History of Civilization in England, Vol. 1 of 3

633

On the peculiar complications which have retarded meteorology, and thus prevented us from accurately predicting the weather, compare Forbes on Meteorology, in Second Report of British Association, pp. 249–251; Cuvier, Progrès des Sciences, vol. i. pp. 69, 248; Kaemtz's Meteorology, pp. 2–4; Prout's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 290–295; Somerville's Physical Geog. vol. ii. pp. 18, 19. But all the best authorities are agreed that this ignorance cannot last long; and that the constant advance which we are now making in physical science will eventually enable us to explain even these phenomena. Thus, for instance, Sir John Leslie says, ‘It cannot be disputed, however, that all the changes which happen in the mass of our atmosphere, involved, capricious, and irregular as they may appear, are yet the necessary results of principles as fixed, and perhaps as simple, as those which direct the revolutions of the solar system. Could we unravel the intricate maze, we might trace the action of each distinct cause, and hence deduce the ultimate effects arising from their combined operation. With the possession of such data, we might safely predict the state of the weather at any future period, as we now calculate an eclipse of the sun or moon, or foretell a conjunction of the planets.’ Leslie's Natural Philosophy, p. 405: see also p. 185, and the remarks of Mr. Snow Harris (Brit. Assoc. for 1844, p. 241), and of Mr. Hamilton (Journal of Geog. Soc. vol. xix. p. xci.) Thus, too, Dr. Whewell (Bridgewater Treatise, p. 3) says, that ‘the changes of winds and skies are produced by causes, of whose rules “no philosophical mind” will doubt the fixity.’

634

This connexion between ignorance and devotion is so clearly marked, that many nations have a separate god for the weather, to whom they say their prayers. In countries where men stop short of this, they ascribe the changes to witchcraft, or to some other supernatural power. See Mariner's Tonga Islands, vol. ii. pp. 7, 108; Tuckey's Expedit. to the Zaire, pp. 214, 215; Ellis's Hist. of Madagascar, vol. ii. p. 354; Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. pp. 193, 194, 297, vol. xvi. pp. 223, 342; Southey's Hist. of Brazil, vol. iii. p. 187; Davis's Chinese, vol. ii. p. 154; Beausobre, Hist. de Manichée, vol. ii. p. 394; Cudworth's Intellect. Syst. vol. ii. p. 539. The Hindus refer rain to supernatural causes in the Rig Veda, which is the oldest of their religious books; and they have held similar notions ever since. Rig Veda Sanhita, vol. i. pp. xxx. 10, 19, 26, 145, 175, 205, 224, 225, 265, 266, vol. ii. pp. 28, 41, 62, 110, 153, 158, 164, 166, 192, 199, 231, 258, 268, 293, 329; Journal of Asiatic Soc. vol. iii. p. 91; Coleman's Mythol. of the Hindus, p. 111; Ward's View of the Hindoos, vol. i. p. 38. See further two curious passages in the Dabistan, vol. i. p. 115, vol. ii. p. 337; and on the ‘Rain-makers,’ compare Catlin's North-American Indians, vol. i. pp. 134–140, with Buchanan's North-American Indians, pp. 258, 260: also a precisely similar class in Africa (Moffat's Southern Africa, pp. 305–325), and in Arabia (Niebuhr, Desc. de l'Arabie, pp. 237, 238).

Coming to a state of society nearer our own, we find that in the ninth century it was taken for granted in Christian countries that wind and hail were the work of wizards (Neander's Hist. of the Church, vol. vi. pp. 118, 139); that similar views passed on to the sixteenth century, and were sanctioned by Luther (Maury, Légendes Pieuses, pp. 18, 19); and finally, that when Swinburne was in Spain, only eighty years ago, he found the clergy on the point of putting an end to the opera, because they ‘attributed the want of rain to the influence of that ungodly entertainment.’ Swinburne's Travels through Spain in 1775 and 1776, vol. i. p. 177, 2nd edit. London, 1787.

635

See some remarks by the Rev. Mr. Ward, which strike me as rather incautious, and which certainly are dangerous to his own profession, as increasing the hostility between it and science, in Ward's Ideal of a Christian Church, p. 278. What Coleridge has said, is worth attending to: see The Friend, vol. iii. pp. 222, 223.

