The reign of James I was not marked by what are called great events.
This was greatly owing to his timid character, which induced him to
maintain peace, at whatever sacrifice, throughout the greater part of
his reign. The prime leaders of his government were youthful
favorites, who possessed no merit but personal elegance. Experienced
statesmen, brave soldiers, and learned divines, had to bow to these
dissolute youths, if they wished to advance in royal favor. Even
Bacon, the noblest intellect of the age, and who, by the result of his
studies, has done more than almost any other man to promote the
progress of knowledge, is found to have attached himself to the minion
Duke of Buckingham, for the purpose of improving his interest at
court. In despotic countries, the vices of the court often corrupt all
classes; but it was otherwise at that period in Britain. The country
gentlemen, and the merchants in the incorporated towns, had privileges
which the court dared not too often violate, and a feeling of
rectitude and independence was encouraged among these classes, which
the statesman of the age too much overlooked. The House of Commons
gave frequent resistance to the court, and often compelled James to
yield, at the very moment when he was preaching his doctrines of
divine right. In his first Parliament, they took into consideration
several grievances, such as _purveyance_, a supposed right in the
officers of the court to seize what provisions they pleased, at any
price, or at no price; another was the right of granting _monopolies_,
which had become a source of revenue to the court by cheating the
country, certain persons having the monopoly of certain manufactures
and articles of domestic consumption, which they were allowed to
furnish at their own prices. The Commons likewise remonstrated against
all pluralities in the church, and against a new set of canons which
the king and the church tried to force on the nation without their
consent. In 1614 they threatened to postpone any supply till their
grievances were redressed. The king, in his turn, threatened to
dissolve them if they did not immediately grant a supply; and they
allowed him to take his course, which did not fill his coffers. These,
and many other instances of bold resistance, should have given warning
to the court. They were the shadows of coming events, and attention to
them might have saved the bloodshed and confusion of the succeeding
reign.
English literature, which first made a decisive advance in the reign
of Elizabeth, continued to be cultivated with great success in the
reign of King James. The excellence of the language at this time as a
medium for literature, is strikingly shown in the translation of the
Bible now executed. It is also shown in the admirable dramatic
writings of Shakspeare, and in the valuable philosophic works
of Bacon. The inductive philosophy, made known by the last
writer――namely, that mode of reasoning which consists in first
ascertaining facts, and then inferring conclusions from them――reflects
peculiar lustre on this period of British history. Very great praise
is also due to Napier of Merchiston, in Scotland, for the invention of
_logarithms_, a mode of calculating intricate numbers, essential to
the progress of mathematical science.