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large a revenue as was enjoyed by his brother, all the disorders in both reigns might easily have been prevented, and probably all reasonable concessions to liberty might peaceably have been obtained from both monarchs. But these assemblies, unacquainted with public business, and often actuated by faction and fanaticism, could never be made sensible, but too late and by fatal experience, of the incessant change of times and situations. The French ambassador informs his court, that Charles was very well satisfied with his share of power, could the parliament have been induced to make him tolerably easy in his revenue.

structive to the truth of history, and has established | those in the reign of Charles II. conferred on him as Inany gross falsehoods, which it is unaccountable how any civilized nation could have embraced with regard to its domestic occurrences. Compositions, the most despicable, both for style and matter, have been extolled, and propagated, and read, as if they had equalled the most celebrated remains of antiquity.* And forgetting that a regard to liberty, though a laudable passion, ought commonly to be subordinate to a reverence for established government, the prevailing faction has celebrated only the partisans of the former, who pursued as their object the perfection of civil society, and has extolled them at the expense of their antagonists, who maintained those maxims that are essential to its very existence. But extremes of all kinds are to be avoided; and though no one will ever please either faction by moderate opinions, it is there we are most likely to meet with truth and certainty.

We shall subjoin to this general view of the English government, some account of the state of the finances, arms, trade, manners, arts, between the Restoration and Revolution.

The revenue of Charles II., as settled by the long parliament, was put upon a very bad footing. It was too small, if they intended to make him independent in the common course of his administration: it was too large, and settled during too long a period, if they resolved to keep him in entire dependence. The great debts of the republic, which were thrown upon that prince; the necessity of supplying the naval and military stores, which were entirely exhausted; that of repairing and furnishing his palaces: all these causes involved the king in great difficulties immediately after his Restoration; and the parliament was not sufficiently liberal in supplying him. Perhaps too he had contracted some debts abroad; and his bounty to the distressed cavaliers, though it did not correspond either to their services or expectations, could not fail, in some degree, to exhaust his treasury. The extraordinary sums granted the king during the first years, did not suffice for these extraordinary expenses; and the excise and customs, the only constant revenue, amounted not to nine hundred thousand pounds a year, and fell much short of the ordinary burdens of government. The addition of hearth-money in 1662, and of other two branches in 1669 and 1670, brought up the revenue to one million three hundred and fifty-eight thousand pounds, as we learn from lord Danby's account: but the same authority informs us, that the yearly expense of government was at that time one million three hundred eighty-seven thousand seven hundred and seventy pounds;† without mentioning contingencies, which are always considerable, even under the most prudent administration. Those branches of revenue, granted in 1669 and 1670, expired in 1680, and were never renewed by parliament: they were computed to be above two hundred thousand pounds a year. It must be allowed, because asserted by all contemporary authors of both parties, and even confessed by himself, that king Charles was somewhat profuse and negligent. But it is likewise certain, that a very rigid frugality was requisite to support the government under such difficulties. It is a familiar rule in all business, that every man should be paid in proportion to the trust reposed in him, and to the power which he enjoys; and the nation soon found reason, from Charles's dangerous connexions with France, to repent their departure from that prudential maxim. Indeed, could the parliaments in the reign of Charles I. have been induced to relinquish so far their old habits, as to grant that prince the same revenue which was voted to his successor, or had

Such as Rapin Thoyras, Locke, Sidney, Headley, &c.

Ralph's History, vol. 1. p 288. We learn from that lord's Memoirs, p. 12, that the receipts of the Exchequer, during six years, from 1673 to 1679, were about eight millions two hundred thousand pounds or one million three hundred sixty-six thousand pounds a year. See, likewise, p. 109.

If we estimate the ordinary revenue of Charles II. at one million two hundred thousand pounds a year during his whole reign, the whole computation will rather exceed than fall below the true value. The convention-parliament, after all the sums which they had granted the king towards the payment of old debts, threw, the last day of their meeting, a debt upon him amounting to one million seven hundred forty-three thousand two hundred and sixty-three pounds. All the extraordinary sums which were afterwards voted him by parliament, amounted to eleven millions four hundred forty-three thousand four hundred and seven pounds; which, divided by twenty-four, the number of years which that king reigned, make four hundred seventy-six thousand eight hundred and eight pounds a year. During that time, he had two violent wars to sustain with the Dutch; and in 1678, he made expensive preparations for a war with France. In the first Dutch war, both France and Denmark were allies to the United Provinces, and the naval armaments in England were very great: so that it is impossible he could have secreted any part, at least any considerable part of the sums which were then voted him by par liament.

