Constitutional History of England, Henry VII to George II. Volume 1 of 3Hallam, Henry
History
Constitutional History of England, Henry VII to George II. Volume 1 of 3
Hallam, Henry
Constitutional history -- Great Britain
attempted to win men's hearts to their faction by the sweet sounds of
civil liberty and the popular origin of politic rule; yet these
obnoxious paradoxes availed little with the nation, which, after the
wild fascination of a rebellion arising wholly from religious bigotry
had passed away, relapsed at once into its patient loyalty, its
self-complacent servitude. But did the English ever recognise, even by
implication, the strange parallels which Raleigh has made for their
government with that of France, and Hume with that of Turkey? The
language adopted in addressing Elizabeth was always remarkably
submissive. Hypocritical adulation was so much among the vices of that
age, that the want of it passed for rudeness. Yet Onslow, speaker of the
parliament of 1566, being then solicitor-general, in addressing the
queen says: "By our common law, although there be for the prince
provided many princely prerogatives and royalties, yet it is not such as
the prince can take money or other things, or do as he will at his own
pleasure without order, but quietly to suffer his subjects to enjoy
their own, without wrongful oppression; wherein other princes by their
liberty do take as pleaseth them."[459]
In the first months of Elizabeth's reign, Aylmer, afterwards Bishop of
London, published an answer to a book by John Knox, against female
monarchy, or, as he termed it, _Blast of the Trumpet against the
Monstrous Regiment of Women_; which, though written in the time of Mary,
and directed against her, was of course not acceptable to her sister.
The answer relies, among other arguments, on the nature of the English
constitution, which, by diminishing the power of the Crown, renders it
less unfit to be worn by a woman. "Well," he says, "a woman may not
reign in England! Better in England than anywhere, as it shall well
appear to him that without affection will consider the kind of regimen.
While I compare ours with other, as it is in itself, and not maimed by
usurpation, I can find none either so good or so indifferent. The
regiment of England is not a mere monarchy, as some for lack of
consideration think, nor a mere oligarchy nor democracy, but a rule
mixed of all these, wherein each one of these have or should have like
authority. The image whereof, and not the image but the thing indeed, is
to be seen in the parliament-house, wherein you shall find these three
estates; the king or queen which representeth the monarchy, the noblemen
which be the aristocracy, and the burgesses and knights the democracy.
If the parliament use their privileges, the king can ordain nothing
without them: if he do, it is his fault in usurping it, and their fault
in permitting it. Wherefore, in my judgment, those that in King Henry
VIII.'s days would not grant him that his proclamations should have the
force of a statute, were good fathers of the country, and worthy
commendation in defending their liberty. But to what purpose is all
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