DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 44. ) principles of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, and establish a code of humane and moral principles on the basis of public opinion. Certainly meteors such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Bunyan, had previously flashed across the literary horizon, but their luminous track was ob- scured in the depraved atmosphere of the Restoration. The taste of the public can be gauged by the fact, that at the end of a tragedy a lovely and popular actress, Nell Gwynn (of whom I may incidentally mention that she resided at Tring Park), after having been left for dead on the stage, and as she was going to be removed, rose and exclaimed :— ‘Hold! are you mad, you damned confounded dog ? I am to rise and speak the epilogue.’ The public under Queen Anne condemned these incongruities and revived the Shakespearian drama ; but that more stringent reforms were needed was evident. The source alone from which these sprung is a matter of surprise. In the early days of Queen Anne, the only centres of Society were the Court and the aristocracy. Newspapers, in the modern sense of the word, hardly existed; on the other hand, political parties began to assume the shape they have since virtually retained, and political influence and political power began to be considered the highest objects of personal ambition. Party leaders saw the advantage they