Forest of Rossendale. 83 



"The superior proprietors were evidently aware ot their own 

 danger and willing to compound for their estates upon any reason- 

 able terms ; but had to encounter that levity, selfishness, and ob- 

 stinacy in the lower orders, which, as long as human nature is the 

 same, will encumber and embitter all public concerns in which 

 they have any part." 



But what were the terms that could be considered as reasonable, 

 when, according to the Doctor's own showing, the whole proceed- 

 ings, from their beginning to their termination, were fraught with 

 the grossest injustice ? And surely a better reason to justify the 

 conduct of the malcontents might have suggested itself to the 

 mind of the learned historian. 



Viewing the matter dispassionately, it appears to us that 

 the smaller copyholders based their refusal on stronger grounds 

 than that of the mere paltry objection to set their hands 

 to an instrument not knowing what inconveniences might 

 result therefrom. It is more than probable that a sturdy 

 independence prompted their conduct in the refusal, and that 

 they evinced more of the spirit of English freemen than 

 their wealthier neighbours, in resisting what Dr. Whitaker himself 

 describes as " an act of oppression," " part of a general scheme," 

 carried on in different parts of the country, " for extorting money 

 from the tenants of the Crown, whose titles were not perfectly 

 secure," in order to relieve the poverty, and replenish the exhaust- 

 ted exchequer of the King. It may be said that the letter of 

 Towneley and Rausthorn (quoted above) does not bear out this 

 view of the case. But to call that letter by the mildest name, it is, 

 on the face of it, a snivelling epistle, and is apt to awaken the 

 suspicion that the writers themselves were not unwilling to evade 

 payment, provided they could edge out of the difficulty blameless. 

 The "vulgar sorte," as the humbler owners are therein termed 

 with unnecessary iteration, were deemed to be a convenient step- 

 ping-stone by which to escape from a sea of trouble into a haven 

 of safety, and for this purpose they seem to have been used for the 

 time being. 



