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The constitution was restored by the recall of Charles II. from banishment. This monarch, as his grandfather James, was the son of the handsomest prince and princess in Europe, and, like him, extremely ordinary in his face; in other respects very dissimilar, being the most elegant potentate his family ever produced: he was no way inferior in understanding to any of them. Had Charles changed luxury, indolence and profusion for their opposites, he would have been one of the greatest monarchs that ever sat upon the British throne.

England, as if by magic, changed from the most gloomy fanaticism to the utmost licentiousness. To be sober was to be a puritan. Expensive living, elegance of dress, and politeness, succeeded parsimony, ill-manners, and the plainest clothes. All the fine arts were in Charles's train: to him we owe many real comforts and conveniences which he brought from the Continent.

Charles, in his exile, had lived with the dutiful few with the ease of an equal, rather than the style of a sovereign; yet he never lost his dignity, even when surrounded with the witty or the profligate. This easy condescension was copied by the great; and from thence that pleasing fa miliarity, which distinguishes our mixed companies, arose. If state lost some of her solemn appendages, she gained ten thousand graces and amiableness'. The nobility, more independent upon the Crown and less punctilious in mixing with the city, began now to go thither for wealthy alliances, to repair the depredations of a cruel civil war, and the effects of those allurements they fatally experienced in a voluptuous court.

If we except the titles of Duchess and Duke, which this monarch gave to his favorite ladies, and the sons he had by them, he was extremely careful of the peerage. It is true, he augmented the number of the nobility; but then such a circumstance might naturally be expected after a civil war, and so long a vacancy of creations during the usurpation. The custom of taking titles from surnames, and not places, began in this reign. Jurisdiction and emolument had long ceased to be appendages to titles, but the very appearance was pleasing, and more respectable: the surname was an empty sound, and conveyed no consequence, even in idea. Charles rewarded many of his faithful partizans by giving them blank patents for baronets, with liberty to dispose of, but with an express injunction, to take care that they should not go to any but gentlemen of ancient descent,

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and a fortune suitable to the support of the title. It was intended at the restoration to institute a new order of knighthood, to commemorate the King's being saved in an oak-tree after the battle of Worcester, and in allusion to it they were to be called " Knights of the royal Oak." Simon sunk a die for a medal as the badge for it, and no less than six hundred and eighty-seven baronets, knights-bachelors, and gentlemen, were selected to receive this honor, whose fortunes were from £600 to £4000 per annum : but it was laid aside, because it tended to keep alive those divisions, which it was the part of prudence to close; and the many enrolled, who had distinguished themselves in arms against both the sovereign and his royal father, made it no real mark of loyal attachment, and therefore defeated the end for which it was intended. The higher orders of knighthood, as well as that of simple knights, were never better defended than by this Sovereign, who gave the last finish to etiquette to the peerage, and settled precedency. Viscount Cranburne, in the reign of James I., was the first of that title who was allowed to wear a coronet: Charles II. gave it to barons.

His Majesty was an excellent judge in naval architecture: our fleet much improved under his care; foreign trade became greater; that luxury, which was so reprehensible at court, became the mean of stimulating our manufactures in every line; and England supplied other nations with those elegancies which she had used to import herself. All this raised the middle ranks of life to greater consequence, because they were enabled to realize great opulence, many individuals acquiring even splendid fortunes. The court of Wards and of Liveries, in this reign, were abo-lished, and the clergy ceased to tax themselves in convocation, but were included in the general acts of parliament. To compensate them, they were allowed to give their votes, if freeholders, either in their clerical or private capacity. The former was extremely beneficial to the gentry, and the latter, if not so honorable, saved the clergy much.

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James II. divided his time between gallantry, and an austere penance for it, according to the ritual of the Romish church in other respects he was personally temperate; assiduous in the cabinet; and he had displayed valor, to heroism, in the field, and in the navy. He was also extremely frugal of the public money, though very magnificent in his court. He was inflexibly cruel, and exceeded every degree of prudence in re-esta

blishing

blishing the religion of Rome in his kingdoms. For this purpose every law was sacrificed, and every tie broken, which could unite him to his people; and the defection, its consequence, was so general, that he was universally forsaken. His children conspired against, or deserted him, and he was abandoned by his friends and favorites. He fled to France, and the parliament declared his throne vacant. This King was sparing of titles; but, in imitation of Henry VIII., and following also the precedent set him by his predecessor, he gave the ducal honor to his natural son. He gave the title of countess to two ladies, one of whom was his mistress. The other honors which he conferred were, one marquisate, two earldoms, and five baronies. Nineteen gentlemen were created baronets: the Garter was sparingly given, and he presented the order of the Bath to no one. Besides these honors, he conferred titles upon several of his partizans after his abdication. These were never allowed by the laws of England. In so short a reign, the state of the English could change but very little.

