12 INTRODUCTORY. 



that he was above all law. But he had been brought up in 

 the doctrine of the Divine right of kings, and was quite 

 convinced that not only was every assault on this doctrine an 

 offence against him, but that every concession he made was 

 not binding, while he felt himself perfectly justified in using 

 fraud where he could not use force. It might be the case 

 that with such a ruler it was impossible to make terms ; but 

 in estimating his character and action, it is fair and just to 

 remember that he was what his bringing up had made him, 

 and that the tenets which he entertained were shared by a 

 very large number of his subjects, and were inculcated by a 

 freethinker like Hobbes, as much as by divines and court 

 lawyers. 



The course of the civil war materially improved the condition 

 of the labourer. We shall find, when we come to examine 

 the rates of wages paid, that at and after the middle of the 

 seventeenth century the wages of artisans and farm-lands 

 increased by fully fifty per cent, or more, while the price of 

 food, especially meat, of which I have given copious and 

 continuous evidence, though it shows a marked increase, does 

 not grow proportionately. It is I think due to this dis- 

 tasteful increase of wages that the Parliament of the Restora- 

 tion, known in history as the Second Long or Pensionary 

 Parliament, enacted their protective and restrictive laws. 



I need not dwell here on the attempts which Cromwell 

 made to found a constitution, or rather to re-establish that 

 social system which had been suspended. It is plain that, 

 despite his earlier associations with the Engagement, he 

 intended to renew the system of a double chamber and a 

 royal house, and that, his old associates resenting this scheme, 

 he was forced to have recourse again to a military government. 

 This, with the heavy and unusual taxation which he imposed, 

 accounts for the unexpected ease with which the Restoration 

 was effected. Of Cromwell's military genius there can be no 

 doubt, or of the position which he recovered for England in 

 the politics of Europe. But his most enthusiastic admirers 



