in short, did not live to see the establishment of Parliamentary government, but he unwittingly prepared the way for it. [Illustration: Dress of ladies of quality: from Sandford's _Coronation Procession of James II._] [Illustration: Ordinary attire of women of the lower classes: from Sandford's _Coronation Procession of James II._] 15. =Prosperity of the Country.=--The horror of a renewal of civil war, which was partly the result of sad experience, was also the result of the growth of the general well-being of the community. The population of England now exceeded 5,000,000. Rents were rising, and commerce was rapidly on the increase. Fresh colonies--amongst them Pennsylvania and Carolina--were founded in America. In England itself the growth of London was an index to the general prosperity. In those days the City was the home of the merchants, who did not then leave the place where their business was done to spend the evening and night in the suburbs. Living side by side, they clung to one another, and their civic ardour created a strength which weighed heavily in the balance of parties. The opposition of the City to Charles I. had given the victory to Parliament in the civil war, and its dislike of military government had done much to bring about the Restoration. The favour of the City had been the chief support of Shaftesbury, and it was only by overthrowing its municipal institutions that Charles II. had succeeded in crippling its power to injure him. In the meantime a new forest of houses was springing up on sites between Lincoln's Inn and what is now known as Soho Square, and round St. James's Church. The Court and the frequent meetings of Parliament attracted to London many families which, a generation earlier, would have lived entirely in the country. [Illustration: Coach of the latter half of the seventeenth century: from Loggan's _Oxonia Illustrata_.] [Illustration: Wagon of the second half of the seventeenth century: from Loggan's _Oxonia Illustrata_.]