To these sums we must add about one million two hundred thousand pounds, which had been detained from the bankers on shutting up the exchequer in 1672. The king paid six per cent. for this money during the rest of his reign. It is remarkable, that notwithstanding this violent breach of faith, the king, two years after, borrowed money at eight per cent.; the same rate of interest which he had paid before that event. A proof that public credit, instead of being of so delicate a nature as we are apt to imagine, is, in reality, so hardy and robust, that it is very diff cult to destroy it.

The revenue of James was raised by the parliament to about one million eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds; and his income, as duke of York, being added, made the whole amount to two millions a year; a sum well proportioned to the public necessities, but enjoyed by him in too independent a manner. The national debt at the Revolution amounted to one mil lion fifty-four thousand nine hundred and twenty-five pounds.

The militia fell much to decay during these two reigns, partly by the policy of the kings, who had entertained a diffidence of their subjects, partly by that ill-judged law which limited the king's power of mustering and arraying them. In the beginning, however, of Charles's reign, the militia was still deemed formidable. De Wit having proposed to the French king an invasion of England during the first Dutch war, that monarch replied, that such an attempt would be entirely fruitless, and would tend only to unite the English. In a few days, said he, after our landing, there will be fifty thousand men at least upon us.

Charles, in the beginning of his reign, had in pay near five thousand men, of guards and garrisons. At the end of his reign, he augmented this number to near eight thousand. James, on Monmouth's rebel lion, had on foot about fifteen thousand men; and

CHAP. LXXI.]

JAMES II. 1685-1688.

when the prince of Orange invaded him, there were | no fewer than thirty thousand regular troops in England.

The English navy, during the greater part of Charles's reign, made a considerable figure, for number of ships, valour of the men, and conduct of the commanders. Even in 1679, the fleet consisted of cighty-three ships; besides thirty, which were at that time on the stocks. On the king's restoration he found only sixty-three vessels of all sizes. During the latter part of Charles's reign, the navy fell somewhat to decay, by reason of the narrowness of the king's revenue: but James, soon after his accession, restored it to its former power and glory; and before he left the throne carried it much further. The administration of the admiralty under Pepys is still regarded as a model for order and economy. The fleet of the Revolution consisted of one hundred seventy-three vessels of all sizes; and required forty-two thousand That king, when duke of York, had been the first inventor of sea-signals. The mili tary genius, during these two reigns, had not totally decayed among the young nobility. Dorset, Mulgrave, Rochester, not to mention Ossory, served on board the fleet, and were present in the most furious engagements against the Dutch.

seamen to man it.

The commerce and riches of England did never, during any period, increase so fast as from the Restoration to the Revolution. The two Dutch wars, by disturbing the trade of that republic, promoted the navigation of this island; and after Charles had made a separate peace with the States, his subjects enjoyed, unmolested, the trade of Europe. The only disturbance which they met with, was from a few French privateers who infested the Channel; and Charles interposed not in behalf of his subjects with sufficient spirit and vigour. The recovery or conquest of New York and the Jerseys was a considerable accession to the strength and security of the English colonies; and, together with the settlement of Pennsylvania and Carolina, which was effected during that reign, extended the English empire in America. The persecutions of the dissenters, or, more properly speaking, the restraints imposed upon them, contributed to augment and people these colonies. Dr. Davenant affirms, that the shipping of England more than doubled during these twenty-eight years. Several new manufactures were established, in iron, brass, silk, hats, glass, paper, &c. One Brewer, leaving the Low Countries, when they were threatened with a French conquest, brought the art of dying woollen cloth into England, and by that improvement saved the nation great sums of money. The increase of coinage during these two reigns was ten millions, two hundred sixty-one thousand pounds. A board of trade was erected in 1670; and the earl of Sandwich was made president. Charles revived and supported the charter of the East-India Company; a measure whose utility is by some thought doubtful: he granted a charter to the Hudson's Bay Company; a measure probably hurtful.

We learn from sir Josiah Child, that in 1688 there were on the 'Change more men worth ten thousand pounds than there were in 1650 worth a thousand; that five hundred pounds with a daughter was, in the latter period deemed a larger portion than two thousand in the former; that gentlewomen, in those earlier times, thought themselves well clothed in a serge gown, which a chambermaid would, in 1688, be ashamed to be seen in: and that, besides the great increase of rich clothes, plate, jewels, and household furniture, coaches were in that time augmented a hundredfold.

