This suspicion has been partly confirm- | sessed of no authority independent of the crown. ed by these two volumes of the history. They were not successors of the apostles, but We have already dwelt upon Mr. Froude's were ordinary officials; and in evidence that hero-worship of Henry VIII. This strange they were required to accept the renewal of they understood and submitted to their position, predilection has warped his decision in de- their commissions. Cranmer set the willing exscribing his son's reign. The father's chief ample, in an acknowledgment that all jurisdicobject in his dying instructions was as far tion, ecclesiastical as well as secular, within the as possible to maintain affairs in statu quo realm, emanated only from the sovereign. The until Edward should come of age. From other prelates consented, or were content to imithe list of his executors, he carefully ex- tate him."-Vol v. p. 10. cluded those who might progress or retrograde too far. Gardiner was struck off as too violent a Papist; Lord Parr as too advanced a Protestant. The bluff King, who had ruled with such vigor in his life, desired still to govern from his tomb. He enjoined on Lord Hertford to follow out the Scottish marriage, and to continue at peace with Germany and France. He prohibited the regents and the council of regency from venturing to meddle with serious questions. He had some time before obtained an Act of Parliament "empowering sovereigns who might succeed to the crown while under age, to repeal, by letters patent, all measures passed in their names." He had so arranged the regency that each side should act as a check upon the other. With such precautions he possibly persuaded himself that he had compassed his design.

ward followed by the deprivation of WriThese arrangements were shortly afterothesley, the Chancellor; and the removal of this the ablest of his opponents conferred upon Somerset the reality of power. A new commission, running in Edward's name, confirmed this authority, and for the next three years he was virtually sovereign of the realm. In most respects they were years disastrous to England. We must proceed to select some particulars of the narrative for our consideration.

set's administration, we should not forget In estimating the character of Somerthe difficulties by which he was surrounded. The late King had incurred considerable debts, and the expenses of the household had been enormously increased. In had been had to borrowing from Antwerp the hour of Henry's necessity, recourse at an exorbitant rate of interest; and when a still farther pressure had arisen, a large rency. The avaricious passions of the couramount was gained by debasing the curtiers had been excited by grants of church lands, and there were still some broad plied. True it is that Henry directed in acres which might be in like manner aphis will that others should take care to pay the debt he had so heedlessly contracted. But as the faults of Somerset are chiefly those which we have just enumerated, it is only fair that we should remember that he was treading in the steps of his predebe demanded because others have commitcessor. Of course his acquittal is not to ted the same errors: but that which, in Mr. Froude's judgment, was venial in Harry, becomes a deadly sin in Somerset. The situation, too, of the Protector was far more embarrassing than that of a sov

It is needless to add, that he was utterly mistaken. So limited a share of power by no means coïncided with the views which Hertford entertained. Ere the King's body was yet cold, he had gained over Sir William Paget, the eldest statesman of the council. The form of government during the minority was to be changed to a Protectorate. The despotism of the past reign was to be alleviated by the sweets of liberty. Above all, the enlightened convictions of the Protestant party were to take effect in further religious reform. To this programme Paget assented on condition that Hertford should be guided in all things by his advice. Their united influence was irresistible. Hertford was named Protector by the executors, and was raised to the Dukedom of Somerset; his brother was made Lord Seymour, Lord Parr became Marquis of Northampton, and Lisle and Wriothesley Earls of Warwick and Southamp-ereign in full. The demands of the cour

ton.

"The next step was to show the bishops that the change of rulers had not restored their liberty. They were to regard themselves as pos

tiers were much harder to restrain, the popular impatience of taxation was more turbulent in its expression, the opposition more daring in its resistance to authority. It is hardly to be wondered at, then, if

side toward Dalkeith; some lay as if dead, and let the chase pass by them. The Highlanders held together, and saved themselves with an orderly retreat, but the crowd fell unresisting vicIt was a massacre more than a battle; for, of tims under the sabers of the avenging cavalry. the English, at most, not more than two hundred fell, and those chiefly at the first charge under the lances of the pikemen; the number of Scots killed was from ten to fourteen thousand. Two causes provoked the English, it was said, to especial vindictiveness; they resented chief reason was the treacherous surprise at ungenerously their own first repulse; but the Ancram Muir, and the death of Lord Evers, the hero of the Border-troopers. Fifteen hundred prisoners were taken, but in general no quarter was given. Gentlemen might have been spar

