Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/383

1548.] grazing farms were disintegrated. The cottages of the peasants had again their own grounds attached to them. In twenty years a greater breadth of land was under the plough than had been broken for a century; and though prices still rose, and the altered spirit of property survived, yet the new order of things progressed slowly and moderately, and all classes were again prosperous and contented. But meanwhile the problem was one which would have tried a clearer intellect than belonged to Somerset. The ancient loyalty which had attached the yeoman to his feudal superior had given place to a deep and vindictive hatred. The lords, if less guilty personally than others of the landowners, did not care to compromise themselves by dangerous interference. The interests of the higher classes were combined against the lower, and the courts of law were themselves infected. What was to be done?

Principle and prudence would perhaps have united to recommend the Protector to set himself an example of abstinence from the pursuit of personal aggrandizement before he meddled with others. As Church and chantry lands fell in, he would have done wisely if he had neither kept them for himself, nor distributed them among his adherents; if he had disposed of them as national property and applied the proceeds to the restoration of the currency. Perhaps he was not wholly responsible for having missed seeing what his own and others' interests combined to conceal from him. Unhappily for himself, for his fortune and reputation, he entered upon a course, generous in intention, yet