An Introduction to English Politics

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New Amsterdam book Company, 1900 - Europe - 515 pages

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Page 434 - And suffer not thy sons to pass the Alps, for they shall learn nothing there but pride, blasphemy, and atheism. And if by travel they get a few broken languages, that shall profit them nothing more than to have one meat served in divers dishes. Neither, by my consent, shalt thou train them up in wars; for he that sets up his rest to live by that profession, can hardly be an honest man or a good Christian...
Page 475 - The University had at that time, many Members of its own, who had begun a free way of reasoning; and was also frequented by some Gentlemen, of Philosophical Minds, whom the misfortunes of the Kingdom, and the security and ease of a retirement amongst Gown'men, had drawn thither.
Page 425 - Nothing is more revolting in the Queen, but nothing is more characteristic, than her shameless mendacity. It was an age of political lying, but in the profusion and recklessness of her lies Elizabeth stood without a peer in Christendom.
Page xxiv - It is a favourite maxim of mine that history, while it should be scientific in its method, should pursue a practical object — that is, it should not merely gratify the reader's curiosity about the past, but modify his view of the present and his forecast of the future.
Page 420 - We trace the noble statesmen of those reigns concurring in all the inconsistencies of their revolutions, supporting all the religions of Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth ; adjudging the death of Somerset to gratify Northumberland, and of Northumberland to redeem their participation in his fault, setting up the usurpation of lady Jane, and abandoning her on the first doubt of success, constant only in the rapacious acquisition of estates and honours, from whatever source, and in adherence to the...
Page 412 - I have stated more than once that the fifteenth century and the first quarter of the sixteenth were the golden age of the English labourer, if we are to interpret the wages which he earned by the cost of the necessaries of life. At no time were wages, relatively speaking, so high, and at no time was food so cheap.
Page 442 - ... his opinion, and for an excessive facility in adopting that of others. But the apparent incongruity ceases, when we observe that he was tenacious of ends, and irresolute as to means ; better fitted to reason than to act ; never swerving from a few main principles, but diffident of his own judgment in its application to the course of affairs.
Page 475 - ... et de ce premier âge de l'Académie, ils en parlent comme d'un âge d'or, durant lequel avec toute l'innocence et toute la liberté des premiers siècles, sans bruit et sans pompe, et sans autres lois que celles de l'amitié, ils goûtaient ensemble tout ce que la société des esprits et la vie raisonnable ont de plus doux et de plus charmant.
Page 211 - ... in all Eastern products, at the close of the first quarter of the sixteenth century, and found that it must have come from the conquest of Egypt. The river of commerce was speedily dried up. The cities which had thriven on it were gradually ruined, at least...
Page 496 - ... in a cheap year they will not work above two days in a week; their humour being such that they will not provide for a hard time, but just work so much and no more, as may maintain them in that mean condition to which they have been accustomed.

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