The duke of Buckingham introduced from Venice the manufacture of glass and crystal into England. Prince Rupert was also an encourager of useful arts and manufactures: he himself was the inventor of etching.

The first law for erecting turnpikes was passed in 1662; the places of the turnpikes were Wadesmill, VOL. 1.

Caxton, and Stilton: but the general and great im
George II.
provement of highways took not place till the reign of

In 1663, was passed the first law for allowing the
In 1667 was concluded the first American treaty
exportation of foreign coin and bullion.
more general and complete in 1670. The two states
between England and Spain: this treaty was made
then renounced all right of trading with each other's
to all the territories in America, of which she was then
colonies; and the title of England was acknowledged
possessed.

The French king, about the beginning of Charles's
reign, laid some impositions on English commodities:
and the English, partly displeased with this innova.
tion, partly moved by their animosity against France,
with that kingdom as amounted almost to a prohibi-
retaliated, by laying such restraints on the commerce
They formed calculations, by which they per-
tion
suaded themselves that they were losers a million and
a half, or near two millions a year, by the French
trade. But no good effects were found to result from
taken off by parliament.
these restraints; and in king James's reign they were

Lord Clarendon tells us, that, in 1665, when money,
in consequence of a treaty, was to be remitted to the
bishop of Munster, it was found, that the whole trade
of England could not supply above a thousand pounds a
month to Frankfort and Cologne, nor above twenty
appear surprisingly small.
thousand pounds a month to Hamburgh: these sums

At the same time that the boroughs of England were
King James recalled the charters, by
on the colonies.
deprived of their privileges, a like attempt was made
which their liberties were secured; and he sent over
governors invested with absolute power. The arbi-
trary principles of that monarch appear in every part
of his administration.

The people, during these two reigns, were, in a great measure, cured of that wild fanaticism, by which new vices they might acquire, it may be questioned, they had formerly been so much agitated. Whatever whether, by this change, they were, in the main, much losers in point of morals. By the example of Charles II. and the cavaliers, licentiousness and desures of the table were much pursued. Love was bauchery became prevalent in the nation. The pleatreated more as an appetite than a passion. The one sex began to abate of the national character of chastity, without being able to inspire the other with sentiment or delicacy.

The abuses in the former age, arising from overstrained pretensions to piety, had much propagated men of this period lie under the imputation of deism. the spirit of irreligion; and many of the ingenious Besides wits and scholars by profession, Shaftesbury, Halifax, Buckingham, Mulgrave, Sunderland, Essex, Rochester, Sidney, Temple, are supposed to have adopted these principles.

The same factions which formerly distracted the most ungenerous and unmanly enterprises against nation, were revived, and exerted themselves in the each other. King Charles being in his whole deportment a model of easy and gentleman-like behaviour, His courtiers were improved the politeness of the nation; as much as faction, which of all things is most destructive to that virtue, could possibly permit. long distinguishable in England by their obliging and agreeable manners.

Till the Revolution, the liberty of the press was very imperfectly enjoyed in England, and during a very short period. The star-chamber, while the court subsisted, put effectual restraints upon printing. On the suppression of that tribunal in 1641, the long parliasame power with regard to the licensing of books; and ment, after their rupture with the king, assumed the this authority was continued during all the period of the republic and protectorship. Two years after the

5 T

experiment; but resolute to adopt every such principle, however new or unusual: from modesty, ignorant of his superiority above the rest of mankind; and thence less careful to accommodate his reasonings to common apprehensions: more anxious to merit than acquire fame: he was, from these causes, long un

Restoration, an act was passed reviving the republican | in admitting no principles but such as were founded on ordinances. This act expired in 1679; but was revived in the first of king James. The liberty of the press did not even commence with the Revolution. It was not till 1694 that the restraints were taken off; to the great displeasure of the king and his ministers, who, seeing nowhere, in any government, during present or past ages, any example of such unlimited free-known to the world; but this reputation at last broke dom, doubted much of its salutary effects, and probably thought, that no books or writings would ever so much improve the general understanding of men, as tc render it safe to intrust them with an indulgence so easily abused.

