authority was originally derived from the people through a theory -compact, express or implied, between the prince and his sub- condemned jects, whereby the former might forfeit his right to govern by 4 theory of mented, tion, by that obedience; contract at Oxford; theories involved in the Revo antagonistic virtue of misconduct.1 Without a clear comprehension of political these two opposing theories, the one claiming the supreme political authority for the crown, the other for the legislature, it is impossible to perfectly understand the full significance of the acts which culminated in the fall of the house of Stuart through what is generally known as the glorious Revolution. lution. James concealed his real the outset ; 2. The fact that James, an avowed catholic, held higher notions of the prerogative perhaps than any of his predecesdesigns at sors, coupled with events which transpired when his reign was well advanced, has given rise to the not improbable assumption that he ascended the throne with the fixed purpose of making himself absolute, and of overthrowing the established church in favor of that of Rome. If such was his design at the outset, his first declaration was artfully devised to conceal his real intentions. Passing from the death-chamber of his brother to the room in which the council was assembled, after expressing his declara- the wish to follow in Charles' footsteps he said, “I shall make tion to the it my endeavor to preserve this government, both in church council; Charles' ministers continued in office and state, as it is now by law established. I know the principles of the Church of England are for monarchy, and the members of it have shown themselves good and lawful subjects, therefore I shall always take care to defend and support it. I know, too, that the laws of England are sufficient to make the king as great a monarch as I can wish; and, as I shall never depart from the just rights and prerogatives of the crown, so I shall never invade any man's property." 2 The new king then requested the ministers who were in office to retain their places, and the direction of affairs thus continued in the hands of Hyde, now earl of Rochester, Sunderland, Rochester; Halifax, and Godolphin, with the first named at the head of parliament the board as lord high treasurer. A parliament was immedi19, 1685; ately called to meet on the 19th of May, 1685, after an interval of five years; and we have the authority of Barillon for the renewed his statement that James at once revived the humiliating relations with Louis which the dead king had so long maintained, by apologizing for the calling of the houses without the French under leadership of met May James brother's secret treaty with France. 1 Twenty-four propositions, including the social contract theory, taken from the works of Hobbes, Milton, Buchanan, Baxter, Cartwright, Knox, and others, were denounced by the decree as "false, seditious, and impious, . . . and destructive of all government in church and state." 2 James II., 3; Fox, App., 16. king's consent, an explanation at once followed by a request for a fresh pension from that source.1 But as Barillon persisted in withholding the money, although actually in his possession, until the happening of future events, it became necessary to provide present means for pressing necessities. of the the fiscal system as As the legal grant of the whole of the port duties and one Settlement half of the excise had expired with the life of Charles, James revenue; undertook, by a proclamation alleging state necessity as the cause, to continue such duties until they could be regularly settled upon him by parliament, which, in view of the fact that the king had not claimed it by virtue of the prerogative, promptly granted him for life the revenue enjoyed by his predecessor.3 And as that was insufficient as a whole to meet the expenses of the crown, certain selected articles of commerce were subjected to additional burdens. No change was made, however, summary of during the reign in the system of direct taxation, "and, as the general result of the arrangements connected with the revenue it existed made under the later Stuarts, we have (1) the continuation of later the old system of port duties on merchandise imported and exported, with additional taxes on wine, sugar, tobacco, and French and India linens and silk, and brandy; (2) the substi tution, in lieu of the revenue from the feudal tenures and in supplement to the revenue from demesne, of certain items of the commonwealth excise; (3) the imposition of hearth-money; and (4) the suppression of the old subsidy in favor of the commonwealth rate or assessment, as a tax for extraordinary purposes." 5 under the Stuarts. renewed his his first standard To his first parliament, which met on the day appointed, James James renewed the vows he had made at his accession to the vows to council; and then, in order to hasten the grants already de- parliament; scribed, he announced the fact that the protestant earl of of rebellion Argyle had raised the standard of rebellion in Scotland in the raised by hope of ending his rule in that kingdom. Upon the heels of Monmouth; 1 As to the value of Barillon's state- king for his action. Burnet, vol. iii. p. ments, see Lingard, vol. x. pp. 128- 9; Lord Lonsdale, Memoirs, p. 4; Fox, 131. App., pp. 18, 39; Kennet, vol. iii. p. 427. 2 As the language of the proclamation admitted by implication that the duties could not be legally levied without authority of parliament, addresses were presented from the barristers of the Middle Temple and from many companies of merchants, thanking the 6 8 1 Jac. II. c. I. 5 Dowell, Hist. of Taxation, vol. ii. 6 Lords' Journals, vol. xiv. p. 9; Evelyn, vol. iii. p. 159. Argyle and |