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      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
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    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <h1>
      THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND
    </h1>
    <h3>
      Volume One of Three
    </h3>
    <h2>
      FROM THE INVASION OF JULIUS CÆSAR <br /> <br /> TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF
      JAMES THE SECOND,
    </h2>
    <h1>
      BY DAVID HUME, ESQ.
    </h1>
    <h2>
      1688
    </h2>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <h4>
      London: James S. Virtue, City Road and Ivy Lane<br /> New York: 26 John
      Street<br /> 1860<br /> <br /> And<br /> <br /> Philadelphia:<br /> J. B.
      Lippincott &amp; Co.<br /> March 17, 1901
    </h4>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <h2>
      In Three Volumes:
    </h2>
    <table summary="">
      <tr>
        <td>
          <p>
            <b>VOLUME ONE: The History Of England From The Invasion Of Julius
            Cæsar To <br /> The End Of The Reign Of James The Second............
            By David Hume, Esq. <br /> <br /> VOLUME TWO: Continued from the Reign
            of William and Mary to the Death of <br /> George
            II........................................... by Tobias Smollett.
            <br /> <br /> VOLUME THREE: From the Accession of George III. to the
            Twenty-Third Year <br /> of the Reign of Queen
            Victoria............... by E. Farr and E.H. Nolan.</b>
          </p>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <h1>
      VOLUME ONE
    </h1>
    <h2>
      Part E. <br /> <br /> <i>From Charles I. to Cromwell</i>
    </h2>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <div class="fig" >
      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_frontis_hume.jpg" title="PORTRAIT OF DAVID HUME"
      alt="Frontispiece.jpg  Portrait of Hume. "  /><br />
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      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-titlepage12.jpg"
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    <p>
      <br /> <br /> [A click on any of the following images will enlarge them to
      full size.] <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <hr />
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <blockquote>
      <p class="toc">
        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
      </p>
      <p>
        <br />
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER L. </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> CHARLES I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER LI. </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> CHARLES I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER LII </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> CHARLES I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER LIII </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> CHARLES I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER LIV. </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> CHARLES I </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER LV. </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> CHARLES I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER LVI. </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> CHARLES I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER LVII </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> CHARLES I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER LVIII </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0018"> CHARLES I </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER LIX. </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0020"> CHARLES I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER LX. </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0022"> THE COMMONWEALTH. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER LXI. </a>
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <a href="#link2H_4_0024"> THE COMMONWEALTH. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER LXII </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#link2H_NOTE"> NOTES </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
      </p>
      <p class="toc">
        <big><b>ILLUSTRATIONS</b></big>
      </p>
      <p>
        <br />
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#linkimage-0001"> Charles I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#linkimage-0002"> Sir Edmond Hambden </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#linkimage-0003"> Earl of Strafford </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#linkimage-0004"> Gloucester </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#linkimage-0005"> Carisbroke Castle </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#linkimage-0006"> Hurst Castle </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#linkimage-0007"> Charles I. </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#linkimage-0008"> Cromwell </a>
      </p>
      <p>
        <a href="#linkimage-0009"> Admiral Blake </a>
      </p>
    </blockquote>
    <p>
      <br /> <br />
    </p>
    <hr />
    <p>
      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
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    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
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    <h2>
      CHAPTER L.
    </h2>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
      <!-- IMG --></a> <a href="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_597_charles1a.jpg">ENLARGE</a>
    </p>
    <div class="fig" >
      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_597_charles1a_th.jpg" title="Charles I."
      alt="1-597-charles1a.jpg  Charles I. "  /><br />
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      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
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    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHARLES I.
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1625.
    </p>
    <p>
      No sooner had Charles taken into his hands the reins of government, than
      he showed an impatience to assemble the great council of the nation; and
      he would gladly, for the sake of despatch, have called together the same
      parliament which had sitten under his father, and which lay at that time
      under prorogation. But being told that this measure would appear unusual,
      he issued writs for summoning a new parliament on the seventh of May; and
      it was not without regret that the arrival of the princess Henrietta, whom
      he had espoused by proxy, obliged him to delay, by repeated prorogations,
      their meeting till the eighteenth of June, when they assembled at
      Westminster for the despatch of business. The young prince, unexperienced
      and impolitic, regarded as sincere all the praises and caresses with which
      he had been loaded while active in procuring the rupture with the house of
      Austria. And besides that he labored under great necessities, he hastened
      with alacrity to a period when he might receive the most undoubted
      testimony of the dutiful attachment of his subjects. His discourse to the
      parliament was full of simplicity and cordiality. He lightly mentioned the
      occasion which he had for supply.[*] He employed no intrigue to influence
      the suffrages of the members. He would not even allow the officers of the
      crown, who had seats in the house, to mention any particular sum which
      might be expected by him Secure of the affections of the commons, he was
      resolved that their bounty should be entirely their own deed; unasked,
      unsolicited; the genuine fruit of sincere confidence and regard.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 171. Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 346.
     Franklyn, p. 108.
</pre>
    <p>
      The house of commons accordingly took into consideration the business of
      supply. They knew that all the money granted by the last parliament had
      been expended on naval and military armaments; and that great
      anticipations were likewise made on the revenues of the crown. They were
      not ignorant that Charles was loaded with a large debt, contracted by his
      father, who had borrowed money both from his own subjects and from foreign
      princes. They had learned by experience, that the public revenue could
      with difficulty maintain the dignity of the crown, even under the ordinary
      charges of government. They were sensible, that the present war was very
      lately the result of their own importunate applications and entreaties,
      and that they had solemnly engaged to support their sovereign in the
      management of it. They were acquainted with the difficulty of military
      enterprises directed against the whole house of Austria; against the king
      of Spain, possessed of the greatest riches and most extensive dominions of
      any prince in Europe; against the emperor Ferdinand, hitherto the most
      fortunate monarch of his age, who had subdued and astonished Germany by
      the rapidity of his victories. Deep impressions they saw must be made by
      the English sword, and a vigorous offensive war be waged against these
      mighty potentates, ere they would resign a principality which they had now
      fully subdued, and which they held in secure possession, by its being
      surrounded with all their other territories.
    </p>
    <p>
      To answer, therefore, all these great and important ends; to satisfy their
      young king in the first request which he made them; to prove their sense
      of the many royal virtues, particularly economy, with which Charles was
      endued; the house of Commons, conducted by the wisest and ablest senators
      that had ever flourished in England, thought proper to confer on the king
      a supply of two subsidies, amounting to one hundred and twelve thousand
      pounds.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * A subsidy was now fallen to about fifty-six thousand
     pounds Cabala, p. 224, 1st edit.
</pre>
    <p>
      This measure, which discovers rather a cruel mockery of Charles, than any
      serious design of supporting him, appears so extraordinary, when
      considered in all its circumstances, that it naturally summons up our
      attention, and raises an inquiry concerning the causes of a conduct
      unprecedented in an English parliament. So numerous an assembly, composed
      of persons of various dispositions, was not, it is probable, wholly
      influenced by the same motives; and few declared openly their true reason.
      We shall, therefore, approach nearer to the truth, if we mention all the
      views which the present conjuncture could suggest to them.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is not to be doubted, but spleen and ill will against the duke of
      Buckingham had an influence with many. So vast and rapid a fortune, so
      little merited, could not fail to excite public envy; and however men's
      hatred might have been suspended for a moment, while the duke's conduct
      seemed to gratify their passions and their prejudices, it was impossible
      for him long to preserve the affections of the people. His influence over
      the modesty of Charles exceeded even that which he had acquired over the
      weakness of James; nor was any public measure conducted but by his counsel
      and direction. His vehement temper prompted him to raise suddenly, to the
      highest elevation, his flatterers and dependants; and upon the least
      occasion of displeasure, he threw them down with equal impetuosity and
      violence. Implacable in his hatred, fickle in his friendships, all men
      were either regarded as his enemies, or dreaded soon to become such. The
      whole power of the kingdom was grasped by his insatiable hand; while he
      both engrossed the entire confidence of his master, and held invested in
      his single person the most considerable offices of the crown.
    </p>
    <p>
      However the ill humor of the commons might have been increased by these
      considerations, we are not to suppose them the sole motives. The last
      parliament of James, amidst all their joy and festivity, had given him a
      supply very disproportioned to his demand, and to the occasion. And as
      every house of commons which was elected during forty years, succeeded to
      all the passions and principles of their predecessors, we ought rather to
      account for this obstinacy from the general situation of the kingdom
      during that whole period, than from any circumstances which attended this
      particular conjuncture.
    </p>
    <p>
      The nation was very little accustomed at that time to the burden of taxes,
      and had never opened their purses in any degree for supporting their
      sovereign. Even Elizabeth, notwithstanding her vigor and frugality, and
      the necessary wars in which she was engaged, had reason to complain of the
      commons in this particular; nor could the authority of that princess,
      which was otherwise almost absolute, ever extort from them the requisite
      supplies. Habits, more than reason, we find in every thing to be the
      governing principle of mankind. In this view, likewise, the sinking of the
      value of subsidies must be considered as a loss to the king. The
      parliament, swayed by custom, would not augment their number in the same
      proportion.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Puritanical party, though disguised, had a great authority over the
      kingdom; and many of the leaders among the commons had secretly embraced
      the rigid tenets of that sect. All these were disgusted with the court,
      both by the prevalence of the principles of civil liberty essential to
      their party, and on account of the restraint under which they were held by
      the established hierarchy. In order to fortify himself against the
      resentment of James, Buckingham had affected popularity, and entered into
      the cabals of the Puritans: but, being secure of the confidence of
      Charles, he had since abandoned this party; and on that account was the
      more exposed to their hatred and resentment. Though the religious schemes
      of many of the Puritans, when explained, appear pretty frivolous, we are
      not thence to imagine that they were pursued by none but persons of weak
      understandings. Some men of the greatest parts and most extensive
      knowledge that the nation at this time produced, could not enjoy any peace
      of mind, because obliged to hear prayers offered up to the Divinity by a
      priest covered with a white linen vestment.
    </p>
    <p>
      The match with France, and the articles in favor of Catholics which were
      suspected to be in the treaty, were likewise causes of disgust to this
      whole party: though it must be remarked, that the connections with that
      crown were much less obnoxious to the Protestants, and less agreeable to
      the Catholics, than the alliance formerly projected with Spain, and were
      therefore received rather with pleasure than dissatisfaction.
    </p>
    <p>
      To all these causes we must yet add another, of considerable moment. The
      house of commons, we may observe, was almost entirely governed by a set of
      men of the most uncommon capacity and the largest views; men who were now
      formed into a regular party, and united, as well by fixed aims and
      projects, as by the hardships which some of them had undergone in
      prosecution of them. Among these we may mention the names of Sir Edward
      Coke, Sir Edwin Sandys, Sir Robert Philips, Sir Francis Seymour, Sir
      Dudley Digges, Sir John Elliot, Sir Thomas Wentworth, Mr. Selden, and Mr.
      Pym. Animated with a warm regard to liberty, these generous patriots saw
      with regret an unbounded power exercised by the crown, and were resolved
      to seize the opportunity which the king's necessities offered them, of
      reducing the prerogative within more reasonable compass. Though their
      ancestors had blindly given way to practices and precedents favorable to
      kingly power, and had been able, notwithstanding, to preserve some small
      remains of liberty, it would be impossible, they thought, when all these
      pretensions were methodised, and prosecuted by the increasing knowledge of
      the age, to maintain any shadow of popular government, in opposition to
      such unlimited authority in the sovereign. It was necessary to fix a
      choice; either to abandon entirely the privileges of the people, or to
      secure them by firmer and more precise barriers than the constitution had
      hitherto provided for them. In this dilemma, men of such aspiring
      geniuses, and such independent fortunes, could not long deliberate: they
      boldly embraced the side of freedom, and resolved to grant no supplies to
      their necessitous prince, without extorting concessions in favor of civil
      liberty. The end they esteemed beneficent and noble; the means, regular
      and constitutional. To grant or refuse supplies was the undoubted
      privilege of the commons. And as all human governments, particularly those
      of a mixed frame, are in continual fluctuation, it was as natural, in
      their opinion, and allowable, for popular assemblies to take advantage of
      favorable incidents, in order to secure the subject, as for monarchs, in
      order to extend their own authority. With pleasure they beheld the king
      involved in a foreign war, which rendered him every day more dependent on
      the parliament; while at the same time the situation of the kingdom, even
      without any military preparations, gave it sufficient security against all
      invasion from foreigners. Perhaps, too, it had partly proceeded from
      expectations of this nature, that the popular leaders had been so urgent
      for a rupture with Spain; nor is it credible, that religious zeal could so
      far have blinded all of them, as to make them discover, in such a measure,
      any appearance of necessity, or any hopes of success.
    </p>
    <p>
      But, however natural all these sentiments might appear to the country
      party, it is not to be imagined that Charles would entertain the same
      ideas. Strongly prejudiced in favor of the duke, whom he had heard so
      highly extolled in parliament, he could not conjecture the cause of so
      sudden an alteration in their opinions. And when the war which they
      themselves had so earnestly solicited, was at last commenced, the
      immediate desertion of their sovereign could not but seem very
      unaccountable. Even though no further motive had been suspected, the
      refusal of supply in such circumstances would naturally to him appear
      cruel and deceitful: but when he perceived that this measure proceeded
      from an intention of encroaching on his authority, he failed not to regard
      these aims as highly criminal and traitorous. Those lofty ideas of
      monarchical power which were very commonly adopted during that age, and to
      which the ambiguous nature of the English constitution gave so plausible
      an appearance, were firmly rivetted in Charles; and however moderate his
      temper, the natural and unavoidable prepossessions of self-love, joined to
      the late uniform precedents in favor of prerogative, had made him regard
      his political tenets as certain and uncontroverted. Taught to consider
      even the ancient laws and constitution more as lines to direct his
      conduct, than barriers to withstand his power; a conspiracy to erect new
      ramparts, in order to straiten his authority, appeared but one degree
      removed from open sedition and rebellion. So atrocious in his eyes was
      such a design, that he seems even unwilling to impute it to the commons;
      and though he was constrained to adjourn the parliament by reason of the
      plague, which at that time raged in London, he immediately reassembled
      them at Oxford, and made a new attempt to gain from them some supplies in
      such an urgent necessity.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles now found himself obliged to depart from that delicacy which he
      had formerly maintained. By himself or his ministers he entered into a
      particular detail, both of the alliances which he had formed, and of the
      military operations which he had projected.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Dugdale, p. 25, 26.
</pre>
    <p>
      He told the parliament, that, by a promise of subsidies, he had engaged
      the king of Denmark to take part in the war; that this monarch intended to
      enter Germany by the north, and to rouse to arms those princes who
      impatiently longed for an opportunity of asserting the liberty of the
      empire; that Mansfeldt had undertaken to penetrate with an English army
      into the Palatinate, and by that quarter to excite the members of the
      evangelical unions that the states must be supported in the unequal
      warfare which they maintained with Spain; that no less a sum than seven
      hundred thousand pounds a year had been found, by computation, requisite
      for all these purposes; that the maintenance of the fleet, and the defence
      of Ireland, demanded an annual expense of four hundred thousand pounds;
      that he himself had already exhausted and anticipated, in the public
      service, his whole revenue, and had scarcely left sufficient for the daily
      subsistence of himself and his family;[*] that on his accession to the
      crown, he found a debt of above three hundred thousand pounds, contracted
      by his father in support of the palatine; and that while prince of Wales,
      he had himself contracted debts, notwithstanding his great frugality, to
      the amount of seventy thousand pounds, which he had expended entirely on
      naval and military armaments. After mentioning all these facts, the king
      even condescended to use entreaties. He said, that this request was the
      first that he had ever made them: that he was young, and in the
      commencement of his reign; and if he now met with kind and dutiful usage,
      it would endear to him the use of parliaments, and would forever preserve
      an entire harmony between him and his people.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      To these reasons the commons remained inexorable. Notwithstanding that the
      king's measures, on the supposition of a foreign war, which they had
      constantly demanded, were altogether unexceptionable, they obstinately
      refused any further aid. Some members, favorable to the court, having
      insisted on an addition of two fifteenths to the former supply, even this
      pittance was refused;[***] though it was known that a fleet and army were
      lying at Portsmouth, in great want of pay and provisions; and that
      Buckingham, the admiral, and the treasurer of the navy, had advanced on
      their own credit near a hundred thousand pounds for the sea service.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 396.

     ** Rush, vol. i. p. 177, 178, etc. Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p.
     399. Franklyn, p. 108, 109. Journ. 10th Aug. 1625.

     *** Rush, vol. i. p. 190.

     **** Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 390.
</pre>
    <p>
      Besides all their other motives, the house of commons had made a
      discovery, which, as they wanted but a pretence for their refusal,
      inflamed them against the court and against the duke of Buckingham. When
      James deserted the Spanish alliance, and courted that of France, he had
      promised to furnish Lewis, who was entirely destitute of naval force, with
      one ship of war, together with seven armed vessels hired from the
      merchants. These the French court had pretended they would employ against
      the Genoese, who, being firm and useful allies to the Spanish monarchy,
      were naturally regarded with an evil eye, both by the king of France and
      of England. When these vessels, by Charles's orders, arrived at Dieppe,
      there arose a strong suspicion that they were to serve against Rochelle.
      The sailors were inflamed. That race of men, who are at present both
      careless and ignorant in all matters of religion, were at that time only
      ignorant. They drew up a remonstrance to Pennington, their commander, and
      signing all their names in a circle, lest he should discover the
      ringleaders, they laid it under his prayer-book. Pennington declared that
      he would rather be hanged in England for disobedience, than fight against
      his brother Protestants in France. The whole squadron sailed immediately
      to the Downs. There they received new orders from Buckingham, lord
      admiral, to return to Dieppe. As the duke knew that authority alone would
      not suffice, he employed much art and many subtleties to engage them to
      obedience; and a rumor which was spread, that peace had been concluded
      between the French king and the Hugonots, assisted him in his purpose.
      When they arrived at Dieppe, they found that they had been deceived. Sir
      Ferdinando Gorges, who commanded one of the vessels, broke through and
      returned to England. All the officers and sailors of all the other ships,
      notwithstanding great offers made them by the French, immediately
      deserted. One gunner alone preferred duty towards his king to the cause of
      religion; and he was afterwards killed in charging a cannon before
      Rochelle.[*] The care which historians have taken to record this frivolous
      event, proves with what pleasure the news was received by the nation.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Franklyn, p. 09. Rush. vol. i. p. 175, 176, etc., 325,
     326, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      The house of commons, when informed of these transactions, showed the same
      attachment with the sailors for the Protestant religion; nor was their
      zeal much better guided by reason and sound policy. It was not considered
      that it was highly probable the king and the duke themselves had here been
      deceived by the artifices of France, nor had they any hostile intention
      against the Hugonots; that, were it otherwise yet might their measures be
      justified by the most obvious and most received maxims of civil policy;
      that, if the force of Spain were really so exorbitant as the commons
      imagined, the French monarch was the only prince that could oppose its
      progress, and preserve the balance of Europe; that his power was at
      present fettered by the Hugonots, who, being possessed of many privileges,
      and even of fortified towns, formed an empire within his empire, and kept
      him in perpetual jealousy and inquietude; that an insurrection had been at
      that time wantonly and voluntarily formed by their leaders, who, being
      disgusted in some court intrigue, took advantage of the never failing
      pretence of religion, in order to cover their rebellion, that the Dutch,
      influenced by these views, had ordered a squadron of twenty ships to join
      the French fleet employed against the inhabitants of Rochelle;[*] that the
      Spanish monarch, sensible of the same consequences, secretly supported the
      Protestants in France; and that all princes had ever sacrificed to reasons
      of state the interests of their religion in foreign countries. All these
      obvious considerations had no influence. Great murmurs and discontents
      still prevailed in parliament. The Hugonots, though they had no ground of
      complaint against the French court, were thought to be as much entitled to
      assistance from England, as if they had taken arms in defence of their
      liberties and religion against the persecuting rage of the Catholics. And
      it plainly appears from this incident, as well as from many others, that,
      of all European nations, the British were at that time, and till long
      after, the most under the influence of that religious spirit which tends
      rather to inflame bigotry than increase peace and mutual charity.
    </p>
    <p>
      On this occasion, the commons renewed their eternal complaints against the
      growth of Popery, which was ever the chief of their grievances, and now
      their only one.[**] They demanded a strict execution of the penal laws
      against the Catholics, and remonstrated against some late pardons granted
      to priests.[***] They attacked Montague, one of the king's chaplains, on
      account of a moderate book which he had lately published, and which, to
      their great disgust, saved virtuous Catholics, as well as other
      Christians, from eternal torments.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Journ. 18th April, 1626.

     ** Franklyn, p. 3, etc.

     *** Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 374. Journ. 1st Aug. 1625.

     **** Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 353 Journ. 7th July 1625.
</pre>
    <p>
      Charles gave them a gracious and a compliant answer to all their
      remonstrances. He was, however, in his heart, extremely averse to these
      furious measures. Though a determined Protestant, by principle as well as
      inclination, he had entertained no violent horror against Popery: and a
      little humanity, he thought, was due by the nation to the religion of
      their ancestors. That degree of liberty which is now indulged to
      Catholics, though a party much more obnoxious than during the reign of the
      Stuarts, it suited neither with Charles's sentiments nor the humor of the
      age to allow them. An abatement of the more rigorous laws was all he
      intended; and his engagements with France, notwithstanding that their
      regular execution had never been promised or expected, required of him
      some indulgence. But so unfortunate was this prince, that no measure
      embraced during his whole reign, was ever attended with more unhappy and
      more fatal consequences.
    </p>
    <p>
      The extreme rage against Popery was a sure characteristic of Puritanism.
      The house of commons discovered other infallible symptoms of the
      prevalence of that party. They petitioned the king for replacing such able
      clergy as had been silenced for want of conformity to the ceremonies.[*]
      They also enacted laws for the strict observance of Sunday, which the
      Puritans affected to call the Sabbath, and which they sanctified by the
      most melancholy indolence.[**] It is to be remarked, that the different
      appellations of this festival were at that time known symbols of the
      different parties.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, finding that the parliament was resolved to grant him no supply,
      and would furnish him with nothing but empty protestations of duty,[***]
      or disagreeable complaints of grievances, took advantage of the
      plague,[****] which began to appear at Oxford, and on that pretence
      immediately dissolved them. By finishing the session with a dissolution,
      instead of a prorogation, he sufficiently expressed his displeasure at
      their conduct.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 281.

     ** 1 Car. I. cap. 1. Journ. 21st June, 1625.

     *** Franklyn, p. 113. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 190.

     **** The plague was really so violent, that it had been
     moved in the house, at the beginning of the session, to
     petition the king to adjourn them. (Journ. 21st June, 1625.)
     So it was impossible to enter upon grievances, even if there
     had been any. The only business of the parliament was to
     give supply, which was so much wanted by the king, in order
     to carry on the war in which they had engaged him.
</pre>
    <p>
      To supply the want of parliamentary aids, Charles issued privy seals for
      borrowing money from his subjects.[*] The advantage reaped by this
      expedient was a small compensation for the disgust which it occasioned. By
      means, however, of that supply, and by other expedients, he was, though
      with difficulty, enabled to equip his fleet. It consisted of eighty
      vessels, great and small; and carried an board an army of ten thousand
      men. Sir Edward Cecil, lately created Viscount Wimbleton, was intrusted
      with the command. He sailed immediately for Cadiz, and found the bay full
      of Spanish ships of great value. He either neglected to attack these ships
      or attempted it preposterously. The army was landed, and a fort taken; but
      the undisciplined soldiers, finding store of wine, could not be restrained
      from the utmost excesses. Further stay appearing fruitless, they were
      reëmbarked; and the fleet put to sea with an intention of intercepting the
      Spanish galleons. But the plague having seized the seamen and soldiers,
      they were obliged to abandon all hopes of this prize, and return to
      England. Loud complaints were made against the court for intrusting so
      important a command to a man like Cecil, whom, though he possessed great
      experience, the people, judging by the event, esteemed of slender
      capacity,[**]
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1626.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, having failed of so rich a prize, was obliged again to have
      recourse to a parliament. Though the ill success of his enterprises
      diminished his authority, and showed every day more plainly the imprudence
      of the Spanish war; though the increase of his necessities rendered him
      more dependent, and more exposed to the encroachments of the commons, he
      was resolved to try once more that regular and constitutional expedient
      for supply. Perhaps, too, a little political art, which at that time he
      practised, was much trusted to. He had named four popular leaders,
      sheriffs of counties; Sir Edward Coke, Sir Robert Philips, Sir Thomas
      Wentworth, and Sir Francis Seymour; and, though the question had been
      formerly much contested,[***] he thought that he had by that means
      incapacitated them from being elected members. But his intention, being so
      evident, rather put the commons more upon their guard. Enow of patriots
      still remained to keep up the ill humor of the house; and men needed but
      little instruction or rhetoric to recommend to them practices which
      increased their own importance and consideration. The weakness of the
      court, also, could not more evidently appear, than by its being reduced to
      use so ineffectual an expedient, in order to obtain an influence over the
      commons.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 192. Parl. Hist, vol. vi. p. 407.

     ** Franklyn, p. 113. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 196.

     *** It is always an express clause in the writ of summons,
     that no sheriff shall be chosen; but the contrary practice
     had often prevailed D'Ewes, p. 38. Yet still great doubts
     were entertained on this head. See Journ. 9th April, 1614.
</pre>
    <p>
      The views, therefore, of the last parliament were immediately adopted; as
      if the same men had been every where elected, and no time had intervened
      since their meeting. When the king laid before the house his necessities,
      and asked for supply, they immediately voted him three subsidies and three
      fifteenths; and though they afterwards added one subsidy more, the sum was
      little proportioned to the greatness of the occasion, and ill fitted to
      promote those views of success and glory, for which the young prince, in
      his first enterprise, so ardently longed. But this circumstance was not
      the most disagreeable one. The supply was only voted by the commons. The
      passing of that vote into a law was reserved till the end of the
      session.[*] A condition was thereby made, in a very undisguised manner,
      with their sovereign. Under color of redressing grievances, which during
      this short reign could not be very numerous, they were to proceed in
      regulating and controlling every part of government which displeased them;
      and if the king either cut them short in this undertaking, or refused
      compliance with their demands, he must not expect any supply from the
      commons. Great dissatisfaction was expressed by Charles at a treatment
      which he deemed so harsh and undutiful.[**] But his urgent necessities
      obliged him to submit; and he waited with patience, observing to what side
      they would turn themselves.
    </p>
    <p>
      The duke of Buckingham, formerly obnoxious to the public, became every day
      more unpopular, by the symptoms which appeared both of his want of temper
      and prudence, and of the uncontrolled ascendant which he had acquired over
      his master.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Journ. 27th March, 1626.

     ** Parliamentary History, vol. vi. p. 449. Rushworth, vol. i.
     p. 224.

     *** His credit with the king had given him such influence,
     that he had no less than twenty proxies granted him this
     parliament by so many peers; which occasioned a vote, that
     no peer should have above two proxies. The earl of
     Leicester, in 1585, had once ten proxies D'Ewes, p. 314.
</pre>
    <p>
      Two violent attacks he was obliged this session to sustain, one from the
      earl of Bristol, another from the house of commons.
    </p>
    <p>
      As long as James lived, Bristol, secure of the concealed favor of that
      monarch, had expressed all duty and obedience; in expectation that an
      opportunity would offer of reinstating himself in his former credit and
      authority. Even after Charles's accession he despaired not. He submitted
      to the king's commands of remaining at his country seat, and of absenting
      himself from parliament. Many trials he made to regain the good opinion of
      his master; but finding them all fruitless, and observing Charles to be
      entirely governed by Buckingham, his implacable enemy, he resolved no
      longer to keep any measures with the court. A new spirit he saw, and a new
      power arising in the nation; and to these he was determined for the future
      to trust for his security and protection.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the parliament was summoned, Charles, by a stretch of prerogative,
      had given orders that no writ, as is customary, should be sent to
      Bristol.[*] That nobleman applied to the house of lords by petition; and
      craved their good offices with the king for obtaining what was his due as
      a peer of the realm. His writ was sent him, but accompanied with a letter
      from the lord keeper Coventry, commanding him, in the king's name, to
      absent himself from parliament. This letter Bristol conveyed to the lords,
      and asked advice how to proceed in so delicate a situation.[**] The king's
      prohibition was withdrawn, and Bristol took his seat. Provoked at these
      repeated instances of vigor, which the court denominated contumacy,
      Charles ordered his attorney-general to enter an accusation of high
      treason against him. By way of recrimination, Bristol accused Buckingham
      of high treason. Both the earl's defence of himself and accusation of the
      duke remain;[***] and, together with some original letters still extant,
      contain the fullest and most authentic account of all the negotiations
      with the house of Austria. From the whole, the great imprudence of the
      duke evidently appears, and the sway of his ungovernable passions; but it
      would be difficult to collect thence any action which, in the eye of the
      law, could be deemed a crime, much less could subject him to the penalty
      of treason.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 236.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 237. Franklyn, p. 120, etc.
     Franklyn, p. 123, etc
</pre>
    <p>
      The impeachment of the commons was still less dangerous to the duke, were
      it estimated by the standard of law and equity. The house, after having
      voted, upon some queries of Dr. Turner's, "that common fame was a
      sufficient ground of accusation by the commons,"[*] proceeded to frame
      regular articles against Buckingham. They accused him of having united
      many offices in his person; of having bought two of them; of neglecting to
      guard the seas, insomuch that many merchant ships had fallen into the
      hands of the enemy; of delivering ships to the French king in order to
      serve against the Hugonots; of being employed in the sale of honors and
      offices; of accepting extensive grants from the crown; of procuring many
      titles of honor for his kindred; and of administering physic to the late
      king without acquainting his physicians. All these articles appear, from
      comparing the accusation and reply, to be either frivolous or false, or
      both.[**] The only charge which could be regarded as important, was, that
      he had extorted a sum of ten thousand pounds from the East India company,
      and that he had confiscated some goods belonging to French merchants, on
      pretence of their being the property of Spanish. The impeachment never
      came to a full determination; so that it is difficult for us to give a
      decisive opinion with regard to these articles: but it must be confessed
      that the duke's answer in these particulars, as in all the rest, is so
      clear and satisfactory, that it is impossible to refuse our assent to
      it.[***] His faults and blemishes were, in many respects, very great; but
      rapacity and avarice were vices with which he was entirely unacquainted.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 217. Whitloeke, p. 5.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 306, etc., 375, etc. Journ. 25th
     March, 1626.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 7.
</pre>
    <p>
      It is remarkable that the commons, though so much at a loss to find
      articles of charge against Buckingham, never adopted Bristol's accusation,
      or impeached the duke for his conduct in the Spanish treaty, the most
      blamable circumstance in his whole life. He had reason to believe the
      Spaniards sincere in their professions; yet, in order to gratify his
      private passions, he had hurried his master and his country into a war
      pernicious to the interests of both. But so rivetted throughout the nation
      were the prejudices with regard to Spanish deceit and falsehood, that very
      few of the commons seem as yet to have been convinced that they had been
      seduced by Buckingham's narrative: a certain proof that a discovery of
      this nature was not, as is imagined by several historians, the cause of so
      sudden and surprising a variation in the measures of the parliament.[*] <a
      href="#linknote-1" name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1">1</a>
    </p>
    <p>
      While the commons were thus warmly engaged against Buckingham, the king
      seemed desirous of embracing every opportunity by which he could express a
      contempt and disregard for them. No one was at that time sufficiently
      sensible of the great weight which the commons bore in the balance of the
      constitution. The history of England had never hitherto afforded one
      instance where any great movement or revolution had proceeded from the
      lower house. And as their rank, both considered in a body and as
      individuals, was but the second in the kingdom, nothing less than fatal
      experience could engage the English princes to pay a due regard to the
      inclinations of that formidable assembly.
    </p>
    <p>
      The earl of Suffolk, chancellor of the university of Cambridge, dying
      about this time, Buckingham, though lying under impeachment was yet, by
      means of court interest, chosen in his place. The commons resented and
      loudly complained of this affront; and the more to enrage them, the king
      himself wrote a letter to the university, extolling the duke, and giving
      them thanks for his election.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The lord keeper, in the king's name, expressly commanded the house not to
      meddle with his minister and servant, Buckingham; and ordered them to
      finish, in a few days, the bill which they had begun for the subsidies,
      and to make some addition to them; otherwise they must not expect to sit
      any longer.[***] And though these harsh commands were endeavored to be
      explained and mollified, a few days after, by a speech of
      Buckingham's,[****] they failed not to leave a disagreeable impression
      behind them.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note A, at the end of the volume.

     ** Rush worth, vol. i. p. 371.

     *** Parliament. Hist. vol. vi. p. 444.

     **** Parliament. Hist. vol. vi. p 451. Rushworth. vol. i. p.
     225. Franklyn, p. 118.
</pre>
    <p>
      Besides a more stately style which Charles in general affected to this
      parliament than to the last, he went so far, in a message, as to threaten
      the commons that, if they did not furnish him with supplies, he should be
      obliged to try new "counsels." This language was sufficiently clear: yet
      lest any ambiguity should remain, Sir Dudley Carleton, vice-chamberlain,
      took care to explain it. "I pray you, consider," said he, "what these new
      counsels are, or may be. I fear to declare those that I conceive. In all
      Christian kingdoms, you know that parliaments were in use anciently, by
      which those kingdoms were governed in a most flourishing manner; until the
      monarchs began to know their own strength, and seeing the turbulent spirit
      of their parliaments, at length they, by little and little, began to stand
      on their prerogatives, and at last overthrew the parliaments, throughout
      Christendom, except here only with us. Let us be careful then to preserve
      the king's good opinion of parliaments, which bringeth such happiness to
      this nation, and makes us envied of all others, while there is this
      sweetness between his majesty and the commons; lest we lose the repute of
      a free people by our turbulency in parliament."[*] These imprudent
      suggestions rather gave warning than struck terror. A precarious liberty,
      the commons thought, which was to be preserved by unlimited complaisance,
      was no liberty at all. And it was necessary, while yet in their power, to
      secure the constitution by such invincible barriers, that no king or
      minister should ever, for the future, dare to speak such a language to any
      parliament, or even entertain such a project against them.
    </p>
    <p>
      Two members of the house, Sir Dudley Digges and Sir John Elliot, who had
      been employed as managers of the impeachment against the duke, were thrown
      into prison.[**] The commons immediately declared, that they would proceed
      no further upon business till they had satisfaction in their privileges.
      Charles alleged, as the reason of this measure, certain seditious
      expressions, which, he said, had, in their accusation of the duke, dropped
      from these members. Upon inquiry, it appeared that no such expressions had
      been used.[***] The members were released; and the king reaped no other
      benefit from this attempt than to exasperate the house still, and to show
      some degree of precipitancy and indiscretion.
    </p>
    <p>
      Moved by this example, the house of peers were roused from their
      inactivity; and claimed liberty for the earl of Arundel, who had been
      lately confined in the Tower. After many fruitless evasions, the king,
      though somewhat ungracefully, was at last obliged to comply.[****] And in
      this incident it sufficiently appeared, that the lords, how little soever
      inclined to popular courses, were not wanting in a just sense of their own
      dignity.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 359. Whitlocke, p. 6.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 356.

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 358, 361. Franklyn, p. 180.

     **** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 363, 364, etc. Franklyn, p. 181.
</pre>
    <p>
      The ill humor of the commons, thus wantonly irritated by the court, and
      finding no gratification in the legal impeachment of Buckingham, sought
      other objects on which it might exert itself. The never-failing cry of
      Popery here served them in stead. They again claimed the execution of the
      penal laws against Catholics; and they presented to the king a list of
      persons intrusted with offices, most of them insignificant who were either
      convicted or suspected recusants.[*] In this particular they had, perhaps,
      some reason to blame the king's conduct. He had promised to the last house
      of commons a redress of this religious grievance: but he was apt, in
      imitation of his father, to imagine that the parliament, when they failed
      of supplying his necessities, had, on their part, freed him from the
      obligation of a strict performance. A new odium, likewise, by these
      representations, was attempted to be thrown upon Buckingham. His mother,
      who had great influence over him, was a professed Catholic; his wife was
      not free from suspicion: and the indulgence given to Catholics was of
      course supposed to proceed entirely from his credit and authority. So
      violent was the bigotry of the times, that it was thought a sufficient
      reason for disqualifying any one from holding an office, that his wife, or
      relations, or companions were Papists, though he himself were a
      conformist.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      It is remarkable, that persecution was here chiefly pushed on by laymen;
      and that the church was willing to have granted more liberty than would be
      allowed by the commons. The reconciling doctrines, likewise, of Montague
      failed not anew to meet with severe censures from that zealous
      assembly.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Franklyn, p. 195. Rushworth.

     ** See the list in Franklyn and Rushworth.

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 209.
</pre>
    <p>
      The next attack made by the commons, had it prevailed, would have proved
      decisive. They were preparing a remonstranace against the levying of
      tonnage and poundage without consent of parliament. This article, together
      with the new impositions laid on merchandise by James, constituted near
      half of the crown revenues; and by depriving the king of these resources,
      they would have reduced him to total subjection and dependence. While they
      retained such a pledge, besides the supply already promised, they were
      sure that nothing could be refused them. Though, after canvassing the
      matter near three ninths, they found themselves utterly incapable of
      fixing any legal crime upon the duke, they regarded him as an unable, and
      perhaps a dangerous minister; and they intended to present a petition,
      which would then have been equivalent to a command, for removing him from
      his majesty's person and councils.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The king was alarmed at the yoke which he saw prepared for him.
      Buckingham's sole guilt, he thought, was the being his friend and
      favorite.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 400 Franklyn, p. 199.

     ** Franklyn, p. 178.
</pre>
    <p>
      All the other complaints against him were mere pretences. A little before,
      he was the idol of the people. No new crime had since been discovered.
      After the most diligent inquiry, prompted by the greatest malice, the
      smallest appearance of guilt could not be fixed upon him. What idea, he
      asked, must all mankind entertain of his honor, should he sacrifice his
      innocent friend to pecuniary considerations? What further authority should
      he retain in the nation, were he capable, in the beginning of his reign,
      to give, in so signal an instance, such matter of triumph to his enemies,
      and discouragement to his adherents? To-day the commons pretend to wrest
      his minister from him: to-morrow they will attack some branch of his
      prerogative. By their remonstrances, and promises, and protestations, they
      had engaged the crown in a war. As soon as they saw a retreat impossible,
      without waiting for new incidents, without covering themselves with new
      pretences, they immediately deserted him, and refused him all reasonable
      supply. It was evident, that they desired nothing so much as to see him
      plunged in inextricable difficulties, of which they intended to take
      advantage. To such deep perfidy, to such unbounded usurpations, it was
      necessary to oppose a proper firmness and resolution. All encroachments on
      supreme power could only be resisted successfully on the first attempt.
      The sovereign authority was, with some difficulty, reduced from its
      ancient and legal height, but when once pushed downwards, it soon became
      contemptible, and would easily, by the continuance of the same effort, now
      encouraged by success, be carried to the lowest extremity.
    </p>
    <p>
      Prompted by these plausible motives, Charles was determined immediately to
      dissolve the parliament. When this resolution was known, the house of
      peers, whose compliant behavior entitled them to some authority with him,
      endeavored to interpose;[*] and they petitioned him, that he would allow
      the parliament to sit some time longer. "Not a moment longer," cried the
      king hastily;[**] and he soon after ended the session by a dissolution.
    </p>
    <p>
      As this measure was foreseen, the commons took care to finish and disperse
      their remonstrance, which they intended as a justification of their
      conduct to the people. The king likewise, on his part, published a
      declaration, in which he gave the reasons of his disagreement with the
      parliament, and of their sudden dissolution, before they had time to
      conclude any one act.[***] These papers furnished the partisans on both
      sides with ample matter of apology or of recrimination. But all impartial
      men judged, "that the commons, though they had not as yet violated any
      law, yet, by their unpliableness and independence, were insensibly
      changing, perhaps improving, the spirit and genius, while they preserved
      the form of the constitution and that the king was acting altogether
      without any plan; running on in a road surrounded on all sides with the
      most dangerous precipices, and concerting no proper measures, either for
      submitting to the obstinacy of the commons, or for subduing it."
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 398.

     ** Sanderson's Life of Charles I., p. 58.

     *** Franklyn, p. 203, etc Parliament. Hist. vol. vii p. 300
</pre>
    <p>
      After a breach with the parliament, which seemed so difficult to repair,
      the only rational counsel which Charles could pursue, was immediately to
      conclude a peace with Spain, and to render himself, as far as possible,
      independent of his people, who discovered so little inclination to support
      him, or rather who seemed to have formed a determined resolution to
      abridge his authority. Nothing could be more easy in the execution than
      this measure, nor more agreeable to his own and to national interest. But,
      besides the treaties and engagements which he had entered into with
      Holland and Denmark, the king's thoughts were at this time averse to
      pacific counsels. There are two circumstances in Charles's character,
      seemingly incompatible, which attended him during the whole course of his
      reign, and were in part the cause of his misfortunes: he was very steady,
      and even obstinate in his purpose; and he was easily governed, by reason
      of his facility, and of his deference to men much inferior to himself both
      in morals and understanding. His great ends he inflexibly maintained; but
      the means of attaining them he readily received from his ministers and
      favorites, though not always fortunate in his choice. The violent,
      impetuous Buckingham, inflamed with a desire of revenge for injuries which
      he himself had committed, and animated with a love of glory which he had
      not talents to merit, had at this time, notwithstanding his profuse
      licentious life, acquired an invincible ascendant over the virtuous and
      gentle temper of the king.
    </p>
    <p>
      The "new counsels," which Charles had mentioned to the parliament, were
      now to be tried, in order to supply his necessities. Had he possessed any
      military force on which he could rely, it is not improbable, that he had
      at once taken off the mask, and governed without any regard to
      parliamentary privileges: so high an idea had he received of kingly
      prerogative, and so contemptible a notion of the rights of those popular
      assemblies, from which, he very naturally thought, he had met with such
      ill usage. But his army was new levied, ill paid, and worse disciplined;
      nowise superior to the militia, who were much more numerous, and who were
      in a great measure under the influence of the country gentlemen. It
      behoved him, therefore, to proceed cautiously, and to cover his
      enterprises under the pretence of ancient precedents, which, considering
      the great authority commonly enjoyed by his predecessors, could not be
      wanting to him.
    </p>
    <p>
      A commission was openly granted to compound with the Catholics, and agree
      for dispensing with the penal laws enacted against them.[*] By this
      expedient, the king both filled his coffers, and gratified his inclination
      of giving indulgence to these religionists; but he could not have employed
      any branch of prerogative which would have been more disagreeable, or
      would have appeared more exceptionable to his Protestant subjects.
    </p>
    <p>
      From the nobility he desired assistance: from the city he required a loan
      of one hundred thousand pounds. The former contributed slowly; but the
      latter, covering themselves under many pretences and excuses, gave him at
      last a flat refusal.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 413. Whitlocke, p. 7.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 415. Franklyn, p. 206.
</pre>
    <p>
      In order to equip a fleet, a distribution, by order of council, was made
      to all the maritime towns; and each of them was required, with the
      assistance of the adjacent counties, to arm so many vessels as were
      appointed them.[*] The city of London was rated at twenty ships. This is
      the first appearance, in Charles's reign, of ship-money; a taxation which
      had once been imposed by Elizabeth, but which afterwards, when carried
      some steps further by Charles, created such violent discontents.
    </p>
    <p>
      Of some, loans were required:[**] to others the way of benevolence was
      proposed: methods supported by precedent, but always invidious, even in
      times more submissive and compliant. In the most absolute governments,
      such expedients would be regarded as irregular and unequal.
    </p>
    <p>
      These counsels for supply were conducted with some moderation; till news
      arrived, that a great battle was fought between the king of Denmark and
      Count Tilly, the imperial general; in which the former was totally
      defeated. Money now more than ever, became necessary, in order to repair
      so great a breach in the alliance, and to support a prince who was so
      nearly allied to Charles, and who had been engaged in the war chiefly by
      the intrigues, solicitations, and promises of the English monarch. After
      some deliberation, an act of council was passed, importing, that as the
      urgency of affairs admitted not the way of parliament, the most speedy,
      equal, and convenient method of supply was by a "general loan" from the
      subject, according as every man was assessed in the rolls of the last
      subsidy. That precise sum was required which each would have paid, had the
      vote of four subsidies passed into a law: but care was taken to inform the
      people, that the sums exacted were not to be called subsidies, but
      loans.[***] Had any doubt remained, whether forced loans, however
      authorized by precedent, and even by statute, were a violation of liberty,
      and must, by necessary consequence, render all parliaments superfluous,
      this was the proper expedient for opening the eyes of the whole nation.
      The example of Henry VIII., who had once, in his arbitrary reign,
      practiced a like method of levying a regular supply, was generally deemed
      a very insufficient authority.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 415.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 416.

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 418. Whitlocke, p. 8.
</pre>
    <p>
      The commissioners appointed to levy these loans, among other articles of
      secret instruction, were enjoined, "If any shall refuse to lend, and shall
      make delays or excuses, and persist in his obstinacy, that they examine
      him upon oath, whether he has been dealt with to deny or refuse to lend,
      or make an [excuse] for not lending? Who has dealt with him, and what
      speeches or persuasions were used to that purpose? And that they also
      shall charge every such person, in his majesty's name, upon his
      allegiance, not to disclose to any one what his answer was."[*] So violent
      an inquisitorial power, so impracticable an attempt at secrecy, were the
      objects of indignation, and even, in some degree, of ridicule.
    </p>
    <p>
      That religious prejudices might support civil authority, sermons were
      preached by Sibthorpe and Manwaring, in favor of the general loan; and the
      court industriously spread them over the kingdom. Passive obedience was
      there recommended in its full extent, the whole authority of the state was
      represented as belonging to the king alone, and all limitations of law and
      a constitution were rejected as seditious and impious.[**] So openly was
      this doctrine espoused by the court, that Archbishop Abbot, a popular and
      virtuous prelate, was, because he refused to license Sibthorpe's sermon,
      suspended from the exercise of his office, banished from London, and
      confined to one of his country seats.[***] Abbot's principles of liberty,
      and his opposition to Buckingham, had always rendered him very ungracious
      at court, and had acquired him the character of a Puritan. For it is
      remarkable, that this party made the privileges of the nation as much a
      part of their religion, as the church party did the prerogatives of the
      crown: and nothing tended further to recommend among the people, who
      always take opinions in the lump, the whole system and all the principles
      of the former sect. The king soon found by fatal experience, that this
      engine of religion, which with so little necessity was introduced into
      politics, falling under more fortunate management, was played with the
      most terrible success against him.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the king, instigated by anger and necessity, thus employed the whole
      extent of his prerogative, the spirit of the people was far from being
      subdued. Throughout England, many refused these loans; some were even
      active in encouraging their neighbors to insist upon their common rights
      and privileges. By warrant of the council, these were thrown into
      prison.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 419. Franklyn, p. 207.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 422. Franklyn, p. 208.

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 431.

     **** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 429. Franklyn, p. 210.
</pre>
    <p>
      Most of them with patience submitted to confinement, or applied by
      petition to the king, who commonly released them. Five gentlemen alone,
      Sir Thomas Darnel, Sir John Corbet, Sir Walter Earl, Sir John Heveningham,
      and Sir Edmond Hambden, had spirit enough, at their own hazard and
      expense, to defend the public liberties, and to demand releasement, not as
      a favor from the court, but as their due, by the laws of their country.[*]
      No particular cause was assigned of their commitment. The special command
      alone of the king and council was pleaded. And it was asserted, that, by
      law, this was not sufficient reason for refusing bail or releasement to
      the prisoners.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
      <!-- IMG --></a> <a href="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_623_hampden.jpg">ENLARGE</a>
    </p>
    <div class="fig" >
      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_623_hampden_th.jpg" title="Sir Edmond Hambden"
      alt="1-623-hampden.jpg Sir Edmond Hambden "  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      This question was brought to a solemn trial, before the king's bench; and
      the whole kingdom was attentive to the issue of a cause which was of much
      greater consequence than the event of many battles.
    </p>
    <p>
      By the debates on this subject, it appeared, beyond controversy, to the
      nation, that their ancestors had been so jealous of personal liberty, as
      to secure it against arbitrary power in the crown, by six[**] several
      statutes, and by an article[***] of the Great Charter itself, the most
      sacred foundation of the laws and constitution. But the kings of England,
      who had not been able to prevent the enacting of these laws, had
      sufficient authority, when the tide of liberty was spent, to obstruct
      their regular execution; and they deemed it superfluous to attempt the
      formal repeal of statutes which they found so many expedients and
      pretences to elude.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 458. Franklyn, p. 224. Whitlocke, p.
     8.

     ** 25 Edw. III. cap. 4. 28 Edw. III. cap, 3. 37 Edw. III.
     cap. 18 88 Edw. III. cap. 9 42 Edw. III. cap. 3. 1 Richard
     II. cap. 12.

     *** Chap. 29
</pre>
    <p>
      Turbulent and seditious times frequently occurred, when the safety of the
      people absolutely required the confinement of factious leaders; and by the
      genius of the old constitution, the prince, of himself, was accustomed to
      assume every branch of prerogative which was found necessary for the
      preservation of public peace and of his own authority. Expediency, at
      other times, would cover itself under the appearance of necessity; and, in
      proportion as precedents multiplied, the will alone of the sovereign was
      sufficient to supply the place of expediency, of which he constituted
      himself the sole judge. In an age and nation where the power of a
      turbulent nobility prevailed, and where the king had no settled military
      force, the only means that could maintain public peace, was the exertion
      of such prompt and discretionary powers in the crown; and the public
      itself had become so sensible of the necessity, that those ancient laws in
      favor of personal liberty, while often violated, had never been challenged
      or revived during the course of near three centuries. Though rebellious
      subjects had frequently, in the open field, resisted the king's authority,
      no person had been found so bold, while confined and at mercy, as to set
      himself in opposition to regal power, and to claim the protection of the
      constitution against the will of the sovereign. It was not till this age,
      when the spirit of liberty was universally diffused, when the principles
      of government were nearly reduced to a system, when the tempers of men,
      more civilized, seemed less to require those violent exertions of
      prerogative, that these five gentlemen above mentioned, by a noble effort,
      ventured, in this national cause, to bring the question to a final
      determination. And the king was astonished to observe, that a power
      exercised by his predecessors almost without interruption, was found, upon
      trial, to be directly opposite to the clearest laws, and supported by few
      undoubted precedents in courts of judicature. These had scarcely in any
      instance refused bail upon commitments by special command of the king,
      because the persons committed had seldom or never dared to demand it, at
      least to insist on their demand.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1627.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sir Randolf Crew, chief justice, had been displaced, as unfit for the
      purposes of the court: Sir Nicholas Hyde, esteemed more obsequious, had
      obtained that high office: yet the judges, by his direction, went no
      further than to remand the gentlemen to prison, and refuse the bail which
      was offered.[*] Heathe, the attorney-general, insisted that the court, in
      imitation of the judges in the thirty-fourth of Elizabeth,[**] should
      enter a general judgment, that no bail could be granted upon a commitment
      by the king or council.[***] But the judges wisely declined complying. The
      nation, they saw, was already to the last degree exasperated. In the
      present disposition of men's minds, universal complaints prevailed, as if
      the kingdom were reduced to slavery. And the most invidious prerogative of
      the crown, it was said, that of imprisoning the subject, is here openly,
      and solemnly, and in numerous instances, exercised for the most invidious
      purpose; in order to extort loans, or rather subsidies, without consent of
      parliament.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 462.

     ** State Trials, vol. vii. p. 147.

     *** State Trials, vol. vii. p. 161.
</pre>
    <p>
      But this was not the only hardship of which the nation thought they had
      reason to complain. The army which had made the fruitless expedition to
      Cadiz, was dispersed throughout the kingdom; and money was levied upon the
      counties for the payment of their quarters.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The soldiers were billeted upon private houses, contrary to custom, which
      required that, in all ordinary cases, they should be quartered in inns and
      public houses.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Those who had refused or delayed the loan, were sure to be loaded with a
      great number of these dangerous and disorderly guests.
    </p>
    <p>
      Many too, of low condition, who had shown a refractory disposition, were
      pressed into the service, and enlisted in the fleet or army,[***] Sir
      Peter Hayman, for the same reason, was despatched on an errand to the
      Palatinate.[****] Glanville, an eminent lawyer, had been obliged, during
      the former interval of parliament, to accept of an office in the navy.[v]
    </p>
    <p>
      The soldiers, ill paid and undisciplined, committed many crimes and
      outrages, and much increased the public discontents. To prevent these
      disorders, martial law, so requisite to the support of discipline, was
      exercised upon the soldiers. By a contradiction which is natural when the
      people are exasperated, the outrages of the army were complained of; the
      remedy was thought still more intolerable.[v*] Though the expediency, if
      we are not rather to say the necessity, of martial law had formerly been
      deemed of itself a sufficient ground for establishing it, men, now become
      more jealous of liberty, and more refined reasoners in questions of
      government, regarded as illegal and arbitrary every exercise of authority
      which was not supported by express statute or uninterrupted precedent.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 419.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 419.

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 422.

     **** Rushworth, vol i. p. 481.

     v    Parl. Hist. vol. vii. p. 310.

     v**  Rushworth, vol. i. p. 419. Whitlocke, p. 7.
</pre>
    <p>
      It may safely be affirmed, that, except a few courtiers or ecclesiastics,
      all men were displeased with this high exertion of prerogative, and this
      new spirit of administration. Though ancient precedents were pleaded in
      favor of the king's measures, a considerable difference, upon comparison,
      was observed between the cases. Acts of power, however irregular, might
      casually, and at intervals, be exercised by a prince, for the sake of
      despatch or expediency, and yet liberty still subsist in some tolerable
      degree under his administration. But where all these were reduced into a
      system, were exerted without interruption, were studiously sought for, in
      order to supply the place of laws, and subdue the refractory spirit of the
      nation, it was necessary to find some speedy remedy, or finally to abandon
      all hopes of preserving the freedom of the constitution. Nor did moderate
      men esteem the provocation which the king had received, though great,
      sufficient to warrant all these violent measures. The commons as yet had
      nowise invaded his authority: they had only exercised, as best pleased
      them, their own privileges. Was he justifiable, because from one house of
      parliament he had met with harsh and unkind treatment, to make, in
      revenge, an invasion on the rights and liberties of the whole nation?
    </p>
    <p>
      But great was at this time the surprise of all men, when Charles, baffled
      in every attempt against the Austrian dominions, embroiled with his own
      subjects, unsupplied with any treasure but what he extorted by the most
      invidious and most dangerous measures; as if the half of Europe, now his
      enemy, were not sufficient for the exercise of military prowess; wantonly
      attacked France, the other great kingdom in his neighborhood, and engaged
      at once in war against these two powers, whose interests were hitherto
      deemed so incompatible that they could never, it was thought, agree either
      in the same friendships or enmities. All authentic memoirs, both foreign
      and domestic, ascribe to Buckingham's counsels this war with France, and
      represent him as actuated by motives which would appear incredible, were
      we not acquainted with the violence and temerity of his character.
    </p>
    <p>
      The three great monarchies of Europe were at this time ruled by young
      princes, Philip, Louis, and Charles, who were nearly of the same age, and
      who had resigned the government of themselves, and of their kingdoms, to
      their creatures and ministers, Olivarez, Richelieu, and Buckingham. The
      people, whom the moderate temper or narrow genius of their princes would
      have allowed to remain forever in tranquillity, were strongly agitated by
      the emulation and jealousy of the ministers. Above all, the towering
      spirit of Richelieu, incapable of rest, promised an active age, and gave
      indications of great revolutions throughout all Europe.
    </p>
    <p>
      This man had no sooner, by suppleness and intrigue, gotten possession of
      the reins of government, than he formed at once three mighty projects; to
      subdue the turbulent spirits of the great, to reduce the rebellious
      Hugonots, and to curb the encroaching power of the house of Austria.
      Undaunted and implacable, prudent and active, he braved all the opposition
      of the French princes and nobles in the prosecution of his vengeance; he
      discovered and dissipated all their secret cabals and conspiracies. His
      sovereign himself he held in subjection, while he exalted the throne. The
      people, while they lost their liberties, acquired, by means of his
      administration, learning, order, discipline, and renown. That confused and
      inaccurate genius of government, of which France partook in common with
      other European kingdoms, he changed into a simple monarchy; at the very
      time when the incapacity of Buckingham encouraged the free spirit of the
      commons to establish in England a regular system of liberty.
    </p>
    <p>
      However unequal the comparison between these ministers, Buckingham had
      entertained a mighty jealousy against Richelieu; a jealousy not founded on
      rivalship of power and politics, but of love and gallantry; where the duke
      was as much superior to the cardinal, as he was inferior in every other
      particular.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the time when Charles married by proxy the princess Henrietta, the duke
      of Buckingham had been sent to France, in order to grace the nuptials, and
      conduct the new queen into England. The eyes of the French court were
      directed by curiosity towards that man who had enjoyed the unlimited favor
      of two successive monarchs, and who, from a private station, had mounted,
      in the earliest youth, to the absolute government of three kingdoms. The
      beauty of his person, the gracefulness of his air, the splendor of his
      equipage, his fine taste in dress, festivals, and carousals, corresponded
      to the prepossessions entertained in his favor: the affability of his
      behavior, the gayety of his manners, the magnificence of his expense,
      increased still further the general admiration which was paid him. All
      business being already concerted, the time was entirely spent in mirth and
      entertainments; and during those splendid scenes among that gay people,
      the duke found himself in a situation where he was perfectly qualified to
      excel.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 38.
</pre>
    <p>
      But his great success at Paris proved as fatal as his former failure at
      Madrid. Encouraged by the smiles of the court, he dared to carry his
      ambitious addresses to the queen herself; and he failed not to make
      impression on a heart not undisposed to the tender passions. That
      attachment at least of the mind, which appears so delicious, and is so
      dangerous, seems to have been encouraged by the princess; and the duke
      presumed so far on her good graces, that, after his departure, he secretly
      returned upon some pretence, and, paying a visit to the queen, was
      dismissed with a reproof which savored more of kindness than of anger.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Information of this correspondence was soon carried to Richelieu. The
      vigilance of that minister was here further roused by jealousy. He, too,
      either from vanity or politics, had ventured to pay his addresses to the
      queen. But a priest, past middle age, of a severe character, and occupied
      in the most extensive plans of ambition or vengeance, was but an unequal
      match, in that contest, for a young courtier, entirely disposed to gayety
      and gallantry. The cardinal's disappointment strongly inclined him to
      counterwork the amorous projects of his rival. When the duke was making
      preparations for a new embassy to Paris, a message was sent him from
      Louis, that he must not think of such a journey. In a romantic passion he
      swore, "That he would see the queen, in spite of all the power of France;"
      and, from that moment, he determined to engage England in a war with that
      kingdom.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      He first took advantage of some quarrels excited by the queen of England's
      attendants; and he persuaded Charles to dismiss at once all her French
      servants, contrary to the articles of the marriage treaty.[***] He
      encouraged the English ships of war and privateers to seize vessels
      belonging to French merchants; and these he forthwith condemned as prizes,
      by a sentence of the court of admiralty. But finding that all these
      injuries produced only remonstrances and embassies, or at most reprisals,
      on the part of France, he resolved to second the intrigues of the duke of
      Soubize, and to undertake at once a military expedition against that
      kingdom.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Mémoires de Mad. de Motteville.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 38

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 423, 424.
</pre>
    <p>
      Soubize, who, with his brother, the duke of Rohan, was the leader of the
      Hugonot faction, was at that time in London, and strongly solicited
      Charles to embrace the protection of these distressed religionists. He
      represented, that after the inhabitants of Rochelle had been repressed by
      the combined squadrons of England and Holland, after peace was concluded
      with the French king under Charles's mediation, the ambitious cardinal was
      still meditating the destruction of the Hugonots: that preparations were
      silently making in every province of France for the suppression of their
      religion; that forts were erected in order to bridle Rochelle, the most
      considerable bulwark of the Protestants; that the reformed in France cast
      their eyes on Charles as the head of their faith, and considered him as a
      prince engaged by interest, as well as inclination, to support them; that
      so long as their party subsisted, Charles might rely on their attachment
      as much as on that of his own subjects; but if their liberties were once
      ravished from them, the power of France, freed from this impediment, would
      soon become formidable to England, and to all the neighboring nations.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though Charles probably bore but small favor to the Hugonots, who so much
      resembled the Puritans in discipline and worship, in religion and
      politics, he yet allowed himself to be gained by these arguments, enforced
      by the solicitations of Buckingham. A fleet of a hundred sail, and an army
      of seven thousand men, were fitted out for the invasion of France, and
      both of them intrusted to the command of the duke, who was altogether
      unacquainted both with land and sea service. The fleet appeared before
      Rochelle; but so ill concerted were Buckingham's measures, that the
      inhabitants of that city shut their gates and refused to admit allies of
      whose coming they were not previously informed.[*] All his military
      operations showed equal incapacity and inexperience. Instead of attacking
      Oleron, a fertile island, and defenceless, he bent his course to the Isle
      of Rhé, which was well garrisoned and fortified: having landed his men,
      though with some loss, he followed not the blow, but allowed Toiras, the
      French governor, five days' respite, during which St. Martin was
      victualled and provided for a siege.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol i. p. 426.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 8. Sir Philip Warwick, p. 25.
</pre>
    <p>
      He left behind him the small fort of Prie, which could at first have made
      no manner of resistance: though resolved to starve St. Martin, he guarded
      the sea negligently, and allowed provisions and ammunition to be thrown
      into it: despairing to reduce it by famine, he attacked it without having
      made any breach, and rashly threw away the lives of the soldiers: having
      found that a French army had stolen over in small divisions, and had
      landed at Prie, the fort which he had at first overlooked, he began to
      think of a retreat; but made it so unskilfully, that it was equivalent to
      a total rout; he was the last of the army that embarked; and he returned
      to England, having lost two thirds of his land forces; totally discredited
      both as an admiral and a general; and bringing no praise with him, but the
      vulgar one of courage and personal bravery.
    </p>
    <p>
      The duke of Rohan, who had taken arms as soon as Buckingham appeared upon
      the coast, discovered the dangerous spirit of the sect, without being able
      to do any mischief; the inhabitants of Rochelle, who had at last been
      induced to join the English, hastened the vengeance of their master,
      exhausted their provisions in supplying their allies, and were threatened
      with an immediate siege. Such were the fruits of Buckingham's expedition
      against France.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
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    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER LI.
    </h2>
    <p>
      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
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    <div style="height: 4em;">
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    <h2>
      CHARLES I.
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1628.
    </p>
    <p>
      There was reason to apprehend some disorder or insurrection from the
      discontents which prevailed among the people in England. Their liberties,
      they believed, were ravished from them; illegal taxes extorted; their
      commerce which had met with a severe check from the Spanish, was totally
      annihilated by the French war; those military honors transmitted to them
      from their ancestors, had received a grievous stain by two unsuccessful
      and ill-conducted expeditions; scarce an illustrious family but mourned,
      from the last of them, the loss of a son or brother; greater calamities
      were dreaded from the war with these powerful monarchies, concurring with
      the internal disorders under which the nation labored. And these ills were
      ascribed, not to the refractory disposition of the two former parliaments,
      to which they were partly owing, but solely to Charles's obstinacy in
      adhering to the counsels of Buckingham, a man nowise entitled by his
      birth, age, services, or merit, to that unlimited confidence reposed in
      him. To be sacrificed to the interest, policy, and ambition of the great,
      is so much the common lot of the people, that they may appear unreasonable
      who would pretend to complain of it: but to be the victim of the frivolous
      gallantry of a favorite, and of his boyish caprices, seemed the object of
      peculiar indignation.
    </p>
    <p>
      In this situation, it may be imagined the king and the duke dreaded, above
      all things, the assembling of a parliament; but so little foresight had
      they possessed in their enterprising schemes, that they found themselves
      under an absolute necessity of embracing that expedient. The money levied,
      or rather extorted, under color of prerogative, had come in very slowly,
      and had left such ill humor in the nation, that it appeared dangerous to
      renew the experiment. The absolute necessity of supply, it was hoped,
      would engage the commons to forget all past injuries; and, having
      experienced the ill effects of former obstinacy, they would probably
      assemble with a resolution of making some reasonable compliances. The more
      to soften them, it was concerted, by Sir Robert Cotton's advice,[*] that
      Buckingham should be the first person that proposed in council the calling
      of a new parliament. Having laid in this stock of merit, he expected that
      all his former misdemeanors would be overlooked and forgiven; and that,
      instead of a tyrant and oppressor, he should be regarded as the first
      patriot in the nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      The views of the popular leaders were much more judicious and profound.
      When the commons assembled, they appeared to be men of the same
      independent spirit with their predecessors, and possessed of such riches,
      that their property was computed to surpass three times that of the house
      of peers;[**] they were deputed by boroughs and counties, inflamed all of
      them by the late violations of liberty; many of the members themselves had
      been cast into prison, and had suffered by the measures of the court; yet,
      notwithstanding these circumstances, which might prompt them to embrace
      violent resolutions, they entered upon business with perfect temper and
      decorum. They considered that the king, disgusted at these popular
      assemblies, and little prepossessed in favor of their privileges, wanted
      but a fair pretence for breaking with them, and would seize the first
      opportunity offered by any incident, or any undutiful behavior of the
      members. He fairly told them in his first speech, that, "If they should
      not do their duties in contributing to the necessities of the state, he
      must, in discharge of his conscience, use those other means which God had
      put into his hands, in order to save that which the follies of some
      particular men may otherwise put in danger. Take not this for a
      threatening," added the king, "for I scorn to threaten any but my equals;
      but as an admonition from him who, by nature and duty, has most care of
      your preservation and prosperity."[***] The lord keeper, by the king's
      direction, subjoined, "This way of parliamentary supplies as his majesty
      told you, he hath chosen, not as the only way, but as the fittest; not
      because he is destitute of others, but because it is most agreeable to the
      goodness of his own most gracious disposition, and to the desire and weal
      of his people. If this be deferred, necessity and the sword of the enemy
      make way for the others. Remember his majesty's admonition. I say,
      remember it."[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Franklyn, p. 230.

     ** Sanderson, p. 106. Walker, p. 339

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 477. Franklyn, p. 233.

     **** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 479. Franklyn, p. 234
</pre>
    <p>
      From these avowed maxims, the commons foresaw that, if the least handle
      were afforded, the king would immediately dissolve them, and would
      thenceforward deem himself justified for violating, in a manner still more
      open, all the ancient forms of the constitution. No remedy could then be
      looked for but from insurrections and civil war, of which the issue would
      be extremely uncertain, and which must, in all events, prove calamitous to
      the nation. To correct the late disorders in the administration required
      some new laws, which would, no doubt, appear harsh to a prince so enamored
      of his prerogative; and it was requisite to temper, by the decency and
      moderation of their debates, the rigor which must necessarily attend their
      determinations. Nothing can give us a higher idea of the capacity of those
      men who now guided the commons, and of the great authority which they had
      acquired, than the forming and executing of so judicious and so difficult
      a plan of operations.
    </p>
    <p>
      The decency, however, which the popular leaders had prescribed to
      themselves, and recommended to others, hindered them not from making the
      loudest and most vigorous complaints against the grievances under which
      the nation had lately labored. Sir Francis Seymour said, "This is the
      great council of the kingdom; and here with certainty, if not here only,
      his majesty may see, as in a true glass, the state of the kingdom. We are
      called hither by his writs, in order to give him faithful counsel; such as
      may stand with his honor: and this we must do without flattery. We are
      also sent hither by the people, in order to deliver their just grievances:
      and this we must do without fear. Let us not act like Cambyses's judges,
      who, when their approbation was demanded by the prince to some illegal
      measure, said, that 'Though there was a written law, the Persian kings
      might follow their own will and pleasure.' This was base flattery, fitter
      for our reproof than our imitation; and as fear, so flattery, taketh away
      the judgment. For my part, I shall shun both; and speak my mind with as
      much duty as any man to his majesty, without neglecting the public.
    </p>
    <p>
      "But how can we express our affections while we retain our fears; or speak
      of giving, till we know whether we have any thing to give? For if his
      majesty may be persuaded to take what he will, what need we give?
    </p>
    <p>
      "That this hath been done, appeareth by the billeting of soldiers, a thing
      nowise advantageous to the king's service, and a burden to the
      commonwealth: by the imprisonment of gentlemen for refusing the loan, who,
      if they had done the contrary for fear, had been as blamable as the
      projector of that oppressive measure. To countenance these proceedings,
      hath it not been preached in the pulpit, or rather prated, that 'All we
      have is the king's by divine right'? But when preachers forsake their own
      calling, and turn ignorant statesmen, we see how willing they are to
      exchange a good conscience for a bishopric.
    </p>
    <p>
      "He, I must confess, is no good subject, who would not willingly and
      cheerfully lay down his life, when that sacrifice may promote the
      interests of his sovereign, and the good of the commonwealth. But he is
      not a good subject, he is a slave, who will allow his goods to be taken
      from him against his will, and his liberty against the laws of the
      kingdom. By opposing these practices, we shall but tread in the steps of
      our forefathers, who still preferred the public before their private
      interest, nay, before their very lives. It will in us be a wrong done to
      ourselves, to our posterities, to our consciences, if we forego this claim
      and pretension."[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Franklyn p. 243. Rushworth, vol. i, p. 499.
</pre>
    <p>
      "I read of a custom," said Sir Robert Philips, "among the old Romans, that
      once every year they held a solemn festival, in which their slaves had
      liberty, without exception, to speak what they pleased, in order to ease
      their afflicted minds; and, on the conclusion of the festival, the slaves
      severally returned to their former servitudes.
    </p>
    <p>
      "This institution may, with some distinction, well set forth our present
      state and condition. After the revolution of some time, and the grievous
      sufferance of many violent oppressions, we have now at last, as those
      slaves, obtained, for a day, some liberty of speech; but shall not, I
      trust, be hereafter slaves: for we are born free. Yet what new illegal
      burdens our estates and persons have groaned under, my heart yearns to
      think of, my tongue falters to utter.&mdash;&mdash;
    </p>
    <p>
      "The grievances by which we are oppressed, I draw under two heads; acts of
      power against law, and the judgments of lawyers against our liberty."
    </p>
    <p>
      Having mentioned three illegal judgments passed within his memory; that by
      which the Scots, born after James's accession, were admitted to all the
      privileges of English subjects;[** semi-colon inserted, not in scan] that
      by which the new impositions had been warranted; and the late one, by
      which arbitrary imprisonments were authorized; he thus proceeded:&mdash;
    </p>
    <p>
      "I can live, though another, who has no right, be put to live along with
      me; nay, I can live, though burdened with impositions beyond what at
      present I labor under: but to have my liberty, which is the soul of my
      life, ravished from me to have my person pent up in a jail, without relief
      by law, and to be so adjudged,&mdash;O, improvident ancestors! O, unwise
      forefathers! to be so curious in providing for the quiet possession of our
      lands, and the liberties of parliament; and at the same time to neglect
      our personal liberty, and let us lie in prison, and that during pleasure,
      without redress or remedy! If this be law, why do we talk of liberties?
      why trouble ourselves with disputes about a constitution, franchises,
      property of goods, and the like? What may any man call his own, if not the
      liberty of his person?
    </p>
    <p>
      "I am weary of treading these ways; and therefore conclude to have a
      select committee, in order to frame a petition to his majesty for redress
      of these grievances. And this petition, being read, examined, and
      approved, may be delivered to the king; of whose gracious answer we have
      no cause to doubt, our desires being so reasonable, our intentions so
      loyal, and the manner so dutiful. Neither need we fear that this is the
      critical parliament, as has been insinuated; or that this is the way to
      distraction: but assure ourselves of a happy issue. Then shall the king,
      as he calls us his great council, find us his true council, and own us his
      good council."[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Franklyn, p. 245. Parl. Hist. vol. vii. p. 363. Rushworth,
     vol i. p. 502.
</pre>
    <p>
      The same topics were enforced by Sir Thomas Wentworth. After mentioning
      projectors and ill ministers of state, "These," said he, "have introduced
      a privy council, ravishing at once the spheres of all ancient government;
      destroying all liberty; imprisoning us without bail or bond. They have
      taken from us&mdash;What shall I say? Indeed, what have they left us? By
      tearing up the roots of all property, they have taken from us every means
      of supplying the king, and of ingratiating ourselves by voluntary proofs
      of our duty and attachment towards him.
    </p>
    <p>
      "To the making whole all these breaches I shall apply myself, and to all
      these diseases shall propound a remedy. By one and the same thing have the
      king and the people been hurt, and by the same must they be cured. We must
      vindicate&mdash;what? New things? No: our ancient, legal, and vital
      liberties; by reënforcing the laws enacted by our ancestors; by setting
      such a stamp upon them, that no licentious spirit shall dare henceforth to
      invade them. And shall we think this a way to break a parliament? No: our
      desires are modest and just. I speak both for the interest of king and
      people. If we enjoy not these rights, it will be impossible for us to
      relieve him. Let us never, therefore, doubt of a favorable reception from
      his goodness."[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      These sentiments were unanimously embraced by the whole house. Even the
      court party pretended not to plead, in defence of the late measures, any
      thing but the necessity to which the king had been reduced by the
      obstinacy of the two former parliaments. A vote, therefore, was passed,
      without opposition, against arbitrary imprisonments and forced loans.[**]
      And the spirit of liberty having obtained some contentment by this
      exertion, the reiterated messages of the king, who pressed for supply,
      were attended to with more temper. Five subsidies were voted him; with
      which, though much inferior to his wants, he declared himself well
      satisfied; and even tears of affection started in his eye when he was
      informed of this concession. The duke's approbation too was mentioned by
      Secretary Coke; but the conjunction of a subject with the sovereign was
      ill received by the house.[***] Though disgusted with the king, the
      jealousy which they felt for his honor was more sensible than that which
      his unbounded confidence in the duke would allow even himself to
      entertain.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Franklyn, p 243. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 500.

     ** Franklyn, p. 251. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 513. Whitlocke,
     p. 9

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 526, Whitlocke, p. 9.
</pre>
    <p>
      The supply, though voted, was not as yet passed into a law; and the
      commons resolved to employ the interval in providing some barriers to
      their rights and liberties so lately violated. They knew that their own
      vote, declaring the illegality of the former measures, had not, of itself,
      sufficient authority to secure the constitution against future invasion.
      Some act to that purpose must receive the sanction of the whole
      legislature; and they appointed a committee to prepare the model of so
      important a law. By collecting into one effort all the dangerous and
      oppressive claims of his prerogative, Charles had exposed them to the
      hazard of one assault and had further, by presenting a nearer view of the
      consequences attending them, roused the independent genius of the commons.
      Forced loans, benevolences, taxes without consent of parliament, arbitrary
      imprisonments, the billeting of soldiers, martial law; these were the
      grievances complained of, and against these an eternal remedy was to be
      provided. The commons pretended not, as they affirmed, to any unusual
      powers or privileges: they aimed only at securing those which had been
      transmitted them from their ancestors: and their law they resolved to call
      a Petition of Right; as implying that it contained a corroboration or
      explanation of the ancient constitution, not any infringement of royal
      prerogative, or acquisition of new liberties.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the committee was employed in framing the petition of right, the
      favorers of each party, both in parliament and throughout the nation, were
      engaged in disputes about this bill, which, in all likelihood, was to form
      a memorable era in the English government.
    </p>
    <p>
      That the statutes, said the partisans of the commons, which secure English
      liberty, are not become obsolete, appears hence, that the English have
      ever been free, and have ever been governed by law and a limited
      constitution. Privileges in particular, which are founded on the Great
      Charter, must always remain in force, because derived from a source of
      never-failing authority, regarded in all ages as the most sacred contract
      between king and people. Such attention was paid to this charter by our
      generous ancestors, that they got the confirmation of it reiterated thirty
      several times; and even secured it by a rule which, though vulgarly
      received, seems in the execution impracticable. They have established it
      as a maxim "That even a statute which should be enacted in contradiction
      to any article of that charter, cannot have force or validity." But with
      regard to that important article which secures personal liberty, so far
      from attempting at any time any legal infringement of it, they have
      corroborated it by six statutes, and put it out of all doubt and
      controversy. If in practice it has often been violated, abuses can never
      come in the place of rules; nor can any rights or legal powers be derived
      from injury and injustice. But the title of the subject to personal
      liberty not only is founded on ancient, and, therefore, the most sacred
      laws; it is confirmed by the whole analogy of the government and
      constitution. A free monarchy in which every individual is a slave, is a
      glaring contradiction: and it is requisite, where the laws assign
      privileges to the different orders of the state, that it likewise secure
      the independence of the members. If any difference could be made in this
      particular, it were better to abandon even life or property to the
      arbitrary will of the prince; nor would such immediate danger ensue, from
      that concession, to the laws and to the privileges of the people. To
      bereave of his life a man not condemned by any legal trial, is so
      egregious an exercise of tyranny, that it must at once shock the natural
      humanity of princes, and convey an alarm throughout the whole
      commonwealth. To confiscate a man's fortune, besides its being a most
      atrocious act of violence, exposes the monarch so much to the imputation
      of avarice and rapacity, that it will seldom be attempted in any civilized
      government. But confinement, though a less striking, is no less severe a
      punishment; nor is there any spirit so erect and independent, as not to be
      broken by the long continuance of the silent and inglorious sufferings of
      a jail. The power of imprisonment, therefore, being the most natural and
      potent engine of arbitrary government, it is absolutely necessary to
      remove it from a government which is free and legal.
    </p>
    <p>
      The partisans of the court reasoned after a different manner. The true
      rule of government, said they, during any period, is that to which the
      people, from time immemorial, have been accustomed, and to which they
      naturally pay a prompt obedience. A practice which has ever struck their
      senses, and of which they have seen and heard innumerable precedents, has
      an authority with them much superior to that which attends maxims derived
      from antiquated statutes and mouldy records. In vain do the lawyers
      establish it as a principle, that a statute can never be abrogated by
      opposite custom; but requires to be expressly repealed by a contrary
      statute: while they pretend to inculcate an axiom peculiar to English
      jurisprudence, they violate the most established principles of human
      nature; and even by necessary consequence reason in contradiction to law
      itself, which they would represent as so sacred and inviolable. A law, to
      have any authority must be derived from a legislature which has right. And
      whence do all legislatures derive their right, but from long custom and
      established practice? If a statute contrary to public good has at any time
      been rashly voted and assented to, either from the violence of faction or
      the inexperience of senates and princes, it cannot be more effectually
      abrogated by a train of contrary precedents, which prove, that by common
      consent it has been tacitly set aside, as inconvenient and impracticable.
      Such has been the case with all those statutes enacted during turbulent
      times, in order to limit royal prerogative, and cramp the sovereign in his
      protection of the public, and his execution of the laws. But above all
      branches of prerogative, that which is most necessary to be preserved, is
      the power of imprisonment. Faction and discontent, like diseases,
      frequently arise in every political body; and during these disorders, it
      is by the salutary exercise alone of this discretionary power, that
      rebellions and civil wars can be prevented. To circumscribe this power, is
      to destroy its nature: entirely to abrogate it, is impracticable; and the
      attempt itself must prove dangerous, if not pernicious to the public. The
      supreme magistrate, in critical and turbulent times, will never, agreeably
      either to prudence or duty, allow the state to perish, while there remains
      a remedy which, how irregular soever, it is still in his power to apply.
      And if, moved by a regard to public good, he employs any exercise of power
      condemned by recent and express statute, how greedily, in such dangerous
      times, will factious leaders seize this pretence of throwing on his
      government the imputation of tyranny and despotism! Were the alternative
      quite necessary, it were surely much better for human society to be
      deprived of liberty than to be destitute of government.
    </p>
    <p>
      Impartial reasoners will confess that this subject is not, on both sides,
      without its difficulties. Where a general and rigid law is enacted against
      arbitrary imprisonment, it would appear that government cannot, in times
      of sedition and faction, be conducted but by temporary suspensions of the
      law; and such an expedient was never thought of during the age of
      Charles.[**period inserted] The meetings of parliament were too
      precarious, and their determinations might be too dilatory, to serve in
      cases of urgent necessity. Nor was it then conceived, that the king did
      not possess of himself sufficient power for the security and protection of
      his people, or that the authority of these popular assemblies was ever to
      become so absolute, that the prince must always conform himself to it, and
      could never have any occasion to guard against their practices, as well as
      against those of his other subjects.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though the house of lords was not insensible to the reasons urged in favor
      of the pretensions of the commons, they deemed the arguments pleaded in
      favor of the crown still more cogent and convincing. That assembly seems,
      during this whole period, to have acted, in the main, a reasonable and a
      moderate part; and if their bias inclined a little too much, as is
      natural, to the side of monarchy, they were far from entertaining any
      design of sacrificing to arbitrary will the liberties and privileges of
      the nation. Ashley, the king's serjeant, having asserted, in pleading
      before the peers, that the king must sometimes govern by acts of state as
      well as by law, this position gave such offence, that he was immediately
      committed to prison, and was not released but upon his recantation and
      submission.[*] Being, however, afraid lest the commons should go too far
      in their projected petition, the peers proposed a plan of one more
      moderate, which they recommended to the consideration of the other house.
      It consisted merely in a general declaration, that the Great Charter, and
      the six statutes conceived to be explanations of it, stand still in force,
      to all intents and purposes; that, in consequence of the charter and the
      statutes, and by the tenor of the ancient customs and laws of the realm,
      every subject has a fundamental property in his goods, and a fundamental
      liberty of his person; that this property and liberty are as entire at
      present as during any former period of the English government; that in all
      common cases, the common law ought to be the standard of proceedings: "And
      in case that, for the security of his majesty's person, the general safety
      of his people, or the peaceable government of the kingdom, the king shall
      find just cause, for reasons of state, to imprison or restrain any man's
      person, he was petitioned graciously to declare that, within a convenient
      time, he shall and will express the cause of the commitment or restraint,
      either general or special, and, upon a cause so expressed, will leave the
      prisoner immediately to be tried according to the common law of the
      land."[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 10.

