24 THE HISTORY OE THE ORDER OE [book i.

the toll of so great a number not to be despised;so lie sent the rescue.

Let people say what they will, yet was Englandin a very confused condition in those good oldAnglo-Saxon and Danish times. Canute was suc-ceeded, not by his legitimate, but illegitimate son.Even the return into the Anglo-Saxon line, on theearliest opportunity that offered, was somewhatirregular; and if pestilence and famine were cha-racteristic of even Edward the Confessor’s virtuousand holy reign, what could be worse after the Con-quest? Is it not said William’s domination wasfrom the first, devastating carnage; its progress,a regular system of confiscation and oppression—its close, famine and pestilencet Probably thisclimax of evils was true of both epochs, of thecomparatively good and bad; for they are thenecessary consequences of bad agriculture—thoughin other respects the government may have beenmore or less abominable; since the bad agriculturelasted many ages, and did not improve much beforethe Tudors. Had Plarold any real right to theEnglish throne, he might have called out theAnglo-Saxon militia, or trinoda necessitas—theGerman landwehr ; but he did not dare to do so,conscious of his having no title whatever; which isa cogent argument of his not being what he pre-