Parliament, raising money by such devices as the sale of monopolies, forced loans, and the levying of ship-money. This, which was theoretically the tax levied in times of war upon seaports for their own defence, was now levied upon every town in the kingdom in times of peace. A patriot named John Hampden decided to test its legality by refusing to pay his tax of twenty shillings, but the courts ruled against him. Nevertheless, the attempt to procure an income through arbitrary taxation proved a failure, and the king was forced again to summon a Parliament in 1640. This body speedily passed a bill depriving the king of his power of dissolving Parliament, and thus assured itself a long tenure of power that ultimately won for it the name of the Long Parliament. The Great To these political causes of alienation between monarch and people the intensifying element of religious differences had not been wanting. Through his minister, Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles had endeavored to crush out Puritanism Rebellion. within the Church, to increase in every way possible the features in which the English and the Roman churches stood on common ground, and to extend the domain of the Established Church over both his kingdoms, to the utter rooting out of Presbyterianism. As Scotland was almost entirely Presbyterian, this last attempt alienated practically the entire Scotch nation from his cause; and when Charles had at last driven Parliament into open rebellion by his repeated acts of tyranny, Pym, leader of the House of Commons, induced the Scotch to ally themselves with the rebels on condition that Presbyterianism should be made the official religion of England. After several minor engagements and two decisive conflicts Charles lost hope, and surrendered to the Scotch, hoping to rouse their loyalty to the House of Stuart. They, however, sold him to the English in return for a payment for their army, and he was executed in 1649. Thenceforth for ten years Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the army, was all-powerful in England. In 1660 Charles II., son of the executed monarch, was restored to the throne of his father, and began a reign not so tyrannical but much more disgraceful. He sought to gain his ends by intrigue, falsehood, and dependence on France, and thus roused a powerful opposition in Parliament. Dread of a return of Puritan tyranny on the one hand and of the establishment of Catholicism on the other led to stringent laws in defence of the reëstablished Episcopal Church. Laws were passed requiring all public and Reign of Charles II. city officials to take an oath to support that church, and an attempt was made to disqualify the king's brother and heir (who was a Catholic) from succeeding him. This failed, but an antiCatholic panic was created in 1678 by the announcement of an alleged "Popish Plot" to murder Charles in order to clear the way for his brother. The story was false, but it served its purpose of inflaming public feeling. and the Revolution. When, therefore, James II. succeeded his brother in 1685, his fate was almost predetermined; but he was too bigoted to perceive his danger, and by various arbitrary acts in violation of law provoked a Revolution in 1688 which drove him to France, James II. and seated his son-in-law, William of Orange, on the throne of England. As William was childless, it was provided that the succession should pass to Anne, second daughter of James II., and then (in default of direct heirs) to his cousin Sophia, who had married the prince of the German state of Hanover. To distinguish the friends of Orange and Hanover from the Jacobites,1 oaths of allegiance and supremacy were required from all army and navy officers, judges, magistrates, and city officials. Tories. The reign of William witnessed the development of a distinctive form of government in England. The divided sentiment of the nation in regard to the respective rights of the monarch and the people had resulted in the creation of two distinct parties. Whigs and The Tories, maintaining the doctrine of divine right (see p. xi), and therefore holding the Revolution to have been indefensible in law, were weak supporters of William's policy, and looked forward with eagerness to the time when circumstances should favor the restoration of the exiled Stuarts. Especially active in Jacobite intrigues were the landed proprietors of the country districts, and the "High Church party" among the clergy, who 1 Adherents of the Stuart family after the Revolution were called "Jacobites," as champions of James (Lat. = Jacobus) II. and his son. On wished to retain the Episcopal religion in its extreme form. Reign of William II. At the beginning of his reign William followed the traditional custom of the English monarchs in appointing as ministers able statesmen from both parties; but in carrying out his policy (which included an attempt to retain within the State Church as many liberal clergymen as possible and an attempt to involve England in his far-reaching plans for thwarting the baneful influence of France in European politics) he was driven to rely more and more upon the support of the Whigs, and thus through the pressure of circumstances party government (i.e. government through a ministry acting as a unit in support of a given line of policy) was inaugurated. When the exiled James II. died in France on September 16, 1701, his son, James Edward, was formally recognized by King Louis XIV. of France as legitimate king of England. The public sentiment of the English people, thus outraged, turned loyally to the support of William and his Whig advisers; but by his death in February, 1702, the task of punishing France in the war which followed devolved upon his successor, Queen Anne. Besides Louis's insult to England, more practical issues were at Spanish stake in this war. Louis was determined that his grandson Philip should succeed to the throne of Spain, now vacant, and England, Austria, and Holland were determined to prevent the union of France and Spain into a single great power. The war was prolonged by Anne's Whig advisers for nearly a decade, but in 1710 the Tories carried the elections on a peace platform." To this victory a mistake of the Whigs contributed. 