636

M. Kohl, whose acuteness as a traveller is well known, has found that the agricultural classes are the ‘most blindly ignorant and prejudiced’ of all. Kohl's Russia, p. 365. And Sir R. Murchison, who has enjoyed extensive means of observation, familiarly mentions the ‘credulous farmers.’ Murchison's Siluria, p. 61. In Asia, exactly the same tendency has been noticed: see Marsden's Hist. of Sumatra, p. 63. Some curious evidence of agricultural superstitions respecting the weather may be seen in Monteil, Hist. des divers Etats, vol. iii. pp. 31, 39.

637

In this point of view, the opposite tendencies of agriculture and manufactures are judiciously contrasted by Mr. Porter, at the end of his essay on the Statistics of Agriculture, Journal of the Statist. Soc. vol. ii. pp. 295, 296.

638

Indeed, there never has been a period in England in which physical experiments were so fashionable. This is merely worth observing as a symptom of the age, since Charles II. and the nobles were not likely to add, and did not add, anything to our knowledge; and their patronage of science, such as it was, degraded it rather than advanced it. Still, the prevalence of the taste is curious; and in addition to the picture drawn by Mr. Macaulay (Hist. of England, 1st edit. vol. i. pp. 408–412), I may refer the reader to Monconys' Voyages, vol. iii. p. 31; Sorbiere's Voyage to England, pp. 32, 33; Evelyn's Diary, vol. ii. pp. 199, 286; Pepys' Diary, vol. i. p. 375, vol. ii. p. 34, vol. iii. p. 85, vol. iv. p. 229; Burnet's Own Time, vol. i. pp. 171, 322, vol. ii. p. 275; Burnet's Lives, p. 144; Campbell's Chief-Justices, vol. i. p. 582.

639

His treatment of his young wife immediately after marriage is perhaps the worst thing recorded of this base and contemptible prince. Lister's Life of Clarendon, vol. ii. pp. 145–153. This is matter of proof; but Burnet (Own Time, vol. i. p. 522, and vol. ii. p. 467) whispers a horrible suspicion, which I cannot believe to be true, even of Charles II., and which Harris, who has collected some evidence of his astounding profligacy, does not mention, though he quotes one of the passages in Burnet. Harris's Lives of the Stuarts, vol. v. pp. 36–43. However, as Dr. Parr says, in reference to another accusation against him, ‘There is little occasion to blacken the memory of that wicked monarch, Charles II., by the aid of invidious conjectures.’ Notes on James II. in Parr's Works, vol. iv. p. 477. Compare Fox's History of James II. p. 71.

640

Even Clarendon has been charged with receiving bribes from Louis XIV.; but for this there appears to be no good authority. Compare Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. ii. pp. 66, 67 note, with Campbell's Chancellors, vol. iii, p. 213.

641

Lister's Life of Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 377; Harris's Lives of the Stuarts, vol. iv. pp. 340–344.

642

Immediately after the Restoration, the custom began of appointing to naval commands incompetent youths of birth, to the discouragement of those able officers who had been employed under Cromwell. Compare Burnet's Own Time, vol. i. p. 290, with Pepys' Diary, vol. ii. p. 413, vol. iii. pp. 68, 72.

643

Harris's Lives of the Stuarts, vol. v. pp. 323–328. The court was so bent on abrogating the charter of the city of London, that Saunders was made chief-justice for the express purpose. See Campbell's Chief-Justices, vol. ii. p. 59. Roger North says (Lives of the Norths, vol. ii. p. 67), ‘Nothing was accounted at court so meritorious as the procuring of charters, as the language then was.’ Compare Bulstrode's Memoirs, pp. 379, 388.

644

The panic caused by this scandalous robbery is described by De Foe; Wilson's Life of De Foe, vol. i. p. 52. See also Calamy's Life of Himself, vol. i. p. 78; Parker's Hist. of his Own Time, pp. 141–143. The amount stolen by the king is estimated at 1,328,526l. Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue, vol. i. p. 315. According to Lord Campbell, ‘nearly a million and a half.’ Lives of the Chancellors, vol. iv. p. 113.

645

There is a very curious account in Pepys' Diary, vol. iii. pp. 242–264, of the terror felt by the Londoners on this occasion. Pepys himself buried his gold (p. 261 and pp. 376–379). Evelyn (Diary, vol. ii. p. 287) says: ‘The alarme was so greate, that it put both country and citty into a paniq, feare, and consternation, such as I hope I shall never see more; every body was flying, none knew why or whither.’

