English labourer in town and country since the Norman
Conquest were the reign of Edward VI. and the first quarter of the
nineteenth century.

The development of our political institutions into their present form; the
establishment of our Party system of government by Cabinet, and of the
authority of the Prime Minister; the growth of the supreme power of the
Commons, not only over the throne but over the Lords also: these were the
work of the aristocracy of the eighteenth century, and were attained by
steps so gradual as to be almost imperceptible. No idea of democracy guided
the process; yet our modern democratic system is firm-rooted upon the
principles and privileges of the Constitution as thus established. Social
misery deepened, without check from the politicians; and the most
enlightened statesmen of the Whig regime were very far from our present
conceptions of the duties and possibilities of Parliament.

CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

James II. was tumbled from the throne for his vain attempt to establish
toleration for Catholics and Nonconformists without consent of Parliament.
Yet the Whig aristocracy which followed, while it did nothing for
Catholics, laid broad principles of civil and religious liberty for
democracy to build upon.[66]

The Declaration of Right, presented by Parliament to William and Mary on
their arrival in London, was turned into the Bill of Rights, and passed
into law in 1689. It stands as the last of the great charters of political
liberty, and states clearly both what is not permitted to the Crown, and
what privileges are allowed to the people.

Under the Bill of Rights the King was denied the power of suspending or
dispensing, of levying money, or maintaining a standing army without
consent of Parliament. The people were assured of the right of the subject
to petition the Crown, and of the free election of representatives in
Parliament, and of full and free debate in Parliament. Any profession of
the Catholic religion, or marriage with a Catholic, disqualified from
inheritance to or possession of the throne.

So there was an end to the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, and four
hundred non-juring clergymen--including half-a-dozen bishops--of the Church
of England were deprived of their ecclesiastical appointments for refusing
to accept the accomplished fact, and acknowledge William III. as the lawful
King of England. By making William King, to the exclusion of the children
of Jam