History of England, from the Accession of James II - Volume 1 , livre ebook

Pub One Info - Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron

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347 pages

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. I PURPOSE to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living. I shall recount the errors which, in a few months, alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart. I shall trace the course of that revolution which terminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and their parliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and the title of the reigning dynasty. I shall relate how the new settlement was, during many troubled years, successfully defended against foreign and domestic enemies; how, under that settlement, the authority of law and the security of property were found to be compatible with a liberty of discussion and of individual action never before known; how, from the auspicious union of order and freedom, sprang a prosperity of which the annals of human affairs had furnished no example; how our country, from a state of ignominious vassalage, rapidly rose to the place of umpire among European powers; how her opulence and her martial glory grew together; how, by wise and resolute good faith, was gradually established a public credit fruitful of marvels which to the statesmen of any former age would have seemed incredible; how a gigantic commerce gave birth to a maritime power, compared with which every other maritime power, ancient or modern, sinks into insignificance; how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at length united to England, not merely by legal bonds, but by indissoluble ties of interest and affection; how, in America, the British colonies rapidly became far mightier and wealthier than the realms which Cortes and Pizarro had added to the dominions of Charles the Fifth; how in Asia, British adventurers founded an empire not less splendid and more durable than that of Alexander

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819932499
Langue	English

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VOLUME 1 (of 5)
by Thomas Babington Macaulay.
Philadelphia
Porter & Coates
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER I.
I PURPOSE to write the history of England from theaccession of King James the Second down to a time which is withinthe memory of men still living. I shall recount the errors which,in a few months, alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from theHouse of Stuart. I shall trace the course of that revolution whichterminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and theirparliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and thetitle of the reigning dynasty. I shall relate how the newsettlement was, during many troubled years, successfully defendedagainst foreign and domestic enemies; how, under that settlement,the authority of law and the security of property were found to becompatible with a liberty of discussion and of individual actionnever before known; how, from the auspicious union of order andfreedom, sprang a prosperity of which the annals of human affairshad furnished no example; how our country, from a state ofignominious vassalage, rapidly rose to the place of umpire amongEuropean powers; how her opulence and her martial glory grewtogether; how, by wise and resolute good faith, was graduallyestablished a public credit fruitful of marvels which to thestatesmen of any former age would have seemed incredible; how agigantic commerce gave birth to a maritime power, compared withwhich every other maritime power, ancient or modern, sinks intoinsignificance; how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at lengthunited to England, not merely by legal bonds, but by indissolubleties of interest and affection; how, in America, the Britishcolonies rapidly became far mightier and wealthier than the realmswhich Cortes and Pizarro had added to the dominions of Charles theFifth; how in Asia, British adventurers founded an empire not lesssplendid and more durable than that of Alexander.
Nor will it be less my duty faithfully to recorddisasters mingled with triumphs, and great national crimes andfollies far more humiliating than any disaster. It will be seenthat even what we justly account our chief blessings were notwithout alloy. It will be seen that the system which effectuallysecured our liberties against the encroachments of kingly powergave birth to a new class of abuses from which absolute monarchiesare exempt. It will be seen that, in consequence partly of unwiseinterference, and partly of unwise neglect, the increase of wealthand the extension of trade produced, together with immense good,some evils from which poor and rude societies are free. It will beseen how, in two important dependencies of the crown, wrong wasfollowed by just retribution; how imprudence and obstinacy brokethe ties which bound the North American colonies to the parentstate; how Ireland, cursed by the domination of race over race, andof religion over religion, remained indeed a member of the empire,but a withered and distorted member, adding no strength to the bodypolitic, and reproachfully pointed at by all who feared or enviedthe greatness of England.
Yet, unless I greatly deceive myself, the generaleffect of this chequered narrative will be to excite thankfulnessin all religious minds, and hope in the breasts of all patriots.For the history of our country during the last hundred and sixtyyears is eminently the history of physical, of moral, and ofintellectual improvement. Those who compare the age on which theirlot has fallen with a golden age which exists only in theirimagination may talk of degeneracy and decay: but no man who iscorrectly informed as to the past will be disposed to take a moroseor desponding view of the present.
