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the work is not only to dissuade the prince from raising money or making laws, but from projecting peace or war, or even appointing his ministers, judges, &c. without the interposition of the legislature. Upon such conditions, it might justly gall the pride-though it savours much of the ordinary language, which makes parliament, people, every thing, the king's,-but must be innocuous to the privileges of parliament to say, that the prince exercises absolute power through his grand council; and the following language which the historian has quoted, ceases to have weight :-" Councillor, that which is done by the king, with the advice of his private or privy council, is done by the king's absolute power." "Justice, and by whose power is it done in parliament but by the king's absolute power? Mistake it not, my lord: The three estates do but advise, as the privy council doth; which advice, if the king embrace it, becomes the king's own act in the one, and the king's law in the other; for without the king's acceptation, both the public and private advices be but as empty egg shells *." In another place, however, the justice is made to use different language. Except," says he, "England were as Naples is, and kept by garrisons of another nation, it is im

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strong in favour of ceremonies, but is alleged by Sanderson to be prophetic of the evils which afterwards arose from the Puritan party. Sanderson's James I. p. 311. We learn from Mr. Hume himself that Raleigh tried to save his life by feigned madness, &c.

P. 107, 108. This is the language of the constitution, as we have already repeatedly said.

possible for a king of England to greaten and enrich himself, by any way so assuredly, as by the love of his people." "Councillor, Why should not our kings raise money as the kings of France do, by their letters and edicts only? for, since the time of Lewis the XI. of whom it is said that he freed the French kings of their wardship, the French kings have seldom assembled the estates for any contribution. Justice. I will tell you why. The strength of England doth consist of the people and yeomanry, the peasants of France have no courage nor arms: In France, every village and borough hath a castle, which the French call chasteau villain, every good city hath a good citadell, the king hath the regiments of his guards, and his men at arms always in pay; yea, the nobility of France, in which the strength of France consists, do always assist the king in his levies, because themselves being free, they made the same levies upon their tenants. But, my Lord, if you mark it, France was never free in effect from civil wars, and lately it was endangered either to be conquered by the Spaniard, or to be cantonized by the rebellious French themselves, since that freedom of wardship." In another place, where he speaks of the former power of the peerage in regard to the Crown, in comparison with their present, he says: "The force, therefore, by which our kings, in former times, were troubled, is vanished away. But the necessities remain. The people, therefore,

* P. 12, 13.

in these later ages, are no less to be pleased than the peers; for, as the latter are become less, so, by reason of the training through England, the Commons have all the weapons in their hand *."

These passages are sufficient for our purpose, and we shall not encumber our pages with farther quotation on the subject: But content ourselves with observing, 1st, That Raleigh took a just view of the political situation of the country, while the monarch and his descendants acted under infatuation in attempting to govern upon the principles of the French monarch, when they neither had the army to second their will, nor such a state of so

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*P. 51. The same idea is inculcated in the two next pages. have ever," says the justice," to deal plainly and freely with your lordship, more feared at home popular violence than all the foreign that can be made." "The power of the nobility being now withered, and the power of the people in the flower, the care to content them would not be neglected; the way to win them often practised, or at least to defend them from oppression, The motive of all dangers that ever this monarchy hath undergone, should be carefully heeded, for this maxim hath no postern, potestas humana radicatur in voluntatibus hominum." Mr. Hume mentions that this work was not published till after the author's death; but we must not thence infer that his style was not so guarded as if it had been published by himself, for it is dedicated to James, and the address is most fulsome. The work is, in many respects, not unworthy of its author; and the effect of his system would have been to give much nominal, no real power to the crown. The whole argument too proceeds upon the assumption, that a more arbitray government than had ever been in England was now attempted.-See p. 110, about illegal imprisonments, which appear to have been numerous. Had Mr. Hume attentively perused Raleigh's performance, he would have discovered his mistake about benevolences, see p. 95, et seq.; and likewise in regard to new year's gifts, which appear to have been liberally bestowed upon courtiers. P. 71.

ciety as prevented the great body of the people from acquiring influence, and made it the interest of the nobility, in whom any political power was lodged, to support the measures of the court against the rest of the community;—a fact which appears still stronger, when we consider the frequent resistance to the French system, though it possessed all these advantages. 2dly, That the very circumstance of this family having attempted to fashion their government by that of France, instead of confining it within the limits of the ancient practice, not to say constitution, is of itself conclusive against the defence which has been made for them, that they acted upon the principles recognised at their accession.

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CHAP. IV.

Presenting a Picture of the State of Scotland, together with an Account of the Government of that Country.

BEFORE the union of the Crowns by the accession of James to the English throne, great part of Scotland was little removed from barbarism, and it resisted improvement till a late period. Even in the most civilized districts of the Low Country, society, in the most important respects, appears not to have attained that degree of refinement which it had reached in England, about two centuries before *. Towns had risen to little comparative eminence; manufactures, by which alone the great body of the people, where the territory is appropriated by a few, can be emancipated from dependence on the proprietors of the soil, were in a state of infancy; and commerce was confined to the importation of a few articles in exchange for staples chiefly, though some coarse manufactures

* The condition of the third estate compared with that of England, down till the reign of James, affords a strong proof of this. See this subject discussed afterwards. Yet, considering the misery England had waded through in changing from one state of society to another, we can scarcely congratulate her on her improvement in some of the preceding reigns.

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