Political Evolution. 65 



augmented or diminished, whether popular liberties were 

 curtailed or increased, whether aristocracies arose or de- 

 cayed, all has aided in diverse ways this, which seems 

 to have been the great dominant movement from medi- 

 aeval times to our own. 



Every effort which has been made to stem the current 

 has failed ; every power which raised itself in opposition 

 has been broken. 



In vain the Pilgrimage of Grace, with its banner of the 

 five holy wounds, strove in fair fight to maintain the 

 established system ; in vain the misguided efforts of the 

 Powder Plot sought by nefarious measures to restore it ; 

 in vain the virtues and conscientious efforts of Mary of 

 England tried to retain the English crown to the Church ; 

 in vain the winning graces of Mary of Scotland sought 

 similarly to retain the Scotch. Priests bled at Tyburn, 

 English and Irish citizens suffered confiscation, exile, 

 and death, in fruitless efforts to reverse or to impede the 

 anti-theocratic course of events. The very atmosphere 

 which repelled the Armada favoured the Dutch invasion, 

 and blood flowed unavailingly at Culloden and the 

 Boyne. The efforts of the French league were as 

 resultless (in their intended direction) as the infamous 

 dragonnades of Louis XIV., or the heroism of La Vendee. 

 The white cockade of the Restoration but intensified 

 the anti-theocratic hatred of France ; and the apparently 

 strong bands imposed by the Holy Alliance and Treaty of 



F 



