‘And yet,’ said the Statue, ‘with all its faults, this era was perhaps no worse than any we have discussed yet. Never mind! It was a dreary, cant-ridden one, and if you don’t think those England’s palmy days, neither do I. There’s the previous reign then. During the first part of it, there was the king endeavouring to assert arbitrary power. During the latter, the Parliament were fighting against him in the open field. What ultimately became of him I need not say. At what stage of King Charles the First’s career did the good old times exist, Mr. Alderman? I need barely mention the Star Chamber and poor Prynne; and I merely allude to the fate of Strafford and of Laud. On consideration, should you fix the good old times anywhere thereabouts?’ ‘I am afraid not, indeed, Sir,’ Mr. Blenkinsop responded, tapping his forehead. ‘What is your opinion of James the First’s reign? Are you enamoured of the good old times of the Gunpowder Plot? or when Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded? or when hundreds of poor miserable old women were burnt alive for witchcraft, and the royal wiseacre on the throne wrote as wise a book, in defence of the execrable superstition through which they suffered?’ Mr. Blenkinsop confessed himself obliged to give up the times of James the First. ‘Now, then,’ continued the Statue, ‘we come to Elizabeth.’ ‘There I’ve got you!’ interrupted Mr. Blenkinsop, exultingly. ‘I beg your pardon, Sir,’ he added, with a sense of the freedom he had taken; ‘but everybody talks of the times of Good Queen Bess, you know!’ ‘Ha, ha!’ laughed the Statue, not at all like Zamiel, or Don Guzman, or a paviour’s rammer, but really with unaffected gaiety. ‘Everybody sometimes says very foolish things. Suppose Everybody’s lot had been cast under Elizabeth! How would Everybody have relished being subject to the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Commission, with its power of imprisonment, rack, and torture? How would Everybody have liked to see his Roman Catholic and Dissenting fellow-subjects, butchered, fined, and imprisoned for their opinions; and charitable ladies butchered, too, for giving them shelter in the sweet compassion of their hearts? What would Everybody have thought of the murder of Mary Queen of Scots? Would Everybody, would Anybody, would _you_, wish to have lived in these days, whose emblems are cropped ears, pillory, stocks, thumb-screws, gibbet, axe, chopping-block, and Scavenger’s daughter? Will you take your stand upon this stage of History for the good old times, Mr. Blenkinsop?’ ‘I should rather prefer firmer and safer ground, to be sure, upon the whole,’ answered the worshipper of antiquity, dubiously.