of any of the heroes in the strife which made the blood-stained soil of New York and New Jersey, the Netherlands of America."

In France after the Reformation there was a succession of bloody wars. Before these had commenced, persons who professed the reformed doctrines were continually dragged to the stake, but during their continuance, in short intervals of peace, the condition of the Protestants was made more tolerable by concessions extorted from the crown. Yet this was only a lull before the storm which burst upon the heads of the unsuspecting Protestants in the horrible massacre of St. Bartholomew.

The result of the terrible wars in France was on the whole favorable to Protestantism, its leader Henry of Navarre being made king under the title of Henry the Fourth* After a long and glorious reign he was assassinated. Thus perished another friend of liberty.

The people of France did not attempt to obtain any change in the constitution of their country, at this most favorable opportunity, but satisfied with their present glory and happiness, were careless in regard to the future. Hence the civil liberties of the French people were not greatly advanced by the Reformation.

*Henry still retained his affection and regard for the Protestants.

In England the Reformation was not immediately succeeded by war, though its influence was soon felt throughout the entire kingdom. The reigning monarch at that time was Henry the Eighth, a prince of courage and ability but extremely tyrannical. His reign was a very perilous one to the liberties of England, and the constitution of that country

*"Lands were cultivated in England, as in other countries of Europe by serfs or villains," who were bought and "sold with the soil. It was during the reign of Henry VII. that the latest laws were enacted that regulated this species of servitude. It was found that the produce of a large estate could be much more advantageously disposed of by the peasant that raises it, than by the landlord or the bailiff, who was accustomed to receive it. The practice of granting leases to the peasants began to prevail, and this practice entirely broke the bonds of servitude. It was in a similar manner that villenage gradually went into disuse throughout the more civilized parts of Europe. Thus personal freedom became almost general in Europe."-R. G. Parker.

Three great constitutional principles. After describing the prerogatives of the king of England during the middle ages, Macaulay says: "But his power though ample, was limited by three great constitutional principles, so ancient that none can say when they began to exist, so potent that their natural development, continued through many generations, has produced the order of things under which we now live. First, the king could not legislate without the consent of his parliament. Secondly, he could impose no taxes without the consent of his parliament. Thirdly, he was bound to conduct the executive administration according to the laws of the land, and if he broke those laws, his advisers and his agents were responsible."-Macaulay's History of England.

was in great danger of being overthrown, as the parliament was in the habit of slavishly submitting to the will of Henry. Fortunately it still retained the power to tax, or rather to concur in the taxation of the people. Fortunately also it was deemed necessary by Henry to call frequent parliaments on account of the violent measures into which he was so often hurried, and thus their use was kept up at this very important period.

In the reign of his excellent son Edward the Sixth, whose life, full of promise, was so early cut off, those acts of parliament contrary to the spirit of the constitution, which had been passed during the reign of Henry, were repealed.

By reason of the alienation of Henry from the Pope, and his appointing himself the spiritual head of the church, in his own dominions, Protestantism obtained a strong foothold in England, and during the reign of Edward the Sixth, it was the religion of the State.*

* In order that I may do the character of Henry the Eighth no injustice, I will quote from the historian Froude, who takes a different view of this monarch from that which has generally been accepted by the world as the true one.

In concluding the reign of Henry he says:

"Beyond and besides the Reformation, the constitution. of these islands now rests in large measure on foundations laid in this reign. Henry brought Ireland within the reach of English civilization. He absorbed Wales and the Palatinates

Alas for England when good Edward died, for Mary's reign was a fearful one for the cause of true religion and of liberty, but they came forth from the fires of martyrdom purified and strengthened.*

Cheerily rang the bells when Elizabeth ascended the throne, and well they might, for the fearful darkness had passed away, and the most remarkable reign in the English annals had commenced.

into the general English system. He it was who raised the House of Commons from the narrow duty of voting supplies, and of passing without discussion the measures of the Privy Council, and converted them into the first power in the State under the crown. When he ascended the throne so little did the Commons care for their privileges, that their attendance at the sessions of parliament was enforced by a law. They woke into life in 1529, and they became the right hand of the king to subdue the resistance of the House of Lords, and to force upon them a course of legislation. which from their hearts they detested. Other kings in times of difficulty summoned their "great councils," composed of peers or prelates, or municipal officials, or any persons whom they pleased to nominate. Henry VIII. broke through the ancient practice, and ever threw himself on the representatives of the people. By the Reformation, and by the power which he forced upon them, he had so interwoven the House of Commons with the highest business of the State, that the peers thenceforward sank to be their shadow.

"His personal faults were great, and he shared, besides them, in the errors of his age; but far deeper blemishes would be but as scars upon the features of a sovereign who in trying times sustained nobly the honor of the English name, and carried the commonwealth securely through the hardest crisis in its history."

*In the reign of Mary, from 1553 to 1558, a thousand

Though like her father Henry the Eighth, Elizabeth had a very high opinion of the royal prerogative, she yet loved her people, and had an earnest desire for their happiness.

The spirit of freedom still existed in England, fostered doubtless by the doctrines of the Reformed religion, which Elizabeth herself nominally espoused.

One of the most interesting exhibitions of this spirit is to be found in the speech of Peter Wentworth, a Puritan, in the House of Commons.

The Queen after having controlled debates at her pleasure, and limited the jurisdiction of parliament on various occasions, at length declared through the speaker, that no bills concerning religion, except those

learned Englishmen fled from the stake at home to the happier states of Continental Protestantism. Of these, great numbers, I know not how many, came to Geneva. There they awaited the death of the Queen; and then, sooner or later, but in the time of Elizabeth, went back to England.

"I ascribe to that five years in Geneva an influence which has changed the history of the world. I seem to myself to trace to it, as an influence on the English race, a new theology; new politics; another tone of character; the opening of another era of time and of liberty. I seem to myself to trace to it the great civil war of England; the Republican Constitution framed in the cabin of the May-flower, the divinity of Jonathan Edwards; the battle of Bunker Hill; the Independence of America."-Rufus Choate.

The success of Elizabeth's reign was doubtless due in some measure to her chief counsellor Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh who was a true friend of liberty.