2 70 History of the English Landed Interest. 



Englisli village wliicli had not its recorded instance of some 

 splendid gentleman's return to tlie home he had left as a ragged 

 vagabond a quarter of a century before. And so the crowded 

 towns widened out their skirts over the green meadow lands, 

 and the farmer's corn-fields went back into pasturage for sheer 

 lack of hands to guide the plough oxen. 



As socially, so pohtically the landed interest held prece- 

 dence over that of trade. The Upper House, where even the 

 spiritual lords held heavy stakes in the soil, consisted more 

 entirely of great landed magnates than it does now. Every 

 forty-shilling freeholder was qualified both to vote as an elector 

 and serve as a juror ; so that the count3'' members swamped 

 the small band of townsmen who sat in the Lower House, and 

 save in questions of local importance, or on grants of tonnage 

 and poundage, the voices of the latter for a long period of 

 history were seldom heard. It was outside Parliament that 

 trade at first assumed political importance. Thus their grow- 

 ing powers enabled municipal authorities to keep royal exac- 

 tions at the length of one arm, while with the other their vast 

 increase of wealth allowed them to hold aloft a tempting lure 

 to royal concessions. "When later on the custom of benevolences 

 — kingly extortion under the guise of gifts — grew up, it may 

 be well imagined that the trading instinct of the townsman 

 enabled him to obtain his quid pro quo in the transaction. 



In monied capital, the landed interest met its match, and, 

 where gold could buy equality, the land could boast of no 

 precedence. Partly through a magnificent hospitality, and 

 partly through the powers of livery granted by charter, the 

 great London guilds, thenceforth known as Companies, began 

 to practise so splendid an outward display as to even equal that 

 of the landed interest during its best days. It certainly far 

 surpassed that of any age since, and it has long outlived the 

 oldest memories of its rival's latest triumphs in this particular 

 direction. 



But if the labourer had invaded the towns, the trader re- 

 turned the compliment by invading the country. He bought 

 up the crown lands with avidity, and he pounced down upon 

 the confiscated properties of the monasteries. His commercial 



