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First Two Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution, 1603-1660
First Two Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 16031660 Author:Samuel Rawson Gardiner General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1885 Original Publisher: C. Scribner's sons Subjects: Great Britain History / General History / Europe / General History / Europe / Great Britain History / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775) Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It ha... more »s no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Section II. -- The Tudor Monarchy. Political institutions, kings, parliaments, or law-courts do not come into existence by accident. They are there because they have been able ? ' at is a ' revolution ? to do some good to the nation in previous stages of its history. As each generation is sure to want something done which the last generation did not want, there is always a possibility that the persons set in authority may resist the change, or may not be competent to carry it out. Then some alteration has to be made in the institutions under which government is carried on ; and if this alteration is very great, and is effected by force, it is called a Revolution. In every government which does not either maintain itself, like an ancient Greek despotism, by the sole possession of arms amidst an unarmed popula- , .... . . ?2- Governors tion, or like a modern Asiatic despotism, by andgovern- the absolute indifference of governors and governed alike to any change at all, two things are requisite, if it is to maintain its existence. In the first place there must be some way in which the people who are governed make their rulers understand what sort of changes they want, and what sort of changes they refuse to admit. In the second place there must be some man or some select body of men who have wisdom and practical skill to effect the changes desired in a right way. All the popularapplause in the world will...« less