     ** State Trials, vol. vii. p. 187. Rushworth, vol. i. p.
     548.
</pre>
    <p>
      Archbishop Abbot was employed by the lords to recommend, in a conference,
      this plan of a petition to the house of commons. The prelate, as was no
      doubt foreseen, from his known principles, was not extremely urgent in his
      applications; and the lower house was fully convinced that the general
      declarations signified nothing, and that the latter clause left their
      liberties rather in a worse condition than before. They proceeded,
      therefore, with great zeal, in framing, the model of a petition which
      should contain expressions more precise, and more favorable to public
      freedom.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king could easily see the consequence of these proceedings. Though he
      had offered, at the beginning of the session, to give his consent to any
      law for the security of the rights and liberties of the people, he had not
      expected that such inroads would be made on his prerogative. In order,
      therefore, to divert the commons from their intention, he sent a message,
      wherein he acknowledged past errors, and promised that hereafter there
      should be no just cause of complaint. And he added, "That the affairs of
      the kingdom press him so, that he could not continue the session above a
      week or two longer: and if the house be not ready by that time to do what
      is fit for themselves, it shall be their own fault."[*] On a subsequent
      occasion, he asked them, "Why demand explanations, if you doubt not the
      performance of the statutes according to their true meaning? Explanations
      will hazard an encroachment upon the prerogative; and it may well be said,
      What need a new law to confirm an old, if you repose confidence in the
      declarations which his majesty made to both houses?"[**] The truth is, the
      Great Charter and the old statutes were sufficiently clear in favor of
      personal liberty: but as all kings of England had ever, in cases of
      necessity or expediency, been accustomed at intervals to elude them; and
      as Charles, in a complication of instances, had lately violated them; the
      commons judged it requisite to enact a new law, which might not be eluded
      or violated by any interpretation, construction, or contrary precedent.
      Nor was it sufficient, they thought, that the king promised to return into
      the way of his predecessors. His predecessors in all times had enjoyed too
      much discretionary power; and by his recent abuse of it, the whole world
      had reason to see the necessity of entirely retrenching it.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king still persevered in his endeavors to elude the petition. He sent
      a letter to the house of lords, in which he went so far as to make a
      particular declaration, "That neither he nor his privy council shall or
      will, at any time hereafter, commit or command to prison, or otherwise
      restrain, any man for not lending money, or for any other cause which, in
      his conscience,[**joined-up though no hyphen] he thought not to concern
      the public good, and the safety of king and people." And he further
      declared, "That he never would be guilty of so base an action as to
      pretend any cause of whose truth he was not fully satisfied."[***] But
      this promise, though enforced to the commons by the recommendation of the
      upper house, made no more impression than all the former messages.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * State Trials, vol. vii. p. 193.

     ** State Trials, vol. vii. p. 196. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 556
</pre>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     *** State Trials, vol. vii. p. 198. Rushworth, vol. i. p.
     560, Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 111.
</pre>
    <p>
      Among the other evasions of the king, we may reckon the proposal of the
      house of peers, to subjoin to the intended petition of right the following
      clause: "We humbly present this petition to your majesty, not only with a
      care of preserving our own liberties, but with due regard to leave entire
      that sovereign power with which your majesty is intrusted for the
      protection, safety, and happiness of your people."[*] Less penetration
      than was possessed by the leaders of the house of commons, could easily
      discover how captious this clause was, and how much it was calculated to
      elude the whole force of the petition.
    </p>
    <p>
      These obstacles, therefore, being surmounted, the petition of right passed
      the commons, and was sent to the upper house.[**] <a href="#linknote-2"
      name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2">2</a> The peers, who were probably
      well pleased in secret that all their solicitations had been eluded by the
      commons, quickly passed the petition without any material alteration; and
      nothing but the royal assent was wanting to give it the force of a law.
      The king accordingly came to the house of peers; sent for the commons;
      and, being seated in his chair of state, the petition was read to him.
      Great was now the astonishment of all men, when, instead of the usual
      concise and clear form by which a bill is either confirmed or rejected
      Charles said, in answer to the petition, "The king willeth, that right be
      done according to the laws and customs of the realm, and that the statutes
      be put into execution; that his subjects may have no cause to complain of
      any wrong or oppression, contrary to their just rights and liberties, to
      the preservation whereof he holds himself in conscience as much obliged as
      of his own prerogative."[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * State Trials, vol. vii. p. 199. Ruskworth, vol. i. p. 561.
     Parl Hist. vol. viii. p. 116. Whitlocke, p. 10.

     ** See note B, at the end of the volume.

     *** State Trials, vol. vii. p. 212. Rushworth, vol. i. p.
     500.
</pre>
    <p>
      It is surprising that Charles, who had seen so many instances of the
      jealousy of the commons, who had himself so much roused that jealousy by
      his frequent evasive messages during this session, could imagine that they
      would rest satisfied with an answer so vague and undeterminate. It was
      evident, that the unusual form alone of the answer must excite their
      attention; that the disappointment must inflame their anger; and that
      therefore it was necessary, as the petition seemed to bear hard on royal
      prerogative, to come early to some fixed resolution, either gracefully to
      comply with it, or courageously to reject it.
    </p>
    <p>
      It happened as might have been foreseen. The commons returned in very ill
      humor. Usually, when in that disposition, their zeal for religion, and
      their enmity against the unfortunate Catholics, ran extremely high. But
      they had already, in the beginning of the session, presented their
      petition of religion and had received a satisfactory answer; though they
      expected that the execution of the laws against Papists would, for the
      future, be no more exact and rigid than they had hitherto found it. To
      give vent to their present indignation, they fell with their utmost force
      on Dr. Manwaring.
    </p>
    <p>
      There is nothing which tends more to excuse, if not to justify, the
      extreme rigor of the commons towards Charles, than his open encouragement
      and avowal of such general principles as were altogether incompatible with
      a limited government. Manwaring had preached a sermon which the commons
      found, upon inquiry, to be printed by special command of the king;[*] and
      when this sermon was looked into, it contained doctrines subversive of all
      civil liberty. It taught, that, though property was commonly lodged in the
      subject, yet, whenever any exigency required supply, all property was
      transferred to the sovereign; that the consent of parliament was not
      necessary for the imposition of taxes; and that the divine laws required
      compliance with every demand, how irregular soever, which the prince
      should make upon his subjects[**] For these doctrines the commons
      impeached Manwaring. The sentence pronounced upon him by the peers was,
      that he should be imprisoned during the pleasure of the house, be fined a
      thousand pounds to the king, make submission and acknowledgment of his
      offence, be suspended during three years, be incapable of holding any
      ecclesiastical dignity or secular office, and that his book be called in
      and burnt.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Parliament. Hist. vol. viii. p. 206.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 585, 594. Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p.
     168, 169, 170, etc. Welwood, p. 44.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 65. Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 212.
</pre>
    <p>
      It may be worthy of notice, that no sooner was the session ended, than
      this man, so justly obnoxious to both houses received a pardon, and was
      promoted to a living of considerable value.[*] Some years after, he was
      raised to the see of St. Asaph. If the republican spirit of the commons
      increased beyond all reasonable bounds, the monarchical spirit of the
      court, this latter, carried to so high a pitch, tended still further to
      augment the former. And thus extremes were every where affected, and the
      just medium was gradually deserted by all men.
    </p>
    <p>
      From Manwaring, the house of commons proceeded to censure the conduct of
      Buckingham, whose name hitherto they had cautiously forborne to
      mention.[**] In vain did the king send them a message, in which he told
      them that the session was drawing near to a conclusion; and desired that
      they would not enter upon new business, nor cast any aspersions on his
      government and ministry.[***] Though the court endeavored to explain and
      soften this message by a subsequent message,[****] as Charles was apt
      hastily to correct any hasty step which he had taken, it served rather to
      inflame than appease the commons; as if the method of their proceedings
      had here been prescribed to them. It was foreseen that a great tempest was
      ready to burst on the duke; and in order to divert it, the king thought
      proper, upon a joint application of the lords and commons,[v] to endeavor
      giving them satisfaction with regard to the petition of right. He came,
      therefore, to the house of peers, and pronouncing the usual form of words,
      "Let it be law, as is desired," gave full sanction and authority to the
      petition. The acclamations with which the house resounded, and the
      universal joy diffused over the nation, showed how much this petition had
      been the object of all men's vows and expectations[v*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 635. Whitlocke, p. 11.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 607.

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 605.

     **** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 610. Parl. Hist vol. viii. p.
     197.

     v    Rushworth, vol. i. p. 613, Journ. 7th June, 1628. Parl.
     Hist. vol. viii. p. 201.

     v*   Rushworth, vol. i. p. 613.
</pre>
    <p>
      It may be affirmed, without any exaggeration, that the king's assent to
      the petition of right produced such a change in the government, as was
      almost equivalent to a revolution; and by circumscribing, in so many
      articles, the royal prerogative gave additional security to the liberties
      of the subject. Yet were the commons far from being satisfied with this
      important concession. Their ill humor had been so much irritated by the
      king's frequent evasions and delays, that it could not be presently
      appeased by an assent which he allowed to be so reluctantly extorted from
      him. Perhaps, too, the popular leaders, implacable and artful, saw the
      opportunity favorable; and, turning against the king those very weapons
      with which he had furnished them, resolved to pursue the victory. The
      bill, however, for five subsidies, which had been formerly voted,
      immediately passed the house; because the granting of that supply was, in
      a manner, tacitly contracted for, upon the royal assent to the petition;
      and had faith been here violated, no further confidence could have
      subsisted between king and parliament. Having made this concession, the
      commons continued to carry their scrutiny into every part of government.
      In some particulars, their industry was laudable; in some, it may be
      liable to censure.
    </p>
    <p>
      A little after writs were issued for summoning this parliament, a
      commission had been granted to Sir Thomas Coventry, lord keeper, the earl
      of Marlborough, treasurer, the earl of Manchester, president of the
      council, the earl of Worcester, privy seal, the duke of Buckingham, high
      admiral, and all the considerable officers of the crown; in the whole,
      thirty-three. By this commission, which, from the number of persons named
      in it, could be no secret, the commissioners were empowered to meet, and
      to concert among themselves the methods of levying money by impositions,
      or otherwise; "Where form and circumstance," as expressed in the
      commission, "must be dispensed with, rather than the substance be lost or
      hazarded."[*] In other words, this was a scheme for finding expedients
      which might raise the prerogative to the greatest height, and render
      parliaments entirely useless. The commons applied for cancelling the
      commission;[**] and were, no doubt, desirous that all the world should
      conclude the king's principles to be extremely arbitrary, and should
      observe what little regard he was disposed to pay to the liberties and
      privileges of his people.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 614. Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 214.

     ** Journ. 13th June, 1628.
</pre>
    <p>
      A commission had likewise been granted, and some money remitted, in order
      to raise a thousand German horse, and transport them into England. These
      were supposed to be levied in order to support the projected impositions
      or excises, though the number seems insufficient for such a purpose,[*]
      The house took notice of this design in severe terms: and no measure,
      surely, could be projected more generally odious to the whole nation. It
      must, however, be confessed, that the king was so far right, that he had
      now at last fallen on the only effectual method for supporting his
      prerogative. But at the same time, he should have been sensible that, till
      provided with a sufficient military force, all his attempts in opposition
      to the rising spirit of the nation, must in the end prove wholly
      fruitless; and that the higher he screwed up the springs of government,
      while he had so little real power to retain them in that forced situation,
      with more fatal violence must they fly out, when any accident occurred to
      restore them to their natural action.
    </p>
    <p>
      The commons next resumed their censure of Buckingham's conduct and
      behavior, against whom they were implacable. They agreed to present a
      remonstrance to the king, in which they recapitulated all national
      grievances and misfortunes, and omitted no circumstance which could render
      the whole administration despicable and odious. The compositions with
      Catholics, they said, amounted to no less than a toleration, hateful to
      God, full of dishonor and disprofit to his majesty, and of extreme scandal
      and grief to his good people: they took notice of the violations of
      liberty above mentioned, against which the petition of right seems to have
      provided a sufficient remedy: they mentioned the decay of trade, the
      unsuccessful expeditions to Cadiz and the Isle of Rhé, the encouragement
      given to Arminians, the commission for transporting German horse, that for
      levying illegal impositions; and all these grievances they ascribed solely
      to the ill conduct of the duke of Buckingham.[**] This remonstrance was,
      perhaps, not the less provoking to Charles, because, joined to the extreme
      acrimony of the subject, there were preserved in it, as in most of the
      remonstrances of that age, an affected civility and submission in the
      language. And as it was the first return which he met with for his late
      beneficial concessions, and for his sacrifices of prerogative,&mdash;the
      greatest by far ever made by an English sovereign,&mdash;nothing could be
      more the object of just and natural indignation.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 612.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 619. Parl. Hist. vol viii. p. 219,
     220, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      It was not without good grounds that the commons were so fierce and
      assuming. Though they had already granted the king the supply of five
      subsidies, they still retained a pledge in their hands, which they thought
      insured them success in all their applications. Tonnage and poundage had
      not yet been granted by parliament; and the commons had artfully, this
      session, concealed their intention of invading that branch of revenue,
      till the royal assent had been obtained to the petition of right, which
      they justly deemed of such importance. They then openly asserted, that the
      levying of tonnage and poundage without consent of parliament, was a
      palpable violation of the ancient liberties of the people, and an open
      infringement of the petition of right, so lately granted.[*] The king, in
      order to prevent the finishing and presenting this remonstrance, came
      suddenly to the parliament, and ended this session by a prorogation.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 628. Journ. 18th 20th June, 1628.

     ** Journ, 26th June, 1628.
</pre>
    <p>
      Being freed for some time from the embarrassment of this assembly, Charles
      began to look towards foreign wars, where all his efforts were equally
      unsuccessful as in his domestic government. The earl of Denbigh,
      brother-in-law to Buckingham, was despatched to the relief of Rochelle,
      now closely besieged by land, and threatened with a blockade by sea: but
      he returned without effecting any thing; and having declined to attack the
      enemy's fleet, he brought on the English arms the imputation either of
      cowardice or ill conduct. In order to repair this dishonor, the duke went
      to Portsmouth, where he had prepared a considerable fleet and army, on
      which all the subsidies given by parliament had been expended. This supply
      had very much disappointed the king's expectations. The same mutinous
      spirit which prevailed in the house of commons had diffused itself over
      the nation; and the commissioners appointed for making the assessments had
      connived at all frauds which might diminish the supply, and reduce the
      crown to still greater necessities. This national discontent, communicated
      to a desperate enthusiast, soon broke out in an event which may be
      considered as remarkable.
    </p>
    <p>
      There was one Felton, of a good family, but of an ardent, melancholic
      temper, who had served under the duke in the station of lieutenant. His
      captain being killed in the retreat at the Isle of Rhé, Felton had applied
      for the company; and when disappointed, he threw up his commission, and
      retired in discontent from the army. While private resentment was boiling
      in his sullen, unsociable mind, he heard the nation resound with
      complaints against the duke; and he met with the remonstrance of the
      commons, in which his enemy was represented as the cause of every national
      grievance, and as the great enemy of the public. Religious fanaticism
      further inflamed these vindictive reflections; and he fancied that he
      should do Heaven acceptable service, if at one blow he despatched this
      dangerous foe to religion and to his country.[*] Full of these dark views,
      he secretly arrived at Portsmouth at the same time with the duke, and
      watched for an opportunity of effecting his bloody purpose.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * May's Hist. of the Parliament, p. 12.
</pre>
    <p>
      Buckingham had been engaged in conversation with Soubize and other French
      gentlemen; and a difference of sentiment having arisen, the dispute,
      though conducted with temper and decency, had produced some of those
      vehement gesticulations and lively exertions of voice, in which that
      nation, more than the English, are apt to indulge themselves. The
      conversation being finished, the duke drew towards the door; and in that
      passage, turning himself to speak to Sir Thomas Friar, a colonel in the
      army, he was on the sudden, over Sir Thomas's shoulder, struck upon the
      breast with a knife. Without uttering other words than, "The villain has
      killed me," in the same moment pulling out the knife, he breathed his
      last.
    </p>
    <p>
      No man had seen the blow, nor the person who gave it, but in the confusion
      every one made his own conjecture; and all agreed that the murder had been
      committed by the French gentlemen whose angry tone of voice had been
      heard, while their words had not been understood by the bystanders. In the
      hurry of revenge, they had instantly been put to death, had they not been
      saved by some of more temper and judgment, who, though they had the same
      opinion of their guilt, thought proper to reserve them for a judicial
      trial and examination.
    </p>
    <p>
      Near the door there was found a hat, in the inside of which was sewed a
      paper, containing four or five lines of that remonstrance of the commons
      which declared Buckingham an enemy to the kingdom; and under these lines
      was a short ejaculation, or attempt towards a prayer. It was easily
      concluded that this hat belonged to the assassin: but the difficulty still
      remained, who that person should be; for the writing discovered not the
      same; and whoever he was, it was natural to believe that he had already
      fled far enough not to be found without a hat.
    </p>
    <p>
      In this hurry, a man without a hat was seen walking very composedly before
      the door. One crying out, "Here is the fellow who killed the duke;" every
      body ran to ask, "Which is he?" The man very sedately answered, "I am he."
      The more furious immediately rushed upon him with drawn swords: others,
      more deliberate, defended and protected him: he himself, with open arms,
      calmly and cheerfully exposed his breast to the swords of the most
      enraged; being willing to fall a sudden sacrifice to their anger, rather
      than be reserved for that public justice which he knew must be executed
      upon him.
    </p>
    <p>
      He was now known to be that Felton who had served in the army. Being
      carried into a private room, it was thought proper so far to dissemble as
      to tell him, that Buckingham was only grievously wounded, but not without
      hopes of recovery. Felton smiled, and told them, that the duke, he knew
      full well, had received a blow which had terminated all their hopes. When
      asked at whose instigation he had performed the horrid deed, he replied,
      that they needed not to trouble themselves in that inquiry; that no man
      living had credit enough with him to have disposed him to such an action;
      that he had not even intrusted his purpose to any one; that the resolution
      proceeded only from himself, and the impulse of his own conscience; and
      that his motives would appear, if his hat were found; for that, believing
      he should perish in the attempt, he had there taken care to explain
      them.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      When the king was informed of this assassination, he received the news in
      public with an unmoved and undisturbed countenance; and the courtiers, who
      studied his looks, concluded, that secretly he was not displeased to be
      rid of a minister so generally odious to the nation.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 27, 20.

     ** Warwick, p. 34.
</pre>
    <p>
      But Charles's command of himself proceeded entirely from the gravity and
      composure of his temper. He was still as much as ever attached to his
      favorite; and during his whole life he retained an affection for
      Buckingham's friends, and a prejudice against his enemies. He urged too,
      that Felton should be put to the question, in order to extort from him a
      discovery of his accomplices; but the judges declared, that though that
      practice had formerly been very usual, it was altogether illegal: so much
      reasoners, with regard to law, had they become from the jealous scruples
      of the house of commons.
    </p>
    <p>
      Meanwhile the distress of Rochelle had risen to the utmost extremity. That
      vast genius of Richelieu, which made him form the greatest enterprises,
      led him to attempt their execution by means equally great and
      extraordinary. In order to deprive Rochelle of all succor, he had dared to
      project the throwing across the harbor a mole of a mile's extent in that
      boisterous ocean; and having executed his project, he now held the town
      closely blockaded on all sides. The inhabitants, though pressed with the
      greatest rigors of famine, still refused to submit; being supported,
      partly by the lectures of their zealous preachers, partly by the daily
      hopes of relief from England. After Buckingham's death, the command of the
      fleet and army was conferred on the earl of Lindesey; who, arriving before
      Rochelle, made some attempts to break through the mole, and force his way
      into the harbor: but by the delays of the English, that work was now fully
      finished and fortified; and the Rochellers, finding their last hopes to
      fail them, were reduced to surrender at discretion, even in sight of the
      English admiral. Of fifteen thousand persons shut up in the city, four
      thousand alone survived the fatigues and famine which they had
      undergone.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. 1. p. 636.
</pre>
    <p>
      This was the first necessary step towards the prosperity of France.
      Foreign enemies, as well as domestic factions, being deprived of this
      resource, that kingdom began now to shine forth in its full splendor. By a
      steady prosecution of wise plans, both of war and policy, it gradually
      gained an ascendant over the rival power of Spain; and every order of the
      state, and every sect, were reduced to pay submission to the lawful
      authority of the sovereign. The victory, however, over the Hugonots, was
      at first pushed by the French king with great moderation. A toleration was
      still continued to them; the only avowed and open toleration which at that
      time was granted in any European kingdom.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1629.
    </p>
    <p>
      The failure of an enterprise in which the English nation, from religious
      sympathy, so much interested themselves, could not but diminish the king's
      authority in the parliament during the approaching session: but the
      commons, when assembled, found many other causes of complaint.
      Buckingham's conduct and character with some had afforded a reason, with
      others a pretence, for discontent against public measures but after his
      death there wanted not new reasons and new pretences for general
      dissatisfaction. Manwaring's pardon and promotion were taken notice of:
      Sibthorpe and Cosins, two clergymen, who, for like reasons, were no less
      obnoxious to the commons, had met with like favor from the king: Montague,
      who had been censured for moderation towards the Catholics, the greatest
      of crimes, had been created bishop of Chichester. They found likewise,
      upon inquiry, that all the copies of the petition of right which were
      dispersed, had, by the king's orders, annexed to them the first answer,
      which had given so little satisfaction to the commons;[*] an expedient by
      which Charles endeavored to persuade the people that he had nowise receded
      from his former claims and pretensions, particularly with regard to the
      levying of tonnage and poundage. Selden also complained in the house, that
      one Savage, contrary to the petition of right, had been punished with the
      loss of his ears, by a discretionary or arbitrary sentence of the star
      chamber:[**] so apt were they, on their part, to stretch the petition into
      such consequences as might deprive the crown of powers which, from
      immemorial custom, were supposed inherent in it.
    </p>
    <p>
      But the great article on which the house of commons broke with the king,
      and which finally created in Charles a disgust to all parliaments, was
      their claim with regard to tonnage and poundage. On this occasion,
      therefore, it is necessary to give an account of the controversy.
    </p>
    <p>
      The duty of tonnage and poundage, in more ancient times, had been commonly
      a temporary grant of parliament; but it had been conferred on Henry V.,
      and all the succeeding princes, during life, in order to enable them to
      maintain a naval force for the defence of the kingdom. The necessity of
      levying this duty had been so apparent, that each king had ever claimed it
      from the moment of his accession; and the first parliament of each reign
      had usually by vote conferred on the prince what they found him already in
      possession of. Agreeably to the inaccurate genius of the old constitution,
      this abuse, however considerable, had never been perceived nor remedied;
      though nothing could have been easier than for the parliament to have
      prevented it.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * State Trials, vol. vii. p. 216. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 643.

     ** State Trials, vol. vii. p. 216. Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p.
     246.

     *** Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 339, 343.
</pre>
    <p>
      By granting this duty to each prince during his own life, and for a year
      after his demise to the successor, all inconveniencies had been obviated;
      and yet the duty had never for a moment been levied without proper
      authority. But contrivances of that nature were not thought of during
      those rude ages; and as so complicated and jealous a government as the
      English cannot subsist without many such refinements, it is easy to see
      how favorable every inaccuracy must formerly have proved to royal
      authority, which, on all emergencies, was obliged to supply, by
      discretionary power, the great deficiency of the laws.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament did not grant the duty of tonnage and poundage to Henry
      VIII. till the sixth of his reign: yet this prince, who had not then
      raised his power to its greatest height, continued during that whole time
      to levy the imposition; the parliament, in their very grant, blame the
      merchants who had neglected to make payment to the crown; and though one
      expression of that bill may seem ambiguous, they employ the plainest terms
      in calling tonnage and poundage the king's due, even before that duty was
      conferred on him by parliamentary authority.[*] Four reigns, and above a
      whole century, had since elapsed; and this revenue had still been levied
      before it was voted by parliament: so long had the inaccuracy continued,
      without being remarked or corrected.
    </p>
    <p>
      During that short interval which passed between Charles's accession and
      his first parliament, he had followed the example of his predecessors; and
      no fault was found with his conduct in this particular. But what was most
      remarkable in the proceedings of that house of commons, and what proved
      beyond controversy that they had seriously formed a plan for reducing
      their prince to subjection, was, that instead of granting this supply
      during the king's lifetime, as it had been enjoyed by all his immediate
      predecessors, they voted it only for a year; and, after that should be
      elapsed, reserved to themselves the power of renewing or refusing the same
      concession.[**] But the house of peers, who saw that this duty was now
      become more necessary than ever to supply the growing necessities of the
      crown, and who did not approve of this encroaching spirit in the commons,
      rejected the bill; and the dissolution of that parliament followed so soon
      after, that no attempt seems to have been made for obtaining tonnage and
      poundage in any other form.[***] <a href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3"
      id="linknoteref-3">3</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * 6 Henry VIII. cap. 14.

     ** Journ. 5th July, 1625.

     *** See note C, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      Charles, meanwhile, continued still to levy this duty by his own
      authority, and the nation was so accustomed to that exertion of royal
      power, that no scruple was at first entertained of submitting to it. But
      the succeeding parliament excited doubts in every one. The commons took
      there some steps towards declaring it illegal to levy tonnage and poundage
      without consent of parliament; and they openly showed their intention of
      employing this engine, in order to extort from the crown concessions of
      the most important nature. But Charles was not yet sufficiently tamed to
      compliance; and the abrupt dissolution of that parliament, as above
      related, put an end, for the time, to their further pretensions.
    </p>
    <p>
      The following interval between the second and third parliament, was
      distinguished by so many exertions of prerogative, that men had little
      leisure to attend to the affair of tonnage and poundage, where the abuse
      of power in the crown might seem to be of a more disputable nature. But
      after the commons, during the precedent session, had remedied all these
      grievances by means of their petition of right, which they deemed so
      necessary, they afterwards proceeded to take the matter into
      consideration, and they showed the same intention as formerly, of
      exacting, in return for the grant of this revenue, very large compliances
      on the part of the crown. Their sudden profulgation prevented them from
      bringing their pretensions to a full conclusion.
    </p>
    <p>
      When Charles opened this session, he had foreseen that the same
      controversy would arise; and he therefore took care very early, among many
      mild and reconciling expressions, to inform the commons, "That he had not
      taken these duties as appertaining to his hereditary prerogative; but that
      it ever was, and still is, his meaning to enjoy them as a gift of his
      people: and that, if he had hitherto levied tonnage and poundage he
      pretended to justify himself only by the necessity of so doing, not by any
      right which he assumed."[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 644 Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 256,
     346.
</pre>
    <p>
      This concession, which probably arose from the king's moderate temper, now
      freed from the impulse of Buckingham's violent counsels, might have
      satisfied the commons, had they entertained no other view than that of
      ascertaining their own powers and privileges. But they carried their
      pretensions much higher. They insisted, as a necessary preliminary, that
      the king should once entirely desist from levying these duties; after
      which they were to take it into consideration, how far they would restore,
      him to the possession of a revenue of which he had clearly divested
      himself. But, besides that this extreme rigor had never been exercised
      towards any of his predecessors, and many obvious inconveniencies must
      follow from the intermission of the customs, there were other reasons
      which deterred Charles from complying with so hard a condition. It was
      probable, that the commons might renew their former project of making this
      revenue only temporary, and thereby reducing their prince to perpetual
      dependence; they certainly would cut off the new impositions which Mary
      and Elizabeth, but especially James, had levied, and which formed no
      despicable part of the public revenue: and they openly declared, that they
      had at present many important pretensions, chiefly with regard to
      religion; and if compliance were refused, no supply must be expected from
      the commons.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is easy to see in what an inextricable labyrinth Charles was now
      involved. By his own concessions, by the general principles of the English
      government, and by the form of every bill which had granted this duty,
      tonnage and poundage was derived entirely from the free gift of the
      people; and, consequently, might be withdrawn at their pleasure. If
      unreasonable in their refusal, they still refused nothing but what was
      their own. If public necessity required this supply, it might be thought
      also to require the king's compliance with those conditions which were the
      price of obtaining it. Though the motive for granting it had been the
      enabling of the king to guard the seas, it did not follow, that because he
      guarded the seas, he was therefore entitled to this revenue without
      further formality: since the people had still reserved to themselves the
      right of judging how far that service merited such a supply. But Charles,
      notwithstanding his public declaration, was far from assenting to this
      conclusion in its full extent. The plain consequence, he saw, of all these
      rigors, and refinements, and inferences, was, that he, without any public
      necessity, and without any fault of his own, must of a sudden, even from
      his accession, become a magistrate of a very different nature from any of
      his predecessors, and must fall into a total dependence on subjects over
      whom former kings, especially those immediately preceding, had exercised
      an authority almost unlimited. Entangled in a chain of consequences which
      he could not easily break, he was inclined to go higher, and rather deny
      the first principle, than admit of conclusions which to him appeared so
      absurd and unreasonable. Agree-* to the ideas hitherto entertained both by
      natives and foreigners, the monarch he esteemed the essence and soul of
      the English government: and whatever other power pretended to annihilate
      or even abridge, the royal authority, must necessarily, he thought, either
      in its nature or exercise, be deemed no better than a usurpation. Willing
      to preserve the ancient harmony of the constitution, he had ever intended
      to comply as far as he easily could, with the ancient forms of
      administration; but when these forms appeared to him, by the inveterate
      obstinacy of the commons, to have no other tendency than to disturb that
      harmony, and to introduce a new constitution, he concluded that, in this
      violent situation, what was subordinate must necessarily yield to what was
      principal, and the privileges of the people, for a time, give place to
      royal prerogative. From the rank of a monarch, to be degraded into a slave
      of his insolent, ungrateful subjects, seemed of all indignities the
      greatest; and nothing, in his judgment, could exceed the humiliation
      attending such a state, but the meanness of tamely submitting to it,
      without making some efforts to preserve the authority transmitted to him
      by his predecessors.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though these were the king's reflections and resolutions before the
      parliament assembled, he did not immediately break with them upon their
      delay in voting him this supply. He thought that he could better justify
      any strong measure which he might afterwards be obliged to take, if he
      allowed them to carry to the utmost extremities their attacks upon his
      government and prerogative.[*] He contented himself, for the present, with
      soliciting the house by messages and speeches. But the commons, instead of
      hearkening to his solicitations proceeded to carry their scrutiny into his
      management of religion,[**] which was the only grievance to which, in
      their opinion, they had not as yet, by their petition of right, applied a
      sufficient remedy.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 642.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 651. Whitlocke, p. 12.
</pre>
    <p>
      It was not possible that this century, so fertile in religious sects and
      disputes, could escape the controversy concerning fatalism and free will,
      which, being strongly interwoven both with philosophy and theology had, in
      all ages, thrown every school and every church into such inextricable
      doubt and perplexity. The first reformers in England, as in other European
      countries, had embraced the most rigid tenets of predestination and
      absolute decrees, and had composed upon that, system all the articles of
      their religious creed. But these principles having met with opposition
      from Arminius and his sectaries, the controversy was soon brought into
      this island and began here to diffuse itself. The Arminians, finding more
      encouragement from the superstitious spirit of the church than from the
      fanaticism of the Puritans, gradually incorporated themselves with the
      former; and some of that sect, by the indulgence of James and Charles, had
      attained the highest preferments in the hierarchy. But their success with
      the public had not been altogether answerable to that which they met with
      in the church and the court. Throughout the nation, they still lay under
      the reproach of innovation and heresy. The commons now levelled against
      them their formidable censures, and made them the objects of daily
      invective and declamation. Their protectors were stigmatized; their tenets
      canvassed; their views represented as dangerous and pernicious. To
      impartial spectators surely, if any such had been at that time in England,
      it must have given great entertainment to see a popular assembly, inflamed
      with faction and enthusiasm, pretend to discuss questions to which the
      greatest philosophers, in the tranquillity of retreat, had never hitherto
      been able to find any satisfactory solution.
    </p>
    <p>
      Amidst that complication of disputes in which men were then involved, we
      may observe, that the appellation "Puritan" stood for three parties,
      which, though commonly united, were yet actuated by very different views
      and motives. There were the political Puritans, who maintained the highest
      principles of civil liberty; the Puritans in discipline, who were averse
      to the ceremonies and Episcopal government of the church; and the
      doctrinal Puritans, who rigidly defended the speculative system of the
      first reformers. In opposition to all these stood the court party, the
      hierarchy, and the Arminians; only with this distinction, that the latter
      sect, being introduced a few years before, did not as yet comprehend all
      those who were favorable to the church and to monarchy. But, as the
      controversies on every subject grew daily warmer, men united themselves
      more intimately with their friends, and separated themselves wider from
      their antagonists; and the distinction gradually became quite uniform and
      regular.
    </p>
    <p>
      This house of commons, which, like all the preceding, during the reigns of
      James and Charles, and even of Elizabeth, was much governed by the
      Puritanical party, thought that they could not better serve their cause
      than by branding and punishing the Arminian sect, which, introducing an
      innovation in the church, were the least favored and least powerful of all
      their antagonists. From this measure, it was easily foreseen, that,
      besides gratifying the animosity of the doctrinal Puritans, both the
      Puritans in discipline and those in politics would reap considerable
      advantages. Laud, Neile, Montague, and other bishops, who were the chief
      supporters of Episcopal government, and the most zealous partisans of the
      discipline and ceremonies of the church, were all supposed to be tainted
      with Arminianism. The same men and their disciples were the strenuous
      preachers of passive obedience, and of entire submission to princes; and
      if these could once be censured, and be expelled the church and court, it
      was concluded, that the hierarchy would receive a mortal blow, the
      ceremonies be less rigidly insisted on, and the king, deprived of his most
      faithful friends, be obliged to abate those high claims of prerogative on
      which at present he insisted.
    </p>
    <p>
      But Charles, besides a view of the political consequences which must
      result from a compliance with such pretensions, was strongly determined,
      from principles of piety and conscience, to oppose them. Neither the
      dissipation incident to youth, nor the pleasures attending a high fortune,
      had been able to prevent this virtuous prince from embracing the most
      sincere sentiments of religion: and that character, which in that
      religious age should have been of infinite advantage to him, proved in the
      end the chief cause of his ruin; merely because the religion adopted by
      him was not of that precise mode and sect which began to prevail among his
      subjects. His piety, though remote from Popery, had a tincture of
      superstition in it; and, being averse to the gloomy spirit of the
      Puritans, was represented by them as tending towards the abominations of
      Antichrist. Laud also had unfortunately acquired a great ascendant over
      him; and as all those prelates obnoxious to the commons, were regarded as
      his chief friends and most favored courtiers, he was resolved not to
      disarm and dishonor himself by abandoning them to the resentment of his
      enemies. Being totally unprovided with military force, and finding a
      refractory, independent spirit to prevail among the people, the most solid
      basis of his authority, he thought consisted in the support which he
      received from the hierarchy.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the debates of the commons, which are transmitted to us, it is easy to
      discern so early some sparks of that enthusiastic fire which afterwards
      set the whole nation in combustion. One Rouse made use of an allusion
      which, though familiar seems to have been borrowed from the writings of
      Lord Bacon.[*] "If a man meet a dog alone," said he, "the dog is fearful,
      though ever so fierce by nature: but if the dog have his master with him,
      he will set upon that man from whom he fled before. This shows, that lower
      natures, being backed by higher, increase in courage and strength; and
      certainly man, being backed with Omnipotency, is a kind of omnipotent
      creature. All things are possible to him that believes; and where all
      things are possible, there is a kind of omnipotency. Wherefore, let it be
      the unanimous consent and resolution of us all, to make a vow and covenant
      henceforth to hold fast our God and our religion; and then shall we
      henceforth expect with certainty happiness in this world."[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Oliver Cromwell, at that time a young man of no account in the nation, is
      mentioned in these debates, as complaining of one who, he was told,
      preached flat Popery.[***] It is amusing to observe the first words of
      this fanatical hypocrite correspond so exactly to his character.
    </p>
    <p>
      The inquiries and debates concerning tonnage and poundage went hand in
      hand with these theological or metaphysical controversies. The officers of
      the custom-house were summoned before the commons, to give an account by
      what authority they had seized the goods of merchants who had refused to
      pay these duties: the barons of the exchequer were questioned concerning
      their decrees on that head.[****] One of the sheriffs of London was
      committed to the Tower for his activity in supporting the officers of the
      custom-house: the goods of Rolles, a merchant, and member of the house,
      being seized for his refusal to pay the duties, complaints were made of
      this violence as if it were a breach of privilege:[v] Charles supported
      his officers in all these measures; and the quarrel grew every day higher
      between him and the commons.[v*] Mention was made in the house of
      impeaching Sir Richard Weston the treasurer;[v**] and the king began to
      entertain thoughts of finishing the session by a dissolution.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Essay of Atheism.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 646. Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 260.

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 655. Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p.
     289.

     **** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 654. Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p.
     301.

     v    Rushworth, vol. i. p. 653.

     v*   Rushworth, vol. i. p. 659.

     v**  Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 326.
</pre>
    <p>
      Sir John Elliot framed a remonstrance against levying tonnage and poundage
      without consent of parliament, and offered it to the clerk to read. It was
      refused. He read it himself. The question being then called for, the
      speaker, Sir John Finch, said, "That he had a command from the king to
      adjourn, and to put no question;"[*] upon which he rose and left the
      chair. The whole house was in an uproar. The speaker was pushed back into
      the chair, and forcibly held in it by Hollis and Valentine, till a short
      remonstrance was framed, and was passed by acclamation rather than by
      vote. Papists and Arminians were there declared capital enemies to the
      commonwealth. Those who levied tonnage and poundage were branded with the
      same epithet. And even the merchant who should voluntarily pay these
      duties, were denominated betrayers of English liberty, and public enemies.
      The doom, being locked, the gentleman usher of the house of lords, who was
      sent by the king, could not get admittance till this remonstrance was
      finished. By the king's order, he took the mace from the table, which
      ended their proceedings,[**] and a few days after the parliament was
      dissolved.
    </p>
    <p>
      The discontents of the nation ran high, on account of this violent rupture
      between the king and parliament. These discontents Charles inflamed by his
      affectation of a severity which he had not power, nor probably
      inclination, to carry to extremities. Sir Miles Hobart, Sir Peter Heyman,
      Selden, Coriton, Long, Strode, were committed to prison on account of the
      last tumult in the house, which was called sedition.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * The king's power of adjourning, as well as proroguing the
     parliament, was and is never questioned. In the nineteenth
     of the late king, the judges determined, that the
     adjournment by the king kept the parliament in statu quo
     until the next sitting, but that then no committees were to
     meet; but if the adjournment be by the house then the
     committees and other matters do continue. Parl. Hist, vol v.
     p. 466.

     ** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 660. Whitlocke, p. 12.

     *** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 661, 681. Parl. Hist. vol. viii.
     p. 354 May, p. 13
</pre>
    <p>
      With great difficulty, and after several delays, they were released; and
      the law was generally supposed to be wrested in order to prolong their
      imprisonment. Sir John Elliot, Hollis, and Valentine, were summoned to
      their trial in the king's bench, for seditious speeches and behavior in
      parliament; but refusing to answer before an inferior court for their
      conduct as members of a superior, they were condemned to be imprisoned
      during the king's pleasure, to find sureties for their good behavior, and
      to be fined, the two former a thousand pounds apiece, the latter five
      hundred.[*] This sentence, procured by the influence of the crown, served
      only to show the king's disregard to the privileges of parliament, and to
      acquire an immense stock of popularity to the sufferers who had so
      bravely, in opposition to arbitrary power, defended the liberties of their
      native country. The commons of England, though an immense body, and
      possessed of the greater part of national property, were naturally
      somewhat defenceless, because of their personal equality, and their want
      of leaders: but the king's severity, if these prosecutions deserve the
      name, here pointed out leaders to them, whose resentment was inflamed, and
      whose courage was nowise daunted, by the hardships which they had
      undergone in so honorable a cause.
    </p>
    <p>
      So much did these prisoners glory in their sufferings, that, though they
      were promised liberty on that condition, they would not condescend even to
      present a petition to the king, expressing their sorrow for having
      offended him.[**] They unanimously refused to find sureties for their good
      behavior, and disdained to accept of deliverance on such easy terms. Nay,
      Hollis was so industrious to continue his meritorious distress, that when
      one offered to bail him, he would not yield to the rule of court, and be
      himself bound with his friend. Even Long, who had actually found sureties
      in the chief justice's chamber, declared in court that his sureties should
      no longer continue.[***] Yet because Sir John Elliot Happened to die while
      in custody, a great clamor was raised against the administration; and he
      was universally regarded as a martyr to the liberties of England.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 684, 691.

     ** Whitlocke, p. *13.

     *** Kennet vol. iii. p. 49.

     **** Rushworth, vol. v. p. 440.
</pre>
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    <h2>
      CHAPTER LII
    </h2>
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    <h2>
      CHARLES I.
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1629.
    </p>
    <p>
      There now opens to us a new scene. Charles naturally disgusted with
      parliaments, who, he found, were determined to proceed against him with
      unmitigated rigor, both in invading his prerogative and refusing him all
      supply, resolved not to call any more, till he should see greater
      indications of a compliant disposition in the nation. Having lost his
      great favorite, Buckingham, he became his own minister and never
      afterwards reposed in any one such unlimited confidence. As he chiefly
      follows his own genius and disposition, his measures are henceforth less
      rash and hasty; though the general tenor of his administration still wants
      somewhat of being entirely legal, and perhaps more of being entirely
      prudent.
    </p>
    <p>
      We shall endeavor to exhibit a just idea of the events which followed for
      some years, so far as they regard foreign affairs, the state of the court,
      and the government of the nation. The incidents are neither numerous nor
      illustrious; but the knowledge of them is necessary for understanding the
      subsequent transactions which are so memorable.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, destitute of all supply, was necessarily reduced to embrace a
      measure which ought to have been the result of reason and sound policy: he
      made peace with the two crowns against which he had hitherto waged a war,
      entered into without necessity, and conducted without glory.
      Notwithstanding the distracted and helpless condition of England, no
      attempt was made either by France or Spain to invade their enemy nor did
      they entertain any further project than to defend themselves against the
      feeble and ill-concerted expeditions of that kingdom. Pleased that the
      jealousies and quarrels, between king and parliament had disarmed so
      formidable a power, they carefully avoided any enterprise which might
      rouse either the terror or anger of the English, and dispose them to
      domestic union and submission. The endeavors to regain the good will of
      the nation were carried so far by the king of Spain, that he generously
      released and sent home all the English prisoners taken in the expedition
      against Cadiz. The example was imitated by France after the retreat of the
      English from the Isle of Rhé. When princes were in such dispositions, and
      had so few pretensions on each other, it could not be difficult to
      conclude a peace. The treaty was first signed with France.[*] The
      situation of the king's affairs did not entitle him to demand any
      conditions for the Hugonots, and they were abandoned to the will of their
      sovereign.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1630.
    </p>
    <p>
      Peace was afterwards concluded with Spain, where no conditions were made
      in favor of the palatine, except that Spain promised in general to use
      their good offices for his restoration.[**] The influence of these two
      wars on domestic affairs, and on the dispositions of king and people, was
      of the utmost consequence; but no alteration was made by them on the
      foreign interests of the kingdom.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 23, 24.

     ** Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 75. Whitlocke, p. 14.
</pre>
    <p>
      Nothing more happy can be imagined than the situation in which England
      then stood with regard to foreign affairs. Europe was divided between the
      rival families of Bourbon and Austria, whose opposite interests, and still
      more, their mutual jealousies, secured the tranquillity of this island.
      Their forces were so nearly counterpoised, that no apprehensions were
      entertained of any event which could suddenly disturb the balance of power
      between them. The Spanish monarch, deemed the most powerful, lay at
      greatest distance; and the English, by that means, possessed the advantage
      of being engaged by political motives into a more intimate union and
      confederacy with the neighboring potentate. The dispersed situation of the
      Spanish dominions rendered the naval power of England formidable to them,
      and kept that empire in continual dependence. France, more vigorous and
      more compact, was every day rising in policy and discipline; and reached
      at last an equality of power with the house of Austria; but her progress,
      slow and gradual, left it still in the power of England, by a timely
      interposition, to check her superiority. And thus Charles, could he have
      avoided all dissensions with his own subjects, was in a situation to make
      himself be courted and respected by every power in Europe; and, what has
      scarcely ever since been attained by the princes of this island, he could
      either be active with dignity, or neutral with security.
    </p>
    <p>
      A neutrality was embraced by the king; and during the rest of his reign,
      he seems to have little regarded foreign affairs, except so far as he was
      engaged by honor and by friendship for his sister and the palatine, to
      endeavor the procuring of some relief for that unhappy family. He joined
      his good offices to those of France, and mediated a peace between the
      kings of Sweden and Poland, in hopes of engaging the former to embrace the
      protection of the oppressed Protestants in the empire. This was the famed
      Gustavus, whose heroic genius, seconded by the wisest policy, made him in
      a little time the most distinguished monarch of the age, and rendered his
      country, formerly unknown and neglected, of great weight in the balance of
      Europe. To encourage and assist him in his projected invasion of Germany,
      Charles agreed to furnish him with six thousand men; but, that he might
      preserve the appearance of neutrality, he made use of the marquis of
      Hamilton's name.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 46, 53, 62. 83.
</pre>
    <p>
      That nobleman entered into an engagement with Gustavus; and enlisting
      these troops in England and Scotland, at Charles's expense, he landed them
      in the Elbe. The decisive battle of Leipsic was fought soon after, where
      the conduct of Tilly and the valor of the imperialists were overcome by
      the superior conduct of Gustavus and the superior valor of the Swedes.
      What remained of this hero's life was one continued series of victory, for
      which he was less beholden to fortune than to those personal endowments
      which he derived from nature and from industry. That rapid progress of
      conquest which we so much admire in ancient history, was here renewed in
      modern annals; and without that cause to which, in former ages, it had
      ever been owing. Military nations were not now engaged against an
      undisciplined and unwarlike people; nor heroes set in opposition to
      cowards. The veteran troops of Ferdinand, conducted by the most celebrated
      generals of the age, were foiled in every encounter; and all Germany was
      overrun in an instant by the victorious Swede. But by this extraordinary
      and unexpected success of his ally, Charles failed of the purpose for
      which he framed the alliance. Gustavus, elated by prosperity, began to
      form more extensive plans of ambition; and in freeing Germany from the
      yoke of Ferdinand, he intended to reduce it to subjection under his own.
      He refused to restore the palatine to his principality, except on
      conditions which would have kept him in total dependence.[*] And thus the
      negotiation was protracted, till the battle of Lutzen, where the Swedish
      monarch perished in the midst of a complete victory which he obtained over
      his enemies.
    </p>
    <p>
      We have carried on these transactions a few years beyond the present
      period, that we might not be obliged to return to them, nor be henceforth
      interrupted in our account of Charles's court and kingdoms.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Franklyn, vol. i. p. 415.
</pre>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
When we consider Charles as presiding in his court, as associating
with his family, it is difficult to imagine a character at once more
respectable and more amiable. A kind husband, an indulgent father, a
gentle master, a steadfast friend; to all these eulogies his conduct
in private life fully entitled him. As a monarch too, in the exterior
qualities, he excelled; in the essential, he was not defective.
His address and manner, though perhaps inclining a little towards
stateliness and formality, in the main corresponded to his high rank,
and gave grace to that reserve and gravity which were natural to him.
The moderation and equity which shone forth in his temper seemed to
secure him against rash and dangerous enterprises: the good sense which
he displayed in his discourse and conversation, seemed to warrant his
success in every reasonable undertaking. Other endowments likewise he
had attained, which, in a private gentleman, would have been highly
ornamental, and which, in a great monarch, might have proved extremely
useful to his people. He was possessed of an excellent taste in all
the fine arts; and the love of painting was in some degree his favorite
passion. Learned beyond what is common in princes, he was a good judge
of writing in others, and enjoyed himself no mean talent in composition.
In any other age or nation, this monarch had been secure of a prosperous
and a happy reign. But the high idea of his own authority which he had
imbibed, made him incapable of giving way to the spirit of liberty which
began to prevail among his subjects. His politics were not supported
by such vigor and foresight as might enable him to subdue their
pretensions, and maintain his prerogative at the high pitch to which
it had been raised by his predecessors. And, above all, the spirit of
enthusiasm, being universally diffused, disappointed all the views
of human prudence, and disturbed the operation of every motive which
usually influences society.

 But the misfortunes arising from these
causes were yet remote. Charles now enjoyed himself in the full
exercise of his authority, in a social intercourse with his friends
and courtiers, and in a moderate use of those pleasures which he most
affected.
</pre>
    <p>
      After the death of Buckingham, who had somewhat alienated Charles from the
      queen, she is to be considered as his chief friend and favorite. That
      rustic contempt of the fair sex which James affected, and which, banishing
      them from his court, made it resemble more a fair or an exchange than the
      seat of a great prince, was very wide of the disposition of this monarch.
      But though full of complaisance to the whole sex, Charles reserved all his
      passion for his consort, to whom he attached himself with unshaken
      fidelity and confidence. By her sense and spirit, as well as by her
      beauty, she justified the fondness of her husband; though it is allowed
      that, being somewhat of a passionate temper, she precipitated him into
      hasty and imprudent measures. Her religion likewise, to which she was much
      addicted, must be regarded as a great misfortune; since it augmented the
      jealousy which prevailed against the court, and engaged her to procure for
      the Catholics some indulgences which were generally distasteful to the
      nation.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      In the former situation of the English government, when the sovereign was
      in a great measure independent of his subjects, the king chose his
      ministers either from personal favor, or from an opinion of their
      abilities, without any regard to their parliamentary interest or talents.
      It has since been the maxim of princes, wherever popular leaders encroach
      too much on royal authority, to confer offices on them, in expectation
      that they will afterwards become more careful not to diminish that power
      which has become their own. These politics were now embraced by Charles; a
      sure proof that a secret revolution had happened in the constitution, and
      had necessitated the prince to adopt new maxims of government.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * May, p 21.

     ** Sir Edw. Walker, p. 328.
</pre>
    <p>
      But the views of the king were at this time so repugnant to those of the
      Puritans, that the leaders whom he gained, lost from that moment all
      interest with their party, and were even pursued as traitors with
      implacable hatred and resentment. This was the case with Sir Thomas
      Wentworth, whom the king created, first a baron, then a viscount, and
      afterwards earl of Strafford; made him president of the council of York,
      and deputy of Ireland; and regarded him as his chief minister and
      counsellor. By his eminent talents and abilities, Strafford merited all
      the confidence which his master reposed in him: his character was stately
      and austere; more fitted to procure esteem than love: his fidelity to the
      king was unshaken; but as he now employed all his counsels to support the
      prerogative, which he had formerly bent all his endeavors to diminish his
      virtue seems not to have been entirely pure, but to have been susceptible
      of strong impressions from private interest and ambition. Sir Dudley
      Digges was about the same time created master of the rolls; Noy,
      attorney-general; Littleton, solicitor-general. All these had likewise
      been parliamentary leaders, and were men eminent in their profession.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 13. May, p. 20.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003">
      <!-- IMG --></a> <a href="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_647_strafford.jpg">ENLARGE</a>
    </p>
    <div class="fig" >
      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_647_strafford_th.jpg" title="Earl of Strafford"
      alt="1-647-strafford.jpg Earl of Strafford "  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      In all ecclesiastical affairs, and even in many civil, Laud, bishop of
      London, had great influence over the king. This man was virtuous, if
      severity of manners alone, and abstinence from pleasure, could deserve
      that name. He was learned, if polemical knowledge could entitle him to
      that praise. He was disinterested; but with unceasing industry he studied
      to exalt the priestly and prelatical character, which was his own. His
      zeal was unrelenting in the cause of religion; that is, in imposing by
      rigorous measures his own tenets and pious ceremonies on the obstinate
      Puritans, who had profanely dared to oppose him. In prosecution of his
      holy purposes, he overlooked every human consideration; or, in other
      words, the heat and indiscretion of his temper made him neglect the views
      of prudence and rules of good manners. He was in this respect happy, that
      all his enemies were also imagined by him the declared enemies to loyalty
      and true piety, and that every exercise of his anger by that means became
      in his eyes a merit and a virtue. This was the man who acquired so great
      an ascendant over Charles, and who led him, by the facility of his temper,
      into a conduct which proved so fatal to himself and to his kingdoms.
    </p>
    <p>
      The humor of the nation ran at that time into the extreme opposite to
      superstition; and it was with difficulty that the ancient ceremonies to
      which men had been accustomed, and which had been sanctified by the
      practice of the first reformers, could be retained in divine service: yet
      was this the time which Laud chose for the introduction of new ceremonies
      and observances. Besides that these were sure to displease as innovations,
      there lay, in the opinion of the public, another very forcible objection
      against them. Laud, and the other prelates who embraced his measures, were
      generally well instructed in sacred antiquity, and had adopted many of
      those religious sentiments which prevailed during the fourth and fifth
      centuries; when the Christian church, as is well known, was already sunk
      into those superstitions which were afterwards continued and augmented by
      the policy of Rome. The revival, therefore, of the ideas and practices of
      that age, could not fail of giving the English faith and liturgy some
      resemblance to the Catholic superstition, which the kingdom in general,
      and the Puritans in particular, held in the greatest horror and
      detestation. Men also were apt to think, that, without some secret
      purpose, such insignificant observances would not be imposed with such
      unrelenting zeal on the refractory nation; and that Laud's scheme was, to
      lead back the English by gradual steps to the religion of their ancestors.
      They considered not, that the very insignificancy of these ceremonies
      recommended them to the superstitious prelate, and made them appear the
      more peculiarly sacred and religious, as they could serve to no other
      purpose. Nor was the resemblance to the Romish ritual any objection, but
      rather a merit with Laud and his brethren; who bore a much greater
      kindness to the mother church, as they called her, than to the sectaries
      and Presbyterians, and frequently recommended her as a true Christian
      church; an appellation which they refused, or at least scrupled to give to
      the others.[*] So openly were these tenets espoused, that not only the
      discontented Puritans believed the church of England to be relapsing fast
      into Romish superstition: the court of Rome itself entertained hopes of
      regaining its authority in this island; and, in order to forward Laud's
      supposed good intentions, an offer was twice made him in private of a
      cardinal's hat, which he declined accepting.[**] His answer was, as he
      says himself, "That something dwelt within him, which would not suffer his
      compliance, till Rome were other than it is."[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * May, p. 25.

     ** Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 190. Welwood, p. 61.

     *** Rushworth, vol. iii. p. 1327. Whitlocke, p. 97.
</pre>
    <p>
      A court lady, daughter of the earl of Devonshire, having turned Catholic,
      was asked by Laud the reason of her conversion: "'Tis chiefly," said she,
      "because I hate to travel in a crowd." The meaning of this expression
      being demanded, she replied, "I perceive your grace and many others are
      making haste to Rome; and therefore, in order to prevent my being crowded,
      I have gone before you." It must be confessed, that though Laud deserved
      not the appellation of Papist, the genius of his religion was, though in a
      less degree, the same with that of the Romish: the same profound respect
      was exacted to the sacerdotal character, the same submission required to
      the creeds and decrees of synods and councils; the same pomp and ceremony
      was affected in worship; and the same superstitious regard to days,
      postures, meats, and vestments. No wonder, therefore, that this prelate
      was every where among the Puritans regarded with horror, as the forerunner
      of Antichrist.
    </p>
    <p>
      As a specimen of the new ceremonies to which Laud sacrificed his own quiet
      and that of the nation, it may not be amiss to relate those which he was
      accused of employing in the consecration of St. Catharine's church, and
      which were the object of such general scandal and offence.
    </p>
    <p>
      On the bishop's approach to the west door of the church, a loud voice
      cried, "Open, open, ye everlasting doors, that the king of glory may enter
      in!" Immediately the doors of the church flew open, and the bishop
      entered. Falling upon his knees, with eyes elevated and arms expanded, he
      uttered these words: "This place is holy; the ground is holy: in the name
      of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I pronounce it holy."
    </p>
    <p>
      Going towards the chancel, he several times took up from the floor some of
      the dust, and threw it in the air. When he approached, with his
      attendants, near to the communion table, he bowed frequently towards it;
      and on their return, they went round the church, repeating, as they
      marched along, some of the psalms; and then said a form of prayer, which
      concluded with these words: "We consecrate this church, and separate it
      unto thee as holy ground, not to be profaned any more to common uses."
    </p>
    <p>
      After this, the bishop, standing near the communion table solemnly
      pronounced many imprecations upon such as should afterwards pollute that
      holy place by musters of soldiers, or keeping in it profane law-courts, or
      carrying burdens through it. On the conclusion of every curse, he bowed
      towards the east, and cried, "Let all the people say, Amen."
    </p>
    <p>
      The imprecations being all so piously finished, there were poured out a
      number of blessings upon such as had any hand in framing and building that
      sacred and beautiful edifice, and on such as had given, or should
      hereafter give to it, any chalices, plate, ornaments, or utensils. At
      every benediction he in like manner bowed towards the east, and cried,
      "Let all the people say, Amen."
    </p>
    <p>
      The sermon followed; after which the bishop consecrated and administered
      the sacrament in the following manner.
    </p>
    <p>
      As he approached the communion table, he made many lowly reverences; and
      coming up to that part of the table where the bread and wine lay, he bowed
      seven times. After the reading of many prayers, he approached the
      sacramental elements, and gently lifted up the corner of the napkin in
      which the bread was placed. When he beheld the bread, he suddenly let fall
      the napkin, flew back a step or two, bowed three several times towards the
      bread; then he drew nigh again, opened the napkin, and bowed as before.
    </p>
    <p>
      Next he laid his hand on the cup, which had a cover upon it, and was
      filled with wine. He let go the cup, fell back, and bowed thrice towards
      it. He approached again; and lifting op the cover, peeped into the cup.
      Seeing the wine, he let fall the cover, started back, and bowed as before.
      Then he received the sacrament, and gave it to others. And many prayers
      being said, the solemnity of the consecration ended. The walls, and floor,
      and roof of the fabric were then supposed to be sufficiently holy.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Orders were given, and rigorously insisted on, that the communion table
      should be removed from the middle of the area where it hitherto stood in
      all churches, except in cathedrals.[**] It was placed at the east end,
      railed in, and denominated an "altar;" as the clergyman who officiated
      received commonly the appellation of "priest." It is not easy to imagine
      the discontents excited by this innovation, and the suspicions which it
      gave rise to.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 76, 77. Welwood, p. 275. Franklyn,
     p. 386.

     ** Rushworth, vol ii. p. 207. Whitlocke, p. 24.
</pre>
    <p>
      The kneeling at the altar, and the using of copes, a species of
      embroidered vestment, in administering the sacrament, were also known to
      be great objects of scandal, as being Popish practices; but the opposition
      rather increased than abated the zeal of the prelate for the introduction
      of these habits and ceremonies.
    </p>
    <p>
      All kinds of ornament, especially pictures, were necessary for supporting
      that mechanical devotion which was purposed to be raised in this model of
      religion: but as these had been so much employed by the church of Rome,
      and had given rise to so much superstition, or what the Puritans called
      idolatry it was impossible to introduce them into English churches without
      exciting general murmurs and complaints. But Laud possessed of present
      authority, persisted in his purpose, and made several attempts towards
      acquiring these ornaments. Some of the pictures introduced by him were
      also found, upon inquiry, to be the very same that might be met with in
      the mass-book. The crucifix too, that eternal consolation of all pious
      Catholics, and terror to all sound Protestants, was not forgotten on this
      occasion.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      It was much remarked, that Sheffield, the recorder of Salisbury, was tried
      in the star chamber, for having broken, contrary to the bishop of
      Salisbury's express injunctions, a painted window of St. Edmond's church
      in that city. He boasted that he had destroyed these monuments of
      idolatry: but for this effort of his zeal, he was fined five hundred
      pounds, removed from his office, condemned to make a public
      acknowledgment, and be bound to his good behavior.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Not only such of the clergy as neglected to observe every ceremony were
      suspended and deprived by the high commission court: oaths were, by many
      of the bishops, imposed or the churchwardens; and they were sworn to
      inform against any one who acted contrary to the ecclesiastical
      canons.[***] Such a measure, though practised during the reign of
      Elizabeth, gave much offence, as resembling too nearly the practice of the
      Romish inquisition.
    </p>
    <p>
      To show the greater alienation from the churches reformed after the
      Presbyterian model, Laud advised that the discipline and worship of the
      church should be imposed on the English regiments and trading companies
      abroad.[****] All foreigners of the Dutch and Walloon congregations were
      commanded to attend the established church; and indulgence was granted to
      none after the children of the first denizens.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 272, 273.

     ** Rushworth, Vol. ii. p. 152. State Trials, vol. v. p 46.
     Franklyn, p. 410, 411, 412.

     *** Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 186.

     **** Rushworth, vol, ii. p. 249. Franklyn, p. 451.

     v    Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 272
</pre>
    <p>
      Scudamore, too, the king's ambassador at Paris, had orders to withdraw
      himself from the communion of the Hugonots. Even men of sense were apt to
      blame this conduct, not only because it gave offence in England, but
      because, in foreign countries, it lost the crown the advantage of being
      considered as the head and support of the reformation.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      On pretence of pacifying disputes, orders were issued from the council,
      forbidding on both sides all preaching and printing with regard to the
      controverted points of predestination and free will. But it was complained
      of, and probably with reason that the impartiality was altogether confined
      to the orders, and that the execution of them was only meant against the
      Calvinists.
    </p>
    <p>
      In return for Charles's indulgence towards the church, Laud and his
      followers took care to magnify, on every occasion, the regal authority,
      and to treat with the utmost disdain or detestation all Puritanical
      pretensions to a free and independent constitution. But while these
      prelates were so liberal in raising the crown at the expense of public
      liberty, they made no scruple of encroaching, themselves, on the royal
      rights the most incontestable, in order to exalt the hierarchy, and
      procure to their own order dominion and independence. All the doctrines
      which the Romish church had borrowed from some of the fathers, and which
      freed the spiritual from subordination to the civil power, were now
      adopted by the church of England, and interwoven with her political and
      religious tenets. A divine and apostolical charter was insisted on,
      preferably to a legal and parliamentary one.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * State Papers collected by the earl of Clarendon, p 338.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 22.
</pre>
    <p>
      The sacerdotal character was magnified as sacred and indefeasible: all
      right to spiritual authority, or even to private judgment in spiritual
      subjects, was refused to profane laymen: ecclesiastical courts were held
      by the bishops in their own name, without any notice taken of the king's
      authority: and Charles, though extremely jealous of every claim in popular
      assemblies, seemed rather to encourage than repress those encroachments of
      his clergy. Having felt many sensible inconveniencies from the independent
      spirit of parliaments, he attached himself entirely to those who professed
      a devoted obedience to his crown and person; nor did he foresee, that the
      ecclesiastical power which he exalted, not admitting of any precise
      boundary, might in time become more dangerous to public peace, and no less
      fatal to royal prerogative, than the other.
    </p>
    <p>
      So early as the coronation, Laud was the person, according to general
      opinion, that introduced a novelty which, though overlooked by Charles,
      made a deep impression on many of the bystanders. After the usual
      ceremonies, these words were recited to the king: "Stand and hold fast,
      from henceforth the place to which you have been heir by the succession of
      your forefathers, being now delivered to you by the authority of Almighty
      God, and by the hands of us and all the bishops and servants of God. And,
      as you see the clergy to come nearer the altar than others, so remember
      that, in all places convenient, you give them greater honor; that the
      Mediator of God and man may establish you on the kingly throne, to be a
      mediator betwixt the clergy and the laity; and that you may reign forever
      with Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords." [*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The principles which exalted prerogative, were not entertained by the king
      merely as soft and agreeable to his royal ears; they were also put in
      practice during the time that he ruled without parliaments. Though frugal
      and regular in his expense, he wanted money for the support of government;
      and he levied it, either by the revival of obsolete laws, or by
      violations, some more open, some more disguised, of the privileges of the
      nation. Though humane and gentle in his temper, he gave way to a few
      severities in the star chamber and high commission, which seemed necessary
      in order to support the present mode of administration, and repress the
      rising spirit of liberty throughout the kingdom. Under these two heads may
      be reduced all the remarkable transactions of this reign during some
      years; for, in peaceable and prosperous times, where a neutrality in
      foreign affairs is observed, scarcely any thing is remarkable, but what is
      in some degree blamed or blamable. And, lest the hope of relief or
      protection from parliament might encourage opposition, Charles issued a
      proclamation, in which he declared, "That whereas, for several ill ends,
      the calling again of a parliament is divulged; though his majesty has
      shown, by frequent meetings with his people, his love to the use of
      parliaments: yet the late abuse having for the present driven him
      unwillingly out of that course; he will account it presumption for anyone
      to prescribe to him any time for the calling of that assembly."[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Franklyn, p. 114. Rushworth, vol. i. p. 201.

     ** Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 389. Rush. vol. ii. p. 3.
</pre>
    <p>
      This was generally construed as a declaration, that during this reign no
      more parliaments were intended to be summoned.[*] And every measure of the
      king's confirmed a suspicion so disagreeable to the generality of the
      people.
    </p>
    <p>
      Tonnage and poundage continued to be levied by the royal authority alone.
      The former additional impositions were still exacted. Even new impositions
      were laid on several kinds of merchandise.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The custom-house officers received orders from the council to enter into
      any house, warehouse, or cellar; to search any trunk or chest; and to
      break any bulk whatever; in default of the payment of customs.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      In order to exercise the militia, and to keep them in good order, each
      county, by an edict of the council, was assessed in a certain sum, for
      maintaining a muster-master, appointed for that service.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      Compositions were openly made with recusants, and the Popish religion
      became a regular part of the revenue. This was all the persecution which
      it underwent during the reign of Charles.[v]
    </p>
    <p>
      A commission was granted for compounding with such as were possessed of
      crown lands upon defective titles; and on this pretence some money was
      exacted from the people.[v*]
    </p>
    <p>
      There was a law of Edward II.,[v**] that whoever was possessed of twenty
      pounds a year in land, should be obliged, when summoned, to appear and to
      receive the order of knighthood. Twenty pounds at that time, partly by the
      change of denomination, partly by that in the value of money, were
      equivalent to two hundred in the seventeenth century; and it seemed just
      that the king should not strictly insist on the letter of the law, and
      oblige people of so small revenue to accept of that expensive honor.
      Edward VI,[v***] and Queen Elizabeth,[v****] who had both of them made use
      of this expedient for raising money, had summoned only those who were
      possessed of forty pounds a year and upwards to receive knighthood, or
      compound for their neglect; and Charles imitated their example, in
      granting the same indulgence.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 4. May, p. 14.

     ** Rush. vol. ii. p. 8. May, p. 16.

     *** Rush. vol. ii. p. 9.

     **** Rush. vol. ii. p. 10.

     v     Rush. vol. ii. p. 11, 12, 13, 247.

     v*    Rush. vol. ii: p. 49.

     v**   Statutum de militibus.

     v***  Rymer, tom. xv. p. 124.

     v**** Rymer, tom. xv. p. 493, 504.
</pre>
    <p>
      Commissioners were appointed for fixing the rates of composition; and
      instructions were given to these commissioners not to accept of a less sum
      than would have been due by the party upon a tax of three subsidies and a
      half.[*] Nothing proves more plainly how ill disposed the people were to
      the measures of the crown, than to observe that they loudly complained of
      an expedient founded on positive statute, and warranted by such recent
      precedents. The law was pretended to be obsolete; though only one reign
      had intervened since the last execution of it.
    </p>
    <p>
      Barnard, lecturer of St. Sepulchre's, London, used this expression in his
      prayer before sermon: "Lord, open the eyes of the queen's majesty, that
      she may see Jesus Christ, whom she has pierced with her infidelity,
      superstition, and idolatry." He was questioned in the high commission
      court for this insult on the queen; but, upon his submission,
      dismissed.[**] Leighton, who had written libels against the king, the
      queen, the bishops, and the whole administration, was condemned by a very
      severe, if not a cruel sentence; but the execution of it was suspended for
      some time, in expectation of his submission.[***] All the severities,
      indeed, of this reign were exercised against those who triumphed in their
      sufferings, who courted persecution, and braved authority; and on that
      account their punishment may be deemed the more just, but the less
      prudent. To have neglected them entirely, had it been consistent with
      order and public safety, had been the wisest measure that could have been
      embraced; as perhaps it had been the most severe punishment that could
      have been inflicted on these zealots.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1631.
    </p>
    <p>
      In order to gratify the clergy with a magnificent fabric, subscriptions
      were set on foot for repairing and rebuilding St. Paul's; and the king, by
      his countenance and example, encouraged this laudable undertaking.[****]
      By order of the privy council, St. Gregory's church was removed, as an
      impediment to the project of extending and beautifying the cathedral. Some
      houses and shops likewise were pulled down, and compensation was made to
      the owners.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 70, 71, 72. May, p. 16.

     ** Rush vol. ii. p. 32.

     *** Kennets Complete Hist. vol. iii. p. 60. Whitlocke, p.
     15.

     **** Whitlocke, p. 17.

     v    Rush. vol. ii. p. 88, 89, 90, 207, 462 718.
</pre>
    <p>
      As there was no immediate prospect of assembling a parliament, such acts
      of power in the king became necessary; and in no former age would the
      people have entertained any scruple with regard to them. It must be
      remarked, that the Puritans were extremely averse to the raising of this
      ornament to the capital. It savored, as they pretended, of Popish
      superstition.
    </p>
    <p>
      A stamp duty was imposed on cards; a new tax, which of itself was liable
      to no objection, but appeared of dangerous consequence when considered as
      arbitrary and illegal.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Monopolies were revived; an oppressive method of levying money, being
      unlimited, as well as destructive of industry. The last parliament of
      James, which abolished monopolies, had left an equitable exception in
      favor of new inventions; and on pretence of these, and of erecting new
      companies and corporations, was this grievance now renewed. The
      manufacture of soap was given to a company who paid a sum for their
      patent.[**] Leather, salt, and many other commodities, even down to linen
      rags, were likewise put under restrictions.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is affirmed by Clarendon, that so little benefit was reaped from these
      projects, that of two hundred thousand pounds thereby levied on the
      people, scarcely one thousand five hundred came into the king's coffers.
      Though we ought not to suspect the noble historian of exaggerations to the
      disadvantage of Charles's measures, this fact, it must be owned, appears
      somewhat incredible. The same author adds, that the king's intention was
      to teach his subjects how unthrifty a thing it was to refuse reasonable
      supplies to the crown: an imprudent project: to offend a whole nation
      under the view of punishment: and to hope by acts of violence to break
      their refractory spirits, without being possessed of any force to prevent
      resistance.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1632.
    </p>
    <p>
      The council of York had been first erected, after a rebellion, by a patent
      from Henry VIII., without any authority of parliament; and this exercise
      cf power, like many others, was indulged to that arbitrary monarch. This
      council had long acted chiefly as a criminal court; but, besides some
      innovations introduced by James, Charles thought proper some time after
      Wentworth was made president, to extend its powers, and to give it a large
      civil jurisdiction, and that in some respects discretionary.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 103.

     ** Rush. vol. ii. p. 136, 142, 189, 252.

     *** Rush. vol. ii. p, 158, 159, etc. Franklyn, p. 412.
</pre>
    <p>
      It is not improbable, that the king's intention was only to prevent
      inconveniencies, which arose from the bringing of every cause, from the
      most distant parts of the kingdom, into Westminster Hall: but the
      consequence, in the mean time, of this measure, was the putting of all the
      northern counties out of the protection of ordinary law, and subjecting
      them to an authority somewhat arbitrary. Some irregular acts of that
      council were this year complained of.[*]
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1633.
    </p>
    <p>
      The court of star chamber extended its authority; and it was matter of
      complaint that it encroached upon the jurisdiction of the other courts;
      imposing heavy fines and inflicting severe punishment, beyond the usual
      course of justice. Sir David Foulis was fined five thousand pounds,
      chiefly because he had dissuaded a friend from compounding with the
      commissioners of knighthood.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 202, 203.

     ** Rush, vol. ii. p. 215, 216, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      Prynne, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, had written an enormous quarto of a
      thousand pages, which he called Histrio-Mastyx. Its professed purpose was
      to decry stage-plays, comedies, interludes, music, dancing; but the author
      likewise took occasion to declaim against hunting, public festivals,
      Christmas-keeping, bonfires, and may-poles. His zeal against all these
      levities, he says, was first moved by observing that plays sold better
      than the choicest sermons, and that they were frequently printed on finer
      paper than the Bible itself. Besides, that the players were often Papists,
      and desperately wicked; the play-houses, he affirms, are Satan's chapels;
      the play-haunters little better than incarnate devils; and so many steps
      in a dance, so many paces to hell. The chief crime of Nero, he represents
      to have been his frequenting and acting of plays; and those who nobly
      conspired his death, were principally moved to it, as he affirms, by their
      indignation at that enormity. The rest of his thousand pages is of a like
      strain. He had obtained a license from Archbishop Abbot's chaplain; yet
      was he indicted in the star chamber as a libeller. It was thought somewhat
      hard that general invectives against plays should be interpreted into
      satires against the king and queen, merely because they frequented these
      amusements, and because the queen sometimes acted a part in pastorals and
      interludes which were represented at court. The author, it must be owned,
      had, in plainer terms, blamed the hierarchy, the ceremonies, the
      innovations in religious worship, and the new superstitions introduced by
      Laud;[*] and this, probably, together with the obstinacy and petulance of
      his behavior before the star chamber, was the reason why his sentence was
      so severe. He was condemned to be put from the bar; to stand on the
      pillory in two places, Westminster and Cheapside; to lose both his ears,
      one in each place; to pay five thousand pounds' fine to the king; and to
      be imprisoned during life.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      This same Prynne was a great hero among the Puritans; and it was chiefly
      with a view of mortifying that sect, that though of an honorable
      profession, he was condemned by the star chamber to so ignominious a
      punishment. The thorough-paced Puritans were distinguishable by the
      sourness and austerity of their manners, and by their aversion to all
      pleasure and society.[***] To inspire them with better humor was
      certainly, both for their own sake and that of the public, a laudable
      intention in the court; but whether pillories, fines and prisons were
      proper expedients for that purpose, may admit of some question.
    </p>
    <p>
      Another expedient which the king tried, in order to infuse cheerfulness
      into the national devotion, was not much more successful. He renewed his
      father's edict for allowing sports and recreations on Sunday to such as
      attended public worship; and he ordered his proclamation for that purpose
      to be publicly read by the clergy after divine service.[****] Those who
      were Puritanically affected refused obedience, and were punished by
      suspension or deprivation. The differences between the sects were before
      sufficiently great; nor was it necessary to widen them further by these
      inventions.
    </p>
    <p>
      Some encouragement and protection which the king and the bishops gave to
      wakes, church ales, bride ales, and other cheerful festivals of the common
      people, were the objects of like scandal to the Puritans.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 223.

