Read The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 Online
Authors: David Hume
[l]By the ancient constitution, is here meant that which prevailed before the settlement
of our present plan of liberty. There was a more ancient constitution, where, though the people had perhaps less liberty than under the Tudors, yet the king had also less authority: The power of the barons was a great check upon him, and exercised great tyranny over them. But there was still a more ancient constitution, viz. that before the signing of the charters, when neither the people nor the barons had any regular privileges; and the power of the government, during the reign of an able prince, was almost wholly in the king. The English constitution, like all others, has been in a state of continual fluctuation.
[m]In a memorial of the state of the realm, drawn by secretary Cecil, in 1569, there is
this passage: “Then followeth the decay of obedience in civil policy, which being compared with the fearfulness and reverence of all inferior estates to their superiors in times past, will astonish any wise and considerate person, to behold the desperation of reformation.” Haynes, p. 586. Again, p. 588.
[q]MS. of Lord Royston’s from the Paper Office.
[r]Strype’s Eccles. Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 373, 458, 9.
[s]Camden, p. 446. Strype, vol. ii. p. 288.
[w]7 Edw. VI. cap. 20. See Sir John Davis’s question concerning impositions, p. 9.
[x]In 1588, the lord mayor committed several citizens to prison, because they refused
to pay the loan demanded of them. Murden, p. 632.
[y]Harrison, book ii. chap. 11.
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[z]Haynes, p. 196. See farther la Boderie, vol. i. p. 211.
[a]To our apprehension, Haywarde’s book seems rather to have a contrary tendency.
For he has there preserved the famous speech of the bishop of Carlisle, which contains, in the most express terms, the doctrine of passive obedience. But queen Elizabeth was very difficult to please on this head.
[f]In the second of Richard II. it was enacted that in loans, which the king shall
require of his subjects, upon letters of Privy Seal, such as have
reasonable
excuse of not lending, may there be received without further summons, travel, or grief. See Cotton’s Abridg. p. 170. By this law, the king’s prerogative of exacting loans was ratified; and what ought to be deemed a
reasonable
excuse was still left in his own breast, to determine.
[l]Strype’s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 137.
[n]Annals, vol. iv. p. 234, & seq.
[p]Rymer, tom. xv. p. 756. D’Ewes, p. 645.
[r]Townsend’s Journals, p. 250. Stow’s Annals.
[s]Townsend’s Journals, p. 250. Stow’s Annals. Strype, vol. ii. p. 603.
[t]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 422.
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[w]Sir John Davis’s question concerning impositions, passim.
[y]Rymer, tom. xv. p. 652, 708, 777.
[z]Rushworth, vol. i. p. 511. Franklyn’s Annals, p. 250, 251.
[a]Strype, vol. iv. p. 128, 129.
[b]It was never fully established, that the prisoner could legally produce evidence
against the crown, till after the revolution. See Blackstone’s Commentaries, vol. iv. p.
352.
[c]State Trials, vol. i. p. 144. Strype, vol. iv. p. 21. Id. Life of Whitgift, p. 343.
[d]Strype’s Life of Whitgift, book iv. chap. 11. Neal, vol. i. p. 564.
[e]Strype’s annals, vol. iv. p. 177.
[f]Gifford, a clergyman, was suspended in the year 1584, for preaching up a limited
obedience to the civil magistrate, Neal, vol. i. p. 435.
[g]It is remarkable, that in all the historical plays of Shakespear, where the manners
and characters, and even the transactions of the several reigns are so exactly copied, there is scarcely any mention of
civil Liberty;
which some pretended historians have imagined to be the object of all the ancient quarrels, insurrections, and civil wars. In the elaborate panegyric of England, contained in the tragedy of Richard II. and the detail of its advantages, not a word of its civil constitution, as anywise different from or superior to that of other European kingdoms: An omission, which cannot be supposed in any English author that wrote since the Restoration, at least since the Revolution.
[NOTE [II]]
We have remarked before that Harrison, in book ii. chap. 11. says, that in the reign of Henry VIII. there were hanged seventy-two thousand thieves and rogues
(besides other malefactors);
this makes about two thousand a year: But in queen Elizabeth’s time, the same author says, there were only between three and four hundred a year hanged for theft and robbery: So much had the times mended. But in our age, there are not forty a year hanged for those crimes in all England. Yet Harrison complains of the relaxation of the laws, that there were so few such rogues punished in his time. Our vulgar prepossession, in favour of the morals of former and rude ages, is very absurd, and ill-grounded. The same author says, chap. 10. that there were computed to be 10,000 gypsies in England; a species of banditti, introduced PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)
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about the reign of Henry VIII.; and he adds, that there will be no way of extirpating them, by the ordinary course of justice: The queen must employ martial law against them. That race has now almost totally disappeared in England and even in Scotland, where there were some remains of them a few years ago. However arbitrary the exercise of martial law, in the crown, it appears, that no body in the age of Elizabeth entertained any jealousy of it.
[o]Ibid. p. 215. There is a curious letter of the queen’s, writ to a bishop of Ely, and
preserved in the register of that see. It is in these words:
Proud prelate, I understand
you are backward in complying with your agreement: But I would have you know,
that I, who made you what you are, can unmake you; and if you do not forthwith fulfil
your engagement, by God, I will immediately unfrock you. Yours, as you demean
yourself, Elizabeth.
