The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1, Thomas Babington Macaulay [ebook pc reader txt] 📗

him all the wit and malice of

that party was overthrown."


This passage is taken from a memoir of Henry Earl of

Peterborough, in a volume entitled "Succinct Genealogies, by

Robert Halstead," fol. 1685. The name of Halstead is fictitious.

The real authors were the Earl of Peterborough himself and his

chaplain. The book is extremely rare. Only twenty-four copies

were printed, two of which are now in the British Museum. Of

these two one belonged to George the Fourth, and the other to Mr.

Grenville.


23 This is mentioned in the curious work entitled "Ragguaglio

della solenne Comparsa fatta in Roma gli otto di Gennaio, 1687,

dall' illustrissimo et eccellentissimo signor Conte di

Castlemaine."


24 North's Examen, 69.


25 Lord Preston, who was envoy at Paris, wrote thence to

Halifax as follows: "I find that your Lordship lies still under

the same misfortune of being no favourite to this court; and

Monsieur Barillon dare not do you the honor to shine upon you,

since his master frowneth. They know very well your lordship's

qualifications which make them fear and consequently hate you;

and be assured, my lord, if all their strength can send you to

Rufford, it shall be employed for that end. Two things, I hear,

they particularly object against you, your secrecy, and your

being incapable of being corrupted. Against these two things I

know they have declared." The date of the letter is October 5, N.

S. 1683


26 During the interval which has elapsed since this chapter was

written, England has continued to advance rapidly in material

prosperity, I have left my text nearly as it originally stood;

but I have added a few notes which may enable the reader to form

some notion of the progress which has been made during the last

nine years; and, in general, I would desire him to remember that

there is scarcely a district which is not more populous, or a

source of wealth which is not more productive, at present than in

1848. (1857.)


27 Observations on the Bills of Mortality, by Captain John

Graunt (Sir William Petty), chap. xi.


28 "She doth comprehend


Full fifteen hundred thousand which do spend


Their days within.''


Great Britain's Beauty, 1671.


29 Isaac Vossius, De Magnitudine Urbium Sinarum, 1685. Vossius,

as we learn from Saint Evremond, talked on this subject oftener

and longer than fashionable circles cared to listen.


30 King's Natural and Political Observations, 1696 This

valuable treatise, which ought to be read as the author wrote it,

and not as garbled by Davenant, will be found in some editions of

Chalmers's Estimate.


31 Dalrymple's Appendix to Part II. Book I, The practice of

reckoning the population by sects was long fashionable. Gulliver

says of the King of Brobdignag; "He laughed at my odd arithmetic,

as he was pleased to call it, in reckoning the numbers of our

people by a computation drawn from the several sects among us in

religion and politics."


32 Preface to the Population Returns of 1831.


33 Statutes 14 Car. II. c. 22.; 18 & 19 Car. II. c. 3., 29 & 30

Car. II. c. 2.


34 Nicholson and Bourne, Discourse on the Ancient State of the

Border, 1777.


35 Gray's Journal of a Tour in the Lakes, Oct. 3, 1769.


36 North's Life of Guildford; Hutchinson's History of

Cumberland, Parish of Brampton.


37 See Sir Walter Scott's Journal, Oct. 7, 1827, in his Life by

Mr. Lockhart.


38 Dalrymple, Appendix to Part II. Book I. The returns of the

hearth money lead to nearly the same conclusion. The hearths in

the province of York were not a sixth of the hearths of England.


39 I do not, of course, pretend to strict accuracy here; but I

believe that whoever will take the trouble to compare the last

returns of hearth money in the reign of William the Third with

the census of 1841, will come to a conclusion not very different

from mine.


40 There are in the Pepysian Library some ballads of that age

on the chimney money. I will give a specimen or two:


"The good old dames whenever they the chimney man espied,


Unto their nooks they haste away, their pots and pipkins hide.


There is not one old dame in ten, and search the nation through,


But, if you talk of chimney men, will spare a curse or two."


Again:


"Like plundering soldiers they'd enter the door,


And make a distress on the goods of the poor.


While frighted poor children distractedly cried;


This nothing abated their insolent pride."


In the British Museum there are doggrel verses composed on the

same subject and in the same spirit:


"Or, if through poverty it be not paid


For cruelty to tear away the single bed,


On which the poor man rests his weary head,


At once deprives him of his rest and bread."


I take this opportunity the first which occurs, of acknowledging

most grateful the kind and liberal manner in which the Master and

Vicemaster of Magdalei College, Cambridge, gave me access to the

valuable collections of Pepys.


