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INTRODUCTION.
at the same time that they ruined individuals, and threw the kingdom into a temporary state of confusion, laid the foundation for that immense fabric which has since been erected[1]. It has been justly remarked, that nations display their internal resources more, and produce great men more abundantly after a civil war, than at any other period; the ob-
- ↑ Here our historian convinces us of his judgement as well as his reading. An author less accurate would have supposed, that Queen Elizabeth's reign might rather be termed the æra from which the present splendor of our nation (if we may use the term present to a period which does not commence these 137 years) is derived, but he has sensibly considered, that the foundation laid by Queen Elizabeth was sapped by Oliver Cromwell, and that the present constitution is a phœnix of another colour from that which expired in the seventeenth century, and that we are naturally to look upon the civil wars in Oliver's time as the source from which our greatness at this time has proceeded; the different changes in government since being nothing more than the consequences of these commotions
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