In 1877, the old law for burning heretics was repealed; a prudent measure, while the nation was in continual dread of the return of popery.

out with a lustre, which scarcely any writer during his own lifetime, had ever before attained. While Newton seemed to draw off the veil from some of the mysteries of nature, he showed at the same time the imperfections of the mechanical philosophy; and thereby restored her ultimate secrets to that obscurity in which they ever did and ever will remain. He died in 1727, aged 85.

wit, though possessed himself of a considerable share of it, though his taste in conversation seems to have been sound and just, served rather to corrupt than improve the poetry and eloquence of his time. When the theatres were opened at the Restoration, and freedom was again given to pleasantry and ingenuity, men, after so long an abstinence, fed on these delicacies with less taste than avidity, and the coarsest and most irregular species of wit was received by the court as well as by the people.

Amidst the thick cloud of bigotry and ignorance This age was far from being so favourable to polite which overspread the nation, during the common-literature as to the sciences. Charles, though fond of wealth and protectorship, there were a few sedate philosophers, who, in the retirement of Oxford, cultivated their reason, and established conferences for the mutual communication of their discoveries in physics and geometry. Wilkins, a clergyman, who had narried Cromwell's sister, and was afterwards bishop of Chester, promoted these philosophical conversations. Immediately after the Restoration, these men procured a patent, and having enlarged their number, were denominated the Royal Society. But this patent was all they obtained from the king. Though Charles was a lover of the sciences, particularly chemistry and mechanics; he animated them by his example alone, not by his bounty. His craving courtiers and mistresses, by whom he was perpetually surrounded, engrossed all his expense, and left him neither money nor attention for literary merit. His contemporary, Louis, who fell short of the king's genius and knowledge in this particular, much exceeded him in liberality. Besides pensions conferred on learned men throughout all Europe, his academies were directed by rules, and supported by salaries: a generosity which does great honour to his memory; and, in the eyes of all the ingenious part of mankind, will be esteemed an atonement for many of the errors of his reign. We may be surprised, that this example should not be more followed by princes; since it is certain that that bounty, so extensive, so beneficial, and so much celebrated, cost not this monarch so great a sum as is often conferred on one useless overgrown favourite or courtier.

But though the French academy of sciences was directed, encouraged, and supported by the sovereign, there arose in England some men of superior genius who were more than sufficient to cast the balance, and who drew on themselves and on their native country the regard and attention of Europe. Besides Wilkins, Wren, Wallis, eminent mathematicians, Hooke, an accurate observer by microscopes, and Sydenham, the restorer of true physic, there flourished during this period a Boyle and a Newton; men who trod with cautious, and therefore the more secure steps, the only road which leads to true philosophy.

Boyle improved on the pneumatic engine invented by Otto Guericke, and was thereby enabled to make several new and curious experiments on the air, as well as on other bodies: his chemistry is much admired by those who are acquainted with that art his hydrostatics contain a greater mixture of reasoning and invention with experiment than any other of his works; but his reasoning is still remote from that boldness and temerity which had led astray so many philosophers. Boyle was a great partisan of the mechanical philosophy; a theory which, by discovering some of the secrets of nature, and allowing us to imagine the rest, is so agreeable to the natural vanity and curiosity of men. He died in 1691, aged 65.

In Newton this island may boast of having produced the greatest and rarest genius that ever rose for the ornament and instruction of the species. Cautious

The productions represented at that time on the stage were such monsters of extravagance and folly; so utterly destitute of all reason or even common sense; that they would be the disgrace of English literature, had not the nation made atonement for its former admiration of them, by the total oblivion to which they are now condemned. The duke of Buckingham's Rehearsal, which exposed these wild productions, seems to be a piece of ridicule carried to excess; yet in reality the copy scarcely equals some of the absurdities which we meet with in the originals.*

This severe satire, together with the good sense of the nation, corrected, after some time, the extravagances of the fashionable wit; but the productions of literature still wanted much of that correctness and delicacy which we so much admire in the ancients, and in the French writers, their judicious imitators. It was indeed during this period chiefly, that that nation left the English behind them in the productions of poetry, eloquence, history, and other branches of polite letters; and acquired a superiority, which the efforts of English writers, during the subsequent age, did more successfully contest with them. The arts and sciences were imported from Italy into this island as early as into France; and made at first more sensible advances. Spencer, Shakespeare, Bacon, Jonson, were superior to their contemporaries, who flourished in that kingdom. Milton, Waller, Denham, Cowley, Harvey, were at least equal to their contemporaries. The reign of Charles II. which some preposterously represent as our Augustan age, retarded the progress of polite literature in this island; and it was then found, that the immeasurable licentiousness, indulged, or rather applauded, at court, was more destructive to the refined arts, than even the cant, nonsense, and enthusiasm of the preceding period.