Somerset betook himself, in an evil hour for himself and for the country, to the expedients which had been already tried. European complications met Somerset on the very threshold of his administration, which might have warned him to husband his resources. The Pope had called upon Charles V. to invade England; and, had Mary's life not been in jeopardy, he would probably have complied. Nor were the French more amicably disposed; they were sore at the loss of Boulogne, which they were determined to recover, and furious at the idea of the Scotch marriage, which they strained every nerve to prevent. Scotland was torn asunder between adverse French and English faced for their ransoms; but, for some unknown tions, and our own party there required the most strenuous support. To temporize, to watch for every opportunity to strengthen his position, to be prodigal of politeness and chary of expenditure, was the politic course which Paget urged upon his leader. But Somerset had neither the promptitude of Scipio nor the patience of Fabius. He dallied whilst the French besieged and stormed the garrison of St. Andrew's, which consisted of the firm allies of England. He determined on the invasion of the country when the Scottish Protestants had been thoroughly disheartened by the capture of their friends.

The result of the campaign in Scotland was rendered decisive by the victory of Pinkie Cleugh. The Scots almost doubled the English in numbers, and the fight was long and obstinate. Neither party cared to encumber itself with prisoners; and over the broken ground which formed the battle-field, there were terrible handto-hand encounters between Scot and Sax

on.

The victory at first inclined to the former. No impression could be made upon their serried ranks; and the English declined to renew the assault; they might as well charge, they said, upon a wall of steel. Their own success was fatal to the men of the north. They broke up in pursuit, and the English faced about and routed them. A panic ensued, and the flight became general.

"They flung away their arms; swords, pikes, and lances strewed the ground where they had been drawn up, as thick as rushes in a chamber. Some crept under the willow pollards into the meadows, and lay concealed like otters with their mouths above the water; some made for Edinburgh, some along the sands to Leith under the fire of the fleet, some up the river

cause, the noble and the peasant were dressed tle to distinguish them, and they were cut down alike in white leather or fustian; there was litin indiscriminate heaps along the roads and fields to the very walls of Edinburgh. Multitudes of priests, at one time it was said as many as four thousand, were among the slain. The banner of the kneeling Lady was taken amidst the scorn of the victors; and when at last the retreat was sounded, and the pursuers weary with killing gathered again into their camp, they Edinburgh Castle. The day was closed with sent up a shout which legend said was heard in one more act of barbarity. A detachment of Scots had been stationed with cannon in a small fort overlooking the field, and had given some trouble. When the battle was lost they were left behind, and unable to fly; they silenced their guns, therefore, and concealed themselves, intending to withdraw in the night. But they were discovered and surrounded; they were not offered the alternative of surrender; the place was set on fire and they were destroyed."— Vol. v. pp. 53, 54.

There is a peculiar interest attaching to this battle as the last stricken field between England and Scotland before the union of the crowns. The victory redounded to the honor of Somerset, who commanded in person; but was singularly barren of permanent results. Its only immediate effect was to rouse the national Scotch pride against the English, and to render the marriage of Mary and Edward impossible, as the lady's friends naturally objected to so rough a mode of wooing. The Protector returned as the hero of the hour; but he did not bring back with him the maiden Queen. A few forts dismantled, and many corpses stark upon the moor, were the only fruits reaped from so fierce a struggle.

The social state of the country at this period demands some notice at our hands.

