ld the goods he seized to compel the tenant
to perform personal service. It would be impossible for a tenant to pay
his rent if his stock or implements were sold off the land. As the
Tudor policy of money payments extended, the greed for pelf led to
an alteration in the law, and the act of William and Mary allowed the
landlord to sell the goods he had distrained. The tenant remained
in possession of the land without the means of tilling it, which was
opposed to public policy. This power of distraint was, however, confined
to holdings in which there were leases by which the tenant covenanted to
allow the landlord to distrain his stock and goods in default of payment
of rent. The legislation of the Stuarts was invariably favorable to
the possessor of land and adverse to the rights of the people. The
government during the closing reigns was oligarchical, so much so, that
William III., annoyed at the restriction put upon his kingly power,
threatened to resign the crown and retire to Holland; but the
aristocracy were unwilling to relax their claims, and they secured by
legislation the rights they appeared to have lost by the deposition of
the sovereign.

The population had increased from 5,000,000 in 1603 to 5,750,000 in
1714, being an average increase of less than 7000 per annum.

VIII. THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.

The first sovereign of the House of Hanover ascended the throne not by
right of descent but by election; the legitimate heir was set aside, and
a distant branch of the family was chosen, and the succession fixed by
act of Parliament; but it is held by jurists that every Parliament
is sovereign and has the power of repealing any act of any former
Parliament. The beneficial rule of some of the latter monarchs of this
family has endeared them to the people, but the doctrine of reigning by
divine right, the favorite idea of the Stuarts, is nullified, when
the monarch ascends the throne by statute law and not by succession or
descent.

The age of chivalry passed away when the Puritans defeated the
Cavaliers. The establishment of standing armies and the creation of
a national debt, went to show that money, not knighthood or knight's
service, gave force to law. The possession of wealth and of rent gave
back to their possessors even larger powers than those wrested from
them by the first Tudor king. The maxim that "what was attached to the
freehold belonged to the freehold," gave the landlords even greater
power