gan to be everywhere respected, and to possess considerable influence over public opinion. Though accomplished, Henry was no pedant. His manners were frank and perfectly in unison with the genius of the age. He was skilful in music, and excelled in all the manly exercises to which in that age the higher classes were devoted. The effect of these qualities was heightened by the advantage of a good exterior: His ruddy complexion and portly figure were particularly calculated to make an impression on the fair sex as well as the multitude. The very first measures of his government heightened all these advantages. He withdrew the royal protection from Empson and Dudley, two of his father's legal engines of oppression, who suffered the punishment due to all who are instrumental in promoting tyranny under the form of law. He restored part of his father's illacquired property, and profusely squandered the funds which had been so industriously hoarded †.

*Herbert, p. 1. et seq. Halle, first year of Henry VIII. Hol. 799, et seq.

+ Halle, first year of Henry's reign. Hol. 799, et seq. Herbert, p. 1. et seq.

Empson's defence before the council, previous to his commitment to the Tower, is remarkably good. It appears to me to be superior to the far-famed peroration of Strafford. But he fell a sacrifice to the aristocracy, and with the king's consent; and he is reported to have been the son of a sieve-maker; therefore his eloquence passes unheeded. I cannot forbear transcribing it: "I have remarked," says he, "two causes in general that move attention; one is the greatness, the other is the strangeness and novelty of argument. Both these concur so manifestly in the affairs now questioned, that I will not much implore your patience. Though, on the other side, considering my violent persecu

Such a character was quite calculated to lead the fashion in a new course of life for which so many other circumstances had prepared the highest

tion, I cannot but think it a favour that I may speak for myself; but, alas! to whom? The king, my master, to whom I should appeal, as to my supreme judge and protector, abandons me to my enemies, without other cause than that I obeyed his father's commands, and upheld the regal authority. The people, on whose equal trial I should put my life, seek my destruction, only because I endeavoured to execute those laws whereof themselves were authors. What would have happened to me if I had disobeyed my king, or broke my country's laws? Surely, if I have any ways transgressed, it is in procuring that these penal statutes might be observed which yourselves in open Parliament decreed, and to which you then submitted, both your persons, estates, and posterity: and if this be a crime, why do you not first repeal your proper acts? Or if, which is truth, they stand still in full force and virtue, why do you not vindicate from all imputation both yourselves and me! For, who ever yet saw any man condemned for doing justice, especially when, by the chief dispenser thereof, which is the king, the whole frame of the proceeding hath been confirmed and warranted? Nay, who ever saw man on these terms not rewarded? And must that which is the life and strength of all other actions, be the subversion and overthrow of mine? Have you read or heard in any well governed country, that the infractors of laws made by public vote and consent, escaped without punishment, and they only punished who laboured to sustain them? Or when you had not read or heard any such thing, could you imagine a more certain sign of ruin in that commonwealth? And will you alone hope to decline this heavy judgment? When, contrary to all equity and example, you not only make precedents for injustice and impunity, but, together with defaming, would inflict a cruel death on those who would maintain them, as if this might be a fit guerdon for those, who, I must tell you, everywhere else would have been thought the best patriots, what can we expect then but a fatal period to us all? But let God turn this away, though I be the sacrifice. Only, if I must die, let me desire that my indictment may be entered on no record, nor divulged to foreign nations, lest, if they hear, in my condemnation, all that may argue a final dissolution in Government, they invade and overcome you." Herbert, p. 3. Empson perhaps deserved his fate; but of all state offenders in modern times who have canted about their

ranks; and, as the lower independent ranks were inclined, for their own security and respectability, to support the monarch, in repressing the insolence and dangerous power of their superiors, it is not wonderful that the change of manners advanced with unprecedented rapidity.