Most of the celebrated writers of this age remain monuments of genius, perverted by indecency and bad taste; and none more than Dryden, both by reason of the greatness of his talents, and the gross abuse which he made of them. His plays, excepting a few scenes, are utterly disfigured by vice or folly, or both. His translations appear too much the offspring of haste and hunger: even his fables are ill-chosen tales, conveyed in an incorrect though spirited versification. Yet, amidst this great number of loose productions, the refuse of our language, there are found some small

The duke of Buckingham died on the 16th of April, 1688.

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pieces, his Ode to St. Cecilia, the greater part of Absalom and Achitophel, and a few more, which discover so great genius, such richness of expression, such pomp and variety of numbers, that they leave us equally full of regret and indignation, on account of the inferiority, or rather great absurdity, of his other writings. He died in 1701, aged 69.

The very name of Rochester is offensive to modest cars; yet does his poetry discover such energy of style and such poignancy of satire, as give ground to imagine what so fine a genius, had he fallen in a more happy age, and had followed better models, was capable of producing. The ancient satirists often used great liberties in their expressions; but their freedom no more resembles the licentiousness of Rochester, than the nakedness of an Indian does that of a common prostitute.

Wycherley, was ambitious of the reputation of wit and libertinism; and he attained it: he was probably capable of reaching the fame of true comedy, and instructive ridicule. Otway had a genius finely turned to the pathetic; but he neither observes strictly the rules of the drama, nor the rules, still more essential, of propriety and decorum. By one single piece, the duke of Buckingham did both great service to his age and honour to himself. The earls of Mulgrave, Dorset, and Roscommon wrote in a good taste; but their productions are either feeble or careless. The mar quis of Halifax discovers a refined genius; and nothing but leisure and an inferior station seem wanting to have procured him eminence in literature.

Of all the considerable writers of this age, sir William Temple is almost the only one that kept himself altogether unpolluted by that inundation of vice and licentiousness which overwhelmed the nation. The style of this author, though extremely negligent, and even infected with foreign idioms, is agrecable and interesting. That mixture of vanity which appears in his works, is rather a recommendation to them. By means of it, we enter into acquaintance with the character of the author, full of honour and humanity; and fancy that we are engaged, not in the perusal of a

|

book, but in conversation with a companion. He died in 1698, aged 70.

Though Hudibras was published, and probably composed, during the reign of Charles H., Butler may justly, as well as Milton, be thought to belong to the foregoing period. No composition abounds so much as Hudibras in strokes of just and inimitable wit: yet there are many performances which give as great or greater entertainment on the whole perusal. The allusions in Butler are often dark and far-fetched; and though scarcely any author was ever able to express his thoughts in so few words, he often employs too many thoughts on one subject, and thereby becomes prolix after an unusual manner. It is surprising how much erudition Butler has introduced with so good a grace into a work of pleasantry and humour: Hudibras is perhaps one of the most learned compositions that is to be found in any language. The advantage which the royal cause received from this poem, in exposing the fanaticism and false pretensions of the former parliamentary party, was prodigious. The king himself had so good a taste, as to be highly pleased with the merit of the work, and had even got a great part of it by heart: yet was he either so careless in his temper, or so little endowed with the virtue of liberality, or, more properly speaking, of gratitude, that he allowed the author, a man of virtue and probity, to live in obscurity, and die in want. Dryden is an instance of a negligence of the same kind. His Absalom sensibly contributed to the victory which the tories obtained over the whigs, after the exclusion of parlia ments: yet could not this merit, aided by his great genius, procure him an establishment which might exempt him from the necessity of writing for bread. Ot. way, though a professed royalist, could not even procure bread by his writings; and he had the singular fate of dying literally of hunger. These incidents throw a great stain on the memory of Charles, who had discernment, loved genius, was liberal of money, but attained not the praise of true generosity.

Butler died in 1690, aged 53.

END OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, BY DAVID HUME

NOTES TO VOLUME I.

Note A, p. 19

his country yet in no more distant period than ten years after, Scotland was totally subdued by a small handful of English, led by a few private noblemen. All history is full of such events. The Irish-Scots, in the course of two or three centuries, might find time and opportunities sufficient to settle in North Britain, though we can neither assign the period nor causes of that revolution. Their barbarous manner of life rendered them much fitter than the Romans for subduing these mountaineers. And, in a word, it is clear, from the language of the two countries, that the Highlanders and the Irish are the same people, and that the one are a colony from the other. We have positive evidence, which, though from neutral persons, is not perhaps the best that may be wished for, that the former, in the third or fourth century, sprang from the latter: we have no evidence at all that the latter sprang from the former. I shall add, that the name of Erse or Irish, given by the low-country Scots to the language of the Scotch Highlanders, is a certain proof of the traditional opinion delivered from father to son, that the latter people came originally from Ireland.