     ** Rush. vol. ii. p. 220, 221, etc.

     *** Dugdale, p. 2.

     **** Rush, vol. ii. p. 193, 459. Whitlocke, p. 16, 17.
     Franklyn, p. 431*.

     v    Rush. vol. ii. p. 191, 192. May, p. 2.
</pre>
    <p>
      The music in the churches he affirmed not to be the noise of men, but a
      bleating of brute beasts; choristers bellow the tenor, as it were oxen;
      bark a counterpart, as it were a kennel of dogs; roar out a treble, as it
      were a sort of bulls; and grunt out a bass, as it were a number of hogs:
      Christmas, as it is kept, is the devil's Christmas: and Prynne employed a
      great number of pages to persuade men to affect the name of "Puritan," as
      if Christ had been a Puritan; and so he saith in his index.
    </p>
    <p>
      This year, Charles made a journey to Scotland, attended by the court, in
      order to hold a parliament there, and to pass through the ceremony of his
      coronation. The nobility and gentry of both kingdoms rivalled each other
      in expressing all duty and respect to the king, and in showing mutual
      friendship and regard to each other. No one could have suspected, from
      exterior appearances, that such dreadful scenes were approaching.
    </p>
    <p>
      One chief article of business, (for it deserves the name,) which the king
      transacted in this parliament, was, besides obtaining some supply, to
      procure authority for ordering the habits of clergymen.[*] The act did not
      pass without opposition and difficulty. The dreadful surplice was before
      men's eyes, and they apprehended, with some reason, that under sanction of
      this law, it would soon be introduced among them. Though the king believed
      that his prerogative entitled him to a power, in general, of directing
      whatever belonged to the exterior government of the church, this was
      deemed a matter of too great importance to be ordered without the sanction
      of a particular statute.
    </p>
    <p>
      Immediately after the king's return to England, he heard of Archbishop
      Abbot's death; and, without delay, he conferred that dignity on his
      favorite, Laud; who, by this accession of authority, was now enabled to
      maintain ecclesiastical discipline with greater rigor, and to aggravate
      the general discontent of the nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      Laud obtained the bishopric of London for his friend Juxon: and, about a
      year after the death of Sir Richard Weston, created earl of Portland, had
      interest enough to engage the king to make that prelate high treasurer.
      Juxon was a person of great integrity, mildness, and humanity, and endued
      with a good understanding.[**] Yet did this last promotion give general
      offence. His birth and character were deemed too obscure for a man raised
      to one of the highest offices of the crown. And the clergy, it was
      thought, were already too much elated by former instances of the king's
      attachment to them, and needed not this further encouragement to assume
      dominion over the laity.[***] The Puritans, likewise, were much
      dissatisfied with Juxon, notwithstanding his eminent virtues, because he
      was a lover of profane field sports and hunting.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Bushworth, vol. ii. p. 183.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 23. Clarendon, vol. i. p. 99.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 97. May, p. 23.
</pre>
    <p class="side">
      1634.
    </p>
    <p>
      Ship money was now introduced. The first writs of this kind had been
      directed to seaport towns only: but ship money was at this time levied on
      the whole kingdom; and each county was rated at a particular sum, which
      was after wards assessed upon individuals.[*] The amount of the whole tax
      was very moderate, little exceeding two hundred thousand pounds: it was
      levied upon the people with equality: the money was entirely expended on
      the navy, to the great honor and advantage of the kingdom: as England had
      no military force, while all the other powers of Europe were strongly
      armed, a fleet seemed absolutely necessary for her security; and it was
      obvious, that a navy must be built and equipped at leisure, during peace;
      nor could it possibly be fitted out on a sudden emergence, when the danger
      became urgent; yet all these considerations could not reconcile the people
      to the imposition. It was entirely arbitrary: by the same right any other
      tax might be imposed: and men thought a powerful fleet, though very
      desirable both for the credit and safety of the kingdom, but an unequal
      recompense for their liberties, which, they apprehended, were thus
      sacrificed to the obtaining of it.
    </p>
    <p>
      England, it must be owned, was in this respect unhappy in its present
      situation, that the king had entertained a very different idea of the
      constitution, from that which began in general to prevail among his
      subjects. He did not regard national privileges as so sacred and
      inviolable, that nothing but the most extreme necessity could justify an
      infringement of them. He considered himself as the supreme magistrate, to
      whose care Heaven, by his birthright, had committed his people; whose duty
      it was to provide for their security and happiness, and who was vested
      with ample discretionary powers for that salutary purpose. If the
      observance of ancient laws and customs was consistent with the present
      convenience of government, he thought himself obliged to comply with that
      rule, as the easiest, the safest, and what procured the most prompt and
      willing obedience. But when a change of circumstances, especially if
      derived from the obstinacy of the people, required a new plan of
      administration, national privileges, he thought, must yield to supreme
      power; nor could any order of the state oppose any right to the will of
      the sovereign, directed to the good of the public.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 257, 258, etc.

     ** Rush. vol. iv p 535, 542.
</pre>
    <p>
      That these principles of government were derived from the uniform tenor of
      the English laws, it would be rash to affirm. The fluctuating nature of
      the constitution, the impatient humor of the people, and the variety of
      events, had, no doubt, in different ages, produced exceptions and
      contradictions. These observations alone may be established on both sides,
      that the appearances were sufficiently strong in favor of the king to
      apologize for his following such maxims; and that public liberty must be
      so precarious under this exorbitant prerogative, as to render an
      opposition not only excusable, but laudable in the people.[*] <a
      href="#linknote-4" name="linknoteref-4" id="linknoteref-4">4</a>
    </p>
    <p>
      Some laws had been enacted, during the reign of Henry VII., against
      depopulation, or the converting of arable lands into pasture. By a decree
      of the star chamber, Sir Anthony Roper was fined four thousand pounds for
      an offence of that nature.[**] This severe sentence was intended to
      terrify others into composition; and above thirty thousand pounds were
      levied by that expedient.[***] Like compositions, or, in default of them,
      heavy fines, were required for encroachments on the king's forests, whose
      bounds, by decrees deemed arbitrary, were extended much beyond what was
      usual.[****] The bounds of one forest, that of Rockingham, were increased
      from six miles to sixty.[v] The same refractory humor which made the
      people refuse to the king voluntary supplies, disposed them, with better
      reason, to murmur against these irregular methods of taxation.
    </p>
    <p>
      Morley was fined ten thousand pounds for reviling, challenging, and
      striking, in the court of Whitehall, Sir George Theobald, one of the
      king's servants.[v*] This fine was thought exorbitant; but whether it was
      compounded, as was usual in fines imposed by the star chamber, we are not
      informed.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note D, at the end of the volume.

     ** Rush. vol. ii. p. 270; vol. iii. App. p. 106.

     *** Rush. vol. iii. p. 333. Franklyn, p. 478.

     **** May, p. 16.

     v Strafford's Letters and Despatches, vol. ii. p. 117.

     v* Rush. vol. ii. p. 270.
</pre>
    <p>
      Allison had reported, that the archbishop of York had incurred the king's
      displeasure, by asking a limited toleration for the Catholics, and an
      allowance to build some churches for the exercise of their religion. For
      this slander against the archbishop, he was condemned in the star chamber
      to be fined one thousand pounds, to be committed to prison, to be bound to
      his good behavior during life, to be whipped, and to be set on the pillory
      at Westminster, and in three other towns in England. Robins, who had been
      an accomplice in the guilt, was condemned by a sentence equally severe.[*]
      Such events are rather to be considered as rare and detached incidents,
      collected by the severe scrutiny of historians, than as proofs of the
      prevailing genius of the king's administration which seems to have been
      more gentle and equitable than, that of most of his predecessors: there
      were, on the whole, only five or six such instances of rigor during the
      course of fifteen years, which elapsed before the meeting of the long
      parliament. And it is also certain, that scandal against the great, though
      seldom prosecuted at present, is, however, in the eye of the law, a great
      crime, and subjects the offender to very heavy penalties.
    </p>
    <p>
      There are other instances of the high respect paid to the nobility and to
      the great in that age, when the powers of monarchy, though disputed, still
      maintained themselves in their pristine vigor. Clarendon[**] tells us a
      pleasant incident to this purpose: a waterman, belonging to a man of
      quality, having a squabble with a citizen about his fare, showed his
      badge, the crest of his master, which happened to be a swan; and thence
      insisted on better treatment from the citizen. But the other replied
      carelessly, that he did not trouble his head about that goose. For this
      offence, he was summoned before the marshal's court; was fined, as having
      opprobriously defamed the nobleman's crest, by calling the swan a goose;
      and was in effect reduced to beggary.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sir Richard Granville had thought himself ill used by the earl of Suffolk
      in a lawsuit; and he was accused before the star chamber of having said of
      that nobleman, that he was a base lord. The evidence against him was
      somewhat lame; yet for this slight offence, insufficiently proved, he was
      condemned to pay a fine of eight thousand pounds; one half to the earl,
      the other to the king.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Bush. vol. u. p, 269.

     ** Life of Clarendon, vol. i. p. 72.

     *** Lord Lansdown, p. 514.
</pre>
    <p>
      Sir George Markham, following a chase where Lord Darcy's huntsman was
      exercising his hounds, kept closer to the dogs than was thought proper by
      the huntsman, who, besides other rudeness, gave him foul language, which
      Sir George returned with a stroke of his whip. The fellow threatened to
      complain to his master: the knight replied, "If his master should justify
      such insolence, he would serve him in the same manner;" or words to that
      effect. Sir George was summoned before the Star chamber, and fined ten
      thousand pounds: "So fine a thing was it in those days to be a lord!"&mdash;a
      natural reflection of Lord Lansdown's in relating this incident.[*] The
      people, in vindicating their liberties from the authority of the crown,
      threw off also the yoke of the nobility. It is proper to remark that this
      last incident happened early in the reign of James. The present practice
      of the star chamber was far from being an innovation; though the present
      dispositions of the people made them repine more at this servitude.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1635.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles had imitated the example of Elizabeth and James, and had issued
      proclamations forbidding the landed gentlemen and the nobility to live
      idly in London, and ordering them to retire to their country seats.[**]
      For disobedience to this edict, many were indicted by the
      attorney-general, and were fined in the star chamber.[***] This occasioned
      discontents; and the sentences were complained of as illegal. But if
      proclamations had authority, of which nobody pretended to doubt, must they
      not be put in execution? In no instance I must confess, does it more
      evidently appear, what confused and uncertain ideas were during that age
      entertained concerning the English constitution.
    </p>
    <p>
      Ray, having exported fuller's earth, contrary to the king's proclamation,
      was, besides the pillory, condemned in the star chamber to a fine of two
      thousand pounds.[****] Like fines were levied on Terry, Eman, and others,
      for disobeying a proclamation which forbade the exportation of gold.[v] In
      order to account for the subsequent convulsions, even these incidents are
      not to be overlooked as frivolous or contemptible. Such severities were
      afterwards magnified into the greatest enormities.
    </p>
    <p>
      There remains a proclamation of this year, prohibiting hackney coaches
      from standing in the street.[v*] We are told, that there were not above
      twenty coaches of that kind in London. There are at present near eight
      hundred.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Lord Lansdown, p. 515. This story is told differently in
     Hobart's Reports, p. 120. It there appears, that Markham was
     fined only five hundred pounds, and very deservedly; for he
     gave the lie and wrote a challenge to Lord Darcy. James was
     anxious to discourage the practice of duelling, which was
     then very prevalent.

     ** Rush. vol. ii. p. 144.

     *** Rush. vol. ii, p. 288.

     **** Rush. vol. ii. p. 348.

     v    Rush. vol. ii. p. 360.

     v*   Rush. vol. ii. p. 316.
</pre>
    <p class="side">
      1636.
    </p>
    <p>
      The effects of ship money began now to appear. A formidable fleet of sixty
      sail, the greatest that England had ever known, was equipped under the
      earl of Northumberland, who had orders to attack the herring busses of the
      Dutch, which fished in what were called the British seas. The Dutch were
      content to pay thirty thousand pounds for a license during this year. They
      openly denied, however, the claim of dominion in the seas beyond the
      friths, bays, and shores; and it may be questioned whether the laws of
      nations warrant any further pretensions.
    </p>
    <p>
      This year, the king sent a squadron against Sallee; and, with the
      assistance of the emperor of Morocco, destroyed that receptacle of
      pirates, by whom the English commerce, and even the English coasts, had
      long been infested.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1637.
    </p>
    <p>
      Burton, a divine, and Bastwick, a physician, were tried in the star
      chamber for seditious and schismatical libels, and were condemned to the
      same punishment that had been inflicted on Prynne. Prynne himself was
      tried for a new offence; and, together with another fine of five thousand
      pounds, was condemned to lose what remained of his ears. Besides that
      these writers had attacked with great severity, and even an intemperate
      zeal, the ceremonies, rites, and government of the church, the very
      answers which they gave in to the court were so full of contumacy and of
      invectives against the prelates, that no lawyer could be prevailed on to
      sign them.[*] The rigors, however, which they underwent, being so unworthy
      men of their profession, gave general offence; and the patience, or rather
      alacrity, with which they suffered, increased still further the
      indignation of the public.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 381, 382, etc. State Trials, vol. v. p.
     66.

     ** State Trials, vol. v. p. 80.
</pre>
    <p>
      The severity of the star chamber, which was generally ascribed to Laud's
      passionate disposition, was, perhaps, in itself somewhat blamable; but
      will naturally, to us, appear enormous, who enjoy, in the utmost latitude,
      that liberty of the press, which is esteemed so necessary in every
      monarchy, confined by strict legal limitations. But as these limitations
      were not regularly fixed during the age of Charles, nor at any time
      before, so was this liberty totally unknown, and was generally deemed, as
      well as religious toleration, incompatible with all good government. No
      age or nation among the moderns had ever set an example of such an
      indulgence; and it seems unreasonable to judge of the measures embraced
      during one period by the maxims which prevail in another.
    </p>
    <p>
      Burton, in his book where he complained of innovations mentioned, among
      others, that a certain Wednesday had been appointed for a fast, and that
      the fast was ordered to be celebrated without any sermons.[*] The
      intention, as he pretended, of that novelty was, by the example of a fast
      without sermons, to suppress all the Wednesday's lectures in London. It is
      observable, that the church of Rome and that of England, being both of
      them lovers of form, and ceremony, and order, are more friends to prayer
      than preaching; while the Puritanical sectaries, who find that the latter
      method of address, being directed to a numerous audience present and
      visible, is more inflaming and animating, have always regarded it as the
      chief part of divine service. Such circumstances, though minute, it may
      not be improper to transmit to posterity; and those who are curious of
      tracing the history of the human mind, may remark how far its several
      singularities coincide in different ages.
    </p>
    <p>
      Certain zealots had erected themselves into a society for buying in of
      impropriations, and transferring them to the church; and great sums of
      money had been bequeathed to the society for these purposes. But it was
      soon observed, that the only use which they made of their funds was to
      establish lecturers in all the considerable churches; men who, without
      being subjected to Episcopal authority, employed themselves entirely in
      preaching and spreading the fire of Puritanism. Laud took care, by a
      decree which was passed in the court of exchequer, and which was much
      complained of, to abolish this society, and to stop their progress.[**] It
      was, however, still observed, that throughout England the lecturers were
      all of them Puritanically affected; and from them the clergymen, who
      contented themselves with reading prayers and homilies to the people,
      commonly received the reproachful appellation of "dumb dogs."
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * State Trials, vol. v. p. 74. Franklyn, p. 839.

     ** Rush. vol. ii. p. 150, 151. Whitlocke, p. 15. History of
     the Life Sufferings of Laud, p. 211, 212.
</pre>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
The Puritans, restrained in England, shipped themselves off for America,
and laid there the foundations of a government which possessed all
the liberty, both civil and religious, of which they found themselves
bereaved in their native country.

 But their enemies, unwilling that they
should any where enjoy ease and contentment, and dreading, perhaps, the
dangerous consequences of so disaffected a colony, prevailed on the king
to issue a proclamation, debarring these devotees access even into those
inhospitable deserts.[*] Eight ships, lying in the Thames, and ready to
sail, were detained by order of the council; and in these were embarked
Sir Arthur Hazelrig, John Hambden, John Pym, and Oliver Cromwell,[**]
who had resolved forever to abandon their native country, and fly to
the other extremity of the globe; where they might enjoy lectures
and discourses of any length or form which pleased them. The king had
afterwards full leisure to repent this exercise of his authority.
</pre>
    <p>
      The bishop of Norwich, by rigorously insisting on uniformity, had banished
      many industrious tradesmen from that city, and chased them into
      Holland.[***] The Dutch began to be more intent on commerce than on
      orthodoxy; and thought that the knowledge of useful arts and obedience to
      the laws formed a good citizen; though attended with errors in subjects
      where it is not allowable for human nature to expect any positive truth or
      certainty.
    </p>
    <p>
      Complaints about this time were made, that the petition of right was in
      some instances violated; and that, upon a commitment by the king and
      council, bail or releasement had been refused to Jennings, Pargiter, and
      Danvers.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      Williams, bishop of Lincoln, a man of spirit and learning, a popular
      prelate, and who had been lord keeper, was fined ten thousand pounds by
      the star chamber, committed to the Tower during the king's pleasure, and
      suspended from his office. This severe sentence was founded on frivolous
      pretences, and was more ascribed to Laud's vengeance, than to any guilt of
      the bishop.[v] Laud, however, had owed his first promotion to the good
      offices of that prelate with King James. But so implacable was the haughty
      primate, that he raised up a new prosecution against Williams, on the
      strangest pretence imaginable.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 409, 418.

     ** Mather's History of New England, book i. Dugdale. Bates
     Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, vol. i. p. 42.
     This last quoted author puts the fact beyond controversy.
     And it is a curious fact, as well with regard to the
     characters of the men, as of the times. Can any one doubt
     that the ensuing quarrel was almost entirety theological,
     not political? What might be expected of the populace when
     such was the character of the most enlightened Readers?

     *** May, p. 82.

     **** Rush. vol. ii. p. 414.

     v Rush. vol. ii. p. 416, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      In order to levy the fine above mentioned, some officers had been sent to
      seize all the furniture and books of his episcopal palace of Lincoln; and
      in rummaging the house, they found in a corner some neglected letters,
      which had been thrown by as useless. These letters were written by one
      Osbaldistone, a schoolmaster, and were directed to Williams. Mention was
      there made of "a little great man;" and in another passage, the same
      person was denominated "a little urchin." By inferences and constructions,
      these epithets were applied to Laud; and on no better foundation was
      Williams tried anew, as having received scandalous letters, and not
      discovering that private correspondence. For this offence, another fine of
      eight thousand pounds was levied on him: Osbaldistone was likewise brought
      to trial, and condemned to pay a fine of five thousand pounds, and to have
      his ears nailed to the pillory before his own school. He saved himself by
      flight; and left a note in his study, wherein he said, "that he was gone
      beyond Canterbury."[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      These prosecutions of Williams seem to have been the most iniquitous
      measure pursued by the court during the time that the use of parliaments
      was suspended. Williams had been indebted for all his fortune to the favor
      of James; but having quarrelled, first with Buckingham, then with Laud, he
      threw himself into the country party; and with great firmness and vigor
      opposed all the measures of the king. A creature of the court to become
      its obstinate enemy, a bishop to countenance Puritans; these circumstances
      excited indignation, and engaged the ministers in those severe measures.
      Not to mention, what some writers relate, that, before the sentence was
      pronounced against him, Williams was offered a pardon upon his submission,
      which he refused to make; the court was apt to think, that so refractory a
      spirit must by any expedient be broken and subdued.
    </p>
    <p>
      In a former trial which Williams underwent,[**] (for these were not the
      first,) there was mentioned in court a story, which, as it discovers the
      genius of parties, may be worth relating. Sir John Lambe urging him to
      prosecute the Puritans, the prelate asked what sort of people these same
      Puritans were. Sir John replied, "that to the world they seemed to be such
      as would not swear, whore, or be drunk; out they would lie, cozen, and
      deceive; that they would frequently hear two sermons a day, and repeat
      them too, and that some, times they would fast all day long." This
      character must be conceived to be satirical; yet it may be allowed, that
      that sect was more averse to such irregularities as proceed from the
      excess of gayety and pleasure, than to those enormities which are the most
      destructive of society, The former were opposite to the very genius and
      spirit of their religion; the latter were only a transgression of its
      precepts: and it was not difficult for a gloomy enthusiast to convince
      himself, that a strict observance of the one would atone for any violation
      of the other.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. voL ii. p. 803, etc. Whittocke, p. 25.

     ** Rush. vol. ii. p. 416.
</pre>
    <p>
      In 1632, the treasurer Portland had insisted with the vintners, that they
      should submit to a tax of a penny a quart upon all the wine which they
      retailed; but they rejected the demand, In order to punish them, a decree
      suddenly, without much inquiry or examination, passed in the star chamber,
      prohibiting them to sell or dress victuals in their houses.[*] Two years
      after, they were questioned for the breach of this decree; and in order to
      avoid punishment, they agreed to lend the king six thousand pounds. Being
      threatened, during the subsequent years, with fines and prosecutions, they
      at last compounded the matter, and submitted to pay half of that duty
      which was at first demanded of them.[**] It required little foresight to
      perceive, that the king's right of issuing proclamations must, if
      prosecuted, draw on a power of taxation.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rash. vol. ii p. 197.

     ** Rush. vol. ii, p. 45.
</pre>
    <p>
      Lilburne was accused before the star chamber of publishing and dispersing
      seditious pamphlets. He was ordered to be examined; but refused to take
      the oath usual in that court that he would answer interrogatories, even
      though they might lead him to accuse himself. For this contempt, as it was
      interpreted, he was condemned to be whipped, pilloried, and imprisoned.
      While he was whipped at the cart, and stood on the pillory, he harangued
      the populace, and declaimed violently against the tyranny of bishops. From
      his pockets also he scattered pamphlets, said to be seditious, because
      they attacked the hierarchy. The star chamber, which was sitting at that
      very time, ordered him immediately to be gagged. He ceased not, however,
      though both gagged and pilloried, to stamp with his foot and gesticulate,
      in order to show the people that, if he had it in his power, he would
      still harangue them. This behavior gave fresh provocation to the star
      chamber; and they condemned him to be imprisoned in a dungeon, and to be
      loaded with irons.[*] It was found difficult to break the spirits of men
      who placed both their honor and their conscience in suffering.
    </p>
    <p>
      The jealousy of the church appeared in another instance less tragical.
      Archy, the king's fool, who by his office had the privilege of jesting on
      his master and the whole court, happened unluckily to try his wit upon
      Laud, who was too sacred a person to be played with. News having arrived
      from Scotland of the first commotions excited by the liturgy, Archy,
      seeing the primate pass by, called to him, "Who's fool now, my lord?" For
      this offence Archy was ordered, by sentence of the council, to have his
      coat pulled over his head and to be dismissed the king's service.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Here is another instance of that rigorous subjection in which all men were
      held by Laud. Some young gentlemen of Lincoln's Inn, heated by their cups,
      having drunk confusion to the archbishop, were at his instigation cited
      before the star chamber. They applied to the earl of Dorset for
      protection. "Who bears witness against you?" said Dorset. "One of the
      drawers," they said. "Where did he stand when you were supposed to drink
      this health?" subjoined the earl, "He was at the door," they replied,
      "going out of the room." "Tush!" cried he, "the drawer must be mistaken:
      you drank confusion to the archbishop of Canterbury's enemies and the
      fellow was gone before you pronounced the last word." This hint supplied
      the young gentlemen with a new method of defence: and being advised by
      Dorset to behave with great humility and great submission to the primate,
      the modesty of their carriage, the ingenuity of their apology, with the
      patronage of that noble lord, saved them from any severer punishment than
      a reproof and admonition, with which they were dismissed.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 465, 466, 467.

     ** Rush. voL ii. p. 470. Welwood, p. 278.

     *** Rush. vol. iii. p. 180.
</pre>
    <p>
      This year, John Hambden acquired, by his spirit and courage, universal
      popularity throughout the nation, and has merited great renown with
      posterity, for the bold stand which he made in defence of the laws and
      liberties of his country. After the imposing of ship money, Charles, in
      order to discourage all opposition, had proposed this question to the
      judges: "Whether, in a case of necessity, for the defence of the kingdom,
      he might not impose this taxation; and whether he were not sole judge of
      the necessity." These guardians of law and liberty replied, with great
      complaisance, "that in a case of necessity he might impose that taxation,
      and that he was sole judge of the necessity."[*] Hambden had been rated at
      twenty shillings for an estate which he possessed in the county of
      Buckingham: yet, notwithstanding this declared opinion of the judges,
      notwithstanding the great power and sometimes rigorous maxims of the
      crown, notwithstanding the small prospect of relief from parliament, he
      resolved, rather than tamely submit to so illegal an imposition, to stand
      a legal prosecution, and expose himself to all the indignation of the
      court. The case was argued during twelve days, in the exchequer chamber,
      before all the judges of England; and the nation regarded, with the utmost
      anxiety, every circumstance of this celebrated trial. The event was easily
      foreseen: but the principles, and reasonings, and behavior of the parties
      engaged in the trial, were much canvassed and inquired into; and nothing
      could equal the favor paid to the one side, except the hatred which
      attended the other.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 355. Whitlocke, p. 24.
</pre>
    <p>
      It was urged by Hambden's counsel, and by his partisans in the nation,
      that the plea of necessity was in vain introduced into a trial of law;
      since it was the nature of necessity to abolish all law, and, by
      irresistible violence, to dissolve all the weaker and more artificial ties
      of human society. Not only the prince, in cases of extreme distress, is
      exempted from the ordinary rules of administration: all orders of men are
      then levelled; and any individual may consult the public safety by any
      expedient which his situation enables him to employ. But to produce so
      violent an effect, and so hazardous to every community, an ordinary danger
      or difficulty is not sufficient; much less a necessity which is merely
      fictitious and pretended. Where the peril is urgent and extreme, it will
      be palpable to every member of the society; and though all ancient rules
      of government are in that case abrogated, men will readily, of themselves,
      submit to that irregular authority which is exerted for their
      preservation. But what is there in common between such suppositions and
      the present condition of the nation? England enjoys a profound peace with
      al her neighbors; and what is more, all her neighbors are engaged in
      furious and bloody wars among themselves, and by their mutual enmities
      further insure their tranquillity. The very writs themselves, which are
      issued for the levying of ship money, contradict the supposition of
      necessity, and pretend only that the seas are infested with pirates; a
      slight and temporary inconvenience, which may well await a legal supply
      from parliament. The writs likewise allow several months for equipping the
      ships; which proves a very calm and deliberate species of necessity, and
      one that admits of delay much beyond the forty days requisite for
      summoning that assembly. It is strange, too, that an extreme necessity,
      which is always apparent, and usually comes to a sudden crisis, should now
      have continued without interruption for near four years, and should have
      remained during so long a time invisible to the whole kingdom. And as to
      the pretension, that the king is sole judge of the necessity, what is this
      but to subject all the privileges of the nation to his arbitrary will and
      pleasure? To expect that the public will be convinced by such reasoning,
      must aggravate the general indignation, by adding to violence against
      men's persons, and their property, so cruel a mockery of their
      understanding.
    </p>
    <p>
      In vain are precedents of ancient writs produced: these writs, when
      examined, are only found to require the seaports, sometimes at their own
      charge, sometimes at the charge of the counties, to send their ships for
      the defence of the nation. Even the prerogative which empowered the crown
      to issue such writs is abolished, and its exercise almost entirely
      discontinued from the time of Edward III.;[*] and all the authority which
      remained, or was afterwards exercised, was to press ships into the public
      service, to be paid for by the public.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * State Trials, vol. v. p. 245, 255.
</pre>
    <p>
      How wide are these precedents from a power of obliging the people, at
      their own charge, to build new ships, to victual and pay them, for the
      public; nay, to furnish money to the crown for that purpose? What security
      either against the further extension of this claim, or against diverting
      to other purposes the public money so levied? The plea of necessity would
      warrant any other taxation as well as that of ship money; wherever any
      difficulty shall occur, the administration, instead of endeavoring to
      elude or overcome it by gentle and prudent measures, will instantly
      represent it as a reason for infringing all ancient laws and institutions:
      and if such maxims and such practices prevail, what has become of national
      liberty? What authority is left to the Great Charter, to the statutes, and
      to the very petition of right, which in the present reign had been so
      solemnly enacted by the concurrence of the whole legislature?
    </p>
    <p>
      The defenceless condition of the kingdom while unprovided with a navy; the
      inability of the king, from his established revenues, with the utmost care
      and frugality, to equip and maintain one; the impossibility of obtaining,
      on reasonable terms, any voluntary supply from parliament; all these are
      reasons of state, not topics of law. If these reasons appear to the king
      so urgent as to dispense with the legal rules of government, let him
      enforce his edicts by his court of star chamber, the proper instrument of
      irregular and absolute power, not prostitute the character of his judges
      by a decree which is not, and cannot possibly be legal. By this means, the
      boundaries, at least, will be kept more distinct between ordinary law and
      extraordinary exertions of prerogative; and men will know, that the
      national constitution is only suspended during a present and difficult
      emergence, but has not under gone a total and fundamental alteration.
    </p>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding these reasons, the prejudiced judges, four[*] excepted,
      gave sentence in favor of the crown. Hambden, however, obtained by the
      trial the end for which he had so generously sacrificed his safety and his
      quiet: the people were roused from their lethargy, and became sensible of
      the danger to which their liberties were exposed.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See State Trials, article, Ship Money, which contains the
     speeches of four judges in favor of Hambden.
</pre>
    <p>
      These national questions were canvassed in every company; and the more
      they were examined, the more evidently did it appear to many, that liberty
      was totally subverted, and an unusual and arbitrary authority exercised
      over the kingdom. Slavish principles they said, concur with illegal
      practices; ecclesiastical tyranny gives aid to civil usurpation;
      iniquitous taxes are supported by arbitrary punishments; and all the
      privileges of the nation, transmitted through so many ages, secured by so
      many laws and purchased by the blood of so many heroes and patriots, now
      lie prostrate at the feet of the monarch. What though public peace and
      national industry increased the commerce and opulence of the kingdom? This
      advantage was temporary, and due alone, not to any encouragement given by
      the crown, but to the spirit of the English, the remains of their ancient
      freedom. What though the personal character of the king amidst all his
      misguided counsels, might merit indulgence, or even praise? He was but one
      man; and the privileges of the people, the inheritance of millions, were
      too valuable to be sacrificed to his prejudices and mistakes. Such, or
      more severe, were the sentiments promoted by a great party in the nation:
      no excuse on the king's part, or alleviation, how reasonable soever, could
      be hearkened to or admitted: and to redress these grievances, a parliament
      was impatiently longed for; or any other incident, however calamitous,
      that might secure the people against these oppressions which they felt, or
      the greater ills which they apprehended from the combined encroachments of
      church and state.
    </p>
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    <h2>
      CHAPTER LIII
    </h2>
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    <h2>
      CHARLES I.
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1637.
    </p>
    <p>
      The grievances under which the English labored when considered in
      themselves, without regard to the constitution, scarcely deserve the name;
      nor were they either burdensome on the people's properties, or anywise
      shocking to the natural humanity of mankind. Even the imposition of ship
      money, independent of the consequences, was a great and evident advantage
      to the public, by the judicious use which the king made of the money
      levied by that expedient. And though it was justly apprehended, that such
      precedents, if patiently submitted to, would end in a total disuse of
      parliaments, and in the establishment of arbitrary authority, Charles
      dreaded no opposition from the people, who are not commonly much affected
      with consequences, and require some striking motive to engage them in a
      resistance of established government. All ecclesiastical affairs were
      settled by law and uninterrupted precedent; and the church was become a
      considerable barrier to the power, both legal and illegal, of the crown.
      Peace too, industry, commerce, opulence; nay, even justice and lenity of
      administration, notwithstanding some very few exceptions; all these were
      enjoyed by the people; and every other blessing of government, except
      liberty, or rather the present exercise of liberty and its proper
      security.[*] It seemed probable, therefore, that affairs might long have
      continued on the same footing in England, had it not been for the
      neighborhood of Scotland; a country more turbulent, and less disposed to
      submission and obedience. It was thence the commotions first arose; and is
      therefore time for us to return thither, and to give an account of the
      state of affairs in that kingdom.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, p. 74, 75. May, p. 18. Warwick, p. 62.
</pre>
    <p>
      Though the pacific, and not unskilful government of James, and the great
      authority which he had acquired, had much allayed the feuds among the
      great families, and had established law and order throughout the kingdom,
      the Scottish nobility were still possessed of the chief power and
      influence over the people. Their property was extensive; their hereditary
      jurisdictions and the feudal tenures increased their authority; and the
      attachment of the gentry to the heads of families established a kind of
      voluntary servitude under the chieftains. Besides that long absence had
      much loosened the King's connections with the nobility, who resided
      chiefly at their country seats, they were in general, at this time, though
      from slight causes, much disgusted with the court. Charles, from the
      natural piety or superstition of his temper, was extremely attached to the
      ecclesiastics; and as it is natural for men to persuade themselves that
      their interest coincides with their inclination, he had established it as
      a fixed maxim of policy, to increase the power and authority of that
      order. The prelates, he thought, established regularity and discipline
      among the clergy; the clergy inculcated obedience and loyalty among the
      people; and as that rank of men had no separate authority and no
      dependence but on the crown, the royal power, it would seem, might with
      the greater safety be intrusted in their hands. Many of the prelates,
      therefore, were raised to the chief dignities of the state;[*] Spotswood,
      archbishop of St. Andrews, was created chancellor: nine of the bishops
      were privy councillors: the bishop of Ross aspired to the office of
      treasurer: some of the prelates possessed places in the exchequer: and it
      was even endeavored to revive the first institution of the college of
      justice, and to share equally between the clergy and laity the whole
      judicial authority.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. ii. p. 386. May, p. 29.

     ** Guthry's Memoirs, p. 14 Burnet's Mem. p. 29, 30.
</pre>
    <p>
      These advantages, possessed by the church, and which the bishops did not
      always enjoy with suitable modesty, disgusted the haughty nobility, who,
      deeming themselves much superior in rank and quality to this new order of
      men, were displeased to find themselves inferior in power and influence.
      Interest joined itself to ambition, and begat a jealousy lest the
      episcopal sees, which at the reformation had been pillaged by the nobles,
      should again be enriched at the expense of that order. By a most useful
      and beneficial law, the impropriations had already been ravished from the
      great men: competent salaries had been assigned to the impoverished clergy
      from the tithes of each parish: and what remained, the proprietor of the
      land was empowered to purchase at a low valuation.[*] The king likewise,
      warranted by ancient law and practice, had declared for a general
      resumption of all crown lands alienated by his predecessors; and though he
      took no step towards the execution of this project, the very pretension to
      such power had excited jealousy and discontent.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding the tender regard which Charles bore to the whole church,
      he had been able in Scotland to acquire only the affection of the superior
      rank among the clergy. The ministers in general equalled, if not exceeded,
      the nobility in their prejudices against the court, against the prelates,
      and against episcopal authority.[***] Though the establishment of the
      hierarchy might seem advantageous to the inferior clergy, both as it
      erected dignities to which all of them might aspire, and as it bestowed a
      lustre on the whole body, and allured men of family into it, these views
      had no influence on the Scottish ecclesiastics. In the present disposition
      of men's minds, there was another circumstance which drew consideration,
      and counterbalanced power and riches, the usual foundations of distinction
      among men; and that was the fervor of piety, and the rhetoric, however
      barbarous, of religious lectures and discourses. Checked by the prelates
      in the license of preaching, the clergy regarded episcopal jurisdiction
      both as a tyranny and a usurpation, and maintained a parity among
      ecclesiastics to be a divine privilege, which no human law could alter or
      infringe. While such ideas prevailed, the most moderate exercise of
      authority would have given disgust; much more, that extensive power which
      the king's indulgence encouraged the prelates to assume. The jurisdiction
      of presbyteries, synods, and other democratical courts, was in a manner
      abolished by the bishops; and the general assembly itself had not been
      summoned for several years.[****] A new oath was arbitrarily imposed on
      intrants, by which they swore to observe the articles of Perth, and submit
      to the liturgy and canons. And in a word, the whole system of church
      government, during a course of thirty years, had been changed by means of
      the innovations introduced by James and Charles.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * King's Declaration, p. 7. Franklyn, p, 611.

     ** King's Declaration, p. 6.

     *** Burnet's Mem., p. 29, 30.

     **** May, p. 29.
</pre>
    <p>
      The people, under the influence of the nobility and clergy, could not fail
      to partake of the discontents which prevailed among these two orders; and
      where real grounds of complaint were wanting, they greedily laid hold of
      imaginary ones. The same horror against Popery with which the English
      Puritans were possessed, was observable among the populace in Scotland;
      and among these, as being more uncultivated and uncivilized, seemed rather
      to be inflamed into a higher degree of ferocity. The genius of religion
      which prevailed in the court and among the prelates, was of an opposite
      nature; and having some affinity to the Romish worship, led them to
      mollify, as much as possible, these severe prejudices, and to speak of the
      Catholics in more charitable language, and with more reconciling
      expressions. From this foundation a panic fear of Popery was easily
      raised; and every new ceremony or ornament introduced into divine service,
      was part of that great mystery of iniquity, which, from the encouragement
      of the king and the bishops, was to overspread the nation.[*] The few
      innovations which James had made, were considered as preparatives to this
      grand design; and the further alterations attempted by Charles, were
      represented as a plain declaration of his intentions. Through the whole
      course of this reign, nothing had more fatal influence, in both kingdoms,
      than this groundless apprehension, which with so much industry was
      propagated, and with so much credulity was embraced, by all ranks of men.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Burnet's Mem. p. 29, 30, 31.
</pre>
    <p>
      Amidst these dangerous complaints and terrors of religious innovation, the
      civil and ecclesiastical liberties of the nation were imagined, and with
      some reason, not to be altogether free from invasion.
    </p>
    <p>
      The establishment of the high commission by James, without any authority
      of law, seemed a considerable encroachment of the crown, and erected the
      most dangerous and arbitrary of all courts, by a method equally dangerous
      and arbitrary. All the steps towards the settlement of Episcopacy had
      indeed been taken with consent of parliament: the articles of Perth were
      confirmed in 1621: in 1633, the king had obtained a general ratification
      of every ecclesiastical establishment: but these laws had less authority
      with the nation, as they were known to have passed contrary to the
      sentiments even of those who voted for them, and were in reality extorted
      by the authority and importunity of the sovereign. The means, however,
      which both James and Charles had employed, in order to influence the
      parliament, were entirely regular, and no reasonable pretence had been
      afforded for representing these laws as null or invalid.
    </p>
    <p>
      But there prevailed among the greater part of the nation another
      principle, of the most important and most dangerous nature; and which, if
      admitted, destroyed entirely the validity of all such statutes. The
      ecclesiastical authority was supposed totally independent of the civil;
      and no act of parliament, nothing but the consent of the church itself,
      was represented as sufficient ground for the introduction of any change in
      religious worship or discipline. And though James had obtained the vote of
      assemblies for receiving Episcopacy and his new rites; it must be
      confessed, that such irregularities had prevailed in constituting these
      ecclesiastical courts, and such violence in conducting them, that there
      were some grounds for denying the authority of all their acts. Charles,
      sensible that an extorted consent, attended with such invidious
      circumstances, would rather be prejudicial to his measures, had wholly
      laid aside the use of assemblies, and was resolved, in conjunction with
      the bishops, to govern the church by an authority to which he thought
      himself fully entitled, and which he believed inherent in the crown.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king's great aim was to complete the work so happily begun by his
      father; to establish discipline upon a regular system of canons, to
      introduce a liturgy into public worship, and to render the ecclesiastical
      government of all his kingdoms regular and uniform. Some views of policy
      might move him to this undertaking; but his chief motives were derived
      from principles of zeal and conscience.
    </p>
    <p>
      The canons for establishing ecclesiastical jurisdiction were promulgated
      in 1635; and were received by the nation, though without much appearing
      opposition, yet with great inward apprehension and discontent. Men felt
      displeasure at seeing the royal authority highly exalted by them, and
      represented as absolute and uncontrollable. They saw these speculative
      principles reduced to practice, and a whole body of ecclesiastical laws
      established without any previous consent either of church or state.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 106.
</pre>
    <p>
      They dreaded lest, by a parity of reason, like arbitrary authority, from
      like pretences and principles, would be assumed in civil matters: they
      remarked, that the delicate boundaries which separate church and state
      were already passed, and many civil ordinances established by the canons,
      under color of ecclesiastical institutions: and they were apt to deride
      the negligence with which these important edicts had been compiled, when
      they found that the new liturgy or service-book was every where, under
      severe penalties, enjoined by them, though it had not yet been composed or
      published.[*] It was, however, soon expected; and in the reception of it,
      as the people are always most affected by what is external and exposed to
      the senses, it was apprehended that the chief difficulty would consist.
    </p>
    <p>
      The liturgy which the king, from his own authority, imposed on Scotland,
      was copied from that of England: but, lest a servile imitation might shock
      the pride of his ancient kingdom, a few alterations, in order to save
      appearances, were made in it; and in that shape it was transmitted to the
      bishops at Edinburgh.[**] But the Scots had universally entertained a
      notion, that, though riches and worldly glory had been shared out to them
      with a sparing hand, they could boast of spiritual treasures more abundant
      and more genuine than were enjoyed by any nation under heaven. Even their
      southern neighbors, they thought, though separated from Rome, still
      retained a great tincture of the primitive pollution; and their liturgy
      was represented as a species of mass, though with some less show and
      embroidery.[***] Great prejudices, therefore, were entertained against it,
      even considered in itself; much more when regarded as a preparative, which
      was soon to introduce into Scotland all the abominations of Popery. And as
      the very few alterations which distinguished the new liturgy from the
      English, seemed to approach nearer to the doctrine of the real presence,
      this circumstance was deemed an undoubted confirmation of every suspicion
      with which the people were possessed.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 105.

     ** King's Decl. p. 18. May, p. 32.

     *** King's Decl. p. 20.

     **** Burnet's Mem. p. *8*1. Rush. vol. ii. p. 396. May, p.
     31.
</pre>
    <p>
      Easter-day was, by proclamation, appointed for the first reading of the
      service in Edinburgh: but in order to judge more surely of men's
      dispositions, the council delayed the matter till the twenty-third of
      July; and they even gave notice, the Sunday before, of their intention to
      commence the use of the new liturgy. As no considerable symptoms of
      discontent appeared, they thought that they might safely proceed in their
      purpose; and accordingly, in the cathedral church of St. Giles, the dean
      of Edinburgh, arrayed in his surplice, began the service; the bishop
      himself and many of the privy council being present. But no sooner had the
      dean opened the book than a multitude of the meanest sort, most of them
      women, clapping their hands, cursing, and crying out, "A pope, a pope!
      Antichrist! stone him!" raised such a tumult that it was impossible to
      proceed with the service. The bishop, mounting the pulpit in order to
      appease the populace, had a stool thrown at him; the council was insulted:
      and it was with difficulty that the magistrates were able, partly by
      authority, partly by force, to expel the rabble, and to shut the doors
      against them. The tumult, however, still continued without: stones were
      thrown at the doors and windows: and when the service was ended, the
      bishop, going home, was attacked, and narrowly escaped from the hands of
      the enraged multitude. In the afternoon, the privy seal, because he
      carried the bishop in his coach, was so pelted with stones, and hooted at
      with execrations, and pressed upon by the eager populace, that if his
      servants with drawn swords had not kept them off, the bishop's life had
      been exposed to the utmost danger.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Though it was violently suspected that the low populace, who alone
      appeared, had been instigated by some of higher condition, yet no proof of
      it could be produced; and every one spake with disapprobation of the
      licentiousness of the giddy multitude.[**] It was not thought safe,
      however, to hazard a new insult by any new attempt to read the liturgy;
      and the people seemed for the time to be appeased and satisfied. But it
      being known that the king still persevered in his intentions of imposing
      that mode of worship, men fortified themselves still further in their
      prejudices against it; and great multitudes resorted to Edinburgh, in
      order to oppose the introduction of so hated a novelty.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * King's Decl. p. 22. Clarendon, vol. i. p. 108. Rush, vol.
     ii. p. 387.

     ** King's Decl. p. 23, 24, 25. Rush. vol. ii. p. 388.

     *** King's Decl. p. 26, 30. Clarendon, vol. i. p. 109.
</pre>
    <p>
      It was not long before they broke, out in the most violent disorder. The
      bishop of Galloway was attacked in the streets, and chased into the
      chamber where the privy council was sitting. The council itself was
      besieged and violently attacked: the town council met with the same fate:
      and nothing could have saved the lives of all of them, but their
      application to some popular lords, who protected them, and dispersed the
      multitude. In this sedition, the actors were of some better condition than
      in the former; though nobody of rank seemed as yet to countenance them.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      All men, however, began to unice and to encourage each other in opposition
      to the religious innovations introduced into the kingdom. Petitions to the
      council were signed and presented by persons of the highest quality: the
      women took part, and, as was usual, with violence: the clergy every where
      loudly declaimed against Popery and the liturgy, which they represented as
      the same: the pulpits resounded with vehement invectives against
      Antichrist: and the populace, who first opposed the service, was often
      compared to Balaam's ass, an animal in itself stupid and senseless, but
      whose mouth had been opened by the Lord, to the admiration of the whole
      world. In short, fanaticism mingling with faction, private interest with
      the spirit of liberty, symptoms appeared on all hands of the most
      dangerous insurrection and disorder.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * King's Decl. p. 35, 36 etc. Rush. vol. ii. p. 404.
</pre>
    <p>
      The primate, a man of wisdom and prudence, who was all along averse to the
      introduction of the liturgy, represented to the king the state of the
      nation: the earl of Traquaire, the treasurer, set out for London, in order
      to lay the matter more fully before him: every circumstance, whether the
      condition of England or of Scotland were considered, should have engaged
      him to desist from so hazardous an attempt: yet was Charles inflexible. In
      his whole conduct of this affair, there appear no marks of the good sense
      with which he was endowed: a lively instance of that species of character
      so frequently to be met with; where there are found parts and judgment in
      every discourse and opinion; in many actions, indiscretion and imprudence.
      Men's views of things are the result of their understanding alone: their
      conduct is regulated by their understanding, their temper, and their
      passions.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1638.
    </p>
    <p>
      To so violent a combination of a whole kingdom, Charles had nothing to
      oppose but a proclamation; in which he pardoned all past offences, and
      exhorted the people to be more obedient for the future, and to submit
      peaceably to the use of the liturgy. This proclamation was instantly
      encountered with a public protestation, presented by the earl of Hume and
      Lindesey: and this was the first time that men of quality had appeared in
      any violent act of opposition.[*] But this proved a crisis. The
      insurrection, which had been advancing by a gradual and slow progress, now
      blazed up at once. No disorder, however, attended it. On the contrary, a
      new order immediately took place. Four "tables," as they were called, were
      formed in Edinburgh. One consisted of nobility, another of gentry, a third
      of ministers, a fourth of burgesses. The table of gentry was divided into
      many subordinate tables, according to their different counties. In the
      hands of the four tables the whole authority of the kingdom was placed.
      Orders were issued by them, and every where obeyed with the utmost
      regularity.[**] And among the first acts of their government was the
      production of the "Covenant."
    </p>
    <p>
      This famous covenant consisted first of a renunciation of Popery, formerly
      signed by James in his youth, and composed of many invectives, fitted to
      inflame the minds of men against their fellow-creatures, whom Heaven has
      enjoined them to cherish and to love. There followed a bond of union, by
      which the subscribers obliged themselves to resist religious innovations,
      and to defend each other against all opposition whatsoever: and all this,
      for the greater glory of God, and the greater honor and advantage of their
      king and country.[***] The people, without distinction of rank or
      condition, of age or sex, flocked to the subscription of this covenant:
      few in their judgment disapproved of it; and still fewer durst openly
      condemn it. The king's ministers and counsellors themselves were most of
      them seized by the general contagion. And none but rebels to God, and
      traitors to their country, it was thought, would withdraw themselves from
      so salutary and so pious a combination.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * King's Decl. p. 47, 48, etc. Guthry, p. 28. May, p. 37.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 111. Rush. vol. ii. p. 734.

     *** King's Decl. p. 57, 58. Rush. vol. ii. p. 734. May, p.
     38.
</pre>
    <p>
      The treacherous, the cruel, the unrelenting Philip, accompanied with all
      the terrors of a Spanish inquisition, was scarcely, during the preceding
      century, opposed in the Low Countries with more determined fury, than was
      now, by the Scots, the mild, the humane Charles, attended with his
      inoffensive liturgy.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king began to apprehend the consequences. He sent the marquis of
      Hamilton, as commissioner, with authority to treat with the Covenanters.
      He required the covenant to be renounced and recalled: and he thought,
      that on his part he had made very satisfactory concessions, when he
      offered to suspend the canons and the liturgy, till in a fair and legal
      way they could be received; and so to model the high commission, that it
      should no longer give offence to his subjects.[*] Such general
      declarations could not well give content to any, much less to those who
      carried so much higher their pretensions. The Covenanters found themselves
      seconded by the zeal of the whole nation. Above sixty thousand people were
      assembled in a tumultuous manner in Edinburgh and the neighborhood.
      Charles possessed no regular forces in either of his kingdoms. And the
      discontents in England, though secret, were believed so violent, that the
      king, it was thought, would find it very difficult to employ in such a
      cause the power of that kingdom. The more, therefore, the popular leaders
      in Scotland considered their situation, the less apprehension did they
      entertain of royal power, and the more rigorously did they insist on
      entire satisfaction. In answer to Hamilton's demand of renouncing the
      covenant, they plainly told him that they would sooner renounce their
      baptism.[**] And the clergy invited the commissioner himself to subscribe
      it, by informing him "with what peace and comfort it had filled the hearts
      of all God's people; what resolutions and beginnings of reformation of
      manners were sensibly perceived in all parts of the nation, above any
      measure they had ever before found or could have expected; how great glory
      the Lord had received thereby; and what confidence they had that God would
      make Scotland a blessed kingdom."[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      Hamilton returned to London; made another fruitless journey, with new
      concessions, to Edinburgh; returned again to London; and was immediately
      sent back with still more satisfactory concessions. The king was now
      willing entirely to abolish the canons, the liturgy, and the high
      commission court. He was even resolved to limit extremely the power of the
      bishops, and was content if on any terms he could retain that order in the
      church of Scotland.[****] And to insure all these gracious offers, he gave
      Hamilton authority to summon first an assembly, then a parliament, where
      every national grievance might be redressed and remedied.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. ii. p. 137, etc.

     ** King's Decl. p. 87.

     *** King's Decl. p. 88. Rush, vol. ii. p. 751.

     **** King's Decl. p. 137. Rush, vol. ii. p. 762.
</pre>
    <p>
      These successive concessions of the king, which yet came still short of
      the rising demands of the malecontents, discovered his own weakness,
      encouraged their insolence, and gave no satisfaction. The offer, however,
      of an assembly and a parliament, in which they expected to be entirely
      masters, was willingly embraced by the Covenanters.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, perceiving what advantage his enemies had reaped from their
      covenant, resolved to have a covenant on his side; and he ordered one to
      be drawn up for that purpose. It consisted of the same violent
      renunciation of Popery above mentioned; which, though the king did not
      approve of it, he thought it safest to adopt, in order to remove all the
      suspicions entertained against him. As the Covenanters, in their bond of
      mutual defence against all opposition, had been careful not to except the
      king, Charles had formed a bond, which was annexed to this renunciation,
      and which expressed the duty and loyalty of the subscribers to his
      majesty.[*] But the Covenanters, perceiving that this new covenant was
      only meant to weaken and divide them, received it with the utmost scorn
      and detestation. And without delay they proceeded to model the future
      assembly, from which such great achievments were expected.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The genius of that religion which prevailed in Scotland, and which every
      day was secretly gaining ground in England, was far front inculcating
      deference and submission to the ecclesiastics, merely as such; or rather,
      by nourishing in every individual the highest raptures and ecstasies of
      devotion, it consecrated, in a manner, every individual, and in his own
      eyes bestowed a character on him much superior to what forms and
      ceremonious institutions could alone confer. The clergy of Scotland,
      though such tumult was excited about religious worship and discipline,
      were both poor and in small numbers; nor are they in general to be
      considered, at least in the beginning, as the ringleaders of the sedition
      which was raised on their account. On the contrary, the laity,
      apprehending, from several instances which occurred, a spirit of
      moderation in that order, resolved to domineer entirely in the assembly
      which was summoned, and to hurry on the ecclesiastics by the same furious
      zeal with which they were themselves transported.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * King's Decl. p. 140, etc.

     ** Rush. vol. ii. p. 772.

     *** King's Decl. p. 188, 189. Rush. voL ii. p. 761.
</pre>
    <p>
      It had been usual, before the establishment of prelacy, for each
      presbytery to send to the assembly, besides two or three ministers, one
      lay commissioner;[*] and, as all the boroughs and universities sent
      likewise commissioners, the lay members in that ecclesiastical court
      nearly equalled the ecclesiastics. Not only this institution, which James,
      apprehensive of zeal in the laity, had abolished, was now revived by the
      Covenanters; they also introduced an innovation, which served still
      further to reduce the clergy to subjection. By an edict of the tables,
      whose authority was supreme, an elder from each parish was ordered to
      attend the presbytery, and to give his vote in the choice both of the
      commissioners and ministers who should be deputed to the assembly. As it
      is not usual for the ministers, who are put in the list of candidates, to
      claim a vote, all the elections by that means fell into the hands of the
      laity: the most furious of all ranks were chosen: and the more to overawe
      the clergy, a new device was fallen upon, of choosing to every
      commissioner four or five lay assessors, who, though they could have no
      vote, might yet interpose with their advice and authority in the
      assembly.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The assembly met at Glasgow; and, besides a great concourse of the people,
      all the nobility and gentry of any family or interest were present, either
      as members, assessors, or spectators; and it was apparent that the
      resolutions taken by the Covenanters could here meet with no manner of
      opposition. A firm determination had been entered into of utterly
      abolishing episcopacy; and as a preparative to it, there was laid before
      the presbytery of Edinburgh, and solemnly read in all the churches of the
      kingdom, an accusation against the bishops, as guilty, all of them, of
      heresy, simony, bribery, perjury, cheating, incest, adultery, fornication,
      common swearing, drunkenness, gaming, breach of the Sabbath, and every
      other crime that had occurred to the accusers.[***] The bishops sent a
      protest, declining the authority of the assembly: the commissioner, too,
      protested against the court, as illegally constituted and elected; and, in
      his majesty's name, dissolved it. This measure was foreseen, and little
      regarded. The court still continued to sit, and to finish their
      business.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * A presbytery in Scotland is an inferior ecclesiastical
     court, the same that was afterwards called a classis in
     England, and is composed of the clergy of the neighboring
     parishes, to the number commonly of between twelve and
     twenty.

     ** King's Decl. p. 190, 191, 290. Guthry, p. 39, etc.

     *** King's Decl. p. 218. Rush. vol. ii p. 787.

     **** May, p. 44.
</pre>
    <p>
      All the acts of assembly, since the accession of James to the crown of
      England, were, upon pretty reasonable grounds, declared null and invalid.
      The acts of parliament which affected ecclesiastical affairs were
      supposed, on that very account, to have no manner of authority. And thus
      episcopacy, the high commission, the articles of Perth, the canons, and
      the liturgy, were abolished and declared unlawful; and the whole fabric
      which Jamas and Charles, in a long course of years, had been rearing with
      so much care and policy, fell at once to the ground.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1639.
    </p>
    <p>
      The covenant, likewise, was ordered to be signed by every one, under pain
      of excommunication.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The independency of the ecclesiastical upon the civil power, was the old
      Presbyterian principle, which had been zealously adopted at the
      reformation, and which, though James and Charles had obliged the church
      publicly to disclaim it, had secretly been adhered to by all ranks of
      people. It was commonly asked whether Christ or the king were superior;
      and as the answer seemed obvious, it was inferred, that the assembly,
      being Christ's council, was superior in all spiritual matters to the
      parliament, which was only the king's. But as the Covenanters were
      sensible that this consequence, though it seemed to them irrefragable,
      would not be assented to by the king, it became necessary to maintain
      their religious tenets by military force, and not to trust entirely to
      supernatural assistance, of which, however, they held themselves well
      assured. They cast their eyes on all sides, abroad and at home, whence
      ever they could expect any aid or support.
    </p>
    <p>
      After France and Holland had entered into a league against Spain, and
      framed a treaty of partition, by which they were to conquer and to divide
      between them the Low Country provinces, England was invited to preserve a
      neutrality between the contending parties, while the French and Dutch
      should attack the maritime towns of Flanders. But the king replied to
      D'Estrades, the French ambassador, who opened the proposal, that he had a
      squadron ready, and would cross the seas, if necessary, with an army of
      fifteen thousand men, in order to prevent these projected conquests.[**]
      This answer, which proves that Charles though he expressed his mind with
      an imprudent candor, had at last acquired a just idea of national interest
      irritated Cardinal Richelieu; and, in revenge, that politic and
      enterprising minister carefully fomented the first commotions in Scotland,
      and secretly supplied the Covenanters with money and arms, in order to
      encourage them in their opposition against their sovereign.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * King's Decl. p. 317.

     ** Mem. D'Estrades, vol. i.
</pre>
    <p>
      But the chief resource of the Scottish malecontents was in themselves, and
      in their own vigor and abilities. No regular established commonwealth
      could take juster measures, or execute them with greater promptitude, than
      did this tumultuous combination, inflamed with bigotry for religious
      trifles, and faction without a reasonable object. The whole kingdom was in
      a manner engaged, and the men of greatest abilities soon acquired the
      ascendant, which their family interest enabled them to maintain. The earl
      of Argyle, though he long seemed to temporize, had at last embraced the
      covenant; and he became the chief leader of that party; a man equally
      supple and inflexible, cautious and determined, and entirely qualified to
      make a figure during a factious and turbulent period. The earls of Rothes,
      Cassils, Montrose, Lothian, the lords Lindesey, Louden, Yester, Balmerino,
      distinguished themselves in that party. Many Scotch officers had acquired
      reputation in the German wars, particularly under Gustavus; and these were
      invited over to assist their country in her present necessity. The command
      was intrusted to Lesley, a soldier of experience and abilities. Forces
      were regularly enlisted and disciplined. Arms were commissioned and
      imported from foreign countries. A few castles which belonged to the king,
      being unprovided with victuals, ammunition, and garrisons, were soon
      seized. And the whole country, except a small part, where the marquis of
      Huntley still adhered to the king, being in the hands of the Covenanters,
      was in a very little time put in a tolerable posture of defence.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The fortifications of Leith were begun and carried on with great rapidity.
      Besides the inferior sort, and those who labored for pay, incredible
      numbers of volunteers, even noblemen and gentlemen, put their hand to the
      work, and deemed the most abject employment to be dignified by the
      sanctity of the cause. Women, too, of rank and condition, forgetting the
      delicacy of their sex and the decorum of their character were intermingled
      with the lowest rabble, and carried on their shoulders the rubbish
      requisite for completing the fortifications.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * May, p. 49.

     ** Guthry's Memoirs, p. 46.
</pre>
    <p>
      We must not omit another auxiliary of the Covenanters and no
      inconsiderable one; a prophetess, who was much followed and admired by all
      ranks of people. Her name Michelson, a woman full of whimseys partly
      hysterical, partly religious; and inflamed with a zealous concern for the
      ecclesiastical discipline of the Presbyterians. She spoke at certain times
      only, and had often interruptions of days and weeks: but when she began to
      renew her ecstasies, warning of the happy event was conveyed over the
      whole country; thousands crowded about her house; and every word which she
      uttered was received with veneration, as the most sacred oracles. The
      covenant was her perpetual theme. The true, genuine covenant, she said,
      was ratified in heaven: the king's covenant was an invention of Satan:
      when she spoke of Christ, she usually gave him the name of the Covenanting
      Jesus. Rollo, a popular preacher, and zealous Covenanter, was her great
      favorite, and paid her, on his part, no less veneration. Being desired by
      the spectators to pray with her, and speak to her, he answered, "that he
      durst not; and that it would be ill manners in him to speak while his
      master, Christ, was speaking in her."[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * King's Declaration at large, p. 227. Burnet's Memoirs of
     Hamilton.
</pre>
    <p>
      Charles had agreed to reduce episcopal authority so much, that it would no
      longer have been of any service to support the crown; and this sacrifice
      of his own interests he was willing to make, in order to attain public
      peace and tranquillity. But he could not consent entirely to abolish an
      order which he thought as essential to the being of a Christian church, as
      his Scottish subjects deemed it incompatible with that sacred institution.
      This narrowness of mind, if we would be impartial, we must either blame or
      excuse equally on both sides; and thereby anticipate, by a little
      reflection, that judgment which time, by introducing new subjects of
      controversy, will undoubtedly render quite familiar to posterity.
    </p>
    <p>
      So great was Charles's aversion to violent and sanguinary measures, and so
      strong his affection to his native kingdom that it is probable the contest
      in his breast would be nearly equal between these laudable passions and
      his attachment to the hierarchy. The latter affection, however, prevailed
      for the time, and made him hasten those military preparations which he had
      projected for subduing the refractory spirit of the Scottish nation. By
      regular economy, he had not only paid all the debts contracted during the
      Spanish and French wars, but had amassed a sum of two hundred thousand
      pounds, which he reserved for any sudden exigency. The queen had great
      interest with the Catholics, both from the sympathy of religion, and from
      the favors and indulgences which she had been able to procure to them. She
      now employed her credit, and persuaded them that it was reasonable to give
      large contributions, as a mark of their duty to the king, during this
      urgent necessity.[*] A considerable supply was obtained by this means; to
      the great scandal of the Puritans, who were offended at seeing the king on
      such good terms with the Papists, and repined that others should give what
      they themselves were disposed to refuse him.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles's fleet was formidable and well supplied. Having put five thousand
      land forces on board, he intrusted it to the marquis of Hamilton, who had
      orders to sail to the Frith of Forth, and to cause a diversion in the
      forces of the malecontents. An army was levied of near twenty thousand
      foot, and above three thousand horse; and was put under the command of the
      earl of Arundel, a nobleman of great family, but celebrated neither for
      military nor political abilities. The earl of Essex, a man of strict
      honor, and extremely popular, especially among the soldiery, was appointed
      lieutenant-general: the earl of Holland was general of the horse. The king
      himself joined the army, and he summoned all the peers of England to
      attend him. The whole had the appearance of a splendid court, rather than
      of a military armament; and in this situation, carrying more show than
      real force with it, the camp arrived at Berwick.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The Scottish army was as numerous as that of the king, but inferior in
      cavalry. The officers had more reputation and experience; and the
      soldiers, though undisciplined and ill armed, were animated, as well by
      the national aversion to England, and the dread of becoming a province to
      their old enemy, as by an unsurmountable fervor of religion. The pulpits
      had extremely assisted the officers in levying recruits, and had thundered
      out anathemas against all those "who went not out to assist the Lord
      against the mighty."[***] Yet so prudent were the leaders of the
      malecontents, that they immediately sent submissive messages to the king,
      and craved to be admitted to a treaty.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. iii. p. 1329. Franklyn, p. 767.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i p. 115, 116, 117.

     *** Burnet's Memoirs of Hamilton.
</pre>
    <p>
      Charles knew that the force of the Covenanters was considerable, their
      spirits high, their zeal furious; and that, as they were not yet daunted
      by any ill success, no reasonable terms could be expected from them. With
      regard therefore to a treaty, great difficulties occurred on both sides.
      Should he submit to the pretensions of the malecontents, (besides that the
      prelacy must be sacrificed to their religious prejudices,) such a check
      would be given to royal authority, which had very lately, and with much
      difficulty, been thoroughly established in Scotland, that he must expect
      ever after to retain in that kingdom no more than the appearance of
      majesty. The great men, having proved by so sensible a trial the impotence
      of law and prerogative, would return to their former licentiousness: the
      preachers would retain their innate arrogance: and the people, unprotected
      by justice, would recognize no other authority than that which they found
      to domineer over them. England also, it was much to be feared, would
      imitate so bad an example; and having already a strong propensity towards
      republican and Puritanical factions, would expect, by the same seditious
      practices, to attain the same indulgence. To advance so far, without
      bringing the rebels to a total submission, at least to reasonable
      concessions, was to promise them, in all future time, an impunity for
      rebellion.
    </p>
    <p>
      On the other hand, Charles considered that Scotland was never before,
      under any of his ancestors, so united and so animated in its own defence;
      yet had often been able to foil or elude the force of England, combined
      heartily in one cause, and inured by long practice to the use of arms. How
      much greater difficulty should he find, at present, to subdue by violence
      a people inflamed with religious prejudices; while he could only oppose to
      them a nation enervated by long peace, and lukewarm in his service; or,
      what was more to be dreaded, many of them engaged in the same party with
      the rebels?[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. iii. p. 936.
</pre>
    <p>
      Should the war be only protracted beyond a campaign, (and who could expect
      to finish it in that period?) his treasures would fail him; and for supply
      he must have recourse to an English parliament, which, by fatal
      experience, he had ever found more ready to encroach on the prerogatives,
      than to supply the necessities of the crown. And what if he receive a
      defeat from the rebel army? This misfortune was far from being impossible.
      They were engaged in a national cause, and strongly actuated by mistaken
      principles. His army was retained entirely by pay, and looked on the
      quarrel with the same indifference which naturally belongs to mercenary
      troops without possessing the discipline by which such troops are commonly
      distinguished. And the consequences of a defeat, while Scotland was
      enraged and England discontented, were so dreadful, that no motive should
      persuade him to hazard it.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is evident, that Charles had fallen into such a situation, that
      whichever side he embraced, his errors must be dangerous. No wonder,
      therefore, he was in great perplexity. But he did worse than embrace the
      worst side; for, properly speaking, he embraced no side at all. He
      concluded a sudden pacification, in which it was stipulated, that he
      should withdraw his fleet and army; that within eight and forty hours the
      Scots should dismiss their forces; that the king's forts should be
      restored to him; his authority be acknowledged; and a general assembly and
      a parliament be immediately summoned, in order to compose all
      differences.[*] What were the reasons which engaged the king to admit such
      strange articles of peace, it is in vain to inquire; for there scarcely
      could be any. The causes of that event may admit of a more easy
      explication.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush vol. iii. p. 945.
</pre>
    <p>
      The malecontents had been very industrious in representing to the English
      the grievances under which Scotland labored, and the ill counsels which
      had been suggested to their sovereign. Their liberties, they said, were
      invaded; the prerogatives of the crown extended beyond all former
      precedent; illegal courts erected; the hierarchy exalted at the expense of
      national privileges; and so many new superstitions introduced by the
      haughty, tyrannical prelates, as begat a just suspicion that a project was
      seriously formed for the restoration of Popery. The king's conduct,
      surely, in Scotland, had been in every thing, except in establishing the
      ecclesiastical canons, more legal than in England; yet was there such a
      general resemblance in the complaints of both kingdoms, that the English
      readily assented to all the representations of the Scottish malecontents,
      and believed that nation to have been driven by oppression into the
      violent counsels which they had embraced. So far, therefore, from being
      willing to second the king in subduing the free spirit of the Scots, they
      rather pitied that unhappy people, who had been pushed to those
      extremities; and they thought, that the example of such neighbors, as well
      as their assistance, might some time be advantageous to England, and
      encourage her to recover, by a vigorous effort, her violated laws and
      liberties. The gentry and nobility, who, without attachment to the court,
      without command in the army, attended in great numbers the English camp,
      greedily seized, and propagated, and gave authority to these sentiments: a
      retreat, very little honorable, which the earl of Holland, with a
      considerable detachment of the English forces, had made before a
      detachment of the Scottish, caused all these humors to blaze up at once:
      and the king, whose character was not sufficiently vigorous or decisive,
      and who was apt from facility to embrace hasty counsels, suddenly assented
      to a measure which was recommended by all about him, and which favored his
      natural propension towards the misguided subjects of his native
      kingdom.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, having so far advanced in pacific measures, ought, with a steady
      resolution, to have prosecuted them, and have submitted to every tolerable
      condition demanded by the assembly and parliament; nor should he have
      recommenced hostilities, but on account of such enormous and unexpected
      pretensions as would have justified his cause, if possible, to the whole
      English nation. So far, indeed, he adopted this plan, that he agreed, not
      only to confirm his former concessions, of abrogating the canons, the
      liturgy, the high commission, and the articles of Perth, but also to
      abolish the order itself of bishops, for which he had so zealously
      contended.[**] But this concession was gained by the utmost violence which
      he could impose on his disposition and prejudices: he even secretly
      retained an intention of seizing favorable opportunities, in order to:
      recover the ground which he had lost.[***] And one step farther he could
      not prevail with himself to advance. The assembly, when it met, paid no
      deference to the king's prepossessions, but gave full indulgence to their
      own. They voted episcopacy to be unlawful in the church of Scotland: he
      was willing to allow it contrary to the constitutions of that church. They
      stigmatized the liturgy and canons as Popish: he agreed simply to abolish
      them. They denominated the high commission, tyranny: he was content to set
      it aside.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 122, 123. May, p. 46.

     ** Rush. vol. iii. p. 946.

     *** Burnet's Memoirs, p. 154 Rush. vol. iii. p. 951.

     **** Rush. vol. iii. p. 958, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      The parliament, which sat after the assembly, advanced pretensions which
      tended to diminish the civil power of the monarch; and, what probably
      affected Charles still more, they were proceeding to ratify the acts of
      assembly, when, by the king's instructions,[*] Traquaire, the
      commissioner, prorogued them. And on account of these claims, which might
      have been foreseen, was the war renewed; with great advantages on the side
      of the Covenanters and disadvantages on that of the king.
    </p>
    <p>
      No sooner had Charles concluded the pacification without conditions than
      the necessity of his affairs and his want of money obliged him to disband
      his army; and as the soldiers had been held together solely by mercenary
      views, it was not possible, without great trouble, and expense, and loss
      of time, again to assemble them. The more prudent Covenanters had
      concluded, that their pretensions being so contrary to the interests, and
      still more to the inclinations, of the king, it was likely that they
      should again be obliged to support their cause by arms; and they were
      therefore careful, in dismissing their troops, to preserve nothing but the
      appearance of a pacific disposition. The officers had orders to be ready
      on the first summons: the soldiers were warned not to think the nation
      secure from an English invasion: and the religious zeal which animated all
      ranks of men, made them immediately fly to their standards as soon as the
      trumpet was sounded by their spiritual and temporal leaders. The credit
      which in their last expedition they had acquired, by obliging their
      sovereign to depart from all his pretensions, gave courage to every one in
      undertaking this new enterprise.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush vol. iii. p. 955.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 125. Rush vol. iii. p. 1023.
</pre>
    <p class="side">
      1640.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, with great difficulty, found means to draw together an army; but
      soon discovered that all savings being gone, and great debts contracted,
      his revenue would be insufficient to support them. An English parliament,
      therefore, formerly so unkind and intractable, must now, after above
      eleven years' intermission, after the king had tried many irregular
      methods of taxation, after multiplied disgusts given to the Puritanical
      party, be summoned to assemble, amidst the must pressing necessities of
      the crown.
    </p>
    <p>
      As the king resolved to try whether this house of commons would be more
      compliant than their predecessors, and grant him supply on any reasonable
      terms, the time appointed for the meeting of parliament was late, and very
      near the time allotted for opening the campaign against the Scots. After
      the past experience of their ill humor, and of their encroaching
      disposition, he thought that he could not in prudence trust them with a
      long session, till he had seen some better proofs of their good
      intentions: the urgency of the occasion, and the little time allowed for
      debate, were reasons which he reserved against the malecontents in the
      house; and an incident had happened, which, he believed, had now furnished
      him with still more cogent arguments.
    </p>
    <p>
      The earl of Traquaire had intercepted a letter written to the king of
      France by the Scottish malecontents, and had conveyed this letter to the
      king. Charles, partly repenting of the large concessions made to the
      Scots, partly disgusted at their fresh insolence and pretensions, seized
      this opportunity of breaking with them. He had thrown into the Tower Lord
      Loudon, commissioner from the Covenanters, one of the persons who had
      signed the treasonable letter.[*] And he now laid the matter before the
      parliament, whom he hoped to inflame by the resentment, and alarm by the
      danger, of this application to a foreign power.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 129. Rush. vol. iii. p 956. May, p.
     56.
</pre>
    <p>
      By the mouth of the lord keeper Finch, he discovered his wants, and
      informed them, that he had been able to assemble his army, and to subsist
      them, not by any revenue which he possessed, but by means of a large debt
      of above three hundred thousand pounds, which he had contracted, and for
      which he had given security upon the crown lands. He represented, that it
      was necessary to grant supplies for the immediate and urgent demands of
      his military armaments: that the season was far advanced, the time
      precious, and none of it must be lost in deliberation; that though his
      coffers were empty, they had not been exhausted by unnecessary pomp, or
      sumptuous buildings, or any other kind of magnificence: that whatever
      supplies had been levied on his subjects, had been employed for their
      advantage and preservation; and, like vapors rising out of the earth, and
      gathered into a cloud, had fallen in sweet and refreshing showers on the
      same fields from which they had at first been exhaled: that though he
      desired such immediate assistance as might prevent for the time a total
      disorder in the government he was far from any intention of precluding
      them from their right to inquire into the state of the kingdom, and to
      offer his petitions for the redress of their grievances: that as much as
      was possible of this season should afterwards be allowed them for that
      purpose: that as he expected only such supply at present as the current
      service necessarily required, it would be requisite to assemble them again
      next winter, when they should have full leisure to conclude whatever
      business had this session been left imperfect and unfinished: that the
      parliament of Ireland had twice put such trust in his good intentions as
      to grant him, in the beginning of the session, a large supply, and had
      ever experienced good effects from the confidence reposed in him: and
      that; in every circumstance, his people should find his conduct suitable
      to a just, pious, and gracious king; and such as was calculated to promote
      an entire harmony between prince and parliament.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. iii. p. 1114.
</pre>
    <p>
      However plausible these topics, they made small impression on the house of
      commons. By some illegal, and several suspicious measures of the crown,
      and by the courageous opposition which particular persons, amidst dangers
      and hardships, had made to them, the minds of men, throughout the nation,
      had taken such a turn, as to ascribe every honor to the refractory
      opposers of the king and the ministers. These were the only patriots, the
      only lovers of their country, the only heroes, and perhaps, too, the only
      true Christians. A reasonable compliance with the court was slavish
      dependence; a regard to the king, servile flattery; a confidence in his
      promises, shameful prostitution. This general cast of thought, which has
      more or less prevailed in England during near a century and a half, and
      which has been the cause of much good and much ill in public affairs,
      never predominated more than during the reign of Charles. The present
      house of commons, being entirely composed of country gentlemen, who came
      into parliament with all their native prejudices about them, and whom the
      crown had no means of influencing, could not fail to contain a majority of
      these stubborn patriots.
    </p>
    <p>
      Affairs likewise, by means of the Scottish insurrection and the general
      discontents in England, were drawing so near to a crisis, that the leaders
      of the house, sagacious and penetrating, began to foresee the
      consequences, and to hope that the time so long wished for was now come,
      when royal authority must fall into a total subordination under popular
      assemblies, and when public liberty must acquire a full ascendant. By
      reducing the crown to necessities, they had hitherto found that the king
      had been pushed into violent counsels, which had served extremely the
      purposes of his adversaries: and by multiplying these necessities, it was
      foreseen that his prerogative, undermined on all sides, must at last be
      overthrown, and be no longer dangerous to the privileges of the people.
      Whatever, therefore, tended to compose the differences between king and
      parliament, and to preserve the government uniformly in its present
      channel, was zealously opposed by these popular leaders; and their past
      conduct and sufferings gave them credit sufficient to effect all their
      purposes.
    </p>
    <p>
      The house of commons, moved by these and many other obvious reasons,
      instead of taking notice of the king's complaints against his Scottish
      subjects, or his applications for supply, entered immediately upon
      grievances; and a speech which Pym made them on that subject was much more
      hearkened to, than that which the lord keeper had delivered to them in the
      name of their sovereign. The subject of Pym's harangue has been
      sufficiently explained above; where we gave an account of all the
      grievances, imaginary in the church, more real in the state, of which the
      nation at that time so loudly complained.[*] The house began with
      examining the behavior of the speaker the last day of the former
      parliament; when he refused, on account of the king's command, to put the
      question: and they declared it a breach of privilege. They proceeded next
      to inquire into the imprisonment and prosecution of Sir John Elliot,
      Hollis, and Valentine:[**] the affair of ship money was canvassed: and
      plentiful subject of inquiry was suggested on all hands. Grievances were
      regularly classed under three heads; those with regard to privileges of
      parliament, to the property of the subject, and to religion.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 133. Rush. vol. iii. p. 1131. May,
     p. 60.

     ** Rush. vol. iii p. 1136.

     *** Rush. vol. iii. p. 1147.
</pre>
    <p>
      The king, seeing a large and inexhaustible field opened, pressed them
      again for supply; and finding his message ineffectual, he came to the
      house of peers, and desired their good offices with the commons. The peers
      were sensible of the king's urgent necessities; and thought that supply on
      this occasion ought, both in reason and in decency, to go before
      grievances. They ventured to represent their sense of the matter to the
      commons; but their intercession did harm. The commons had always claimed,
      as their peculiar province the granting of supplies; and, though the peers
      had here gone no further than offering advice, the lower house immediately
      thought proper to vote so unprecedented an interposition to be a breach of
      privilege.[*] Charles, in order to bring the matter of supply to some
      issue, solicited the house by new messages: and finding that ship money
      gave great alarm and disgust; besides informing them, that he never
      intended to make a constant revenue of it, that all the money levied had
      been regularly, with other great sums, expended on equipping the navy; he
      now went so far as to offer them a total abolition of that obnoxious
      claim, by any law which the commons should think proper to present to him.
      In return, he only asked for his necessities a supply of twelve subsidies,&mdash;about
      six hundred thousand pounds,&mdash;and that payable in three years; but at
      the same time he let them know, that, considering the situation of his
      affairs, a delay would be equivalent to a denial.[**] The king though the
      majority was against him, never had more friends in any house of commons;
      and the debate was carried on for two days, with great zeal and warmth on
      both sides.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 134.

     ** Clarendon, vol. 1. p. 135. Rush. vol. iii p. 1154.
</pre>
    <p>
      It was urged by the partisans of the court, that the happiest occasion
      which the fondest wishes could suggest, was now presented for removing all
      disgusts and jealousies between king and people, and for reconciling their
      sovereign forever to the use of parliaments: that if they, on their part,
      laid aside all enormous claims and pretensions, and provided in a
      reasonable manner for the public necessities, they needed entertain no
      suspicion of any insatiable ambition or illegal usurpation in the crown:
      that though due regard had not always been paid, during this reign, to the
      rights of the people, yet no invasion of them had been altogether
      deliberate and voluntary; much less the result of wanton tyranny and
      injustice; and still less of a formal design to subvert the constitution.
      That to repose a reasonable confidence in the king, and generously to
      supply his present wants, which proceeded neither from prodigality nor
      misconduct, would be the true means of gaining on his generous nature, and
      extorting, by a gentle violence, such concessions as were requisite for
      the establishment of public liberty: that he had promised, not only on the
      word of a prince, but also on that of a gentleman, (the expression which
      he had been pleased to use,) that, after the supply was granted the
      parliament should still have liberty to continue their deliberations:
      could it be suspected that any man, any prince much less such a one, whose
      word was as yet sacred and inviolate, would, for so small a motive forfeit
      his honor, and, with it, all future trust and confidence, by breaking a
      promise so public and so solemn? that even if the parliament should be
      deceived in reposing this confidence in him, they neither lost any thing,
      nor incurred any danger; since it was evidently necessary, for the
      security of public peace, to supply him with money, in order to suppress
      the Scottish rebellion: that he had so far suited his first demands to
      their prejudices, that he only asked a supply for a few months, and was
      willing, after so short a trust from them, to fall again into dependence,
      and to trust them for his further support and subsistence: that if he now
      seemed to desire something further, he also made them, in return, a
      considerable offer, and was willing, for the future, to depend on them for
      a revenue which was quite necessary for public honor and security: that
      the nature of the English constitution supposed a mutual confidence
      between king and parliament: and if they should refuse it on their part,
      especially with circumstances of such outrage and indignity, what could be
      expected but a total dissolution of government, and violent factions,
      followed by the most dangerous convulsions and intestine disorders?
    </p>
    <p>
      In opposition to these arguments, it was urged by the malecontent party,
      that the court had discovered, on their part, but few symptoms of that
      mutual confidence to which they now so kindly invited the commons: that
      eleven years' intermission of parliaments&mdash;the longest that was to be
      found in the English annals&mdash;was a sufficient indication of the
      jealousy entertained against the people; or rather of designs formed for
      the suppression of all their liberties and privileges: that the ministers
      might well plead necessity, nor could any thing, indeed, be a stronger
      proof of some invincible necessity, than their embracing a measure for
      which they had conceived so violent an aversion, as the assembling of an
      English parliament: that this necessity, however, was purely ministerial,
      not national; and if the same grievances, ecclesiastical and civil, under
      which this nation itself labored, had pushed the Scots to extremities, was
      it requisite that the English should forge their own chains, by imposing
      chains on their unhappy neighbors? that the ancient practice of parliament
      was to give grievances the precedency of supply; and this order, so
      carefully observed by their ancestors, was founded on a jealousy inherent
      in the constitution, and was never interpreted as any peculiar diffidence
      of the present sovereign: that a practice which had been upheld during
      times the most favorable to liberty, could not, in common prudence, be
      departed from, where such undeniable reasons for suspicion had been
      afforded: that it was ridiculous to plead the advanced season, and the
      urgent occasion for supply; when it plainly appeared that, in order to
      afford a pretence for this topic, and to seduce the commons, great
      political contrivance had been employed: that the writs for elections were
      issued early in the winter; and if the meeting of parliament had not
      purposely been delayed till so near the commencement of military
      operations, there had been leisure sufficient to have redressed all
      national grievances, and to have proceeded afterwards to an examination of
      the king's occasion for supply: that the intention of so gross an artifice
      was to engage the commons, under pretence of necessity, to violate the
      regular order of parliament; and a precedent of that kind being once
      established, no inquiry into public measures would afterwards be
      permitted: that scarcely any argument more unfavorable could be pleaded
      for supply, than an offer to abolish ship money; a taxation the most
      illegal and the most dangerous that had ever, in any reign, been imposed
      upon the nation: and that, by bargaining for the remission of that duty,
      the commons would in a manner ratify the authority by which it had been
      levied; at least give encouragement for advancing new pretensions of a
      like nature, in hopes of resigning them on like advantageous conditions.
    </p>
    <p>
      These reasons, joined to so many occasions of ill humor, seemed to sway
      with the greater number: but, to make the matter worse, Sir Harry Vane,
      the secretary, told the commons, without any authority from the king, that
      nothing less than twelve subsidies would be accepted as a compensation for
      the abolition of ship money. This assertion, proceeding from the
      indiscretion, if we are not rather to call it the treachery of Vane,
      displeased the house, by showing a stiffness and rigidity in the king,
      which, in a claim so ill grounded, was deemed inexcusable.[*] We are
      informed likewise, that some men, who were thought to understand the state
      of the nation, affirmed in the house, that the amount of twelve subsidies
      was a greater sum than could be found in all England: such were the happy
      ignorance and inexperience of those times with regard to taxes.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 138.

