Early in this reign the Royal Society was established for purposes of
scientific research. In an age when thousands of well-informed people
still cherished a lingering belief that lead might be changed into
gold; that some medicine might be discovered which would cure every
disease, (including old age, that worst disease of all); when every
cross-grained old woman was suspected of witchcraft, and was liable to
be tortured and hanged on that suspicion,--the formation of an
association to study the physical facts was most significant.
It showed that the time had come when, instead of guessing what might
be, men were at last beginning to resolved to know what actually is.
In 1684 an English mathematician and philosopher demonstrated the
unity of the universe by proving that the same law which governs the
falling of an apple also governs the movements of the planets in their
orbits. He published his great work on this subject a few years
later.
It was with reference to that wonderful discovery of the all-pervading
power of gravitation, which shapes and holds in its control the drop
of dew before our eyes, and the farthest star shining in the heavens,
that the poet Pope suggested the epitaph which should be graven on the
tomb of the great thinker in Westminster Abbey:
"Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night;
God said, `Let Newton be!' and all was light."
482. Chief Political Reforms; Abolition of Feudal Dues, 1660; the
Habeas Corpus Act, 1679.
As the age did not stand still with respect to progress in knowledge,
so it was not wholly unsuccessful in political progress. A great
reform inaugurated in the outset of Charles's reign was the abolition,
1660, of the King's right to feudal dues and service, by which he was
accustomed to extort as much as possible from his subjects[1] (S150),
and the substitution of a fixed yearly allowance, raised by tax, of
1,200,000 pounds on beer and liquor.[2] This change may be considered
to have practically abolished the feudal system in England, so far as
the Crown is concerned, though the law still retains some remnants of
that system with respect to the relation of landlord and tenant.[3]
[1] See Blackstone's "Commentaries," II, 76.
[2] This tax should have been levied on the landed proprietors who had
been subject to the feudal dues, but they managed to put it on beer
and spirits; this compelled the body of the people to bear the burden
for them.
[3] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xviii,
S20.
The second great reform measure was the Habeas Corpus Act,[4] 1679,
which provided that no subject should be detained in prison except by
due process of law, thus putting an end to the arbitrary confinement
of men for months, and years even, without conviction of guilt or even
form of trial.
[4] Habeas Corpus (1679) (you may have the body): This writ is
addressed by the judge to him who detains another in custody,
commanding him to bring him into court and show why he is restrained
of his liberty. The right of Habeas Corpus was contained in germ in
the Great Charter (S199, Article 2); and see Summary of Constitutional
History in the Appendix, p. xix, S21, and p. xxxii.