646

The most important of these reforms were carried, as is nearly always the case, in opposition to the real wishes of the ruling classes. Charles II. and James II. often said of the Habeas Corpus Act, ‘that a government could not subsist with such a law.’ Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 104. Lord-Keeper Guilford was even opposed to the abolition of military tenures. ‘He thought,’ says his brother, ‘the taking away of the tenures a desperate wound to the liberties of the people of England.’ Lives of the Norths, vol. ii. p. 82. These are the sort of men by whom great nations are governed. A passage in Life of James, by Himself, edit. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 621, confirms the statement in Dalrymple, so far as James is concerned. This should be compared with a letter from Louis XIV., in the Barillon correspondence. Appendix to Fox's James II. p. cxxiv.

647

Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. iv. p. 48; Campbell's Chancellors, vol. iii. p. 431. This destruction of the writ De Hæretico comburendo was in 1677. It is noticed in Palmer's Treatise on the Church, vol. i. p. 500; and in Collier's Ecclesiast. Hist. vol. viii. p. 478.

648

This was in 1664. See the account of it in Collier's Ecclesiast. Hist. vol. viii. pp. 463–466. Collier, who is evidently displeased by the change, says: ‘The consenting, therefore, to be taxed by the temporal Commons, makes the clergy more dependent on a foreign body, takes away the right of disposing of their own money, and lays their estates in some measure at discretion.’ See also, on the injury this has inflicted on the church, Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation, pp. 259, 260. And Coleridge (Literary Remains, vol. iv. pp. 152, 153) points this out as characterizing one of the three ‘grand evil epochs of our present church.’ So marked, however, was the tendency of that time, that this most important measure was peaceably effected by an arrangement between Sheldon and Clarendon. See the notes by Onslow in Burnet's Own Time, vol. i. p. 340, vol. iv. pp. 508, 509. Compare Lord Camden's statement (Parl. Hist. vol. xvi. p. 169) with the speech of Lord Bathurst (vol. xxii. p. 77); and of Lord Temple on Tooke's case (vol. xxxv. p. 1357). Mr. Carwithen (Hist. of the Church of England, vol. ii. p. 354, Oxford, 1849) grieves over ‘this deprivation of the liberties of the English clergy.’

649

13 Car. II. c. 12. Compare Stephens's Life of Tooke, vol. i. pp. 169, 170, with Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. iii. p. 101. Mr. Hallam (Const. Hist. vol. i. pp. 197, 198) has adduced evidence of the way in which the clergy were accustomed to injure their opponents by the ex-officio oath.

650

This was the issue of the famous controversy respecting Skinner, in 1669; and ‘from this time,’ says Mr. Hallam, ‘the Lords have tacitly abandoned all pretensions to an original jurisdiction in civil suits.’ Const. Hist. vol. ii. p. 184. There is an account of this case of Skinner, which was connected with the East-India Company, in Mill's Hist. of India, vol. i. pp. 102, 103.

651

Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. ii. pp. 189–192; and Eccleston's English Antiquities, p. 326. The disputes between the two houses respecting taxation, are noticed very briefly in Parker's Hist. of his Own Time, pp. 135, 136.

652

The ‘famous rights of purveyance and preemption’ were abolished by 12 Car. II. c. 24. Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. ii. p. 11. Burke, in his magnificent speech on Economical Reform, describes the abuses of the old system of purveyance. Burke's Works, vol. i. p. 239. See also Kemble's Saxons in England, vol. ii. p. 88, note; Barrington on the Statutes, pp. 183–185, 237; Lingard's Hist. of England, vol. ii. pp. 338, 339; Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue, vol. i. p. 232; Parl. Hist. vol. iii. p. 1299. These passages will give an idea of the iniquities practised under this ‘right,’ which, like most gross injustices, was one of the good old customs of the British constitution, being at least as ancient as Canute. See Allen on the Royal Prerogative, p. 152. Indeed, a recent writer of considerable learning (Spence, Origin of the Laws of Europe, p. 319) derives it from the Roman law. A bill had been brought in to take it away in 1656. See Burton's Cromwellian Diary, vol. i. p. 81. When Adam Smith wrote, it still existed in France and Germany. Wealth of Nations, book iii. chap. ii. p. 161.

653

On the Habeas Corpus Act, which became law in 1679, see Campbell's Chancellors, vol. iii. pp. 345–347; Mackintosh, Revolution of 1688, p. 49; and Lingard's Hist. of England, vol. viii. p. 17. The peculiarities of this law, as compared with the imitations of it in other countries, are clearly stated in Meyer, Esprit des Institutions Judiciaires, vol. ii. p. 283. Mr. Lister (Life of Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 454) says: ‘Imprisonment in gaols beyond the seas was not prevented by law till the passing of the Habeas Corpus Act, in 1679.’