     ** Clarendon, vol. *i. p. 136.
</pre>
    <p>
      The king was in great doubt and perplexity. He saw that his friends in the
      house were outnumbered by his enemies, and that the same counsels were
      still prevalent which had ever bred such opposition and disturbance.
      Instead of hoping that any supply would be granted him to carry on war
      against the Scots, whom the majority of the house regarded as their best
      friends and firmest allies; he expected every day that they would present
      him an address for making peace with those rebels. And if the house met
      again, a vote, he was informed, would certainly pass, to blast his revenue
      of ship money; and thereby renew all the opposition which, with so much
      difficulty, he had surmounted in levying that taxation. Where great evils
      lie on all sides, it is difficult to follow the best counsel; nor is it
      any wonder that the king, whose capacity was not equal to situations of
      such extreme delicacy, should hastily have formed and executed the
      resolution of dissolving this parliament: a measure, however, of which he
      soon after repented, and which the subsequent events, more than any
      convincing reason, inclined every one to condemn. The last parliament,
      which ended with such rigor and violence, had yet at first covered their
      intentions with greater appearance of moderation than this parliament had
      hitherto assumed.
    </p>
    <p>
      An abrupt and violent dissolution naturally excites discontents among the
      people, who usually put entire confidence in their representatives, and
      expect from them the redress of all grievances. As if there were not
      already sufficient grounds of complaint, the king persevered still in
      those counsels which, from experience, he might have been sensible were so
      dangerous and unpopular. Bellasis and Sir John Hotham were summoned before
      the council; and, refusing to give any account of their conduct in
      parliament, were committed to prison. All the petitions and complaints
      which had been sent to the committee of religion, were demanded from Crew,
      chairman of that committee; and on his refusal to deliver them, he was
      sent to the Tower. The studies, and even the pockets of the earl of
      Warwick and Lord Broke, before the expiration of privilege, were searched,
      in expectation of finding treasonable papers. These acts of authority were
      interpreted, with some appearance of reason, to be invasions on the right
      of national assemblies.[*] But the king, after the first provocation which
      he met with, never sufficiently respected the privileges of parliament;
      and, by his example, he further confirmed their resolution, when they
      should acquire power, to pay like disregard to the prerogatives of the
      crown.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. iii. p. 1167. May, p. 61.
</pre>
    <p>
      Though the parliament was dissolved, the convocation was still allowed to
      sit; a practice of which, since the reformation, there were but few
      instances,[*] and which was for that reason supposed by many to be
      irregular. Besides granting to the king a supply from the spirituality,
      and framing many canons, the convocation, jealous of like innovations with
      those which had taken place in Scotland, imposed an oath on the clergy and
      the graduates in the universities, by which every one swore to maintain
      the established government of the church by archbishops, bishops, deans,
      chapters, etc.[**] These steps, in the present discontented humor of the
      nation, were commonly deemed illegal; because not ratified by consent of
      parliament, in whom all authority was now supposed to be centred. And
      nothing, besides, could afford more subject of ridicule, than an oath
      which contained an "et cætera," in the midst of it.
    </p>
    <p>
      The people, who generally abhorred the convocation as much as they revered
      the parliament, could scarcely be restrained from insulting and abusing
      this assembly; and the king was obliged to give them guards, in order to
      protect them.[***] An attack too was made during the night upon Laud, in
      his palace of Lambeth, by above five hundred persons; and he found it
      necessary to fortify himself for his defence.[****] A multitude,
      consisting of two thousand secretaries, entered St. Paul's, where the high
      commission then sat, tore down the benches, and cried out, "No bishop; no
      high commission."[v] All these instances of discontent were presages of
      some great revolution, had the court possessed sufficient skill to discern
      the danger, or sufficient power to provide against it.
    </p>
    <p>
      In this disposition of men's minds, it was in vain that the king issued a
      declaration, in order to convince his people of the necessity which he lay
      under of dissolving the last parliament.[v*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * There was one in 1586: see History of Archbishop Laud, p.
     80. The authority of the convocation was, indeed, in most
     respects, independent of the parliament: and there was no
     reason which required the one to be dissolved upon the
     dissolution of the other.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 33.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 33.

     **** Dugdale, p. 62. Clarendon, vol. i. p. 143.

     v    Dugdale, p. 65.

     V*   Rush. vol. iii. p. 1165.
</pre>
    <p>
      The chief topic on which he insisted was, that the commons imitated the
      bad example of all then predecessors of late years, in making continual
      encroachments on his authority, in censuring his whole administration and
      conduct, in discussing every circumstance of public government, and in
      their indirect bargaining and contracting with their king for supply; as
      if nothing ought to be given him but what he should purchase, either by
      quitting somewhat of his royal prerogative, or by diminishing and
      lessening his standing revenue. These practices, he said, were contrary to
      the maxims of their ancestors; and these practices were totally
      incompatible with monarchy.[*] <a href="#linknote-5" name="linknoteref-5"
      id="linknoteref-5">5</a>
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, disappointed of parliamentary subsidies, was obliged to have
      recourse to other expedients, in order to supply his urgent necessities.
      The ecclesiastical subsidies served him in some stead; and it seemed but
      just that the clergy should contribute to a war which was in a great
      measure of their own raising.[**] He borrowed money from his ministers and
      courtiers; and so much was he beloved among them, that above three hundred
      thousand pounds were subscribed in a few days; though nothing surely could
      be more disagreeable to a prince full of dignity, than to be a burden on
      his friends instead of being a support to them. Some attempts were made
      towards forcing a loan from the citizens; but still repelled by the spirit
      of liberty, which was now become unconquerable.[***] A loan of forty
      thousand pounds was extorted from the Spanish merchants, who had bullion
      in the Tower exposed to the attempts of the king. Coat and conduct money
      for the soldiery was levied on the counties; an ancient practice,[****]
      but supposed to be abolished by the petition of right. All the pepper was
      bought from the East India Company upon trust, and sold at a great
      discount for ready money.[v] A scheme was proposed for coining two or
      three hundred thousand pounds of base money:[v*] such were the extremities
      to which Charles was reduced. The fresh difficulties which, amidst the
      present distresses, were every day raised with regard to the payment of
      ship money, obliged him to exert continual acts of authority, augmented
      the discontents of the people, and increased his indigence and
      necessities.[v**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note E, at the end of the volume.

     ** May, p. 48.

     *** Rush. vol. iii. p. 1181.

     **** Rush. vol. i. p. 168.

     v May, p. 63.

     v* Rush. vol. iii. p. 1216. May, p. 63.

     v** Rush. vol. iii. p. 1173, 1182, 1184, 1199, 1200, 1203,
     1204.
</pre>
    <p>
      The present expedients, however, enabled the king, though with great
      difficulty, to march his army, consisting of nineteen thousand foot and
      two thousand horse.[*] The earl of Northumberland was appointed general;
      the earl of Strafford, who was called over from Ireland,
      lieutenant-general; Lord Conway, general of the horse. A small fleet was
      thought sufficient to serve the purposes of this expedition.
    </p>
    <p>
      So great are the effects of zeal and unanimity, that the Scottish army,
      though somewhat superior, were sooner ready than the king's; and they
      marched to the borders of England. To engage them to proceed, besides
      their general knowledge of the secret discontents of that kingdom, Lord
      Saville had forged a letter, in the name of six noblemen the most
      considerable of England, by which the Scots were invited to assist their
      neighbors in procuring a redress of grievances.[**] Notwithstanding these
      warlike preparations and hostile attempts, the Covenanters still preserved
      the most pathetic and most submissive language; and entered England, they
      said, with no other view than to obtain access to the king's presence, and
      lay their humble petition at his royal feet. At Newburn upon Tyne, they
      were opposed by a detachment of four thousand five hundred men under
      Conway, who seemed resolute to dispute with them the passage of the river.
      The Scots first entreated them, with great civility, not to stop them in
      their march to their gracious sovereign; and then attacked them with great
      bravery, killed several, and chased the rest from their ground. Such a
      panic seized the whole English army, that the forces at Newcastle fled
      immediately to Durham; and not yet thinking themselves safe, they deserted
      that town, end retreated into Yorkshire.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      The Scots took possession of Newcastle; and though sufficiently elated
      with their victory, they preserved exact discipline, and persevered in
      their resolution of paying for every thing, in order still to maintain the
      appearance of an amicable correspondence with England. They also
      despatched messengers to the king, who was arrived at York; and they took
      care, after the advantage which they had obtained, to redouble their
      expressions of loyalty, duty, and submission to his person; and they even
      made apologies, full of sorrow and contrition for their late
      victory.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. iii. p. 1279.

     ** Nalson, vol. ii. p. 427.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 143.

     **** Rush. vol. iii. p. 1255.
</pre>
    <p>
      Charles was in a very distressed condition. The nation was universally and
      highly discontented. The army was discouraged, and began likewise to be
      discontented, both from the contagion of general disgust, and as an excuse
      for their misbehavior, which they were desirous of representing rather as
      want of will than of courage to fight. The treasury too was quite
      exhausted, and every expedient for supply had been tried to the uttermost.
      No event had happened, but what might have been foreseen as necessary, at
      least as very probable; yet such was the king's situation, that no
      provision could be made, nor was even any resolution taken against such an
      exigency.
    </p>
    <p>
      In order to prevent the advance of the Scots upon him, the king agreed to
      a treaty, and named sixteen English noblemen, who met with eleven Scottish
      commissioners at Rippon. The earls of Hertford, Bedford, Salisbury,
      Warwick, Essex, Holland, Bristol, and Berkshire, the lords Kimbolton,
      Wharton. Dunsmore, Paget, Broke Saville, Paulet, and Howard of Escric,
      were chosen by the king; all of them popular men and consequently supposed
      nowise averse to the Scottish invasion, or unacceptable to that nation.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      An address arrived from the city of London, petitioning for a parliament;
      the great point to which all men's projects at this time tended.[**]
      Twelve noblemen presented a petition to the same purpose.[***] But the
      king contented himself with summoning a great council of the peers at
      York; a measure which had formerly been taken in cases of sudden
      emergency, but which at present could serve to little purpose. Perhaps the
      king, who dreaded above all things the house of commons, and who expected
      no supply from them on any reasonable terms, thought that, in his present
      distresses, he might be enabled to levy supplies by the authority of the
      peers alone. But the employing so long the plea of a necessity which
      appeared distant and doubtful, rendered it impossible for him to avail
      himself of a necessity which was now at last become real, urgent, and
      inevitable.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 155.

     ** Rush. vol. iii. p. 1263.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p, 146. Rush. vol. iii. p. 1260. May,
     p. 66. Warwick, p. 151.
</pre>
    <p>
      By Northumberland's sickness, the command of the army had devolved on
      Strafford. This nobleman possessed more vigor of mind than the king or any
      of the council. He advised Charles rather to put all to hazard, than
      submit to unworthy terms as were likely to be imposed upon him.
    </p>
    <p>
      The loss sustained at Newburn, he said, was inconsiderable and though a
      panic had for the time seized the army, that event was nothing strange
      among new levied troops and the Scots, being in the same condition, would
      no doubt be liable in their turn to a like accident. His opinion therefore
      was, that the king should push forward and attack the Scots, and bring the
      affair to a quick decision; and, if he were ever so unsuccessful, nothing
      worse could befall him than what from his inactivity he would certainly be
      exposed to.[*] To show how easy it would be to execute this project, he
      ordered an assault to be made on some quarters of the Scots, and he gained
      an advantage over them. No cessation of arms had as yet been agreed to
      during the treaty at Rippon; yet great clamor prevailed on account of this
      act of hostility. And when it was known that the officer who conducted the
      attack was a Papist, a violent outcry was raised against the king for
      employing that hated sect in the murder of his Protestant subjects.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      It may be worthy of remark, that several mutinies had arisen among the
      English troops when marching to join the army; and some officers had been
      murdered merely on suspicion of their being Papists.[***] The petition of
      right had abolished all martial law; and by an inconvenience which
      naturally attended the plan, as yet new and unformed, of regular and rigid
      liberty, it was found absolutely impossible for the generals to govern the
      army by all the authority which the king could legally confer upon them.
      The lawyers had declared, that martial law could not be exercised, except
      in the very presence of an enemy; and because it had been found necessary
      to execute a mutineer, the generals thought it advisable, for their own
      safety, to apply for a pardon from the crown. This weakness, however, was
      carefully concealed from the army, and Lord Conway said, that if any
      lawyer were so imprudent as to discover the secret to the soldiers, it
      would be necessary instantly to refute it, and to hang the lawyer himself
      by sentence of a court martial.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. ii. p. 5.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 159.

     *** Rush. vol. iii. 1190, 1191, 1192, etc. May, p. 64.

     **** Rush. vol. iii. p 1199.
</pre>
    <p>
      An army new levied, undisciplined, frightened, seditious, ill paid, and
      governed by no proper authority, was very unfit for withstanding a
      victorious and high-spirited enemy, and retaining in subjection a
      discontented and zealous nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, in despair of being able to stem the torrent, at last determined
      to yield to it: and as he foresaw that the great council of the peers
      would advise him to call a parliament, he told them, in his first speech,
      that he had already taken this resolution. He informed them likewise, that
      the queen, in a letter which she had written to him, had very earnestly
      recommended that measure. This good prince, who was extremely attached to
      his consort, and who passionately wished to render her popular in the
      nation, forgot not, amidst all his distress, the interests of his domestic
      tenderness.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      In order to subsist both armies, (for the king was obliged, in order to
      save the northern counties, to pay his enemies,) Charles wrote to the
      city, desiring a loan of two hundred thousand pounds. And the peers at
      York, whose authority was now much greater than that of their sovereign,
      joined in the same request:[**] so low was this prince already fallen in
      the eyes of his own subjects.
    </p>
    <p>
      As many difficulties occurred in the negotiation with the Scots, it was
      proposed to transfer the treaty from Rippon to London; a proposal
      willingly embraced by that nation, who were now sure of treating with
      advantage in a place where the king, they foresaw, would be in a manner a
      prisoner, in the midst of his implacable enemies, and their determined
      friends.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. 1. p. 154. Bush. vol. iii. p. 1275.

     ** Rush. vol. iii. p 1279.

     *** Rush, vol. iii. p 1805.
</pre>
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    <h2>
      CHAPTER LIV.
    </h2>
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    <h2>
      CHARLES I
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1640.
    </p>
    <p>
      The causes of disgust which for above thirty years had daily been
      multiplying in England, were now come to full maturity, and threatened the
      kingdom with some great revolution or convulsion. The uncertain and
      undefined limits of prerogative and privilege had been eagerly disputed
      during that whole period; and in every controversy between prince and
      people, the question, however doubtful, had always been decided by each
      party in favor of its own pretensions. Too lightly, perhaps, moved by the
      appearance of necessity, the king had even assumed powers incompatible
      with the principles of limited government, and had rendered it impossible
      for his most zealous partisans entirely to justify his conduct, except by
      topics so unpopular, that they were more fitted, in the present
      disposition of men's minds, to inflame than appease the general
      discontent. Those great supports of public authority, law and religion,
      had likewise, by the unbounded compliance of judges and prelates, lost
      much of their influence over the people; or rather had, in a great
      measure, gone over to the side of faction, and authorized the spirit of
      opposition and rebellion. The nobility, also, whom the king had no means
      of retaining by offices and preferments suitable to their rank, had been
      seized with the general discontent, and unwarily threw themselves into the
      scale which already began too much to preponderate. Sensible of some
      encroachments which had been made by royal authority, men entertained no
      jealousy of the commons, whose enterprises for the acquisition of power
      had ever been covered with the appearance of public good, and had hitherto
      gone no further than some disappointed efforts and endeavors. The progress
      of the Scottish malecontents reduced the crown to an entire dependence for
      supply: their union with the popular party in England brought great
      accession of authority to the latter: the near prospect of success roused
      all latent murmurs and pretensions, which had hitherto been held in such
      violent constraint; and the torrent of general inclination and opinion ran
      so strongly against the court, that the king was in no situation to refuse
      any reasonable demands of the popular leaders either for defining or
      limiting the powers of his prerogative. Even many exorbitant claims, in
      his present situation, would probably be made, and must necessarily be
      complied with.
    </p>
    <p>
      The triumph of the malecontents over the church was not yet so immediate
      or certain. Though the political and religious Puritans mutually lent
      assistance to each other, there were many who joined the former, yet
      declined all connection with the latter. The hierarchy had been
      established in England ever since the reformation: the Romish church, in
      all ages, had carefully maintained that form of ecclesiastical government:
      the ancient fathers too bore testimony to episcopal jurisdiction; and
      though parity may seem at first to have had place among Christian pastors,
      the period during which it prevailed was so short, that few undisputed
      traces of it remained in history. The bishops and their more zealous
      partisans inferred, thence the divine, indefeasible right of prelacy:
      others regarded that institution as venerable and useful; and if the love
      of novelty led some to adopt the new rites and discipline of the Puritans,
      the reverence to antiquity retained many in their attachment to the
      liturgy and government of the church. It behoved, therefore, the zealous
      innovators in parliament to proceed with some caution and reserve. By
      promoting all measures which reduced the powers of the crown, they hoped
      to disarm the king, whom they justly regarded, from principle,
      inclination, and policy, to be the determined patron of the hierarchy. By
      declaiming against the supposed encroachments and tyranny of the prelates,
      they endeavored to carry the nation, from a hatred of their persons, to an
      opposition against their office and character. And when men were enlisted
      in party, it would not be difficult, they thought, to lead them by degrees
      into many measures for which they formerly entertained the greatest
      aversion. Though the new sectaries composed not at first the majority of
      the nation, they were inflamed, as is usual among innovators, with extreme
      zeal for their opinions. Their unsurmountable passion, disguised to
      themselves as well as to others under the appearance of holy fervors, was
      well qualified to make proselytes, and to seize the minds of the ignorant
      multitude. And one furious enthusiast was able, by his active industry, to
      surmount the indolent efforts of many sober and reasonable antagonists.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the nation, therefore, was so generally discontented and little
      suspicion was entertained of any design to subvert the church and
      monarchy, no wonder that almost all elections ran in favor of those who,
      by their high pretensions to piety and patriotism, had encouraged the
      national prejudices. It is a usual compliment to regard the king's
      inclination in the choice of a speaker; and Charles had intended to
      advance Gardiner, recorder of London, to that important trust; but so
      little interest did the crown at that time possess in the nation, that
      Gardiner was disappointed of his election, not only in London, but in
      every other place where it was attempted; and the king was obliged to make
      the choice of speaker fail on Lenthal, a lawyer of some character, but not
      sufficiently qualified for so high and difficult an office.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 169.
</pre>
    <p>
      The eager expectations of men with regard to a parliament, summoned at so
      critical a juncture, and during such general discontents; a parliament
      which, from the situation of public affairs, could not be abruptly
      dissolved, and which was to execute every thing left unfinished by former
      parliaments; these motives, so important and interesting, engaged the
      attendance of all the members; and the house of commons was never observed
      to be from the beginning so full and numerous. Without any interval,
      therefore, they entered upon business, and by unanimous consent they
      immediately struck a blow which may in a manner be regarded as decisive.
    </p>
    <p>
      The earl of Strafford was considered as chief minister, both on account of
      the credit which he possessed with his master, and of his own great and
      uncommon vigor and capacity. By a concurrence of accidents, this man
      labored under the severe hatred of all the three nations which composed
      the British monarchy. The Scots, whose authority now ran extremely high,
      looked on him as the capital enemy of their country and one whose counsels
      and influence they had most reason to apprehend. He had engaged the
      parliament of Ireland to advance large subsidies, in order to support a
      war against them: he had levied an army of nine thousand men, with which
      he had menaced all their western coast: he had obliged the Scots who lived
      under his government, to renounce the Covenant, their national idol: he
      had in Ireland proclaimed the Scottish Covenanters rebels and traitors,
      even before the king had issued any such declaration against them in
      England, and he had ever dissuaded his master against the late treaty and
      suspension of arms, which he regarded as dangerous and dishonorable. So
      avowed and violent were the Scots in their resentment of all these
      measures, that they had refused to send commissioners to treat at York, as
      was at first proposed; because, they said, the lieutenant of Ireland,
      their capital enemy, being general of the king's forces, had there the
      chief command and authority.
    </p>
    <p>
      Strafford, first as deputy, then as lord lieutenant, had governed Ireland
      during eight years with great vigilance, activity, and prudence, but with
      very little popularity. In a nation so averse to the English government
      and religion, these very virtues were sufficient to draw on him the public
      hatred. The manners too and character of this great man, though to all
      full of courtesy, and to his friends full of affection, were at bottom
      haughty, rigid, and severe. His authority and influence during the time of
      his government had been unlimited; but no sooner did adversity seize him,
      than the concealed aversion of the nation blazed up at once, and the Irish
      parliament used every expedient to aggravate the charge against him.
    </p>
    <p>
      The universal discontent which prevailed in England against the court, was
      all pointed towards the earl of Strafford; though without any particular
      reason, but because he was the minister of state whom the king most
      favored and most trusted. His extraction was honorable, his paternal
      fortune considerable, yet envy attended his sudden and great elevation.
      And his former associates in popular counsels, finding that he owed his
      advancement to the desertion of their cause, represented him as the great
      apostate of the commonwealth, whom it behoved them to sacrifice as a
      victim to public justice.
    </p>
    <p>
      Strafford, sensible of the load of popular prejudices under which he
      labored, would gladly have declined attendance in parliament; and he
      begged the king's permission to withdraw himself to his government of
      Ireland, at least to remain at the head of the army in Yorkshire; where
      many opportunities, he hoped, would offer, by reason of his distance, to
      elude the attacks of his enemies. But Charles, who had entire confidence
      in the earl's capacity, thought that his counsels would be extremely
      useful during the critical session which approached. And when Strafford
      still insisted on the danger of his appearing amidst so many enraged
      enemies, the king, little apprehensive that his own authority was so
      suddenly to expire, promised him protection, and assured him that not a
      hair of his head should be touched by the parliament.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      No sooner was Strafford's arrival known, than a concerted attack was made
      upon him in the house of commons. Pym, in a long studied discourse,
      divided into many heads, after his manner, enumerated all the grievances
      under which the nation labored; and, from a complication of such
      oppressions, inferred that a deliberate plan had been formed of changing
      entirely the frame of government, and subverting the ancient laws and
      liberties of the kingdom.[**] Could any thing, he said, increase our
      indignation against so enormous and criminal a project, it would be to
      find that, during the reign of the best of princes, the constitution had
      been endangered by the worst of ministers, and that the virtues of the
      king had been seduced by wicked and pernicious counsel. We must inquire,
      added he, from what fountain these waters of bitterness flow; and though
      doubtless many evil counsellors will be found to have contributed their
      endeavors, yet there is one who challenges the infamous preeminence, and
      who, by his courage, enterprise, and capacity, is entitled to the first
      place among these betrayers of their country. He is the earl of Strafford,
      lieutenant of Ireland, and president of the council of York, who, in both
      places, and in all other provinces where he has been intrusted with
      authority, has raised ample monuments of tyranny, and will appear, from a
      survey of his actions, to be the chief promoter of every arbitrary
      counsel. Some instances of imperious expressions, as well as actions, were
      given by Pym; who afterwards entered into a more personal attack of that
      minister, and endeavored to expose his whole character and manners. The
      austere genius of Strafford, occupied in the pursuits of ambition, had not
      rendered his breast altogether inaccessible to the tender passions, or
      secured him from the dominion of the fair; and in that sullen age, when
      the irregularities of pleasure were more reproachful than the most odious
      crimes, these weaknesses were thought worthy of being mentioned, together
      with his treasons, before so great an assembly. And, upon the whole, the
      orator concluded, that it belonged to the house to provide a remedy
      proportionable to the disease, and to prevent the further mischiefs justly
      to be apprehended from the influence which this man had acquired over the
      measures and counsels of their sovereign.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 36.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 36

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 172.
</pre>
    <p>
      Sir John Clotworthy, an Irish gentleman, Sir John Hotham of Yorkshire, and
      many others, entered into the same topics, and after several hours spent
      in bitter invective, when the doors were locked, in order to prevent all
      discovery of their purpose, it was moved, in consequence of the resolution
      secretly taken, that Strafford should immediately be impeached of high
      treason. This motion was received with universal approbation; nor was
      there, in all the debate, one person who offered to stop the torrent by
      any testimony in favor of the earls conduct. Lord Falkland alone, though
      known to be his enemy, modestly desired the house to consider whether it
      would not better suit the gravity of their proceedings, first to digest by
      a committee many of those particulars which had been mentioned, before
      they sent up an accusation against him. It was ingeniously answered by
      Pym, that such a delay might probably blast all their hopes, and put it
      out of their power to proceed any further in the prosecution: that when
      Strafford should learn that so many of his enormities were discovered, his
      conscience would dictate his condemnation; and so great was his power and
      credit, he would immediately procure the dissolution of the parliament, or
      attempt some other desperate measure for his own preservation: that the
      commons were only accusers, not judges; and it was the province of the
      peers to determine whether such a complication of enormous crimes in one
      person, did not amount to the highest crime known by the law.[*] Without
      further debate, the impeachment was voted: Pym was chosen to carry it up
      to the lords: most of the house accompanied him on so agreeable an errand;
      and Strafford, who had just entered the house of peers, and who little
      expected so speedy a prosecution was immediately, upon this general
      charge, ordered into custody, with several symptoms of violent prejudice
      in his judges as well as in his prosecutors.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 174.
</pre>
    <p>
      In the inquiry concerning grievances, and in the censure of past measures,
      Laud could not long escape the severe scrutiny of the commons; who were
      led too, in their accusation of that prelate, as well by their prejudices
      against his whole order, as by the extreme antipathy which his intemperate
      zeal had drawn upon him. After a deliberation which scarcely lasted half
      an hour, an impeachment of high treason was voted against this subject,
      the first both in rank and in favor throughout the kingdom. Though this
      incident, considering the example of Stratford's impeachment, and the
      present disposition of the nation and parliament, needed be no surprise to
      him, yet was he betrayed into some passion when the accusation was
      presented. "The commons themselves," he said, "though his accusers, did
      not believe him guilty of the crimes with which they charged him;" an
      indiscretion which, next day, upon more mature deliberation, he desired
      leave to retract; but so little favorable were the peers, that they
      refused him this advantage or indulgence. Laud also was immediately, upon
      this general charge, sequestered from parliament, and committed to
      custody.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The capital article insisted on against these two great men, was the
      design which the commons supposed to have been formed of subverting the
      laws and constitution of England, and introducing arbitrary and unlimited
      authority into the kingdom. Of all the king's ministers, no one was so
      obnoxious in this respect as the lord keeper Finch. He it was who, being
      speaker in the king's third parliament, had left the chair, and refused to
      put the question when ordered by the house. The extrajudicial opinion of
      the judges in the case of ship money had been procured by his intrigues,
      persuasions, and even menaces. In all unpopular and illegal measures, he
      was ever most active; and he was even believed to have declared publicly,
      that, while he was keeper, an order of council should always with him be
      equivalent to a law. To appease the rising displeasure of the commons, he
      desired to be heard at their bar. He prostrated himself with all humility
      before them; but this submission availed him nothing. An impeachment was
      resolved on; and in order to escape their fury, he thought proper secretly
      to withdraw, and retire into Holland. As he was not esteemed equal to
      Stratford, or even to Laud, either in capacity or in fidelity to his
      master, it was generally believed that his escape had been connived at by
      the popular leaders.[**] His impeachment, however, in his absence, was
      carried up to the house of peers.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 177. Whitlocke, p. 38, Rush. vol.
     iii. p. 1365.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 177. Whitlocke, p. 38. Rush. vol.
     i. p 129.
</pre>
    <p>
      Sir Francis Windebank, the secretary, was a creature of Laud's; a
      sufficient reason for his being extremely obnoxious to the commons. He was
      secretly suspected too of the crime of Popery; and it was known that, from
      complaisance to the queen, and indeed in compliance with the king's maxims
      of government, he had granted many indulgences to Catholics, and had
      signed warrants for the pardon of priests, and their delivery from
      confinement. Grimstone, a popular member, called him, in the house, the
      very pander and broker to the whore of Babylon.[*] Finding that the
      scrutiny of the commons was pointing towards him, and being sensible that
      England was no longer a place of safety for men of his character, he
      suddenly made his escape into France.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus in a few weeks this house of commons, not opposed, or rather seconded
      by the peers, had produced such a revolution in the government, that the
      two most powerful and most favored ministers of the king were thrown into
      the Tower, and daily expected to be tried for their life: two other
      ministers had, by flight alone, saved themselves from a like fate: all the
      king's servants saw that no protection could be given them by their
      master: a new jurisdiction was erected in the nation; and before that
      tribunal all those trembled who had before exulted most in their credit
      and authority.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. v. p. 122.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 178. Whitlocke, p. 37.
</pre>
    <p>
      What rendered the power of the commons more formidable was, the extreme
      prudence with which it was conducted. Not content with the authority which
      they had acquired by attacking these great ministers, they were resolved
      to render the most considerable bodies of the nation obnoxious to them.
      Though the idol of the people, they determined to fortify themselves
      likewise with terrors, and to overawe those who might still be inclined to
      support the falling ruins of monarchy.
    </p>
    <p>
      During the late military operations, several powers had been exercised by
      the lieutenants and deputy lieutenants of counties; and these powers,
      though necessary for the defence of the nation, and even warranted by all
      former precedent yet not being authorized by statute, were now voted to be
      illegal, and the persons who had assumed them declared delinquents. This
      term was newly come into vogue, and expressed a degree and species of
      guilt not exactly known or ascertained. In consequence of that
      determination, many of the nobility and prime gentry of the nation, while
      only exerting as they justly thought, the legal powers of magistracy
      unexpectedly found themselves involved in the crime of delinquency. And
      the commons reaped this multiplied advantage by their vote: they disarmed
      the crown; they established the maxims of rigid law and liberty; and they
      spread the terror of their own authority.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The writs for ship money had been directed to the sheriffs, who were
      required, and even obliged, under severe penalties, to assess the sums
      upon individuals, and to levy them by their authority: yet were all the
      sheriffs, and all those who had been employed in that illegal service,
      voted, by a very rigorous sentence, to be delinquents. The king, by the
      maxims of law, could do no wrong: his ministers and servants, of whatever
      degree, in case cf any violation of the constitution, were alone
      culpable.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      All the farmers and officers of the customs, who had been employed during
      so many years in levying tonnage and poundage and the new impositions,
      were likewise declared criminals, and were afterwards glad to compound for
      a pardon by paying a fine of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
    </p>
    <p>
      Every discretionary or arbitrary sentence of the star chamber and high
      commission, courts which, from their very constitution, were arbitrary,
      underwent a severe scrutiny; and all those who had concurred in such
      sentences were voted to be liable to the penalties of law.[***] No
      minister of the king, no member of the council, but found himself exposed
      by this decision.
    </p>
    <p>
      The judges who had given their vote against Hambden in the trial of ship
      money, were accused before the peers, and obliged to find surety for their
      appearance. Berkeley, a judge of the king's bench, was seized by order of
      the house, even when sitting in his tribunal; and all men saw with
      astonishment the irresistible authority of their jurisdiction.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      The sanction of the lords and commons, as well as that of the king, was
      declared necessary for the confirmation of ecclesiastical canons.[v] And
      this judgment, it must be confessed, however reasonable, at least useful,
      it would have been difficult to justify by any precedent.[v*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 176.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 176.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 177.

     **** Whitlocke, p. 39.

     v    Nalson, vol. i. p. 673.

     v*   An act of parliament, 25th Henry VIII., cap. 19,
     allowed the convocation with the king's consent to make
     canons. By the famous act of submission to that prince, the
     clergy bound themselves to enact no canons without the
     king's consent. The parliament was never mentioned nor
     thought of. Such pretensions as the commons advanced at
     present, would in any former age have been deemed strange
     usurpations.
</pre>
    <p>
      But the present was no time for question or dispute. That decision which
      abolished all legislative power except that of parliament, was requisite
      for completing the new plan of liberty, and rendering it quite uniform and
      systematical. Almost all the bench of bishops, and the most considerable
      of the inferior clergy, who had voted in the late convocation, found
      themselves exposed by these new principles to the imputation of
      delinquency.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The most unpopular of all Charles's measures, and the least justifiable,
      was the revival of monopolies, so solemnly abolished, after reiterated
      endeavors, by a recent act of parliament. Sensible of this unhappy
      measure, the king had of himself recalled, during the time of his first
      expedition against Scotland, many of these oppressive patents; and the
      rest were now annulled by authority of parliament, and every one who was
      concerned in them declared delinquents. The commons carried so far their
      detestation of this odious measure, that they assumed a power which had
      formerly been seldom practised,[**] and they expelled all their members
      who were monopolists or projectors; an artifice by which, besides
      increasing their own privileges, they weakened still further the very
      small party which the king secretly retained in the house. Mildmay, a
      notorious monopolist, yet having associated himself with the ruling party,
      was still allowed to keep his seat. In all questions, indeed, of
      elections, no steady rule of decision was observed; and nothing further
      was regarded than the affections and attachments of the parties.[***]
      Men's passions were too much heated to be shocked with any instance of
      injustice, which served ends so popular as those which were pursued by
      this house of commons.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 206. Whitlocke, p. 37. Rush. vol. v.
     p. 235, 359. Nalson, vol. i. p. 807.

     ** Lord Clarendon says it was entirely new; but there are
     instances of it in the reign of Elizabeth. D'Ewes, p. 296,
     352. There are also instances in the reign of James.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 176.
</pre>
    <p>
      The whole sovereign power being thus in a manner transferred to the
      commons, and the government, without any seeming violence or disorder,
      being changed in a moment from a monarchy almost absolute to a pure
      democracy, the popular leaders seemed willing for some time to suspend
      their active vigor, and to consolidate their authority, ere they proceeded
      to any violent exercise of it. Every day produced some new harangue on
      past grievances. The detestation of former usurpations was further
      enlivened; the jealousy of liberty roused; and, agreeably to the spirit of
      free government, no less indignation was excited by the view of a violated
      constitution, than by the ravages of the most enormous tyranny.
    </p>
    <p>
      This was the time when genius and capacity of all kinds, freed from the
      restraint of authority, and nourished by unbounded hopes and projects,
      began to exert themselves, and be distinguished by the public. Then was
      celebrated the sagacity of Pym, more fitted for use than ornament;
      matured, not chilled, by his advanced age and long experience: then was
      displayed the mighty ambition of Hambden, taught disguise, not moderation,
      from former constraint; supported by courage, conducted by prudence,
      embellished by modesty; but whether founded in a love of power or zeal for
      liberty, is still, from his untimely end, left doubtful and uncertain:
      then too were known the dark, ardent, and dangerous character of St. John;
      the impetuous spirit of Hollis, violent and sincere, open and entire in
      his enmities and in his friendships; the enthusiastic genius of young
      Vane, extravagant in the ends which he pursued, sagacious and profound in
      the means which he employed; incited by the appearances of religion,
      negligent of the duties of morality.
    </p>
    <p>
      So little apology would be received for past measures, so contagious the
      general spirit of discontent, that even men of the most moderate tempers,
      and the most attached to the church and monarchy, exerted themselves with
      the utmost vigor in the redress of grievances, and in prosecuting the
      authors of them. The lively and animated Digby displayed his eloquence on
      this occasion; the firm and undaunted Capel, the modest and candid Palmer.
      In this list too of patriot royalists are found the virtuous names of Hyde
      and Falkland. Though in their ultimate views and intentions these men
      differed widely from the former, in their present actions and discourses
      an entire concurrence and unanimity was observed.
    </p>
    <p>
      By the daily harangues and invectives against illegal usurpations, not
      only the house of commons inflamed themselves with the highest animosity
      against the court: the nation caught new fire from the popular leaders,
      and seemed now to have made the first discovery of the many supposed
      disorders in the government. While the law in several instances seemed to
      be violated, they went no further than some secret and calm murmurs; but
      mounted up into rage and fury as soon as the constitution was thought to
      be restored to its former integrity and vigor. The capital especially,
      being the seat of parliament, was highly animated with the spirit of
      mutiny and disaffection. Tumults were daily raised; seditious assemblies
      encouraged; and every man, neglecting his own business, was wholly intent
      on the defence of liberty and religion. By stronger contagion, the popular
      affections were communicated from breast to breast in this place of
      general rendezvous and society.
    </p>
    <p>
      The harangues of members, now first published and dispersed, kept alive
      the discontents against the king's administration. The pulpits, delivered
      over to Puritanical preachers and lecturers, whom the commons arbitrarily
      settled in all the considerable churches, resounded with faction and
      fanaticism. Vengeance was fully taken for the long silence and constraint
      in which, by the authority of Laud and the high commission, these
      preachers had been retained. The press, freed from all fear or reserve,
      swarmed with productions, dangerous by their seditious zeal and calumny,
      more than by any art or eloquence of composition. Noise and fury, cant and
      hypocrisy, formed the sole rhetoric which, during this tumult of various
      prejudices and passions, could be heard or attended to.
    </p>
    <p>
      The sentence which had been executed against Prynne, Bastwic, and Burton,
      now suffered a revisal from parliament. These libellers, far from being
      tamed by the rigorous punishments which they had undergone, showed still a
      disposition of repeating their offence; and the ministers were afraid lest
      new satires should issue from their prisons, and still further inflame the
      prevailing discontents. By an order, therefore, of council, they had been
      carried to remote prisons; Bastwic to Scilly, Prynne to Jersey, Burton to
      Guernsey; all access to them was denied; and the use of books, and of pen,
      ink and paper, was refused them. The sentence for these additional
      punishments was immediately reversed, in an arbitrary manner, by the
      commons: even the first sentence, upon examination, was declared illegal;
      and the judges who passed it were ordered to make reparation to the
      sufferers.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. i. p 783. May, p. 79.
</pre>
    <p>
      When the prisoners landed in England, they were received and entertained
      with the highest demonstrations of affection; were attended by a mighty
      confluence of company, their charges were borne with great magnificence,
      and liberal presents bestowed on them. On their approach to any town, all
      the inhabitants crowded to receive them, and welcomed their reception with
      shouts and acclamations. Their train still increased as they drew nigh to
      London. Some miles from the city, the zealots of their party met them in
      great multitudes, and attended their triumphant entrance: boughs were
      carried in this tumultuous procession; the roads were strewed with
      flowers; and amidst the highest exultations of joy, were intermingled loud
      and virulent invectives against the prelates, who had so cruelly
      persecuted such godly personages.[*] The more ignoble these men were, the
      more sensible was the insult upon royal authority, and the more dangerous
      was the spirit of disaffection and mutiny which it discovered among the
      people.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lilburne, Leighton, and every one that had been punished for seditious
      libels during the preceding administration, now recovered their liberty,
      and were decreed damages from the judges and ministers of justice.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Not only the present disposition of the nation insured impunity to all
      libellers: a new method of framing and dispersing libels was invented by
      the leaders of popular discontent. Petitions to parliament were drawn,
      craving redress against particular grievances; and when a sufficient
      number of subscriptions was procured, the petitions were presented to the
      commons, and immediately published. These petitions became secret bonds of
      association among the subscribers, and seemed to give undoubted sanction
      and authority to the complaints which they contained.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is pretended by historians favorable to the royal cause,[***] and is
      even asserted by the king himself in a declaration,[****] that a most
      disingenuous, or rather criminal, practice prevailed in conducting many of
      these addresses. A petition was first framed; moderate, reasonable, such
      as men of character willingly subscribed. The names were afterwards torn
      off and affixed to another petition which served better the purposes of
      the popular faction. We may judge of the wild fury which prevailed
      throughout the nation, when so scandalous an imposture, which affected
      such numbers of people, could be openly practised without drawing infamy
      and ruin upon the managers.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 199, 200, etc. Nalson, vol. i. p.
     570. May p. 80.

     ** Rushworth, vol. v. p 228. Nalson, vol. i. p. 800.

     *** Dugdale. Clarendon, vol i. p. 203.

     **** Husb. Col. p. 536.
</pre>
    <p>
      So many grievances were offered, both by the members and by petitions
      without doors, that the house was divided into above forty committees,
      charged each of them with the examination of some particular violation of
      law and liberty which had been complained of. Besides the general
      committees of religion, trade, privileges, laws, many subdivisions of
      these were framed, and a strict scrutiny was every where carried on. It is
      to be remarked that, before the beginning of this century, when the
      commons assumed less influence and authority, complaints of grievances
      were usually presented to the house by any members who had had particular
      opportunity of observing them. These general committees, which were a kind
      of inquisitorial courts, had not then been established; and we find that
      the king, in a former declaration.[*] complains loudly of this innovation,
      so little favorable to royal authority. But never was so much multiplied,
      as at present, the use of these committees; and the commons, though
      themselves the greatest innovators, employed the usual artifice of
      complaining against innovations, and pretending to recover the ancient and
      established government.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Published on dissolving the third parliament. See Parl.
     Hist, vol. viii. p. 347.
</pre>
    <p>
      From the reports of their committees, the house daily passed votes which
      mortified and astonished the court, and inflamed and animated the nation.
      Ship money was declared illegal and arbitrary; the sentence against
      Hambden cancelled; the court of York abolished; compositions for
      knighthood stigmatized; the enlargement of the forests condemned; patents
      for monopolies annulled; and every late measure of administration treated
      with reproach and obloquy. To-day a sentence of the star chamber was
      exclaimed against; to-morrow a decree of the high commission. Every
      discretionary act of council was represented as arbitrary and tyrannical;
      and the general inference was still inculcated, that a formed design had
      been laid to subvert the laws and constitution of the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      From necessity the king remained entirely passive during all these violent
      operations. The few servants who continued faithful to him, were seized
      with astonishment at the rapid progress made by the commons in power and
      popularity, and were glad, by their inactive and inoffensive behavior, to
      compound for impunity. The torrent rising to so dreadful and unexpected a
      height, despair seized all those who from interest or habit were most
      attached to monarchy. And as for those who maintained their duty to the
      king merely from their regard to the constitution, they seemed by their
      concurrence to swell that inundation which began already to deluge every
      thing. "You have taken the whole machine of government in pieces," said
      Charles, in a discourse to the parliament; "a practice frequent with
      skilful artists, when they desire to clear the wheels from any rust which
      may have grown upon them. The engine," continued he, "may again be
      restored to its former use and motions, provided it be put up entire, so
      as not a pin of it be wanting." But this was far from the intention of the
      commons. The machine, they thought, with some reason, was encumbered with
      many wheels and springs which retarded and crossed its operations, and
      destroyed its utility. Happy! had they proceeded with moderation, and been
      contented, in their present plenitude of power, to remove such parts only
      as might justly be deemed superfluous and incongruous.
    </p>
    <p>
      In order to maintain that high authority which they had acquired, the
      commons, besides confounding and overawing their opponents, judged it
      requisite to inspire courage into their friends and adherents;
      particularly into the Scots, and the religious Puritans, to whose
      assistance and good offices they were already so much beholden.
    </p>
    <p>
      No sooner were the Scots masters of the northern counties, than they laid
      aside their first professions, which they had not indeed means to support,
      of paying for every thing; and in order to prevent the destructive
      expedient of plunder and free quarters, the country consented to give them
      a regular contribution of eight hundred and fifty pounds a day, in full of
      their subsistence.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. iii. p. 1295.
</pre>
    <p>
      The parliament, that they might relieve the northern counties from so
      grievous a burden, agreed to remit pay to the Scottish as well as to the
      English army; and because subsidies would be levied too slowly for so
      urgent an occasion, money was borrowed from the citizens upon the security
      of particular members. Two subsidies, a very small sum,[*] were at first
      voted; and as the intention of this supply was to indemnify the members
      who by their private had supported public credit, this pretence was
      immediately laid hold of, and the money was ordered to be paid, not into
      the treasury, but to commissioners appointed by parliament; a practice
      which as it diminished the authority of the crown, was willingly embraced,
      and was afterwards continued by the commons with regard to every branch of
      revenue which they granted to the king. The invasion of the Scots had
      evidently been the cause of assembling the parliament: the presence of
      their army reduced the king to that total subjection in which he was now
      held: the commons, for this reason, openly professed their intention of
      retaining these invaders, till all their own enemies should be suppressed,
      and all their purposes effected. "We cannot yet spare the Scots," said
      Strode plainly in the house, "the sons of Zeruiah are still too strong for
      us;"[**] an allusion to a passage of Scripture, according to the mode of
      that age. Eighty thousand pounds a month were requisite for the
      subsistence of the two armies; a sum much greater than the subject had
      ever been accustomed in any former period to pay to the public. And though
      several subsidies, together with a poll-tax, were from time to time voted
      to answer the charge, the commons still took care to be in debt, in order
      to render the continuance of the session the more necessary.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * It appears that a subsidy was now fallen to fifty thousand
     pounds.

     ** Dugdale, p. 71.
</pre>
    <p>
      The Scots being such useful allies to the malecontent party in England, no
      wonder they were courted with the most unlimited complaisance and the most
      important services. The king, having in his first speech called them
      rebels, observed that he had given great offence to the parliament; and he
      was immediately obliged to soften, and even retract the expression.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Scottish commissioners, of whom the most considerable were the earl of
      Rothes and Lord Loudon, found every advantage in conducting their treaty;
      yet made no haste in bringing it to an issue. They were lodged in the
      city, and kept an intimate correspondence, as well with the magistrates
      who were extremely disaffected, as with the popular leaders in both
      houses. St. Antholine's church was assigned them for their devotions; and
      their chaplains here began openly to practise the Presbyterian form of
      worship, which, except in foreign languages, had never hitherto been
      allowed any indulgence or toleration. So violent was the general
      propensity towards this new religion, that multitudes of all ranks crowded
      to the church. Those who were so happy as to find access early in the
      morning, kept their places the whole day, those who were excluded clung to
      the doors or windows, in hopes of catching at least some distant murmur or
      broken phrases of the holy rhetoric.[*] All the eloquence of parliament,
      now well refined from pedantry, animated with the spirit of liberty and
      employed in the most important interests, was not attended to with such
      insatiable avidity, as were these lectures, delivered with ridiculous cant
      and a provincial accent, full of barbarism and of ignorance.
    </p>
    <p>
      The most effectual expedient for paying court to the zealous Scots, was to
      promote the Presbyterian discipline and worship throughout England; and to
      this innovation the popular leaders among the commons, as well as their
      more devoted partisans, were of themselves sufficiently inclined. The
      Puritanical party, whose progress, though secret, had hitherto been
      gradual in the kingdom, taking advantage of the present disorders, began
      openly to profess their tenets, and to make furious attacks on the
      established religion. The prevalence of that sect in the parliament
      discovered itself, from the beginning, by insensible but decisive
      symptoms. Marshall and Burgess, two Puritanical clergymen, were chosen to
      preach before them, and entertained them with discourses seven hours in
      length.[**] It being the custom of the house always to take the sacrament
      before they enter upon business, they ordered, as a necessary preliminary,
      that the communion table should be removed from the east end of St.
      Margaret's into the middle of the area.[***] The name of the "spiritual
      lords" was commonly left out in acts of parliament; and the laws ran in
      the name of king, lords, and commons. The clerk of the upper house, in
      reading bills, turned his back on the bench of bishops; nor was his
      insolence ever taken notice of.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 189.

     ** Nalson, vol. i. p. 530, 533.

     *** Nalson, voL i. p. 537
</pre>
    <p>
      On a day appointed for a solemn fast and humiliation, all the orders of
      temporal peers, contrary to former practice, in going to church took place
      of the spiritual; and Lord Spencer remarked that the humiliation that day
      seemed confined alone to the prelates.
    </p>
    <p>
      Every meeting of the commons produced some vehement harangue against the
      usurpations of the bishops, against the high commission, against the late
      convocation, against the new canons. So disgusted were all lovers of civil
      liberty at the doctrines promoted by the clergy, that these invectives
      were received without control; and no distinction at first appeared
      between such as desired only to repress the exorbitancies of the
      hierarchy, and such as pretended totally to annihilate episcopal
      jurisdiction. Encouraged by these favorable appearances, petitions against
      the church were framed in different parts of the kingdom. The epithet of
      the ignorant and vicious priesthood was commonly applied to all churchmen
      addicted to the established discipline and worship; though the episcopal
      clergy in England, during that age, seem to have been, as they are at
      present, sufficiently learned and exemplary. An address against episcopacy
      was presented by twelve clergymen to the committee of religion, and
      pretended to be signed by many hundreds of the Puritanical persuasion. But
      what made most noise was, the city petition for a total alteration of
      church government; a petition to which fifteen thousand subscriptions were
      annexed, and which was presented by Alderman Pennington, the city
      member.[*] It is remarkable that, among the many ecclesiastical abuses
      there complained of, an allowance given by the licensers of books to
      publish a translation of Ovid's Art of Love, is not forgotten by these
      rustic censors.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding the favorable disposition of the people, the leaders in
      the house resolved to proceed with caution. They introduced a bill for
      prohibiting all clergymen the exercise of any civil office. As a
      consequence, the bishops were to be deprived of their seats in the house
      of peers; a measure not unacceptable to the zealous friends of liberty,
      who observed with regret the devoted attachment of that order to the will
      of the monarch. But when this bill was presented to the peers, it was
      rejected by a great majority;[***] the first check which the commons had
      received in their popular career, and a prognostic of what they might
      afterwards expect from the upper house, whose inclinations and interests
      could never be totally separated from the throne.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 203. Whitlocke, p. 37. Nalson, vol.
     i. p. 666.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 171.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 237.
</pre>
    <p>
      But to show how little they were discouraged, the Puritans immediately
      brought in another bill for the total abolition of episcopacy; though they
      thought proper to let that bill sleep at present, in expectation of a more
      favorable opportunity of reviving it.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Among other acts of regal executive power which the commons were every day
      assuming, they issued orders for demolishing all images, altars,
      crucifixes. The zealous Sir Robert Harley, to whom the execution of these
      orders was committed, removed all crosses even out of streets and markets;
      and, from his abhorrence of that superstitious figure, would not any where
      allow one piece of wood or stone to lie over another at right angles.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The bishop of Ely and other clergymen were attacked on account of
      innovations.[***] Cozens, who had long been obnoxious, was exposed to new
      censures. This clergyman, who was dean of Peterborough, was extremely
      zealous for ecclesiastical ceremonies: and so far from permitting the
      communicants to break the sacramental bread with their fingers, a
      privilege on which the Puritans strenuously insisted, he would not so much
      as allow it to be cut with an ordinary household instrument. A consecrated
      knife must perform that sacred office, and must never afterwards be
      profaned by any vulgar service.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      Cozens likewise was accused of having said, "The king has no more
      authority in ecclesiastical matters, than the boy who rubs my horse's
      heels."[v] The expression was violent: but it is certain that all those
      high churchmen, who were so industrious in reducing the laity to
      submission, were extremely fond of their own privileges and independency,
      and were desirous of exempting the mitre from all subjection to the crown.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 237.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 45.

     *** Rush. vol. v. p. 351.

     **** Rush. vol. v. p. 203.

     v Parl. Hist. vol. vii. p. 282. Rush. vol. v. p. 209.
</pre>
    <p>
      A committee was elected by the lower house as a court of inquisition upon
      the clergy, and was commonly denominated the committee of "scandalous
      ministers." The politicians among the commons were apprised of the great
      importance of the pulpit for guiding the people; the bigots were enraged
      against the prelatical clergy; and both of them knew that no established
      government could be overthrown by strictly observing the principles of
      justice, equity, or clemency. The proceedings, therefore, of this famous
      committee, which continued for several years, were cruel and arbitrary,
      and made great havoc both on the church and the universities. They began
      with harassing, imprisoning, and molesting the clergy; and ended with
      sequestrating and ejecting them. In order to join contumely to cruelty,
      they gave the sufferers the epithet of "scandalous," and endeavored to
      render them as odious as they were miserable.[*] The greatest vices,
      however, which they could reproach to a great part of them, were, bowing
      at the name of Jesus, placing the communion table in the east, reading the
      king's orders for sports on Sunday, and other practices which the
      established government, both in church and state, had strictly enjoined
      them.
    </p>
    <p>
      It may be worth observing, that all historians who lived near that age,
      or, what perhaps is more decisive, all authors who have casually made
      mention of those public transactions, still represent the civil disorders
      and convulsions as proceeding from religious controversy, and consider the
      political disputes about power and liberty as entirely subordinate to the
      other. It is true, had the king been able to support government, and at
      the same time to abstain from all invasion of national privileges, it
      seems not probable that the Puritans ever could have acquired such
      authority as to overturn the whole constitution: yet so entire was the
      subjection into which Charles was now fallen, that, had not the wound been
      poisoned by the infusion of theological hatred, it must have admitted of
      an easy remedy. Disuse of parliaments, imprisonments and prosecution of
      members, ship money, an arbitrary administration; these were loudly
      complained of; but the grievances which tended chiefly to inflame the
      parliament and nation, especially the latter, were the surplice, the rails
      placed about the altar, the bows exacted on approaching it, the liturgy,
      the breach of the Sabbath, embroidered copes, lawn sleeves, the use of the
      ring in marriage, and of the cross in baptism. On account of these were
      the popular leaders content to throw the government into such violent
      convulsions; and, to the disgrace of that age and of this island, it must
      be acknowledged, that the disorders in Scotland entirely, and those in
      England mostly proceeded from so mean and contemptible an origin.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 199. Whitlocke, p. 122. May, p. 81.

     ** Lord Clarendon (vol. i. p. 233) says, that the
     parliamentary party were not agreed about the entire
     abolition of episcopacy: they were only the root and branch
     men, as they were called, who insisted on that measure. But
     those who were willing to retain bishops, insisted on
     reducing their authority to a low ebb, as well as on
     abolishing the ceremonies of worship and vestments of the
     clergy. The controversy therefore, between the parties was
     almost wholly theological, and that of the most frivolous
     and ridiculous kind.
</pre>
    <p>
      Some persons, partial to the patriots of this age, have ventured to put
      them in a balance with the most illustrious characters of antiquity; and
      mentioned the names of Pym, Hambden, Vane, as a just parallel to those of
      Cato, Brutus, Cassius. Profound capacity, indeed, undaunted courage,
      extensive enterprise; in these particulars, perhaps, the Roman do not much
      surpass the English worthies: but what a difference, when the discourse,
      conduct, conversation, and private as well as public behavior of both are
      inspected! Compare only one circumstance, and consider its consequences.
      The leisure of those noble ancients was totally employed in the study of
      Grecian eloquence and philosophy; in the cultivation of polite letters and
      civilized society: the whole discourse and language of the moderns were
      polluted with mysterious jargon, and full of the lowest and most vulgar
      hypocrisy.
    </p>
    <p>
      The laws, as they stood at present, protected the church but they exposed
      the Catholics to the utmost rage of the Puritans; and these unhappy
      religionists, so obnoxious to the prevailing sect, could not hope to
      remain long unmolested. The voluntary contribution, which they had made,
      in order to assist the king in his war against the Scottish Covenanters,
      was inquired into, and represented as the greatest enormity.[*] By an
      address from the commons, all officers of that religion were removed from
      the army, and application was made to the king for seizing two thirds of
      the lands of recusants; a proportion to which by law he was entitled, but
      which he had always allowed them to possess upon easy compositions. The
      execution of the severe and bloody laws against priests was insisted on;
      and one Goodman, a Jesuit, who was found in prison, was condemned to a
      capital punishment. Charles, however, agreeably to his usual principles,
      scrupled to sign the warrant for his execution; and the commons expressed
      great resentment on the occasion.[**] There remains a singular petition of
      Goodman, begging to be hanged, rather than prove a source of contention
      between the king and his people.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. v. p. 160.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 158, 159. Nalson, vol. i. p. 739.

     *** Rush. vol. v. p. 166. Nalson, vol. i. p. 749.
</pre>
    <p>
      He escaped with his life; but it seems more probable, that he was
      overlooked amidst affairs of greater consequence, than that such
      unrelenting hatred would be softened by any consideration of his courage
      and generosity.
    </p>
    <p>
      For some years Con, a Scotchman, afterwards Rosetti, an Italian, had
      openly resided at London, and frequented the court, as vested with a
      commission from the pope. The queen's zeal, and her authority with her
      husband, had been the cause of this imprudence, so offensive to the
      nation.[*] But the spirit of bigotry now rose too high to permit any
      longer such indulgences.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Hayward, a justice of peace, having been wounded, when employed in the
      exercise of his office, by one James, a Catholic madman, this enormity was
      ascribed to the Popery, not to the frenzy of the assassin; and great
      alarms seized the nation and parliament.[***] A universal conspiracy of
      the Papists was supposed to have taken place; and every man for some days
      imagined that he had a sword at his throat. Though some persons of family
      and distinction were still attached to the Catholic superstition, it is
      certain that the numbers of that sect did not amount to the fortieth part
      of the nation: and the frequent panics to which men, during this period,
      were so subject on account of the Catholics, were less the effects of
      fear, than of extreme rage and aversion entertained against them.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * It is now known from the Clarendon papers, that the king
     had also an authorized agent who resided at Rome. His name
     was Bret, and his chief business was to negotiate with the
     pope concerning indulgences to the Catholics, and to engage
     the Catholics, in return, to be good and loyal subjects. But
     this whole matter, though very innocent, was most carefully
     kept secret. The king says, that he believed Bret to be as
     much his as any Papist could be. See p. 348, 354.

     ** Bush. vol. v. p. 301.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 249 Rush. vol. v. p. 57.
</pre>
    <p>
      The queen mother of France, having been forced into banishment by some
      court intrigues, had retired into England; and expected shelter, amidst
      her present distresses, in the dominions of her daughter and son-in-law,
      But though she behaved in the most inoffensive manner, she was insulted by
      the populace on account of her religion, and was even threatened with
      worse treatment. The earl of Holland, lieutenant of Middlesex, had ordered
      a hundred musketeers to guard her; but finding that they had imbibed the
      same prejudices with the rest of their countrymen, and were unwillingly
      employed in such a service, he laid the case before the house of peers,
      for the king's authority was now entirely annihilated. He represented the
      indignity of the action, that so great a princess, mother to the king of
      France and to the queens of Spain and England, should be affronted by the
      multitude. He observed the indelible reproach which would fall upon the
      nation, if that unfortunate queen should suffer any violence from the
      misguided zeal of the people. He urged the sacred rights of hospitality,
      due to every one, much more to a person in distress, of so high a rank,
      with whom the nation was so nearly connected. The peers thought proper to
      communicate the matter to the commons, whose authority over the people was
      absolute. The commons agreed to the necessity of protecting the queen
      mother; but at the same time prayed that she might be desired to depart
      the kingdom, "for the quieting those jealousies in the hearts of his
      majesty's well-affected subjects, occasioned by some ill instruments about
      that queen's person, by the flowing of priests and Papists to her house,
      and by the use and practice of the idolatry of the mass, and exercise of
      other superstitious services of the Romish church, to the great scandal of
      true religion."[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, in the former part of his reign, had endeavored to overcome the
      intractable and encroaching spirit of the commons, by a perseverance in
      his own measures, by a stately dignity of behavior, and by maintaining at
      their utmost height, and even perhaps stretching beyond former precedent,
      the rights of his prerogative. Finding, by experience, how unsuccessful
      those measures had proved, and observing the low condition to which he was
      now reduced, he resolved to alter his whole conduct, and to regain the
      confidence of his people by pliableness, by concessions, and by a total
      conformity to their inclinations and prejudices. It may safely be averred,
      that this new extreme into which the king, for want of proper counsel or
      support, was fallen, became no less dangerous to the constitution, and
      pernicious to public peace, than the other, in which he had so long and so
      unfortunately persevered.
    </p>
    <p>
      The pretensions with regard to tonnage and poundage were revived, and with
      certain assurance of success, by the commons.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. v. p. 267.

     * It appears not that the commons, though now entirely
     masters, abolished the new impositions of James, against
     which they had formerly so loudly complained; a certain
     proof that the rates of customs settled by that prince, were
     in most instances just, and proportioned to the new price of
     commodities. They seem rather to have been low. See Journ.
     10th Aug. 1625.
</pre>
    <p>
      The levying of these duties as formerly, without consent of parliament,
      and even increasing them at pleasure, was such an incongruity in a free
      constitution, where the people by their fundamental privileges cannot be
      taxed but by their own consent, as could no longer be endured by these
      jealous patrons of liberty. In the preamble, therefore, to the bill by
      which the commons granted these duties to the king, they took care, in the
      strongest and most positive terms, to assert their own right of bestowing
      this gift, and to divest the crown of all independent title of assuming
      it. And that they might increase, or rather finally fix, the entire
      dependence and subjection of the king, they voted these duties only for
      two months; and afterwards, from time to time, renewed their grant for
      very short periods.[*] Charles, in order to show that he entertained no
      intention ever again to separate himself from his parliament, passed this
      important bill without any scruple or hesitation.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * It was an instruction given by the house to the committee
     which framed one of these bills, to take care that the rates
     upon exportation may be as light as possible, and upon
     importation as heavy as trade will bear; a proof that the
     nature of commerce began now to be understood. Journ. 1st
     June, 1641

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 208.
</pre>
    <p>
      With regard to the bill for triennial parliaments, he made a little
      difficulty. By an old statute, passed during the reign of Edward III., it
      had been enacted, that parliaments should be held once every year, or more
      frequently if necessary: but as no provision had been made in case of
      failure, and no precise method pointed out for execution, this statute had
      been considered merely as a general declaration, and was dispensed with at
      pleasure. The defect was supplied by those vigilant patriots who now
      assumed the reins of government. It was enacted, that if the chancellor,
      who was first bound under severe penalties, failed to issue writs by the
      third of September in every third year, any twelve or more of the peers
      should be empowered to exert this authority; in default of the peers, that
      the sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, etc., should summon the voters; and in
      their default, that the voters themselves should meet and proceed to the
      election of members, in the same manner as if writs had been regularly
      issued from the crown. Nor could the parliament, after it was assembled,
      be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, without their own consent, during
      the space of fifty days. By this bill, some of the noblest and most
      valuable prerogatives of the crown were retrenched; but at the same time
      nothing could be more necessary than such a statute, for completing a
      regular plan of law and liberty. A great reluctance to assemble
      parliaments must be expected in the king, where these assemblies, as of
      late, establish it as a maxim to carry their scrutiny into every part of
      government. During long intermissions of parliament, grievances and
      abuses, as was found by recent experience, would naturally creep in; and
      it would even become necessary for the king and council to exert a great
      discretionary authority, and by acts of state to supply, in every
      emergence, the legislative power, whose meeting was so uncertain and
      precarious. Charles, finding that nothing less would satisfy his
      parliament and people, at last gave his assent to this bill which produced
      so great an innovation in the constitution.[*] Solemn thanks were
      presented him by both houses. Great rejoicings were expressed both in the
      city and throughout the nation. And mighty professions were every where
      made of gratitude and mutual returns of supply and confidence. This
      concession of the king, it must be owned, was not entirely voluntary: it
      was of a nature too important to be voluntary. The sole inference which
      his partisans were entitled to draw from the submissions so frankly made
      to present necessity was, that he had certainly adopted a new plan of
      government, and for the future was resolved, by every indulgence, to
      acquire the confidence and affections of his people.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles thought, that what concessions were made to the public were of
      little consequence, if no gratifications were bestowed on individuals who
      had acquired the direction of public counsels and determinations. A change
      of ministers, as well as of measures, was therefore resolved on. In one
      day, several new privy counsellors were sworn; the earls of Hertford
      Bedford, Essex, Bristol; the lords Say, Saville, Kimbolton. within a few
      days after was admitted the earl of Warwick.[**] All these noblemen were
      of the popular party; and some of them afterwards, when matters were
      pushed to extremities by the commons, proved the greatest support of
      monarchy.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 209. Whitlocke, p. 39. Rush. vol. v.
     p, 189.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 195.
</pre>
    <p>
      Juxon, bishop of London, who had never desired the treasurer's staff, now
      earnestly solicited for leave to resign it, and retire to the care of that
      turbulent diocese committed to him. The king gave his consent; and it is
      remarkable that, during all the severe inquiries carried on against the
      conduct of ministers and prelates, the mild and prudent virtues of this
      man who bore both these invidious characters, remained unmolested.[*] It
      was intended that Bedford, a popular man, of great authority, as well as
      wisdom and moderation, should succeed Juxon; but that nobleman,
      unfortunately both for king and people, died about this very time. By some
      promotions, place was made for St. John, who was created
      solicitor-general. Hollis was to be made secretary of state, in the room
      of Windebank, who had fled: Pym, chancellor of the exchequer, in the room
      of Lord Cottington, who had resigned: Lord Say, master of the wards, in
      the room of the same nobleman: the earl of Essex, governor, and Hambden,
      tutor to the prince.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Warwick, p, 95.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 210, 211.
</pre>
    <p>
      What retarded the execution of these projected changes, was the difficulty
      of satisfying all those who, from their activity and authority in
      parliament, had pretensions for offices, and who still had it in their
      power to embarrass and distress the public measures. Their associates too
      in popularity, whom the king intended to distinguish by his favor, were
      unwilling to undergo the reproach of having driven a separate bargain, and
      of sacrificing to their own ambitious views the cause of the nation. And
      as they were sensible that they must owe their preferment entirely to
      their weight and consideration in parliament, they were most of them
      resolved still to adhere to that assembly, and both to promote its
      authority, and to preserve their own credit in it. On all occasions, they
      had no other advice to give the king, than to allow himself to be directed
      by his great council; or, in other words, to resign himself passively to
      their guidance and government. And Charles found, that instead of
      acquiring friends by the honors and offices which he should bestow, he
      should only arm his enemies with more power to hurt him.
    </p>
    <p>
      The end on which the king was most intent in changing ministers was, to
      save the life of the earl of Strafford, and to mollify, by these
      indulgences, the rage of his most furious prosecutors. But so high was
      that nobleman's reputation for experience and capacity, that all the new
      counsellors and intended ministers plainly saw, that if he escaped their
      vengeance, he must return into favor and authority; and they regarded his
      death as the only security which they could have, both for the
      establishment of their present power, and for success in their future
      enterprises. His impeachment, therefore, was pushed on with the utmost
      vigor; and, after long and solemn preparations, was brought to a final
      issue.
    </p>
    <p>
      Immediately after Strafford was sequestered from parliament, and confined
      in the Tower, a committee of thirteen was chosen by the lower house, and
      intrusted with the office of preparing a charge against him. These, joined
      to a small committee of lords, were vested with authority to examine all
      witnesses, to call for every paper, and to use any means of scrutiny, with
      regard to any part of the earl's behavior and conduct.[*] After so general
      and unbounded an inquisition, exercised by such powerful and implacable
      enemies, a man must have been very cautious or very innocent, not to
      afford, during the whole course of his life, some matter of accusation
      against him.
    </p>
    <p>
      This committee, by direction from both houses, took an oath of secrecy; a
      practice very unusual, and which gave them the appearance of conspirators,
      more than ministers of justice.[**] But the intention of this strictness
      was, to render it more difficult for the earl to elude their search, or
      prepare for his justification.
    </p>
    <p>
      Application was made to the king, that he would allow this committee to
      examine privy counsellors with regard to opinions delivered at the board:
      a concession which Charles unwarily made, and which thenceforth banished
      all mutual confidence from the deliberations of council; where every man
      is supposed to have entire freedom, without fear of future punishment or
      inquiry, of proposing any expedient, questioning any opinion, or
      supporting any argument.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      Sir George Ratcliffe, the earl's intimate friend and confidant, was
      accused of high treason, sent for from Ireland, and committed to close
      custody. As no charge ever appeared or was prosecuted against him, it is
      impossible to give a more charitable interpretation to this measure, than
      that the commons thereby intended to deprive Strafford, in his present
      distress, of the assistance of his best friend, who was most enabled, by
      his testimony, to justify the innocence of his patron's conduct and
      behavior.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 192.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 37.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 193.

     **** Clarendon, vol. i. p 214.
</pre>
    <p>
      When intelligence arrived in Ireland of the plans laid for Stafford's
      ruin, the Irish house of commons, though they had very lately bestowed
      ample praises on his administration, entered into all the violent counsels
      against him, and prepared a representation of the miserable state into
      which, by his misconduct, they supposed the kingdom to be fallen. They
      sent over a committee to London, to assist in the prosecution of their
      unfortunate governor; and by intimations from this committee, who entered
      into close confederacy with the popular leaders in England, was every
      measure of the Irish parliament governed and directed. Impeachments, which
      were never prosecuted, were carried up against Sir Richard Bolton, the
      chancellor, Sir Gerard Louther, chief justice, and Bramhall, bishop of
      Derry.[*] This step, which was an exact counterpart to the proceedings in
      England, served also the same purposes: it deprived the king of the
      ministers whom he most trusted; it discouraged and terrified all the other
      ministers and it prevented those persons who were best acquainted with
      Strafford's counsels from giving evidence in his favor before the English
      parliament.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1641.
    </p>
    <p>
      The bishops, being forbidden by the ancient canons to assist in trials for
      life, and being unwilling by any opposition to irritate the commons, who
      were already much prejudiced against them, thought proper of themselves to
      withdraw.[**] The commons also voted, that the new-created peers ought to
      have no voice in this trial; because the accusation being agreed to while
      they were commoners, their consent to it was implied with that of all the
      commons of England. Notwithstanding this decision, which was meant only to
      deprive Strafford of so many friends, Lord Seymour and some others still
      continued to keep their seat; nor was their right to it any further
      questioned.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      To bestow the greater solemnity on this important trial scaffolds were
      erected in Westminster Hall; where both houses sat, the one as accusers,
      the other as judges. Besides the chair of state, a close gallery was
      prepared for the king and queen, who attended during the whole
      trial.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 214.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p 216.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 216.

     ****Whitlocke, p. 40. Rush. vol. iv. p. 11., May. p. 90.
</pre>
    <p>
      An accusation carried on by the united effort of three kingdoms against
      one man, unprotected by power, unassisted by counsel, discountenanced by
      authority, was likely to prove a very unequal contest; yet such were the
      capacity, genius presence of mind, displayed by this magnanimous
      statesman, that, while argument, and reason, and law had any place, he
      obtained an undisputed victory. And *he perished at last, overwhelmed, and
      still unsubdued, by the open violence of his fierce and unrelenting
      antagonists.
    </p>
    <p>
      The articles of impeachment against Strafford are twenty-eight in number;
      and regard his conduct, as president of the council of York, as deputy or
      lieutenant of Ireland, and as counsellor or commander in England. But
      though four months were employed by the managers in framing the
      accusation, and all Strafford's answers were extemporary, it appears from
      comparison, not only that he was free from the crime of treason, of which
      there is not the least appearance, but that his conduct, making allowance
      for human infirmities, exposed to such severe scrutiny, was innocent, and
      even laudable.
    </p>
    <p>
      The powers of the northern council, while he was president, had been
      extended by the king's instructions beyond what formerly had been
      practised: but that court being at first instituted by a stretch of royal
      prerogative, it had been usual for the prince to vary his instructions;
      and the largest authority committed to it was altogether as legal as the
      most moderate and most limited. Nor was it reasonable to conclude, that
      Strafford had used any art to procure those extensive powers; since he
      never once sat as president, or exercised one act of jurisdiction, after
      he was invested with the authority so much complained of.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      In the government of Ireland, his administration had been equally
      promotive of his master's interest, and that of the subjects committed to
      his care. A large debt he had paid off: he had left a considerable sum in
      the exchequer: the revenue, which never before answered the charges of
      government, was now raised to be equal to them.[**] A small standing army,
      formerly kept in no order, was augmented, and was governed by exact
      discipline; and a great force was there raised and paid for the support of
      the king's authority against the Scottish covenanters.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Bush. vol. iv, p. 145.

     ** Bush. vol. v. p. 120, 247. Warwick, p. 115.
</pre>
    <p>
      Industry and all the arts of peace were introduced among that rude people;
      the shipping of the kingdom augmented a hundred fold;[*] the customs
      tripled upon the same rates: the exports double in value to the imports;
      manufactures, particularly that of linen, introduced and promoted;[**]
      agriculture, by means of the English and Scottish plantations, gradually
      advancing; the Protestant religion encouraged, without the persecution or
      discontent of the Catholics.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nelson, vol. ii. p. 45.

     ** Rush. vol. iv. p. 124., Warwick, p. 115.
</pre>
    <p>
      The springs of authority he had enforced without overstraining them.
      Discretionary acts of jurisdiction, indeed, he had often exerted, by
      holding courts martial, billetting soldiers, deciding causes upon paper
      petitions before the council, issuing proclamations, and punishing their
      infraction. But discretionary authority during that age was usually
      exercised even in England. In Ireland, it was still more requisite, among
      a rude people, not yet thoroughly subdued, averse to the religion and
      manners of their conquerors, ready on all occasions to relapse into
      rebellion and disorder. While the managers of the commons demanded every
      moment, that the deputy's conduct should be examined by the line of rigid
      law and severe principles, he appealed still to the practice of all former
      deputies, and to the uncontrollable necessity of his situation.
    </p>
    <p>
      So great was his art of managing elections and balancing parties, that he
      had engaged the Irish parliament to vote whatever was necessary, both for
      the payment of former debts, and for support of the new-levied army; nor
      had he ever been reduced to the illegal expedients practised in England
      for the supply of public necessities. No imputation of rapacity could
      justly lie against his administration. Some instances of imperious
      expressions, and even actions, may be met with. The case of Lord
      Mountnorris, of all those which were collected with so much industry, is
      the most flagrant and the least excusable.
    </p>
    <p>
      It had been reported at the table of Lord Chancellor Loftus, that
      Annesley, one of the deputy's attendants, in moving a stool, had sorely
      hurt his master's foot, who was at that time afflicted with the gout.
      "Perhaps," said Mountnorris, who was present at table, "it was done in
      revenge of that public affront which my lord deputy formerly put upon him:
      but he has a brother who would not have taken such a revenge." This
      casual, and seemingly innocent, at least ambiguous expression, was
      reported to Stafford; who, on pretence that such a suggestion might prompt
      Annesley to avenge himself in another manner, ordered Mountnorris, who was
      an officer to be tried by a court martial for mutiny and sedition against
      his general. The court, which consisted of the chief officers of the army,
      found the crime to be capital, and condemned that nobleman to lose his
      head.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      In vain did Strafford plead in his own defence against this article of
      impeachment, that the sentence of Mountnorris was the deed, and that too
      unanimous, of the court, not the act of the deputy; that he spake not to a
      member of the court, nor voted in the cause, but sat uncovered as a party,
      and then immediately withdrew, to leave them to their freedom; that,
      sensible of the iniquity of the sentence, he procured his majesty's free
      pardon to Mountnorris; and that he did not even keep that nobleman a
      moment in suspense with regard to his fate, but instantly told him, that
      he himself would sooner lose his right hand than execute such a sentence,
      nor was his lordship's life in any danger. In vain did Strafford's friends
      add, as a further apology, that Mountnorris was a man of an infamous
      character, who paid court by the lowest adulation to all deputies while
      present, and blackened their character by the vilest calumnies when
      recalled; and that Strafford, expecting like treatment, had used this
      expedient for no other purpose than to subdue the petulant spirit of the
      man. These excuses alleviate the guilt; but there still remains enough to
      prove, that the mind of the deputy, though great and firm, had been not a
      little debauched by the riot of absolute power and uncontrolled authority.
    </p>
    <p>
      When Strafford was called over to England, he found every thing falling
      into such confusion, by the open rebellion of the Scots, and the secret
      discontents of the English, that, if he had counselled or executed any
      violent measure, he might perhaps have been able to apologize for his
      conduct from the great law of necessity, which admits not, while the
      necessity is extreme, of any scruple, ceremony, or delay.[**] But, in
      fact, no illegal advice or action was proved against him; and the whole
      amount of his guilt, during this period, was some peevish, or at most
      imperious expressions, which, amidst such desperate extremities, and
      during a bad state of health, had unhappily fallen from him.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. iv. p. 187.

