dings of the Crown, there
seems in these earlier years of personal rule to have been little
apprehension of any permanent danger to freedom in the country at large.
To those who read the letters of the time there is something
inexpressibly touching in the general faith of their writers in the
ultimate victory of the Law. Charles was obstinate, but obstinacy was
too common a foible amongst Englishmen to rouse any vehement resentment.
The people were as stubborn as their king, and their political sense
told them that the slightest disturbance of affairs must shake down the
financial fabric which Charles was slowly building up, and force him
back on subsidies and a Parliament. Meanwhile they would wait for better
days, and their patience was aided by the general prosperity of the
country. The great Continental wars threw wealth into English hands. The
intercourse between Spain and Flanders was carried on solely in English
ships, and the English flag covered the intercourse of Portugal with its
colonies in Africa, India, and the Pacific. The long peace was producing
its inevitable results in an extension of commerce and a rise of
manufactures in the towns of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Fresh land
was being brought into cultivation, and a great scheme was set on foot
for reclaiming the Fens. The new wealth of the country gentry, through
the increase of rent, was seen in the splendour of the houses which
they were raising. The contrast of this peace and prosperity with the
ruin and bloodshed of the Continent afforded a ready argument to the
friends of the king's system. So tranquil was the outer appearance of
the country that in Court circles all sense of danger had disappeared.
"Some of the greatest statesmen and privy councillors," says May, "would
ordinarily laugh when the word 'liberty of the subject' was named."
There were courtiers bold enough to express their hope that "the king
would never need any more Parliaments."

[Sidenote: Wentworth.]

But beneath this outer calm "the country," Clarendon honestly tells us
while eulogizing the Peace, "was full of pride and mutiny and
discontent." Thousands were quitting England for America. The gentry
held aloof from the Court. "The common people in the generality and the
country freeholders would rationally argue of their own rights and the
oppressions which were laid upon them." If Charles was content to
deceive himself, there was one man among his ministers who saw that the