years, and they are enlarging all the time as he becomes conscious of them and lives up to the demands of his industrial, political, social and moral duties. Some of the rights denied Englishmen in 1688 were-freedom of worship; freedom of education; freedom to participate in the government by voting; freedom to choose a trade or occupation; freedom to work without industrial restrictions; freedom to own land; freedom to travel where they pleased; freedom to publish their opinions.

The Englishmen who came to America during the century and a quarter in which the American colonies were founded, brought with them many ideas which would now be considered intolerant. These ideas, however, were immediately enthroned in the customs and laws of the colonies. America has outgrown the limitations set upon her growth in early colonial days, and has become the freest country in the world.

CHAPTER IV.

THE STORY OF POLITICAL RIGHTS IN COLONIAL

AMERICA.

65. The Three Parts of Government.-During their long struggle for political rights the English people became a nation. They spoke a common speech and their geographical boundaries were known. The language as now spoken has been heard since the time of Shakespeare, who lived to write of America in one of the greatest of plays. At the dawning of the seventeenth century an Englishman familiar with the character of the government under which he lived was accustoming himself to think of it in three parts:

1. The King.

2. The Body of Lawmakers, known as the Parliament, consisting of two houses-the upper house, or House of Lords; the lower house, or House of Commons.

3. The Courts of Justice.

In the administration of government he recognized local self-government in the parish, and was familiar with trial by jury, taxation and a partial representation of the people in Parliament.

These ideas, however, were possessed only by the few;

*"Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine,
His honor and the greatness of his name

Shall be, and make new nations; he shall flourish,
And, like a mountain cedar, reach his branches

To all the plains about him."

(Archbishop Cranmer's Prophecy concerning King James and Virginia, Henry VIII., Act V.)