under its shadow. The reign of Elizabeth had brought not only power
but peace to England, and national unity had no further peril of
existence to dread. With peace, trade established itself on sure
foundations and increased with every year. Wealth flowed into the
country and the great merchants of London whose growth amazed and
troubled the royal Council, founded hospitals, "brought the New
River from its springs at Chadwell and Amwell to supply the city
with pure water," and in many ways gave of their increase for the
benefit of all who found it less easy to earn. The smaller
land-owners came into a social power never owned before, and
"boasted as long a rent-roll and wielded as great an influence as
many of the older nobles.... In wealth as in political consequence
the merchants and country gentlemen who formed the bulk of the House
of Commons, stood far above the mass of the peers."

Character had changed no less than outward circumstances. "The
nation which gave itself to the rule of the Stewarts was another
nation from the panic-struck people that gave itself in the crash
of social and religious order to the guidance of the Tudors."
English aims had passed beyond the bounds of England, and every
English "squire who crossed the Channel to flesh his maiden sword
at Ivry or Ostend, brought back to English soil, the daring
temper, the sense of inexhaustable resources, which had bourn him
on through storm and battle field." Such forces were not likely to
settle into a passive existence at home. Action had become a
necessity. Thoughts had been stirred and awakened once for all.
Consciously for the few, unconsciously for the many, "for a
hundred years past, men had been living in the midst of a
spiritual revolution. Not only the world about them, but the world
within every breast had been utterly transformed. The work of the