, the unwelcome task must be fulfilled
in the interests of history, as it relates to woman, of setting forth
the actual conditions which were instituted and prevailed at the court
of Charles II.

The king came to England fresh from the court of Louis XIV., and
tainted by all the vices which made that court infamous. For the first
time, England became widely affected by the gross iniquities which had
for a long while been a familiar fact of the noble circles of French
society. So long as England imported from France only its dress
goods, jewelry, and novelties, the influence exerted upon it by its
continental neighbor touched society in only a superficial way; but
when England's "Merrie Monarch" brought over with him the low standard
of French morals, England paid tribute to France in a more serious way
and modelled its conduct after that of the more frivolous people. The
reign of Charles brings to view as the principal fact of the times the
personality of the monarch himself, not because he was a strong man,
but because he was so thoroughly weak in his character and abandoned
in his conduct. We have nothing to do with political or constitutional
measures, but, in passing judgment upon the state of society, we are
constrained to say that the reign of King Charles marked a distinct
retrogression, and, in its effect upon the status of woman, is notable
for the distinction it bestowed upon the courtesan class. The honoring
of such characters discounted greatly the gain for the higher ideals
of womanhood which had been secured by the Puritans.

The woman whom Charles had signalized by his favor immediately upon
his entrance into London was known simply as Barbara Palmer until,
by the ratio of her decline in morals, she was elevated in honors
and received the titles of Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of
Cleveland. It needs not the saying that beauty and graces of manner
and of form were her chief recommendations to the royal notice. This
woman, who became notorious throughout England,--and who, upon the
retirement of Clarendon, whose dismissal she had secured, stood upon
the balcony of the palace in her night attire to rain down upon
his head curses and vile epithets,--was the woman who, through her
influence over Charles, occupied a commanding position in England.
Her amours before coming under the royal notice absolve the king from
responsibility for her moral ruin, but the offence of thrusting her
before the English