BEFORE THE RESTORATION.

27

constitution of the kingdom. This question could be decided chap.

only by reference to the records of preceding reigns. Bracton —.—

and Fleta, the Mirror of Justice and the Rolls of Parliament,were ransacked to find pretexts for the excesses of the StarChamber on one side, and of the High Court of Justice on theother. During a long course of years every Whig historian wasanxious to prove that the old English government was all butrepublican, every Tory historian to prove that it was all butdespotic.

With such feelings, both parties looked into the chroniclesof the middle ages. Both readily found what they sought; andboth obstinately refused to see anything but what they sought.

The champions of the Stuarts could easily point out instancesof oppression exercised on the subject. The defenders of theRound-heads could as easily produce instances of determinedand successful resistance offered to the Crown. The Toriesquoted, from ancient writings, expressions almost as servile aswere heard from the pulpit of Mainwaring. The Whigs dis-covered expressions as bold and severe as any that resoundedfrom the judgment seat of Bradshaw. One set of writers ad-duced numerous instances in which Kings had extorted moneywithout the authority of Parliament. Another set cited casesin which the Parliament had assumed to itself the power of in-flicting punishment on Kings. Those who saw only one halfof the evidence would have concluded that the Plantagenetswere as absolute as the Sultans of Turkey: those who saw onlythe other half would have concluded that the Plantagenets hadas little real power as the Doges of Venice; and both con-clusions would have been equally remote from the truth.

The old English government was one of a class of limitedmonarchies which sprang up in Western Europe during the ed monar-middle ages, and which, notwithstanding many diversities, bore the mid-to one another a strong family likeness. That there should dle ” E ' S 'have been such a likeness is not strange. The countries in