     ** Rush. vol. iv. p. 559.
</pre>
    <p>
      If Strafford's apology was in the main so satisfactory when he pleaded to
      each particular article of the charge, his victory was still more decisive
      when he brought the whole together, and repelled the imputation of
      treason; the crime which the commons would infer from the full view of his
      conduct and behavior. Of all species of guilt, the law of England had with
      the most scrupulous exactness defined that of treason; because on that
      side it was found most necessary to protect the subject against the
      violence of the king and of his ministers. In the famous statute of Edward
      III., all the kinds of treason are enumerated; and every other crime,
      besides such as are there expressly mentioned, is carefully excluded from
      that appellation. But with regard to this guilt, "an endeavor to subvert
      the fundamental laws," the statute of treasons is totally silent: and
      arbitrarily to introduce it into the fatal catalogue, is itself a
      subversion of all law; and under color of defending liberty, reverses a
      statute the best calculated for the security of liberty that had ever been
      enacted by an English parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      As this species of treason, discovered by the commons, is entirely new and
      unknown to the laws, so is the species of proof by which they pretend to
      fix that guilt upon the prisoner. They have invented a kind of
      accumulative or constructive evidence, by which many actions either
      totally innocent in themselves, or criminal in a much inferior degree,
      shall, when united, amount to treason, and subject the person to the
      highest penalties inflicted by the law. A hasty and unguarded word, a rash
      and passionate action, assisted by the malevolent fancy of the accuser,
      and tortured by doubtful constructions, is transmuted into the deepest
      guilt; and the lives and fortunes of the whole nation, no longer protected
      by justice, are subjected to arbitrary will and pleasure.
    </p>
    <p>
      "Where has this species of guilt lain so long concealed?" said Strafford
      in conclusion. "Where has this fire been so long buried during so many
      centuries, that no smoke should appear till it burst out at once to
      consume me and my children? Better it were to live under no law at all,
      and by the maxims of cautious prudence to conform ourselves the best we
      can to the arbitrary will of a master, than fancy we have a law on which
      we can rely, and find at last, that this law shall inflict a punishment
      precedent to the promulgation, and try us by maxims unheard of till the
      very moment of the prosecution. If I sail on the Thames, and split my
      vessel on an anchor, in case there be no buoy to give warning, the party
      shall pay me damages: but if the anchor be marked out, then is the
      striking on it at my own peril. Where is the mark set upon this crime?
      where the token by which I should discover it? It has lain concealed under
      water; and no human prudence, no human innocence, could save me from the
      destruction with which I am at present threatened.
    </p>
    <p>
      "It is now full two hundred and forty years since treasons were defined;
      and so long has it been since any man was touched to this extent upon this
      crime before myself. We have lived, my lords, happily to ourselves at
      home: we have lived gloriously abroad to the world: let us be content with
      what our fathers have left us.*let not our ambition carry us to be more
      learned than they were in these killing and destructive arts. Great wisdom
      it will be in your lordships, and just providence for yourselves, for your
      posterities, for the whole kingdom, to cast from you into the fire these
      bloody and mysterious volumes of arbitrary and constructive treasons, as
      the primitive Christians did their books of curious arts, and betake
      yourselves to the plain letter of the statute, which tells you where the
      crime is, and points out to you the path by which you may avoid it.
    </p>
    <p>
      "Let us not, to our own destruction, awake those sleeping lions, by
      rattling up a company of old records which have lain for so many ages by
      the wall, forgotten and neglected. To all my afflictions, add not this, my
      lords, the most severe of any; that I, for my other sins, not for my
      treasons, be the means of introducing a precedent so pernicious to the
      laws and liberties of my native country.
    </p>
    <p>
      "However, these gentlemen at the bar say they speak for the commonwealth,
      and they believe so; yet, under favor, it is I who, in this particular,
      speak for the commonwealth. Precedents like those which are endeavored to
      be established against me, must draw along such inconveniencies and
      miseries, that in a few years the kingdom will be in the condition
      expressed in a statute of Henry IV.; and no man shall know by what rule to
      govern his words and actions.
    </p>
    <p>
      "Impose not, my lords, difficulties insurmountable upon ministers of
      state, nor disable them from serving with cheerfulness their king and
      country. If you examine them, and under such severe penalties, by every
      grain, by every little weight, the scrutiny will be intolerable. The
      public affairs of the kingdom must be left waste; and no wise man, who has
      any honor or fortune to lose, will ever engage himself in such dreadful,
      such unknown perils.
    </p>
    <p>
      "My lords, I have now troubled your lordships a great deal longer than I
      should have done. Were it not for the interest of these pledges, which a
      saint in heaven left me, I should be loath&mdash;" (Here he pointed to his
      children, and his weeping stopped him.) "What I forfeit for myself, it is
      nothing: but, I confess, that my indiscretion should forfeit for them, it
      wounds me very deeply. You will be pleased to pardon my infirmity:
      something I should have said; but I see I shall not be able, and therefore
      I shall leave it.
    </p>
    <p>
      "And now, my lords, I thank God, I have been by his blessing sufficiently
      instructed in the extreme vanity of all temporary enjoyments, compared to
      the importance of our eternal duration. And so, my lords, even so, with
      all humility, and with all tranquillity of mind, I submit, clearly and
      freely, to your judgments: and whether that righteous doom shall be to
      life or death, I shall repose myself, full of gratitude and confidence, in
      the arms of the great Author of my existence."[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      "Certainly," says Whitlocke,[**] with his usual candor, "never any man
      acted such a part, on such a theatre, with more wisdom, constancy, and
      eloquence, with greater reason, judgment, and temper, and with a better
      grace in all his words and actions, than did this great and excellent
      person; and he moved the hearts of all his auditors, some few excepted, to
      remorse and pity." It is remarkable, that the historian who expresses
      himself in these terms, was himself chairman of that committee which
      conducted the impeachment against this unfortunate statesman. The
      accusation and defence lasted eighteen days. The managers divided the
      several articles among them, and attacked the prisoner with all the weight
      of authority, with all the vehemence of rhetoric, with all the accuracy of
      long preparation. Strafford was obliged to speak with deference and
      reserve towards his most inveterate enemies, the commons, the Scottish
      nation, and the Irish parliament. He took only a very short time on each
      article to recollect himself: yet he alone, without assistance, mixing
      modesty and humility with firmness and vigor, made such a defence that the
      commons saw it impossible, by a legal prosecution, ever to obtain a
      sentence against him.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. iv. p *59, etc.

     ** Page 41.
</pre>
    <p>
      But the death of Stafford was too important a stroke of party to be left
      unattempted by any expedient, however extraordinary. Besides the great
      genius and authority of that minister, he had threatened some of the
      popular leaders with an impeachment; and, had he not himself been suddenly
      prevented by the impeachment of the commons, he had that very day, it was
      thought, charged Pym, Hambden, and others with treason, for having invited
      the Scots to invade England. A bill of attainder was therefore brought
      into the lower house immediately after finishing these pleadings; and,
      preparatory to it, a new proof of the earl's guilt was produced, in order
      to remove such scruples as might be entertained with regard to a method of
      proceeding so unusual and irregular.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sir Henry Vane, secretary, had taken some notes of a debate in council,
      after the dissolution of the last parliament; and being at a distance, he
      had sent the keys of his cabinet, as was pretended, to his son Sir Henry,
      in order to search for some papers which were necessary for completing a
      marriage settlement. Young Vane, falling upon this paper of notes, deemed
      the matter of the utmost importance; and immediately communicated it to
      Pym, who now produced the paper before the house of commons. The question
      before the council was, "Offensive or defensive war with the Scots." The
      king proposes this difficulty, "But how can I undertake offensive war, if
      I have no more money?" The answer ascribed to Strafford was in these
      words: "Borrow of the city a hundred thousand pounds: go on vigorously to
      levy ship money. Your majesty having tried the affections of your people,
      you are absolved and loose from all rules of government, and may do what
      power will admit. Your majesty, having tried all ways, shall be acquitted
      before God and man. And you have an army in Ireland, which you may employ
      to reduce this kingdom to obedience: for I am confident the Scots cannot
      hold out five months." There followed some counsels of Laud and
      Cottington, equally violent with regard to the king's being absolved from
      all rules of government.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 223, 229, 230, etc. Whitlocke, p.
     41. May p. 93.
</pre>
    <p>
      This paper, with all the circumstances of its discovery and communication,
      was pretended to be equivalent to two witnesses, and to be an unanswerable
      proof of those pernicious counsels of Strafford which tended to the
      subversion of the laws and constitution. It was replied by Strafford and
      his friends, that old Vane was his most inveterate and declared enemy; and
      if the secretary himself, as was by far most probable, had willingly
      delivered to his son this paper of notes, to be communicated to Pym, this
      implied such a breach of oaths and of trust as rendered him totally
      unworthy of all credit: that the secretary's deposition was at first
      exceedingly dubious: upon two examinations, he could not remember any such
      words: even the third time, his testimony was not positive, but imported
      only, that Strafford had spoken such or suchlike words; and words may be
      very like in sound, and differ much in sense; nor ought the lives of men
      to depend upon grammatical criticisms of any expressions, much less of
      those which had been delivered by the speaker without premeditation, and
      committed by the hearer for any time however short, to the uncertain
      record of memory: that, in the present case, changing this kingdom into
      that kingdom a very slight alteration, the earl's discourse could regard
      nothing but Scotland, and implies no advice unworthy of an English
      counsellor: that even retaining the expression, this kingdom, the words
      may fairly be understood of Scotland, which alone was the kingdom that the
      debate regarded, and which alone had thrown off allegiance, and could be
      reduced to obedience: that it could be proved, as well by the evidence of
      all the king's ministers, as by the known disposition of the forces, that
      the intention never was to land the Irish army in England, but in
      Scotland: that of six other counsellors present, Laud and Windebank could
      give no evidence; Northumberland, Hamilton, Cottington, and Juxon, could
      recollect no such expression; and the advice was too remarkable to be
      easily forgotten: that it was nowise probable such a desperate counsel
      would be openly delivered at the board, and before Northumberland, a
      person of that high rank, and whose attachments to the court were so much
      weaker than his connections with the country. That though Northumberland,
      and he alone, had recollected some such expression as that of "being
      absolved from rules of government," yet, in such desperate extremities as
      those into which the king and kingdom were then fallen, a maxim of that
      nature, allowing it to be delivered by Strafford, may be defended upon
      principles the most favorable to law and liberty and that nothing could be
      more iniquitous than to extract an accusation of treason from an opinion
      simply proposed at the council table; where all freedom of debate ought to
      be permitted, and where it was not unusual for the members, in order to
      draw forth the sentiments of others, to propose counsels very remote from
      their own secret advice and judgment.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The evidence of Secretary Vane, though exposed to such unsurmountable
      objections, was the real cause of Strafford' unhappy fate; and made the
      bill of attainder pass the commons with no greater opposition than that of
      fifty-nine dissenting votes. But there remained two other branches of the
      legislature, the king and the lords, whose assent was requisite; and
      these, if left to their free judgment, it was easily foreseen, would
      reject the bill without scruple or deliberation. To overcome this
      difficulty, the popular leaders employed expedients for which they were
      beholden partly to their own industry, partly to the indiscretion of their
      adversaries.
    </p>
    <p>
      Next Sunday, after the bill passed the commons, the Puritanical pulpits
      resounded with declamations concerning the necessity of executing justice
      upon great delinquents.[**] The populace took the alarm. About six
      thousand men, armed with swords and cudgels, flocked from the city, and
      surrounded the houses of parliament.[***] The names of the fifty-nine
      commoners who had voted against the bill of attainder, were posted up
      under the title of "Straffordians, and betrayers of their country." These
      were exposed to all the insults of the ungovernable multitude. When any of
      the lords passed, the cry for justice against Strafford resounded in their
      ears; and such as were suspected of friendship to that obnoxious minister,
      were sure to meet with menaces, not unaccompanied with symptoms of the
      most desperate resolutions in the furious populace.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      Complaints in the house of commons being made against these violences, as
      the most flagrant breach of privilege, the ruling members, by their
      affected coolness and indifference, showed plainly, that the popular
      tumults were not disagreeable to them.[v] But a new discovery, made about
      this time, served to throw every thing into still greater flame and
      combustion.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. iv. p. 560.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 43.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 43.

     **** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 232, 256. Rush. vol. v. p. 248,
     1279.

     v    Whitlocke, ut supra.
</pre>
    <p>
      Some principal officers, Piercy, Jermyn, O'Neale, Goring, Wilmot, Pollard,
      Ashburnham, partly attached to the court, partly disgusted with the
      parliament, had formed a plan of engaging into the king's service the
      English army, whom they observed to be displeased at some marks of
      preference given by the commons to the Scots. For this purpose, they
      entered into an association, took an oath of secrecy, and kept a close
      correspondence with some of the king's servants. The form of a petition to
      the king and parliament was concerted; and it was intended to get this
      petition subscribed by the army. The petitioners there represent the great
      and unexampled concessions made by the king for the security of public
      peace and liberty; the endless demands of certain insatiable and turbulent
      spirits, whom nothing less will content than a total subversion of the
      ancient constitution; the frequent tumults which these factious
      malecontents had excited, and which endangered the liberty of parliament.
      To prevent these mischiefs, the army offered to come up and guard that
      assembly, "So shall the nation," as they express themselves in the
      conclusion, "not only be vindicated from preceding innovations, but be
      secured from the future, which are threatened, and which are likely to
      produce more dangerous effects than the former."[*] The draught of this
      petition being conveyed to the king, he was prevailed on, somewhat
      imprudently, to countersign it himself, as a mark of his approbation. But
      as several difficulties occurred, the project was laid aside two months
      before any public discovery was made of it.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was Goring who betrayed the secret to the popular leaders. The alarm
      may easily be imagined which this intelligence conveyed. Petitions from
      the military to the civil power are always looked on as disguised or
      rather undisguised commands, and are of a nature widely different from
      petitions presented by any other rank of men. Pym opened the matter in the
      house.[**] On the first intimation of a discovery, Piercy concealed
      himself, and Jermyn withdrew beyond sea. This further confirmed the
      suspicion of a dangerous conspiracy. Goring delivered his evidence before
      the house: Piercy wrote a letter to his brother, Northumberland,
      confessing most of the particulars.[***] Both their testimonies agree with
      regard to the oath of secrecy; and as this circumstance had been denied by
      Pollard, Ashburnham, and Wilmot, in all their examinations, it was
      regarded as a new proof of some desperate resolutions which had been
      taken.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 247. Whitlocke, p. 43.

     ** Rush, vol v. p. 240.

     *** Rush. vol. v. p. 255.
</pre>
    <p>
      To convey more quickly the terror and indignation at this plot, the
      commons voted that a protestation should be signed by all the members. It
      was sent up to the lords, and signed by all of them, except Southampton
      and Robarts. Orders were given by the commons alone, without other
      authority that it should be subscribed by the whole nation. The
      protestation was in itself very inoffensive, even insignificant; and
      contained nothing but general declarations, that the subscribers would
      defend their religion and liberties.[*] But it tended to increase the
      popular panic, and intimated, what was more expressly declared in the
      preamble, that these blessings were now exposed to the utmost peril.
    </p>
    <p>
      Alarms were every day given of new conspiracies.[**] In Lancashire, great
      multitudes of Papists were assembling: secret meetings were held by them
      in caves and under ground in Surrey: they had entered into a plot to blow
      up the river with gunpowder, in order to drown the city:[***] provisions
      of arms were making beyond sea: sometimes France, sometimes Denmark, was
      forming designs against the kingdom; and the populace, who are always
      terrified with present, and enraged with distant dangers, were still
      further animated in their demands of justice against the unfortunate
      Strafford.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king came to the house of lords: and though he expressed his
      resolution, for which he offered them any security, never again to employ
      Strafford in any branch of public business, he professed himself totally
      dissatisfied with regard to the circumstance of treason, and on that
      account declared his difficulty in giving his assent to the bill of
      attainder.[****] The commons took fire, and voted it a breach of privilege
      for the king to take notice of any bill depending before the houses,
      Charles did not perceive that his attachment to Strafford was the chief
      motive for the bill; and that the greater proofs he gave of anxious
      concern for this minister, the more inevitable did he render his
      destruction.
    </p>
    <p>
      About eighty peers had constantly attended Strafford's trial; but such
      apprehensions were entertained on account of the popular tumults, that
      only forty-five were present when the bill of attainder was brought into
      the house. Yet of these nineteen had the courage to vote against it;[v] a
      certain proof that if entire freedom had been allowed, the bill had been
      rejected by a great majority.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 252. Rush. vol. v. p. 241. Warwick,
     p. 180.

     ** Dugdale, p. 69. Franklyn, p. 901.

     *** Sir Edward Walker p. 349.

     **** Rush. vol. v. p. 239.

     v Whitlocke, p. 43.
</pre>
    <p>
      In carrying up the bill to the lords, St. John, the solicitor-general,
      advanced two topics well suited to the fury of the times; that though the
      testimony against Strafford were not clear, yet, in this way of bill,
      private satisfaction to each man's conscience was sufficient, even should
      no evidence at all be produced; and that the earl had no title to plead
      law, because he had broken the law. It is true, added he, we give law to
      hares and deer, for they are beasts of chase: but it was never accounted
      either cruel or unfair to destroy foxes or wolves wherever they can be
      found, for they are beasts of prey.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      After popular violence had prevailed over the lords, the same battery was
      next applied to force the king's assent. The populace flocked about
      Whitehall, and accompanied their demand of justice with the loudest
      clamors and most open menaces. Rumors of conspiracies against the
      parliament were anew spread abroad; invasions and insurrections talked of;
      and the whole nation was raised into such a ferment, as threatened some
      great and imminent convulsion. On whichever side the king cast his eyes,
      he saw no resource or security. All his servants, consulting their own
      safety, rather than their master's honor, declined interposing with their
      advice between him and his parliament. The queen, terrified with the
      appearance of so mighty a danger, and bearing formerly no good will to
      Strafford, was in tears, and pressed him to satisfy his people in this
      demand, which, it was hoped, would finally content them. Juxon, alone,
      whose courage was not inferior to his other virtues, ventured to advise
      him, if in his conscience he did not approve of the bill, by no means to
      assent to it.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Strafford, hearing of Charles's irresolution and anxiety, took a very
      extraordinary step: he wrote a letter, in which he entreated the king, for
      the sake of public peace, to put an end to his unfortunate, however
      innocent life, and to quiet the tumultuous people by granting them the
      request for which they were so importunate.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 232.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 257. Warwick, p. 160.

     *** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 258. Rush. vol. v. p. 251.
</pre>
    <p>
      "In this," added he, "my consent will more acquit you to God than all the
      world can do besides. To a willing man there is no injury. And as, by
      God's grace, I forgive all the world, with a calmness and meekness of
      infinite contentment to my dislodging soul, so, sir, to you I can resign
      the life of this world with all imaginable cheerfulness, in the just
      acknowledgment of your exceeding favors." Perhaps Strafford hoped, that
      this unusual instance of generosity would engage the king still more
      strenuously to protect him: perhaps he gave his life for lost; and finding
      himself in the hands of his enemies, and observing that Balfour, the
      lieutenant of the Tower, was devoted to the popular party,[*] he
      absolutely despaired of ever escaping the multiplied dangers with which he
      was every way environed. We might ascribe this step to a noble effort of
      disinterestedness, not unworthy the great mind of Strafford, if the
      measure which he advised had not been, in the event, as pernicious to his
      master, as it was immediately fatal to himself.[**] <a href="#linknote-6"
      name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6">6</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 44. Franklyn, p. 896.

     ** See note F, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      After the most violent anxiety and doubt, Charles at last granted a
      commission to four noblemen to give the royal assent in his name to the
      bill; flattering himself probably, in this extremity of distress, that as
      neither his will consented to the deed, nor was his hand immediately
      engaged in it, he was the more free from all the guilt which attended it.
      These commissioners he empowered, at the same time, to give his assent to
      the bill which rendered the parliament perpetual.
    </p>
    <p>
      The commons, from policy rather than necessity, had embraced the expedient
      of paying the two armies by borrowing money from the city; and these loans
      they had repaid afterwards by taxes levied upon the people. The citizens,
      either of themselves or by suggestion, began to start difficulties with
      regard to a further loan, which was demanded. We make no scruple of
      trusting the parliament, said they, were we certain that the parliament
      were to continue till our repayment. But in the present precarious
      situation of affairs, what security can be given us for our money? In
      pretence of obviating this objection, a bill was suddenly brought into the
      house, and passed with great unanimity and rapidity, that the parliament
      should not be dissolved, prorogued, or adjourned, without their own
      consent. It was hurried in like manner through the house of peers, and was
      instantly carried to the king for his assent. Charles, in the agony of
      grief, shame, and remorse for Strafford's doom, perceived not that this
      other bill was of still more fatal consequence to his authority, and
      rendered the power of his enemies perpetual, as it was already
      uncontrollable.[*] In comparison of the bill of attainder, by which he
      deemed himself an accomplice in his friend's murder, this concession made
      no figure in his eyes;[**] <a href="#linknote-7" name="linknoteref-7"
      id="linknoteref-7">7</a> a circumstance which, if it lessen our idea of
      his resolution or penetration serves to prove the integrity of his heart,
      and the goodness of his disposition. It is indeed certain, that strong
      compunction for his consent to Strafford's execution attended this
      unfortunate prince during the remainder of his life; and even at his own
      fatal end, the memory of this guilt, with great sorrow and remorse,
      recurred upon him. All men were so sensible of the extreme violence which
      was done him, that he suffered the less, both in character and interest,
      from this unhappy measure; and though he abandoned his best friend, yet
      was he still able to preserve, in some degree, the attachment of all his
      adherents.
    </p>
    <p>
      Secretary Carleton was sent by the king to inform Strafford of the final
      resolution which necessity had extorted from him. The earl seemed
      surprised, and starting up, exclaimed, in the words of Scripture, "Put not
      your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, for in them there is no
      salvation."[***] He was soon able, however, to collect his courage; and he
      prepared himself to suffer the fatal sentence. Only three days' interval
      was allowed him. The king, who made a new effort in his behalf, and sent
      by the hands of the young prince a letter addressed to the peers, in which
      he entreated them to confer with the commons about a mitigation of
      Strafford's sentence, and begged at least for some delay, was refused in
      both requests.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      Strafford, in passing from his apartment to Tower Hill, where the scaffold
      was erected, stopped under Laud's windows, with whom he had long lived in
      intimate friendship, and entreated the assistance of his prayers in those
      awful moments which were approaching. The aged primate dissolved in tears;
      and having pronounced, with a broken voice, a tender blessing on his
      departing friend, sunk into the arms of his attendants.[v] Stafford, still
      superior to his fate, moved on with an elated countenance, and with an air
      even of greater dignity than what usually attended him.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 261, 262. Rush. vol. v. p. 264.

     ** See note G, at the end of the volume

     *** Whitlocke, p. 44.

     **** Rush. vol. v. p. 265.

     v Nalson, vol. ii. p. 198.
</pre>
    <p>
      He wanted that consolation which commonly supports those who perish by the
      stroke of injustice and oppression: he was not buoyed up by glory, nor by
      the affectionate compassion of the spectators; yet his mind, erect and
      undaunted, found resources within itself, and maintained its unbroken
      resolution amidst the terrors of death, and the triumphant exultations of
      his misguided enemies. His discourse on the scaffold was full of decency
      and courage. "He feared," he said, "that the omen was bad for the intended
      reformation of the state, that it commenced with the shedding of innocent
      blood." Having bid a last adieu to his brother and friends who attended
      him, and having sent a blessing to his nearer relations who were absent,
      "And now," said he, "I have nigh done! One stroke will make my wife a
      widow, my dear children fatherless, deprive my poor servants of their
      indulgent master, and separate me from my affectionate brother and all my
      friends! But let God be to you and them all in all!" Going to disrobe and
      prepare himself for the block, "I thank God," said he, "that I am nowise
      afraid of death, nor am daunted with any terrors; but do as cheerfully lay
      down my head at this time as ever I did when going to repose!" With one
      blow was a period put to his life by the executioner.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus perished, in the forty-ninth year of his age, the earl of Strafford,
      one of the most eminent personages that has appeared in England. Though
      his death was loudly demanded as a satisfaction to justice, and an
      atonement for the many violations of the constitution, it may safely be
      affirmed, that the sentence by which he fell was an enormity greater than
      the worst of those which his implacable enemies prosecuted with so much
      cruel industry. The people, in their rage, had totally mistaken the proper
      object of their resentment. All the necessities, or, more properly
      speaking, the difficulties by which the king had been induced to use
      violent expedients for raising supply, were the result of measures
      previous to Strafford's favor; and if they arose from ill conduct, he at
      least was entirely innocent. Even those violent expedients themselves,
      which occasioned the complaint that the constitution was subverted, had
      been, all of them, conducted, so far as appeared, without his counsel or
      assistance. And whatever his private advice might be,[**] this salutary
      maxim he failed not often and publicly to inculcate in the king's
      presence, that, if any inevitable necessity ever obliged the sovereign to
      violate the laws, this license ought to be practised with extreme reserve,
      and, as soon as possible, a just atonement be made to the constitution for
      any injury which it might sustain from such dangerous precedents.[***] The
      first parliament after the restoration reversed the bill of attainder; and
      even a few weeks after Strafford's execution, this very parliament
      remitted to his children the more severe consequences of his sentence; as
      if conscious of the violence with which the prosecution had been
      conducted.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol, v. p. 267.

     ** That Strafford was secretly no enemy to arbitrary
     counsels, appears from some of his letters and despatches,
     particularly vol. ii. p. 60, where he seems to wish that a
     standing army were established.

     *** Rush. vol. iv. p. 567, 568, 569, 570.
</pre>
    <p>
      In vain did Charles expect, as a return for so many instances of unbounded
      compliance, that the parliament would at last show him some indulgence,
      and would cordially fall into that unanimity to which, at the expense of
      his own power and of his friend's life, he so earnestly courted them. All
      his concessions were poisoned by their suspicion of his want of
      cordiality; and the supposed attempt to engage the army against them,
      served with many as a confirmation of this jealousy. It was natural for
      the king to seek some resource, while all the world seemed to desert him,
      or combine against him; and this probably was the utmost of that embryo
      scheme which was formed with regard to the army. But the popular leaders
      still insisted, that a desperate plot was laid to bring up the forces
      immediately, and offer violence to the parliament; a design of which
      Piercy's evidence acquits the king, and which the near neighborhood of the
      Scottish army seems to render absolutely impracticable.[*] By means,
      however, of these suspicions, was the same implacable spirit still kept
      alive; and the commons, without giving the king any satisfaction in the
      settlement of his revenue, proceeded to carry their inroads with great
      vigor into his now defenceless prerogative.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * The project of bringing up the army to London, according
     to Piercy, was proposed to the king: but he rejected it as
     foolish; because the Scots, who were in arms, and lying in
     their neighborhood, must be at London as soon as the English
     army. This reason is so solid and convincing, that it leaves
     no room to doubt of the veracity of Piercy's evidence; and
     consequently acquits the king of this terrible plot of
     bringing up the army, which made such a noise at the time,
     and was a pretence for so many violences.

     ** Clarendon, vol. i. p. 266.
</pre>
    <p>
      The two ruling passions of this parliament were, zeal for liberty, and an
      aversion to the church; and to both of these, nothing could appear more
      exceptionable than the court of high commission, whose institution
      rendered it entirely arbitrary, and assigned to it the defence of the
      ecclesiastical establishment. The star chamber also was a court which
      exerted high discretionary powers and had no precise rule or limit, either
      with regard to the causes which came under its jurisdiction, or the
      decisions which it formed. A bill unanimously passed the houses to abolish
      these two courts; and in them to annihilate the principal and most
      dangerous articles of the king's prerogative. By the same bill, the
      jurisdiction of the council was regulated, and its authority abridged.[*]
      Charles hesitated before he gave his assent. But finding that he had gone
      too far to retreat, and that he possessed no resource in case of a
      rupture, he at last affixed the royal sanction to this excellent bill. But
      to show the parliament that he was sufficiently apprised of the importance
      of his grant, he observed to them, that this statute altered in a great
      measure the fundamental laws, ecclesiastical and civil, which many of his
      predecessors had established.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 283, 284. Whitlocke, p. 47. Rush.
     vol. iii. p. 1383, 1384.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 30.
</pre>
    <p>
      By removing the star chamber, the king's power of binding the people by
      his proclamations was indirectly abolished; and that important branch of
      prerogative, the strong symbol of arbitrary power, and unintelligible in a
      limited constitution, being at last removed, left the system of government
      more consistent and uniform. The star chamber alone was accustomed to
      punish infractions of the king's edicts: but as no courts of judicature
      now remained except those in Westminster Hall, which take cognizance only
      of common and statute law, the king may thenceforth issue proclamations,
      but no man is bound to obey them, It must, however, be confessed, that the
      experiment here made by the parliament was not a little rash and
      adventurous. No government at that time appeared in the world, nor is
      perhaps to be found in the records of any history, which subsisted without
      the mixture of some arbitrary authority committed to some magistrate; and
      it might reasonably, beforehand, appear doubtful, whether human society
      could ever reach that state of perfection, as to support itself with no
      other control than the general and rigid maxims of law and equity. But the
      parliament justly thought, that the king was too eminent a magistrate to
      be trusted with discretionary power, which he might so easily turn to the
      destruction of liberty. And in the event, it has hitherto been found,
      that, though some sensible inconveniencies arise from the maxim of
      adhering strictly to law, yet the advantages overbalance them, and should
      render the English grateful to the memory of their ancestors, who, after
      repeated contests, at last established that noble, though dangerous
      principle.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the request of the parliament, Charles, instead of the patents during
      pleasure, gave all the judges patents during their good behavior;[*] a
      circumstance of the greatest moment towards securing their independency,
      and barring the entrance of arbitrary power into the ordinary courts of
      judicature.
    </p>
    <p>
      The marshal's court, which took cognizance of offensive, words, and was
      not thought sufficiently limited by law, was also for that reason
      abolished.[**] The stannary courts, which exercised jurisdiction over the
      miners, being liable to a like objection, underwent a like fate. The
      abolition of the council of the north and the council of Wales followed
      from the same principles. The authority of the clerk of the market, who
      had a general inspection over the weights and measures throughout the
      kingdom, was transferred to the mayors, sheriffs, and ordinary
      magistrates.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * May, p. 107.

     ** Nalson, vol. i p. 778.
</pre>
    <p>
      In short, if we take a survey of the transactions of this memorable
      parliament during the first period of its operations, we shall find that,
      excepting Strafford's attainder, which was a complication of cruel
      iniquity, their merits in other respects so much outweigh their mistakes,
      as to entitle them to praise, from all lovers of liberty. Not only were
      former abuses remedied, and grievances redressed; great provision for the
      future was made by law against the return of like complaints. And if the
      means by which they obtained such advantages savor often of artifice,
      sometimes of violence, it is to be considered, that revolutions of
      government cannot be effected by the mere force of argument and reasoning;
      and that factions being once excited, men can neither so firmly regulate
      the tempers of others, nor their own, as to insure themselves against all
      exorbitances.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament now came to a pause. The king had promised his Scottish
      subjects that he would this summer pay them a visit, in order to settle
      their government; and though the English parliament was very importunate
      with him, that he should lay aside that journey, they could not prevail
      with him so much as to delay it. As he must necessarily, in his journey,
      have passed through the troops of both nations, the commons seem to have
      entertained great jealousy on that account, and to have now hurried on, as
      much as they formerly delayed, the disbanding of the armies. The arrears,
      therefore, of the Scots were fully paid them; and those of the English in
      part. The Scots returned home, and the English were separated into their
      several counties, and dismissed.
    </p>
    <p>
      After this, the parliament adjourned to the twentieth of October; and a
      committee of both houses&mdash;a thing unprecedented&mdash;was appointed
      to sit during the recess, with very ample powers.[*] Pym was elected
      chairman of the committee of the lower house. Further attempts were made
      by the parliament while it sat, and even by the commons alone for assuming
      sovereign executive powers, and publishing their ordinances, as they
      called them, instead of laws. The committee too, on their part, was ready
      to imitate the example.
    </p>
    <p>
      A small committee of both houses was appointed to attend the king into
      Scotland, in order, as was pretended, to see that the articles of
      pacification were executed; but really to be spies upon him, and extend
      still further the ideas of parliamentary authority, as well as eclipse the
      majesty of the king. The earl of Bedford, Lord Howard, Sir Philip
      Stapleton, Sir William Armyne, Fiennes, and Hambden, were the persons
      chosen.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 387.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 376
</pre>
    <p>
      Endeavors were used, before Charles's departure, to have a protector of
      the kingdom appointed, with a power to pass laws without having recourse
      to the king: so little regard was now paid to royal authority, or to the
      established constitution of the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      Amidst the great variety of affairs which occurred during this busy
      period, we have almost overlooked the marriage of the princess Mary with
      William, prince of Orange. The king concluded not this alliance without
      communicating his intentions to the parliament, who received the proposal
      with satisfaction.[*] This was the commencement of the connections with
      the family of Orange; connections which were afterwards attended with the
      most important consequences, both to the kingdom and to the house of
      Stuart.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 38.
</pre>
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    <h2>
      CHAPTER LV.
    </h2>
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    <h2>
      CHARLES I.
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1641.
    </p>
    <p>
      THE Scots, who began these fatal commotions, thought that they had
      finished a very perilous undertaking much to their profit and reputation.
      Besides the large pay voted them for lying in good quarters during a
      twelvemonth, the English parliament had conferred on them a present of
      three hundred thousand pounds for their brotherly assistance.[*] In the
      articles of pacification, they were declared to have ever been good
      subjects; and their military expeditions were approved of, as enterprises
      calculated and intended for his majesty's honor and advantage. To carry
      further the triumph over their sovereign, these terms, so ignominious to
      him, were ordered by a vote of parliament to be read in all churches, upon
      a day of thanksgiving appointed for the national pacification;[**] all
      their claims for the restriction of prerogative were agreed to be
      ratified; and, what they more valued than all these advantages, they had a
      near prospect of spreading the Presbyterian discipline in England and
      Ireland, from the seeds which they had scattered of their religious
      principles. Never did refined Athens so exult in diffusing the sciences
      and liberal arts over a savage world, never did generous Rome so please
      herself in the view of law and order established by her victorious arms,
      as the Scots now rejoiced in communicating their barbarous zeal and
      theological fervor to the neighboring nations.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. i. p. 747. May, p. 104.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 365. Clarendon, vol. ii p. 293.
</pre>
    <p>
      Charles, despoiled in England of a considerable part of his authority, and
      dreading still further encroachments upon him, arrived in Scotland, with
      an intention of abdicating almost entirely the small share of power which
      there remained to him, and of giving full satisfaction, if possible, to
      his restless subjects in that kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      The lords of articles were an ancient institution in the Scottish
      parliament. They were constituted after this manner: The temporal lords
      chose eight bishops: the bishops elected eight temporal lords: these
      sixteen named eight commissioners of counties, and eight burgesses, and
      without the previous consent of the thirty-two, who were denominated lords
      of articles, no motion could be made in parliament. As the bishops were
      entirely devoted to the court, it is evident, that all the lords of
      articles, by necessary consequence, depended on the king's nomination; and
      the prince, besides one negative after the bills had passed through
      parliament, possessed indirectly another before their introduction; a
      prerogative of much greater consequence than the former. The bench of
      bishops being now abolished, the parliament laid hold of the opportunity,
      and totally set aside the lords of articles: and till this important point
      was obtained, the nation, properly speaking, could not be said to enjoy
      any regular freedom.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      It is remarkable that, notwithstanding this institution, to which there is
      no parallel in England, the royal authority was always deemed much lower
      in Scotland than in the former kingdom. Bacon represents it as one
      advantage to be expected from the union, that the too extensive
      prerogative of England would be abridged by the example of Scotland, and
      the too narrow prerogative of Scotland be enlarged from the imitation of
      England. The English were at that time a civilized people, and obedient to
      the laws; but among the Scots it was of little consequence how the laws
      were framed, or by whom voted, while the exorbitant aristocracy had it so
      much in their power to prevent their regular execution.
    </p>
    <p>
      The peers and commons formed only one house in the Scottish parliament:
      and as it had been the practice of James, continued by Charles, to grace
      English gentlemen with Scottish titles, all the determinations of
      parliament, it was to be feared, would in time depend upon the prince, by
      means of these votes of foreigners, who had no interest or property in the
      nation. It was therefore a law deserving approbation, that no man should
      be created a Scotch peer, who possessed not ten thousand marks (above five
      hundred pounds) of annual rent in the kingdom.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      A law for triennial parliaments was likewise passed; and it was ordained,
      that the last act of every parliament should be to appoint the time and
      place for holding the parliament next ensuing.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Burnet, Mem.

     ** Burnet, Mem.

     *** Burnet, Mem.
</pre>
    <p>
      The king was deprived of that power formerly exercised of issuing
      proclamations which enjoined obedience under the penalty of treason; a
      prerogative which invested him with the whole legislative authority, even
      in matters of the highest importance.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      So far was laudable: but the most fatal blow given to royal authority, and
      what in a manner dethroned the prince, was the article, that no member of
      the privy council, in whose hands during the king's absence the whole
      administration lay, no officer of state, none of the judges, should be
      appointed but by advice and approbation of parliament. Charles even agreed
      to deprive of their seats four judges who had adhered to his interests;
      and their place was supplied by others more agreeable to the ruling party.
      Several of the Covenanters were also sworn of the privy council. And all
      the ministers of state, counsellors, and judges, were by law to hold their
      places during life or good behavior.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The king while in Scotland conformed himself entirely to the established
      church, and assisted with great gravity at the long prayers and longer
      sermons with which the Presbyterians endeavored to regale him. He bestowed
      pensions and preferments on Henderson, Gillespy, and other popular
      preachers, and practised every art to soften, if not to gain, his greatest
      enemies. The earl of Argyle was created a marquis, Lord Loudon an earl,
      Lesley was dignified with the title of earl of Leven.[***] His friends he
      was obliged for the present to neglect and overlook: some of them were
      disgusted; and his enemies were not reconciled, but ascribed all his
      caresses and favors to artifice and necessity.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Burnet, Mem.

     ** Burnet, Mem.

     *** Clarendon, vol. ii p. 309.
</pre>
    <p>
      Argyle and Hamilton, being seized with an apprehension, real or pretended,
      that the earl of Crawfurd and others meant to assassinate them, left the
      parliament suddenly, and retired into the country; but upon invitation and
      assurances, returned in a few days. This event, which had neither cause
      nor effect that was visible, nor purpose, nor consequence, was commonly
      denominated the incident. But though the incident had no effect In
      Scotland; what was not expected, it was attended with consequences in
      England. The English parliament, which was now assembled, being willing to
      awaken the people's tenderness by exciting their fears, immediately took
      the alarm; as if the malignants&mdash;so they called the king's party&mdash;had
      had laid a plot at once to murder them and all the godly in both kingdoms.
      They applied therefore to Essex, whom the king had left general in the
      south of England; and he ordered a guard to attend them.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      But while the king was employed in pacifying the commotions in Scotland,
      and was preparing to return to England, in order to apply himself to the
      same salutary work in that kingdom, he received intelligence of a
      dangerous rebellion broken but in Ireland, with circumstances of the
      utmost horror, bloodshed, and devastation. On every side this unfortunate
      prince was pursued with murmurs, discontent, faction, and civil wars, and
      the fire from all quarters, even by the most independent accidents, at
      once blazed up about him.
    </p>
    <p>
      The great plan of James in the administration of Ireland, continued by
      Charles, was, by justice and peace to reconcile that turbulent people to
      the authority of laws; and, introducing art and industry among them, to
      cure them of that sloth and barbarism to which they had ever been subject.
      In order to serve both these purposes, and at the same time secure the
      dominion of Ireland to the English crown, great colonies of British had
      been carried over, and, being intermixed with the Irish, had every where
      introduced a new face of things into that country. During a peace of near
      forty years, the inveterate quarrels between the nations seemed, in a
      great measure, to be obliterated; and though much of the landed property
      forfeited by rebellion had been conferred on the new planters, a more than
      equal return had been made, by their instructing the natives in tillage,
      building, manufactures, and all the civilized arts of life.[**] This had
      been the course of things during the successive administrations of
      Chichester, Grandison, Falkland, and, above all, of Strafford. Under the
      government of this latter nobleman, the pacific plans, now come to great
      maturity, and forwarded by his vigor and industry, seemed to have operated
      with full success, and to have bestowed at last on that savage country the
      face of a European settlement.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 40. Dugdale, p. 72. Burnet's Memoirs of the
     House of Hamilton, p. 184, 185. Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 299.

     ** Sir John Temple's Irish Rebellion, p. 12.
</pre>
    <p>
      After Strafford fell a victim to popular rage, the humors excited in
      Ireland by that great event could not suddenly be composed, but continued
      to produce the greatest innovations in the government.
    </p>
    <p>
      The British Protestants transplanted into Ireland, having every moment
      before their eyes all the horrors of Popery, had naturally been carried
      into the opposite extreme, and had universally adopted the highest
      principles and practices of the Puritans. Monarchy, as well as the
      hierarchy, was become odious to them; and every method of limiting the
      authority of the crown, and detaching themselves from the king of England,
      was greedily adopted and pursued. They considered not, that as they
      scarcely formed the sixth part of the people, and were secretly obnoxious
      to the ancient inhabitants, their only method of supporting themselves was
      by maintaining royal authority, and preserving a great dependence on their
      mother country. The English commons, likewise, in their furious
      persecution of Strafford, had overlooked the most obvious consequences;
      and, while they imputed to him as a crime every discretionary act of
      authority, they despoiled all succeeding governors of that power by which
      alone the Irish could be retained in subjection. And so strong was the
      current for popular government in all the three kingdoms, that the most
      established maxims of policy were every where abandoned, in order to
      gratify this ruling passion.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, unable to resist, had been obliged to yield to the Irish, as to
      the Scottish and English parliaments; and found, too, that their
      encroachments still rose in proportion to his concessions. Those subsidies
      which themselves had voted, they reduced, by a subsequent vote, to a
      fourth part; the court of high commission was determined to be a
      grievance; martial law abolished; the jurisdiction of the council
      annihilated; proclamations and acts of state declared of no authority;
      every order or institution which depended on monarchy was invaded; and the
      prince was despoiled of all his prerogative, without the least pretext of
      any violence or illegality in his administration.
    </p>
    <p>
      The standing army of Ireland was usually about three thousand men; but, in
      order to assist the king in suppressing the Scottish Covenanters,
      Strafford had raised eight thousand more, and had incorporated with them a
      thousand men drawn from the old army; a necessary expedient for bestowing
      older and discipline on the new-levied soldiers. The private men in this
      army were all Catholics; but the officers, both commission and
      non-commission, were Protestants, and could entirely be depended on by
      Charles. The English commons entertained the greatest apprehensions on
      account of this army, and never ceased soliciting the king till he agreed
      to break it. Nor they consent to any proposal for augmenting the standing
      army to five thousand men; a number which the king deemed necessary for
      retaining Ireland in obedience.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, thinking it dangerous that eight thousand men accustomed to
      idleness, and trained to the use of arms, should be dispersed among a
      nation so turbulent and unsettled, agreed with the Spanish ambassador to
      have them transported into Flanders, and enlisted in his master's service.
      The English commons, pretending apprehensions, lest regular bodies of
      troops, disciplined in the Low Countries, should prove still more
      dangerous, showed some aversion to this expedient; and the king reduced
      his allowance to four thousand men. But when the Spaniards had hired ships
      for transporting these troops, and the men were ready to embark, the
      commons, willing to show their power, and not displeased with an
      opportunity of curbing and affronting the king, prohibited every one from
      furnishing vessels for that service. And thus the project formed by
      Charles, of freeing the country from these men was unfortunately
      disappointed.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The old Irish remarked all these false steps of the English, and resolved
      to take advantage of them. Though their animosity against that nation, for
      want of an occasion to exert itself, seemed to be extinguished, it was
      only composed into a temporary and deceitful tranquillity.[**] Their
      interests, both with regard to property and religion, secretly stimulated
      them to a revolt. No individual of any sept, according to the ancient
      customs, had the property of any particular estate; but as the whole sept
      had a title to a whole territory, they ignorantly preferred this barbarous
      community before the more secure and narrower possessions assigned them by
      the English. An indulgence, amounting almost to a toleration, had been
      given to the Catholic religion: but so long as the churches and the
      ecclesiastical revenues were kept from the priests, and they were obliged
      to endure the neighborhood of profane heretics, being themselves
      discontented, they continually endeavored to retard any cordial
      reconciliation between the English and the Irish nations.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 281. Rush. vol. v. p, 381. Dugdale,
     p. 78 May, book ii. p. 3.

     ** Temple, p. 14
</pre>
    <p>
      There was a gentleman called Roger More, who, though of a narrow fortune,
      was descended from an ancient Irish family and was much celebrated among
      his countrymen for valor and capacity. This man first formed the project
      of expelling the English, and asserting the independency of his native
      country.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. iii. p. 543.
</pre>
    <p>
      He secretly went from chieftain to chieftain, and roused up every latent
      principle of discontent. He maintained a close correspondence with Lord
      Maguire and Sir Phelim O'Neale, the most powerful of the old Irish. By
      conversation, by letters, by his emissaries, he represented to his
      countrymen the motives of a revolt. He observed to them, that, by the
      rebellion of the Scots, and factions of the English, the king's authority
      in Britain was reduced to so low a condition, that he never could exert
      himself with any vigor in maintaining the English dominion over Ireland:
      that the Catholics in the Irish house of commons, assisted by the
      Protestants, had so diminished the royal prerogative and the power of the
      lieutenant, as would much facilitate the conducting to its desired effect
      any conspiracy or combination which could be formed: that the Scots,
      having so successfully thrown off dependence on the crown of England, and
      assumed the government into their own hands, had set an example to the
      Irish, who had so much greater oppressions to complain of: that the
      English planters, who had expelled them their possessions, suppressed
      their religion, and bereaved them of their liberties were but a handful in
      comparison of the natives: that they lived in the most supine security,
      interspersed with their numerous enemies, trusting to the protection of a
      small army, which was itself scattered in inconsiderable divisions through
      out the whole kingdom: that a great body of men, disciplined by the
      government, were now thrown loose, and were ready for any daring or
      desperate enterprise: that though the Catholics had hitherto enjoyed, in
      some tolerable measure, the exercise of their religion, from the
      moderation of their indulgent prince, they must henceforth expect that the
      government will be conducted by other maxims and other principles: that
      the Puritanical parliament, having at length subdued their sovereign,
      would no doubt, as soon as they had consolidated their authority, extend
      their ambitious enterprises to Ireland, and make the Catholics in that
      kingdom feel the same furious persecution, to which their brethren in
      England were at present exposed: and that a revolt in the Irish, tending
      only to vindicate their native liberty against the violence of foreign
      invaders, could never at any time be deemed rebellion, much less during
      the present confusions, when their prince was in a manner a prisoner, and
      obedience must be paid, not to him, but to those who had traitorously
      usurped his lawful authority.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      By these considerations, More engaged all the heads of the native Irish
      into the conspiracy. The English of the pale, as they were called, or the
      old English planters, being all Catholics, it was hoped would afterwards
      join the party which restored their religion to its ancient splendor and
      authority. The intention was, that Sir Phelim O'Neale and the other
      conspirators should begin an insurrection on one day throughout the
      provinces, and should attack all the English settlements; and that, on the
      same day, Lord Maguire and Roger More should surprise the Castle of
      Dublin. The commencement of the revolt was fixed on the approach of
      winter, that there might be more difficulty in transporting forces from
      England. Succors to themselves and supplies of arms they expected from
      France, in consequence of a promise made them by Cardinal Richelieu. And
      many Irish officers, who served in the Spanish troops, had engaged to join
      them, as soon as they saw an insurrection entered upon by their Catholic
      brethren. News, which every day arrived from England, of the fury
      expressed by the commons against all Papists, struck fresh terror into the
      Irish nation, and both stimulated the conspirators to execute their fatal
      purpose, and gave them assured hopes of the concurrence of all their
      country men.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Such propensity to a revolt was discovered in all the Irish, that it was
      deemed unnecessary, as it was dangerous to intrust the secret to many
      hands; and the appointed day drew nigh, nor had any discovery been yet
      made to the government. The king, indeed, had received information from
      his ambassadors, that something was in agitation among the Irish in
      foreign parts; but though he gave warning to the administration in
      Ireland, the intelligence was entirely neglected.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Temple, p. 72, 73, 78. Dugdale, p. 73.

     ** Dugdale, p. 74.

     *** Bush vol. v. p. 408. Nalson, vol ii. p. 565.
</pre>
    <p>
      Secret rumors likewise were heard of some approaching conspiracy; but no
      attention was paid to them. The earl of Leicester, whom the king had
      appointed lieutenant, remained in London, The two justices, Sir William
      Parsons and Sir John Borlace, were men of small abilities; and, by an
      inconvenience common to all factious times, owed their advancement to
      nothing but their zeal for the party by whom every thing was now governed.
      Tranquil from their ignorance and inexperience, these men indulged
      themselves in the most profound repose, on the very brink of destruction.
    </p>
    <p>
      But they were awakened from their security on the very day before that
      which was appointed for the commencement of hostilities. The Castle of
      Dublin, by which the capital was commanded, contained arms for ten
      thousand men, with thirty-five pieces of cannon, and a proportionable
      quantity of ammunition; yet was this important place guarded, and that too
      without any care, by no greater force than fifty men. Maguire and More
      were already in town with a numerous band of their partisans; others were
      expected that night and next morning they were to enter upon what they
      esteemed the easiest of all enterprises, the surprisal of the castle.
      O'Conolly, an Irishman, but a Protestant, betrayed the conspiracy to
      Parsons.[*] The justices and council fled immediately for safety into the
      castle, and reënforced the guards. The alarm was conveyed to the city, and
      all the Protestants prepared for defence. More escaped; Maguire was taken;
      and Mahone, one of the conspirators, being likewise seized, first
      discovered to the justices the project of a general insurrection, and
      redoubled the apprehensions which already were universally diffused
      throughout Dublin.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      But though O'Conolly's discovery saved the castle from a surprise, the
      confession extorted from Mahone came too late to prevent the intended
      insurrection. O'Neale and his Confederates had already taken arms in
      Ulster. The Irish, every where intermingled with the English, needed but a
      hint from their leaders and priests to begin hostilities against a people
      whom they hated on account of their religion, and envied for their riches
      and prosperity.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. v. p. 399. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 520. May, book
     ii p. 6

     ** Temple p 17, 18, 19, 20. Rush. vol. v p. 400.

     *** Ten ple, p. 39, 40, 79.
</pre>
    <p>
      The houses, cattle, goods, of the unwary English were first seized. Those
      who heard of the commotions in their neighborhood, instead of deserting
      their habitations, and assembling for mutual protection, remained at home
      in hopes of defending their property, and fell thus separately into the
      hands of their enemies.[*] After rapacity had fully exerted itself,
      cruelty, and the most barbarous that ever in any nation was known or heard
      of, began its operations. A universal massacre commenced of the English,
      now defenceless, and passively resigned to their inhuman foes. No age, no
      sex, no condition was spared. The wife weeping for her butchered husband,
      and embracing her helpless children, was pierced with them, and perished
      by the same stroke.[**] The old, the young, the vigorous, the infirm,
      underwent a like fate, and were confounded in one common ruin. In vain did
      flight save from the first assault: destruction was every where let loose,
      and met the hunted victims at every turn. In vain was recourse had to
      relations, to companions, to friends: all connections were dissolved, and
      death was dealt by that hand from which protection was implored and
      expected. Without provocation, without opposition, the astonished English,
      living in profound peace and full security were massacred by their nearest
      neighbors, with whom they had long upheld a continued intercourse of
      kindness and good offices.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      But death was the lightest punishment inflicted by those rebels. All the
      tortures which wanton cruelty could devise all the lingering pains of
      body, the anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, could not satiate
      revenge excited without injury, and cruelty derived from no cause. To
      enter into particulars would shock the least delicate humanity. Such
      enormities, though attested by undoubted evidence, appear almost
      incredible. Depraved nature, even perverted religion encouraged by the
      utmost license, reach not to such a pitch of ferocity, unless the pity
      inherent in human breasts be destroyed by that contagion of example which
      transports men beyond all the usual motives of conduct and behavior.
    </p>
    <p>
      The weaker sex themselves, naturally tender to their own sufferings, and
      compassionate to those of others, here emulated their more robust
      companions in the practice of every cruelty.[****] Even children, taught
      by the example and encouraged by the exhortation of their parents, essayed
      their feeble blows on the dead carcasses or defenceless children of the
      English.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Temple, p. 42.

     ** Temple, p. 40.

     *** Temple, p. 39, 40

     **** Temple, p. 96, 101. Rush. vol. v. p. 415.

     v    Temple, p. 100
</pre>
    <p>
      The very avarice of the Irish was not a sufficient restraint to their
      cruelty. Such was their frenzy, that the cattle which they had seized, and
      by rapine made their own, yet, because they bore the name of English, were
      wantonly slaughtered, or, when covered with wounds, turned loose into the
      woods or deserts.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The stately buildings or commodious habitations of the planters, as if
      upbraiding the sloth and ignorance of the natives, were consumed with
      fire, or laid level with the ground. And where the miserable owners, shut
      up in their houses, and preparing for defence, perished in the flames,
      together with their wives and children, a double triumph was afforded to
      their insulting foes.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      If any where a number assembled together, and, assuming courage from
      despair, were resolved to sweeten death by revenge on their assassins,
      they were disarmed by capitulations and promises of safety, confirmed by
      the most solemn oaths. But no sooner had they surrendered, than the
      rebels, with perfidy equal to their cruelty, made them share the fate of
      their unhappy countrymen.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      Others, more ingenious still in their barbarity, tempted their prisoners,
      by the fond love of life, to imbrue their hands in the blood of friends,
      brothers, parents; and having thus rendered them accomplices in guilt,
      gave them that death which they sought to shun by deserving it.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      Amidst all these enormities, the sacred name of religion resounded on
      every side; not to stop the hands of these murderers, but to enforce their
      blows, and to steel their hearts against every movement of human or social
      sympathy. The English, as heretics, abhorred of God and detestable to all
      holy men, were marked out by the priests for slaughter; and of all
      actions, to rid the world of these declared enemies to Catholic faith and
      piety, was represented as the most meritorious.[v] Nature, which in that
      rude people was sufficiently inclined to atrocious deeds, was further
      stimulated by precept: and national prejudices empoisoned by those
      aversions, more deadly and incurable, which arose from an enraged
      superstition. While death finished the sufferings of each victim, the
      bigoted assassins, with joy and exultation, still echoed in his expiring
      ears, that these agonies were but the commencement of torments infinite
      and eternal.[v*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Temple, p. 84.

     ** Temple, p. 99, 106. Rash. vol. v. p. 414

     *** Whitlocke, p. 47. Rush. vol. v. p. 416.

     **** Temple, p 100.

     v Temple, p. 85, 106.

     v* Temple, p 94, 107, 108. Rush. vol. v. p. 407.
</pre>
    <p>
      Such were the barbarities by which Sir Phelim O'Neale and the Irish in
      Ulster signalized their rebellion; an event memorable in the annals of
      human kind, and worthy to be held in perpetual detestation and abhorrence.
      The generous nature of More was shocked at the recital of such enormous
      cruelties. He flew to O'Neale's camp; but found that his authority, which
      was sufficient to excite the Irish to an insurrection, was too feeble to
      restrain their inhumanity. Soon after, he abandoned a cause polluted by so
      many crimes; and he retired into Flanders. Sir Phelim, recommended by the
      greatness of his family, and perhaps too by the unrestrained brutality of
      his nature, though without any courage or capacity, acquired the entire
      ascendent over the northern rebels.[*] The English colonies were totally
      annihilated in the open country of Ulster: the Scots at first met with
      more favorable treatment. In order to engage them to a passive neutrality,
      the Irish pretended to distinguish between the British nations; and,
      claiming friendship and consanguinity with the Scots, extended not over
      them the fury of their massacres. Many of them found an opportunity to fly
      the country; others retired into places of security, and prepared
      themselves for defence; and by this means the Scottish planters, most of
      them at least, escaped with their lives.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      From Ulster the flames of rebellion diffused themselves in an instant over
      the other three provinces of Ireland. In all places, death and slaughter
      were not uncommon; though the Irish in these other provinces pretended to
      act with moderation and humanity. But cruel and barbarous was their
      humanity! Not content with expelling the English their houses, with
      despoiling them of their goodly manors, with wasting their cultivated
      fields, they stripped them of their very clothes, and turned them out,
      naked and defenceless, to all the severities of the season.[***] The
      heavens themselves, as if conspiring against that unhappy people, were
      armed with cold and tempest unusual to the climate, and executed what the
      merciless sword had left unfinished.[****] The roads were covered with
      crowds of naked English, hastening towards Dublin and the other cities
      which yet remained in the hands of their countrymen. The feeble age of
      children, the tender sex of women, soon sunk under the multiplied rigors
      of cold and hunger.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Temple, p. 44.

     ** Temple, p. 41 Rush, i. p. 416.

     *** Temple, p. 42.

     **** Temple, p. 64
</pre>
    <p>
      Here the husband, bidding a final adieu to his expiring family, envied
      them that fate which, he himself expected so soon to share: there the son,
      having long supported his aged parent, with reluctance obeyed his last
      commands, and, abandoning him in this uttermost distress, reserved himself
      to the hopes of avenging that death which all his efforts could not
      prevent nor delay. The astonishing greatness of the calamity deprived the
      sufferers of any relief from the view of companions in affliction. With
      silent tears, or lamentable cries, they hurried on through the hostile
      territories, and found every heart which was not steeled by native
      barbarity, guarded by the more implacable furies of mistaken piety and
      religion.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The saving of Dublin preserved in Ireland the remains of the English name.
      The gates of that city, though timorously opened, received the wretched
      supplicants, and presented to the view a scene of human misery beyond what
      any eye had ever before beheld.[**] Compassion seized the amazed
      inhabitants, aggravated with the fear of like calamities; while they
      observed the numerous foes, without and within, which every where
      environed them, and reflected on the weak resources by which they were
      themselves supported. The more vigorous of the unhappy fugitives, to the
      number of three thousand, were enlisted into three regiments; the rest
      were distributed into the houses; and all care was taken, by diet and
      warmth, to recruit their feeble and torpid limbs. Diseases of unknown name
      and species, derived from these multiplied distresses, seized many of
      them, and put a speedy period to their lives: others, having now leisure
      to reflect on their mighty loss of friends and fortune, cursed that being
      which they had saved. Abandoning themselves to despair, refusing all
      succor, they expired; without other consolation than that of receiving
      among their countrymen the honors of a grave, which, to their slaughtered
      companions, had been denied by the inhuman barbarians.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Temple, p. 88.

     ** Temple, p. 62.

     **** Temple, p. 43, 62.
</pre>
    <p>
      By some computations, those who perished by all these cruelties are
      supposed to be a hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand: by the most
      moderate, and probably the most reasonable account, they are made to
      amount to forty thousand; if this estimation itself be not, as is usual in
      such cases, somewhat exaggerated.
    </p>
    <p>
      The justices ordered to Dublin all the bodies of the army which were not
      surrounded by the rebels; and they assembled a force of one thousand five
      hundred veterans. They soon enlisted and armed from the magazines above
      four thousand men more. They despatched a body of six hundred men to throw
      relief into Tredah, besieged by the Irish. But these troops, attacked by
      the enemy, were seized with a panic, and were most of them put to the
      sword. Their arms, falling into the hands of the Irish, supplied them with
      what they most wanted.[*] The justices, willing to foment the rebel lion
      in a view of profiting by the multiplied forfeitures, henceforth thought
      of nothing more than providing for their own present security and that of
      the capital. The earl of Ormond, their general, remonstrated against such
      timid, not to say base and interested counsels; but was obliged to submit
      to authority.
    </p>
    <p>
      The English of the pale, who probably were not at first in the secret,
      pretended to blame the insurrection, and to detest the barbarity with
      which it was accompanied.[**] By their protestations and declarations,
      they engaged the justices to supply them with arms, which they promised to
      employ in defence of the government.[***] But in a little time, the
      interests of religion were found more prevalent over them than regard and
      duty to their mother country. They chose Lord Gormanstone their leader;
      and, joining the old Irish, rivalled them in every act of violence towards
      the English Protestants. Besides many smaller bodies dispersed over the
      kingdom, the principal army of the rebels amounted to twenty thousand men,
      and threatened Dublin with an immediate siege.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      Both the English and Irish rebels conspired in one imposture, with which
      they seduced many of their deluded countrymen: they pretended authority
      from the king and queen, but chiefly from the latter, for their
      insurrection; and they affirmed, that the cause of their taking arms was
      to vindicate royal prerogative, now invaded by the Puritanical
      parliament.[v] Sir Phelim O'Neale, having found a royal patent in Lord
      Caulfield's house, whom he had murdered, tore off the seal, and affixed it
      to a commission which he had forged for himself.[v*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. ii. p. 905.

     ** Temple, p. 33. Rush. vol. v. p. 402.

     *** Temple, p. 60. Borlase, Hist. p. 28.

     **** Whitlocke, p. 49.

     v    Rush. vol. v. p. 400, 401.

     v*   Rush. vol. v. p. 402.
</pre>
    <p>
      The king received an account of this insurrection by a messenger
      despatched from the north of Ireland. He immediately communicated his
      intelligence to the Scottish parliament. He expected that the mighty zeal
      expressed by the Scots for the Protestant religion, would immediately
      engage them to fly to its defence where it was so violently invaded; he
      hoped that their horror against Popery, a religion which now appeared in
      its most horrible aspect, would second all his exhortations: he had
      observed with what alacrity they had twice run to arms, and assembled
      troops in opposition to the rights of their sovereign: he saw with how
      much greater facility they could now collect forces which had been very
      lately disbanded, and which had been so long inured to military
      discipline. The cries of their affrighted and distressed brethren in
      Ireland, he promised himself, would powerfully incite them to send over
      succors, which could arrive so quickly, and aid them with such promptitude
      in this uttermost distress. But the zeal of the Scots, as is usual among
      religious sects, was very feeble when not stimulated either by faction or
      by interest. They now considered themselves entirely as a republic, and
      made no account of the authority of their prince, which they had utterly
      annihilated. Conceiving hopes from the present distresses of Ireland, they
      resolved to make an advantageous bargain for the succors with which they
      should supply their neighboring nation. And they cast their eye towards
      the English parliament, with whom they were already so closely connected,
      and who could alone fulfil any articles which might be agreed on. Except
      despatching a small body to support the Scottish colonies in Ulster, they
      would therefore go no further at present than sending commissioners to
      London in order to treat with that power to whom the sovereign authority
      was now in reality transferred.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 407.
</pre>
    <p>
      The king, too, sensible of his utter inability to subdue the Irish rebels,
      found himself obliged, in this exigency, to have recourse to the English
      parliament, and depend on their assistance for supply. After communicating
      to them the intelligence which he had received, he informed them, that the
      insurrection was not, in his opinion, the result of any rash enterprise,
      but of a formed conspiracy against the crown of England. To their care and
      wisdom, therefore, he said, he committed the conduct and prosecution of
      the war, which, in a cause so important to national and religious
      interests, must of necessity be immediately entered upon, and vigorously
      pursued.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 301.
</pre>
    <p>
      The English parliament was now assembled, and discovered in every vote the
      same dispositions in which they had separated. The exalting of their own
      authority, the diminishing of the king's, were still the objects pursued
      by the majority. Every attempt which had been made to gain the popular
      leaders, and by offices to attach them to the crown, had failed of
      success, either for want of skill in conducting it, or by reason of the
      slender preferments which it was then in the king's power to confer. The
      ambitious and enterprising patriots disdained to accept, in detail, of a
      precarious power, while they deemed it so easy, by one bold and vigorous
      assault, to possess themselves forever of the entire sovereignty. Sensible
      that the measures which they had hitherto pursued rendered them extremely
      obnoxious to the king; were many of them in themselves exceptionable; some
      of them, strictly speaking, illegal; they resolved to seek their own
      security, as well as greatness, by enlarging popular authority in England.
      The great necessities to which the king was reduced; the violent
      prejudices which generally, throughout the nation, prevailed against him;
      his facility in making the most important concessions; the example of the
      Scots, whose encroachments had totally subverted monarchy; all these
      circumstances further instigated the commons in their invasion of royal
      prerogative. And the danger to which the constitution seemed to have been
      so lately exposed, persuaded many that it never could be sufficiently
      secured, but by the entire abolition of that authority which had invaded
      it.
    </p>
    <p>
      But this project it had not been in the power, scarcely in the intention
      of the popular leaders to execute, had it not been for the passion which
      seized the nation for Presbyterian discipline, and for the wild enthusiasm
      which at that time accompanied it. The license which the parliament had
      bestowed on this spirit, by checking ecclesiastical authority; the
      countenance and encouragement with which they had honored it; had already
      diffused its influence to a wonderful degree; and all orders of men had
      drunk deep of the intoxicating poison. In every discourse or conversation
      this mode of religion entered; in all business it had a share; every
      elegant pleasure or amusement it utterly annihilated; many vices or
      corruptions of mind it promoted: even diseases and bodily distempers were
      not totally exempted from it; and it became requisite, we are told, for
      all physicians to be expert in the spiritual profession, and by
      theological considerations to allay those religious terrors with which
      their patients were so generally haunted. Learning itself, which tends so
      much to enlarge the mind and humanize the temper, rather served on this
      occasion to exalt that epidemical frenzy which prevailed. Rude as yet, and
      imperfect, it supplied the dismal fanaticism with a variety of views,
      founded it on some coherency of system, enriched it with different figures
      of elocution; advantages with which a people totally ignorant and
      barbarous had been happily unacquainted.
    </p>
    <p>
      From policy, at first, and inclination, now from necessity the king
      attached himself extremely to the hierarchy: for like reasons, his enemies
      were determined, by one and the same effort, to overpower the church and
      monarchy.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the commons were in this disposition, the Irish rebellion was the
      event which tended most to promote the views in which all their measures
      terminated. A horror against the Papists, however innocent, they had
      constantly encouraged, a terror from the conspiracies of that sect,
      however improbable, they had at all times endeavored to excite. Here was
      broken out a rebellion, dreadful and unexpected; accompanied with
      circumstances the most detestable of which there ever was any record; and
      what was the peculiar guilt of the Irish Catholics, it was no difficult
      matter, in the present disposition of men's minds, to attribute to that
      whole sect, who were already so much the object of general abhorrence.
      Accustomed in all invectives to join the prelatical party with the
      Papists, the people immediately supposed this insurrection to be the
      result of their united counsels. And when they heard that the Irish rebels
      pleaded the king's commission for all their acts of violence, bigotry,
      ever credulous and malignant, assented without scruple to that gross
      imposture, and loaded the unhappy prince with the whole enormity of a
      contrivance so barbarous and inhuman.[*] <a href="#linknote-8"
      name="linknoteref-8" id="linknoteref-8">8</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note H. at the end of the volume
</pre>
    <p>
      By the difficulties and distresses of the crown, the commons, who
      possessed alone the power of supply, had aggrandized themselves; and it
      seemed a peculiar happiness, that the Irish rebellion had succeeded at so
      critical a juncture to the pacification of Scotland. That expression of
      the king's, by which he committed to them the care of Ireland, they
      immediately laid hold of, and interpreted in the most, unlimited sense.
      They had on other occasions been gradually encroaching on the executive
      power of the crown, which forms its principal and most natural branch of
      authority; but with regard to Ireland, they at once assumed it, fully and
      entirely, as if delivered over to them by a regular gift or assignment.
      And to this usurpation the king was obliged passively to submit; both
      because of his inability to resist, and lest he should still more expose
      himself to the reproach of favoring the progress of that odious rebellion.
    </p>
    <p>
      The project of introducing further innovations in England being once
      formed by the leaders among the commons, it became a necessary
      consequence, that their operations with regard to Ireland should, all of
      them, be considered as subordinate to the former, on whose success, when
      once undertaken, their own grandeur, security, and even being, must
      entirely depend. While they pretended the utmost zeal against the Irish
      insurrection, they took no steps towards its suppression, but such as
      likewise tended to give them the superiority in those commotions which,
      they foresaw, must so soon be excited in England.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. ii. p, 435. Sir Ed. Walker p 6.
</pre>
    <p>
      The extreme contempt entertained for the natives in Ireland, made the
      popular leaders believe that it would be easy at any time to suppress
      their rebellion, and recover that kingdom: nor were they willing to lose,
      by too hasty success, the advantage which that rebellion would afford them
      in their projected encroachments on the prerogative. By assuming the total
      management of the war, they acquired the courtship and dependence of every
      one who had any connection with Ireland, or who was desirous of enlisting
      in these military enterprises: they levied money under pretence of the
      Irish expedition; but reserved it for purposes which concerned them more
      nearly: they took arms from the king's magazines; but still kept them with
      a secret intention of employing them against himself: whatever law they
      deemed necessary for aggrandizing themselves, was voted, under color of
      enabling them to recover Ireland; and if Charles withheld the royal
      assent, his refusal was imputed to those pernicious counsels which had at
      first excited the Popish rebellion, and which still threatened total
      destruction to the Protestant interest throughout all his dominions.[*]
      And though no forces were for a long time sent over to Ireland, and very
      little money remitted during the extreme distress of that kingdom, so
      strong was the people's attachment to the commons, that the fault was
      never imputed to those pious zealots, whose votes breathed nothing but
      death and destruction to the Irish rebels.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. ii. p 318. Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 590.
</pre>
    <p>
      To make the attack on royal authority by regular approaches, it was
      thought proper to frame a general remonstrance of the state of the nation;
      and accordingly the committee, which at the first meeting of parliament
      had been chosen for that purpose, and which had hitherto made no progress
      in their work, received fresh injunctions to finish that undertaking.
    </p>
    <p>
      The committee brought into the house that remonstrance which has become so
      memorable, and which was soon afterwards attended with such important
      consequences. It was not addressed to the king; but was openly declared to
      be an appeal to the people. The harshness of the matter was equalled by
      the severity of the language. It consists of many gross falsehoods,
      intermingled with some evident truths: malignant insinuations are joined
      to open invectives; loud complaints of the past, accompanied with jealous
      prognostications of the future. Whatever unfortunate, whatever invidious,
      whatever suspicious measure had been embraced by the king, from the
      commencement of his reign, is insisted on and aggravated with merciless
      rhetoric: the unsuccessful expeditions to Cadiz and the Isle of Rhé are
      mentioned; the sending of ships to France for the suppression of the
      Hugonots; the forced loans; the illegal confinement of men for not obeying
      illegal commands; the violent dissolution of four parliaments; the
      arbitrary government which always succeeded; the questioning, fining, and
      imprisoning of members for their conduct in the house; the levying of
      taxes without consent of the commons; the introducing of superstitious
      innovations into the church, without authority of law: in short, every
      thing which, either with or without reason, had given offence during the
      course of fifteen years, from the accession of the king to the calling of
      the present parliament. And though all these grievances had been already
      redressed, and even laws enacted for future security against their return,
      the praise of these advantages was ascribed, not to the king, but to the
      parliament, who had extorted his consent to such salutary statutes. Their
      own merits too, they asserted, towards the king, were no less eminent than
      towards the people. Though they had seized his whole revenue, rendered it
      totally precarious, and made even their temporary supplies be paid to
      their own commissioners, who were independent of him, they pretended that
      they had liberally supported him in his necessities. By an insult still
      more egregious, the very giving of money to the Scots for levying war
      against their sovereign, they represented as an instance of their duty
      towards him. And all their grievances, they said, which amounted to no
      less than a total subversion of the constitution, proceeded entirely from
      the formed combination of a Popish faction, who had ever swayed the king's
      counsels, who had endeavored, by an uninterrupted effort, to introduce
      their superstition into England and Scotland, and who had now at last
      excited an open and bloody rebellion in Ireland.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      This remonstrance, so full of acrimony and violence, was a plain signal
      for some further attacks intended on royal prerogative, and a declaration,
      that the concessions already made, however important, were not to be
      regarded as satisfactory. What pretensions would be advanced, how
      unprecedented, how unlimited, were easily imagined; and nothing less was
      foreseen, whatever ancient names might be preserved, than an abolition,
      almost total, of the monarchical government of England. The opposition,
      therefore, which the remonstrance met with in the house of commons was
      great. For above fourteen hours the debate was warmly managed; and from
      the weariness of the king's party, which probably consisted chiefly of the
      elderly people, and men of cool spirits, the vote was at last carried by a
      small majority of eleven.[**] Some time after, the remonstrance was
      ordered to be printed and published, without being carried up to the house
      of peers for their assent and concurrence.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 438. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 694.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 49. Dugdale, p. 71. Nalson, vol. ii. p.
     668.
</pre>
    <p>
      When this remonstrance was dispersed, it excited every where the same
      violent controversy which attended it when introduced into the house of
      commons. This parliament, said the partisans of that assembly, have at
      length profited by the fatal example of their predecessors; and are
      resolved, that the fabric which they have generously undertaken to wear
      for the protection of liberty, shall not be left to future ages insecure
      and imperfect. At the time when the petition of right, that requisite
      vindication of a violated constitution, was extorted from the unwilling
      prince, who but imagined that liberty was at last secured, and that the
      laws would thenceforth maintain themselves in opposition to arbitrary
      authority? But what was the event? A right was indeed acquired to the
      people, or rather their ancient right was more exactly defined; but as the
      power of invading it still remained in the prince, no sooner did an
      opportunity offer, than he totally disregarded all laws and preceding
      engagements, and made his will and pleasure the sole rule of government.
      Those lofty ideas of monarchical authority, which he has derived from his
      early education, which are united in his mind with the irresistible
      illusions of self-love, which are corroborated by his mistaken principles
      of religion, it is in vain to hope that, in his more advanced age, he will
      sincerely renounce from any subsequent reflection or experience. Such
      conversions, if ever they happen, are extremely rare; but to expect that
      they will be derived from necessity, from the jealousy and resentment of
      antagonists, from blame, from reproach, from opposition, must be the
      result of the fondest and most blind credulity. These violences, however
      necessary, are sure to irritate a prince against limitations so cruelly
      imposed upon him; and each concession which he is constrained to make, is
      regarded as a temporary tribute paid to faction and sedition, and is
      secretly attended with a resolution of seizing every favorable opportunity
      to retract it. Nor should we imagine that opportunities of that kind will
      not offer in the course of human affairs. Governments, especially those of
      a mixed kind, are in continual fluctuation: the humors of the people
      change perpetually from one extreme to another: and no resolution can be
      more wise, as well as more just, than that of employing the present
      advantages against the king, who had formerly pushed much less tempting
      ones to the utmost extremities against, his people and his parliament. It
      is to be feared, that if the religious rage which has seized the multitude
      be allowed to evaporate, they will quickly return to the ancient
      ecclesiastical establishment; and with it embrace those principles of
      slavery which it inculcates with such zeal on its submissive proselytes.
      Those patriots who are now the public idols, may then become the objects
      of general detestation; and equal shouts of joy attend their ignominious
      execution, with those which second their present advantages and triumphs.
      Nor ought the apprehension of such an event to be regarded in them as a
      selfish consideration: in their safety is involved the security of the
      laws. The patrons of the constitution cannot suffer without a fatal blow
      to the constitution: and it is but justice in the public to protect, at
      any hazard, those who have so generously exposed themselves to the utmost
      hazard for the public interest. What though monarchy, the ancient
      government of England, be impaired, during these contests, in many of its
      former prerogatives: the laws will flourish the more by its decay; and it
      is happy, allowing that matters are really carried beyond the bounds of
      moderation, that the current at least runs towards liberty, and that the
      error is on that side which is safest for the general interests of mankind
      and society.
    </p>
    <p>
      The best arguments of the royalists against a further attack on the
      prerogative, were founded more on opposite ideas which they had formed of
      the past events of this reign, than on opposite principles of government.
      Some invasions, they said, and those too of moment, had undoubtedly been
      made on national privileges: but were we to look for the cause of these
      violences, we should never find it to consist in the wanton tyranny and
      injustice of the prince, not even in his ambition or immoderate appetite
      for authority. The hostilities with Spain, in which the king on his
      accession found himself engaged, however imprudent and unnecessary, had
      proceeded from the advice, and even importunity of the parliament; who
      deserted him immediately after they had embarked him in those warlike
      measures. A young prince, jealous of honor, was naturally afraid of being
      foiled in his first enterprise, and had not as yet attained such maturity
      of counsel, as to perceive that his greatest honor lay in preserving the
      laws inviolate, and gaining the full confidence of his people. The rigor
      of the subsequent parliaments had been extreme with regard to many
      articles, particularly tonnage and poundage; and had reduced the king to
      an absolute necessity, if he would preserve entire the royal prerogative,
      of levying those duties by his own authority, and of breaking through the
      forms, in order to maintain the spirit of the constitution. Having once
      made so perilous a step, he was naturally induced to continue, and to
      consult the public interest by imposing ship money, and other moderate
      though irregular burdens and taxations. A sure proof that he had formed no
      system for enslaving his people is, that the chief object of his
      government has been to raise a naval, not a military force; a project
      useful, honorable, nay, indispensably requisite, and, in spite of his
      great necessities, brought almost to a happy conclusion. It is now full
      time to free him from all these necessities, and to apply cordials and
      lenitives, after those severities which have already had their full course
      against him. Never was sovereign blessed with more moderation of temper,
      with more justice, more humanity, more honor, or a more gentle
      disposition. What pity that such a prince should so long have been
      harassed with rigors, suspicions, calumnies, complaints, encroachments;
      and been forced from that path, in which the rectitude of his principles
      would have inclined him to have constantly trod! If some few instances are
      found of violations made on the petition of right, which he himself had
      granted, there is an easier and more natural way for preventing the return
      of like inconveniencies, than by a total abolition of royal authority. Let
      the revenue be settled, suitably to the ancient dignity and splendor of
      the crown; let the public necessities be fully supplied; let the remaining
      articles of prerogative be left untouched; and the king, as he has already
      lost the power, will lay aside the will, of invading the constitution.
      From what quarter can jealousies now arise? What further security can be
      desired or expected? The king's preceding concessions, so far from being
      insufficient for public security, have rather erred on the other extreme;
      and, by depriving him of all power of self-defence, are the real cause why
      the commons are emboldened to raise pretensions hitherto unheard of in the
      kingdom, and to subvert the whole system of the constitution. But would
      they be content with moderate advantages, is it not evident that, besides
      other important concessions, the present parliament may be continued, till
      the government be accustomed to the new track, and every part be restored
      to full harmony and concord? By the triennial act, a perpetual succession
      of parliaments is established, as everlasting guardians to the laws, while
      the king possesses no independent power or military force by which he can
      be supported in his invasion of them. No danger remains but what is
      inseparable from all free constitutions, and what forms the very essence
      of their freedom; the danger of a change in the people's disposition, and
      of general disgust contracted against popular privileges To prevent such
      an evil, no expedient is more proper than to contain ourselves within the
      bounds of moderation, and to consider, that all extremes naturally and
      infallibly beget each other. In the same manner as the past usurpations of
      the crown, however excusable on account of the necessity or provocations
      whence they arose, have excited an immeasurable appetite for liberty; let
      us beware, lest our encroachments, by introducing anarchy, make the people
      seek shelter under the peaceable and despotic rule of a monarch.
      Authority, as well as liberty, is requisite to government; and is even
      requisite to the support of liberty itself, by maintaining the laws, which
      can alone regulate and protect it. What madness, while every thing is so
      happily settled under ancient forms and institutions, now more exactly
      poised and adjusted, to try the hazardous experiment of a new
      constitution, and renounce the mature wisdom of our ancestors for the
      crude whimseys of turbulent innovators! Besides the certain and
      inconceivable mischiefs of civil war, are not the perils apparent, which
      the delicate frame of liberty must inevitably sustain amidst the furious
      shock of arms? Whichever side prevails, she can scarcely hope to remain
      inviolate, and may suffer no less, or rather greater injuries from the
      boundless pretensions of forces engaged in her cause, than from the
      invasion of enraged troops enlisted on the side of monarchy.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, upon his return from Scotland, was received in London with the
      shouts and acclamations of the people, and with every demonstration of
      regard and affection.[*] Sir Richard Gournay, lord mayor, a man of
      moderation and authority, had promoted these favorable dispositions, and
      had engaged the populace, who so lately insulted the king, and who so soon
      after made furious war upon him, to give him these marks of their dutiful
      attachment. But all the pleasure which Charles reaped from this joyous
      reception, was soon damped by the remonstrance of the commons, which was
      presented him, together with a petition of a like strain. The bad counsels
      which he followed are there complained of; his concurrence in the Irish
      rebellion plainly insinuated; the scheme laid for the introduction of
      Popery and superstition inveighed against; and, as a remedy for all these
      evils, he is desired to intrust every office and command to persons in
      whom his parliament should have cause to confide.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 429.

