- 57o.j THE RISING OF THE NORTH. ift
and the prisons at Durham and York were crowded with unfortunates who had straggled back to their homes, and had been denounced and arrested. It was the theory of the Constitution, sanctioned so far by immemorial custom, that the lands as well as the lives of traitors should be forfeited to the Crown. Under the feudal system estates were held under the Sovereign in con- sideration of active duties to be performed by the holder. Although military tenures were lapsing into more immediate and absolute ownership, yet security of property under the law involved as a matter of course obedience to the law, and, irrespective of higher con- siderations, all governments must be held entitled to indemnify themselves for the expense of repressing rebellion at the cost of those who have occasioned it. That the Crown in the present instance was entitled to avail itself of its right was implied in the nature of the case. Rebellions are never without pretexts which can be pleaded in their justification. The long peace which the country had enjoyed, the cessation of State prosecu- tions in so striking a contrast with their frequency in the previous reigns, the general prosperity of England contrasted with the confusion and anarchy of the con- tinental kingdoms, gave the Queen a fair claim upon her subjects 7 loyalty. The Catholics had not been per- mitted the open exercise of their religion ; but there had been no inquisitions, no meddling in private with the rights of conscience, no revenge for the Marian persecutions. Her sister's * bishops had been deprived and imprisoned for refusing to take the oath of allegi*
