20

niSTOKY OP ENGLAND,

chap, game age which produced the Black Prince and Derby, Chan-

-dos and Hawkwood, produced also Geoffrey Chaucer and

John Wycliffe.

In so splendid and imperial a manner did the Englishpeople, properly so called, first take place among the nationsof the world. Yet while we contemplate with pleasure thehigh and commanding qualities which our forefathers dis-played, we cannot but admit that the end which they pursuedwas an end condemned both by humanity and by enlightenedpolicy, and that the reverses which compelled them, after along and bloody struggle, to relinquish the hope of establish-ing a great continental empire, were really blessings in theguise of disasters. The spirit of the French was at lastaroused: they began to oppose a vigorous national resistanceto the foreign conquerors; and from that time the skill of theEnglish captains and the courage of the English soldiers were,happily for mankind, exerted in vain. After many desperatestruggles, and with many bitter regrets, our ancestors gaveup the contest. Since that age no British government hasever seriously and steadily pursued the design of making greatconquests on the Continent. The people, indeed, continuedto cherish with pride the recollection of Cressy, of Poitiers,and of Agincourt. Even after the lapse of many years it waseasy to fire their blood and to draw forth their subsidies bypromising them an expedition for the conquest of France.But happily the energies of our country have been directedto better objects; and she now occupies in the history ofmankind a place far more glorious than if she had, as at onetime seemed not improbable, acquired by the sword an ascen-dency similar to that which formerly belonged to the Romanrepublic.

heRoses Cooped up once more within the limits of the island, thewarlike people employed in civil strife those arms which hadbeen the terror of Europe. The means of profuse expeudi-