     ** Bush. vol. v. p. 437. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 692.
</pre>
    <p>
      By this phrase, which is so often repeated in all the memorials and
      addresses of that time, the commons meant themselves and their adherents.
    </p>
    <p>
      As soon as the remonstrance of the commons was published the king
      dispersed an answer to it. In this contest, he lay under great
      disadvantages. Not only the ears of the people were extremely prejudiced
      against him; the best topics upon which he could justify, at least
      apologize for his former conduct, were such as it was not safe or prudent
      for him at this time to employ. So high was the national idolatry towards
      parliaments, that to blame the past conduct of these assemblies would have
      been very ill received by the generality of the people. So loud were the
      complaints against regal usurpations, that had the king asserted the
      prerogative of supplying, by his own authority, the deficiencies in
      government arising from the obstinacy of the commons, he would have
      increased the clamors with which the whole nation already resounded.
      Charles, therefore, contented himself with observing in general, that even
      during that period so much complained of, the people enjoyed a great
      measure of happiness, not only comparatively, in respect of their
      neighbors, but even in respect of those times which were justly accounted
      the most fortunate. He made warm protestations of sincerity in the
      reformed religion; he promised indulgence to tender consciences with
      regard to the ceremonies of the church; he mentioned his great concessions
      to national liberty; he blamed the infamous libels every where dispersed
      against his person and the national religion; he complained of the general
      reproaches thrown out in the remonstrance with regard to ill counsels,
      though he had protected no minister from parliamentary justice, retained
      no unpopular servant, and conferred offices on no one who enjoyed not a
      high character and estimation in the public. "If, notwithstanding this,"
      he adds, "any malignant party shall take heart, and be willing to
      sacrifice the peace and happiness of their country to their own sinister
      ends and ambition, under whatever pretence of religion and conscience; if
      they shall endeavor to lessen my reputation and interest, and to weaken my
      lawful power and authority; if they shall attempt, by discountenancing the
      present laws, to loosen the bands of government, that all disorder and
      confusion may break in upon us; I doubt not but God in his good time will
      discover them to me, and that the wisdom and courage of my high court of
      parliament will join with me in their suppression and punishment."[*]
      Nothing shows more evidently the hard situation in which Charles was
      placed, than to observe that he was obliged to confine himself within the
      limits of civility towards subjects who had transgressed all bounds of
      regard, and even of good manners, in the treatment of their sovereign.
    </p>
    <p>
      The first instance of those parliamentary encroachments which Charles was
      now to look for, was the bill for pressing soldiers to the service of
      Ireland. This bill quickly passed the lower house. In the preamble, the
      king's power of pressing, a power exercised during all former times, was
      declared illegal, and contrary to the liberty of the subject. By a
      necessary consequence, the prerogative, which the crown had ever assumed,
      of obliging men to accept of any branch of public service, was abolished
      and annihilated; a prerogative, it must be owned, not very compatible with
      a limited monarchy. In order to elude this law, the king offered to raise
      ten thousand volunteers for the Irish service: but the commons were afraid
      lest such an army should be too much at his devotion. Charles, still
      unwilling to submit to so considerable a diminution of power, came to the
      house of peers, and offered to pass the law without the preamble; by which
      means, he said, that ill-timed question with regard to the prerogative
      would for the present be avoided, and the pretensions of each party be
      left entire. Both houses took fire at this measure, which, from a similar
      instance, while the bill of attainder against Strafford was in dependence,
      Charles might foresee would be received with resentment. The lords, as
      well as commons, passed a vote, declaring it to be a high breach of
      privilege for the king to take notice of any bill which was in agitation
      in either of the houses, or to express his sentiments with regard to it,
      before it be presented to him for his assent in a parliamentary manner.
      The king was obliged to compose all matters by an apology.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. ii. p. 748.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 457, 458, etc. Clarendon, vol. ii. p.
     327. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 738, 750, 751, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      The general question, we may observe, with regard to privileges of
      parliament, has always been, and still continues, one of of the greatest
      mysteries in the English constitution; and in some respects,
      notwithstanding the accurate genius of that government, these privileges
      are at present as undetermined as were formerly the prerogatives of the
      crown. Such privileges as are founded on long precedent cannot be
      controverted: but though it were certain, that former kings had not in any
      instance taken notice of bills lying before the houses, (which yet appears
      to have been very common,) it follows not, merely from their never
      exerting such a power, that they had renounced it, or never were possessed
      of it. Such privileges also as are essential to all free assemblies which
      deliberate, they may be allowed to assume, whatever precedents may
      prevail: but though the king's interposition, by an offer or advice, does
      in some degree overawe or restrain liberty; it may be doubted whether it
      imposes such evident violence as to entitle the parliament, without any
      other authority or concession, to claim the privilege of excluding it. But
      this was the favorable time for extending privileges; and had none more
      exorbitant or unreasonable been challenged, few bad consequences had
      followed. The establishment of this rule, it is certain, contributes to
      the order and regularity, as well as freedom, of parliamentary
      proceedings.
    </p>
    <p>
      The interposition of peers in the election of commoners was likewise about
      this time declared a breach of privilege, and continues ever since to be
      condemned by votes of the commons, and universally practised throughout
      the nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      Every measure pursued by the commons, and, still more, every attempt made
      by their partisans, were full of the most inveterate hatred against the
      hierarchy, and showed a determined resolution of subverting the whole
      ecclesiastical establishment. Besides numberless vexations and
      persecutions which the clergy underwent from the arbitrary power of the
      lower house, the peers, while the king was in Scotland, having passed an
      order for the observance of the laws with regard to public worship, the
      commons assumed such authority, that, by a vote alone of their house, they
      suspended those laws, though enacted by the whole legislature: and they
      particularly forbade bowing at the name of Jesus; a practice which gave
      them the highest scandal, and which was one of their capital objections
      against the established religion.[*] They complained of the king's filling
      five vacant sees, and considered it as an insult upon them, that he should
      complete and strengthen an order which they intended soon entirely to
      abolish.[**] They had accused thirteen bishops of high treason, for
      enacting canons without consent of parliament,[***] though, from the
      foundation of the monarchy, no other method had ever been practised: and
      they now insisted that the peers, upon this general accusation, should
      sequester those bishops from their seats in parliament, and commit them to
      prison.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 385, 386. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 482.

     ** Nalson, vol. ii. p 511.

     *** Rush. vol. v. p. 359
</pre>
    <p>
      Their bill for taking away the bishops' votes had last winter been
      rejected by the peers: but they again introduced the same bill, though no
      prorogation had intervened; and they endeavored, by some minute
      alterations, to elude that rule of parliament which opposed them. And when
      they sent up this bill to the lords, they made a demand, the most absurd
      in the world, that the bishops, being all of them parties, should be
      refused a vote with regard to that question.[*] After the resolution was
      once formed by the commons, of invading the established government of
      church and state, it could not be expected that their proceedings, in such
      a violent attempt, would thenceforth be altogether regular and equitable:
      but it must be confessed that, in their attack on the hierarchy, they
      still more openly passed all bounds of moderation; as supposing, no doubt,
      that the sacredness of the cause would sufficiently atone for employing
      means the most irregular and unprecedented. This principle, which prevails
      so much among zealots, never displayed itself so openly as during the
      transactions of this whole period.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon. vol. ii. p. 304.
</pre>
    <p>
      But, notwithstanding these efforts of the commons, they could not expect
      the concurrence of the upper house either to this law, or to any other
      which they should introduce for the further limitation of royal authority.
      The majority of the peers adhered to the king, and plainly foresaw the
      depression of nobility, as a necessary consequence of popular usurpations
      on the crown. The insolence, indeed, of the commons, and their haughty
      treatment of the lords, had already risen to a great height, and gave
      sufficient warning of their future attempts upon that order. They muttered
      somewhat of their regret that they should be obliged to save the kingdom
      alone, and that the house of peers would have no part in the honor. Nay,
      they went so far as openly to tell the lords, "That they themselves were
      the representative body of the whole kingdom, and that the peers were
      nothing but individuals who held their seats in a particular capacity; and
      therefore, if their lordships will not consent to the passing of acts
      necessary for the preservation of the people, the commons, together with
      such of the lords as are more sensible of the danger, must join together,
      and represent the matter to his majesty."[*] So violent was the
      democratical, enthusiastic spirit diffused throughout the nation, that a
      total confusion of all rank and order was justly to be apprehended; and
      the wonder was, not that the majority of the nobles should seek shelter
      under the throne, but that any of them should venture to desert it. But
      the tide of popularity seized many, and carried them wide of the most
      established maxims of civil policy. Among the opponents of the king are
      ranked the earl of Northumberland, lord admiral, a man of the first family
      and fortune, and endowed with that dignified pride which so well became
      his rank and station: the earl of Essex, who inherited all his father's
      popularity, and having from his early youth sought renown in arms, united
      to a middling capacity that rigid inflexibility of honor which forms the
      proper ornament of a nobleman and a soldier: Lord Kimbolton, soon after
      earl of Manchester, a person distinguished by humanity, generosity,
      affability, and every amiable virtue. These men, finding that their credit
      ran high with the nation, ventured to encourage those popular disorders,
      which, they vainly imagined, they possessed authority sufficient to
      regulate and control.
    </p>
    <p>
      In order to obtain a majority in the upper house, the commons had recourse
      to the populace, who on other occasions had done them such important
      service. Amidst the greatest security, they affected continual fears of
      destruction to themselves and the nation, and seemed to quake at every
      breath or rumor of danger. They again excited the people by never-ceasing
      inquiries after conspiracies, by reports of insurrections, by feigned
      intelligence of invasions from abroad, by discoveries of dangerous
      combinations at home among Papists and their adherents. When Charles
      dismissed the guard which they had ordered during his absence, they
      complained; and upon his promising them a new guard, under the command of
      the earl of Lindesey, they absolutely refused the offer, an were well
      pleased to insinuate, by this instance of jealousy, that their danger
      chiefly arose from the king himself.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 415.

     ** Journ. 30th Nov. 1641 Nalson, vol ii. y 688.
</pre>
    <p>
      They ordered halberts to be brought into the hall where they assembled,
      and thus armed themselves against those conspiracies with which, they
      pretended, they were hourly threatened. As stories of plots, however
      ridiculous, were willingly attended to, and were dispersed among the
      multitude, to whose capacity they were well adapted. Beale, a tailor,
      informed the commons that, walking in the fields, he had hearkened to the
      discourse of certain persons unknown to him, and had heard them talk of a
      most dangerous conspiracy. A hundred and eight ruffians, as he learned,
      had been appointed to murder a hundred and eight lords and commoners, and
      were promised rewards for these assassinations, ten pounds for each lord,
      forty shillings for each commoner. Upon this notable intelligence, orders
      were issued for seizing priests and Jesuits, a conference was desired with
      the lords, and the deputy lieutenants of some suspected counties were
      ordered to put the people in a posture of defence.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The pulpits likewise were called in aid, and resounded with the dangers
      which threatened religion from the desperate attempts of Papists and
      malignants. Multitudes flocked towards Westminster, and insulted the
      prelates and such of the lords as adhered to the crown. The peers voted a
      declaration against those tumults, and sent it to the lower house; but
      these refused their concurrence.[**] Some seditious apprentices, being
      seized and committed to prison, immediately received their liberty, by an
      order of the commons.[***] The sheriffs and justices having appointed
      constables with strong watches to guard the parliament, the commons sent
      for the constables, and required them to discharge the watches, convened
      the justices, voted their orders a breach of privilege, and sent one of
      them to the Tower.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. ii. p. 646. Journ. 16th Nov. 1641. Dugdale,
     p. 79.

     ** Rush. part. iii. vol. i. p. 710.

     *** Nalson, vol ii. p 784, 792.

     **** Nalson, vol. ii. p. 792. Journ. 27th, 28th, and 29th of
     Dec. 1641.
</pre>
    <p>
      Encouraged by these intimations of their pleasure, the populace crowded
      about Whitehall, and threw out insolent menaces against Charles himself.
      Several seduced officers and young gentlemen of the inns of court, during
      this time of disorder and danger, offered their service to the king.
      Between them and the populace there passed frequent skirmishes, which
      ended not without bloodshed. By way of reproach, these gentlemen gave the
      rabble the appellation of Roundheads, on account of the short cropped hair
      which they wore: these called the others Cavaliers. And thus the nation,
      which was before sufficiently provided with religious as well as civil
      causes of quarrel, was also supplied with party names, under which the
      factions might rendezvous and signalize their mutual hatred.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Meanwhile the tumults still continued, and even increased about
      Westminster and Whitehall. The cry incessantly resounded against "bishops
      and rotten-hearted lords."[**] The former especially, being
      distinguishable by their habit, and being the object of violent hatred to
      all the sectaries, were exposed to the most dangerous insults.[***]
      Williams, now created archbishop of York, having been abused by the
      populace, hastily called a meeting of his brethren. By his advice, a
      protestation was drawn and addressed to the king and the house of lords.
      The bishops there set forth, that though they had an undoubted right to
      sit and vote in parliament, yet in coming thither, they had been menaced,
      assaulted, affronted, by the unruly multitude, and could no longer with
      safety attend their duty in the house. For this reason they protested
      against all laws, votes, and resolutions, as null and invalid, which
      should pass during the time of their constrained absence. This
      protestation, which, though just and legal, was certainly ill-timed, was
      signed by twelve bishops, and communicated to the king, who hastily
      approved of it. As soon as it was presented to the lords, that house
      desired a conference with the commons, whom they informed of this
      unexpected protestation. The opportunity was seized with joy and triumph.
      An impeachment of high treason was immediately sent up against the
      bishops, as endeavoring to subvert the fundamental laws, and to invalidate
      the authority of the legislature.[****] They were, on the first demand,
      sequestered from parliament, and committed to custody. No man in either
      house ventured to speak a word in their vindication; so much displeased
      was every one at the egregious imprudence of which they had been guilty.
      One person alone said, that he did not believe them guilty of high
      treason; but that they were stark mad, and therefore desired they might be
      sent to bedlam.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 339.

     ** Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 336.

     *** Dugdale, p. 78.

     **** Whitlocke, p. 51. Rush. vol. v. p. 466. Nalson, vol.
     ii. p, 794.

     v Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 355.
</pre>
    <p class="side">
      1642.
    </p>
    <p>
      A few days after, the king was betrayed into another indiscretion, much
      more fatal; an indiscretion to which all the ensuing disorders and civil
      wars ought immediately and directly to be ascribed; this was the
      impeachment of Lord Kimbolton and the five members.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the commons employed in their remonstrance language so severe and
      indecent, they had not been actuated entirely by insolence and passion;
      their views were more solid and profound. They considered that in a
      violent attempt, such as an invasion of the ancient constitution, the more
      leisure was afforded the people to reflect, the less would they be
      inclined to second that rash and dangerous enterprise: that the peers
      would certainly refuse their concurrence; nor were there any hopes of
      prevailing on them, but by instigating the populace to tumult and
      disorder: that the employing of such odious means for so invidious an end
      would, at long-run, lose them all their popularity, and turn* the tide of
      favor to the contrary party; and that, if the king only remained in
      tranquillity, and cautiously eluded the first violence of the tempest he
      would in the end certainly prevail, and be able at least to preserve the
      ancient laws and constitution. They were therefore resolved, if possible,
      to excite him to some violent passion, in hopes that he would commit
      indiscretions of which they might make advantage.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was not long before they succeeded beyond their fondest wishes. Charles
      was enraged to find that all his concessions but increased their demands;
      that the people who were returning to a sense of duty towards him, were
      again roused to sedition and tumults; that the blackest calumnies were
      propagated against him, and even the Irish massacre ascribed to his
      counsels and machinations; and that a method of address was adopted not
      only unsuitable towards so great a prince, but which no private gentleman
      could bear without resentment. When he considered all these increasing
      acts of insolence in the commons, he was apt to ascribe them in a great
      measure to his own indolence and facility. The queen and the ladies of the
      court further stimulated his passion, and represented that, if he exerted
      the vigor and displayed the majesty of a monarch, the daring usurpations
      of his subjects would shrink before him. Lord Digby, a man of fine parts
      but full of levity, and hurried on by precipitate passions, suggested like
      counsels; and Charles, who, though commonly moderate in his temper, was
      ever disposed to hasty resolutions, gave way to the fatal importunity of
      his friends and servants.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 360.
</pre>
    <p>
      Herbert, attorney-general, appeared in the house of peers and in his
      majesty's name entered an accusation of high treason against Lord
      Kimbolton and five commoners, Hollis, Sir Arthur Hazlerig, Hambden, Pym,
      and Strode. The articles were, that they had traitorously endeavored to
      subvert the fundamental laws and government of the kingdom, to deprive the
      king of his regal power, and to impose on his subjects an arbitrary and
      tyrannical authority: that they had endeavored, by many foul aspersions on
      his majesty and his government, to alienate the affections of his people,
      and make him odious to them: that they had attempted to draw his late army
      to disobedience of his royal commands, and to side with them in their
      traitorous designs: that they had invited and encouraged a foreign power
      to invade the kingdom: that they had aimed at subverting the rights and
      very being of parliament: that, in order to complete their traitorous
      designs, they had endeavored, as far as in them lay, by force and terror
      to compel the parliament to join with them; and to that end had actually
      raised and countenanced tumults against the king and parliament: and that
      they had traitorously conspired to levy, and actually had levied war
      against the king.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 50. Rush. vol. v. p. 473. Nalson, vol. ii.
     p. 811. Franklyn, p. 906.
</pre>
    <p>
      The whole world stood amazed at this important accusation, so suddenly
      entered upon without concert, deliberation, or reflection. Some of these
      articles of accusation, men said, to judge by appearance, seem to be
      common between the impeached members and the parliament; nor did these
      persons appear any further active in the enterprises of which they were
      accused, than so far as they concurred with the majority in their votes
      and speeches. Though proofs might perhaps be produced of their privately
      inviting the Scots to invade England, how could such an attempt be
      considered as treason, after the act of oblivion which had passed, and
      after that both houses, with the king's concurrence, had voted that nation
      three hundred thousand pounds for their brotherly assistance? While, the
      house of peers are scarcely able to maintain their independency, or to
      reject the bills sent them by the commons, will they ever be permitted by
      the populace, supposing them inclined, to pass a sentence which must
      totally subdue the lower house, and put an end to their ambitious
      undertakings? These five members, at least Pym, Hambden and Hollis, are
      the very heads of the popular party; and if these be taken off, what fate
      must be expected by their followers, who are, many of them, accomplices in
      the same treason? The punishment of leaders is ever the last triumph over
      a broken and routed party; but surely was never before attempted, in
      opposition to a faction, during the full tide of its power and success.
    </p>
    <p>
      But men had not leisure to wonder at the indiscretion of this measure:
      their astonishment was excited by new attempts, still more precipitate and
      imprudent. A serjeant at arms, in the king's name, demanded of the house
      the five members: and was sent back without any positive answer.
      Messengers were employed to search for them, and arrest them. Their
      trunks, chambers, and studies were sealed and locked. The house voted all
      these acts of violence to be breaches of privilege, and commanded every
      one to defend the liberty of the members.[*] The king, irritated by all
      this opposition, resolved next day to come in person to the house, with an
      intention to demand, perhaps seize in their presence, the persons whom he
      had accused.
    </p>
    <p>
      This resolution was discovered to the countess of Carlisle, sister to
      Northumberland, a lady of spirit, wit, and intrigue.[**] She privately
      sent intelligence to the five members; and they had time to withdraw, a
      moment before the king entered. He was accompanied by his ordinary
      retinue, to the number of above two hundred, armed as usual, some with
      halberts, some with walking swords. The king left them at the door, and he
      himself advanced alone through the hall, while all the members rose to
      receive him.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 50 Rush. vol. v. p. 474, 475.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 51. Warwick, p. 204.
</pre>
    <p>
      The speaker withdrew from his chair, and the king took possession of it.
      The speech which he made was as follows: "Gentlemen, I am sorry for this
      occasion of coming to you. Yesterday I sent a serjeant at arms to demand
      some who, by my order, were accused of high treason. Instead of obedience,
      I received a message. I must here declare to you, that though no king that
      ever was in England could be more careful of your privileges than I shall
      be, yet in cases of treason no person has privilege. Therefore am I come
      to tell you, that I must have these men wheresoever I can find them. Well,
      since I see all the birds are flown, I do expect that you will send them
      to me as soon as they return. But I assure you, on the word of a king, I
      never did intend any force, but shall proceed against them in a fair and
      legal way; for I never meant any other. And now, since I see I cannot do
      what I came for, I think this is no unfit occasion to repeat what I have
      said formerly, that whatever I have done in favor and to the good of my
      subjects, I do intend to maintain it."[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      When the king was looking around for the accused members, he asked the
      speaker, who stood below, whether any of these persons were in the house.
      The speaker, falling on his knee, prudently replied, "I have, sir, neither
      eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the house is pleased
      to direct me, whose servant I am. And I humbly ask pardon, that I cannot
      give any other answer to what your majesty is pleased to demand of
      me."[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The commons were in the utmost disorder; and when the king was departing,
      some members cried aloud, so as he might hear them, "Privilege!
      privilege!" And the house immediately adjourned till next day.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitloeke, p. 50.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 50. May, book ii. p. 20.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 51.
</pre>
    <p>
      That evening the accused members, to show the greater apprehension,
      removed into the city, which was their fortress. The citizens were the
      whole night in arms. Some people, who were appointed for that purpose, or
      perhaps actuated by their own terrors, ran from gate to gate, crying out
      that the cavaliers were coming to burn the city, and that the king himself
      was at their head.
    </p>
    <p>
      Next morning, Charles sent to the mayor, and ordered him to call a common
      council immediately. About ten o'clock, he himself, attended only by three
      or four lords, went to Guildhall. He told the common council, that he was
      sorry to hear of the apprehensions entertained of him; that he was come to
      them without any guard, in order to show how much he relied on their
      affections; and that he had accused certain men of high treason, against
      whom he would proceed in a legal way, and therefore presumed that they
      would not meet with protection in the city. After many other gracious
      expressions, he told one of the sheriffs, who of the two was thought the
      least inclined to his service, that he would dine with him. He departed
      the hall without receiving the applause which he expected. In passing
      through the streets, he heard the cry, "Privilege of parliament! privilege
      of parliament!" resounding from all quarters. One of the populace, more
      insolent than the rest drew nigh to his coach, and called out with a loud
      voice, "To your tents, O Israel!" the words employed by the mutinous
      Israelites when they abandoned Rehoboam, their rash and ill-counselled
      sovereign,[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      When the house of commons met, they affected the greatest dismay; and
      adjourning themselves for some days, ordered a committee to sit in
      Merchant Tailors Hall in the city. The committee made an exact inquiry
      into all circumstances attending the king's entry into the house: every
      passionate speech, every menacing gesture of any, even the meanest of his
      attendants, was recorded and aggravated. An intention of offering violence
      to the parliament, of seizing the accused members in the very house, and
      of murdering all who should make resistance, was inferred. And that
      unparalleled breach of privilege&mdash;so it was called&mdash;was still
      ascribed to the counsel of Papists and their adherents. This expression,
      which then recurred every moment in speeches and memorials, and which at
      present is so apt to excite laughter in the reader, begat at that time the
      deepest and most real consternation throughout the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      A letter was pretended to be intercepted, and was communicated to the
      committee, who pretended to lay great stress upon it. One Catholic there
      congratulates another on the accusation of the members; and represents
      that incident as a branch of the same pious contrivance which had excited
      the Irish insurrection, and by which the profane heretics would soon be
      exterminated in England.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 479. Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 301.

     ** Nalson, vol. ii. p. 836.
</pre>
    <p>
      The house again met; and, after confirming the votes of their committee,
      instantly adjourned, as if exposed to the most imminent perils from the
      violence of their enemies. This practice they continued for some time.
      When the people, by these affected panics, were wrought up to a sufficient
      degree of rage and terror, it was thought proper that the accused members
      should, with a triumphant and military procession, take their seats in the
      house. The river was covered with boats and other vessels, laden with
      small pieces of ordnance, and prepared for fight. Skippon, whom the
      parliament had appointed, by their own authority, major-general of the
      city militia,[*] conducted the members, at the head of this tumultuary
      army, to Westminster Hall. And when the populace, by land and by water,
      passed Whitehall, they still asked, with insulting shouts, "What has
      become of the king and his cavaliers? And whither are they fled?"[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. ii. p 833.

     ** Whitlocke. p. 52 Dugdale, p. 82. Clarendon, vol ii p.
     380.
</pre>
    <p>
      The king, apprehensive of danger from the enraged multitude, had retired
      to Hampton Court, deserted by all the world, and overwhelmed with grief,
      shame, and remorse, for the fatal measures into which he had been hurried.
      His distressed situation he could no longer ascribe to the rigors of
      destiny, or the malignity of enemies: his own precipitancy and
      indiscretion must bear the blame of whatever disasters should henceforth
      befall him. The most faithful of his adherents, between sorrow and
      indignation, were confounded with reflections on what had happened, and
      what was likely to follow. Seeing every prospect blasted, faction
      triumphant, the discontented populace inflamed to a degree of fury, they
      utterly despaired of success in a cause to whose ruin friends and enemies
      seemed equally to conspire.
    </p>
    <p>
      The prudence of the king, in his conduct of this affair, nobody pretended
      to justify. The legality of his proceedings met with many and just
      apologies, though generally offered to unwilling ears. No maxim of law, it
      was said, is more established, or more universally allowed, than that
      privilege of parliament extends not to treason, felony, or breach of
      peace; nor has either house, during former ages, ever pretended, in any of
      those cases, to interpose in behalf of its members. Though some
      inconveniencies should result from the observance of this maxim, that
      would not be sufficient, without other authority, to abolish a principle
      established by uninterrupted precedent, and founded on the tacit consent
      of the whole legislature. But what are the inconveniencies so much
      dreaded? The king, on pretence of treason, may seize any members of the
      opposite faction, and for a time gain to his partisans the majority of
      voices. But if he seize only a few, will he not lose more friends by such
      a gross artifice than he confines enemies? If he seize a great number, is
      not this expedient force, open and barefaced? And what remedy at all times
      against such force, but to oppose to it a force which is superior? Even
      allowing that the king intended to employ violence, not authority, for
      seizing the members; though at that time, and ever afterwards, he
      positively asserted the contrary; yet will his conduct admit of excuse.
      That the hall where the parliament assembles is an inviolable sanctuary,
      was never yet pretended. And if the commons complain of the affront
      offered them, by an attempt to arrest their members in their very
      presence, the blame must lie entirely on themselves! who had formerly
      refused compliance with the king's message, when he peaceably demanded
      these members. The sovereign is the great executor of the laws; and his
      presence was here legally employed, both in order to prevent opposition,
      and to protect the house against those insults which their disobedience
      had so well merited.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles knew to how little purpose he should urge these reasons against
      the present fury of the commons. He proposed, therefore, by a message,
      that they would agree upon a legal method by which he might carry on his
      prosecution against the members, lest further misunderstandings happen
      with regard to privilege. They desired him to lay the grounds of
      accusation before the house; and pretended that they must first judge
      whether it were proper to give up their members, to a legal trial. The
      king then informed them, that he would waive, for the present, all
      prosecution: by successive messages he afterwards offered a pardon to the
      members; offered to concur in any law that should acquit or secure them;
      offered any reparation to the house for the beach of privilege, of which,
      he acknowledged, they had reason to complain.[*] They were resolved to
      accept of no satisfaction, unless he would discover his advisers in that
      illegal measure; a condition to which, they knew that, without rendering
      himself forever vile and contemptible, he could not possibly submit.
      Meanwhile, they continued to thunder against the violation of
      parliamentary privileges, and by their violent outcries to inflame the
      whole nation. The secret reason of their displeasure, however obvious,
      they carefully concealed. In the king's accusation of the members, they
      plainly saw his judgment of late parliamentary proceedings; and every
      adherent of the ruling faction dreaded the same fate, should royal
      authority be reëstablished in its ancient lustre. By the most unhappy
      conduct, Charles, while he extremely augmented in his opponents the will,
      had also increased the ability of hurting him.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Dugdale, p. 84. Rush, vol v. p. 484, 488, 492, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      The more to excite the people, whose dispositions were already very
      seditious, the expedient of petitioning was renewed. A petition from the
      county of Buckingham was presented to the house by six thousand
      subscribers, who promised to live and die in defence of the privileges of
      parliament.[*] The city of London, the county of Essex, that of Hertford,
      Surrey, Berks, imitated the example. A petition from the apprentices was
      graciously received.[**] Nay, one was encouraged from the porters, whose
      numbers amounted, as they said, to fifteen thousand.[***] The address of
      that great body contained the same articles with all the others; the
      privileges of parliament, the danger of religion, the rebellion of
      Ireland, the decay of trade. The porters further desired, that justice
      might be done upon offenders, as the atrociousness of their crimes had
      deserved. And they added, "That if such remedies were any longer
      suspended, they should be forced to extremities not fit to be named, and
      make good the saying, that 'Necessity has no law.'"[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      Another petition was presented by several poor people, or beggars, in the
      name of many thousands more; in which the petitioners proposed as a remedy
      for the public miseries "That those noble worthies of the house of peers,
      who concur with the happy votes of the commons, may separate themselves
      from the rest, and sit and vote as one entire body." The commons gave
      thanks for this petition.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 487.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 462.

     *** Dugdale, p. 87.

     **** Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 412.

     v Clarendon, vol. li. p. 413.
</pre>
    <p>
      The very women were seized with the same rage. A brewer's wife, followed
      by many thousands of her sex, brought a petition to the house, in which
      the petitioners expressed their terror of the Papists and prelates, and
      their dread of like massacres, rapes, and outrages, with those which had
      been committed upon their sex in Ireland. They had been necessitated, they
      said, to imitate the example of the women of Tekoah: and they claimed
      equal right with the men, of declaring by petition their sense of the
      public cause; because Christ had purchased them at as dear a rate, and in
      the free enjoyment of Christ consists equally the happiness of both sexes.
      Pym came to the door of the house; and having told the female zealots that
      their petition was thankfully accepted and was presented in a seasonable
      time, he begged that their prayers for the success of the commons might
      follow their petition. Such low arts of popularity were affected, and by
      such illiberal cant were the unhappy people incited to civil discord and
      convulsions.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the mean time, not only all petitions which favored the church or
      monarchy, from whatever hand they came, were discouraged, but the
      petitioners were sent for, imprisoned, and prosecuted as delinquents; and
      this unequal conduct was openly avowed and justified. Whoever desire a
      change, it was said, must express their sentiments; for how otherwise
      shall they be known? But those who favor the established government in
      church or state, should not petition; because they already enjoy what they
      wish for.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The king had possessed a great party in the lower house, as appeared in
      the vote for the remonstrance; and this party, had every new cause of
      disgust been carefully avoided, would soon have become the majority, from
      the odium attending the violent measures embraced by the popular leaders.
      A great majority he always possessed in the house of peers, even after the
      bishops were confined or chased away; and this majority could not have
      been overcome but by outrages which, in the end, would have drawn disgrace
      and ruin on those who incited them. By the present fury of the people, as
      by an inundation, were all these obstacles swept away, and every rampart
      of royal authority laid level with the ground. The victory was pursued
      with impetuosity by the sagacious commons, who knew the importance of a
      favorable moment in all popular commotions. The terror of their authority
      they extended over the whole nation; and all opposition, and even all
      blame vented in private conversation, were treated as the most atrocious
      crimes by these severe inquisitors. Scarcely was it permitted to find
      fault with the conduct of any particular member, if he made a figure in
      the house; and reflections thrown out on Pym were at this time treated as
      breaches of privilege. The populace without doors were ready to execute,
      from the least hint, the will of their leaders; nor was it safe for any
      member to approach either house, who pretended to control or oppose the
      general torrent. After so undisguised a manner was this violence
      conducted, that Hollis, in a speech to the peers, desired to know the
      names of such members as should vote contrary to the sentiments of the
      commons:[**] and Pym said in the lower house, that the people must not be
      restrained in the expressions of their just desires.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 449.

     ** King's Declaration of 12th of August, 1642

     *** King's Declaration of 12th August, 1642.
</pre>
    <p>
      By the flight, or terror, or despondency of the king's party, an
      undisputed majority remained everywhere to their opponents; and the bills
      sent up by the commons, which had hitherto stopped with the peers, and
      would certainly have been rejected, now passed, and were presented for the
      royal assent. These were, the pressing bill with its preamble, and the
      bill against the votes of the bishops in parliament. The king's authority
      was at that time reduced to the lowest ebb. The queen too, being secretly
      threatened with an impeachment, and finding no resource in her husband's
      protection, was preparing to retire into Holland. The rage of the people
      was, on account of her religion, as well as her spirit and activity,
      universally levelled against her. Usage the most contumelious she had
      hitherto borne with silent indignation. The commons, in their fury against
      priests, had seized her very confessor, nor would they release him upon
      her repeated applications. Even a visit of the prince to his mother had
      been openly complained of, and remonstrances against it had been presented
      to her.[*] Apprehensive of attacks still more violent, she was desirous of
      facilitating her escape; and she prevailed with the king to pass these
      bills, in hopes of appeasing for a time the rage of the multitude.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      These new concessions, however important, the king immediately found to
      have no other effect than had all the preceding ones: they were made the
      foundation of demands still more exorbitant. From the facility of his
      disposition, from the weakness of his situation, the commons believed that
      he could now refuse them nothing. And they regarded the least moment of
      relaxation in their invasion of royal authority as highly impolitic,
      during the uninterrupted torrent of their successes. The very moment they
      were informed of these last acquisitions, they affronted the queen by
      opening some intercepted letters written to her by Lord Digby: they
      carried up an impeachment against Herbert, attorney-general, for obeying
      his master's commands in accusing their members.[***] And they prosecuted
      with fresh vigor their plan of the militia, on which they rested all
      future hopes of an uncontrolled authority.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. ii. p. 512.

     ** Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 428.

     *** Rush. vol. v. p. 489. Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 385.
</pre>
    <p>
      The commons were sensible that monarchical government, which during so
      many ages had been established in England, would soon regain some degree
      of its former dignity, after the present tempest was overblown; nor would
      all their new invented limitations be able totally to suppress an
      authority to which the nation had ever been accustomed. The sword alone,
      to which all human ordinances must submit, could guard their acquired
      power, and fully insure to them personal safety against the rising
      indignation of their sovereign. This point, therefore, became the chief
      object of their aims. A large magazine of arms being placed in the town of
      Hull, they despatched thither Sir John Hotham, a gentleman of considerable
      fortune in the neighborhood, and of an ancient family, and they gave him
      the authority of governor. They sent orders to Goring, governor of
      Portsmouth, to obey no commands but such as he should receive from the
      parliament. Not content with having obliged the king to displace Lunsford,
      whom he had appointed governor of the Tower,[*] they never ceased
      soliciting him till he had also displaced Sir John Biron, a man of
      unexceptionable character, and had bestowed that command on Sir John
      Conyers, in whom alone, they said, they could repose confidence. After
      making a fruitless attempt, in which the peers refused their concurrence,
      to give public warning, that the people should put themselves in a posture
      of defence against the enterprises of "Papists and other ill-affected
      persons,"[**] they now resolved, by a bold and decisive stroke, to seize
      at once the whole power of the sword, and to confer it entirely on their
      own creatures and adherents.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. voL v. p. 459.

     ** Nalson, vol. ii. p. 850.
</pre>
    <p>
      The severe votes passed in the beginning of this parliament against
      lieutenants and their deputies, for exercising powers assumed by all their
      predecessors, had totally disarmed the crown, and had not left in any
      magistrate military authority sufficient for the defence and security of
      the nation. To remedy this inconvenience now appeared necessary. A bill
      was introduced, and passed the two houses, which restored to lieutenants
      and deputies the same powers of which the votes of the commons had
      bereaved them; but at the same time the names of all the lieutenants were
      inserted in the bill; and these consisted entirely of men in whom the
      parliament could confide. And for their conduct they were accountable, by
      the express terms of the bill, not to the king, but to the parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      The policy pursued by the commons, and which had hitherto succeeded to
      admiration, was, to astonish the king by the boldness of their
      enterprises, to intermingle no sweetness with their severity, to employ
      expressions no less violent than their pretensions, and to make him
      sensible in what little estimation they held both his person and his
      dignity. To a bill so destructive of royal authority, they prefixed, with
      an insolence seemingly wanton, a preamble equally dishonorable to the
      personal character of the king. These are the words: "Whereas there has
      been of late a most dangerous and desperate design upon the house of
      commons, which we have just cause to believe an effect of the bloody
      counsels of Papists and other ill-affected persons who have already raised
      a rebellion in the kingdom of Ireland. And whereas, by reason of many
      discoveries, we cannot but fear they will proceed, not only to stir up the
      like rebellions and insurrections in this kingdom of England, but also to
      back them with forces from abroad," etc.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Here Charles first ventured to put a stop to his concessions, and that not
      by a refusal, but a delay. When this demand was made,&mdash;a demand,
      which, if granted, the commons justly regarded as the last they should
      ever have occasion to make,&mdash;he was at Dover, attending the queen and
      the princess of Orange in their embarkation. He replied, that he had not
      now leisure to consider a matter of so great importance, and must
      therefore respite his answer till his return.[**] The parliament instantly
      despatched another message to him, with solicitations still more
      importunate. They expressed their great grief on account of his majesty's
      answer to their just and necessary petition. They represented, that any
      delay during dangers and distractions so great and pressing, was not less
      unsatisfactory and destructive than an absolute denial. They insisted,
      that it was their duty to see put in execution a measure so necessary for
      public safety. And they affirmed, that the people in many counties had
      applied to them for that purpose, and in some places were, of themselves
      and by their own authority, providing against those urgent dangers with
      which they were threatened.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 519.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 521.

     *** Rush, vol. v. p. 521.
</pre>
    <p>
      Even after this insolence, the king durst not venture upon a flat denial.
      Besides excepting to the preamble, which such dishonor upon him, and
      protesting the innocence of his intentions when he entered the house of
      commons, he only desired that the military authority, if it were
      defective, should first be conferred upon the crown; and he promised to
      bestow commissions, but such as should be revocable at pleasure, on the
      same persons whom the parliament had named in the bill.[*] By a former
      message, he had expressed his wishes that they would lay before him, in
      one view, all the concessions which they deemed requisite for the
      settlement of the nation. They pretended, that they were exposed to perils
      so dreadful and imminent, that they had not leisure for such a work.[**]
      The expedient proposed by the king seemed a sufficient remedy during this
      emergence, and yet maintained the prerogatives of the crown entire and
      unbroken.
    </p>
    <p>
      But the intentions of the commons were wide of this purpose, and their
      panics could be cured by one remedy alone. They instantly replied, that
      the dangers and distempers of the nation were such as could endure no
      longer delay; and unless the king speedily complied with their demands,
      they should be constrained, for the safety of prince and people, to
      dispose of the militia by the authority of both houses, and were resolved
      to do it accordingly. They asserted, that those parts of the kingdom which
      had, from their own authority, put themselves in a posture of defence
      during these prevailing fears and jealousies, had acted suitably to the
      declarations and directions of both houses, and conformably to the laws of
      the kingdom. And while they thus menaced the king with their power they
      invited him to fix his residence at London, where they knew he would be
      entirely at mercy.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 521.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 516, 517.

     *** Rush, part iii. vol. i. chap. iv. p. 523.
</pre>
    <p>
      "I am so much amazed at this message," said the king in his prompt reply,
      "that I know not what to answer. You speak of jealousies and fears. Lay
      your hands on your hearts, and ask yourselves whether I may not likewise
      be disturbed with fears and jealousies, and if so, I assure you that this
      message has nothing lessened them.
    </p>
    <p>
      "As to the militia, I thought so much of it before I gave that answer, and
      am so much assured that the answer is agreeable to what in justice or
      reason you can ask, or I in honor grant, that I shall not alter it in any
      point.
    </p>
    <p>
      "For my residence near you, I wish it might be safe and honorable, and
      that I had no cause to absent myself from Whitehall: ask yourselves
      whether I have not.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      "What would you have? Have I violated your laws? Have I denied to pass any
      bill for the ease and security of my subjects? I do not ask what you have
      done for me.
    </p>
    <p>
      "Have any of my people been transported with fears and apprehensions? I
      offer as free and general a pardon as yourselves can devise. All this
      considered, there is a judgment of Heaven upon this nation if these
      distractions continue.
    </p>
    <p>
      "God so deal with me and mine as all my thoughts and intentions are
      upright for the maintenance of the true Protestant profession, and for the
      observance and preservation of the laws; and I hope God will bless and
      assist those laws for my preservation."[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      No sooner did the commons despair of obtaining the king's consent to their
      bill, than they instantly voted, that those who advised his majesty's
      answer were enemies to the state, and mischievous projectors against the
      safety of the nation; that this denial is of such dangerous consequence,
      that, if his majesty persist in it, it will hazard the peace and
      tranquillity of all his kingdoms, unless some speedy remedy be applied by
      the wisdom and authority of both houses; and that such of the subjects as
      have put themselves in a posture of defence against the common danger,
      have done nothing but what is justifiable, and approved by the house.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      Lest the people might be averse to the seconding of all these usurpations,
      they were plied anew with rumors of danger, with the terrors of invasion,
      with the dread of English and Irish Papists; and the most unaccountable
      panics were spread throughout the nation. Lord Digby having entered
      Kingston in a coach and six, attended by a few livery servants, the
      intelligence was conveyed to London; and it was immediately voted, that he
      had appeared in a hostile manner, to the terror and affright of his
      majesty's subjects, and had levied war against the king and kingdom.[****]
      Petitions from all quarters loudly demanded of the parliament to put the
      nation in a posture of defence; and the county of Stafford in particular
      expressed such dread of an insurrection among the Papists, that every man,
      they said, was constrained to stand upon his guard, not even daring to go
      to church unarmed.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 524.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 532.

     *** Rush. part. iii. vol. i. chap. iv. p. 524.

     **** Clarendon. Rush., part. iii. vol. i. chap, ii p. 495.

     v    Dugdale, p. 80.
</pre>
    <p>
      That the same violence by which he had so long been oppressed might not
      still reach him, and extort his consent to the militia bill, Charles had
      resolved to remove farther from London; and accordingly, taking the prince
      of Wales and the duke of York along with him, he arrived by slow journeys
      at York, which he determined for some time to make the place of his
      residence. The distant parts of the kingdom, being removed from that
      furious vortex of new principles and opinions which had transported the
      capital, still retained a sincere regard for the church and monarchy; and
      the king here found marks of attachment beyond what he had before
      expected.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Warwick, p. 203.
</pre>
    <p>
      From all quarters of England, the prime nobility and gentry, either
      personally or by messages and letters, expressed their duty towards him;
      and exhorted him to save himself and them from that ignominious slavery
      with which they were threatened. The small interval of time which had
      passed since the fatal accusation of the members, had been sufficient to
      open the eyes of many, and to recover them from the astonishment with
      which at first they had been seized. One rash and passionate attempt of
      the king's seemed but a small counterbalance to so many acts of deliberate
      violence which had been offered to him and every branch of the
      legislature; and, however sweet the sound of liberty, many resolved to
      adhere to that moderate freedom transmitted them from their ancestors, and
      now better secured by such important concessions, rather than, by engaging
      in a giddy search after more independence, run a manifest risk either of
      incurring a cruel subjection, or abandoning all law and order.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, finding himself supported by a considerable party in the kingdom,
      began to speak in a firmer tone, and to retort the accusations of the
      commons with a vigor which he had not before exerted. Notwithstanding
      their remonstrances, and menaces, and insults, he still persisted in
      refusing their bill; and they proceeded to frame an ordinance, in which,
      by the authority of the two houses, without the king's consent, they named
      lieutenants for all the counties, and conferred on them the command of the
      whole military force, of all the guards, garrisons, and forts of the
      kingdom. He issued proclamations against this manifest usurpation; and, as
      he professed a resolution strictly to observe the law himself, so was he
      determined, he said, to oblige every other person to pay it a like
      obedience The name of the king was so essential to all laws, and so
      familiar in all acts of executive authority, that the parliament was
      afraid, had they totally omitted it, that the innovation would be too
      sensible to the people. In all commands, therefore, which they conferred,
      they bound the persons to obey the orders of his majesty signified by both
      houses of parliament. And inventing a distinction, hitherto unheard of,
      between the office and the person of the king, those very forces which
      they employed against him they levied in his name and by his authority.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      It is remarkable how much the topics of argument were now reversed between
      the parties. The king, while he acknowledged his former error, of
      employing a plea of necessity in order to infringe the laws and
      constitution, warned the parliament not to imitate an example on which
      they threw such violent blame; and the parliament, while they clothed
      their personal fears or ambition under the appearance of national and
      imminent danger, made unknowingly an apology for the most exceptionable
      part of the king's conduct. That the liberties of the people were no
      longer exposed to any peril from royal authority, so narrowly
      circumscribed, so exactly defined, so much unsupported by revenue and by
      military power, might be maintained upon very plausible topics: but that
      the danger, allowing it to have any existence, was not of that kind,
      great, urgent, inevitable, which dissolves all law and levels all
      limitations, seems apparent from the simplest view of these transactions.
      So obvious indeed was the king's present inability to invade the
      constitution, that the fears and jealousies which operated on the people,
      and pushed them so furiously to arms, were undoubtedly not of a civil, but
      of a religious nature. The distempered imaginations of men were agitated
      with a continual dread of Popery, with a horror against prelacy, with an
      antipathy to ceremonies and the liturgy, and with a violent affection for
      whatever was most opposite to these objects of aversion. The fanatical
      spirit, let loose, confounded all regard to ease, safety, interest; and
      dissolved every moral and civil obligation.[**] <a href="#linknote-9"
      name="linknoteref-9" id="linknoteref-9">9</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 526.

     ** See note I, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      Each party was now willing to throw on its antagonist the odium of
      commencing a civil war; but both of them prepared for an event which they
      deemed inevitable. To gain the people's favor and good opinion was the
      chief point on both sides. Never was there a people less corrupted by
      vice, and more actuated by principle, than the English during that period:
      never were there individuals who possessed more capacity, more courage,
      more public spirit, more disinterested zeal. The infusion of one
      ingredient in too large a proportion had corrupted all these noble
      principles, and converted them into the most virulent poison. To determine
      his choice in the approaching contests, every man hearkened with avidity
      to the reasons proposed on both sides. The war of the pen preceded that of
      the sword, and daily sharpened the humors of the opposite parties. Besides
      private adventurers without number, the king and parliament themselves
      carried on the controversy by messages, remonstrances, and declarations;
      where the nation was really the party to whom all arguments were
      addressed. Charles had here a double advantage. Not only his cause was
      more favorable, as supporting the ancient government in church and state
      against the most illegal pretensions; it was also defended with more art
      and eloquence. Lord Falkland had accepted the office of secretary; a man
      who adorned the purest virtue, with the richest gifts of nature, and the
      most valuable acquisitions of learning. By him, assisted by the king
      himself, were the memorials of the royal party chiefly composed. So
      sensible was Charles of his superiority in this particular, that he took
      care to disperse every where the papers of the parliament together with
      his own, that the people might be the more enabled, by comparison, to form
      a judgment between them: the parliament, while they distributed copies of
      their own, were anxious to suppress all the king's compositions.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      To clear up the principles of the constitution, to mark the boundaries of
      the powers intrusted by law to the several members, to show what great
      improvements the whole political system had received from the king's late
      concessions, to demonstrate his entire confidence in his people, and his
      reliance on their affections, to point out the ungrateful returns which
      had been made him, and the enormous encroachments, insults, and
      indignities to which he had been exposed; these were the topics which,
      with so much justness of reasoning and propriety of expression, were
      insisted on in the king's declarations and remonstrances.[**] <a
      href="#linknote-11" name="linknoteref-11" id="linknoteref-11">11</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 751.

     ** See note K, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      Though these writings were of consequence, and tended much to reconcile
      the nation to Charles, it was evident that they would not be decisive, and
      that keener weapons must determine the controversy. To the ordinance of
      the parliament concerning the militia, the king opposed his commissions of
      array. The counties obeyed the one or the other, according as they stood
      affected. And in many counties, where the people were divided, mobbish
      combats and skirmishes ensued.[*] The parliament on this occasion went so
      far as to vote, "That when the lords and commons in parliament, which is
      the supreme court of judicature, shall declare what the law of the land
      is, to have this not only questioned, but contradicted, is a high breach
      of their privileges."[**] This was a plain assuming of the whole
      legislative authority, and exerting it in the most material article, the
      government of the militia. Upon the same principles they pretended, by a
      verbal criticism on the tense of a Latin verb, to ravish from the king his
      negative voice in the legislature.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      The magazine of Hull contained the arms of all the forces levied against
      the Scots; and Sir John Hotham, the governor, though he had accepted of a
      commission from the parliament, was not thought to be much disaffected to
      the church and monarchy. Charles therefore entertained hopes that if he
      presented himself at Hull before the commencement of hostilities, Hotham,
      overawed by his presence, would admit him with his retinue; after which he
      might easily render himself master of the place. But the governor was on
      his guard. He shut the gates, and refused to receive the king, who desired
      leave to enter with twenty persons only. Charles immediately proclaimed
      him traitor, and complained to the parliament of his disobedience. The
      parliament avowed and justified the action.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * May, book ii. p. 99.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 534.

     *** The king, by his coronation oath, promises that he would
     maintain the laws and customs which the people had chosen,
     "quas vulgus elegerit:" the parliament pretended, that
     elegerit meant shall choose; and, consequently, that the
     king had no right to refuse any bills which should be
     presented him. See Rush. vol. v. p. 580.

     **** Whitlocke, p. 55. Rush. vol. v. p. 565 etc. May, book
     ii p. 51.
</pre>
    <p>
      The county of York levied a guard for the king of six hundred men; for the
      kings of England had hitherto lived among their subjects like fathers
      among their children, and had derived all their security from the dignity
      of their character, and from the protection of the laws. The two houses,
      though they had already levied a guard for themselves, had attempted to
      seize all the military power, all the navy, and all the forts of the
      kingdom, and had openly employed their authority in every kind of warlike
      preparations, yet immediately voted, "That the king, seduced by wicked
      counsel, intended to make war against his parliament, who, in all their
      consultations and actions, had proposed no other end but the care of his
      kingdoms, and the performance of all duty and loyalty to his person; that
      this attempt was a breach of the trust reposed in him by his people,
      contrary to his oath, and tending to a dissolution of the government; and
      that whoever should assist him in such a war, were traitors to the
      fundamental laws of the kingdom."[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The armies which had been everywhere raised on pretence of the service in
      Ireland, were henceforth more openly enlisted by the parliament for their
      own purposes, and the command of them was given to the earl of Essex. In
      London, no less than four thousand men enlisted in one day.[**] And the
      parliament voted a declaration, which they required every member to
      subscribe, that they would live and die with their general.
    </p>
    <p>
      They issued orders for bringing in loans of money and plate, in order to
      maintain forces which should defend the king and both houses of
      parliament; for this style they still preserved. Within ten days, vast
      quantities of plate were brought to their treasurers. Hardly were there
      men enough to receive it, or room sufficient to stow it; and many with
      regret were obliged to carry back their offerings, and wait till the
      treasurers could find leisure to receive them; such zeal animated the
      pious partisans of the parliament, especially in the city. The women gave
      up all the plate and ornaments of their houses, and even their silver
      thimbles and bodkins, "in order to support the good cause against the
      malignants."[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 57. Rush. vol. v. p. 717. Dugdale, p. 93.
     May, book 11. p. 54.

     ** Vicar's God in the Mount.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 58. Dugdale, p. 96, 99.
</pre>
    <p>
      Meanwhile the splendor of the nobility with which the king was environed
      much eclipsed the appearance at Westminster. Lord Keeper Littleton, after
      sending the great seal before him, had fled to York. Above forty peers of
      the first rank attended the king,[*] whilst the house of lords seldom
      consisted of more than sixteen members. Near the moiety, too, of the lower
      house absented themselves from counsels which they deemed so full of
      danger. The commons sent up an impeachment against nine peers, for
      deserting their duty in parliament. Their own members, also, who should
      return to them, they voted not to admit till satisfied concerning the
      reason of their absence.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles made a declaration to the peers who attended him, that he expected
      from them no obedience to any commands which were not warranted by the
      laws of the land. The peers answered this declaration by a protest, in
      which they declared their resolution to obey no commands but such as were
      warranted by that authority.[**] By these deliberate engagements, so
      worthy of an English prince and English nobility, they meant to confound
      the furious and tumultuary resolutions taken by the parliament.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * May, book ii. p. 59.

     ** Rush vol. v. p. 626, 627. May, book ii. p. 86. Warwick,
     p. 210.
</pre>
    <p>
      The queen, disposing of the crown jewels in Holland, had been enabled to
      purchase a cargo of arms and ammunition. Part of these, after escaping
      many perils, arrived safely to the king. His preparations were not near so
      forward as those of the parliament. In order to remove all jealousy, he
      had resolved that their usurpations and illegal pretensions should be
      apparent to the whole world; and thought that to recover the confidence of
      the people was a point much more material to his interest, than the
      collecting of any magazines, stores, or armies which might breed
      apprehensions of violent or illegal counsels. But the urgent necessity of
      his situation no longer admitted of delay. He now prepared himself for
      defence. With a spirit, activity, and address, which neither the one party
      apprehended nor the other expected, he employed all the advantages which
      remained to him, and roused up his adherents to arms. The resources of
      this prince's genius increased in proportion to his difficulties, and he
      never appeared greater than when plunged into the deepest perils and
      distresses. From the mixed character, indeed, of Charles, arose in part
      the misfortunes in which England was at this time involved. His political
      errors, or rather weaknesses, had raised him inveterate enemies: his
      eminent moral virtues had procured him zealous partisans; and between the
      hatred of the one, and the affections of the other, was the nation
      agitated with the most violent convulsions.
    </p>
    <p>
      That the king might despair of all composition, the parliament sent him
      the conditions on which they were willing to some to an agreement. Their
      demands, contained in nineteen propositions, amounted to a total abolition
      of monarchical authority. They required that no man should remain in the
      council who was not agreeable to parliament; that no deed of the king's
      should have validity unless it passed the council, and was attested under
      their hand; that all the officers of state and principal judges should be
      chosen with consent of parliament, and enjoy their offices for life; that
      none of the royal family should marry without consent of parliament or
      council; that the laws should be executed against Catholics; that the
      votes of Popish lords should be excluded; that the reformation of the
      liturgy and church government should, have place according to advice of
      parliament; that the ordinance with regard to the militia be submitted to;
      that the justice of parliament pass upon all delinquents; that a general
      pardon be granted, with such exceptions as should be advised by parliament
      that the forts and castles be disposed of by consent of parliament; and
      that no peer be made but with consent of both houses.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      "Should I grant these demands," said the king in reply, "I may be waited
      on bareheaded; I may have my hand kissed; the title of majesty may be
      continued to me; and 'the king's authority, signified by both houses,' may
      still be the style of your commands; I may have swords and maces carried
      before me, and please myself with the sight of a crown and sceptre,
      (though even these twigs would not long flourish when the stock upon which
      they grew was dead;) but as to true and real power, I should remain but
      the outside, but the picture, but the sign of a king."[**] War on any
      terms was esteemed, by the king and all the counsellors, preferable to so
      ignominious a peace. Charles accordingly resolved to support his authority
      by arms. "His towns," he said, "were taken from him, his ships, his arms,
      his money; but there still remained to him a good cause, and the hearts of
      his loyal subjects, which, with God's blessing, he doubted not would
      recover all the rest." Collecting, therefore, some forces, he advanced
      southwards; and at Nottingham he erected his royal standard, the open
      signal of discord and civil war throughout the kingdom.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. v. p. 722. May, book ii. p. 54.

     ** Rush. vol. v, p. 728. Warwick, p, 189.
</pre>
    <p>
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    <div style="height: 4em;">
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    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER LVI.
    </h2>
    <p>
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    <h2>
      CHARLES I.
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1642.
    </p>
    <p>
      When two names so sacred in the English constitution as those of king and
      parliament were placed in opposition, no wonder the people were divided in
      their choice, and were agitated with the most violent animosities and
      factions.
    </p>
    <p>
      The nobility and more considerable gentry, dreading a total confusion of
      rank from the fury of the populace, enlisted themselves in defence of the
      monarch, from whom they received and to whom they communicated their
      lustre. Animated with the spirit of loyalty derived from their ancestors
      they adhered to the ancient principles of the constitution, and valued
      themselves on exerting the maxims, as well as inheriting the possessions
      of the old English families. And while they passed their time mostly at
      their country seats, they were surprised to hear of opinions prevailing
      with which they had ever been unacquainted, and which implied not a
      limitation, but an abolition almost total of monarchical authority.
    </p>
    <p>
      The city of London, on the other hand, and most of the great corporations,
      took part with the parliament, and adopted with zeal those democratical
      principles, on which the pretensions of that assembly were founded. The
      government of cities, which even under absolute monarchies is commonly
      republican, inclined them to this party: the small hereditary influence
      which can be retained over the industrious inhabitants of towns, the
      natural independence of citizens, and the force of popular currents over
      those more numerous associations of mankind; all these causes gave their
      authority to the new principles propagated throughout the nation. Many
      families, too, which had lately been enriched by commerce, saw with
      indignation that, notwithstanding their opulence, they could not raise
      themselves to a level with the ancient gentry: they therefore adhered to a
      power by whose success they hoped to acquire rank and consideration.[*]
      And the new splendor and glory of the Dutch commonwealth, where liberty so
      happily supported industry, made the commercial part af the nation desire
      to see a like form of government established in England.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 4.
</pre>
    <p>
      The genius of the two religions, so closely at this time interwoven with
      politics, corresponded exactly to these divisions. The Presbyterian
      religion was new, republican, and suited to the genius of the populace:
      the other had an air of greater show and ornament, was established on
      ancient authority, and bore an affinity to the kingly and aristocratical
      parts of the constitution. The devotees of Presbytery became of course
      zealous partisans of the parliament: the friends of the Episcopal church
      valued themselves on defending the rights of monarchy.
    </p>
    <p>
      Some men also there were of liberal education, who, being either careless
      or ignorant of those disputes bandied about by the clergy of both sides,
      aspired to nothing but an easy enjoyment of life, amidst the jovial
      entertainment and social intercourse of their companions. All these
      flocked to the king's standard, where they breathed a freer air, and were
      exempted from that rigid preciseness and melancholy austerity which
      reigned among the parliamentary party.
    </p>
    <p>
      Never was a quarrel more unreal than seemed at first than between the
      contending parties: almost every advantage lay against the royal cause.
      The king's revenue had been seized from the beginning by the parliament,
      who issued out to him from time to time small sums for his present
      subsistence; and as soon as he withdrew to York, they totally stopped all
      payments. London, and all the seaports, except Newcastle, being in their
      hands, the customs yielded them a certain and considerable supply of
      money; and all contributions, loans, and impositions were more easily
      raised from the cities, which possessed the ready money, and where men
      lived under their inspection, than they could be levied by the king in
      those open countries which after some time declared for him.
    </p>
    <p>
      The seamen naturally followed the disposition of the sea ports to which
      they belonged: and the earl of Northumberland, lord admiral, having
      embraced the party of the parliament, had appointed, at their desire, the
      earl of Warwick to be his lieutenant; who at once established his
      authority in the fleet, and kept the entire dominion of the sea in the
      hands of that assembly.
    </p>
    <p>
      All the magazines of arms and amunition were from the first seized by the
      parliament; and their fleet intercepted the greater part of those which
      were sent by the queen from Holland. The king was obliged, in order to arm
      his followers, to borrow the weapons of the train bands, under promise of
      restoring them as soon as peace should be settled in the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      The veneration for parliaments was at this time extreme throughout the
      nation.[*] The custom of reviling those assemblies for corruption, as it
      had no pretence, so was it unknown during all former ages. Few or no
      instances of their encroaching ambition or selfish claims had hitherto
      been observed. Men considered the house of commons in no other light than
      as the representatives of the nation, whose interest was the same with
      that of the public, who were the eternal guardians of law and liberty, and
      whom no motive, but the necessary defence of the people, could ever engage
      in an opposition to the crown. The torrent, therefore, of general
      affection ran to the parliament. What is the great advantage of
      popularity, the privilege of affixing epithets fell of course to that
      party. The king's adherents were the wicked and the malignant: their
      adversaries were the godly and the well-affected. And as the force of the
      cities was more united than that of the country, and at once gave shelter
      and protection to the parliamentary party, who could easily suppress the
      royalists in their neighborhood, almost the whole kingdom, at the
      commencement of the war, seemed to be in the hands of the parliament.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Walker p 336.

     ** Warwick, p. 318.
</pre>
    <p>
      What alone gave the king some compensation for all the advantages
      possessed by his adversaries was, the nature and qualities of his
      adherents. More bravery and activity were hoped for from the generous
      spirit of the nobles and gentry, than from the base disposition of the
      multitude. And as the men of estates, at their own expense, levied and
      armed their tenants, besides an attachment to their masters, greater force
      and courage were to be expected in these rustic troops, than in the
      vicious and enervated populace of cities.
    </p>
    <p>
      The neighboring states of Europe, being engaged in violent wars, little
      interested themselves in these civil commotions; and this island enjoyed
      the singular advantage (for such it surely was) of fighting out its own
      quarrels without the interposition of foreigners. France, from policy, had
      fomented the first disorders in Scotland, had sent over arms to the Irish
      rebels, and continued to give countenance to the English parliament;
      Spain, from bigotry, furnished the Irish with some supplies of money and
      arms. The prince of Orange, closely allied to the crown, encouraged
      English officers who served in the Low Countries to enlist in the king's
      army: the Scottish officers, who had been formed in Germany and in the
      late commotions, chiefly took part with the parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      The contempt entertained by the parliament for the king's party was so
      great, that it was the chief cause of pushing matters to such extremities
      against him; and many believed that he never would attempt resistance, but
      must soon yield to the pretensions, however enormous, of the two houses.
      Even after his standard was erected, men could not be brought to apprehend
      the danger of a civil war; nor was it imagined that he would have the
      imprudence to enrage his implacable enemies, and render his own condition
      more desperate, by opposing a force which was so much superior. The low
      condition in which he appeared at Nottingham confirmed all these hopes.
      His artillery, though far from numerous, had been left at York for want of
      horses to transport it. Besides the trained bands of the county, raised by
      Sir John Digby, the sheriff, he had not gotten together above three
      hundred infantry. His cavalry, in which consisted his chief strength,
      exceeded not eight hundred, and were very ill provided with arms. The
      forces of the parliament lay at Northampton, within a few days' march of
      him, and consisted of above six thousand men, well armed and well
      appointed. Had these troops advanced upon him, they must soon have
      dissipated the small force which he had assembled. By pursuing him in his
      retreat, they had so discredited his cause and discouraged his adherents,
      as to have forever prevented his collecting an army able to make head
      against them. But the earl of Essex, the parliamentary general, had not
      yet received any orders from his masters.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 1, 2.
</pre>
    <p>
      What rendered them so backward, after such precipitate steps as they had
      formerly taken, is not easily explained. It is probable, that in the
      extreme distress of his party consisted the present safety of the king.
      The parliament hoped that the royalists, sensible of their feeble
      condition, and convinced of their slender resources, would disperse of
      themselves, and leave their adversaries a victory so much the more
      complete and secure, as it would be gained without the appearance of
      force, and without bloodshed. Perhaps, too, when it became necessary to
      make the concluding step, and offer barefaced violence to their sovereign,
      their scruples and apprehensions, though not sufficient to overcome their
      resolutions, were able to retard the execution of them.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Sir Jacob Astley, whom the king had appointed major-general of his
      intended army, told him, that he could not give him assurance but he might
      be taken out of his bed, if the rebels should make a brisk attempt to that
      purpose. All the king's attendants were full of well-grounded
      apprehensions. Some of the lords having desired that a message might be
      sent to the parliament with overtures to a treaty, Charles, who well knew
      that an accommodation in his present condition meant nothing but a total
      submission, hastily broke up the council lest this proposal should be
      further insisted on. But next day the earl of Southampton, whom no one
      could suspect of base or timid sentiments, having offered the same advice
      in council it was hearkened to with more coolness and deliberation. He
      urged, that though such a step would probably increase the insolence of
      the parliament, this was so far from being an objection, that such
      dispositions must necessarily turn to the advantage of the royal cause:
      that if they refused to treat, which was more probable, the very sound of
      peace was so popular, that nothing could more disgust the nation than such
      haughty severity: that if they admitted of a treaty, their proposals,
      considering their present situation, would be so exorbitant, as to open
      the eyes of their most partial adherents, and turn the general favor to
      the king's party: and that, at worst, time might be gained by this
      expedient, and a delay of the imminent danger with which the king was at
      present threatened.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, on assembling the council, had declared against all advances
      towards an accommodation; and had said that, having now nothing left him
      but his honor, this last possession he was resolved steadily to preserve,
      and rather to perish than yield any further to the pretensions of his
      enemies:[***] but, by the unanimous desire of the counsellors, he was
      prevailed on to embrace Southampton's advice. That nobleman, therefore,
      with Sir John Colepeper and Sir William Uvedale, was despatched to London
      with offers of a treaty.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 18.

     ** Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 7.

     *** Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 7.

     **** Rush. vol. v. p. 784.
</pre>
    <p>
      The manner in which they were received gave little hopes of success.
      Southampton was not allowed by the peers to take his seat; but was ordered
      to deliver his message to the usher, and immediately to depart the city:
      the commons showed little better disposition towards Colepeper and
      Uvedale.[*] Both houses replied, that they could admit of no treaty with
      the king till he took down his standard, and recalled his proclamations,
      in which the parliament supposed themselves to be declared traitors. The
      king, by a second message, denied any such intention against the two
      houses; but offered to recall these proclamations, provided the parliament
      agreed to recall theirs, in which his adherents were declared traitors.
      They desired him, in return, to dismiss his forces, to reside with his
      parliament, and to give up delinquents to their justice; that is abandon
      himself and his friends to the mercy of his enemies.[**] Both parties
      flattered themselves that, by these messages and replies, they had gained
      the ends which they proposed.[***] The king believed that the people were
      made sufficiently sensible of the parliament's insolence and aversion to
      peace: the parliament intended, by this vigor in their resolutions, to
      support the vigor of their military operations.
    </p>
    <p>
      The courage of the parliament was increased, besides their great
      superiority of force, by two recent events which had happened in their
      favor. Goring was governor of Portsmouth, the best fortified town in the
      kingdom, and by its situation of great importance. This man seemed to have
      rendered himself an implacable enemy to the king, by betraying, probably
      magnifying, the secret cabals of the army; and the parliament thought that
      his fidelity to them might on that account be entirely depended on. But
      the same levity of mind still attended him, and the same disregard to
      engagements and professions. He took underhand his measures with the
      court, and declared against the parliament. But though he had been
      sufficiently supplied with money, and long before knew his danger, so
      small was his foresight, that he had left the place entirely destitute of
      provisions, and in a few days he was obliged to surrender to the
      parliamentary forces.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 10.

     ** Rush. vol. v. p. 786. Dugdale, p. 102.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 59.

     **** Rush, vol. v. p. 683. Whitlocke, p. 60. Clarendon, vol.
     iii. p. 19.
</pre>
    <p>
      The marquis of Hertford was a nobleman of the greatest quality and
      character in the kingdom, and, equally with the king, descended by a
      female from Henry VII. During the reign of James, he had attempted,
      without having obtained the consent of that monarch, to marry Arabella
      Stuart, a lady nearly related to the crown; and, upon discovery of his
      intentions, had been obliged for some time to fly the kingdom. Ever after,
      he was looked on with an evil eye at court, from which in a great measure
      he withdrew; and living in an independent manner, he addicted himself
      entirely to literary occupations and amusements. In proportion as the king
      declined in popularity, Hertford's character flourished with the people;
      and when this parliament assembled, no nobleman possessed more general
      favor and authority. By his sagacity he soon perceived that the commons,
      not content with correcting the abuses of government, were carried, by the
      natural current of power and popularity, into the opposite extreme, and
      were committing violations, no less dangerous than the former, upon the
      English constitution. Immediately he devoted himself to the support of the
      king's falling authority, and was prevailed with to be governor to the
      young prince and reside at court; to which, in the eyes of all men, he
      gave by his presence a new lustre and authority. So high was his character
      for mildness and humanity, that he still preserved, by means of these
      popular virtues, the public favor; and every one was sensible of the true
      motive of his change. Notwithstanding his habits of ease and study, he now
      exerted himself in raising an army for the king; and being named general
      of the western counties, where his interest chiefly lay, he began to
      assemble forces in Somersetshire. By the assistance of Lord Seymour, Lord
      Paulet, John Digby, son of the earl of Bristol, Sir Francis Hawley, and
      others, he had drawn together some appearance of an army; when the
      parliament, apprehensive of the danger, sent the earl of Bedford with a
      considerable force against him. On his approach Hertford was obliged to
      retire into Sherborne Castle; and finding that place untenable, he himself
      passed over into Wales, leaving Sir Ralph Hopton, Sir John Berkeley, Digby
      and other officers, with their horse, consisting of about a hundred and
      twenty, to march into Cornwall, in hopes of finding that county better
      prepared for their reception.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. vi. p. 2, 3, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      All the dispersed bodies of the parliamentary army were now ordered to
      march to Northampton; and the earl of Essex who had joined them, found the
      whole amount to fifteen thousand men.[*] The king, though his camp had
      been gradually reënforced from all quarters, was sensible that he had no
      army which could cope with so formidable a force, and he thought it
      prudent, by slow marches, to retire to Derby, thence to Shrewsbury, in
      order to countenance the levies which his friends were making in those
      parts. At Wellington, a day's march from Shrewsbury, he made a rendezvous
      of all his forces, and caused his military orders to be read at the head
      of every regiment. That he might bind himself by reciprocal ties, he
      solemnly made the following declaration before his whole army.
    </p>
    <p>
      "I do promise, in the presence of Almighty God, and as I hope for his
      blessing and protection, that I will, to the utmost of my power, defend
      and maintain the true reformed Protestant religion established in the
      church of England, and, by the grace of God, in the same will live and
      die.
    </p>
    <p>
      "I desire that the laws may ever be the measure of my government, and that
      the liberty and property of the subject may be preserved by them with the
      same care as my own just rights. And if it please God, by his blessing on
      this army raised for my necessary defence, to preserve me from the present
      rebellion, I do solemnly and faithfully promise, in the sight of God, to
      maintain the just privileges and freedom of parliament, and to govern, to
      the utmost of my power, by the known statutes and customs of the kingdom;
      and particularly to observe inviolably the laws to which I have given my
      consent this parliament. Meanwhile, if this emergence, and the great
      necessity to which I am driven, beget any violation of law, I hope it
      shall be imputed by God and man to the authors of this war; not to me, who
      have so earnestly labored to preserve the peace of the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      "When I willingly fail in these particulars, I shall expect no aid or
      relief from man, nor any protection from above: but in this resolution I
      hope for the cheerful assistance of all good men, and am confident of the
      blessing of Heaven."[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 60., Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 15, 17.
     Dugdale, p. 104.
</pre>
    <p>
      Though the concurrence of the church undoubtedly increased the king's
      adherents, it may safely be affirmed, that the high monarchical doctrines,
      so much inculcated by the clergy, had never done him any real service. The
      bulk of that generous train of nobility and gentry who now attended the
      king in his distresses, breathed the spirit of liberty as well as of
      loyalty; and in the hopes alone of his submitting to a legal and limited
      government, were they willing in his defence to sacrifice their lives and
      fortunes.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the king's army lay at Shrewsbury, and he was employing himself in
      collecting money, which he received, though in no great quantities, by
      voluntary contributions, and by the plate of the universities, which was
      sent him, the news arrived of an action, the first which had happened in
      these wars, and where he was successful.
    </p>
    <p>
      On the appearance of commotions in England, the princes Rupert and
      Maurice, sons of the unfortunate palatine, had offered their service to
      the king; and the former at that time commanded a body of horse, which had
      been sent to Worcester in order to watch the motions of Essex, who was
      marching towards that city. No sooner had the prince arrived, than he saw
      some cavalry of the enemy approaching the gates. Without delay, he briskly
      attacked them, as they were defiling from a lane, and forming themselves.
      Colonel Sandys, who led them, and who fought with valor, being mortally
      wounded, fell from his horse. The whole party was routed, and was pursued
      above a mile. The prince, hearing of Essex's approach, retired to the main
      body.[*] This rencounter, though in itself of small importance, mightily
      raised the reputation of the royalists, and acquired to Prince Rupert the
      character of promptitude and courage; qualities which he eminently
      displayed during the whole course of the war.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, on mustering his army, found it amount to ten thousand men. The
      earl of Lindesey, who in his youth had sought experience of military
      service in the Low Countries,[**] was general; Prince Rupert commanded the
      horse; Sir Jacob Astley, the foot; Sir Arthur Aston, the dragoons; Sir
      John Heydon, the artillery. Lord Bernard Stuart was at the head of a troop
      of guards. The estates and revenue of this single troop, according to Lord
      Clarendon's computation, were at least equal-to those of all the members
      who at the commencement of war voted in both houses. Their servants, under
      the command of Sir William Killigrew, made another troop, and always
      marched with their masters.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 25. May. book iii. p. 10.

     ** He was then Lord Willoughby.

     *** Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 41. Warwick, p. 231.
</pre>
    <p>
      With this army the king left Shrewsbury, resolving to give battle as soon
      as possible to the army of the parliament, which he heard was continually
      augmenting by supplies from London. In order to bring on an action, he
      directed his march towards the capital, which he knew the enemy would not
      abandon to him. Essex had now received his instructions. The import of
      them was, to present a most humble petition to the king, and to rescue him
      and the royal family from those desperate malignants who had seized their
      persons.[*] Two days after the departure of the royalists from Shrewsbury,
      he left Worcester. Though it be commonly easy in civil wars to get
      intelligence, the armies were within six miles of each other ere either of
      the generals was acquainted with the approach of his enemy. Shrewsbury and
      Worcester, the places from which they set out, are not above twenty miles
      distant; yet had the two armies marched ten days in this mutual ignorance:
      so much had military skill, during a long peace, decayed in England.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 59. Clarendon, vol. iii, p. 27, 28, etc.

     ** Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 44.
</pre>
    <p>
      The royal army lay near Banbury; that of the parliament, at Keinton, in
      the county of Warwick. Prince Rupert sent intelligence of the enemy's
      approach. Though the day was far advanced, the king resolved upon the
      attack: Essex drew up his men to receive him. Sir Faithful Fortescue, who
      had levied a troop for the Irish wars, had been obliged to serve in the
      parliamentary army, and was now posted on the left wing, commanded by
      Ramsay, a Scotchman. No sooner did the king's army approach, than
      Fortescue, ordering his troop to discharge their pistols in the ground,
      put himself under the command of Prince Rupert. Partly from this incident,
      partly from the furious shock made upon them by the prince, that whole
      wing of cavalry immediately fled, and were pursued for two miles. The
      right wing of the parliament's army had no better success. Chased from
      their ground by Wilmot and Sir Arthur Aston, they also took to flight. The
      king's body of reserve, commanded by Sir John Biron, judging, like raw
      soldiers, that all was over, and impatient to have some share in the
      action, heedlessly followed the chase which their left wing had
      precipitately led them. Sir William Balfour, who commanded Essex's
      reserve, perceived the advantage: he wheeled about upon the king's
      infantry, now quite unfurnished of horse; and he made great havoc among
      them. Lindesey, the general, was mortally wounded, and taken prisoner. His
      son, endeavoring his rescue, fell likewise into the enemy's hands. Sir
      Edmund Verney, who carried the king's standard, was killed, and the
      standard taken; but it was afterwards recovered. In this situation, Prince
      Rupert, on his return, found affairs. Every thing bore the appearance of a
      defeat, instead of a victory, with which he had hastily flattered himself.
      Some advised the king to leave the field; but that prince rejected such
      pusillanimous counsel. The two armies faced each other for some time, and
      neither of them retained courage sufficient for a new attack. All night
      they lay under arms; and next morning found themselves in sight of each
      other. General, as well as soldier, on both sides, seemed averse to renew
      the battle. Essex first drew off, and retired to Warwick. The king
      returned to his former quarters. Five thousand men are said to have been
      found dead on the field of battle, and the loss of the two armies, as far
      as we can judge by the opposite accounts, was nearly equal. Such was the
      event of this first battle fought at Keinton, or Edge Hill.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Some of Essex's horse, who had been driven off the field in the beginning
      of the action, flying to a great distance, carried news of a total defeat,
      and struck a mighty terror into the city and parliament. After a few days,
      a more just account arrived; and then the parliament pretended to a
      complete victory.[**] The king also, on his part, was not wanting to display
      his advantages; though, except the taking of Banbury a few days after, he
      had few marks of victory to boast of. He continued his march, and took
      possession of Oxford, the only town in his dominions which was altogether
      at his devotion.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 44, etc. May, book iii. p. 16,
     etc.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 61. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 59.
</pre>
    <p>
      After the royal army was recruited and refreshed, as the weather still
      continued favorable, it was again put in motion, A party of horse
      approached to Reading, of which Martin was appointed governor by the
      parliament. Both governor and garrison were seized with a panic, and fled
      with precipitation to London. The king, hoping that every thing would
      yield before him, advanced with his whole army to Reading. The parliament,
      who, instead of their fond expectations that Charles would never be able
      to collect an army, had now the prospect of a civil war, bloody, and of
      uncertain event; were further alarmed at the near approach of the royal
      army, while their own forces lay at a distance. They voted an address for
      a treaty. The king's nearer approach to Colebroke quickened their advances
      for peace. Northumberland and Pembroke, with three commoners, presented
      the address of both houses; in which they besought his majesty to appoint
      some convenient place where he might reside, till committees could attend
      him with proposals. The king named Windsor, and desired that their
      garrison might be removed, and his own troops admitted into that
      castle.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Meanwhile Essex, advancing by hasty marches, had arrived at London. But
      neither the presence of his army, nor the precarious hopes of a treaty,
      retarded the king's approaches. Charles attacked at Brentford two
      regiments quartered there, and after a sharp action beat them from that
      village, and took, about five hundred prisoners. The parliament had sent
      orders to forbear all hostilities, and had expected the same from the
      king; though no stipulations to that purpose had been mentioned by their
      commissioners. Loud complaints were raised against this attack, as if it
      had been the most apparent perfidy and breach of treaty.[**] Inflamed with
      resentment, as well as anxious for its own safety, the city marched its
      trained bands in excellent order, and joined the army under Essex. The
      parliamentary army now amounted to above twenty-four thousand men, and was
      much superior to that of the king.[***] After both armies had faced each
      other for some time, Charles drew off and retired to Reading, thence to
      Oxford.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the principal armies on both sides were kept in inaction by the
      winter season, the king and parliament were employed in real preparations
      for war, and in seeming advances towards peace. By means of contributions
      or assessments levied by the horse, Charles maintained his cavalry; by
      loans and voluntary presents sent him from all parts of the kingdom, he
      supported his infantry: but the supplies were still very unequal to the
      necessities under which he labored.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 62. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 73.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 62. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 75.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 62.

