sovereign, if present, was sole judge, and the jurisdiction of the court extended to all sorts of offences, as contempts and disorders, that lay out of the reach of the common law. The Court of High Commission was a further irresponsible tribunal. Its vengeance was directed against the undefinable crime of heresy, and, in the hands of the narrow-minded Whitgift, was a fearful engine of persecution. Martial law was still more sweeping and violent in its procedure. Whenever there was any public disturbance the crown resorted to martial law, and during that time any one might be punished as a rebel or abettor of rebels, whom the lieutenant of a county or his deputy pleased to suspect. In one of her proclamations, the queen orders martial law to be used against those who imported forbidden books, and prohibits the questioning of her officers for their arbitrary punishments," any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding." In addition to this instrumentality arbitrary imprisonments were frequently resorted to by the crown; merely by the authority of a warrant of a secretary of state or privy councillor, any person might be imprisoned in any jail, during any time minsters thought fit. In suspicious times the jails were filled with suspects, who were sometimes thrown into dungeons, loaded with irons, and not unfrequently tortured to extort confessions.

Against these enormities the subject had no redress: neither judge nor jury dared to acquit when the crown was bent on a conviction. Both were the creatures of the ministry; and as the practice was once common of fining and imprisoning jurors at the discretion of the court, for finding verdicts contrary to the directions of its vassal judges, it is obvious juries afforded no security to the liberties of the people.

Even the Parliament was a feeble bulwark against

royal despotism. The crown had so many indirect sources of income, that it was almost independent of the Commons, and the ordinary resource of stopping the supplies was little check on its authority. Queen Mary as well as Elizabeth increased branches of the customs merely by an order in council. If levies were wanted for foreign service, Elizabeth compelled the counties to raise soldiers, to arm and clothe them, and convey them to embarkation seaports at their own charge. By the practice of Purveyance the sovereign might victual not only her court, but her fleets and armies, at the cost of suffering individuals, not regularly taxed, but marked out for oppression. By the Court of Wards the queen obtained possession of the estate during the minority of the heir; and had authority to dispose of the heir or heiress in marriage. The arbitrary imposition of embargoes, the occasional levy of ship money, the forbidding the sale of particular commodities, and the granting of patents and monopolies for the exclusive manufacture or vend of wares, formed other sources of revenue wholly beyond legislative control. Lastly, royal proclamations continued as om. nipotent as under Henry VIII. when parliament itself gave the notable finish to its jurisdiction by declaring them equivalent to laws.

Further elucidations of the civil freedom of the sixteenth century seem hardly requisite. Poetry has thrown a dazzling hue over times which mainly afford only the useful lesson which Sismondi has eloquently inculcated *, namely, to avert by our efforts, if possible, the return of them. Elizabeth's government was virtually an absolute monarchy, exercised under the semblance of prerogatives, and which prerogatives, though irregularly

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indulged by some of her predecessors, were certainly contrary to Magna Charta, the statutes of the Edwards, and antecedent laws of the constitution. The last of the Tudors, like the first, might plead ancient maxims in her favour; but hardly less ancient laws were against them, and it was the conflict between statutes and royal precedents that produced those ulterior revolutionary struggles, in which the new order of the Commons followed the Church and the Nobility in its endeavours to limit the pretensions of the chief magistrate.

Although Elizabeth's government was despotic, it did not possess an efficient police, an ascription sometimes applied to that form of rule. In consequence of the transition from slave to free labour, and the dissolution of the religious houses, the country, as already observed, was overrun with thieves and vagabonds. A magistrate, writing in 1596, states, that in Somersetshire only, forty persons had been executed in a year for robberies and other felonies, thirty-five burnt in the hand, thirty-seven whipped, and one hundred and eighty-three discharged, most of them desperate miscreants, obstinately idle, and of abandoned character.* Other counties were in a worse situation, the same report stating that there were at least three or four hundred vagabonds in each county who lived by theft and rapine. Their numbers intimidated the magistrates; and instances were frequent of the justices of the peace, who, after sentencing depredators to merited punishment, interfered to stop the execution of their sentences, from a dread of the vengeance of their confederates in crime.

The social aspects of the Tudor age, especially the Elizabethan portion of it, are generally familiar and need

* Eden's State of the Poor, vol. i. p. 111.

only to be glanced at. Before the Reformation the education of both sexes was mostly in the religious houses, and the manners it induced in the family circle were strict and formal. A haughty reserve was affected by the old, and an abject deference exacted from the young. Sons when arrived at manhood used to stand uncovered and silent in their father's presence, and daughters, though women, were not permitted to sit or repose themselves otherwise than by kneeling on a cushion.* Something like a want of natural affection has been attributed by an Italian traveller of the fifteenth century. According to him, it was the custom of parents to apprentice out both boys and girls, at seven or eight years of age, for seven or nine years, taking the children of others in turn. This was done, he says, "to improve their manners and better to teach them." This system was relaxed under Elizabeth, when ladies began to be instructed in graceful accomplishments, in music, dancing, and the useful arts.

The extension of commerce and more frequent intercourse with the Netherlands and Italy awakened a taste for higher refinements, and a disposition not to be satisfied with the feudal barbarisms, meagre fare, and miserable accommodations of a past generation. Induced by the political quietude of the times as well as their humbled position, the nobility began to abandon their dungeon retreats, and seek mansions of greater elegance and convenience. They removed the martial fronts of their castles, environed them with parks and pleasure grounds, rendering the whole more agreeable and commodious. Lower than this architectural improvements did not descend under the Tudors. The houses of the gentry con

* Henry's Hist. of England, vol. xii. p. 353.

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tinued to be thatched buildings, composed of wood; those of the peasantry were slight frames prepared in the forest and covered with clay. In towns, houses were constructed mostly of the same materials, bricks being yet too costly for general use.

In diet and the enjoyments of the table the advances had been considerable. Under the Tudors the chief fruits and esculent herbs were introduced, as melons, apricots, currants, salads, cabbages, turnips, and hops. Lamb and other delicate meats began to be partaken of. There were several courses, and each had its peculiar condiment. A dessert of fruit, jellies, and spices, was not uncommon. There, however, still existed the great drawback in the dietary, that all except the most opulent were limited to salted meat a great portion of the year. This arose from the rudeness of agriculture, and its inadequacy to provide a nutritious winter food for cattle.

In the accomplishments of education and learning, the ancient languages and writings obtained the principal attention. In a greater degree than the classics, however, theological studies were paramount in importance, from the engrossing interest of religious controversies under the later Tudors. Italy was the great centre of attraction on which all eyes were fixed, not only as the seat of ecclesiastical supremacy, manufacturing industry, and commercial riches, but the home of the revival of the arts and leading models in all tasteful and intellectual pursuits.

A significant feature of progress is the commencement of the amusements of the theatre, which indicates the rise of more literate and sedentary tastes. The earliest patent for acting the regular drama is dated in 1574, and such was its rapid progress that in the beginning of the next century fifteen licensed theatres were open. In place of the old mysteries and moralities, founded on scriptural