IV AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 81 



the Protector/ probably London merchants for whom he 

 had dealings, succeeded in obtaining his release.' 1 



That the influence of small freeholders was considerable 

 under the Protectorate is illustrated by the action of Par- 

 liament in 1654. They altered the qualification for the 

 franchise from that of 200 personal or real, as it had 

 been under the Instrument of Government, and restored it 

 to the old 40s. freeholders, refusing at the same time to 

 extend it to copyholders. 2 



No doubt at the Restoration the Church regained her 

 lands, often accepting those who had acquired them as 

 tenants, and those whose estates had been directly con- 

 fiscated were again reinstated. But it was impossible to 

 deal with those who, under pressure of the compositions, 

 had been forced to sell ; and that these lands were never 

 regained is evident from the discontent of the Tory squires 

 of the Restoration. 



One more piece of evidence still remains. In many 

 parts of England are to be found the houses of these small 

 squires or large yeomen, testifying, by the style of their 

 architecture, that they were built in Tudor or in early 

 Stuart times, houses evidently belonging to men not of 

 great but of middle estate, but which, in many cases, to- 

 day have passed into the ownership of the rich, often to be 

 occupied by tenant farmers. 



The conclusion to which we are driven is that, if the 

 _Tudor and early Stuart period did see a good many of the 

 poorest and some of the middle class driven from the soil 

 whether rightly or wrongly, and much land changed hands, 

 the numbers of the moderate-sized owners of land were 

 Jn all probability increased. Under these circumstances 



1 Cf. Dictionary of National Biography : Wildman ; and authorities 

 quoted there. 



2 Gardiner, The Commonwealth, iii. 78. 



JOHNSON V 



