Montesinos.—­In feudal ages the object of those monarchs who had any determinate object in view was either to extend their dominions by conquest from their neighbours, or to increase their authority at home by breaking the power of a turbulent nobility.  In commercial ages the great and sole object of government, when not engaged in war, was to augment its revenues, for the purpose of supporting the charges which former wars had induced, or which the apprehension of fresh ones rendered necessary.  And thus it has been, that of the two main ends of government, which are the security of the subjects and the improvement of the nation, the latter has never been seriously attempted, scarcely indeed taken into consideration; and the former imperfectly attained.

Sir Thomas More.—­Fail not, however, I entreat you, to bear in mind that this has not been the fault of your rulers at any time.  It has been their misfortune—­an original sin in the constitution of the society wherein they were born.  Circumstances which they did not make and could not control have impelled them onward in ways which neither for themselves nor the nation were ways of pleasantness and peace.

Montesinos.—­There is one beautiful exception—­Edward VI.

“That blessed Prince whose saintly name might move The understanding heart to tears of reverent love.”

He would have struck into the right course.

Sir Thomas More.—­You have a Catholic feeling concerning saints, Montesinos, though you look for them in the Protestant calendar.  Edward deserves to be remembered with that feeling.  But had his life been prolonged to the full age of man it would not have been in his power to remedy the evil which had been done in his father’s reign and during his own minority.  To have effected that would have required a strength and obduracy of character incompatible with his meek and innocent nature.  In intellect and attainments he kept pace with his age, a more stirring and intellectual one than any which had gone before it:  but in the wisdom of the heart he was far beyond that age, or indeed any that has succeeded it.  It cannot be said of him as of Henry of Windsor, that he was fitter for a cloister than a throne, but he was fitter for a heavenly crown than a terrestrial one.  This country was not worthy of him!—­scarcely this earth!

Montesinos.—­There is a homely verse common in village churchyards, the truth of which has been felt by many a heart, as some consolation in its keenest afflictions:-

“God calls them first whom He loves best.”

But surely no prince ever more sedulously employed himself to learn his office.  His views in some respects were not in accord with the more enlarged principles of trade, which experience has taught us.  But on the other hand he judged rightly what “the medicines were by which the sores of the commonwealth might be healed.”  His prescriptions are as applicable now as they were then, and in most points