peace of the throne as well as the integrity of the Church, that Henry continued the persecution begun by his predecessors. The identity of the Lollards with conspirators against the kingdom is left in no doubt by history. In truth, the Lollards doubtless considered the monarchy in the way of religious freedom, and would have destroyed it, and leagued with malcontents to destroy it, for that reason. While great blame cannot be attached to them for this view (because we recognize the right to secure religious liberty by revolution), it must also be said that the King was justified in using those means which he deemed necessary to preserve his heritage. In these considerations we find the true reasons for the perse.cutions in the reign of Henry the Fifth; and although we cannot pronounce him to have been guiltless, we cannot hurl against him those anathemas which are the just tributes of indignant peoples to deliberate tyrants.

The era in which Henry was placed was the transition era between the era of feudalism and the era of monarchy. It had been long since John had bent beneath the combined will of his barons; the genera tion was rapidly approaching which should see Louis the Eleventh crushing, one after another, in rapid suc cession, the sovereign vassals of the French crown. The barons were yet potent-they had ceased to be omnipotent. The personal popularity of Henry-a popularity which never once waned, secured to his crown an obedience which was due to that cause, rather than to the inherent strength of the monarchical principle. His reign anticipated the as yet remote consummation. In him monarchy found so irresistible a champion, that it was perfectly established, only to

be debased again when a weak successor gave the opportunity to the great barons to exhibit their yet formidable power. It is perhaps the highest praise to his reign, as an historical era, that there is nothing to relate of it regarding domestic rebellion and insurrection, but that its whole story is of prosperity, conquest, and tremendous accessions of power. Henry was in truth a monarch, and the nation moved behind him, as if animated by a single mind.

During this reign, the Constitution of England underwent but few changes. The people were satis fied with their King; the public attention was almost wholly directed toward France; the taxes were not oppressive; law was evenly executed; no one, unless he were a heretic, was persecuted. The Commons, now advanced to be an organic estate of the realm, saw no occasion to increase their own importance, and, speaking the will of the constituencies, were unanimous in the support of Henry. Still there are indi cations that the lower House claimed rights above those conceded in the last reign, which the other powers were not disposed to dispute. There was a progress made, slow and hardly perceptible, but adding something to the weight of popular influence. Public intelligence was broadening, institutions of learning were multiplying, and inquiries into abstract ideas had already begun to disturb the reason of the intellectual classes. The germs of the Reformation, of monarchy, of popular power, of a great literature, of a people quick in the race toward enlightenment, are all to be discovered in this reign. Were it our purpose to enter into a philosophical view of it, it might be shown how these germs were starting and growing, how far they had grown, at the close of

Henry's life. The record of that life, if it has been faithfully presented, will suggest many philosophical reflections to the attentive reader; and it is thought preferable to leave it to the reader to make those inferences and receive those lessons, which cannot but be derived from the narrative which is now concluded.

It is enough to show how a young King, born and reared in temptation and luxury, avoided the one and eschewed the other; how he remained through life undefiled; how he ruled wisely and well; how he accomplished, by the magnitude and variety of his talents, a conquest which the greatest of his ancestors had in vain attempted; how he was tender to his subjects, and magnanimous to his adversaries; how he was both just and merciful; how he was generous, large-hearted, and self-forgetful; how, more than all, he walked in his difficult path with a pure conscience, uprightly and unfalteringly, with his thoughts turned, in the midst of earthly cares the most weighty, toward that heaven which he hoped to reach; and how, after a career unblemished by any great sin, and abounding in a succession of brilliant triumphs, he laid down patiently to die, just as the highest object of his aspirations appeared in view-giving over worldly thoughts without a sigh, and fixing his mind with trustful serenity and radiant hope upon the unknown hereafter.

THE END.