CHAPTER IV. 



THE NEW STATE OF ENGLAND AND THE ALTERED CUSTOMS OF 

 THE RUKAL POPULATION. 



The heading to this chapter is the title of a work written at 

 the end of the seventeenth century, from which we have ah'eady 

 had occasion to quote when examining English Mineral History.^ 

 The following preface to the book must have been somewhat 

 startling to the anonj^'mous author's contemporary readers : 

 " 'Tis the late Revolution that has given birth to this new 

 Piece of Work ; a New Face of Things required a New State 

 of England. And of all the Changes this Kingdom has gone 

 through, as this was the most sudden so it is the most wonder- 

 ful." The liberal use of capital letters indulged in by authors 

 in those days adds considerably to the alarming effect of this 

 announcement. As long as we confine our attention to sub- 

 jects concerning the Landed Interest, it will not be out of 

 place to inquire how far the writer was justified in emphasiz- 

 ing the changes that had occurred since William of Orange 

 and Mary his wife had ascended the English throne. 



In the forcible language of Scotch jurisprudence the throne 

 had been forfaulted. " Neither abdication nor desertion had 

 caused the vacancy, and no known word in the English lan- 

 guage could express the situation as well as that applied by 

 the Scottish Convention. As far as human ingenuity could 

 prove it, the Dutchman and his wife had become the legiti- 

 mate sovereigns of England and Scotland. The Bill of Eights 

 had probably reassured the better educated that William's 

 Title to the English Crown was a valid one, no less effectually 

 than the three several Proclamations and flourishes of Trum- 

 pets at Temple Bar, Cheapside and the Royal Exchange had 



* The New State of England, by G. M., 1691. 



68 