Note B, p. 43.

THIS question has been disputed with as great zeal and even acrimony, between the Scotch and Irish antiquaries, as if the honour of their respective countries, were the most deeply concerned in the decision. We shall not enter into any detail on so uninteresting a subject; but shall propose our opinion in a few words. It appears more than probable, from the similitude of language and manners, that Britain either was originally peopled or was subdued, by the migration of inhabitants from Gaul,and Ireland from Britain: the position of the several countries is an additional reason that favours this conclusion. It appears also probable, that the migrations of that colony of Gauls or Celts, who peopled or subdued Ireland, was originally made from the north-west parts of Britain; and this conjecture (if it do not merit a higher name) is founded both on the Irish language, which is a very different dialect from the Welsh, and from the language anciently spoken in South Britain, and on the vicinity of Lancashire, Cumberland, Galloway,and Argyleshire to that island. These events, as they passed long before the age of history and records, must be known by reasoning alone, which in this case seems to be pretty satisfactory: Cæsar and Tacitus, not to mention a multitude of other Greek There is a seeming contradiction in ancient historians and Roman authors, were guided by like inferences. with regard to some circumstances in the story of Edwy But besides these primitive facts, which lie in a very and Elgiva. It is agreed, that this prince had a violent remote antiquity, it is a matter of positive and un- passion for his second or third cousin, Elgiva, whom doubted testimony, that the Roman province of Bri- he married, though within the degrees prohibited by tain, during the time of the lower empire, was much the canons. It is also agreed, that he was dragged infested by bands of robbers or pirates, whom the pro- from a lady on the day of his coronation, and that the vincial Britons called Scots or Scuits; a name which lady was afterwards treated with the singular barbawas probably used as a term of reproach, and which rity above mentioned. The only difference is, that these banditti themselves did not acknowledge or as- Osborne and some others call her his strumpet, not his sume. We may infer from two passages in Claudian, wife, as she is said to be by Malmesbury. But this and from one in Orosius, and another in Isidore, that difference is easily reconciled: for if Edwy married her the chief seat of these Scots was in Ireland. That contrary to the canons, the monks would be sure to some part of the Irish freebooters migrated back to deny her to be his wife, and would insist that she the north-west parts of Britain, whence their ances- could be nothing but his strumpet: so that,on the whole, tors had probably been derived in a more remote age, we may esteem this representation of the matter as is positively asserted by Bede, and implied in Gildas. certain; at least, as by far the most probable. If I grant, that neither Bede nor Gildas are Cæsars or Edwy had only kept a mistress, it is well known, that Tacituses; but such as they are, they remain the sole there are methods of accommodation with the church, testimony on the subject, and therefore must be relied which would have prevented the clergy from proceedon for want of better: happily, the frivolousness of ing to such extremities against him: but his marriage, the question corresponds to the weakness of the autho- contrary to the canons, was an insult on their autho rities. Not to mention, that, if any part of the tradi- rity, and called for their highest resentment. tional history of a barbarous people can be relied on, it is the genealogy of nations, and even sometimes that of families. It is in vain to argue against these facts from the supposed warlike disposition of the Highlanders, and unwarlike of the ancient Irish. Those arguments are still much weaker than the authorities. Nations change very quickly in these particulars. The Britons were unable to resist the Picts and Scots, and invited over the Saxons for their defence, who repelled those invaders; yet the same Britons valiantly resisted for a hundred and fifty years, not only this victorious band of Saxons, but infinite numbers more, who poured in upon them from all quarters. Robert Bruce in 1322, made a peace, in which England, after many defeats, was constrained to acknowledge the independence of

Note C, p. 43.

Many of the English historians make Edgar's ships amount to an extravagant number, to three thousand, or three thousand six hundred: see Hoveden, p. 426. Flor. Wigorn. p. 607. Abbas Rieval, p.360. Brompton, p. 869, says that Edgar had four thousand vessels. How can these accounts be reconciled to probability, and to the state of the navy in the time of Alfred? W. Thorne makes the whole number amount only to three hundred, which is more probable. The fleet of Ethelred, Edgar's son, must have been short of a thousand ships; yet the Saxon Chroncicle, p. 137, says, it was the greatest navy that ever had been seen in England.

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