Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/28

8 appear whether the Emperor should need English amity, or whether England should have cause to be afraid of his displeasure.' The council took his advice, and mean time the French alliance was consolidated. The European difficulties of the Emperor thickened. The country, after drifting close upon a reef, escaped shipwreck, more by a change of wind than the skill of its pilots. The dominant factions were again at leisure to follow their career of misgovernment.

In contemplating the false steps of statesmen, it is difficult at all times to measure their personal responsibility, to determine how much of their errors has been due to party spirit, how much to pardonable mistake; how much again seems to have been faulty, because we see but effects, which we ascribe absolutely to the conduct of particular men, when such effects were the result, in fact, of influences spreading throughout the whole circle of society. The politicians who governed England in the minority of Edward VI., however, succeeded, at any rate, in making themselves individually execrated, and in bringing discredit upon the cause of which they were the professed defenders. All over the country discontent, social, political, and religious, was steadily on the increase. In the Privy Council Records are to be found entries perpetually recurring of persons conspiring here, or conspiring there, and being put to death occasionally on the spot by martial law. The prisons were full to overflowing