the armies of the House of York. The South accepted the Reformation,
while the North was the scene of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Coming down to
the Civil War in the time of Charles I., we find the Parliament strong
in the South and East, where are still the centres of commerce and
manufactures, even the iron trade, which has its smelting works in
Sussex. In the North the feudal tie between landlord and tenant, and the
sentiment of the past, preserve much of their force, and the great power
in those parts is the Marquis of Newcastle, at once great territorial
lord of the Middle Ages and elegant _grand seigneur_ of the
Renaissance, who brings into the field a famous regiment of his own
retainers. In certain towns, such as Bradford and Manchester, there are
germs of manufacturing industry, and these form the sinews of the
Parliamentarian party in the district which is headed by the Fairfaxes.
But in the Reform movement which extended through the first half of the
present century, the geographical position of parties was reversed; the
swarming cities of the North were then the great centres of Liberalism
and the motive power of Reform; while the South, having by this time
fallen into the hands of great landed proprietors, was Conservative. The
stimulating effect of populous centres on opinion is a very familiar
fact; even in the rural districts it is noticed by canvassers at
elections that men who work in gangs are generally more inclined to the
Liberal side than those who work separately.

In England, however, the agricultural element always has been and
remains a full counterpoise to the manufacturing and commercial element.
Agricultural England is not what Pericles called Attica, a mere suburban
garden, the embellishment of a queenly city. It is a substantive
interest and a political power. In the time of Charles I. it happened
that, owing to the great quantity of land thrown into the market in
consequence of the confiscation of the monastic estates, which had