THE PROGRESS OF THE NATION UNDER JAMES I., CHARLES I., AND THE COMMONWEALTH.
Manufactures and Commerce--Trade under the Stuarts--English Commerce and Dutch Competition--The East India Company--Vicissitudes of its Early History--Rival Companies--The American Colonies and West Indies--Growth of London--National Revenue--Extravagance of the Stuarts--Invention of the Title of Baronet--Illegal Monopolies--Cost of Government--Money and Coinage--Agriculture and Gardening--Dramatists of the Period--Shakespeare and his Contemporaries--Poets of the Occult School--Herbert, Herrick, Quarles--A Wealth of Poetry--Prose-Writers--Bacon's "Novum Organum"--Milton's Prose Works--Hales, Chillingworth, Jeremy Taylor, Fuller, and other Theological Writers--Harrington's "Oceana"--Sir Thomas Browne--Historians and Chroniclers--First Newspapers--Harvey's Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood--Napier's Invention of Logarithms--Music--Painting, Engraving, and Sculpture--Architecture--Manners and Customs--Sports and Pastimes--Furniture and Domestic Embellishment--Costumes--Arms and Armour--Condition of the People 165
Character of Charles II.--The King's First Privy Council--The Convention Parliament--Submission of the Presbyterian Leaders--The Plight of those who took Part in the late King's Trial--Complaisance of the Commoners--Charles's Income--The Bill of Sales--The Ministers Bill--Settlement of the Church--Trial of the Regicides--Their Execution--Marriage of the Duke of York--Mutilation of the Remains of Cromwell--The Presbyterians Duped--The Revenue--Fifth-Monarchy Riot--Settlements of Ireland and Scotland--Execution of Argyll--Re-establishment of Episcopacy--The new Parliament violently Royalist--The King's Marriage--His Brutal Behaviour to the Queen--State of the Court--Trial of Vane and Lambert--Execution of Vane--Assassination of Regicides--Sale of Dunkirk--The Uniformity Act--Religious Persecution--Strange Case of the Marquis of Bristol--Repeal of the Triennial Act--The Conventicle and Five Mile Acts--War with Holland--Appearance of the Plague--Gross Licentiousness of the Court--Demoralisation of the Navy--Monk's Fight with the Dutch--The Great Fire 193
Demands of Parliament--A Bogus Commission--Crushing the Covenanters in Scotland--The Dutch in the Thames--Panic in London and at Court--Humiliation of England--Peace is Signed--Fall of Clarendon--The Cabal--Sir William Temple at the Hague--The Triple Alliance--Scandals at Court--Profligacy of the King and the Duke of Buckingham--Attempt to Deprive the Duke of York of the Succession--Persecution of Nonconformists--Trial of Penn and Mead--The Rights of Juries--Secret Treaty with France--Suspicious Death of Charles's Sister--"Madam Carwell"--Attack on Sir John Coventry--National Bankruptcy--War with Holland--Battle of Southwold Bay--Declaration of Indulgence--Fall of the Cabal--Affairs in Scotland and Ireland--Progress of the Continental War--Mary Marries William of Orange--Louis Intrigues with the Opposition--Peace of Nimeguen--The Popish Plot--Impeachment of Danby--Temple's Scheme of Government--The Exclusion Bill--Murder of Archbishop Sharp--Bothwell Bridge--Anti-Catholic Fury--Charges against James--Execution of Lord Stafford 221