66 In that year a High Church clergyman named Dr. Sacheverell preached, and subsequently published, two sermons in which he proclaimed that the Church was in danger of a betrayal of its principles, interests, and constitution at the hands of the Whig party, inculcated the doctrine of non-resistance to monarchs, and denounced the toleration of Dissenters. Godolphin (the Whig Sacheverell's impeach is admissible only when he has violated the fundamental law of the country (to the support of which he is pledged by the virtual compact implied in his holding the office), but is then a duty." Sacheverell was declared guilty by a vote of sixty-nine to fifty-two, but popular sympathy had rallied about him as a martyr to Whig tyranny. The queen seized the opportunity to place Tories in her ministry, and the next election sustained her government by sending a large Tory majority to the lower House. In 1713 the new party put an end to the Spanish Succession War. Jacobite intrigues. Meanwhile the failing health of Anne foreshadowed her early death, and the Tories under Bolingbroke, Ormonde, and Harcourt, having little to hope from the succession of the Hanoverians (who would owe their throne to Whig legislation, see p. xiii), began a series of intrigues for making void the Act of Settlement, and seating the Pretender, son of James II., upon the English throne. Before Bolingbroke could perfect his plans, Anne suddenly died, and George I. of Hanover succeeded her without opposition. He immediately surrounded himself with Whig advisers, and the elections with followed gave him also a Whig House of Commons. An act was passed extending the life of Parliament from three to seven years. Thenceforth for half a century the Whig supremacy remained unbroken. Accession of George I. In a few years Robert Walpole rose to a commanding position in the party by reason of his skill in finance. Abandoning the old Whig policy of hostility to France, he used every means to ascendency. make friends with that country, and to keep peace through- Walpole's out Europe. Although some of his measures were unpopular, yet by using the power of the Lords and the landed Commoners to control elections, and that of the Crown to bribe members with pensions and offices of emolument, he retained his ascendency for many years without serious diminution; but it was at the cost of the friendship of some of the leading lights of his party, for his jealous temper would brook no possible rival in the ministry. In 1723 the brilliant Carteret was forced out of the secretaryship. Pulteney too, a former clerk of Walpole's, was discarded, and revenged himself by lending his aid to Bolingbroke, who was making strenuous efforts to reinstate himself in English politics. In 1727 Pulteney took charge of the opposition periodical, The Craftsman, a paper designed to weaken Walpole's influence. In 1730 Townshend, too loyal to join the opposition, was forced into obscurity. As all these men had been ardent Whigs, they could not bring themselves to espouse the cause of the Tories, who were still busy with Jacobite intrigues. They, therefore, claimed to be the legitimate Whig party, and branded Walpole as a renegade to Whig principles. When in 1733 he proposed a scheme for abol excise tax. ishing the unproductive customs duties and substituting an Walpole's excise tax on the same goods, the measure, although both scientific and practicable, was met with a storm of objection from Whigs and Tories alike; thenceforth the very word "excise " was offensive to the Tories. Walpole withdrew the bill, but punished Lord Chesterfield for opposing it by removing him from office. Up to 1735 the opponents of Walpole had no one rallying point on which to unite; but thereafter they adopted as their leader Frederick, Prince of Wales. This young man had quarrelled Fall of with his father for curtailing his income, and therefore Walpole. joined the opposition to vex him. With him was associated his friend and favorite, George Bubb Dodington, a man of low birth and little ability, who nevertheless aspired to be a patron of arts and letters, and a dictator in politics. As Walpole refused to bribe the press (which Dodington controlled), he was the subject of most violent attacks. The most bitter was that of Swift, whose Gulliver's Travels, in describing the intrigues at the Court of Blefuscu, was really attacking Walpole's policy. In 1742 Walpole was driven from office, on the eve of a war with Spain and France, and was succeeded by a coalition ministry of which Henry Pelham, his brother the Duke of Newcastle, Chesterfield, and Hardwicke were prominent members. |