654

Blackstone (Commentaries, vol. iv. p. 439) calls this ‘a great and necessary security to private property;’ and Lord Campbell (Chancellors, vol. iii. p. 423) terms it ‘the most important and most beneficial piece of juridical legislation of which we can boast.’ On its effects, compare Jones's valuable Commentary on Isæus (Works of Sir W. Jones, vol. iv. p. 239) with Story's Conflict of Laws, pp. 521, 522, 627, 884; and Tayler on Statute Law, in Journal of Statistical Society, vol. xvii. p. 150.

655

Lord Campbell (Lives of the Chancellors, vol. iii. p. 247) says, that the struggle in 1667 ‘put an end to general impeachments.’

656

Printing at first was regulated by royal proclamations; then by the Star-chamber; and afterwards by the Long Parliament. The decrees of the Star-chamber were taken as the basis of 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 33; but this act expired in 1679, and was not renewed during the reign of Charles II. Compare Blackstone's Comment. vol. iv. p. 152, with Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers, vol. i. p. 154, and Fox's Hist. of James II. p. 146.

657

The fullest account I have seen in any history, of this great Revolution, which swept away the traditions and the language of feudalism, is that given in Harris's Lives of the Stuarts, vol. iv. pp. 369–378. But Harris, though an industrious collector, was a man of slender ability, and not at all aware of the real nature of a change, of which the obvious and immediately practical results formed the smallest part. The true point of view is, that it was a formal recognition by the legislature that the Middle Ages were extinct, and that it was necessary to inaugurate a more modern and innovating policy. Hereafter I shall have occasion to examine this in detail, and show how it was merely a symptom of a revolutionary movement. In the meantime the reader may refer to the very short notices in Dalrymple's Hist. of Feudal Property, p. 89; Blackstone's Comment. vol. ii. pp. 76, 77; Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. ii. p. 11; Parl. Hist. vol. iv. pp. 53, 167, 168; Meyer, Institutions Judiciaires, vol. ii. p. 58.

658

Mr. Hallam has a noble passage on the services rendered to English civilization by the vices of the English court: ‘We are, however, much indebted to the memory of Barbara Duchess of Cleveland, Louisa Duchess of Portsmouth, and Mrs. Eleanor Gwyn. We owe a tribute of gratitude to the Mays, the Killigrews, the Chiffinches, and the Grammonts. They played a serviceable part in ridding the kingdom of its besotted loyalty. They saved our forefathers from the Star-chamber and the High-commission court; they laboured in their vocation against standing armies and corruption; they pressed forward the great ultimate security of English freedom – the expulsion of the House of Stuart.’ Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. ii. p. 50.

659

Burnet (Own Time, vol. i. p. 448) tells us that, in 1667, the king, even at the council-board, expressed himself against the bishops, and said, that the clergy ‘thought of nothing but to get good benefices, and to keep a good table.’ See also, on his dislike to the bishops, vol. ii. p. 22; and Pepys' Diary, vol. iv. p. 2. In another place, vol. iv. p. 42, Pepys writes: ‘And I believe the hierarchy will in a little time be shaken, whether they will or no; the king being offended with them, and set upon it, as I hear.’ Evelyn, in a conversation with Pepys, noticed with regret such conduct of Charles, ‘that a bishop shall never be seen about him, as the king of France hath always.’ Pepys, vol. iii. p. 201. Evelyn, in his benevolent way, ascribes this to ‘the negligence of the clergy;’ but history teaches us that the clergy have never neglected kings, except when the king has first neglected them. Sir John Reresby gives a curious account of a conversation Charles II. held with him respecting ‘mitred heads,’ in which the feeling of the king is very apparent. Reresby's Travels and Memoirs, p. 238.

660

On the animosity of the clergy against Hobbes, and on the extent to which he reciprocated it, compare Aubrey's Letters and Lives, vol. ii. pp. 532, 631; Tennemann, Gesch. der Philos. vol. x. p. 111; with the angry language of Burnet (Own Time, vol. i. p. 322), and of Whiston (Memoirs, p. 251). See also Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, edit. Bliss, vol. iii. p. 1211. Monconys, who was in London in 1663, says of Hobbes, ‘Il me dit l'aversion que tous les gens d'église tant catholiques que protestans avoient pour lui.’ Monconys' Voyages, vol. iii. p. 43; and p. 115, ‘M. Hobbes, que je trouvai toujours fort ennemi des prêtres catholiques et des protestans.’ About the same time, Sorbiere was in London; and he writes respecting Hobbes: ‘I know not how it comes to pass, the clergy are afraid of him, and so are the Oxford mathematicians and their adherents; wherefore his majesty (Charles II.) was pleased to make a very good comparison when he told me, he was like a bear, whom they baited with dogs to try him.’ Sorbiere's Voyage to England, p. 40.

