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THE EFFECTS OF

CIIAP. XX.

perty so much exposed as that of the cultivatoris, which is derived from that cause. After thetermination of the wars between the houses ofYork and Lancaster , England remained in a stateof internal tranquillity. The wars with Scotland were mere border warfare, and the effect of themwas scarcely felt except in the northern counties.The internal disturbances in Norfolk , in Devon-shire, in Yorkshire , and some other parts, werelocal and transient; and taking the whole of theperiod from the ascession of Henry VII. to thecivil war in the reign of Charles I. , England maybe said to have enjoyed such domestic peace aswas quite sufficient to give general security to pro-perty and general confidence in its continuance.Whilst thus for more than a century and a half,during the period in which the greatest advancein prices had been making, no hostile foot hadtrodden the English soil that could put the laboursof the cultivators in jeopardy, and whilst onemonarch ruled the whole kingdom, the countrieson the continent were desolated by continualwars, and their internal arrangements subject toconstant disruptions from the number of pettysovereignties into which they were divided.France indeed, at the early part of the period, hadbeen enabled to unite into one kingdom the duke-dom of Britanny, the earldoms of Provence andDaupheny, and the kingdom of Navarre ; but thecivil wars on account of religion, and the state ofinternal disquiet which extensively prevailed, ren-