The popular history of England; an illustrated history of society and government from the earliest period to our own times . centuries, had covered Enghand with itsnoblest monuments; and now, in the assemblies where they discoursed oftheir art, also complained of the oppression that levelled that art to theordinary condition of unskilled labour. They resisted, as they had a right toresist. They held together, as Englishmen from that day to this have held,when tyranny has tried to break their ranks. Destructive as these class-contests may have been—in most cases unwise and useless for their imm
The popular history of England; an illustrated history of society and government from the earliest period to our own times . centuries, had covered Enghand with itsnoblest monuments; and now, in the assemblies where they discoursed oftheir art, also complained of the oppression that levelled that art to theordinary condition of unskilled labour. They resisted, as they had a right toresist. They held together, as Englishmen from that day to this have held,when tyranny has tried to break their ranks. Destructive as these class-contests may have been—in most cases unwise and useless for their immediateends,—they were better than servile endurance of real or fancied union of masons, which this law called confederacy, was the principlewhich has made our nation unassailable from without and strong againstoppression from within—the union of family, of occupation, of locality, ofcountry—the steadfast individual will strengthening itself by association;and learning, in the discordant opinions of deliberative bodies, to moderatethe rash and uncertain counsels of the solitary judgment. No real social. Doorway, Kings College Chapel, Cambridge. tyranny could ever endure long in England against this principle. If thecombination were inexpedient, the true wisdom of moderation vrovld soonmanifest itself. If it were just, no arbitrary legislative interference couldeventually put it do\vn. That the masons held their chapiters indespite of the law of Henry VI. we have no doubt; and that they controlledthe bad course and effect of the Statutes of Labourers by some comrpromise, we may be equally assured. It was a building age in England; and VOL. 11. 40. 118 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. [1450-1485. the land -vrould not have heen covered with improved domestic structures, ifthe rewards of the artificer had not been proportioned to the demand for hisskill, in despite of the attempt to regiment all labour. The period for grand ecclesiastical architecture was coming to an
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