The
last was Sedgmoor in 1685. For four centuries, since Bosworth, in 1485,
the English people have lived in peace in their own homes, except for
the brief episode of the Great Rebellion, and Monmouth's slight affair.
This long peace, unparalleled in history, has powerfully influenced the
English and American character for good. Since the Middle Ages most
English warfare has been warfare at a distance, and that does not
nourish the brutal passions in the way that warfare at home does.
An instructive result is to be seen in the mildness of temper which
characterized the conduct of our stupendous Civil War. Nothing like it
was ever seen before.
[7] Picton's _Cromwell_, pp. 61, 67; Gardiner, _Puritan Revolution_, p.
72.
[8] Quincy, History of Harvard University, ii. 654.
[9] C.F. Adams, _Sir Christopher Gardiner, Knight_, p. 31.
[10] The compact drawn up in the Mayflower's cabin was not, in the
strict sense a constitution, which is a document defining and limiting
the functions of government. Magna Charta partook of the nature of
a written constitution, as far as it went, but it did not create a
government.
[11] See Johnston's Connecticut, p. 321, a very brilliant book.
[12] See the passionate exclamation of Endicott, below, p. 190.
[13] Excursions of an Evolutionist: pp.
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