The period of transition was as yet hardly | quadrupled, or himself, without alternagone by, and its influences were still every tive, expelled. The act against the pullwhere discernible. The changes conse- ing down farm-houses had been evaded by quent upon the wars of the Roses, the ad- the repair of a room which might be occuditional alterations following the suppres- pied by a shepherd; a single furrow sion of the monasteries, the conversion of would be driven across a meadow of a arable into pasture land, owing to the high hundred acres, and prove that it was still price of wool and comparative cheapness under the plow. The great cattle owners, of sheep-farming-all tended to swell the to escape the sheep - statutes, held their ranks of the vagrant class of the popula- stock in the name of their sons or servtion. Mr. Froude has highly lauded Hen- ants; the highways and the villages ry's social policy, but he is fain to admit were covered in consequence with forlorn that it was a failure. It missed the mark and outcast families, now reduced to begthrough its over severity. Whipping, gary, who had been the occupiers of combranding, and hanging will not deter men fortable holdings; and thousands of disfrom begging, if they are near starvation. possessed tenants made their way to LonIt was complained that the laws failed to don, clamoring, in the midst of their starveffect their purpose through "foolish pity ing children, at the doors of the courts of of them that should have seen them exe- law for redress which they could not obcuted." Since corporal penalties seemed tain."* to be unavailing, a law was passed reducing sturdy beggars to slavery. "On proof of idle living, the person was to be branded on the breast with the letter "V,' and adjudged to some honest neighbor as a slave for the two years then next following." If this mildness failed, if the man ran away, or declined to work, he was to be branded on the face with an "S," and to become a slave for life.

The term "slavery" grates harshly upon our ears, but no more harshly than it ought. We can not accept Mr. Froude's dictum, that the worst part of this arrangement was its offensive name. It proved, however, unsuccessful. Perhaps the keen intelligence of our forefathers made them decline to burden themselves with such unprofitable domestics.

But in truth the lower orders had reasons for their dissatisfaction, with which the Protector sympathized, and which he labored to remove. The creation of large parks and sheep-walks had thrown out of employment a large number of the poor. The inclosure of the commons, the appropriation and hedging of public pastures, and other like encroachments of the rich, tended seriously to pauperize the laborers. Their distress was aggravated by the dearness of provisions, partly due to the agricultural changes we have mentioned, partly to the continual depreciation of the currency. In 1548 these evils reached a pitch that was intolerable. "Leases as they fell in could not obtain renewal; the copyholder, whose farm had been held by his forefathers so long that custom seemed to have made it his own, found his rent

From St. Paul's Cross the sturdy voice of Latimer was raised in rebuke of such misdeeds. Charity was waxen cold. Pity there was none. In London a man "shall die in the streets-he shall lie sick at the door, between stock and stock, and then perish for hunger." With the light of the Gospel had come in selfishness, oppression, and misery. In the direct, blunt style for which his sermons are remarkable, he apostrophizes the landlords: "You rent-raisers, I may say, you step-lords, you have for your possessions too much. That that heretofore was let for twenty or forty pounds by the year, which is an honest portion to be had gratis in one lordship of another man's sweat and labor, now is let for fifty or one hundred pounds by the year. My lords and masters, such proceedings do plainly intend to make of the yeomanry slavery. This one thing I will tell you: from whom it cometh I know, even from the devil. I know his intent in it." With such outspoken fidelity did he deliver his own soul, and save himself from being partaker in other men's sins.

Nor were others less faithful in their ministry. Bernard Gilpin, Bradford, Lever, and others, uttered their warnings in the same strain. Mr. Froude endeavors to draw a distinction-to be presently more fully averted to between these men and the more advanced liberals," as he terms them, who dwelt much upon "schemes of salvation;" but the facts do not accord with this fanciful division.

66

*Vol. v. pp. 111, 112.

Prominent amongst the Genevan school | drawn up for presentation to Parliament. was Hooper; and his sermons on Jonas, preached before the King, abound in similar expressions, as he calls on kings, priests, nobles, lawyers, and commons, each to perform their separate duties in

augmented, and, as was inevitable, the | here the lords came into collision with unadulterated coin was reduced to the him, and the boldest of them decided to value of the baser portion. The credit of the country had sunk so low, that two Jews were the principal stay of the government. They charged thirteen per cent on their loans, and deducted an additional thirteen per cent on the exchange, the Protector undertaking to pay interest in "kerseys, lead, and bell-metal."