I should very imperfectly execute the task which Ihave undertaken if I were merely to treat of battles and sieges, ofthe rise and fall of administrations, of intrigues in the palace,and of debates in the parliament. It will be my endeavour to relatethe history of the people as well as the history of the government,to trace the progress of useful and ornamental arts, to describethe rise of religious sects and the changes of literary taste, toportray the manners of successive generations and not to pass bywith neglect even the revolutions which have taken place in dress,furniture, repasts, and public amusements. I shall cheerfully bearthe reproach of having descended below the dignity of history, if Ican succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth centurya true picture of the life of their ancestors.
The events which I propose to relate form only asingle act of a great and eventful drama extending through ages,and must be very imperfectly understood unless the plot of thepreceding acts be well known. I shall therefore introduce mynarrative by a slight sketch of the history of our country from theearliest times. I shall pass very rapidly over many centuries: butI shall dwell at some length on the vicissitudes of that contestwhich the administration of King James the Second brought to adecisive crisis. 1
Nothing in the early existence of Britain indicatedthe greatness which she was destined to attain. Her inhabitantswhen first they became known to the Tyrian mariners, were littlesuperior to the natives of the Sandwich Islands. She was subjugatedby the Roman arms; but she received only a faint tincture of Romanarts and letters. Of the western provinces which obeyed theCaesars, she was the last that was conquered, and the first thatwas flung away. No magnificent remains of Latin porches andaqueducts are to be found in Britain. No writer of British birth isreckoned among the masters of Latin poetry and eloquence. It is notprobable that the islanders were at any time generally familiarwith the tongue of their Italian rulers. From the Atlantic to thevicinity of the Rhine the Latin has, during many centuries, beenpredominant. It drove out the Celtic; it was not driven out by theTeutonic; and it is at this day the basis of the French, Spanishand Portuguese languages. In our island the Latin appears never tohave superseded the old Gaelic speech, and could not stand itsground against the German.
The scanty and superficial civilisation which theBritons had derived from their southern masters was effaced by thecalamities of the fifth century. In the continental kingdoms intowhich the Roman empire was then dissolved, the conquerors learnedmuch from the conquered race. In Britain the conquered race becameas barbarous as the conquerors.
All the chiefs who founded Teutonic dynasties in thecontinental provinces of the Roman empire, Alaric, Theodoric,Clovis, Alboin, were zealous Christians. The followers of Ida andCerdic, on the other hand, brought to their settlements in Britainall the superstitions of the Elbe. While the German princes whoreigned at Paris, Toledo, Arles, and Ravenna listened withreverence to the instructions of bishops, adored the relics ofmartyrs, and took part eagerly in disputes touching the Nicenetheology, the rulers of Wessex and Mercia were still performingsavage rites in the temples of Thor and Woden.
The continental kingdoms which had risen on theruins of the Western Empire kept up some intercourse with thoseeastern provinces where the ancient civilisation, though slowlyfading away under the influence of misgovernment, might stillastonish and instruct barbarians, where the court still exhibitedthe splendour of Diocletian and Constantine, where the publicbuildings were still adorned with the sculptures of Polycletus andthe paintings of Apelles, and where laborious pedants, themselvesdestitute of taste, sense, and spirit, could still read andinterpret the masterpieces of Sophocles, of Demosthenes, and ofPlato. From this communion Britain was cut off. Her shores were, tothe polished race which dwelt by the Bosphorus, objects of amysterious horror, such as that with which the Ionians of the ageof Homer had regarded the Straits of Scylla and the city of theLaestrygonian cannibals. There was one province of our island inwhich, as Procopius had been told, the ground was covered withserpents, and the air was such that no man could inhale it andlive. To this desolate region the spirits of the departed wereferried over from the land of the Franks at midnight. A strangerace of fishermen performed the ghastly office. The speech of thedead was distinctly heard by the boatmen, their weight made thekeel sink deep in the water; but their forms were invisible tomortal eye. Such were the marvels which an able historian, thecontemporary of Belisarius, of Simplicius, and of Tribonian,gravely related in the rich and polite Constantinople, touching thecountry in which the founder of Constantinople had assumed theimperial purple. Concerning all the other provinces of the WesternEmpire we have continuous information. It is only in Britain thatan age of fable completely separates two ages of truth. Odoacer andTotila, Euric and Thrasimund, Clovis, Fredegunda, and Brunechild,are historical men and women. But Hengist and Horsa, Vortigern andRowena, Arthur and Mordred are mythical persons, whose veryexistence may be questioned, and whose adventures must be classedwith those of Hercules and Romulus.
At length the darkness begins to break; and thecountry which had been lost to view as Britain reappears asEngland. The conversion of the Saxon colonists to Christianity wasthe first of a long series of salutary revolutions. It is true thatthe Church had been deeply corrupted both by that superstition andby that philosophy against which she had long contended, and overwhich she had at last triumphed. She had given a too easy admissionto doctrines borrowed from the ancient schools, and to ritesborrowed from the ancient temples. Roman policy and Gothicignorance, Grecian ingenuity and Syrian asceticism, had contributedto deprave her. Yet she retained enough of the sublime theology andbenevolent morality of her earlier days to elevate many intellects,and to purify many hearts. Some things also whic