41 My chief authorities for this financial statement will be

found in the Commons' Journal, March 1, and March 20, 1688-9.


42 See, for example, the picture of the mound at Marlborough,

in Stukeley's Dinerarium Curiosum.


43 Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684.


44 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 3; 15 Car. II. c. 4. Chamberlayne's

State of England, 1684.


45 Dryden, in his Cymon and Iphigenia, expressed, with his

usual keenness and energy, the sentiments which had been

fashionable among the sycophants of James the Second:-


"The country rings around with loud alarms,


And raw in fields the rude militia swarms;


Mouths without hands, maintained at vast expense,


Stout once a month they march, a blustering band,


And ever, but in time of need at hand.


This was the morn when, issuing on the guard,


Drawn up in rank and file, they stood prepared


Of seeming arms to make a short essay.


Then hasten to be drunk, the business of the day."


46 Most of the materials which I have used for this account of

the regular army will be found in the Historical Records of

Regiments, published by command of King William the Fourth, and

under the direction of the Adjutant General. See also

Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684; Abridgment of the English

Military Discipline, printed by especial command, 1688; Exercise

of Foot, by their Majesties' command, 1690.


47 I refer to a despatch of Bonrepaux to Seignelay, dated Feb.

8/18.1686. It was transcribed for Mr. Fox from the French

archives, during the peace of Amiens, and, with the other

materials brought together by that great man, was entrusted to me

by the kindness of the late Lady Holland, and of the present Lord

Holland. I ought to add that, even in the midst of the troubles

which have lately agitated Paris, I found no difficulty in

obtaining, from the liberality of the functionaries there,

extracts supplying some chasms in Mr. Fox's collection. (1848.)


48 My information respecting the condition of the navy, at this

time, is chiefly derived from Pepys. His report, presented to

Charles the Second in May, 1684, has never, I believe, been

printed. The manuscript is at Magdalene College Cambridge. At

Magdalene College is also a valuable manuscript containing a

detailed account of the maritime establishments of the country in

December 1684. Pepys's "Memoirs relating to the State of the

Royal Navy for Ten Years determined December, 1688," and his

diary and correspondence during his mission to Tangier, are in

print. I have made large use of them. See also Sheffield's

Memoirs, Teonge's Diary, Aubrey's Life of Monk, the Life of Sir

Cloudesley Shovel, 1708, Commons' Journals, March 1 and March 20.

1688-9.


49 Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684; Commons' Journals,

March 1, and March 20, 1688-9. In 1833, it was determined, after

full enquiry, that a hundred and seventy thousand barrels of

gunpowder should constantly be kept in store.


50 It appears from the records of the Admiralty, that Flag

officers were allowed half pay in 1668, Captains of first and

second rates not till 1674.


51 Warrant in the War Office Records; dated March 26, 1678.


52 Evelyn's Diary. Jan. 27, 1682. I have seen a privy seal,

dated May 17. 1683, which confirms Evelyn's testimony.


53 James the Second sent Envoys to Spain, Sweden, and Denmark;

yet in his reign the diplomatic expenditure was little more than

30,000£. a year. See the Commons' Journals, March 20, 1688-9.

Chamberlayne's State of England, 1684.


54 Carte's Life of Ormond.


55 Pepys's Diary, Feb. 14, 1668-9.


56 See the Report of the Bath and Montague case, which was

decided by Lord Keeper Somers, in December, 1693.


57 During three quarters of a year, beginning from Christmas,

1689, the revenues of the see of Canterbury were received by an

officer appointed by the crown. That officer's accounts are now

in the British Museum. (Lansdowne MSS. 885.) The gross revenue

for the three quarters was not quite four thousand pounds; and

the difference between the gross and the net revenue was

evidently something considerable.


58 King's Natural and Political Conclusions. Davenant on the

Balance of Trade. Sir W. Temple says, "The revenues of a House of

Commons have seldom exceeded four hundred thousand pounds."

Memoirs, Third Part.


59 Langton's Conversations with Chief Justice Hale, 1672.


60 Commons' Journals, April 27,1689; Chamberlayne's State of

England, 1684.


61 See the Travels of the Grand Duke Cosmo.


62 King's Natural and Political Conclusions. Davenant on the

Balance of Trade.


63 See the Itinerarium Angliae, 1675, by John Ogilby,

Cosmographer Royal. He describes great part of the land as wood,

fen, heath on both sides, marsh on both sides. In some of his

maps the roads through enclosed country are marked by lines, and

the roads through unenclosed country by dots. The proportion of

unenclosed country, which, if cultivated, must have been

wretchedly cultivated, seems to