Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/11



HE volume of the which we have now brought to a close, narrates the great struggle for the liberties of the nation which commenced with the accession of the Stuart dynasty, and which closed with it. The history of the reign of that family is the history of our battle for constitutional freedom, and our achievement of it. No volume of any history can be more important—none to us, as Englishmen, so important. James I. began with declaring the doctrine of royal absolutism. He represented himself as much God on earth as God is in heaven. All power of life and death—all command, not only of his subjects, but of the laws themselves, he declared to be in his hands. If he made the law-makers, he asked whether it was not plain that he made the laws too. His son, Charles I., adopted this grandiose creed of his father, and trod faithfully in his steps; but the people were not disposed to see their Magna Charta thus royally set aside, and Englishmen reduced to slaves. They fought for it. They conquered; tried the monarch for his treason against the nation, and beheaded him for it;—the first example of such a solemn act of justice by a people, on a monarch sinning against the popular rights entrusted to him. The Commonwealth succeeded, but the heaven of royalty working in the realm, Charles II. was restored, and, more successful than his father, destroyed once more the national independence. James attempting to go still further, and to restore rejected popery—thereby, if successful, subjecting this kingdom to the domination of a foreigner—the people finally expelled the Stuart dynasty, and elected William, Prince of Orange; thus cutting off for ever in this kingdom all pretensions of divine right to the throne. The Bill of Rights, which confirms this election, constitutes the modern Magna Charta of England. It is hence we date all the power of our present constitution. Such is the momentous story of this third volume of our History. It is a recital which has engaged the attention of all the great nations of the present world: has already produced great events on the continent of Europe, and is destined to produce still greater. From the republic of England equally originated the principles, and the very creation of the republic of the United States of America. The story of this time cannot, therefore, be too carefully studied by all Englishmen.

In closing this eventful narrative, we have found ourselves compelled to call in question and refute the attempt of some modern historians of distinction to smooth over the insidious despotism of Charles II., and to represent him as a monarch not at all inclined to overstep the restraints of the constitution (see the review of the Laws and Constitution). In noticing this circumstance, we deem it useful once more to draw the attention of our readers to a few of the great points of historic fact, which we alone, of all our historians, have drawn forth and established.

The first of these is that of Magna Charta being not the work of the barons, but of the people. The great delusion which all our historians, in the face of the plainest facts, have regularly perpetuated, that the barons at Runnymede won the charter, is an aristocratic delusion, which is studiously maintained by that order to sanction its assumption of claims to govern us at will, as the class which achieved our liberties. The assumption is a fiction more airy and empty than a new year's dream. Whoever will refer to any history of the period, will see that the barons who bore arms at Runnymede, in vain attempted to bring John to grant a charter till the people of Bedford and London declared for him. Then John consented to