viii PREFACE. 



decline, and is accomplishing the gradual extinction, of 

 this independent order. Or to take an example from 

 the history of the popes. It is clear, I think, that the 

 migration to Avignon ; though its consequences were 

 the degradation of the papal power, and the substitu- 

 tion, on the return of the pontiffs, of a mere succession 

 of adventurers in the papal chair ; of men whose sole 

 business became the aggrandisement of their families, 

 instead of the leadership of Italian opinion and the 

 policy of Italian unity ; was originally dictated by the 

 reasonable desire of making the curia more accessible 

 to the Western nations. 



But the study of the past history of the English 

 people, as distinguished from the annals of its govern- 

 ment, has a deeper and more permanent significance 

 than the gratification of that refined curiosity which 

 avoids the present by lingering in the past. As we 

 live, if we entertain a real love for our own race, and 

 a keen sense of our duty towards the nation of our 

 own age, we are more and more constrained to examine 

 the character of its social life, and especially of its eco- 

 nomical features. But it is to no real purpose to learn 

 the lesson by which wealth is produced, unless we are 

 also ready to leave to their natural freedom those 

 agencies by which wealth is distributed. It is vain 

 to rejoice over the aggregate of our prosperity, and to 

 forget that great part of the nation has no share in 

 its benefits. It may be that the wisdom of our 

 forefathers was accidental; it is certain that society 

 was divided by less sharp lines, and was held to- 