The bishop, it seems, had promised to exchange some part of the land belonging to the see for a pretended equivalent; and did so, but it was in consequence of the above letter. Annual Register, 1761. p. 15.
[p]Rymer, tom. xvi. p. 141. D’Ewes, p. 151, 457, 525, 629. Bacon, vol. iv. p. 363.
[q]D’Ewes, p. 473. I think it impossible to reconcile this account of the public debts
with that given by Strype, Eccles. Mem. vol. ii. p. 344. that in the year 1553, the crown owed but 300,000 pounds. I own, that this last sum appears a great deal more likely. The whole revenue of queen Elizabeth would not in ten years have paid four millions.
[r]Winwood, vol. i. p. 29, 54.
[s]Winwood, vol. i. p. 117, 395.
[w]Appendix to the earl of Essex’s apology.
[z]Franklyn in his annals, p. 9. says that the profit of the kingdom, besides Wards and
the dutchy of Lancaster
(which amounted to about
120,000
pounds)
was 188,197
pounds: The crown lands seem to be comprehended in this computation.
[a]Camden, p. 558. This account of Camden is difficult or impossible to be reconciled
to the state of the customs in the beginning of the subsequent reign, as they appear in the journals of the commons. See Hist. of James, chap. 46.
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[c]Lord Salisbury, computed these supplies only at 2,800,000 pounds, Journ. 17 Feb.
1609. King James was certainly mistaken, when he estimated the queen’s annual supplies at 137,000 pounds, Franklyn, p. 44. It is curious to observe, that the minister, in the war began in 1754, was, in some periods, allowed to lavish in two months as great a sum as was granted by parliament to queen Elizabeth in forty-five years. The extreme frivolous object of the late war, and the great importance of hers, set this matter in still a stronger light. Money too, we may observe, was in most particulars of the same value in both periods: She payed eight pence a day to every foot soldier. But our late delusions have much exceeded any thing known in history, not even excepting those of the crusades. For, I suppose, there is no mathematical, still less an arithmetical demonstration, that the road to the Holy Land was not the road to Paradise, as there is, that the endless encrease of national debts is the direct road to national ruin. But having now compleatly reached that goal, it is needless at present to reflect on the past. It will be found in the present year, 1776, that all the revenues of this island, north of Trent and west of Reading, are mortgaged or anticipated for ever.
Could the small remainder be in a worse condition, were those provinces seized by Austria and Prussia? There is only this difference, that some event might happen in Europe, which would oblige these great monarchs to disgorge their acquisitions. But no imagination can figure a situation, which will induce our creditors to relinquish their claims, or the public to seize their revenues. So egregious indeed has been our folly, that we have even lost all title to compassion, in the numberless calamities that are waiting us.
[e]Stowe’s Survey of London, book i. p. 286.
[f]MS. of lord Royston’s from the paper office, p. 295.
[l]Birch’s Memoirs, vol. i. p. 36.
[m]Lives of the Admirals, vol. i. p. 470.
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[r]Monson, p. 196. The English navy at present carries about 14,000 guns.
[NOTE [JJ]]
Harrison,
in his Description of Britain, printed in 1577, has the following
passage,
chap. 13. Certes there is no prince in Europe that hath a more beautiful sort of ships than the queen’s majesty of England at this present; and those generally are of such exceeding force, that two of them being well appointed and furnished as they ought, will not let to encounter with three or four of them of other countries, and either bowge them or put them to flight, if they may not bring them home.—The queen’s highness bath at this present already made and furnished to the number of one and twenty great ships, which lie for the most part in Gillingham rode. Beside these, her grace hath other in hand also, of whom hereafter, as their turns do come about, I will not let to leave some farther remembrance. She hath likewise three notable gallies, the Speedwell, the Tryeright, and the Black Galley, with the sight whereof, and the rest of the navy-royal, it is incredible to say how marvellously her grace is delighted; and not without great cause, sith by their means her coasts are kept in quiet, and sundry foreign enemies put back, which otherwise would invade us.
After
speaking of the merchant ships, which he says are commonly estimated at 17 or 18
hundred, he continues.
I add, therefore, to the end all men shoud understand somewhat of the
great mass of treasure,
daily employed upon our navy, how there are few of those ships of the first and second sort, (that is of the merchant ships), that being apparelled and made ready to sail, are not worth one thousand pounds or three thousand duckats at the least, if they should presently be sold. What shall we then think of the navy-royal, of which some one vessel is worth two of the other, as the shipwright has often told me.——It is possible that some covetous person, hearing this report, will either not credit at all, or suppose money so employed to be nothing profitable to the queen’s coffers; as a good husband said once when he heard that provisions should be made for armour, wishing the queen’s money to be rather laid out to some speedier return of gain unto her grace: But if he wist that the good-keeping of the sea is the safeguard of our land, he would alter his censure, and soon give over his judgment.
Speaking of the forests, this author says,
An infinite deal of wood hath been destroyed within these few years, and l dare affirm, that, if wood do go so fast to decay in the next hundred years of grace, as they have done, or are like to do in this, it is to be feared, that sea-coal will be good merchandize even in the city of London. Harrison’s prophecy was fulfilled in a very few years: For about 1615, there were 200 sail employed in carrying coal to London. See Anderson, vol. i. p. 494.