A compendium of English history

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Página 128 - Erasmus ascribes the frequent plagues in England to the nastiness, and dirt, and slovenly habits among the people. " The floors," says he, " are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excrements of dogs and cats, and every thing that is nasty.
Página 39 - When he could enjoy leisure, he recreated himself either in learned conversation or in reading, and he cultivated his natural talents by study above any prince of his time. His affections, as well as his enmities, were warm and durable, and his long experience of the ingratitude and infidelity of men never destroyed the natural sensibility of his temper, which disposed him to friendship and society. His character has been transmitted to us by several writers who were his contemporaries...
Página 170 - When we consider him as a sovereign, his character, though not altogether destitute of virtue, was in the main dangerous to his people, and dishonourable to himself. Negligent to the interests of the nation, careless of its glory, averse to its religion, jealous of its liberty, lavish of its treasure, sparing only of its blood...
Página 141 - No prince, so little enterprising and so inoffensive, was ever so much exposed to the opposite extremes of calumny and flattery, of satire and panegyric. And the factions which began in his time, being still continued,- have made his character be as much disputed to this day, as is commonly that of princes who are our contemporaries.
Página 170 - Here lies a great and mighty king Whose promise none relies on; He never said a foolish thing, Nor ever did a wise one.
Página 30 - They speedily raised their new language to a dignity and importance which it had never before possessed. They found it a barbarous jargon ; they fixed it in writing ; and they employed it in legislation, in poetry, and in romance.
Página 50 - The institutions of positive law, the far more important changes which time has wrought in the order of society, during six hundred years subsequent to the great charter, have undoubtedly lessened its direct application to our present circumstances. But it is still the key-stone of English liberty. All that has since been obtained is little more than as a confirmation or commentary; and if every subsequent law were to be swept away, there would still remain the bold features that distinguish a free...
Página 224 - Nor can any military event be said to have exercised more important influence on the future fortunes of mankind, than the complete defeat of Burgoyne's expedition in 1777; a defeat which rescued the revolted colonists from certain subjection ; and which, by inducing the courts of France and Spain to attack England in their behalf, ensured the independence of the United States, and the formation of that transAtlantic power which, not only America, but both Europe and Asia, now see and feel.
Página 65 - France, their rival and supposed national enemy, makes them cast their eyes on this period with great complacency, and sanctifies every measure which Edward embraced for that end. But the domestic government of this prince is really more admirable than his foreign victories...
Página 221 - It may indeed be said, that even of those great conflicts, in which hundreds of thousands have been engaged, and tens of thousands have fallen, none has been more fruitful of results than this surrender of thirty-five hundred fighting men at Saratoga. It not merely changed the relations of England, and the feelings of Europe, towards these insurgent colonies, but it has modified for all times to come the connexion between every colony, and every parent state.

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