The English seated William and Mary upon James' deserted throne, and defined the duty of both the sovereign and the subject. Though the King's temper, cold, distant, and forbidding, was distasteful to the people, yet their own interest kept them true to their allegiance: they saw the danger of recalling their old King by the specimen he gave them of his revenge, proscribing in 1689 no less than two archbishops, one duke, seventeen earls, seven countesses, twenty-eight viscounts, two viscountesses, seven bishops, eighteen barons, thirty-three baronets, fifty-one knights, eighty-three clergymen, and two thousand one hundred and eighty-two esquires and gentlemen. Happily his vengeance was ineffectual: he returned no more here. Ireland became the seat of war, and there the contenders for empire mutually proscribed the partizans of their opponents. William was successful; and four thousand inhabitants of that kingdom were attainted! England felt much less; yet no revolution can be effected, without a great change of property to numbers of families: in general, all those who had been the defenders of monarchy during the civil war, and attached to the person or government of the two late sovereigns, were treated with neglect, if not suspicion; and all who had been the avowed friends of those principles which had deprived Charles I. of life, were respected, honored, trusted. There were few new

peers

peers created in this reign, except the six foreign favorites. The greatest singularity was, that no less than nine noblemen were advanced to the rank of dukes, though some of them could not claim any alliance with the blood-royal, which had never been done before, except in one instance, Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. The Duke of Schomberg received his title from his surname. William did not understand, nor perhaps regard, the English system of conferring titles. Several potentates were admitted by him into the order of the Garter; but those who received it from him were only fourteen, and he conferred that of the Bath upon none. He gave the baronetage to few, and was extremely sparing of titles in Scotland and Ireland. The different orders in society became under William more blended together, forming one great whole, yet with a suitable distinction of parts.

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Queen Ann's heart, as she boasted, was entirely English." She retained her own dignity, and preserved that of the privileged orders, yet with it promoted the general good of all her subjects. She had the felicity to unite the British kingdoms, which had been the object of all the sovereigns since the crowns had been worn by the same prince. This made a great alteration in the Scottish peerage, depriving the collective body of a legislative power, transferring it to sixteen only, to be elected from and by the whole; but to compensate that loss, it was stipulated that no more peers should be created in that kingdom: but there was a power in the Sovereign to give an English title to any of the Scotch peers, to enable them to have an hereditary seat in the higher house. All the existing Scotch titles, from dukes to barons, were adjudged to go to female heirs general, by which mean they could not well become lost, except by attainture; they might, like our baronies by summons, merge into higher titles. Precedency was also adjusted between the existing English and Scotch peers the former took place of the older creation, and of the same rank. The Scotch precede those of England created since the union: all subsequent creations were to be termed peers of Great Britain. The Queen, like William, raised many of the peers to higher honors, and some Scotch and Irish nobility were admitted to English titles. Her Majesty took an unparalleled step in calling up ten commoners to the House of Lords in one day, to gain a majority. The English peerage was increased

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by an addition of seven dukes, two marquisses, ten earls, one viscount, and twenty-one barons. She created a small number of peers in Scotland, and still less in Ireland. Her baronets were few in England, and scarce in the other kingdoms. She gave the Garter to fourteen of her greatest subjects: the Bath was still discontinued. She carried into effect the intention of her father, in founding an order in Scotland, called that of "the Thistle," or "St. Andrew," for the natives of that kingdom. The ribbon is green; but it becomes vacant if the wearer is presented with the blue one. Arms and commerce were alike promoted by Ann, and the nation never obtained so great a pre-eminence in both before. Prince George of Denmark, consort to her Majesty, was at the head of the Board of Trade.

Britain had the unhappiness to see her throne filled by a foreign prince, who neither knew, nor admired her constitution, civil or ecclesiastical. George I. came a personal stranger to all his people: he was brave, politic, and just; but unfortunately imbibing that party spirit which had distinguished his peculiar friends, he came prepared to have the homage of only half his subjects. It had prudently been stipulated, that a foreigner should be incapable of either trust or honor. The King felt few particular attachments to persons here, though he did to parties. This, with the restrictions I have mentioned, kept the peerage very free from injury: only two received ducal honors. Four ladies received titles, but an act of the legislature previously made them capable. So little did this Sovereign understand the first prerogatives of his crown, that he consented to a proposition of the Duke of Somerset, to limit the English peerage to its then number; except an addition of six, to be chosen by the Sovereign, and an exemption to those of his own house, whom he should chose to dignify with titles but upon failure of heirs male to any peer, another might be created to the extinct dignity. Instead of electing sixteen out of the Scotch nobility, twenty-five of that order should be made hereditary legislators; the titles not to extend to females, but that the peerage should be given to another ennobled Scotch family. As an apology for this intended law it was urged, that there was a vast increase to the peerage from the reign of Elizabeth, giving in this scale.

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