This grand revolution in manners, how beneficial soever to towns, to the smaller proprietors, and to such as could undertake extensive agricultural concerns on lease, came fraught with the most deplorable consequences to the numerous dependents of the aristocracy. Had the importation of manufactures been prohibited, had there been perfect liberty allowed in the choice of trades and professions, and had a free trade in grain been permitted, the evil would have been greatly mitigated, as much of the superfluous population dismissed from estates might have found employment in a more independent way than formerly, stock might have been quickly accumulated, and the whole country enriched*. But, unfortunately, the

virtue, he spoke to the greatest purpose. In passing, we may remark a curious fact in regard to the advocates for the antiquity of the StarChamber: This individual, who had been a member of Council during the preceding reign, was first attacked there, and committed by it to the Tower, that he might meet the justice of his country; and they have argued that this proves, that as the Star-Chamber and Council were the same, it acted as a court of law.

* The view taken in the text is so opposite to that of Dr. Adam Smith, and now generally adopted, that I have conceived it necessary to discuss the subject at considerable length in Note B. at the end of the volume. I have, therefore, earnestly to request that the reader,

selfishness of the different branches of the Legislature led to the adoption of very opposite policy. The interests of the people were so far neglected, that the population, dismissed from estates, were precluded the towns, and prevented by severe laws from earning subsistence by the coarsest manufactures,-policy that bereft them of every medium through which they could acquire the means of life and, strange it is, that this did not proceed entirely from the influence of the towns, which were naturally actuated by the principle of monopoly, but from the mean selfishness of the owners of land, who, while they mercilessly dismissed their dependents, were yet afraid that the influx of inhabitants into towns might raise the wages of country labour*. The same spirit of selfishness, or at least folly, in the aristocracy, made them keep the ports open for foreign wrought goods, that they might purchase manufactures from the cheapest market, and, as Antwerp and other continental towns had accumulated more capital, and made greater improvements in machinery, they could furnish the goods of so superior a fabric, and on so comparatively moderate terms, as to pre-occupy the English market and retard the prosperity of that

before he condemns my principles, will do me the justice to give the note a careful perusal.

* It is almost unnecessary to quote authorities on a point so well known, I shall, therefore, refer, generally, to Anderson's Hist. of Com. to Eden on the Poor, and to Dawson's Inquiry. P. 134. Also to the statutes quoted in a preceding note, and to 5 and 6 Ed. VI. c. 8. 4 and 5 Ph. and M. c. 5. 5 Eliz. c. 4.

country*.

on

Absurd notions about forestalling, and the confined views of the monarch in regard to population, prevented all trading in grain, a circumstance necessarily productive of baneful consequences. For the consumption of produce estates being by the dismissal of dependents so greatly diminished, and the exportation of, and even dealing in corn, being prohibited by absurd and iniquitous laws,-whence one province might be exposed to all the misery of famine, though another at a small distance was overstocked with grain,-while wool, for which there was a great demand from abroad, was a free article of commerce, proprietors of land found pasturage more profitable than tillage, and quickly laid down their lands. This greatly augmented the misery of the lower ranks; for, as pasturage does not require a third of the hands necessary for tillage, the superfluous population was dismissed, and enlarged the number of the destitute t. Without

The woollen manufactures of England had been greatly fostered and protected by laws, (the importation of foreign cloths was even prohibited by the 2d of Edward 3. c. 3.) and flourished so much, that there was a considerable export annually; but almost every other species of manufacture was imported. Anderson's Hist. of Commerce, v. ii. 4to. ed. A law, passed in the time of Henry VII. to protect the home manufacture of small silks-prohibited the importation of these articles, which, says Bacon, " touched at a true principle." Hist. p. 631. In the same reign, we trace in one act the principle which afterwards formed the basis of the navigation laws. Wines and woads from Gascony and Languedoc, were ordered to be imported in English bottoms only. Bacon, p. 597.

+ We have seen what John Rous says upon depopulation-and shall now quote the observations of the famous Sir Thomas More. "Oves, inquam, vestræ quæ tam mites esse, tamque exiguo solent ali, nunc tam edaces atque indomitæ esse cœperunt, ut homines doverent