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more pleasant country than the England in which we live. It may at first sight seem strange that society, while constantly moving forward with eager speed, should be constantly looking backward with tender regret. But these two propensities, inconsistent as they may appear, can easily be resolved into the same principle. Both spring from our impatience of the state in which we actually are. That impatience, while it stimulates us to surpass preceding generations, disposes us to overrate their happiness. It is, in some sense, unreasonable and ungrateful in us to be constantly discontented with a condition which is constantly improving. But, in truth, there is constant improvement precisely because there is constant discontent. If we were perfectly satisfied with the present, we should cease to contrive, to labour, and to save with a view to the future. And it is natural that, being dissatisfied with the present, we should form a too favourable estimate of the past.

In truth we are under a deception similar to that which misleads the traveller in the Arabian desert. Beneath the caravan all is dry and bare: but far in advance, and far in the rear, is the semblance of refreshing waters. The pilgrims hasten forward and find nothing but sand where, an hour before, they had seen a lake. They turn their eyes and see a lake where, an hour before, they were toiling through sand. A similar illusion seems to haunt nations through every stage of the long progress from poverty and barbarism to the highest degrees of opulence and civilisation. But, if we resolutely chase the mirage backward, we shall find it recede before us into the regions of fabulous antiquity. It is now the fashion to place the golden age of England in times when noblemen were destitute of comforts the want of which would be intolerable to a modern footman, when farmers and shopkeepers breakfasted on loaves

the very sight of which would raise a riot in a modern workhouse, when to have a clean shirt once a week was a privilege reserved for the higher class of gentry, when men died faster in the purest country air than they now die in the most pestilential lanes of our towns, and when men died faster in the lanes of our towns than they now die on the coast of Guiana. We too shall, in our turn, be outstripped, and in our turn be envied. It may well be, in the twentieth century, that the peasant of Dorsetshire may think himself miserably paid with twenty shillings a week; that the carpenter at Greenwich may receive ten shillings a day; that labouring men may be as little used to dine without meat as they now are to eat rye bread; that sanitary police and medical discoveries may have added several more years to the average length of human life; that numerous comforts and luxuries which are now unknown, or confined to a few, may be within the reach of every diligent and thrifty working man. And yet it may

then be the mode to assert that the increase of wealth and the progress of science have benefited the few at the expense of the many, and to talk of the reign of Queen Victoria as the time when England was truly merry England, when all classes were bound together by brotherly sympathy, when the rich did not grind the faces of the poor, and when the poor did not envy the splendour of the rich.

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AGRICULTURE, state of, in 1685, 322.

326. Reform of, 425.
Albemarle, George Monk, Duke of;
his character, 151. Marches to
London, 152. Declares for a free Par-
liament, 153. His sea service, 312.
Albigensians; their movement prema-
ture, 46.

Aldrich, Henry, Dean of Christchurch,
344.

Alsatia. See Whitefriars.
America, Puritan settlements in, 95.
Trade with, from Bristol, 349.
Anne, Princess, afterwards Queen; edu-
cated a Protestant, 219. Married

to Prince George of Denmark, 280.
Anselm, Archbishop, 24.

Aristocracy, English; its character, 38.
Thinned by wars of the Roses, 39.
Arlington, Henry Bennet, Lord, 220.
His official gains, 322.
Arminian controversy, 82.
Arundel, Earl of, 351.
Ashley. See Shaftesbury.

Bacon, Lord; his philosophy, 421.
Barbary, horses from, 327.
Barebone's Parliament, 189. Ordi-
nance of, 172.

Barillon, French ambassador; his in-
trigues with the Country Party, 237.
Barrow, Isaac, 344.

Bath, 360, 361.

Baxter, Richard; his political works
burned at Oxford, 280.

Bearbaiting, 168.

Becket; why popular, 24.
Bedford House, 370.

Bedloe; witness in the Popisà plot, 246
Beer, consumption of, 332.
Beveridge, 344.

Bible, cost of (14th century), 46.
Birmingham, 356.

Birminghams; a nickname of Whig
leaders, 266. 356.
Blake, Robert, 312

Bloomsbury Square, houses in, 370.
Blues, regiment of; its origin, 306.
Bonrepaux, French envoy to England;
his report on the English navy, 310.
Books, scarcity of, in country places
(1685), 408.

Booksellers' shops (London), 408.
Bourbon, House of; its growing power,

198.

Boyle, Robert, 426.

Bray, Thomas, Life of, 344. note.
Breakspear, Nicholas, Pope, 24.
Brighton, 358.

Bristol, capture of, by the Royalists, 119.
Time of Charles II.; its appearance
and trade; kidnapping, 348.
Britain under the Romans; under the
Saxons, 4. Barbarism of, 5.
Browne, Sir Thomas; his botanical
garden at Norwich, 350.

Buccleuch, Anne Scott, Duchess of;

married to Monmouth, 259.
Buchanan; his political works burned at
Oxford, 280.

Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of;
his character, 221. His intrigues

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Carstairs, a witness in the Popish plot,
246.

Catharine of Portugal, Queen of Charles
II., 197.

Cavaliers, designation of, 104. Party,
how composed, 105.
Their argu-
ments, 107.
Their early successes,
119. Under the Protectorate, 143.
Coalesce with the Presbyterians, 149
Their renewed disputes with the
Roundheads after the Restoration,
161-166. Their discontent, 239.
Celibacy of clergy, how regarded by the
Reformers, 80.

Celts, in Scotland and Ireland, 67.
Chaplains, domestic, 339, 340.
Charles I.; his accession; his charac-

ter, 86. Parliamentary opposition to,
87. Reigns without Parliaments;
violates the Petition of Right, 89.
His measures towards Scotland, 96.
Calls a Parliament, 98. Dissolves
it, 99. His scheme for a Council of
Lords; summons the Long Parlia-
ment, 100. His visit to Scotland,
101. Suspected of inciting the Irish
rebellion, 110. Impeaches the five

members 112. Departs from Lon-
don, 113. His adherents, 118. His
flight and imprisonment, 123. His
deceit, 130. Executed, 132.
Charles II.; acknowledged by Scotland
and Ireland, 134. His Restoration,
155. His character, 174-178.
Profligacy of his reign, 186-188.
His government becomes unpopular,
195. His marriage, 197.
His re-
venge on Sir John Coventry, 212.
His league with Lewis XIV., 213.
218. His modes of raising money,
Thwarts the foreign policy of

224.

Danby, 235.

Consults Sir W. Tem-
ple, 248. Resists the Exclusion Bill,
257. 271. His politic measures,
274-276. Violates the law, 281.
Factions in his court, 288. His army,
305-308. State of his navy, 309
311. Ordnance, 317. His envoys
abroad, 319. Entertained at Nor-
wich, 351. His Court; his affability,
379. His laboratory at Whitehall,
424.

Charter, the Great, 16.

Charters, municipal, seized by Charles
II., 279.

Chatham; Dutch fleet at, 199.
Chaucer, 20.

Chelsea in 1685, 363.
Chelsea Hospital, 319.
Cheltenham, 358.

Cheshire, discovery of salt in, 328.
Chimney tax, 298.

Cibber (the sculptor), 429.
Civil war, commencement of, 117.
Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 111.

His character, 174-178. His fall,
201 204. His official gains, 322
His house in Westminster, 374.
Clayton, Sir Robert; his house in the
Old Jewry, 366.

Clergy; their loss of importance after
the Reformation, 339. Two classes
of, 343.

Clergy, rural, under Charles II., 336.
Their degraded condition, 341, 342.
Their great influence, 346.
Clifford, Sir Thomas, 220. 228. His
retirement, 232.

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