a INTRODUCTORY. 



century. For a time, too, the dread of a universal European 

 potentate was suspended. Universal empire had been the 

 im of Philip the Second, and he had squandered all his 

 resources in the effort to subdue the revolt of a few out of his 

 many provinces. Spain sank into decrepitude, and less than 

 a century after the death of Charles the Fifth it became of 

 no account in Europe. It is possible, had the^life of Henry 

 the Fourth of France been prolonged, that this ambitious and 

 unscrupulous king would have assumed, with better hopes of 

 success, the purposes of his ancient enemy of Spain. But 

 Henry perished in the fulness of his purposes, and his son had 

 no purposes whatever. The century was coming to an end, 

 when Louis the Fourteenth found a field for his ambition and 

 affrighted Europe. Till the English Revolution occurred, 

 England took little part in continental politics. Cromwell it 

 is true waged successful war with Spain and Holland, with the 

 former it seems to prove his power, with the latter against his 

 will, and not much to the credit of the country whose affairs 

 he administered. But by this time the princes of the House 

 of Orange, to whom a century before the Dutch owed so 

 much, had begun to work the downfall of their country. 



The seventeenth century is the most interesting and in- 

 structive period to the student of politics and of social forces, 

 whether we consider the events which occurred, or the men 

 who were concerned with them, for there is no time in which 

 the personality of public men is so marked, and in which the 

 action of those who determined the course of these events has 

 been so far-reaching and enduring. Within the period which 

 lies before me, new principles of government, new rules of 

 administration, new theories of social duty and social right 

 were enunciated, affirmed, and endure to this day. The 

 seventeenth century developed novelties in finance, which 

 would have seemed impossible to a previous generation. It 

 organised that wonderful system of banking and currency, the 

 efficiency of which is so perfect, the analysis of which is so 

 difficult, and yet so constantly examined by presumption and 



