Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/105

Rh England that we owe the "full tradition of Teutonic liberty." The right of self-government, the right of free speech in free meeting, the right to equal justice at the hands of equals, were brought safely across the ages of tyranny by the burghers and shopkeepers of our towns. "They have done more than knight and baron to make England what she is to-day," by their sturdy battle with oppression, their steady, ceaseless struggle for right and freedom.

Their influence can be traced in the Great Charter signed by King and barons in 1215, this "earliest monument of English freedom &hellip; to which from age to age patriots have looked back as the basis of English liberty."

The same feeling for liberty made itself felt in other ways. A new impulse, gained from the Crusades, was spreading through the country; a spirit of restlessness and inquiry was abroad, of "impatience with the older traditions of mankind," rousing scholars to crowd to the few seats of learning, where teachers were gathered together. The rise of the Universities was a triumph over the rule of brute force of past ages, a movement which, unlike the feudal system, recognised no distinction between man and man. It formed a