History Of England, The

This book is the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to the time that is within the memory of men still living. The author shall recount the errors which, in a few moments, alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood fromthe House of Stuart. Macaulay traces the course of that revolution which terminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and their parliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and the title of the reigning dynasty. He shall also relate how the new settlement was, during many troubled years, successfully defended against foreign and domestic enemies; how, under that settlement, the authority of law an the security of property found to be compatible with a liberty of discussionand of individual action never before known; how, from the auspicious union of order and freedom sprang a prosperity of which the annuals of human affairs had furnished no example; how our country, from a state of ignominious vassalage, rapidly rosetothe place of umpire among European powers; how her opulence and her martial glory grew together; how, by wise and resolute good faith, was gradually established a public credit fruitful of marvels which to the statesmen of any former age would have seen incredible; how a gigantic commerce gave birth to a maritime power, compared with which every other maritime power, ancient or modern, sinks in to insignificance; how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at length united to England, not merelyby legal bonds, but by indissoluble ties of interest and affection; how, in American, the British colonies rapidly became far mightier and wealthier than the realms which Cortes and Pizzaro had added to the dominions of Charles the Fifth; how in Asia, British adventurers founded an empire not less splendid and more durable than that of Alexander.