661

This was a common expression for whoever attacked established opinions late in the seventeenth, and even early in the eighteenth century. For instances of it, see Baxter's Life of Himself, folio, 1696, part iii. p. 48; Boyle's Works, vol. v. pp. 505, 510; Monk's Life of Bentley, vol. i. p. 41; Vernon Correspond. vol. iii. p. 13; King's Life of Locke, vol. i. p. 191; Brewster's Life of Newton, vol. ii. p. 149.

662

Burnet says, they ‘made deep and lasting impressions on the king's mind.’ Own Time, vol. i. p. 172.

663

A likeness, by Cooper. See Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, edit. Bliss, vol. iii. p. 1208.

664

Sorbiere's Voyage to England, p. 39; Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. iii. p. 1208. On the popularity of the works of Hobbes in the reign of Charles II. compare Pepys' Diary, vol. iv. p. 164, with Lives of the Norths, vol. iii. p. 339.

665

Bishop Burnet says of him, at his appointment: ‘As he was never a great divine, so he was now superannuated.’ Own Time, vol. i. p. 303.

666

Of which his own friend, Bishop Parker, gives a specimen. See Parker's History of his own Time, pp. 31–33. Compare Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 429; Wilson's Mem. of De Foe, vol. i. p. 46.

667

In 1669, Pepys was at one of these entertainments, which took place not only at the house, but in the presence of the archbishop. See the scandalous details in Pepys' Diary, vol. iv. pp. 321, 322; or in Wilson's De Foe, vol. i. pp. 44, 45.

668

Burnet, who knew Sancroft, calls him ‘a poor-spirited and fearful man’ (Own Time, vol. iii. p. 354); and mentions (vol. iii. p. 138) an instance of his superstition, which will be easily believed by whoever has read his ridiculous sermons, which D'Oyly has wickedly published. See Appendix to D'Oyly's Sancroft, pp. 339–420. Dr. Lake says that everybody was amazed when it was known that Sancroft was to be archbishop. Lake's Diary, 30th Dec. 1677, p. 18, in vol. i. of the Camden Miscellany, 1847, 4to. His character, so far as he had one, is fairly drawn by Dr. Birch: ‘slow, timorous, and narrow-spirited, but at the same time a good, honest, and well-meaning man.’ Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 151. See also respecting him, Macaulay's Hist. of England, vol. ii. p. 616, vol. iii. p. 77, vol. iv. pp. 40–42.

669

Frewen was so obscure a man, that there is no life of him either in Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, or in Rose's more recent, but inferior work. The little that is known of Stearn, or Sterne, is unfavourable. Compare Burnet, vol. ii. p. 427, with Baxter's Life of Himself, folio, 1696, part ii. p. 338. And of Dolben I have been unable to collect anything of interest, except that he had a good library. See the traditionary account in Jones's Memoirs of Bishop Horne, p. 66.

670

His wife was Joanna Bridges, a bastard of Charles I. Compare Notes and Queries, vol. vii. p. 305, with Heber's Life of Jeremy Taylor, in Taylor's Works, vol. i. p. xxxiv. Bishop Heber, p. xxxv. adds, ‘But, notwithstanding the splendour of such an alliance, there is no reason to believe that it added materially to Taylor's income.’

671

Coleridge (Lit. Remains, vol. iii. p. 208) says, that this neglect of Jeremy Taylor by Charles ‘is a problem of which perhaps his virtues present the most probable solution.’

672

Superior, certainly, in comprehensiveness, and in the range of his studies; so that it is aptly said by a respectable authority, that he was at once ‘the great precursor of Sir Isaac Newton, and the pride of the English pulpit.’ Wordsworth's Ecclesiast. Biog. vol. iv. p. 344. See also, respecting Barrow, Montucla, Hist. des Mathémat. vol. ii. pp. 88, 89, 359, 360, 504, 505, vol. iii. pp. 436–438.

673

‘His father having suffered greatly in his estate by his attachment to the royal cause.’ Chalmers's Biog. Dict. vol. iv. p. 39.