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HISTORY OP ENGLAND,

cnAp. years have been fruitful, the English long enjoyed a large

-measure of freedom and happiness. Though during the

feeble reign of Henry the Sixth the state was torn first byfactions, and at length by civil war, though Edward theFourth was a prince of dissolute and imperious character,though Richard the Third has generally been representedas a monster of depravity, though the exactions of Henrythe Seventh caused great repining, it is certain that our an-cestors, under those Kings, were far better governed thanthe Belgians under Philip, surnamed the Good, or the Frenchunder that Lewis who was styled the Father of his people.Even while the wars of the Roses were actually raging, ourcountry appears to have been in a happier condition thanthe neighbouring realms during years of profound peace.Comines was one of the most enlightened statesmen of histime. He had seen all the richest and most highly civilisedparts of the Continent. He had lived in the opulent townsof Flanders, the Mancliesters and Liverpools of the fifteenthcentury. He had visited Florence, recently adorned by themagnificence of Lorenzo, and Venice, not yet humbled bythe confederates of Cambray. This eminent man deliberatelypronounced England to bo the best governed country ofwhich he had any knowledge. Her constitution he empha-tically designated as a just and holy thing, which, while itprotected the people, really strengthened the hands of aprince who respected it. In no other country, he said, weremen so effectually secured from wrong. The calamities pro-duced by our intestine wars seemed to him to be confinedto the nobles and the fighting men, and to leave no tracessuch as he had been accustomed to see elsewhere, no ruineddwellings, no depopulated cities.

character It was not only by the efficiency of the restraints imposedEnglish on t ^ ie ro y al prerogative that England was advantageouslycracy" distinguished from most of the neighbouring countries. A