History of Civilization in England, Vol. 1 of 3

by Henry Thomas Buckle

[628] See some remarks by the Rev. Mr. Ward, which strike me as rather incautious, and which certainly are dangerous to his own profession, as increasing the hostility between it and science, in Ward's Ideal of a Christian Church, p. 278. What Coleridge has said, is worth attending to: see The Friend, vol. iii. pp. 222, 223.

[629] M. Kohl, whose acuteness as a traveller is well known, has found that the agricultural classes are the ‘most blindly ignorant and prejudiced’ of all. Kohl's Russia, p. 365. And Sir R. Murchison, who has enjoyed extensive means of observation, familiarly mentions the ‘credulous farmers.’ Murchison's Siluria, p. 61. In Asia, exactly the same tendency has been noticed: see Marsden's Hist. of Sumatra, p. 63. Some curious evidence of agricultural superstitions respecting the weather may be seen in Monteil, Hist. des divers Etats, vol. iii. pp. 31, 39.

[630] In this point of view, the opposite tendencies of agriculture and manufactures are judiciously contrasted by Mr. Porter, at the end of his essay on the Statistics of Agriculture, Journal of the Statist. Soc. vol. ii. pp. 295, 296.

[631] Indeed, there never has been a period in England in which physical experiments were so fashionable. This is merely worth observing as a symptom of the age, since Charles II. and the nobles were not likely to add, and did not add, anything to our knowledge; and their patronage of science, such as it was, degraded it rather than advanced it. Still, the prevalence of the taste is curious; and in addition to the picture drawn by Mr. Macaulay (Hist. of England, 1st edit. vol. i. pp. 408–412), I may refer the reader to Monconys' Voyages, vol. iii. p. 31; Sorbiere's Voyage to England, pp. 32, 33; Evelyn's Diary, vol. ii. pp. 199, 286; Pepys' Diary, vol. i. p. 375, vol. ii. p. 34, vol. iii. p. 85, vol. iv. p. 229; Burnet's Own Time, vol. i. pp. 171, 322, vol. ii. p. 275; Burnet's Lives, p. 144; Campbell's Chief-Justices, vol. i. p. 582.

[632] His treatment of his young wife immediately after marriage is perhaps the worst thing recorded of this base and contemptible prince. Lister's Life of Clarendon, vol. ii. pp. 145–153. This is matter of proof; but Burnet (Own Time, vol. i. p. 522, and vol. ii. p. 467) whispers a horrible suspicion, which I cannot believe to be true, even of Charles II., and which Harris, who has collected some evidence of his astounding profligacy, does not mention, though he quotes one of the passages in Burnet. Harris's Lives of the Stuarts, vol. v. pp. 36–43. However, as Dr. Parr says, in reference to another accusation against him, ‘There is little occasion to blacken the memory of that wicked monarch, Charles II., by the aid of invidious conjectures.’ Notes on James II. in Parr's Works, vol. iv. p. 477. Compare Fox's History of James II. p. 71.

[633] Even Clarendon has been charged with receiving bribes from Louis XIV.; but for this there appears to be no good authority. Compare Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. ii. pp. 66, 67 note, with Campbell's Chancellors, vol. iii, p. 213.

[634] Lister's Life of Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 377; Harris's Lives of the Stuarts, vol. iv. pp. 340–344.

[635] Immediately after the Restoration, the custom began of appointing to naval commands incompetent youths of birth, to the discouragement of those able officers who had been employed under Cromwell. Compare Burnet's Own Time, vol. i. p. 290, with Pepys' Diary, vol. ii. p. 413, vol. iii. pp. 68, 72.

[636] Harris's Lives of the Stuarts, vol. v. pp. 323–328. The court was so bent on abrogating the charter of the city of London, that Saunders was made chief-justice for the express purpose. See Campbell's Chief-Justices, vol. ii. p. 59. Roger North says (Lives of the Norths, vol. ii. p. 67), ‘Nothing was accounted at court so meritorious as the procuring of charters, as the language then was.’ Compare Bulstrode's Memoirs, pp. 379, 388.

[637] The panic caused by this scandalous robbery is described by De Foe; Wilson's Life of De Foe, vol. i. p. 52. See also Calamy's Life of Himself, vol. i. p. 78; Parker's Hist. of his Own Time, pp. 141–143. The amount stolen by the king is estimated at 1,328,526l. Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue, vol. i. p. 315. According to Lord Campbell, ‘nearly a million and a half.’ Lives of the Chancellors, vol. iv. p. 113.