but not

loft.

Concef

fions to

force.

to be fuch. "So when the Lion preyeth," as brave old Sir Edwin Sandys told the House of Commons early in James the First's reign,

no caufe to think it his right." So when James claimed a privilege of the Plantagenets as a flower of the Crown, "the flower hath had "a long winter, then," quaintly interpofed Sir James Whitelocke, the father of Bulftrode, "fince it hath not budded these two hundred "years!" Of a mingled character in this refpect were the refults of the long and bloody conteft, now about to begin, between the rival branches of the Plantagenet family; but it does not admit of doubt that the final predominance of the house of Lancaster was, like its acceffion, favourable to popular liberty. Henry VI. The influence from which it firft derived authority, still imparted power. The right of parliament to alter the fucceffion was the title on which that house rested, and in its continuance the popular fanction was implied. The ences in legiflation of Henry the Sixth was lefs popular than that of Henry the Fourth, but the very fact marks the progress which had been made in the interval. Henry the Fourth's statute against undue Elections for Shires from "the partiality of Sheriffs," gives the power of Voting of voting to every one prefent at the place of all free- election, as well fuitors duly fummoned as counties. others. Henry the Sixth's ftatute "for the

1422.

Differ

quarter of

a century.

holders in

"due Election of Members of Parliament in "Counties," limits the right to fuch as poffeffed forty fhillings a year in land free from all burthens within the county, but offers priceless proof, in the very terms of its pre

amble, of how great had been meanwhile the Limited advance among the commoneft orders of the to fortyfhilling people in at least a knowledge of their strength freehold and their pretenfions to power.

"Whereas," fers.

it ran, “the election of knights has of late, "in many counties of England, been made "by outrageous and exceffive numbers of "people, many of them of small substance "and value, yet pretending to a right equal "to the best knights and efquires, &c." As the period of the acceffion of the family Greater of Tudor approaches, the full effect of in- importfluences that had led to fuch legiflation is the people. diftinctly seen.

ance of

The heaviest blow had been ftruck unconsciously at the feudal fyftem in England when the third eftate of the realm obtained a formal place in the legislature, and with the acceffion. of Edward the First the feudal tenures and privileges had begun rapidly to decline. Feudality Domestic and prædial fervitude had also been declining. abolished, or had fallen to difufe; and though villenage was never repealed by any regular enactment, the peafantry had gradually been emerging from it into the state of hired Villenage labourers and copyholders. During the interval paffed up to the wars of the Rofes, without express external aid, fociety had been finding for itself a more eafy level throughout its various gradations. The few ariftocratic privileges Changes that remained were no peculiar burden on the in Society. knight, the gentleman, or the yeoman, the burgefs, or the labourer; and, what is very important to keep in mind, these several particular claffes had obtained their form and

away.

place in fimple obedience to the working of general laws. Servitude or villenage was no Higher part of feudalism; and the tendency of the develop feudal fyftem itself was to decay, in proportion ments of to the higher development of that principle of principle. mutual rights and duties, and of the correfponding obligations thereby engendered, on which feudalism was founded.

feudal

A contraft.

A more ftriking illuftration of this truth could not perhaps be afforded than by the contraft, which has not escaped obfervation, between the infurrections of Wat Tyler and Jack Cade. It is the remark of Sir Frederick Eden, in his excellent book on The Poor, that in the earlier of these popular tumults, which, notwithstanding the atrocities that attended it, very materially contributed towards the extincTyler's tion of fervitude, the language of the rebels, Popular who were chiefly villeins, befpeaks men not demands. unacquainted with the effential requifites of

1381.

Rebellion.

rational liberty. They required the abolition. of flavery, freedom of commerce in market towns without tolls or impofts, and a fixed rent on lands inftead of fervices due by villenage. But more remarkable and worthy of notice is the advance which, after the comparatively fhort interval of three quarters of a century, Jack Cade's rebellion proclaimed. Here there is nothing to connect the moveWhat ment with any forms of ferfdom. Cade's rebels now claimed with arms in their hands, Popular was the redress of fuch public wrongs as the demands. King's profligate expenditure, and the fubject's

1450.

Rebellion.

exposure to illegal exactions in order to maintain it; the preference of foreigners over

System:

rofe.

Englishmen in the offices of State; the grofs wrongs committed by fheriffs and the collectors of taxes; the imperfect and uncertain administration of justice; and finally (most memorable grievance of all) the unwarrantable interference of the nobles in elections for the House of Commons. Nothing could more Rapid fall ftrongly fhow how rapid must have been the of Feudal fall of the feudal fyftem when once the change began; or how naturally the claffes immediately below the noble, had become parties to a league offenfive and defenfive against him. The good old Fuller fo hated all rebellions, as the except rebellions against popery, that he finds people in these popular infurrections a reason why the better fort of people, to avoid being confounded with levellers and rabble, set up a variety of nice focial diftinctions: but the truth lies exactly the other way. Lefs and less were the distinctions marked, as the Tudor time came on. Commerce and intelligence level by Levelling exalting. And Mr. Hallam has pointed of diftincattention to the very unpleafing remark, which everyone who attends to the subject of prices will be difpofed to think not ill-founded, that the labouring claffes engaged in agriculture were generally better provided with the Comforts means of fubfiftence in the reign of Henry of labouring the Sixth than at the period when he wrote. claffes. Evidence more direct and pofitive, indeed,

tions.

is not wanting, of the comparative happiness and freedom of the people generally under the latter years of the Plantagenet rule. Two Refpecvery trustworthy writers have sketched, from tive condipersonal obfervation, the refpective condition England

tion of

and of

France.

of England and of France at this time; and both have directed attention to the fact that while, in France, there exifted only the two divifions of a powerful governing nobleffe and a fervile peasant population, in England, on Contrafts the other hand, a third and middle clafs had of the two been able to make good its independence,

nations.

because the nobles wifely had retained no privileges that prevented their mixing and marrying freely with other claffes of the realm. So while in France the principle of the Civil Code, that the will of the monarch is law, prevailed, the people in England lived under protection of laws of their own enacting; while the French people were plundered at the fole discretion of their Prince, who gave immunity only to the nobles, the English people paid taxes of their own impofing; and while an Englishman upon any charge of crime had the benefit of trial by a jury of his peers, confeffion was extorted from a Frenchman by the rack. When thus, twenty years before Henry mony of the Seventh afcended the throne, Sir John Sir John Fortefcue: Fortescue wrote in praise of the English laws, he placed all these advantages on the distinct ground of the special limitation of the power of the Sovereign, and of the non-exclufive character of the privileges of the Lords; and when his yet more travelled and experienced contemporary, Philip de Comines, turned to Philip de England from the contemplation of other States, as the country where the commonwealth was best governed, it was because he had reafon to believe that there the People were "leaft oppreffed."

Tefti

and of

Comines.