Suppose there ascended the throne to-day a young prince, the hero of the athletic world, the finest oar, the best bat, the crack marksman of his day, it is easy to imagine the enthusiastic support he would receive from thousands of his people who care much for sport, and nothing at all for politics.

Suppose also that that prince were endowed with the iron will, the instinctive insight into the hearts of his people, the profound aptitude for government that Henry VIII.

displayed, he would be a rash man who would guarantee even now the integrity of parliamentary power or the continuance of cabinet rule.

In those days, with thirty years of civil war and fifteen more of conspiracy fresh in men's minds, with no alternative to anarchy save Henry VIII., with a peerage fallen (p.

042) from its high estate, and a Parliament almost lost to respect, royal autocracy was not a thing to dread or distrust.