     **** Clarendon, vol. iii p. 87.
</pre>
    <p>
      The parliament had much greater resources for money; and had by
      consequence every military preparation in much greater order and
      abundance. Besides an imposition levied in London, amounting to the
      five-and-twentieth part of every one's substance, they established on that
      city a weekly assessment of ten thousand pounds, and another of
      twenty-three thousand five hundred and eighteen on the rest of the
      kingdom.[*] And as their authority was at present established in most
      counties, they levied these taxes with regularity; though they amounted to
      sums much greater than the nation had formerly paid to the public.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1643.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king and parliament sent reciprocally their demands; and a treaty
      commenced, but without any cessation of hostilities, as had at first been
      proposed. The earl of Northumberland and four members of the lower house
      came to Oxford, as commissioners.[**] In this treaty, the king perpetually
      insisted on the reëstablishment of the crown in its legal powers, and on
      the restoration of his constitutional prerogative:[***] the parliament
      still required new concessions, and a further abridgment of regal
      authority, as a more effectual remedy to their fears and jealousies.
      Finding the king supported by more forces and a greater party than they
      had ever looked for, they seemingly abated somewhat of those extravagant
      conditions which they had formerly claimed; but their demands were still
      too high for an equal treaty. Besides other articles, to which a complete
      victory alone could entitle them, they required the king, in express
      terms, utterly to abolish Episcopacy; a demand which before they had only
      insinuated; and they required, that all other ecclesiastical controversies
      should be determined by their assembly of divines; that is, in the manner
      the most repugnant to the inclinations of the king and all his partisans.
      They insisted, that he should submit to the punishment of his most
      faithful adherents. And they desired him to acquiesce in their settlement
      of the militia, and to confer on their adherents the entire power of the
      sword. In answer to the king's proposal, that his magazines, towns, forts,
      and ships should be restored to him, the parliament required that they
      should be put into such hands as they could confide in:[****] the nineteen
      propositions which they formerly sent to the king, showed their
      inclination to abolish monarchy: they only asked at present the power of
      doing it.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 171.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 6*.

     *** Rush, vol. vi. p. 202.

     **** Rush, vol. vi. p. 166. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 119.
</pre>
    <p>
      And having now in the eye of the law been guilty of treason, by levying
      war against their sovereign, it is evident that their fears and jealousies
      must on that account have multiplied extremely, and have rendered their
      personal safety, which they interwove with the safety of the nation, still
      more incompatible with the authority of the monarch. Though the gentleness
      and lenity of the king's temper might have insured them against schemes of
      future vengeance, they preferred, as is no doubt natural, an independent
      security, accompanied too with sovereign power, to the station of
      subjects, and that not entirely guarded from all apprehensions of
      danger.[*] <a href="#linknote-12" name="linknoteref-12" id="linknoteref-12">12</a>
    </p>
    <p>
      The conferences went no further than the first demand on each side. The
      parliament, finding that there was no likelihood of coming to any
      agreement, suddenly recalled their commissioners.
    </p>
    <p>
      A military enterprise, which they had concerted early in the spring, was
      immediately undertaken. Reading, the garrison of the king's which lay
      nearest to London, was esteemed a place of considerable strength in that
      age, when the art of attacking towns was not well understood in Europe,
      and was totally unknown in England. The earl of Essex sat down before this
      place with an army of eighteen thousand men, and carried on the siege by
      regular approaches. Sir Arthur Aston, the governor, being wounded, Colonel
      Fielding succeeded to the command. In a little time, the town was found to
      be no longer in a condition of defence; and though the king approached
      with an intention of obliging Essex to raise the siege, the disposition of
      the parliamentary army was so strong as rendered the design impracticable.
      Fielding, therefore, was contented to yield the town, on condition that he
      should bring off all the garrison with the honors of war, and deliver up
      deserters. This last article was thought so ignominious and so prejudicial
      to the king's interests, that the governor was tried by a council of war,
      and condemned to lose his life for consenting to it. His sentence was
      afterwards remitted by the king.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note L, at the end of the volume.

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p. 265, etc. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 237,
     238, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      Essex's army had been fully supplied with all necessaries from London;
      even many superfluities and luxuries were sent them by the care of the
      zealous citizens; yet the hardships which they suffered from the siege
      during so early a season had weakened them to such a degree, that they
      were no longer fit for any new enterprise. And the two armies for some
      time encamped in the neighborhood of each other, without attempting on
      either side any action of moment.
    </p>
    <p>
      Besides the military operations between the principal armies which lay in
      the centre of England, each county, each town, each family almost, was
      divided within itself; and the most violent convulsions shook the whole
      kingdom. Throughout the winter, continual efforts had every where been
      made by each party to surmount its antagonist; and the English, roused
      from the lethargy of peace, with eager though unskilful hands employed
      against their fellow-citizens their long-neglected weapons. The furious
      zeal for liberty and Presbyterian discipline, which had hitherto run
      uncontrolled throughout the nation, now at last excited an equal ardor for
      monarchy and Episcopacy, when the intention of abolishing these ancient
      modes of government was openly avowed by the parliament. Conventions for
      neutrality, though in several counties they had been entered into and
      confirmed by the most solemn oaths, yet being voted illegal by the two
      houses, were immediately broken;[*] and the fire of discord was spread
      into every quarter. The altercation of discourse, the controversies of the
      pen, but above all the declamations of the pulpit, indisposed the minds of
      men towards each other, and propagated the blind rage of party.[**]
      Fierce, however, and inflamed as were the dispositions of the English, by
      a war both civil and religious, that great destroyer of humanity, all the
      events of this period are less distinguished by atrocious deeds either of
      treachery or cruelty, than were ever any intestine discords which had so
      long a continuance; a circumstance which will be found to reflect great
      praise on the national character of that people now so unhappily roused to
      arms.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 137, 139.

     ** Dugdale, p. 95.
</pre>
    <p>
      In the north, Lord Fairfax commanded for the parliament, the earl of
      Newcastle for the king. The latter nobleman began those associations which
      were afterwards so much practised in other parts of the kingdom. He united
      in a league for the king the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland,
      Westmoreland, and the bishopric, and engaged some time after other
      counties in the same association. Finding that Fairfax, assisted by Hotham
      and the garrison of Hull, was making progress in the southern parts of
      Yorkshire, he advanced with a body of four thousand men, and took
      possession of York. At Tadcaster, he attacked the forces of the
      parliament, and dislodged them: but his victory was not decisive. In other
      rencounters, he obtained some inconsiderable advantages. But the chief
      benefit which resulted from his enterprises was, the establishing of the
      king's authority in all the northern provinces.
    </p>
    <p>
      In another part of the kingdom, Lord Broke was killed by a shot while he
      was taking possession of Lichfield for the parliament.[*] After a sharp
      combat near Stafford, between the earl of Northampton and Sir John Gell,
      the former, who commanded the king's forces, was killed while he fought
      with great valor; and his forces, discouraged by his death, though they
      had obtained the advantage in the action, retreated into the town of
      Stafford.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Sir William Waller began to distinguish himself among the generals of the
      parliament. Active and indefatigable in his operations, rapid and
      enterprising, he was fitted by his genius to the nature of the war; which,
      being managed by raw troops, conducted by unexperienced commanders,
      afforded success to every bold and sudden undertaking. After taking
      Winchester and Chichester, he advanced towards Gloucester, which was in a
      manner blockaded by Lord Herbert, who had levied considerable forces in
      Wales for the royal party.[***] While he attacked the Welsh on one side, a
      sally from Gloucester made impression on the other. Herbert was defeated;
      five hundred of his men killed on the spot; a thousand taken prisoners;
      and he himself escaped with some difficulty to Oxford. Hereford, esteemed
      a strong town, defended by a considerable garrison, was surrendered to
      Waller, from the cowardice of Colonel Price, the governor. Tewkesbury
      underwent the same fate. Worcester refused him admittance; and Waller,
      without placing any garrisons in his new conquests, retired to Gloucester,
      and he thence joined the army under the earl of Essex.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * He had taken possession of Lichfield, and was viewing from
     a window St. Chad's cathedral, in which a party of the
     royalists had fortified themselves. He was cased in complete
     armor, but was shot through the eye by a random ball. Lord
     Broke was a zealous Puritan; and had formerly said, that he
     hoped to see with his eyes the ruin of all the cathedrals of
     England. It was a superstitious remark of the royalists,
     that he was killed on St. Chad's day by a shot from St.
     Chad's cathedral, which pierced that very eye by which he
     hoped to see the ruin of all cathedrals. Dugdale, p. 118.
     Clarendon, etc.

     * Whitlocke, p. 66. Rush. vol. vi. p. 152. Clarendon, vol.
     iii. p. 151.

     * Rush. vol. vi. D. 92, 100.

     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 262.
</pre>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004">
      <!-- IMG --></a> <a href="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_671_gloucester.jpg">ENLARGE</a>
    </p>
    <div class="fig" >
      <img alt="1_671_gloucester_th (36K)" title="Gloucester"
      src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_671_gloucester_th.jpg"  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      But the most memorable actions of valor during this winter season were
      performed in the west. When Sir Ralph Hopton with his small troop, retired
      into Cornwall before the earl of Bedford, that nobleman, despising so
      inconsiderable a force, abandoned the pursuit, and committed the care of
      suppressing the royal party to the sheriffs of the county. But the
      affections of Cornwall were much inclined to the king's service. While Sir
      Richard Duller and Sir Alexander Carew lay at Launceston, and employed
      themselves in executing the parliament's ordinance for the militia, a
      meeting of the county was assembled at Truro; and after Hopton produced
      his commission from the earl of Hertford, the king's general, it was
      agreed to execute the laws, and to expel these invaders of the county. The
      train bands were accordingly levied, Launceston taken, and all Cornwall
      reduced to peace and to obedience under the king.
    </p>
    <p>
      It had been usual for the royal party, on the commencement of these
      disorders, to claim on all occasions the strict execution of the laws,
      which, they knew, were favorable to them; and the parliament, rather than
      have recourse to the plea of necessity, and avow the transgression of any
      statute, had also been accustomed to warp the laws, and by forced
      constructions to interpret them in their own favor.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarerdon, vol. iii. p. 130.
</pre>
    <p>
      But though the king was naturally the gainer by such a method of
      conducting war, and it was by favor of law that the train, bands were
      raised in Cornwall, it appeared that those maxims were now prejudicial to
      the royal party. These troops could not legally, without their own
      consent, be carried out of the county; and consequently it was impossible
      to push into Devonshire the advantage which they had obtained. The Cornish
      royalists, therefore, bethought themselves of levying a force which might
      be more serviceable. Sir Bevil Granville, the most beloved man of that
      country, Sir Ralph Hopton, Sir Nicholas Slanning, Arundel, and Trevannion
      undertook as their own charges to raise an army for the king; and their
      great interest in Cornwall soon enabled them to effect their purpose. The
      parliament, alarmed at this appearance of the royalists, gave a commission
      to Ruthven, a Scotchman, governor of Plymouth, to march with all the
      forces to Dorset. Somerset, and Devon, and make an entire conquest of
      Cornwall. The earl of Stamford followed him at some distance With a
      considerable supply. Ruthven, having entered Cornwall by bridges thrown
      over the Tamar, hastened to an action, lest Stamwood should join him, and
      obtain the honor of that victory which he looked for with assurance. The
      royalists in like manner were impatient to bring the affair to a decision
      before Ruthven's army should receive so considerable a reënforcement. The
      battle was fought on Bradoc Down; and the king's forces, though inferior
      in number, gave a total defeat to their enemies. Ruthven, with a few
      broken troops, fled to Saltash; and when that town was taken, he escaped
      with some difficulty, and almost alone, into Plymouth. Stamford retired,
      and distributed his forces into Plymouth and Exeter.
    </p>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding these advantages, the extreme want both of money and
      ammunition under which the Cornish royalists labored, obliged them to
      enter into a convention of neutrality with the parliamentary party in
      Devonshire; and this neutrality held all the winter season. In the spring,
      it was broken by the authority of the two houses; but war recommenced with
      great appearance of disadvantage to the king's party. Stamford, having
      assembled a strong body of near seven thousand men, well supplied with
      money, provisions, and ammunition, advanced upon the royalists, who were
      not half his number, and were oppressed by every kind of necessity.
      Despair, joined to the natural gallantry of these troops, commanded by the
      prime gentry of the county, made them resolve by one vigorous effort, to
      overcome all these disadvantages. Stamford being encamped on the top of a
      high hill near Stratum, they attacked him in four divisions, at five in
      the morning, having lain all night under arms. One division was commanded
      by Lord Mohun and Sir Ralph Hopton, another by Sir Bevil Granville and Sir
      John Berkeley, a third by Slanning and Trevannion, a fourth by Basset and
      Godolphin. In this manner the action began; the king's forces pressing
      with vigor those four ways up the hill, and their enemies obstinately
      defending themselves. The fight continued with doubtful success, till word
      was brought to the chief officers of the Cornish, that their ammunition
      was spent to less than four barrels of powder. This defect, which they
      concealed from the soldiers, they resolved to supply by their valor. They
      agreed to advance without firing till they should reach the top of the
      hill, and could be on equal ground with the enemy. The courage of the
      officers was so well seconded by the soldiers, that the royalists began on
      all sides to gain ground. Major-General Chidley, who commanded the
      parliamentary army, (for Stamford kept at a distance,) failed not in his
      duty; and when he saw his men recoil, he himself advanced with a good
      stand of pikes, and piercing into the thickest of the enemy, was at last
      overpowered by numbers, and taken prisoner. His army, upon this disaster,
      gave ground apace; insomuch that the four parties of the royalists,
      growing nearer and nearer as they ascended, at length met together upon
      the plain at the top; where they embraced with great joy, and signalized
      their victory with loud shouts and mutual congratulations.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      After this success, the attention both of king and parliament was turned
      towards the west, as to a very important scene of action. The king sent
      thither the marquis of Hertford and Prince Maurice, with a reënforcement
      of cavalry; who, having joined the Cornish army, soon overran the county
      of Devon; and advancing into that of Somerset, began to reduce it to
      obedience. On the other hand, the parliament, having supplied Sir William
      Waller, in whom they much trusted, with a complete army, despatched him
      westwards, in order to check the progress of the royalists. After some
      skirmishes, the two armies met at Lansdown, near Bath, and fought a
      pitched battle, with great loss on both sides, but without any decisive
      event.[**] The gallant Granville was there killed; and Hopton, by the
      blowing up of some powder, was dangerously hurt.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vi. p. 267, 273. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 269,
     279.

     ** Rush, vol. vi. p. 284. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 282.
</pre>
    <p>
      The royalists next attempted to march eastwards, and to join their forces
      to the king's at Oxford: but Waller hung on their rear, and infested their
      march till they reached the Devizes. Reënforced by additional troops,
      which flocked to him from all quarters, he so much surpassed the royalists
      in number, that they durst no longer continue their march, or expose
      themselves to the hazard of an action. It was resolved that Hertford and
      Prince Maurice should proceed with the cavalry; and, having procured a
      reënforcement from the king, should hasten back to the relief of their
      friends. Waller was so confident of taking this body of infantry, now
      abandoned by the horse, that he wrote to the parliament that their work
      was done, and that by the next post he would inform them of the number and
      quality of the prisoners. But the king, even before Hertford's arrival,
      hearing of the great difficulties to which his western army was reduced,
      had prepared a considerable body of cavalry, which he immediately
      despatched to their succor under the command of Lord Wilmot. Waller drew
      up on Roundway Down, about two miles from the Devizes, and advancing with
      his cavalry to fight Wilmot, and prevent his conjunction with the Cornish
      infantry, was received with equal valor by the royalists. After a sharp
      action, he was totally routed, and flying with a few horse, escaped to
      Bristol. Wilmot, seizing the enemy's cannon, and having joined his friends
      whom he came to relieve, attacked Waller's infantry with redoubled
      courage, drove them off the field, and routed and dispersed the whole
      army.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 285. Clarendoo. vol. iii. p. 29l.
</pre>
    <p>
      This important victory, following so quick after many other successes,
      struck great dismay into the parliament, and gave an alarm to their
      principal army, commanded by Essex. Waller exclaimed loudly against that
      general, for allowing Wilmot to pass him, and proceed without any
      interruption to the succor of the distressed infantry at the Devizes. But
      Essex, finding that his army fell continually to decay after the siege of
      Reading, was resolved to remain upon the defensive; and the weakness of
      the king, and his want of all military stores, had also restrained the
      activity of the royal army. No action had happened in that part of
      England, except one skirmish, which of itself was of no great consequence,
      and was rendered memorable by the death alone of the famous Hambden.
    </p>
    <p>
      Colonel Urrey, a Scotchman, who served in the parliamentary army, having
      received some disgust, came to Oxford and offered his services to the
      king. In order to prove the sincerity of his conversion, he informed
      Prince Rupert of the loose disposition of the enemy's quarters, and
      exhorted him to form some attempt upon them. The prince, who was entirely
      fitted for that kind of service, falling suddenly upon the dispersed
      bodies of Essex's army, routed two regiments of cavalry and one of
      infantry, and carried his ravages within two miles of the general's
      quarters. The alarm being given, every one mounted on horseback, in order
      to pursue the prince, to recover the prisoners, and to repair the disgrace
      which the army had sustained. Among the rest Hambden, who had a regiment
      of infantry that lay at a distance, joined the horse as a volunteer; and
      overtaking the royalists on Chalgrave field, entered into the thickest of
      the battle. By the bravery and activity of Rupert, the king's troops were
      brought off, and a great booty, together with two hundred prisoners, was
      conveyed to Oxford. But what most pleased the royalists was the
      expectation that some disaster had happened to Hambden their capital and
      much dreaded enemy. One of the prisoners taken in the action, said, that
      he was confident Mr. Hambden was hurt: for he saw him, contrary to his
      usual custom, ride off the field before the action was finished; his head
      hanging down, and his hands leaning upon his horse's neck. Next day the
      news arrived, that he was shot in the shoulder with a brace of bullets,
      and the bone broken. Some days after, he died, in exquisite pain, of his
      wound; nor could his whole party, had their army met with a total
      overthrow, have been thrown into greater consternation. The king himself
      so highly valued him, that, either from generosity or policy, he intended
      to have sent him his own surgeon to assist at his cure.[*] <a
      href="#linknote-13" name="linknoteref-13" id="linknoteref-13">13</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note M, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      Many were the virtues and talents of this eminent personage; and his valor
      during the war had shone out with a lustre equal to that of the other
      accomplishments by which he had ever been distinguished. Affability in
      conversation; temper, art, and eloquence in debate; penetration and
      discernment in counsel; industry, vigilance, and enterprise in action; all
      these praises are unanimously ascribed to him by historians of the most
      opposite parties. His virtue, too, and integrity in all the duties of
      private life, are allowed to have been beyond exception: we must only be
      cautious, notwithstanding his generous zeal for liberty, not hastily to
      ascribe to him the praises of a good citizen. Through all the horrors of
      civil war, he sought the abolition of monarchy, and subversion of the
      constitution; an end which, had it been attainable by peaceful measures,
      ought carefully to have been avoided by every lover of his country. But
      whether, in the pursuit of this violent enterprise, he was actuated by
      private ambition or by honest prejudices, derived from the former
      exorbitant powers of royalty, it belongs not to an historian of this age,
      scarcely even to an intimate friend, positively to determine.
    </p>
    <p>
      Essex, discouraged by this event, dismayed by the total rout of Waller,
      was further informed, that the queen, who landed at Burlington Bay, had
      arrived at Oxford, and had brought from the north a reënforcement of three
      thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse. Dislodging from Thame and
      Aylesbury, where he had hitherto lain, he thought proper to retreat nearer
      to London; and he showed to his friends his broken and disheartened
      forces, which a few months before he had led into the field in so
      flourishing a condition. The king, freed from this enemy, sent his army
      westward under Prince Rupert; and, by their conjunction with the Cornish
      troops, a formidable force, for numbers as well as reputation and valor,
      was composed. That an enterprise correspondent to men's expectations might
      be undertaken, the prince resolved to lay siege to Bristol, the second
      town for riches and greatness in the kingdom. Nathaniel Fiennes, son of
      Lord Say he himself, as well as his father, a great parliamentary leader
      was governor, and commanded a garrison of two thousand five hundred foot,
      and two regiments, one of horse, another of dragoons. The fortifications
      not being complete or regular, it was resolved by Prince Rupert to storm
      the city, and next morning, with little other provisions suitable to such
      a work besides the courage of the troops, the assault began. The Cornish
      in three divisions attacked the west side, with a resolution which nothing
      could control; but though the middle division had already mounted the
      wall, so great was the disadvantage of the ground, and so brave the
      defence of the garrison, that in the end the assailants were repulsed with
      a considerable loss both of officers and soldiers. On the prince's side,
      the assault was conducted with equal courage, and almost with equal loss,
      but with better success. One party, led by Lord Grandison, was indeed
      beaten off, and the commander himself mortally wounded: another, conducted
      by Colonel Bellasis, met with a like fate: but Washington, with a less
      party, finding a place in the curtain weaker than the rest, broke in, and
      quickly made room for the horse to follow. By this irruption, however,
      nothing but the suburbs was yet gained: the entrance into the town was
      still more difficult: and by the loss already sustained, as well as by the
      prospect of further danger, every one was extremely discouraged; when, to
      the great joy of the army, the city beat a parley. The garrison was
      allowed to march out with their arms and baggage, leaving their cannon,
      ammunition, and colors. For this instance of cowardice, Fiennes was
      afterwards tried by a court martial, and condemned to lose his head; but
      the sentence was remitted by the general.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi p. 284. Clarendon, vol. iii. p 293, 294,
     etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      Great complaints were made of violences exercised on the garrison,
      contrary to the capitulation. An apology was made by the royalists, as if
      these were a retaliation for some violences committed on their friends at
      the surrender of Reading. And under pretence of like retaliations, but
      really from the extreme animosity of the parties, were such irregularities
      continued during the whole course of the war.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 297
</pre>
    <p>
      The loss sustained by the royalists in the assault of Bristol was
      considerable. Five hundred excellent soldiers perished. Among those of
      condition were Grandison, Slanning, Trevannion, and Moyle; Bellasis,
      Ashley, and Sir John Owen were wounded; yet was the success upon the whole
      so considerable, as mightily raised the courage of the one party and
      depressed that of the other. The king, to show that he was not intoxicated
      with good fortune, nor aspired to a total victory over the parliament,
      published a manifesto, in which he renewed the protestation formerly
      taken, with great solemnity, at the head of his army, and expressed his
      firm intention of making peace upon the reestablishment of the
      constitution. Having joined the camp at Bristol, and sent Prince Maurice
      with a detachment into Devonshire, he deliberated how to employ the
      remaining forces in an enterprise of moment. Some proposed, and seemingly
      with reason, to march directly to London, where every thing was in
      confusion, where the army of the parliament was baffled, weakened, and
      dismayed, and where, it was hoped, either by an insurrection of the
      citizens, by victory, or by treaty, a speedy end might be put to the civil
      disorders. But this undertaking, by reason of the great number and force
      of the London militia, was thought by many to be attended with
      considerable difficulties. Gloucester, lying within twenty miles,
      presented an easier, yet a very important conquest. It was the only
      remaining garrison possessed by the parliament in those parts. Could that
      city be reduced, the king held the whole course of the Severn under his
      command; the rich and malecontent counties of the west, having lost all
      protection from their friends, might be forced to pay high contributions
      as an atonement for their disaffection; an open communication could be
      preserved between Wales and these new conquests; and half of the kingdom
      being entirely freed from the enemy, and thus united into one firm body,
      might be employed in reestablishing the king's authority throughout the
      remainder. These were the reasons for embracing that resolution, fatal, as
      it was ever esteemed to the royal party.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The governor of Gloucester was one Massey, a soldier of fortune, who,
      before he engaged with the parliament, had offered his service to the
      king; and as he was free from the fumes of enthusiasm, by which most of
      the officers on that side were intoxicated, he would lend an ear, it was
      presumed, to proposals for accommodation. But Massey was resolute to
      preserve an entire fidelity to his masters; and though no enthusiast
      himself, he well knew how to employ to advantage that enthusiastic spirit
      so prevalent in his city and garrison. The summons to surrender allowed
      two hours for an answer; but before that time expired, there appeared
      before the king two citizens, with lean, pale, sharp, and dismal visages;
      faces so strange and uncouth, according to Clarendon, figures so habited
      and accoutred, as at once moved the most severe countenance to mirth, and
      the most cheerful heart to sadness; it seemed impossible that such
      messengers could bring less than a defiance. The men, without any
      circumstance of duty or good manners, in a pert, shrill, undismayed
      accent, said that they brought an answer from the godly city of
      Gloucester; and extremely ready were they, according to the historian, to
      give insolent and seditious replies to any question; as if their business
      were chiefly, by provoking the king, to make him violate his own
      safe-conduct. The answer from the city was in these words: "We, the
      inhabitants, magistrates, officers, and soldiers within the garrison of
      Gloucester, unto his majesty's gracious message, return this humble
      answer: that we do keep this city, according to our oaths and allegiance,
      to and for the use of his majesty and his royal posterity; and do
      accordingly conceive ourselves wholly bound to obey the commands of his
      majesty, signified by both houses of parliament, and are resolved, by
      God's help, to keep this city accordingly."[**] After these preliminaries,
      the siege was resolutely undertaken by the army, and as resolutely
      sustained by the citizens and garrison.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 69. May, book iii. p. 91.

     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 287. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 315. May,
     book iii. p. 96.
</pre>
    <p>
      When intelligence of the siege of Gloucester arrived in London, the
      consternation among the inhabitants was as great as if the enemy were
      already at their gates. The rapid progress of the royalists threatened the
      parliament with immediate subjection: the factions and discontents among
      themselves in the city, and throughout the neighboring counties,
      prognosticated some dangerous division or insurrection. Those
      parliamentary leaders, it must be owned, who had introduced such mighty
      innovations into the English constitution, and who had projected so much
      greater, had not engaged in an enterprise which exceeded their courage and
      capacity. Great vigor, from the beginning, as well as wisdom, they had
      displayed in all their counsels; and a furious, headstrong body, broken
      loose from the restraint of law, had hitherto been retained in subjection
      under their authority, and firmly united by zeal and passion, as by the
      most legal and established government. A small committee, on whom the two
      houses devolved their power, had directed all their military operations,
      and had preserved a secrecy in deliberation, and a promptitude in
      execution, beyond what the king, notwithstanding the advantages possessed
      by a single leader, had ever been able to attain. Sensible that no
      jealousy was by their partisans entertained against them, they had on all
      occasions exerted an authority much more despotic than the royalists, even
      during the pressing exigencies of war, could with patience endure in their
      sovereign. Whoever incurred their displeasure, or was exposed to their
      suspicions, was committed to prison, and prosecuted under the notion of
      delinquency: after all the old jails were full, many new ones were
      erected; and even the ships were crowded with the royalists, both gentry
      and clergy, who anguished below decks, and perished in those unhealthy
      confinements: they imposed taxes, the heaviest and of the most unusual
      nature, by an ordinance of the two houses; they voted a commission for
      sequestrations; and they seized, wherever they had power, the revenues of
      all the king's party;[*] and knowing that themselves, and all their
      adherents, were, by resisting the prince, exposed to the penalties of law,
      they resolved, by a severe administration, to overcome those terrors, and
      to retain the people in obedience by penalties of a more immediate
      execution. In the beginning of this summer, a combination, formed against
      them in London, had obliged them to exert the plenitude of their
      authority.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * The king afterwards copied from this example; but, as the
     far greater part of the nobility and landed gentry were his
     friends, he reaped much less profit from this measure.
</pre>
    <p>
      Edward Waller, the first refiner of English versification, was a member of
      the lower house; a man of considerable fortune, and not more distinguished
      by his poetical genius than by his parliamentary talents, and by the
      politeness and elegance of his manners. As full of keen satire and
      invective in his eloquence, as of tenderness and panegyric in his poetry,
      he caught the attention of his hearers, and exerted the utmost boldness in
      blaming those violent counsels by which the commons were governed. Finding
      all opposition within doors to be fruitless, he endeavored to form a party
      without, which might oblige the parliament to accept of reasonable
      conditions, and restore peace to the nation. The charms of his
      conversation, joined to his character of courage and integrity, had
      procured him the entire confidence of Northumberland, Conway, and every
      eminent person of either sex who resided in London. They opened their
      breasts to him without reserve, and expressed their disapprobation of the
      furious measures pursued by the commons, and their wishes that some
      expedient could be found for stopping so impetuous a career. Tomkins,
      Waller's brother-in-law, and Chaloner, the intimate friend of Tomkins, had
      entertained like sentiments: and as the connections of these two gentlemen
      lay chiefly in the city, they informed Waller that the same abhorrence of
      war prevailed there among all men of reason and moderation. Upon
      reflection, it seemed not impracticable that a combination might be formed
      between the lords and citizens; and, by mutual concert, the illegal taxes
      be refused, which the parliament, without the royal assent, imposed on the
      people. While this affair was in agitation, and lists were making of such
      as they conceived to be well affected to their design, a servant of
      Tomkins, who had overheard their discourse, immediately carried
      intelligence to Pym. Waller, Tomkins, and Chaloner were seized, and tried
      by a court martial.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 326. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 249, 250,
     etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      They were all three condemned, and the two latter executed on gibbets
      erected before their own doors. A covenant, as a test, was taken by the
      lords and commons, and imposed on their army, and on all who lived within
      their quarters. Besides resolving to amend and reform their lives, the
      covenanters their vow, that they will never lay down their arms so long as
      the Papists, now in open war against the parliament, shall by force of
      arms be protected from justice; they express their abhorrence of the late
      conspiracy; and they promise to assist to the utmost the forces raised by
      both houses, against the forces levied by the king.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Waller, as soon as imprisoned, sensible of the great danger into which he
      had fallen, was so seized with the dread of death, that all his former
      spirit deserted him; and he confessed whatever he knew, without sparing
      his most intimate friends, without regard to the confidence reposed in
      him, without distinguishing between the negligence of familiar
      conversation and the schemes of a regular conspiracy. With the most
      profound dissimulation, he counterfeited such remorse of conscience, that
      his execution was put off, out of mere Christian compassion, till he might
      recover the use of his understanding. He invited visits from the ruling
      clergy of all sects; and while he expressed his own penitence, he received
      their devout exhortations with humility and reverence, as conveying
      clearer conviction and information than in his life he had ever before
      attained. Presents too, of which, as well as of flattery, these holy men
      were not insensible, were distributed among them, as a small retribution
      for their prayers and ghostly counsel. And by all these artifices, more
      than from any regard to the beauty of his genius, of which, during that
      time of furious cant and faction, small account would be made, he
      prevailed so far as to have his life spared, and a fine of ten thousand
      pounds accepted in lieu of it.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The severity exercised against the conspiracy, or rather project of
      Waller, increased the authority of the parliament, and seemed to insure
      them against like attempts for the future. But by the progress of the
      king's arms, the defeat of Sir William Waller, the taking of Bristol, the
      siege of Gloucester, a cry for peace was renewed, and with more violence
      than ever. Crowds of women, with a petition for that purpose, flocked
      about the house, and were so clamorous and, importunate, that orders were
      given for dispersing them; and some of the females were killed in the
      fray.[***] Bedford, Holland, and Conway had deserted the parliament, and
      had gone to Oxford; Clare and Lovelace had followed them.[****]
      Northumberland had retired to his country seat: Essex himself showed
      extreme dissatisfaction, and exhorted the parliament to make peace.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 325. Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 255.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 66. Rush. vol. vi. p. 330. Clarendon, vol.
     iii p. 253, 254, etc.

     *** Rush. vol. vi. p. 357.

     **** Whitlocke, p. 67.

     v Rush. vol. vi. p. 290.
</pre>
    <p>
      The upper house sent down terms of accommodation, more moderate than had
      hitherto been insisted on. It even passed by a majority among the commons,
      that these proposals should be transmitted to the King. The zealots took
      the alarm. A petition against peace was framed in the city, and presented
      by Pennington, the factious mayor. Multitudes attended him, and renewed
      all the former menaces against the moderate party.[*] The pulpits
      thundered; and rumors were spread of twenty thousand Irish who had landed,
      and were to cut the throat of every Protestant.[**] The majority was again
      turned to the other side, and all thoughts of pacification being dropped,
      every preparation was made for resistance, and for the immediate relief of
      Gloucester, on which the parliament was sensible all their hopes of
      success in the war did so much depend.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 356.

     ** Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 320. Rush, vol. vi. p. 588.
</pre>
    <p>
      Massey, resolute to make a vigorous defence, and having under his command
      a city and garrison ambitious of the crown of martyrdom, had hitherto
      maintained the siege with courage and abilities, and had much retarded the
      advances of the king's army. By continual sallies he infested them in
      their trenches, and gained sudden advantages over them: by disputing every
      inch of ground, he repressed the vigor and alacrity of their courage,
      elated by former successes. His garrison, however, was reduced to the last
      extremity; and he failed not from time to time to inform the parliament
      that, unless speedily relieved, he should be necessitated, from the
      extreme want of provisions and ammunition, to open his gates to the enemy.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament, in order to repair their broken condition, and put
      themselves in a posture of defence, now exerted to the utmost their power
      and authority. They voted that an army should be levied under Sir William
      Waller, whom, notwithstanding his misfortunes, they loaded with
      extraordinary caresses. Having associated in their cause the counties of
      Hertford, Essex, Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincoln, and Huntingdon,
      they gave the earl of Manchester a commission to be general of the
      association, and appointed an army to be levied under his command. But,
      above all, they were intent that Essex's army, on which their whole
      fortune depended, should be put in a condition of marching against the
      king. They excited afresh their preachers to furious declamations against
      the royal cause. They even employed the expedient of pressing, though
      abolished by a late law, for which they had strenuously contended.[*] And
      they engaged the city to send four regiments of its militia to the relief
      of Gloucester. All shops, meanwhile, were ordered to be shut; and every
      man expected, with the utmost anxiety, the event of that important
      enterprise.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Essex, carrying with him a well-appointed army of fourteen thousand men,
      took the road of Bedford and Leicester: and though inferior in cavalry,
      yet, by the mere force of conduct and discipline, he passed over those
      open champaign country, and defended himself from the enemy's horse, who
      had advanced to meet him, and who infested him during his whole march. As
      he approached to Gloucester, the king was obliged to raise the siege, and
      open the way for Essex to enter that city. The necessities of the garrison
      were extreme. One barrel of powder was their whole stock of ammunition
      remaining; and their other provisions were in the same proportion. Essex
      had brought with him military stores; and the neighboring country
      abundantly supplied him with victuals of every kind. The inhabitants had
      carefully concealed all provisions from the king's army, and, pretending
      to be quite exhausted, had reserved their stores for that cause which they
      so much favored.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      The chief difficulty still remained. Essex dreaded a battle with the
      king's army, on account of its great superiority in cavalry; and he
      resolved to return, if possible, without running that hazard. He lay five
      days at Tewkesbury, which was his first stage after leaving Gloucester;
      and he feigned, by some preparations, to point towards Worcester. By a
      forced march during the night, he reached Cirencester, and obtained the
      double advantage of passing unmolested an open country, and of surprising
      a convoy of provisions which lay in that town.[****] Without delay he
      proceeded towards London; but when he reached Newbury, he was surprised to
      find that the king, by hasty marches, had arrived before him, and was
      already possessed of the place.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vi. p. 292.

     ** Rush, vol. vi. p. 292.

     *** Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 344.

     **** Rush, vol. vi. p 292.
</pre>
    <p>
      An action was now unavoidable; and Essex prepared for it with presence of
      mind, and not without military conduct. On both sides the battle was
      fought with desperate valor and a steady bravery. Essex's horse were
      several times broken by the king's, but his infantry maintained themselves
      in firm array; and, besides giving a continued fire, they presented an
      invincible rampart of pikes against the furious shock of Prince Rupert,
      and those gallant troops of gentry of which the royal cavalry was chiefly
      composed. The militia of London especially, though utterly unacquainted
      with action, though drawn hut a few days before from their ordinary
      occupations, yet having learned all military exercises, and being animated
      with unconquerable zeal for the cause in which they were engaged, equalled
      on this occasion what could be expected from the most veteran forces.
      While the armies were engaged with the utmost ardor, night put an end to
      the action and left the victory undecided. Next morning, Essex proceeded
      on his march; and though his rear was once put in some disorder by an
      incursion of the king's horse, he reached London in safety, and received
      applause for his conduct and success in the whole enterprise. The king
      followed him on his march; and having taken possession of Reading after
      the earl left it, he there established a garrison, and straitened by that
      means London and the quarters of the enemy.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vi. p. 293. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 347.
</pre>
    <p>
      In the battle of Newbury, on the part of the king, besides the earls of
      Sunderland and Carnarvon, two noblemen of promising hopes, was
      unfortunately slain, to the regret of every lover of ingenuity and virtue
      throughout the kingdom, Lucius Gary, Viscount Falkland, secretary of
      state. Before assembling the present parliament, this man, devoted to the
      pursuits of learning and to the society of all the polite and elegant, had
      enjoyed himself in every pleasure which a fine genius, a generous
      disposition, and an opulent fortune could afford. Called into public life,
      he stood foremost in all attacks on the high prerogatives of the crown;
      and displayed that masculine eloquence and undaunted love of liberty,
      which, from his intimate acquaintance with the sublime spirits of
      antiquity, he had greedily imbibed. When civil convulsions proceeded to
      extremities, and it became requisite for him to choose his side, he
      tempered the ardor of his zeal, and embraced the defence of those limited
      powers which remained to monarchy, and which he deemed necessary for the
      support of the English constitution. Still anxious, however, for his
      country, he seems to have dreaded the too prosperous success of his own
      party as much as of the enemy; and among his intimate friends often after
      a deep silence and frequent sighs, he would with a sad accent reiterate
      the word peace. In excuse for the too free exposing of his person, which
      seemed unsuitable in a secretary of state, he alleged, that it became him
      to be more active than other men in all hazardous enterprises, lest his
      impatience for peace might bear the imputation of cowardice or
      pusillanimity. From the commencement of the war, his natural cheerfulness
      and vivacity became clouded; and even his usual attention to dress,
      required by his birth and station gave way to a negligence which was
      easily observable. On the morning of the battle in which he fell, he had
      shown some care of adorning his person; and gave for a reason, that the
      enemy should not find his body in any slovenly, indecent situation. "I am
      weary," subjoined he, "of the times, and foresee much misery to my
      country; but believe that I shall be out of it ere night."[*] This
      excellent person was but thirty-four years of age when a period was thus
      put to his life.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 70. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 350, 351, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      The loss sustained on both sides in the battle of Newbury, and the
      advanced season, obliged the armies to retire into winter quarters.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the north, during this summer, the great interest and popularity of the
      earl, now created marquis of Newcastle, had raised a considerable force
      for the king; and great hopes of success were entertained from that
      quarter. There appeared, however, in opposition to him, two men on whom
      the event of the war finally depended, and who began about this time to be
      remarked for their valor and military conduct. These were Sir Thomas
      Fairfax, son of the lord of that name, and Oliver Cromwell. The former
      gained a considerable advantage at Wakefield over a detachment of
      royalists, and took General Goring prisoner: the latter obtained a victory
      at Gainsborough over a party commanded by the gallant Cavendish, who
      perished in the action. But both these defeats of the royalists were more
      than sufficiently compensated by the total rout of Lord Fairfax at
      Atherton Moor, and the dispersion of his army. After this victory,
      Newcastle, with an army of fifteen thousand men, sat down before Hull.
      Hotham was no longer governor of this place. That gentleman and his son
      partly from a jealousy entertained of Lord Fairfax, partly repenting of
      their engagements against the king, had entered into a correspondence with
      Newcastle, and had expressed an intention of delivering Hull into his
      hands. But their conspiracy being detected, they were arrested and sent
      prisoners to London; where, without any regard to their former services,
      they fell, both of them, victims to the severity of the parliament.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Newcastle, having carried on the attack of Hull for some time, was beat
      off by a sally of the garrison, and suffered so much that he thought
      proper to raise the siege. About the same time, Manchester, who advanced
      from the eastern associated counties, having joined Cromwell and young
      Fairfax, obtained a considerable victory over the royalists at Horncastle;
      where the two officers last mentioned gained renown by their conduct and
      gallantry. And though fortune had thus balanced her favors, the king's
      party still remained much superior in those parts of England; and had it
      not been for the garrison of Hull, which kept Yorkshire in awe, a
      conjunction of the northern forces with the army in the south might have
      been made, and had probably enabled the king, instead of entering on the
      unfortunate, perhaps imprudent, enterprise of Gloucester, to march
      directly to London, and put an end to the war.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vi. p. 275.

     ** Warwick, p. 261. Walker, p. 278. laudable.
</pre>
    <p>
      While the military enterprises were carried on with vigor in England, and
      the event became every day more doubtful, both parties cast their eye
      towards the neighboring kingdoms, and sought assistance for the finishing
      of that enterprise in which their own forces experienced such furious
      opposition. The parliament had recourse to Scotland; the king to Ireland.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the Scottish Covenanters obtained that end for which they so
      earnestly contended, the establishment of Presbyterian discipline in their
      own country, they were not satisfied, but indulged still in an ardent
      passion for propagating, by all methods, that mode of religion in the
      neighboring kingdoms. Having flattered themselves, in the fervor of their
      zeal, that by supernatural assistances they should be enabled to carry
      their triumphant covenant to the gates of Rome itself, it behoved them
      first to render it prevalent in England, which already showed so great a
      disposition to receive it. Even in the articles of pacification, they
      expressed a desire of uniformity in worship with England; and the king,
      employing general expressions, had approved of this inclination as pious
      and no sooner was there an appearance of a rupture, than the English
      parliament, in order to allure that nation into a close confederacy,
      openly declared their wishes of ecclesiastical reformation, and of
      imitating the example of their northern brethren.[*] When war was actually
      commenced, the same artifices were used, and the Scots beheld, with the
      utmost impatience, a scene of action of which they could not deem
      themselves indifferent spectators. Should the king, they said, be able by
      force of arms to prevail over the parliament of England, and reestablish
      his authority in that powerful kingdom, he will undoubtedly retract all
      those concessions which, with so many circumstances of violence and
      indignity, the Scots have extorted from him. Besides a sense of his own
      interest, and a regard to royal power, which has been entirely annihilated
      in this country, his very passion for prelacy and for religious ceremonies
      must lead him to invade a church which he has ever been taught to regard
      as anti-Christian and unlawful. Let us but consider who the persons are
      that compose the factions now so furiously engaged in arms. Does not the
      parliament consist of those very men who have ever opposed all war with
      Scotland, who have punished the authors of our oppressions, who have
      obtained us the redress of every grievance, and who, with many honorable
      expressions, have conferred on us an ample reward for our brotherly
      assistance? And is not the court full of Papists, prelates, malignants;
      all of them zealous enemies to our religious model, and resolute to
      sacrifice their lives for their idolatrous establishments? Not to mention
      our own necessary security can we better express our gratitude to Heaven
      for that pure light with which we are, above all nations, so eminently
      distinguished, than by conveying the same divine knowledge to our unhappy
      neighbors, who are wading through a sea of blood in order to attain it?
      These were in Scotland the topics of every conversation: with these
      doctrines the pulpits echoed: and the famous curse of Meroz, that curse so
      solemnly denounced and reiterated against neutrality and moderation,
      resounded from all quarters.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vi. p. 390. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 68.

     ** Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord; curse ye
     bitterly the inhabitants thereof: because they came not to
     the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the
     mighty. Judges, chap. v ver. 23.
</pre>
    <p>
      The parliament of England had ever invited the Scots, from the
      commencement of the civil dissensions, to interpose their mediation, which
      they knew would be so little favorable to the king: and the king for that
      very reason had ever endeavored, with the least offensive expressions, to
      decline it.[*] Early this spring, the earl of Loudon, the chancellor, with
      other commissioners, and attended by Henderson, a popular and intriguing
      preacher, was sent to the king at Oxford, and renewed the offer of
      mediation; but with the same success as before. The commissioners were
      also empowered to press the king on the article of religion, and to
      recommend to him the Scottish model of ecclesiastic worship and
      discipline. This was touching Charles in a very tender point: his honor
      his conscience, as well as his interest, he believed to be intimately
      concerned in supporting prelacy and the liturgy.[**] <a href="#linknote-14"
      name="linknoteref-14" id="linknoteref-14">14</a> He begged the
      commissioners, therefore, to remain satisfied with the concessions which
      he had made to Scotland; and having modelled their own church according to
      their own principles, to leave their neighbors in the like liberty, and
      not to intermeddle with affairs of which they could not be supposed
      competent judges.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 398.

     ** See note N, at the end of the volume.

     *** Bush. vol. vi. p. 462.
</pre>
    <p>
      The divines of Oxford, secure, as they imagined, of a victory, by means of
      their authorities from church history, their quotations from the fathers,
      and their spiritual arguments, desired a conference with Henderson, and
      undertook by dint of reasoning to convert that great apostle of the north:
      but Henderson, who had ever regarded as impious the least doubt with
      regard to his own principles, and who knew of a much better way to reduce
      opponents than by employing any theological topics, absolutely refused all
      disputation or controversy. The English divines went away full of
      admiration at the blind assurance and bigoted prejudices of the man: he on
      his part was moved with equal wonder at their obstinate attachment to such
      palpable errors and delusions.
    </p>
    <p>
      By the concessions which the king had granted to Scotland, it became
      necessary for him to summon a parliament once in three years; and in June
      of the subsequent year was fixed the period for the meeting of that
      assembly. Before that time elapsed, Charles flattered himself that he
      should be able, by some decisive advantage, to reduce the English
      parliament to a reasonable submission, and might then expect with security
      the meeting of a Scottish parliament. Though earnestly solicited by Loudon
      to summon presently that great council of the nation, he absolutely
      refused to give authority to men who had already excited such dangerous
      commotions, and who showed still the same disposition to resist and invade
      his authority. The commissioners, therefore, not being able to prevail in
      any of their demands, desired the king's passport for London, where they
      purposed to confer with the English parliament;[*] and being likewise
      denied this request, they returned with extreme dissatisfaction to
      Edinburgh.
    </p>
    <p>
      The office of conservators of the peace was newly erected in Scotland, in
      order to maintain the confederacy between the two kingdoms; and these,
      instigated by the clergy, were resolved, since they could not obtain the
      king's consent, to summon in his name, but by their own authority, a
      convention of states; and to bereave their sovereign of this article, the
      only one which remained, of his prerogative. Under color of providing for
      national peace, endangered by the neighborhood of English armies, was a
      convention called; an assembly which though it meets with less solemnity,
      has the same authority as a parliament in raising money and levying
      forces. Hamilton, and his brother the earl of Laneric, who had been sent
      into Scotland in order to oppose, these measures, wanted either authority
      or sincerity; and passively yielded to the torrent. The general assembly
      of the church met at the same time with the convention; and exercising an
      authority almost absolute over the whole civil power, made every political
      consideration yield to their theological zeal and prejudices.
    </p>
    <p>
      The English parliament was at that time fallen into great distress by the
      progress of the royal arms; and they gladly sent to Edinburgh
      commissioners, with ample powers to treat of a nearer union and
      confederacy with the Scottish nation. The persons employed were the earl
      of Rutland, Sir William Armyne, Sir Henry Vane the younger, Thomas
      Hatcher, and Henry Dailey, attended by Marshall and Nye, two clergymen of
      signal authority.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 406.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 73. Rush. vol. vi. p. 466. Clarendon, vol.
     iii. p.300
</pre>
    <p>
      In this negotiation, the man chiefly trusted was Vane, who, in eloquence,
      address, capacity, as well as in art and dissimulation, was not surpassed
      by any one even during that age, so famous for active talents. By his
      persuasion was framed, at Edinburgh, that Solemn League and Covenant,
      which effaced all former protestations and vows taken in both kingdoms,
      and long maintained its credit and authority. In this covenant, the
      subscribers, besides engaging mutually to defend each other against all
      opponents bound themselves to endeavor, without respect of persons the
      extirpation of Popery and prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, and
      profaneness; to maintain the rights and privileges of parliaments,
      together with the king's authority, and to discover and bring to justice
      all incendiaries and malignants.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush vol. vi. p. 478. Clarendon, vol iii. p. 373.
</pre>
    <p>
      The subscribers of the covenant vowed also to preserve the reformed
      religion established in the church of Scotland; but, by the artifice of
      Vane, no declaration more explicit was made with regard to England and
      Ireland, than that these kingdoms should be reformed according to the word
      of God and the example of the purest churches. The Scottish zealots, when
      prelacy was abjured, deemed this expression quite free from ambiguity, and
      regarded their own model as the only one which corresponded in any degree
      to such a description: but that able politician had other views; and while
      he employed his great talents in overreaching the Presbyterians, and
      secretly laughed at their simplicity, he had blindly devoted himself to
      the maintenance of systems still more absurd and more dangerous.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the English parliament there remained some members who, though they had
      been induced, either by private ambition or by zeal for civil liberty, to
      concur with the majority, still retained an attachment to the hierarchy,
      and to the ancient modes of worship. But in the present danger which
      threatened their cause, all scruples were laid aside; and the covenant, by
      whose means alone they could expect to obtain so considerable a
      reënforcement as the accession of the Scottish nation, was received
      without opposition. The parliament, therefore, having first subscribed it
      themselves, ordered it to be received by all who lived under their
      authority.
    </p>
    <p>
      Great were the rejoicings among the Scots, that they should be the happy
      instruments of extending their mode of religion, and dissipating that
      profound darkness in which the neighboring nations were involved. The
      general assembly applauded this glorious imitation of the piety displayed
      by their ancestors who, they said, in three different applications, during
      the reign of Elizabeth, had endeavored to engage the English, by
      persuasion, to lay aside the use of the surplice, tippet, and
      corner-cap.[*] The convention, too, in the height of their zeal, ordered
      every one to swear to this covenant, under the penalty of confiscation;
      besides what further punishment it should please the ensuing parliament to
      inflict on the refusers, as enemies to God, to the king, and to the
      kingdom. And being determined that the sword should carry conviction to
      all refractory minds, they prepared themselves, with great vigilance and
      activity, for their military enterprises. By means of a hundred thousand
      pounds, which they received from England; by the hopes of good pay and
      warm quarters; not to mention men's favorable disposition towards the
      cause; they soon completed their levies. And having added to their other
      forces the troops which they had recalled from Ireland, they were ready,
      about the end of the year, to enter England, under the command of their
      old general, the earl of Leven, with an army of above twenty thousand
      men.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush., vol. vi. p 388.

     ** Clarendon, vol. iii. p 383.
</pre>
    <p>
      The king, foreseeing this tempest which was gathering upon him, endeavored
      to secure himself by every expedient; and he cast his eye towards Ireland,
      in hopes that this kingdom, from which his cause had already received so
      much prejudice, might at length contribute somewhat towards his protection
      and security.
    </p>
    <p>
      After the commencement of the Irish insurrection, the English parliament,
      though they undertook the suppression of it, had ever been too much
      engaged, either in military projects or expeditions at home, to take any
      effectual step towards finishing that enterprise. They had entered,
      indeed, into a contract with the Scots, for sending over an army of ten
      thousand men into Ireland; and in order to engage that nation in this
      undertaking, besides giving a promise of pay, they agreed to put
      Caricfergus into their hands, and to invest their general with an
      authority quite independent of the English government. These troops, so
      long as they were allowed to remain, were useful, by diverting the force
      of the Irish rebels, and protecting in the north the small remnants of the
      British planters. But except this contract with the Scottish nation, all
      the other measures of the parliament either were hitherto absolutely
      insignificant, or tended rather to the prejudice of the Protestant cause
      in Ireland. By continuing their violent persecution, and still more
      violent menaces against priests and Papists, they confirmed the Irish
      Catholics in their rebellion, and cut off all hopes of indulgence and
      toleration. By disposing beforehand of all the Irish forfeitures to
      subscribers or adventurers, they rendered all men of property desperate,
      and seemed to threaten a total extirpation of the natives.[*] And while
      they thus infused zeal and animosity into the enemy, no measure was
      pursued which could tend to support or encourage the Protestants, now
      reduced to the last extremities.
    </p>
    <p>
      So great is the ascendant which, from a long course of successes, the
      English has acquired over the Irish nation, that though the latter, when
      they receive military discipline among foreigners, are not surpassed by
      any troops, they have never, in their own country, been able to make any
      vigorous effort for the defence or recovery of their liberties. In many
      rencounters, the English, under Lord More, Sir William St. Leger, Sir
      Frederic Hamilton, and others, had, though under great disadvantages of
      situation and numbers, put the Irish to rout, and returned in triumph to
      Dublin. The rebels raised the siege of Tredah, after an obstinate defence
      made by the garrison.[**] Ormond had obtained two complete victories at
      Kilrush and Ross; and had brought relief to all the forts which were
      besieged or blockaded in different parts of the kingdom.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * A thousand acres in Ulster were given to every one that
     subscribed two hundred pounds, in Connaught to the
     subscribers of three hundred and fifty, in Munster for four
     hundred and fifty, in Leinster for six hundred.

     * Rush vol. vi. p. 506.

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p. 512.
</pre>
    <p>
      But notwithstanding these successes, even the most common necessaries of
      life were wanting to the victorious armies. The Irish, in their wild rage
      against the British planters, had laid waste the whole kingdom, and were
      themselves totally unfit, from their habitual sloth and ignorance, to
      raise any convenience of human life. During the course of six months, no
      supplies had come from England, except the fourth part of one small
      vessel's lading. Dublin, to save itself from starving, had been obliged to
      send the greater part of its inhabitants to England. The army had little
      ammunition, scarcely exceeding forty barrels of gunpowder; not even shoes
      or clothes; and for want of food, the soldiers had been obliged to eat
      their own horses. And though the distress of the Irish was not much
      inferior,[*] besides that they were more hardened against such
      extremities, it was but a melancholy reflection, that the two nations,
      while they continued their furious animosities, should make desolate that
      fertile island, which might serve to the subsistence and happiness, of
      both.
    </p>
    <p>
      The justices and council of Ireland had been engaged, chiefly by the
      interest and authority of Ormond, to fall into an entire dependence on the
      king. Parsons, Temple, Loftus, and Meredith, who favored the opposite
      party, had been removed; and Charles had supplied their place by others
      better affected to his service. A committee of the English house of
      commons, which had been sent over to Ireland in order to conduct the
      affairs of that kingdom, had been excluded the council, in obedience to
      orders transmitted from the king.[**] And these were reasons sufficient,
      besides the great difficulties under which they themselves labored, why
      the parliament was unwilling to send supplies to an army which, though
      engaged in a cause much favored by them, was commanded by their declared
      enemies. They even intercepted some small succors sent thither by the
      king.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, as he had neither money, arms, ammunition, nor provisions to
      spare from his own urgent wants, resolved to embrace an expedient which
      might at once relieve the necessities of the Irish Protestants, and
      contribute to the advancement of his affairs in England. A truce with the
      rebels, he thought, would enable his subjects in Ireland to provide for
      their own support, and would procure him the assistance of the army
      against the English parliament. But as a treaty with a people so odious
      for their barbarities, and still more for their religion, might be
      represented in invidious colors, and renew all those calumnies with which
      he had been loaded, it was necessary to proceed with great caution in
      conducting that measure. A remonstrance from the army was made to the
      Irish council, representing their intolerable necessities, and craving
      permission to leave the kingdom: and if that were refused, "We must have
      recourse," they said, "to that first and primary law with which God has
      endowed all men; we mean the law of nature, which teaches every creature
      to preserve itself."[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 555.

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p 530. Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 167.

     *** Rush. vol. vi. p. 537.
</pre>
    <p>
      Memorials both to the king and parliament were transmitted by the justices
      and council, in which then wants and dangers are strongly set forth;[*]
      and though the general expressions in these memorials might perhaps be
      suspected of exaggeration, yet from the particular facts mentioned, from
      the confession of the English parliament itself,[**] and from the very
      nature of things, it is apparent that the Irish Protestants were reduced
      to great extremities;[***] and it became prudent in the king, if not
      absolutely necessary, to embrace some expedient which might secure them
      for a time from the ruin and misery with which they were threatened.
    </p>
    <p>
      Accordingly the king gave orders[****] to Ormond and the justices to
      conclude, for a year, a cessation of arms with the council of Kilkenny, by
      whom the Irish were governed, and to leave both sides in possession of
      their present advantages. The parliament, whose business it was to find
      fault with every measure adopted by the opposite party, and who would not
      lose so fair an opportunity of reproaching the king with his favor to the
      Irish Papists, exclaimed loudly against this cessation. Among other
      reasons, they insisted upon the divine vengeance, which England might
      justly dread for tolerating anti-Christian idolatry, on pretence of civil
      contracts and political agreements.[v] Religion, though every day employed
      as the engine of their own ambitious purposes, was supposed too sacred to
      be yielded up to the temporal interests or safety of kingdoms.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 538.

     ** Rush, vol. vi. p. 540.

     *** See further, Carte's Ormond, (vol. iii. No. 113, 127,
     128, 129 134, 136, 141, 144, 149, 158, 159.) All these
     papers put it past doubt, that the necessities of the
     English army in Ireland were extreme. See further, Rush.
     vol. vi. p. 537. and Dugdale, p. *53 *54.

     **** Rush. vol. vi p. 537, 544, 547

     v    Rush, vol. vi. p. 557.
</pre>
    <p>
      After the cessation, there was little necessity, as well as no means of
      subsisting the army in Ireland. The king ordered Ormond, who was entirely
      devoted to him, to send over considerable bodies of it to England. Most of
      them continued in his service; but a small part, having imbibed in Ireland
      a strong animosity against the Catholics, and hearing the king's party
      universally reproached with Popery, soon after deserted to the Parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      Some Irish Catholics came over with these troops, and joined the royal
      army, where they continued the same cruelties and disorders to which they
      had been accustomed.[*] The parliament voted, that no quarter in any
      action should ever be given them; but Prince Rupert, by making some
      reprisals, soon repressed this inhumanity.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p 78, 103.

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p. 680, 788.
</pre>
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    <h2>
      CHAPTER LVII
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    <h2>
      CHARLES I.
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1644.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king had hitherto, during the course of the war, obtained many
      advantages over the parliament, and had raised himself from that low
      condition into which he had at first fallen, to be nearly upon an equal
      footing with his adversaries. Yorkshire, and all the northern counties,
      were reduced by the marquis of Newcastle; and, excepting Hull, the
      parliament was master of no garrison in these quarters. In the west,
      Plymouth alone, having been in vain besieged by Prince Maurice, resisted
      the king's authority; and had it not been for the disappointment in the
      enterprise of Gloucester, the royal garrisons had reached, without
      interruption, from one end of the kingdom to the other, and had occupied a
      greater extent of ground than those of the parliament. Many of the
      royalists flattered themselves, that the same vigorous spirit which had
      elevated them to the present height of power would still favor their
      progress, and obtain them a final victory over their enemies: but those
      who judged more soundly, observed, that, besides the accession of the
      whole Scottish nation to the side of the parliament, the very principle on
      which the royal successes had been founded, was every day acquired more
      and more by the opposite party. The king's troops, full of gentry and
      nobility, had exerted a valor superior to their enemies, and had hitherto
      been successful in almost every rencounter; but in proportion as the whole
      nation became warlike by the continuance of civil discords, this advantage
      was more equally shared; and superior numbers, it was expected, must at
      length obtain the victory..The king's troops, also, ill paid, and
      destitute of every necessary, could not possibly be retained in equal
      discipline with the parliamentary forces, to whom all supplies were
      furnished from unexhausted stores and treasures.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol vi. p, 560.
</pre>
    <p>
      The severity of manners, so much affected by these zealous religionists,
      assisted their military institutions and the rigid inflexibility of
      character by which the austere reformers of church and state were
      distinguished, enabled the parliamentary chiefs to restrain their soldiers
      within stricter rules and more exact order. And while the king's officers
      indulged themselves even in greater licenses than those to which during
      times of peace they had been accustomed, they were apt both to neglect
      their military duty, and to set a pernicious example of disorder to the
      soldiers under their command.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the commencement of the civil war, all Englishmen who served abroad
      were invited over, and treated with extraordinary respect; and most of
      them, being descended of good families, and by reason of their absence
      unacquainted with the new principles which depressed the dignity of the
      crown, had enlisted under the royal standard. But it is observable, that
      though the military profession requires great genius and long experience
      in the principal commanders, all its subordinate duties may be discharged
      by ordinary talents and from superficial practice. Citizens and country
      gentlemen soon became excellent officers; and the generals of greatest
      fame and capacity happened, all of them, to spring up on the side of the
      parliament. The courtiers and great nobility, in the other party, checked
      the growth of any extraordinary genius among the subordinate officers; and
      every man there, as in a regular established government, was confined to
      the station in which his birth had placed him.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, that he might make preparations during winter for the ensuing
      campaign, summoned to Oxford all the members of either house who adhered
      to his interests; and endeavored to avail himself of the name of
      parliament, so passionately cherished by the English nation.[*] The house
      of peers was pretty full; and, beside the nobility employed in different
      parts of the kingdom, it contained twice as many members as commonly voted
      at Westminster. The house of commons consisted of about one hundred and
      forty; which amounted not to above half of the other house of commons.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 559.

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p. 566, 574, 575.
</pre>
    <p>
      So extremely light had government hitherto lain upon the people that the
      very name of excise was unknown to them; and among the other evils arising
      from these domestic wars was the introduction of that impost into England.
      The parliament at Westminster having voted an excise on beer, wine, and
      other commodities, those at Oxford imitated the example, and conferred
      that revenue on the king. And, in order to enable him the better to
      recruit his army, they granted him the sum of one hundred thousand pounds,
      to be levied by way of loan upon the subject. The king circulated privy
      seals, countersigned by the speakers of both houses, requiring the loan of
      particular sums from such persons as lived within his quarters.[*] Neither
      party had as yet got above the pedantry of reproaching their antagonists
      with these illegal measures.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Westminster parliament passed a whimsical ordinance, commanding all
      the inhabitants of London and the neighborhood to retrench a meal a week,
      and to pay the value of it for the support of the public cause.[**] It is
      easily imagined that, provided the money were paid, they troubled
      themselves but little about the execution of their ordinance.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 590.

     ** Dugdale, p. 119. Rush. vol. vi. p. 748.
</pre>
    <p>
      Such was the king's situation, that, in order to restore peace to the
      nation, he had no occasion to demand any other terms than the restoring of
      the laws and constitution; the replacing him in the same rights which had
      ever been enjoyed by his predecessors; and the reëstablishing on its
      ancient basis the whole frame of government, civil as well as
      ecclesiastical. And that he might facilitate an end seemingly so
      desirable, he offered to employ means equally popular, a universal act of
      oblivion, and a toleration or indulgence to tender consciences. Nothing
      therefore could contribute more to his interests than every discourse of
      peace, and every discussion of the conditions upon which that blessing
      could be obtained. For this reason, he solicited a treaty on all
      occasions, and desired a conference and mutual examination of pretensions,
      even when he entertained no hopes that any conclusion could possibly
      result from it.
    </p>
    <p>
      For like reasons, the parliament prudently avoided, as much as possible,
      all advances towards negotiation, and were cautious not to expose too
      easily to censure those high terms which their apprehensions or their
      ambition made them previously demand of the king. Though their partisans
      were blinded with the thickest veil of religious prejudices, they dreaded
      to bring their pretensions to the test, or lay them open before the whole
      nation. In opposition to the sacred authority of the laws, to the
      venerable precedents of many ages, the popular leaders were ashamed to
      plead nothing but fears and jealousies, which were not avowed by the
      constitution, and for which neither the personal character of Charles, so
      full of virtue, nor his situation, so deprived of all independent
      authority, seemed to afford any reasonable foundation. Grievances which
      had been fully redressed; powers, either legal or illegal, which had been
      entirely renounced; it seemed unpopular, and invidious, and ungrateful,
      any further to insist on.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, that he might abate the universal veneration paid to the name of
      parliament, had issued a declaration, in which he set forth all the
      tumults by which himself and his partisans in both houses had been driven
      from London; and he thence inferred, that the assembly at Westminster was
      no longer a free parliament, and, till its liberty were restored, was
      entitled to no authority. As this declaration was an obstacle to all
      treaty, some contrivance seemed requisite in order to elude it.
    </p>
    <p>
      A letter was written in the foregoing spring to the earl of Essex, and
      subscribed by the prince, the duke of York, and forty-three noblemen.[*]
      They there exhort him to be an instrument of restoring peace, and to
      promote that happy end with those by whom he was employed. Essex, though
      much disgusted with the parliament, though apprehensive of the extremities
      to which they were driving, though desirous of any reasonable
      accommodation, yet was still more resolute to preserve an honorable
      fidelity to the trust reposed in him. He replied, that as the paper sent
      him neither contained any address to the two houses of parliament, nor any
      acknowledgment of their authority, he could not communicate it to them.
      Like proposals had been reiterated by the king during the ensuing
      campaign, and still met with a like answer from Essex.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 442. Rush, vol vi. p. 566.
     Whitlocke, p. 77.

     ** Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 444. Rush. vol. vi. p. 569, 570.
     Whitlocke, p. 94.
</pre>
    <p>
      In order to make a new trial for a treaty, the king this spring sent
      another letter, directed to the lords and commons of parliament assembled
      at Westminster: but as he also mentioned in the letter the lords and
      commons of parliament assembled at Oxford, and declared, that his scope
      and intention was to make provision that all the members of both houses
      might securely meet in a full and free assembly, the parliament,
      perceiving the conclusion implied, refused all treaty upon such terms.[*]
      And the king, who knew what small hopes there were of accommodation, would
      not abandon the pretensions which he had assumed; nor acknowledge the two
      houses, more expressly, for a free parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      This winter the famous Pym died; a man as much hated by one party as
      respected by the other. At London, he was considered as the victim to
      national liberty, who had abridged his life by incessant labors for the
      interests of his country:[**] at Oxford, he was believed to have been
      struck with an uncommon disease, and to have been consumed with vermin, as
      a mark of divine vengeance, for his multiplied crimes and treasons. He had
      been so little studious of improving his private fortune in those civil
      wars, of which he had been one principal author, that the parliament
      thought themselves obliged from gratitude to pay the debts which he had
      contracted.[***] We now return to the military operations, which, during
      the winter, were carried on with vigor in several places, notwithstanding
      the severity of the season.
    </p>
    <p>
      The forces brought from Ireland were landed at Mostyne, in North Wales;
      and being put under the command of Lord Biron, they besieged and took the
      Castles of Hawarden, Beeston, Acton, and Deddington House.[****] No place
      in Cheshire or the neighborhood now adhered to the parliament, except
      Nantwich; and to this town Biron laid siege during the depth of winter.
      Sir Thomas Fairfax, alarmed at so considerable a progress of the
      royalists, assembled an army of four thousand men in Yorkshire, and having
      joined Sir William Brereton, was approaching to the camp of the enemy.
      Biron and his soldiers, elated with successes obtained in Ireland, had
      entertained the most profound contempt for the parliamentary forces; a
      disposition which, if confined to the army, may be regarded as a good
      presage of victory; but if it extend to the general, is the most probable
      forerunner of a defeat. Fairfax suddenly attacked the camp of the
      royalists. The swelling of the river by a thaw divided one part of the
      army from the other. That part exposed to Fairfax, being beaten from their
      post, retired into the church of Acton, and were all taken prisoners; the
      other retreated with precipitation.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 449. Whitlocke, p. 79.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 66.

     *** Journ. 13th of February, 1645.

     **** Rush. vol. vi. p. 299.

     v    Rush. vol. vi. p. 301.
</pre>
    <p>
      And thus was dissipated or rendered useless that body of forces which had
      been drawn from Ireland; and the parliamentary party revived in those
      north-west counties of England.
    </p>
    <p>
      The invasion from Scotland was attended with consequences of much greater
      importance. The Scots, having summoned in vain the town of Newcastle,
      which was fortified by the vigilance of Sir Thomas Glenham, passed the
      Tyne, and faced the marquis of Newcastle, who lay at Durham with an army
      of fourteen thousand men.[*] After some military operations, in which that
      nobleman reduced the enemy to difficulties for forage and provisions, he
      received intelligence of a great disaster which had befallen his forces in
      Yorkshire. Colonel Bellasis, whom he had left with a considerable body of
      troops, was totally routed at Selby by Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had
      returned from Cheshire with his victorious forces.[**] Afraid of being
      enclosed between two armies, Newcastle retreated; and Leven having joined
      Lord Fairfax, they sat down before York, to which the army of the
      royalists had retired. But as the parliamentary and Scottish forces were
      not numerous enough to invest so large a town, divided by a river, they
      contented themselves with incommoding it by a loose blockade; and affairs
      remained for some time in suspense between these opposite armies.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      During this winter and spring, other parts of the kingdom had also been
      infested with war. Hopton, having assembled an army of fourteen thousand
      men, endeavored to break into Sussex, Kent, and the southern association,
      which seemed well disposed to receive him. Waller fell upon him at
      Cherington, and gave him a defeat of considerable importance. In another
      quarter, siege being laid to Newark by the parliamentary forces, Prince
      Rupert prepared himself for relieving a town of such consequence, which
      alone preserved the communication open between the king's southern and
      northern quarters.[****] With a small force, but that animated by his
      active courage, he broke through the enemy, relieved the town, and totally
      dissipated that army of the parliament.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 615.

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p. 618.

     *** Rush. vol. vi. p. 620.

     *** Rush. vol. vi. p. 806.
</pre>
    <p>
      But though fortune seemed to have divided her favors between the parties,
      the king found himself, in the main, a considerable loser by this winter
      campaign; and he prognosticated a still worse event from the ensuing
      summer. The preparations of the parliament were great, and much exceeded
      the slender resources of which he was possessed. In the eastern
      association they levied fourteen thousand men, under the earl of
      Manchester, seconded by Cromwell.[*] An army of ten thousand men, under
      Essex; another of nearly the same force, under Waller, were assembled in
      the neighborhood of London. The former was destined to oppose the king:
      the latter was appointed to march into the west, where Prince Maurice,
      with a small army which went continually to decay, was spending his time
      in vain before Lyme, an inconsiderable town upon the sea-coast. The utmost
      efforts of the king could not raise above ten thousand men at Oxford; and
      on their sword chiefly, during the campaign, were these to depend for
      subsistence.
    </p>
    <p>
      The queen, terrified with the dangers which every way environed her, and
      afraid of being enclosed in Oxford, in the middle of the kingdom, fled to
      Exeter, where she hoped to be delivered unmolested of the child with which
      she was now pregnant, and whence she had the means of an easy escape into
      France, if pressed by the forces of the enemy. She knew the implacable
      hatred which the parliament, on account of her religion and her credit
      with the king, had all along borne her. Last summer, the commons had sent
      up to the peers an impeachment of high treason against her; because, in
      his utmost distresses, she had assisted her husband with arms and
      ammunition which she had bought in Holland.[**] And had she fallen into
      their hands, neither her sex, she knew, nor high station, could protect
      her against insults at least, if not danger, from those haughty
      republicans, who so little affected to conduct themselves by the maxims of
      gallantry and politeness.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 621.

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p. 321.
</pre>
    <p>
      From the beginning of these dissensions, the parliament, it is remarkable,
      had in all things assumed an extreme ascendant over their sovereign, and
      had displayed a violence, and arrogated an authority, which, on his side,
      would not have been compatible either with his temper or his situation.
      While he spoke perpetually of pardoning all rebels, they talked of nothing
      but the punishment of delinquents and malignants: while he offered a
      toleration and indulgence to tender consciences, they threatened the utter
      extirpation of prelacy: to his professions of lenity they opposed
      declarations of rigor; and the more the ancient tenor of the laws
      inculcated a respectful subordination to the crown, the more careful were
      they, by their lofty pretensions, to cover that defect under which they
      labored.
    </p>
    <p>
      Their great advantages in the north seemed to second their ambition, and
      finally to promise them success in their unwarrantable enterprises.
      Manchester, having taken Lincoln, had united his army to that of Leven and
      Fairfax; and York was now closely besieged by their combined forces. That
      town, though vigorously defended by Newcastle, was reduced to extremity;
      and the parliamentary generals, after enduring great losses and fatigues,
      flattered themselves that all their labors would at last be crowned by
      this important conquest. On a sudden, they were alarmed by the approach of
      Prince Rupert. This gallant commander, having vigorously exerted himself
      in Lancashire and Cheshire, had collected a considerable army; and joining
      Sir Charles Lucas, who commanded Newcastle's horse, hastened to the relief
      of York with an army of twenty thousand men. The Scottish and
      parliamentary generals raised the siege, and drawing up on Marston Moor,
      purposed to give battle to the royalists. Prince Rupert approached the
      town by another quarter, and, interposing the River Ouse between him and
      the enemy, safely joined his forces to those of Newcastle. The marquis
      endeavored to persuade him, that, having so successfully effected his
      purpose, he ought to be content with the present advantages, and leave the
      enemy, now much diminished by their losses, and discouraged by their ill
      success, to dissolve by those mutual dissensions which had begun to take
      place among them.[*] The prince, whose martial disposition was not
      sufficiently tempered with prudence, nor softened by complaisance,
      pretending positive orders from the king, without deigning to consult with
      Newcastle, whose merits and services deserved better treatment,
      immediately issued orders for battle, and led out the army to Marston
      Moor.[**] This action was obstinately disputed between the most numerous
      armies that were engaged during the course of these wars; nor were the
      forces on each side much different in number. Fifty thousand British
      troops were led to mutual slaughter; and the victory seemed long undecided
      between them. Prince Rupert, who commanded the right wing of the
      royalists, was opposed to Cromwell,[***] who conducted the choice troops
      of the parliament, inured to danger under that determined leader, animated
      by zeal, and confirmed by the most rigid discipline.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Life of the Duke of Newcastle, p. 40.

     ** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 506.

     *** Rush, part iii. vol. ii. p. 633.
</pre>
    <p>
      After a short combat, the cavalry of the royalists gave way; and such of
      the infantry as stood next them were likewise borne down and put to
      flight. Newcastle's regiment alone, resolute to conquer or to perish,
      obstinately kept their ground, and maintained, by their dead bodies, the
      same order in which they had at first been ranged. In the other wing, Sir
      Thomas Fairfax and Colonel Lambert, with some troops, broke through the
      royalists; and, transported by the ardor of pursuit, soon reached their
      victorious friends, engaged also in pursuit of the enemy. But after that
      tempest was past, Lucas, who commanded the royalists in this wing,
      restoring order to his broken forces, made a furious attack on the
      parliamentary cavalry, threw them into disorder, pushed them upon their
      own infantry, and put that whole wing to rout. When ready to seize on
      their carriages and baggage, he perceived Cromwell, who was now returned
      from pursuit of the other wing. Both sides were not a little surprised to
      find that they must again renew the combat for that victory which each of
      them thought they had already obtained. The front of the battle was now
      exactly counterchanged; and each army occupied the ground which had been
      possessed by the enemy at the beginning of the day. This second battle was
      equally furious and desperate with the first: but after the utmost efforts
      of courage by both parties, victory wholly turned to the side of the
      parliament. The prince's train of artillery was taken; and his whole army
      pushed off the field of battle.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 632. Whitlocke, p. 89.
</pre>
    <p>
      This event was in itself a mighty blow to the king; but proved more fatal
      in its consequences. The marquis of Newcastle was entirely lost to the
      royal cause. That nobleman the ornament of the court and of his order, had
      been engaged, contrary to the natural bent of his disposition, into these
      military operations merely by a high sense of honor and a personal regard
      to his master. The dangers of war were disregarded by his valor; but its
      fatigues were oppressive to his natural indolence. Munificent and generous
      in his expense; polite and elegant in his taste; courteous and humane in
      his behavior; he brought a great accession of friends and of credit to the
      party which he embraced. But amidst all the hurry of action, his
      inclinations were secretly drawn to the soft arts of peace, in which he
      took delight; and the charms of poetry music, and conversation often stole
      him from his rougher occupations. He chose Sir William Devenant, an
      ingenious poet, for his lieutenant-general: the other persons in whom he
      placed confidence were more the instruments of his refined pleasures, than
      qualified for the business which they undertook; and the severity and
      application requisite to the support of discipline, were qualities in
      which he was entirely wanting.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      When Prince Rupert, contrary to his advice, resolved on this battle, and
      issued all orders without communicating his intentions to him, he took the
      field, but, he said, merely as a volunteer; and, except by his personal
      courage, which shone out with lustre, he had no share in the action.
      Enraged to find that all his successful labors were rendered abortive by
      one act of fatal temerity, terrified with the prospect of renewing his
      pains and fatigue, he resolved no longer to maintain the few resources
      which remained to a desperate cause, and thought, that the same regard to
      honor which had at first called him to arms, now required him to abandon a
      party where he met with such unworthy treatment. Next morning early, he
      sent word to the prince, that he was instantly to leave the kingdom; and
      without delay, he went to Scarborough, where he found a vessel, which
      carried him beyond sea. During the ensuing years, till the restoration, he
      lived abroad in great necessity, and saw with indifference his opulent
      fortune sequestered by those who assumed the government of England. He
      disdained, by submission or composition, to show obeisance to their
      usurped authority; and the least favorable censors of his merit allowed,
      that the fidelity and services of a whole life had sufficiently atoned for
      one rash action, into which his passion had betrayed him.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Prince Rupert, with equal precipitation, drew off the remains of his army,
      and retired into Lancashire. Glenham, in a few days, was obliged to
      surrender York; and he marched out his garrison with all the honors of
      war.[***] Lord Fairfax, remaining in the city, established his government
      in that whole county, and sent a thousand horse into Lancashire, to join
      with the parliamentary forces in that quarter, and attend the motions of
      the Scottish army marched northwards, in order to join the earl of
      Calender, who was advancing with ten thousand additional forces;[****] and
      to reduce the town of Newcastle, which they took by storm: the earl of
      Manchester, with Cromwell, to whom the fame of this great victory was
      chiefly ascribed, and who was wounded in the action, returned to the
      eastern association, in order to recruit his army.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 507, 508. See Warwick.

     ** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 511.

     *** Rush. vol. vi. p. 638. Prince Rupert:

     **** Whitlocke, p. 88

     v Rush. vol. vi. p. 641.
</pre>
    <p>
      While these events passed in the north, the king's affairs in the south
      were conducted with more success and greater abilities. Ruthven, a
      Scotchman, who had been created earl of Brentford, acted under the king as
      general.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament soon completed their two armies commanded by Essex and
      Waller. The great zeal of the city facilitated this undertaking. Many
      speeches were made to the citizens by the parliamentary leaders, in order
      to excite their ardor. Hollis, in particular, exhorted them not to spare,
      on this important occasion, either their purses, their persons, or their
      prayers;[*] and, in general, it must be confessed, they were sufficiently
      liberal in all these contributions.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 662.
</pre>
    <p>
      The two generals had orders to march with their combined armies towards
      Oxford; and, if the king retired into that city, to lay siege to it, and
      by one enterprise put a period to the war. The king, leaving a numerous
      garrison in Oxford, passed with dexterity between the two armies, which
      had taken Abingdon, and had enclosed him on both sides. He marched towards
      Worcester; and Waller received orders from Essex to follow him and watch
      his motions, while he himself marched into the west, in quest of Prince
      Maurice. Waller had approached within two miles of the royal camp, and was
      only separated from it by the Severn, when he received intelligence that
      the king was advanced to Bewdly, and had directed his course towards
      Shrewsbury. In order to prevent him, Waller presently dislodged, and
      hastened by quick marches to that town while the king, suddenly returning
      upon his own footsteps reached Oxford; and having reënforced his army from
      that garrison, now in his turn marched out in quest of Waller. The two
      armies faced each other at Cropredy Bridge, near Banbury; but the Charwell
      ran between them. Next day, the king decamped, and marched towards
      Daventry. Waller ordered a considerable detachment to pass the bridge,
      with an intention of falling on the rear of the royalists. He was
      repulsed, routed, and pursued with considerable loss.[*] Stunned and
      disheartened with this blow, his army decayed and melted away by
      desertion; and the king thought he might safely leave it, and march
      westward against Essex. That general, having obliged Prince Maurice to
      raise the siege of Lyme, having taken Weymouth and Taunton, advanced still
      in his conquests, and met with no equal opposition. The king followed him,
      and having reënforced his army from all quarters, appeared in the field
      with an army superior to the enemy. Essex, retreating into Cornwall,
      informed the parliament of his danger, and desired them to send an army
      which might fall on the king's rear. General Middleton received a
      commission to execute that service; but came too late. Essex's army,
      cooped up in a narrow corner at Lestithiel, deprived of all forage and
      provisions, and seeing no prospect of succor, was reduced to the last
      extremity. The king pressed them on one side; Prince Maurice on another;
      Sir Richard Granville on a third. Essex, Robarts, and some of the
      principal officers escaped in a boat to Plymouth; Balfour with his horse
      passed the king's outposts in a thick mist, and got safely to the
      garrisons of his own party. The foot under Skippon were obliged to
      surrender their arms, artillery, baggage, and ammunition; and being
      conducted to the parliament's quarters, were dismissed. By this advantage,
      which was much boasted of, the king, besides the honor of the enterprise,
      obtained what he stood extremely in need of: the parliament, having
      preserved the men, lost what they could easily repair.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 676. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 497. Sir Ed.
     Walker, p. 31.

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p. 699, etc. Whitloeke, p. 98. Clarendon,
     vol. v p. 524, 525. Sir Edward Walker, p. 69, 70, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      No sooner did this intelligence reach London, than the committee of the
      two kingdoms voted thanks to Essex for his fidelity, courage, and conduct;
      and this method of proceeding, no less politic than magnanimous, was
      preserved by the parliament throughout the whole course of the war.
      Equally indulgent to their friends and rigorous to their enemies, they
      employed with success these two powerful engines of reward and punishment,
      in confirmation of their authority.
    </p>
    <p>
      That the king might have less reason to exult in the advantages which he
      had obtained in the west, the parliament opposed to him very numerous
      forces. Having armed anew Essex's subdued but not disheartened troops,
      they ordered Manchester and Cromwell to march with their recruited forces
      from the eastern association; and, joining their armies to those of Waller
      and Middleton, as well as of Essex, offer battle to the king. Charles
      chose his post at Newbury, where the parliamentary armies, under the earl
      of Manchester, attacked him with great vigor; and that town was a second
      time the scene of the bloody animosities of the English. Essex's soldiers,
      exhorting one another to repair their broken honor, and revenge the
      disgrace of Lestithiel, made an impetuous assault on the royalists; and
      having recovered some of their cannon lost in Cornwall, could not forbear
      embracing them with tears of joy. Though the king's troops defended
      themselves with valor, they were overpowered by numbers; and the night
      came very seasonably to their relief, and prevented a total overthrow.
      Charles, leaving his baggage and cannon in Dennington Castle, near
      Newbury, forthwith retreated to Wallingford, and thence to Oxford. There
      Prince Rupert and the earl of Northampton joined him, with considerable
      bodies of cavalry. Strengthened by this reënforcement, he ventured to
      advance towards the enemy, now employed before Dennington Castle.[*]
      Essex, detained by sickness, had not joined the army since his misfortune
      in Cornwall. Manchester, who commanded, though his forces were much
      superior to those of the king, declined an engagement, and rejected
      Cromwell's advice, who earnestly pressed him not to neglect so favorable
      an opportunity of finishing the war. The king's army, by bringing off
      their cannon from Dennington Castle in the face of the enemy, seemed to
      have sufficiently repaired the honor which they had lost at Newbury; and
      Charles, having the satisfaction to excite between Manchester and Cromwell
      equal animosities with those which formerly took place between Essex and
      Waller,[*] distributed his army into winter quarters.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p, 721, etc.

     ** Rush. vol. vii. p. 1.
</pre>
    <p>
      Those contests among the parliamentary generals, which had disturbed their
      military operations, were renewed in London during the winter season; and
      each being supported by his own faction, their mutual reproaches and
      accusations agitated the whole city and parliament. There had long
      prevailed in that party a secret distinction, which, though the dread of
      the king's power had hitherto suppressed it, yet, in proportion as the
      hopes of success became nearer and more immediate, began to discover
      itself with high contest and animosity. The Independents, who had at first
      taken shelter and concealed themselves under the wings of the
      Presbyterians, now evidently appeared a distinct party, and betrayed very
      different views and pretensions. We must here endeavor to explain the
      genius of this party, and of its leaders, who henceforth occupy the scene
      of action.
    </p>
    <p>
      During those times, when the enthusiastic spirit met with such honor and
      encouragement, and was the immediate means of distinction and preferment,
      it was impossible to set bounds to these holy fervors, or confine within
      any natural limits what was directed towards an infinite and a
      supernatural object. Every man, as prompted by the warmth of his temper,
      excited by emulation, or supported by his habits of hypocrisy, endeavored
      to distinguish himself beyond his fellows, and to arrive at a higher pitch
      of saintship and perfection. In proportion to its degree of fanaticism,
      each sect became dangerous and destructive; and as the Independents went a
      note higher than the Presbyterians, they could less be restrained within
      any bounds of temper and moderation. From this distinction, as from a
      first principle, were derived, by a necessary consequence, all the other
      differences of these two sects.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Independents rejected all ecclesiastical establishments, and would
      admit of no spiritual courts, no government among pastors, no
      interposition of the magistrate in religious concerns, no fixed
      encouragement annexed to any system of doctrines or opinions. According to
      their principles, each congregation, united voluntarily and by spiritual
      ties, composed within itself a separate church, and exercised a
      jurisdiction, but one destitute of temporal sanctions, over its own pastor
      and its own members. The election alone of the congregation was sufficient
      to bestow the sacerdotal character; and as all essential distinction was
      denied between the laity and the clergy, no ceremony, no institution, no
      vocation, no imposition of hands was, as in all other churches, supposed
      requisite to convey a right to holy orders. The enthusiasm of the
      Presbyterians led them to reject the authority of prelates, to throw off
      the restraint of liturgies, to retrench ceremonies, to limit the riches
      and authority of the priestly office: the fanaticism of the Independents,
      exalted to a higher pitch, abolished ecclesiastical government, disdained
      creeds and systems, neglected every ceremony, and confounded all ranks and
      orders. The soldier, the merchant, the mechanic, indulging the fervors of
      zeal, and guided by the illapses of the spirit, resigned himself to an
      inward and superior direction, and was consecrated, in a manner, by an
      immediate intercourse and communication with heaven.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Catholics, pretending to an infallible guide, had justified upon that
      principle their doctrine and practice of persecution; the Presbyterians,
      imagining that such clear and certain tenets as they themselves adopted
      could be rejected only from a criminal and pertinacious obstinacy, had
      hitherto gratified to the full their bigoted zeal, in a like doctrine and
      practice: the Independents, from the extremity of the same zeal, were led
      into the milder principles of toleration. Their mind, set afloat in the
      wide sea of inspiration, could confine itself within no certain limits;
      and the same variations in which an enthusiast indulged himself, he was
      apt, by a natural train of thinking, to permit in others. Of all Christian
      sects, this was the first which, during its prosperity as well as its
      adversity, always adopted the principle of toleration; and it is
      remarkable that so reasonable a doctrine owed its origin, not to
      reasoning, but to the height of extravagance and fanaticism.
    </p>
    <p>
      Popery and prelacy alone, whose genius seemed to tend towards
      superstition, were treated by the Independents with rigor. The doctrines
      too of fate or destiny were deemed by them essential to all religion. In
      these rigid opinions the whole sectaries, amidst all their other
      differences, unanimously concurred.
    </p>
    <p>
      The political system of the Independents kept pace with their religious.
      Not content with confining to very narrow limits the power of the crown,
      and reducing the king to the rank of first magistrate, which was the
      project of the Presbyterians, this sect, more ardent in the pursuit of
      liberty, aspired to a total abolition of the monarchy, and even of the
      aristocracy, and projected an entire equality of rank and order, in a
      republic, quite free and independent. In consequence of this scheme, they
      were declared enemies to all proposals of peace, except on such terms as
      they knew it was impossible to obtain; and they adhered to that maxim,
      which is in the main prudent and political, that whoever draws the sword
      against his sovereign, should throw away the scabbard. By terrifying
      others with the fear of vengeance from the offended prince, they had
      engaged greater numbers into the opposition against peace, than had
      adopted their other principles with regard to government and religion. And
      the great success which had already attended the arms of the parliament,
      and the greater which was soon expected, confirmed them still further in
      this obstinacy.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sir Henry Vane, Oliver Cromwell, Nathaniel Fiennes, and Oliver St. John,
      the solicitor-general, were regarded as the leaders of the Independents.
      The earl of Essex, disgusted with a war of which he began to foresee the
      pernicious consequences, adhered to the Presbyterians, and promoted every
      reasonable plan of accommodation. The earl of Northumberland, fond of his
      rank and dignity, regarded with horror a scheme which, if it took place,
      would confound him and his family with the lowest in the kingdom. The
      earls of Warwick and Denbigh, Sir Philip Stapleton, Sir William Waller,
      Hollis, Massey, Whitlocke, Maynard, Glyn, had embraced the same
      sentiments. In the parliament, a considerable majority, and a much greater
      in the nation, were attached to the Presbyterian party; and it was only by
      cunning and deceit at first, and afterwards by military violence, that the
      Independents could entertain any hopes of success.
    </p>
    <p>
      The earl of Manchester, provoked at the impeachment which the king had
      lodged against him, had long forwarded the war with alacrity; but being a
      man of humanity and good principles, the view of public calamities, and
      the prospect of a total subversion of government, began to moderate his
      ardor, and inclined him to promote peace on any safe or honorable terms.
      He was even suspected in the field not to have pushed to the utmost
      against the king the advantages obtained by the arms of the parliament;
      and Cromwell in the public debates revived the accusation, that this
      nobleman had wilfully neglected at Dennington Castle a favorable
      opportunity of finishing the war by a total defeat of the royalists. "I
      showed him evidently," said Cromwell, "how this success might be obtained;
      and only desired leave, with my own brigade of horse to charge the king's
      army in their retreat; leaving it in the earl's choice, if he thought
      proper, to remain neuter with the rest of his forces: but, notwithstanding
      my importunity, he positively refused his consent; and gave no other
      reason but that, if we met with a defeat, there was an end of our
      pretensions we should all be rebels and traitors, and be executed and
      forfeited by law."[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 561.
</pre>
    <p>
      Manchester, by way of recrimination, informed the parliament, that, at
      another time, Cromwell having proposed some scheme to which it seemed
      improbable the parliament would agree, he insisted, and said, "My lord, if
      you will stick firm to honest men, you shall find yourself at the head of
      an army which shall give law both to king and parliament." "This
      discourse," continued Manchester, "made the greater impression on me,
      because I knew the lieutenant-general to be a man of very deep designs;
      and he has even ventured to tell me, that it never would be well with
      England till I were Mr. Montague, and there were ne'er a lord or peer in
      the kingdom."[*] So full was Cromwell of these republican projects, that,
      notwithstanding his habits of profound dissimulation, he could not so
      carefully guard his expressions, but that sometimes his favorite notions
      would escape him.
    </p>
    <p>
      These violent dissensions brought matters to extremity, and pushed the
      Independents to the execution of their designs. The present generals, they
      thought, were more desirous of protracting than finishing the war; and
      having entertained a scheme for preserving still some balance in the
      constitution, they were afraid of entirely subduing the king, and reducing
      him to a condition where he should not be entitled to ask any concessions.
      A new model alone of the army could bring complete victory to the
      parliament, and free the nation from those calamities under which it
      labored. But how to effect this project was the difficulty. The authority,
      as well as merits, of Essex was very great with the parliament. Not only
      he had served them all along with the most exact and scrupulous honor: it
      was in some measure owing to his popularity that they had ever been
      enabled to levy an army, or make head against the royal cause. Manchester,
      Warwick, and the other commanders, had likewise great credit with the
      public; nor were there any hopes of prevailing over them, but by laying
      the plan of an oblique and artificial attack, which would conceal the real
      purposes of their antagonists. The Scots and the Scottish commissioners,
      jealous of the progress of the Independents, were a new obstacle, which,
      without the utmost art and subtlety, it would be difficult to
      surmount.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 562.

     ** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 562.
</pre>
    <p>
      The methods by which this intrigue was conducted are so singular, and show
      so fully the genius of the age, that we shall give a detail of them as
      they are delivered by Lord Clarendon.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      A fast, on the last Wednesday of every month, had been ordered by the
      parliament at the beginning of these commotions; and their preachers on
      that day were careful to keep alive, by their vehement declamations, the
      popular prejudices entertained against the king, against prelacy, and
      against Popery. The king, that he might combat the parliament with their
      own weapons, appointed likewise a monthly fast, when the people should be
      instructed in the duties of loyalty, and of submission to the higher
      powers; and he chose the second Friday of every month for the devotion of
      the royalists.[**] It was now proposed and carried in parliament, by the
      Independents, that a new and more solemn fast should be voted; when they
      should implore the divine assistance for extricating them from those
      perplexities in which they were at present involved. On that day, the
      preachers, after many political prayers, took care to treat of the
      reigning divisions in the parliament, and ascribed them entirely to the
      selfish ends pursued by the members. In the hands of those members, they
      said, are lodged all the considerable commands of the army, all the
      lucrative offices in the civil administration: and while the nation is
      falling every day into poverty, and groans under an insupportable load of
      taxes, these men multiply possession on possession, and will in a little
      time be masters of all the wealth of the kingdom. That such persons, who
      fatten on the calamities of their country, will ever embrace any effectual
      measure for bringing them to a period, or insuring final success to the
      war, cannot reasonably be expected. Lingering expedients alone will be
      pursued; and operations in the field concurring in the same pernicious end
      with deliberations in the cabinet, civil commotions will forever be
      perpetuated in the nation. After exaggerating these disorders, the
      ministers returned to their prayers; and besought the Lord that he would
      take his own work into his own hand; and if the instruments whom he had
      hitherto employed were not worthy to bring to a conclusion so glorious a
      design, that he would inspire others more fit, who might perfect what was
      begun, and, by establishing true religion, put a speedy period to the
      public miseries.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 565

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p. 364
</pre>
    <p>
      On the day subsequent to these devout animadversions when the parliament
      met, a new spirit appeared in the looks of many. Sir Henry Vane told the
      commons, that if ever God appeared to them, it was in the ordinances of
      yesterday; that, as he was credibly informed by many who had been present
      in different congregations, the same lamentations and discourses which the
      godly preachers had made before them, had been heard in other churches:
      that so remarkable a concurrence could proceed only from the immediate
      operation of the Holy Spirit: that he therefore entreated them, in
      vindication of their own honor, in consideration of their duty to God and
      their country, to lay aside all private ends, and renounce every office
      attended with profit or advantage: that the absence of so many members,
      occupied in different employments, had rendered the house extremely thin,
      and diminished the authority of their determinations: and that he could
      not forbear, for his own part, accusing himself as one who enjoyed a
      gainful office, that of treasurer of the navy; and though he was possessed
      of it before the civil commotions, and owed it not to the favor of the
      parliament, yet was he ready to resign it, and to sacrifice, to the
      welfare of his country, every consideration of private interest and
      advantage.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell next acted his part, and commended the preachers for having dealt
      with them plainly and impartially, and told them of their errors, of which
      they were so unwilling to be informed. Though they dwelt on many things,
      he said, on which he had never before reflected, yet, upon revolving them,
      he could not but confess that, till there were a perfect reformation in
      these particulars, nothing which they undertook could possibly prosper.
      The parliament, no doubt, continued he, had done wisely on the
      commencement of the war, in engaging several of its members in the most
      dangerous parts of it, and thereby satisfying the nation that they
      intended to share all hazards with the meanest of the people. But affairs
      are now changed. During the progress of military operations, there have
      arisen in the parliamentary armies many excellent officers, who are
      qualified for higher commands than they are now possessed of. And though
      it becomes not men engaged in such a cause "to put trust in the arm of
      flesh," yet he could assure them, that their troops contained generals fit
      to command in any enterprise in Christendom. The army, indeed, he was
      sorry to say it, did not correspond by its discipline to the merit of the
      officers; nor were there any hopes, till the present vices and disorders
      which prevail among the soldiers were repressed by a new model that their
      forces would ever be attended with signal success in any undertaking.
    </p>
    <p>
      In opposition to this reasoning of the Independents, many of the
      Presbyterians showed the inconvenience and danger of the projected
      alteration. Whitlocke, in particular, a man of honor, who loved his
      country, though in every change of government he always adhered to the
      ruling power, said, that besides the ingratitude of discarding, and that
      by fraud and artifice, so many noble persons, to whom the parliament had
      hitherto owed its chief support, they would find it extremely difficult to
      supply the place of men now formed by experience to command and authority:
      that the rank alone possessed by such as were members of either house,
      prevented envy, retained the army in obedience, and gave weight to
      military orders: that greater confidence might safely be reposed in men of
      family and fortune, than in mere adventurers, who would be apt to
      entertain separate views from those which were embraced by the persons who
      employed them: that no maxim of policy was more undisputed, than the
      necessity of preserving an inseparable connection between the civil and
      military powers, and of retaining the latter in strict subordination to
      the former: that the Greeks and Romans, the wisest and most passionate
      lovers of liberty, had ever intrusted to their senators the command of
      armies, and had maintained an unconquerable jealousy of all mercenary
      forces: and that such men alone, whose interests were involved in those of
      the public, and who possessed a vote in the civil deliberations, would
      sufficiently respect the authority of parliament, and never could be
      tempted to turn the sword against those by whom it was committed to
      them.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 114, 115. Rush. vol. vii. p. 6.
</pre>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding these reasonings, a committee was chosen to frame what was
      called the "self-denying ordinance," by which the members of both houses
      were excluded from all civil and military employments, except a few
      offices which were specified. This ordinance was the subject of great
      debate, and for a long time rent the parliament and city into factions.
      But at last, by the prevalence of envy with some; with others, of false
      modesty; with a great many, of the republican and Independent views; it
      passed the house of commons, and was sent to the upper house. The peers,
      though the scheme was in part levelled against their order; though all of
      them were at bottom extremely averse to it; though they even ventured once
      to reject it; yet possessed so little authority, that they durst not
      persevere in opposing the resolution of the commons; and they thought it
      better policy, by an unlimited compliance, to ward off that ruin which
      they saw approaching.[*] The ordinance, therefore, having passed both
      houses, Essex, Warwick, Manchester, Denbigh, Waller, Brereton, and many
      others, resigned their commands, and received the thanks of parliament for
      their good services. A pension of ten thousand pounds a year was settled
      on Essex.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1645.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was agreed to recruit the army to twenty-two thousand men; and Sir
      Thomas Fairfax was appointed general.[**] It is remarkable that his
      commission did not run, like that of Essex, in the name of the king and
      parliament, but in that of the parliament alone; and the article
      concerning the safety of the king's person was omitted: so much had
      animosities increased between the parties.[***] Cromwell, being a member
      of the lower house, should have been discarded with the others; but this
      impartiality would have disappointed all the views of those who had
      introduced the self-denying ordinance. He was saved by a subtlety, and by
      that political craft in which he was so eminent. At the time when the
      other officers resigned their commissions, care was taken that he should
      be sent with a body of horse to relieve Taunton besieged by the royalists.
      His absence being remarked orders were despatched for his immediate
      attendance in parliament; and the new general was directed to employ some
      other officer in that service. A ready compliance was feigned; and the
      very day was named on which, it was averred, he would take his place in
      the house. But Fairfax, having appointed a rendezvous of the army, wrote
      to the parliament, and desired leave to retain for some days Lieutenant
      General Cromwell, whose advice, he said, would be useful in supplying the
      place of those officers who had resigned. Shortly after, he begged, with
      much earnestness, that they would allow Cromwell to serve that
      campaign.[****] And thus the Independents, though the minority, prevailed
      by art and cunning over the Presbyterians, and bestowed the whole military
      authority in appearance, upon Fairfax; in reality, upon Cromwell.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii. p. 8, 15.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 118. Rush. vol. vii. p. 7.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 133.

     **** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 629, 630. Whitlocke, p. 141.
</pre>
    <p>
      Fairfax was a person equally eminent for courage and for humanity; and
      though strongly infected with prejudices, or principles derived from
      religious and party zeal, he seems never, in the course of his public
      conduct, to have been diverted by private interest or ambition from
      adhering strictly to these principles. Sincere in his professions,
      disinterested in his views, open in his conduct, he had formed one of the
      most shining characters of the age, had not the extreme narrowness of his
      genius in every thing but in war, and his embarrassed and confused
      elocution on every occasion but when he gave orders, diminished the lustre
      of his merit, and rendered the part which he acted, even when vested with
      the supreme command, but secondary and subordinate.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell, by whose sagacity and insinuation Fairfax was entirely governed,
      is one of the most eminent and most singular personages that occurs in
      history: the strokes of his character are as open and strongly marked, as
      the schemes of his conduct were, during the time, dark and impenetrable.
      His extensive capacity enabled him to form the most enlarged projects: his
      enterprising genius was not dismayed with the boldest and most dangerous.
      Carried by his natural temper to magnanimity, to grandeur, and to an
      imperious and domineering policy, he yet knew, when necessary, to employ
      the most profound dissimulation, the most oblique and refined artifice,
      the semblance of the greatest moderation and simplicity. A friend to
      justice, though his public conduct was one continued violation of it;
      devoted to religion, though he perpetually employed it as the instrument
      of his ambition; he was engaged in crimes from the prospect of sovereign
      power, a temptation which is in general irresistible to human nature. And
      by using well that authority which he had attained by fraud and violence,
      he has lessened, if not overpowered, our detestation of his enormities, by
      our admiration of his success and of his genius.
    </p>
    <p>
      During this important transaction of the self-denying ordinance, the
      negotiations for peace were likewise carried on, though with small hopes
      of success. The king having sent two messages, one from Evesham,[*]
      another from Tavistoke,[**] desiring a treaty, the parliament despatched
      commissioners to Oxford with proposals, as high as if they had obtained a
      complete victory.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * 4th of July, 1644.

     ** 8th of Sept 1644.

     *** Dugdale, p. 737. Rush. vol. vi. p 850.
</pre>
    <p>
      The advantages gained during the campaign and the great distresses of the
      royalists, had much elevated their hopes; and they were resolved to repose
      no trust in men inflamed with the highest animosity against them, and who,
      were they possessed of power, were fully authorized by law to punish all
      their opponents as rebels and traitors.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, when he considered the proposals, and the disposition of the
      parliament, could not expect any accommodation, and had no prospect but of
      war, or of total submission and subjection: yet, in order to satisfy his
      own party, who were impatient for peace, he agreed to send the duke of
      Richmond and earl of Southampton with an answer to the proposals of the
      parliament, and at the same time to desire a treaty upon their mutual
      demands and pretensions.[*] It now became necessary for him to retract his
      former declaration, that the two houses at Westminster were not a free
      parliament; and accordingly he was induced, though with great reluctance,
      to give them, in his answer, the appellation of the parliament of
      England.[**] But it appeared afterwards, by a letter which he wrote to the
      queen, and of which a copy was taken at Naseby, that he secretly entered
      an explanatory protest in his council book; and he pretended, that though
      he had called them the parliament, he had not thereby acknowledged them
      for such.[***] This subtlety, which has been frequently objected to
      Charles, is the most noted of those very few instances from which the
      enemies of this prince have endeavored to load him with the imputation of
      insincerity; and have inferred that the parliament could repose no
      confidence in his professions and declarations, not even in his laws and
      statutes. There is, however, it must be confessed, a difference
      universally avowed between simply giving to men the appellation which they
      assume, and the formal acknowledgment of their title to it; nor is any
      thing more common and familiar in all public transactions.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 110.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 111 Dugdale, p. 748.

     *** His words are, "As for my calling those at London a
     parliament, I shall refer thee to Digby for particular
     satisfaction. This in general: if there had been but two
     besides myself of my opinion, I had not done it; and the
     argument that prevailed with me was, that the calling did no
     ways acknowledge them to be a parliament; upon which
     condition and construction I did it, and no otherwise; and
     accordingly it is registered in the council books, with the
     council's unanimous approbation." The King's Cabinet opened.
     Rush. vol. i. p. 943.
</pre>
    <p>
      The time and place of treaty being settled, sixteen commissioners from the
      king met at Uxbridge with twelve authorized by the parliament, attended by
      the Scottish commissioners. It was agreed, that the Scottish and
      parliamentary commissioners should give in their demands with regard to
      three important articles, religion, the militia, and Ireland; and that
      these should be successively discussed in conference with the king's
      commissioners.[*] It was soon found impracticable to come to any agreement
      with regard to any of these articles.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the summer of 1643, while the negotiations were carried on with
      Scotland, the parliament had summoned an assembly at Westminster,
      consisting of one hundred and twenty-one divines and thirty laymen,
      celebrated in their party for piety and learning. By their advice,
      alterations were made in the thirty-nine articles, or in the metaphysical
      doctrines of the church; and what was of greater importance, the liturgy
      was entirely abolished, and in its stead a new directory for worship was
      established; by which, suitably to the spirit of the Puritans, the utmost
      liberty both in praying and preaching was indulged to the public teachers.
      By the solemn league and covenant, episcopacy was abjured, as destructive
      of all true piety; and a national engagement, attended with every
      circumstance that could render a promise sacred and obligatory, was
      entered into with the Scots, never to suffer its readmission. All these
      measures showed little spirit of accommodation in the parliament; and the
      king's commissioners were not surprised to find the establishment of
      presbytery and the directory positively demanded, together with the
      subscription of the covenant, both by the king and kingdom.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 121. Dugdale, p. 758.

     ** Such love of contradiction prevailed in the parliament,
     that they had converted Christmas, which with the churchmen
     was a great festival, into a solemn fast and humiliation;
     "in order," as they said, "that it might call to remembrance
     our sins and the sins of our forefathers, who, pretending to
     celebrate the memory of Christ, have turned this feast into
     an extreme forgetfulness of him, by giving liberty to carnal
     and sensual delights." Rush. vol. vi. p. 817. It is
     remarkable, that as the parliament abolished all holydays,
     and severely prohibited all amusement on the Sabbath; and
     even burned, by the hands of the hangman, the king's Book of
     Sports; the nation found that there was no time left for
     relaxation or diversion. Upon application, therefore, of the
     servants and apprentices, the parliament appointed the
     second Tuesday of every month for play and recreation. Rush.
     vol. vii. p. 460. Whitlocke, p. 247. But these institutions
     they found great difficulty to execute: and the people were
     resolved to be merry when they themselves pleased, not when
     the parliament should prescribe it to them. The keeping of
     Christmas holydays was long a great mark of malignancy, and
     very severely censured by the commons. Whitlocke, p. 286.
     Even minced pies, which custom had made a Christmas dish
     among the churchmen, was regarded, during that season, as a
     profane and superstitious viand by the sectaries; though at
     other times it agreed very well with their stomachs. In the
     parliamentary ordinance, too, for the observance of the
     Sabbath, they inserted a clause for the taking down of
     maypoles, which they called a heathenish vanity. Since we
     are upon this subject, it may not be amiss to mention that,
     besides setting apart Sunday for the ordinances, as they
     called them, the godly had regular meetings on the
     Thursdays, for resolving cases of conscience, and conferring
     about their progress in grace. What they were chiefly
     anxious about, was the fixing the precise moment of their
     conversion or new birth; and whoever could not ascertain so
     difficult a point of calculation, could not pretend to any
     title to saintship. The profane scholars at Oxford, after
     the parliament became masters of that town, gave to the
     house in which the zealots assembled the denomination of
     Sernple Shop: the zealots, in their turn, insulted the
     scholars and professors; and, intruding into the place of
     lectures, declaimed against human learning, and challenged
     the most knowing of them to prove that their calling was
     from Christ. See Wood's Fasti Oxonienses, p. 740.
</pre>
    <p>
      Had Charles been of a disposition to neglect all theological controversy,
      he yet had been obliged, in good policy, to adhere to episcopal
      jurisdiction; not only because it was favorable to monarchy, but because
      all its adherents were passionately devoted to it; and to abandon them, in
      what they regarded as so important an article, was forever to relinquish
      their friendship and assistance. But Charles had never attained such
      enlarged principles. He deemed bishops essential to the very being of a
      Christian church; and he thought himself bound, by more sacred ties than
      those of policy, or even of honor, to the support of that order. His
      concessions, therefore, on this head, he judged sufficient, when he agreed
      that an indulgence should be given to tender consciences with regard to
      ceremonies; that the bishops should exercise no act of jurisdiction or
      ordination without the consent and counsel of such presbyters as should be
      chosen by the clergy of each diocese; that they should reside constantly
      in their diocese, and be bound to preach every Sunday; that pluralities be
      abolished; that abuses in ecclesiastical courts be redressed; and that a
      hundred thousand pounds be levied on the bishops' estates and the chapter
      lands, for payment of debts contracted by the parliament.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Dugdale, p. 779, 780.
</pre>
    <p>
      These concessions, though considerable gave no satisfaction to the
      parliamentary commissioners; and, without abating any thing of their rigor
      on this head, they proceeded to their demands with regard to the militia.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king's partisans had all along maintained, that the fears and
      jealousies of the parliament, after the securities so early and easily
      given to public liberty, were either feigned or groundless; and that no
      human institution could be better poised and adjusted than was now the
      government of England. By the abolition of the star chamber and court of
      high commission, the prerogative, they said, has lost all that coercive
      power by which it had formerly suppressed or endangered liberty: by the
      establishment of triennial parliaments, it can have no leisure to acquire
      new powers, or guard itself, during any time, from the inspection of that
      vigilant assembly: by the slender revenue of the crown, no king can ever
      attain such influence as to procure a repeal of these salutary statutes;
      and while the prince commands no military force, he will in vain by
      violence attempt an infringement of laws so clearly defined by means of
      late disputes, and so passionately cherished by all his subjects. In this
      situation, surely the nation, governed by so virtuous a monarch, may for
      the present remain in tranquillity, and try whether it be not possible, by
      peaceful arts, to elude that danger with which it is pretended its
      liberties are still threatened.
    </p>
    <p>
      But though the royalists insisted on these plausible topics before the
      commencement of war, they were obliged to own, that the progress of civil
      commotions had somewhat abated the force and evidence of this reasoning.
      If the power of the militia, said the opposite party, be intrusted to the
      king, it would not now be difficult for him to abuse that authority. By
      the rage of intestine discord, his partisans are inflamed into an extreme
      hatred against their antagonists; and have contracted, no doubt, some
      prejudices against popular privileges, which, in their apprehension, have
      been the source of so much disorder. Were the arms of the state,
      therefore, put entirely into such hands, what public security, it may be
      demanded, can be given to liberty, or what private security to those who,
      in opposition to the letter of the law, have so generously ventured their
      lives in its defence? In compliance with this apprehension, Charles
      offered that the arms of the state should be intrusted, during three
      years, to twenty commissioners, who should be named either by common
      agreement between him and the parliament, or one half by him, the other by
      the parliament. And after the expiration of that term, he insisted that
      his constitutional authority over the militia should again return to
      him.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliamentary commissioners at first demanded, that the power of the
      sword should forever be intrusted to such persons as the parliament alone
      should appoint:[**] but afterwards they relaxed so far as to require that
      authority only for seven years; after which it was not to return to the
      king but to be settled by bill, or by common agreement between him and his
      parliament.[*] The king's commissioners asked, whether jealousies and
      fears were all on one side; and whether the prince, from such violent
      attempts and pretensions as he had experienced, had not at least as great
      reason to entertain apprehensions for his authority, as they for their
      liberty? Whether there were any equity in securing only one party, and
      leaving the other, during the space of seven years, entirely at the mercy
      of their enemies? Whether, if unlimited power were intrusted to the
      parliament during so long a period, it would not be easy for them to frame
      the subsequent bill in the manner most agreeable to themselves, and keep
      forever possession of the sword, as well as of every article of civil
      power and jurisdiction.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      The truth is, after the commencement of war, it was very difficult, if not
      impossible, to find security for both parties, especially for that of the
      parliament. Amidst such violent animosities, power alone could insure
      safety; and the power of one side was necessarily attended with danger to
      the other. Few or no instances occur in history of an equal, peaceful, and
      durable accommodation that has been concluded between two factions which
      had been inflamed into civil war.
    </p>
    <p>
      With regard to Ireland, there were no greater hopes of agreement between
      the parties. The parliament demanded, that the truce with the rebels
      should be declared null; that the management of the war should be given
      over entirely to the parliament; and that, after the conquest of Ireland,
      the nomination of the lord lieutenant and of the judges, or in other words
      the sovereignty of that kingdom, should likewise remain in their hands.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Dugdale, p. 798.

     ** Dugdale, p. 791.

     *** Dugdale, p. 820.

     **** Dugdale, p. 877.

     v Dugdale, p. 826, 827
</pre>
    <p>
      What rendered an accommodation more desperate was, that the demands on
      these three heads, however exorbitant, were acknowledged, by the
      parliamentary commissioners, to be nothing but preliminaries. After all
      these were granted, it would be necessary to proceed to the discussion of
      those other demands, still more exorbitant, which a little before had been
      transmitted to the king at Oxford. Such ignominious terms were there
      insisted on, that worse could scarcely be demanded, were Charles totally
      vanquished, a prisoner, and in chains. The king was required to attaint
      and except from a general pardon forty of the most considerable of his
      English subjects, and nineteen of his Scottish, together with all Popish
      recusants in both kingdoms who had borne arms for him. It was insisted
      that forty-eight more, with all the members who had sitten in either house
      at Oxford, all lawyers and divines who had embraced the king's party,
      should be rendered incapable of any office, be forbidden the exercise of
      their profession, be prohibited from coming within the verge of the court,
      and forfeit the third of their estates to the parliament. It was required
      that whoever had borne arms for the king, should forfeit the tenth of
      their estates; or, if that did not suffice, the sixth, for the payment of
      public debts. As if royal authority were not sufficiently annihilated by
      such terms, it was demanded that the court of wards should be abolished;
      that all the considerable officers of the crown, and all the judges,
      should be appointed by parliament; and that the right of peace and war
      should not be exercised without the consent of that assembly.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 850. Dugdale, p. 737.
</pre>
    <p>
      The Presbyterians, it must be confessed, after insisting on such
      conditions, differed only in words from the Independents, who required the
      establishment of a pure republic. When the debates had been carried on to
      no purpose during twenty days among the commissioners, they separated, and
      returned; those of the king to Oxford, those of the parliament to London.
    </p>
    <p>
      A little before the commencement of this fruitless treaty, a deed was
      executed by the parliament, which proved their determined resolution to
      yield nothing, but to proceed in the same violent and imperious manner
      with which they had at first entered on these dangerous enterprises.
      Archbishop Laud, the most favored minister of the king, was brought to the
      scaffold; and in this instance the public might see, that popular
      assemblies, as, by their very number, they are in a great measure exempt
      from the restraint of shame, so when they also overleap the bounds of law,
      naturally break out into acts of the greatest tyranny and injustice.
    </p>
    <p>
      From the time that Laud had been committed, the house of commons, engaged
      in enterprises of greater moment, had found no leisure to finish his
      impeachment, and he had patiently endured so long an imprisonment, without
      being brought to any trial. After the union with Scotland, the bigoted
      prejudices of that nation revived the like spirit in England; and the
      sectaries resolved to gratify their vengeance in the punishment of this
      prelate, who had so long, by his authority, and by the execution of penal
      laws, kept their zealous spirit under confinement. He was accused of high
      treason, in endeavoring to subvert the fundamental laws, and of other high
      crimes and misdemeanors. The same illegality of an accumulative crime and
      a constructive evidence which appeared in the case of Strafford, the same
      violence and iniquity in conducting the trial, are conspicuous throughout
      the whole course of this prosecution. The groundless charge of Popery,
      though belied by his whole life and conduct, was continually urged against
      the prisoner; and every error rendered unpardonable by this imputation,
      which was supposed to imply the height of all enormities. "This man, my
      lords," said Serjeant Wilde, concluding his long speech against him, "is
      like Naaman the Syrian; a great man, but a leper."[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      We shall not enter into a detail of this matter, which at present seems to
      admit of little controversy. It suffices to say, that after a long trial,
      and the examination of above a hundred and fifty witnesses, the commons
      found so little likelihood of obtaining a judicial sentence against Laud,
      that they were obliged to have recourse to their legislative authority,
      and to pass an ordinance for taking away the life of this aged prelate.
      Notwithstanding the low condition into which the house of peers was
      fallen, there appeared some intention of rejecting this ordinance; and the
      popular leaders were again obliged to apply to the multitude, and to
      extinguish, by threats of new tumults, the small remains of liberty
      possessed by the upper house. Seven peers alone voted in this important
      question. The rest, either from shame or fear, took care to absent
      themselves.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 830.

     ** Warwick, p. 169.
</pre>
    <p>
      Laud, who had behaved during his trial with spirit and vigor of genius,
      sunk not under the horrors of his execution but though he had usually
      professed himself apprehensive of a violent death, he found all his fears
      to be dissipated before that superior courage by which he was animated.
      "No one," said he, "can be more willing to send me out of life, than I am
      desirous to go," Even upon the scaffold, and during the intervals of his
      prayers, he was harassed and molested by Sir John Clotworthy, a zealot of
      the reigning sect, and a great leader in the lower house: this was the
      time he chose for examining the principles of the dying primate, and
      trepanning him into a confession, that he trusted for his salvation to the
      merits of good works, not to the death of the Redeemer.[*] Having
      extricated himself from these theological toils, the archbishop laid his
      head on the block, and it was severed from the body at one blow.[**] Those
      religious opinions for which he suffered, contributed, no doubt, to the
      courage and constancy of his end. Sincere he undoubtedly was, and, however
      misguided, actuated by pious motives in all his pursuits; and it is to be
      regretted that a man of such spirit, who conducted his enterprises with so
      much warmth and industry, had not entertained more enlarged views, and
      embraced principles more favorable to the general happiness of society.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p, 838, 839.

     ** 12th of July, 1644.
</pre>
    <p>
      The great and important advantage which the party gained by Strafford's
      death, may in some degree palliate the iniquity of the sentence pronounced
      against him: but the execution of this old, infirm prelate, who had so
      long remained an inoffensive prisoner, can be ascribed to nothing but
      vengeance and bigotry in those severe religionists by whom the parliament
      was entirely governed. That he deserved a better fate was not questioned
      by any reasonable man: the degree of his merit in other respects was
      disputed. Some accused him of recommending slavish doctrines, of promoting
      persecution, and of encouraging superstition; while others thought that
      his conduct in these three particulars would admit of apology and
      extenuation.
    </p>
    <p>
      That the letter of the law, as much as the most flaming court sermon,
      inculcates passive obedience, is apparent; and though the spirit of a
      limited government seems to require, in extraordinary cases, some
      mitigation of so rigorous a doctrine, it must be confessed, that the
      presiding genius of the English constitution had rendered a mistake in
      this particular very natural and excusable. To inflict death, at least, on
      those who depart from the exact line of truth in these nice questions, so
      far from being favorable to national liberty, savors strongly of the
      spirit of tyranny and proscription.
    </p>
    <p>
      Toleration had hitherto been so little the principle of any Christian
      sect, that even the Catholics, the remnant of the religion professed by
      their forefathers, could not obtain from the English the least indulgence.
      This very house of commons, in their famous remonstrance, took care to
      justify themselves, as from the highest imputation, from any intention to
      relax the golden reins of discipline, as they called them, or to grant any
      toleration;[*] and the enemies of the church were so fair from the
      beginning, as not to lay claim to liberty of conscience, which they called
      a toleration for soul-murder. They openly challenged the superiority, and
      even menaced the established church with that persecution which they
      afterwards exercised against her with such severity. And if the question
      be considered in the view of policy, though a sect, already formed and
      advanced, may, with good reason, demand a toleration, what title had the
      Puritans to this indulgence, who were just on the point of separation from
      the church, and whom, it might be hoped, some wholesome and legal
      severities would still retain in obedience?[**] <a href="#linknote-15"
      name="linknoteref-15" id="linknoteref-15">15</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, vol. ii. p. 705.

     ** See note O, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      Whatever ridicule, to a philosophical mind, may be thrown on pious
      ceremonies, it must be confessed that, during a very religious age, no
      institutions can be more advantageous to the rude multitude, and tend more
      to mollify that fierce and gloomy spirit of devotion to which they are
      subject. Even the English church, though it had retained a share of Popish
      ceremonies, may justly be thought too naked and unadorned, and still to
      approach too near the abstract and spiritual religion of the Puritans.
      Laud and his associates, by reviving a few primitive institutions of this
      nature, corrected the error of the first reformers, and presented to the
      affrightened and astonished mind some sensible, exterior observances,
      which might occupy it during its religious exercises, and abate the
      violence of its disappointed efforts. The thought, no longer bent on that
      divine and mysterious essence, so superior to the narrow capacities of
      mankind, was able, by means of the new model of devotion, to relax itself
      in the contemplation of pictures, postures, vestments, buildings; and all
      the fine arts which minister to religion, thereby received additional
      encouragement. The primate, it is true, conducted this scheme, not with
      the enlarged sentiments and cool reflection of a legislator, but with the
      intemperate zeal of a sectary; and by over looking the circumstances of
      the times, served rather to inflame that religious fury which he meant to
      repress. But this blemish is more to be regarded as a general imputation
      on the whole age, than any particular failing of Laud's; and it is
      sufficient for his vindication to observe, that his errors were the most
      excusable of all those which prevailed during that zealous period.
    </p>
    <p>
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    <h2>
      CHAPTER LVIII
    </h2>
    <p>
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    <h2>
      CHARLES I
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1645.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the king's affairs declined in England, some events happened in
      Scotland which seemed to promise him a more prosperous issue of the
      quarrel.
    </p>
    <p>
      Before the commencement of these civil disorders, the earl of Montrose, a
      young nobleman of a distinguished family, returning from his travels, had
      been introduced to the king, and had made an offer of his services; but by
      the insinuations of the marquis, afterwards duke of Hamilton, who
      possessed much of Charles's confidence, he had not been received with that
      distinction to which he thought himself justly entitled.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Nalson, Intr p. 63.
</pre>
    <p>
      Disgusted with this treatment, he had forwarded all the violence of the
      Covenanters; and, agreeably to the natural ardor of his genius, he had
      employed himself, during the first Scottish insurrection, with great zeal,
      as well as success, in levying and conducting their armies. Being
      commissioned by the "Tables," to wait upon the king while the royal army
      lay at Berwick, he was so gained by the civilities and caresses of that
      monarch, that he thenceforth devoted himself entirely, though secretly, to
      his service, and entered into a close correspondence with him. In the
      second insurrection, a great military command was intrusted to him by the
      Covenanters; and he was the first that passed the Tweed, at the head of
      their troops, in the invasion of England. He found means, however, soon
      after to convey a letter to the king; and by the infidelity of some about
      that prince,&mdash;Hamilton as was suspected,&mdash;a copy of this letter
      was sent to Leven, the Scottish general. Being accused of treachery, and a
      correspondence with the enemy, Montrose openly avowed the letter, and
      asked the generals if they dared to call their sovereign an enemy; and by
      this bold and magnanimous behavior he escaped the danger of an immediate
      prosecution. As he was now fully known to be of the royal party, he no
      longer concealed his principles; and he endeavored to draw those who had
      entertained like sentiments into a bond of association for his master's
      service. Though thrown into prison for this enterprise,[*] and detained
      some time, he was not discouraged; but still continued, by his countenance
      and protection, to infuse spirit into the distressed royalists. Among
      other persons of distinction who united themselves to him was Lord Napier
      of Merchiston, son of the famous inventor of the logarithms, the person to
      whom the title of a "great man" is more justly due, than to any other whom
      his country ever produced. There was in Scotland another party, who,
      professing equal attachment to the king's service, pretended only to
      differ with Montrose about the means of attaining the same end; and of
      that party Duke Hamilton was the leader. This nobleman had cause to be
      extremely devoted to the king, not only by reason of the connection of
      blood which united him to the royal family, but on account of the great
      confidence and favor with which he had ever been honored by his master.
      Being accused by Lord Rae, not without some appearance of probability, of
      a conspiracy against the king, Charles was so far from harboring suspicion
      against him, that, the very first time Hamilton came to court, he received
      him into his bed-chamber, and passed alone the night with him.[**] But
      such was the duke's unhappy fate or conduct, that he escaped not the
      imputation of treachery to his friend and sovereign; and though he at last
      sacrificed his life in the king's service, his integrity and sincerity
      have not been thought by historians entirely free from blemish. Perhaps
      (and this is the more probable opinion) the subtleties and refinements of
      his conduct, and his temporizing maxims, though accompanied with good
      intentions, have been the chief cause of a suspicion which has never yet
      been either fully proved or refuted.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * It is not improper to take notice of a mistake committed
     by Clarendon, much to the disadvantage of this gallant
     nobleman; that he offered the king, when his majesty was in
     Scotland, to assassinate Argyle. All the time the king was
     in Scotland, Montrose was confined in prison. Rush. vol. vi.
     p. 980.

     ** Nalson, vol ii. p. 683.
</pre>
    <p>
      As much as the bold and vivid spirit of Montrose prompted him to
      enterprising measures, as much was the cautious temper of Hamilton
      inclined to such as were moderate and dilatory. While the former foretold
      that the Scottish Covenanters were secretly forming a union with the
      English parliament, and inculcated the necessity of preventing them by
      some vigorous undertaking, the latter still insisted, that every such
      attempt would precipitate them into measures to which otherwise they were
      not perhaps inclined. After the Scottish convention was summoned without
      the king's authority, the former exclaimed, that their intentions were now
      visible, and that if some unexpected blow were not struck to dissipate
      them, they would arm the whole nation against the king; the latter
      maintained the possibility of outvoting the disaffected party, and
      securing by peaceful means the allegiance of the kingdom.[*] Unhappily for
      the royal cause, Hamilton's representations met with more credit from the
      king and queen than those of Montrose; and the Covenanters were allowed,
      without interruption, to proceed in all their hostile measures. Montrose
      then hastened to Oxford where his invectives against Hamilton's treachery,
      concurring with the general prepossession, and supported by the
      unfortunate event of his counsels, were entertained with universal
      probation. Influenced by the clamor of his party, more than his own
      suspicions, Charles, as soon as Hamilton appeared, sent him prisoner to
      Pendennis Castle, in Cornwall. His brother Laneric, who was also put under
      confinement found means to make his escape, and to fly into Scotland.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king's ears were now open to Montrose's counsels, who proposed none
      but the boldest and most daring, agreeably to the desperate state of the
      royal cause in Scotland. Though the whole nation was subjected by the
      Covenanters, though great armies were kept on foot by them, and every
      place guarded by a vigilant administration, he undertook, by his own
      credit, and that of the few friends who remained to the king, to raise
      such commotions as would soon oblige the malecontents to recall those
      forces which had so sensibly thrown the balance in favor of the
      parliament.[**] Not discouraged with the defeat at Marston Moor, which
      rendered it impossible for him to draw any succor from England, he was
      content to stipulate with the earl of Antrim, a nobleman of Ireland, for
      some supply of men from that country. And he himself changing his
      disguises, and passing through many dangers, arrived in Scotland; where he
      lay concealed in the borders of the Highlands, and secretly prepared the
      minds of his partisans for attempting some great enterprise.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 380, 381. Rush. vol. vi. p. 980.
     Wishart, cap. 2.

     ** Wishart, cap. 3.

     *** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 618. Rush. vol. vi. p, 982.
     Wishart, cap. 4
</pre>
    <p>
      No sooner were the Irish landed, though not exceeding eleven hundred foot,
      very ill armed, than Montrose declared himself, and entered upon that
      scene of action which has rendered his name so celebrated. About eight
      hundred of the men of Athole flocked to his standard. Five hundred men
      more, who had been levied by the Covenanters, were persuaded to embrace
      the royal cause: and with this combined force, he hastened to attack Lord
      Elcho, who lay at Perth with an army of six thousand men, assembled upon
      the first news of the Irish invasion. Montrose, inferior in number,
      totally unprovided with horse, ill supplied with arms and ammunition, had
      nothing to depend on, but the courage which he himself, by his own
      example, and the rapidity of his enterprises, should inspire into his raw
      soldiers. Having received the fire of the enemy, which was answered
      chiefly by a volley of stones, he rushed amidst them with his sword drawn,
      threw them into confusion, pushed his advantage, and obtained a complete
      victory, with the slaughter of two thousand of the Covenanters.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      This victory, though it augmented the renown of Montrose, increased not
      his power or numbers. The far greater part of the kingdom was extremely
      attached to the covenant; and such as bore an affection to the royal
      cause, were terrified by the established authority of the opposite party.
      Dreading the superior power of Argyle, who, having joined his vassals to a
      force levied by the public, was approaching with a considerable army,
      Montrose hastened northwards, in order to rouse again the marquis of
      Huntley and the Gordons, who, having before hastily taken arms, had been
      instantly suppressed by the Covenanters. He was joined on his march by the
      earl of Airly, with his two younger sons, Sir Thomas and Sir David Ogilvy:
      the eldest was at that time a prisoner with the enemy. He attacked at
      Aberdeen the Lord Burley, who commanded a force of two thousand five
      hundred men. After a sharp combat, by his undaunted courage, which in his
      situation was true policy, and was also not unaccompanied with military
      skill, he put the enemy to flight, and in the pursuit did great execution
      upon them.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * 1st of September, 1644. Rush. vol. vi. p. 983. Wishart,
     cap. 5.

     ** 11th of September, 1644. Rush. vol. vi. p. 983. Wishart,
     cap. 7.
</pre>
    <p>
      But by this second advantage he obtained not the end which he expected.
      The envious nature of Huntley, jealous of Montrose's glory, rendered him
      averse to join an army where he himself must be so much eclipsed by the
      superior merit of the general. Argyle, reënforced by the earl of Lothian,
      was behind him with a great army: the militia of the northern counties,
      Murray, Ross, Caithness, to the number of five thousand men, opposed him
      in front, and guarded the banks of the Spey, a deep and rapid river. In
      order to elude these numerous armies, he turned aside into the hills, and
      saved his weak but active troops in Badenoch. After some marches and
      countermarches, Argyle came up with him at Faivy Castle. This nobleman's
      character, though celebrated for political courage and conduct, was very
      low for military prowess, and after some skirmishes, in which he was
      worsted, he here allowed Montrose to escape him. By quick marches through
      these inaccessible mountains, that general freed himself from the superior
      forces of the Covenanters.
    </p>
    <p>
      Such was the situation of Montrose, that very good or very ill fortune was
      equally destructive to him, and diminished his army. After every victory,
      his soldiers, greedy of spoil, but deeming the smallest acquisition to be
      unexhausted riches, deserted in great numbers, and went home to secure the
      treasures which they had acquired. Tired too, and spent with hasty and
      long marches in the depth of winter, through snowy mountains, unprovided
      with every necessary, they fell off, and left their general almost alone
      with the Irish, who, having no place to which they could retire, still
      adhered to him in every fortune.
    </p>
    <p>
      With these, and some reënforcements of the Atholemen and Macdonalds whom
      he had recalled, Montrose fell suddenly upon Argyle's country, and let
      loose upon it all the rage of war; carrying off the cattle, burning the
      houses, and putting the inhabitants to the sword. This severity, by which
      Montrose sullied his victories, was the result of private animosity
      against the chieftain, as much as of zeal for the public cause, Argyle,
      collecting three thousand men, marched in quest of the enemy, who had
      retired with their plunder; and he lay at Innerlochy, supposing himself
      still at a considerable distance from them. The earl of Seaforth, at the
      head of the garrison of Inverness, who were veteran soldiers, joined to
      five thousand new levied troops of the northern counties, pressed the
      royalists on the other side, and threatened them with inevitable
      destruction. By a quick and unexpected march, Montrose hastened to
      Innerlochy, and presented himself in order of battle before the surprised
      but not affrightened Covenanters. Argyle alone, seized with a panic,
      deserted his army, who still maintained their ground, and gave battle to
      the royalists. After a vigorous resistance, they were defeated, and
      pursued with great slaughter.[*] And the power of the Campbells (that is
      Argyle's name) being thus broken, the Highlanders, who were in general
      well affected to the royal cause, began to join Montrose's camp in great
      numbers. Seaforth's army dispersed of itself, at the very terror of his
      name. And Lord Gordon, eldest son of Huntley, having escaped from his
      uncle Argyle, who had hitherto detained him, now joined Montrose, with no
      contemptible number of his followers, attended by his brother, the earl of
      Aboine.
    </p>
    <p>
      The council at Edinburgh, alarmed at Montrose's progress, began to think
      of a more regular plan of defence against an enemy whose repeated
      victories had rendered him extremely formidable. They sent for Baillie, an
      officer of reputation, from England; and joining him in command with
      Urrey, who had again enlisted himself among the king's enemies, they sent
      them to the field with a considerable army against the royalists.
      Montrose, with a detachment of eight hundred men, had attacked Dundee, a
      town extremely zealous for the covenant, and having carried it by assault,
      had delivered it up to be plundered by his soldiers; when Baillie and
      Urrey, with their whole force, were unexpectedly upon him.[**] His conduct
      and presence of mind in this emergence appeared conspicuous. Instantly he
      called off his soldiers from plunder, put them in order, secured his
      retreat by the most skilful measures; and having marched sixty miles in
      the face of an enemy much superior, without stopping, or allowing his
      soldiers the least sleep or refreshment, he at last secured himself in the
      mountains.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 985. Wishart, cap. 8.

     ** Rush. vol. vii. p. 228. Wishart, cap. 9.
</pre>
    <p>
      Baillie and Urrey now divided their troops, in order the better to conduct
      the war against an enemy who surprised them as much by the rapidity of his
      marches, as by the boldness of his enterprises. Urrey, at the head of four
      thousand men, met him at Alderne, near Inverness; and, encouraged by the
      superiority of number, (for the Covenanters were double the royalists,)
      attacked him in the post which he had chosen Montrose, having placed his
      right wing in strong ground, drew the best of his forces to the other, and
      left no main body between them; a defect which he artfully concealed, by
      showing a few men through the trees and bushes with which that ground was
      covered. That Urrey might have no leisure to perceive the stratagem, he
      instantly led his left wing to the charge; and, making a furious
      impression upon the Covenanters, drove them off the field, and gained a
      complete victory.[*] In this battle, the valor of young Napier, son to the
      lord of that name, shone out with signal lustre.
    </p>
    <p>
      Baillie now advanced, in order to revenge Urrey's discomfiture; but at
      Alford he met himself with a like fate. Montrose, weak in cavalry, here
      lined his troops of horse with infantry; and after putting the enemy's
      horse to rout, fell with united force upon their foot, who were entirely
      cut in pieces, though with the loss of the gallant Lord Gordon on the part
      of the royalists.[**] And having thus prevailed in so many battles, which
      his vigor ever rendered as decisive as they were successful, he summoned
      together all his friends and partisans, and prepared himself for marching
      into the southern provinces, in order to put a final period to the power
      of the Covenanters, and dissipate the parliament, which, with great pomp
      and solemnity, they had summoned to meet at St. Johnstone's.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the fire was thus kindled in the north of the island, it blazed out
      with no less fury in the south: the parliamentary and royal armies, as
      soon as the season would permit, prepared to take the field, in hopes of
      bringing their important quarrel to a quick decision. The passing of the
      self-denying ordinance had been protracted by so many debates and
      intrigues, that the spring was far advanced before it received the
      sanction of both houses; and it was thought dangerous by many to
      introduce, so near the time of action, such great innovations into the
      army. Had not the punctilious principles of Essex engaged him, amidst all
      the disgusts which he received, to pay implicit obedience to the
      parliament, this alteration had not been effected without some fatal
      accident: since, notwithstanding his prompt resignation of the command, a
      mutiny was generally apprehended.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii. p. 229. Wishart, cap. 10.

     ** Rush. vol. vii. p. 229. Wishart, cap. 11.

     *** Rush. vol. vii. p. 126, 127.
</pre>
    <p>
      Fairfax, or, more properly speaking, Cromwell under his name, introduced
      at last the new model into the army, and threw the troops into a different
      shape. From the same men new regiments and new companies were formed,
      different officers appointed, and the whole military force put into such
      hands as the Independents could rely on. Besides members of parliament who
      were excluded, many officers, unwilling to serve under the new generals,
      threw up their commissions, and unwarily facilitated the project of
      putting the army entirely into the hands of that faction.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though the discipline of the former parliamentary army was not
      contemptible, a more exact plan was introduced, and rigorously executed,
      by these new commanders. Valor indeed was very generally diffused over the
      one party as well as the other, during this period: discipline also was
      attained by the forces of the parliament: but the perfection of the
      military art, in concerting the general plans of action and the operations
      of the field, seems still on both sides to have been in a great measure
      wanting. Historians at least, perhaps from their own ignorance and
      inexperience, have not remarked any thing but a headlong, impetuous
      conduct; each party hurrying to a battle, where valor and fortune chiefly
      determined the success. The great ornament of history, during these
      reigns, are the civil, not the military transactions.
    </p>
    <p>
      Never surely was a more singular army assembled, than that which was now
      set on foot by the parliament. To the greater number of the regiments
      chaplains were not appointed, the officers assumed the spiritual duty, and
      united it with their military functions. During the intervals of action,
      they occupied themselves in sermons, prayers, exhortations; and the same
      emulation there attended them, which in the field is so necessary to
      support the honor of that profession. Rapturous ecstasies supplied the
      place of study and reflection; and while the zealous devotees poured out
      their thoughts in unpremeditated harangues, they mistook that eloquence
      which to their own surprise, as well as that of others, flowed in upon
      them, for divine illuminations, and for illapses of the Holy Spirit.
      Wherever they were quartered, they excluded the minister from his pulpit;
      and, usurping his place, conveyed their sentiments to the audience, with
      all the authority which followed their power, their valor, and their
      military exploits, united to their appearing zeal and fervor. The private
      soldiers, seized with the same spirit, employed their vacant hours in
      prayer, in perusing the Holy Scriptures, in ghostly conferences where they
      compared the progress of their in grace, and mutually stimulated each
      other to further advances in the great work of their salvation. When they
      were marching to battle, the whole field resounded, as well with psalms
      and spiritual songs adapted to the occasion, as with the instruments of
      military music:[*] and every man endeavored to drown the sense of present
      danger in the prospect of that crown of glory which was set before him. In
      so holy a cause, wounds were esteemed meritorious; death, martyrdom; and
      the hurry and dangers of action, instead of banishing their pious visions,
      rather served to impress their minds more strongly with them.
    </p>
    <p>
      The royalists were desirous of throwing a ridicule on this fanaticism of
      the parliamentary armies, without being sensible how much reason they had
      to apprehend its dangerous consequences. The forces assembled by the king
      at Oxford, in the west, and in other places, were equal, if not superior
      in number to their adversaries; but actuated by a very different spirit.
      That license which had been introduced by want of pay, had risen to a
      great height among them, and rendered them more formidable to their
      friends than to their enemies. Prince Rupert, negligent of the people,
      fond of the soldiery, had indulged the troops in unwarrantable liberties:
      Wilmot, a man of dissolute manners, had promoted the same spirit of
      disorder: and the licentious Goring, Gerrard, Sir Richard Granville, now
      carried it to a great pitch of enormity. In the west especially, where
      Goring commanded, universal spoil and havoc were committed; and the whole
      country was laid waste by the rapine of the army. All distinction of
      parties being in a manner dropped, the most devoted friends of the church
      and monarchy wished there for such success to the parliamentary forces as
      might put an end to these oppressions. The country people, despoiled of
      their substance, flocked together in several places, armed with clubs and
      staves; and though they professed an enmity to the soldiers of both
      parties, their hatred was in most places levelled chiefly against the
      royalists, from whom they had met with the worst treatment. Many thousands
      of these tumultuary peasants were assembled in different parts of England;
      who destroyed all such straggling soldiers as they met with, and much
      infested the armies.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Dugdale, p. 7. Rush. vol. vi. p. 281.

     ** Rush. vol. vii. p. 52, 61, 62. Whitlocke, p. 130, 131,
     133, 136, Clarendon, vol. v. p. 665.
</pre>
    <p>
      The disposition of the forces on both sides was as follows: part of the
      Scottish army was employed in taking Pomfret and other towns in Yorkshire:
      part of it besieged Carlisle valiantly defended by Sir Thomas Glenham.
      Chester, where Biron commanded, had long been blockaded by Sir William
      Brereton; and was reduced to great difficulties. The king, being joined by
      the princes Rupert and Maurice, lay at Oxford with a considerable army,
      about fifteen thousand men. Fairfax and Cromwell were posted at Windsor,
      with the new-modelled army, about twenty-two thousand men. Taunton, in the
      county of Somerset, defended by Blake, suffered a long siege from Sir
      Richard Granville, who commanded an army of about eight thousand men; and
      though the defence had been obstinate, the garrison was now reduced to the
      last extremity. Goring commanded in the west an army of nearly the same
      number.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      On opening the campaign, the king formed the project of relieving Chester;
      Fairfax, that of relieving Taunton. The king was first in motion. When he
      advanced to Draiton, in Shropshire, Biron met him, and brought
      intelligence that his approach had raised the siege, and that the
      parliamentary army had withdrawn. Fairfax, having reached Salisbury in his
      road westward, received orders from the committee of both kingdoms
      appointed for the management of the war, to return and lay siege to
      Oxford, now exposed by the king's absence. He obeyed, after sending
      Colonel Weldon to the west with a detachment of four thousand men. On
      Weldon's approach, Granville, who imagined that Fairfax with his whole
      army was upon him, raised the siege, and allowed this pertinacious town,
      now half taken and half burned, to receive relief: but the royalists,
      being reënforced with three thousand horse under Goring, again advanced to
      Taunton, and shut up Weldon, with his small army, in that ruinous
      place.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, having effected his purpose with regard to Chester returned
      southwards: and in his way sat down before Leicester, a garrison of the
      parliaments. Having made a breach in the wall, he stormed the town on all
      sides; and, after a furious assault, the soldiers entered sword in hand,
      and committed all those disorders to which their natural violence,
      especially when inflamed by resistance, is so much addicted.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii. p. 18, 19, etc.

     ** Rush, vol. vii. p. 28.

     *** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 652.
</pre>
    <p>
      A great booty was taken and distributed among them: fifteen hundred
      prisoners fell into the king's hands. This success, which struck a great
      terror into the parliamentary army, determined Fairfax to leave Oxford,
      which he was beginning to approach; and he marched towards the king, with
      an intention of offering him battle. The king was advancing towards
      Oxford, in order to raise the siege, which, he apprehended, was now begun;
      and both armies, ere they were aware, had advanced within six miles of
      each other. A council of war was called by the king, in order to
      deliberate concerning the measures which he should now pursue. On the one
      hand, it seemed more prudent to delay the combat; because Gerrard, who lay
      in Wales with three thousand men, might be enabled in a little time to
      join the army; and Goring, it was hoped, would soon be master of Taunton,
      and having put the west in full security, would then unite his forces to
      those of the king, and give him an incontestable superiority over the
      enemy. On the other hand, Prince Rupert, whose boiling ardor still pushed
      him on to battle, excited the impatient humor of the nobility and gentry
      of which the army was full; and urged the many difficulties under which
      the royalists labored, and from which nothing but a victory could relieve
      them: the resolution was taken to give battle to Fairfax; and the royal
      army immediately advanced upon him.
    </p>
    <p>
      At Naseby was fought, with forces nearly equal, this decisive and
      well-disputed action between the king and parliament. The main body of the
      royalists was commanded by the king himself; the right wing by Prince
      Rupert; the left by Sir Marmaduke Langdale. Fairfax, seconded by Skippon,
      placed himself in the main body of the opposite army; Cromwell in the
      right wing; Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law, in the left. The charge was
      begun, with his usual celerity and usual success, by Prince Rupert. Though
      Ireton made stout resistance, and even after he was run through the thigh
      with a pike, still maintained the combat till he was taken prisoner, yet
      was that whole wing broken, and pursued with precipitate fury by Rupert:
      he was even so inconsiderate as to lose time in summoning and attacking
      the artillery of the enemy, which had been left with a good guard of
      infantry. The king led on his main body, and displayed in this action all
      the conduct of a prudent general, and all the valor of a stout soldier.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 146.
</pre>
    <p>
      Fairfax and Skippon encountered him, and well supported that reputation
      which they had acquired. Skippon, being dangerously wounded, was desired
      by Fairfax to leave the field; but he declared that he would remain there
      as long as one man maintained his ground.[*] The infantry of the
      parliament was broken, and pressed upon by the king; till Fairfax, with
      great presence of mind, brought up the reserve, and renewed the combat.
      Meanwhile Cromwell, having led on his troops to the attack of Langdale,
      overbore the force of the royalists, and by his prudence improved that
      advantage which he had gained by his valor. Having pursued the enemy about
      a quarter of a mile, and detached some troops to prevent their rallying,
      he turned back upon the king's infantry, and threw them into the utmost
      confusion. One regiment alone preserved its order unbroken, though twice
      desperately assailed by Fairfax: and that general, excited by so steady a
      resistance, ordered Doyley, the captain of his life-guard, to give them a
      third charge in front, while he himself attacked them in the rear. The
      regiment was broken. Fairfax, with his own hands, killed an ensign, and,
      having seized the colors, gave them to a soldier to keep for him. The
      soldier, afterwards boasting that he had won this trophy, was reproved by
      Doyley, who had seen the action. "Let him retain that honor," said
      Fairfax; "I have to-day acquired enough beside."[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Prince Rupert, sensible too late of his error, left the fruitless attack
      on the enemy's artillery, and joined the king, whose infantry was now
      totally discomfited. Charles exhorted this body of cavalry not to despair,
      and cried aloud to them, "One charge more, and we recover the day."[***]
      But the disadvantages under which they labored were too evident; and they
      could by no means be induced to renew the combat. Charles was obliged to
      quit the field, and leave the victory to the enemy.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vii. p. 43. Whitlocke, p. 145.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 145.

     *** Rush. vol. vii. p. 44.

     **** Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 656, 657. Walker p. 130, 131
</pre>
    <p>
      The slain on the side of the parliament exceeded those on the side of the
      king: they lost a thousand men; he not above eight hundred. But Fairfax
      made five hundred officers prisoners, and four thousand private men; took
      all the king's artillery and ammunition, and totally dissipated his
      infantry: so that scarce any victory could be more complete than that
      which he obtained.
    </p>
    <p>
      Among the other spoils was seized the king's cabinet, with the copies of
      his letters to the queen, which the parliament afterwards ordered to be
      published.[*] They chose, no doubt, such of them as they thought would
      reflect dishonor on him: yet, upon the whole, the letters are written with
      delicacy and tenderness, and give an advantageous idea both of the king's
      genius and morals. A mighty fondness, it is true, and attachment, he
      expresses to his consort, and often professes that he never would embrace
      any measures which she disapproved: but such declarations of civility and
      confidence are not always to be taken in a full, literal sense. And so
      legitimate an affection, avowed by the laws of God and man, may perhaps be
      excusable towards a woman of beauty and spirit, even though she was a
      Papist.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 658.

     ** Hearne has published the following extract from a
     manuscript work of Sir Simon D'Ewes, who was no mean man in
     the parliamentary party. "On Thursday, the 30th and last day
     of this instant June, 1625, I went to Whitehall, purposely
     to see the queen, which I did fully all the time she sat at
     dinner. I perceived her to be a most absolute delicate lady,
     after I had exactly surveyed all the features of her face,
     much enlivened by her radiant and sparkling black eyes.
     Besides, her deportment among her women was so sweet and
     humble, and her speech and looks to her other servants so
     mild and gracious, as I could not abstain from divers deep-
     fetched sighs, to consider that she wanted the knowledge of
     the true religion." See Preface to the Chronicle of
     Dunstable, p 64.
</pre>
    <p>
      The Athenians, having intercepted a letter written by their enemy, Philip
      of Macedon, to his wife Olympia, so far from being moved by a curiosity of
      prying into the secrets of that relation, immediately sent the letter to
      the queen unopened. Philip was not their sovereign; nor were they inflamed
      with that violent animosity against him which attends all civil
      commotions.
    </p>
    <p>
      After the battle, the king retreated with that body of horse which
      remained entire, first to Hereford, then to Abergavenny; and remained some
      time in Wales, from the vain hope of raising a body of infantry in those
      harassed and exhausted quarters. Fairfax, having first retaken Leicester,
      which was surrendered upon articles, began to deliberate concerning his
      future enterprises. A letter was brought him, written by Goring to the
      king, and unfortunately intrusted to a spy of Fairfax's. Goring there
      informed the king, that in three weeks he hoped to be master of Taunton,
      after which he would join his majesty with all the forces in the west; and
      entreated him, in the mean while to avoid coming to any general action.
      This letter, which, had it been safely delivered, had probably prevented
      the battle of Naseby, served now to direct the operations of Fairfax.[*]
      After leaving a body of three thousand men to Pointz and Rossiter, with
      orders to attend the king's motions, he marched immediately to the west,
      with a view of saving Taunton, and suppressing the only considerable force
      which now remained to the royalists.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the beginning of the campaign, Charles, apprehensive of the event, had
      sent the prince of Wales, then fifteen years of age, to the west, with the
      title of General, and had given orders, if he were pressed by the enemy,
      that he should make his escape into a foreign country, and save one part
      of the royal family from the violence of the parliament. Prince Rupert had
      thrown himself into Bristol, with an intention of defending that important
      city. Goring commanded the army before Taunton.
    </p>
    <p>
      On Fairfax's approach, the siege of Taunton was raised; and the royalists
      retired to Lamport, an open town in the county of Somerset. Fairfax
      attacked them in that post, beat them from it, killed about three hundred
      men, and took one thousand four hundred prisoners.[**] After this
      advantage, he sat down before Bridgewater, a town esteemed strong, and of
      great consequence in that country. When he had entered the outer town by
      storm, Windham, the Governor, who had retired into the inner, immediately
      capitulated, and delivered up the place to Fairfax. The garrison, to the
      number of two thousand six hundred men, were made prisoners of war.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fairfax, having next taken Bath and Sherborne, resolved to lay siege to
      Bristol, and made great preparations for an enterprise which, from the
      strength of the garrison, and the reputation of Prince Rupert, the
      governor, was deemed of the last importance. But, so precarious in most
      men is this quality of military courage, a poorer defence was not made by
      any town during the whole war; and the general expectations were here
      extremely disappointed. No sooner had the parliamentary forces entered the
      lines by storm, than the prince capitulated, and surrendered the city to
      Fairfax.[***] A few days before, he had written a letter to the king, in
      which he undertook to defend the place for four months, if no mutiny
      obliged him to surrender it.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vii. p. 49.

     ** Rush, vol. vii. p. 55.

     *** Rush, vol. vii p. 83.
</pre>
    <p>
      Charles, who was forming schemes and collecting forces for the relief of
      Bristol, was astonished at so unexpected an event, which was little less
      fatal to his cause than the defeat at Naseby.[*] Full of indignation, he
      instantly recalled all Prince Rupert's commissions, and sent him a pass to
      go beyond sea.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The king's affairs now went fast to ruin in all quarters. The Scots,
      having made themselves masters of Carlisle, after an obstinate siege,
      marched southwards, and laid siege to Hereford; but were obliged to raise
      it on the king's approach: and this was the last glimpse of success which
      attended his arms. Having marched to the relief of Chester, which was anew
      besieged by the parliamentary forces under Colonel Jones, Pointz attacked
      his rear, and forced him to give battle. While the fight was continued
      with great obstinacy, and victory seemed to incline to the royalists,
      Jones fell upon them from the other side, and put them to rout, with the
      loss of six hundred slain and one thousand prisoners.[***] The king, with
      the remains of his broken army, fled to Newark, and thence escaped to
      Oxford, where he shut himself up during the winter season.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. vi. p. 690. Walker, p. 137.

     ** Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 695.

     *** Rush, vii. p. 117.
</pre>
    <p>
      The news which he received from every quarter, were no less fatal than
      those events which passed where he himself was present. Fairfax and
      Cromwell, after the surrender of Bristol, having divided their forces, the
      former marched westwards, in order to complete the conquest of Devonshire
      and Cornwall; the latter attacked the king's garrisons which lay to the
      east of Bristol. The Devizes were surrendered to Cromwell; Berkeley Castle
      was taken by storm; Winchester capitulated; Basing House was entered sword
      in hand; and all these middle counties of England were, in a little time,
      reduced to obedience under the parliament.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1646.
    </p>
    <p>
      The same rapid and uninterrupted success attended Fairfax. The
      parliamentary forces, elated by past victories, governed by the most rigid
      discipline, met with no equal opposition from troops dismayed by repeated
      defeats, and corrupted by licentious manners. After beating up the
      quarters of the royalists at Bovey Tracy, Fairfax sat down before
      Dartmouth, and in a few days entered it by storm. Poudram Castle being
      taken by him, and Exeter blockaded on all sides, Hopton, a man of merit,
      who now commanded the royalists, having advanced to the relief of that
      town with an army of eight thousand men, met with the parliamentary army
      at Torrington, where he was defeated, all his foot dispersed, and he
      himself with his horse obliged to retire into Cornwall. Fairfax followed
      him, and vigorously pursued the victory. Having enclosed the royalists at
      Truro, he forced the whole army, consisting of five thousand men, chiefly
      cavalry, to surrender upon terms. The soldiers, delivering up their horses
      and arms, were allowed to disband, and received twenty shillings apiece,
      to carry them to their respective abodes. Such of the officers as desired
      it had passes to retire beyond sea: the others, having promised never more
      to bear arms, paid compositions to the parliament,[*] and procured their
      pardon.[**] And thus Fairfax, after taking Exeter, which completed the
      conquest of the west, marched with his victorious army to the centre of
      the kingdom, and fixed his camp at Newbury. The prince of Wales, in
      pursuance of the king's orders, retired to Scilly, thence to Jersey;
      whence he went to Paris, where he joined the queen, who had fled thither
      from Exeter, at the time the earl of Essex conducted the parliamentary
      army to the west.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the other parts of England, Hereford was taken by surprise: Chester
      surrendered: Lord Digby, who had attempted with one thousand two hundred
      horse to break into Scotland and join Montrose, was defeated at Sherburne,
      in Yorkshire, by Colonel Copley; his whole force was dispersed, and he
      himself was obliged to fly, first to the Isle of Man, thence to Ireland.
      News, too, arrived that Montrose himself, after some more successes, was
      at last routed; and this only remaining hope of the royal party finally
      extinguished.
    </p>
    <p>
      When Montrose descended into the southern counties, the Covenanters,
      assembling their whole force, met him with a numerous army, and gave him
      battle, but without success, at Kilsyth.[***] This was the most complete
      victory that Montrose ever obtained.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * These compositions were different, according to the
     demerits of the person: but by a vote of the house, they
     could not be under two years' rent of the delinquent's
     estate. Journ. 11th of August, 1648 Whitlocke, p. 160.

     ** Rush, vol. vii. p 108.

     *** 15th August, 1645.
</pre>
    <p>
      The royalists put to sword six thousand of their enemies, and left the
      Covenanters no remains of any army in Scotland. The whole kingdom was
      shaken with these repeated successes of Montrose; and many noblemen, who
      secretly favored the royal cause, now declared openly for it when they saw
      a force able to support them. The marquis of Douglas, the earls of
      Annandale and Hartfield, the lords Fleming, Seton, Maderty, Carnegy, with
      many others, flocked to the royal standard. Edinburgh opened its gates,
      and gave liberty to all the prisoners there detained by the Covenanters.
      Among the rest was Lord Ogilvy, son of Airly, whose family had contributed
      extremely to the victory gained at Kilsyth.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      David Lesly was detached from the army in England, and marched to the
      relief of his distressed party in Scotland. Montrose advanced still
      farther to the south, allured by vain hopes, both of rousing to arms the
      earls of Hume, Traquaire, and Roxborough, who had promised to join him;
      and of obtaining from England some supply of cavalry, in which he was
      deficient. By the negligence of his scouts, Lesly, at Philipbaugh in the
      Forest, surprised his army, much diminished in numbers, from the desertion
      of the Highlanders, who had retired to the hills, according to custom, in
      order to secure their plunder. After a sharp conflict, where Montrose
      exerted great valor, his forces were routed by Lesly's cavalry;[**] and he
      himself was obliged to fly with his broken forces into the mountains,
      where he again prepared himself for new battles and new enterprises.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      The Covenanters used the victory with rigor. Their prisoners, Sir Robert
      Spotiswood, secretary of state, and son to the late primate, Sir Philip
      Nisbet, Sir William Hollo, Colonel Nathaniel Gordon, Andrew Guthry, son of
      the bishop of Murray, William Murray, son of the earl of Tullibardine,
      were condemned and executed. The sole crime imputed to the secretary was
      his delivering to Montrose the king's commission to be captain-general of
      Scotland. Lord Ogilvy, who was again taken prisoner, would have undergone
      the same fate, had not his sister found means to procure his escape by
      changing clothes with him. For this instance of courage and dexterity, she
      met with harsh usage. The clergy solicited the parliament that more
      royalists might be executed; but could not obtain their request.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vii p. 230, 231. Wishart, cap, 13.

     ** 13th Sept. 1645.

     *** Rush, vol. vii. p. 231

     **** Guthry's Memoirs. Rush. vol. vii. p. 232.
</pre>
    <p>
      After all these repeated disasters, which every where befell the royal
      party, there remained only one body of troops on which fortune could
      exercise her rigor. Lord Astley, with a small army of three thousand men,
      chiefly cavalry, marching to Oxford in order to join the king, was met at
      Stowe by Colonel Morgan, and entirely defeated, himself being taken
      prisoner. "You have done your work," said Astley to the parliamentary
      officers; "and may now go to play, unless you choose to fall out among
      yourselves."[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The condition of the king during this whole winter was to the last degree
      disastrous and melancholy. As the dread of ills is commonly more
      oppressive than their real presence, perhaps in no period of his life was
      he more justly the object of compassion. His vigor of mind, which, though
      it sometimes failed him in acting, never deserted him in his sufferings,
      was what alone supported him; and he was determined, as he wrote to Lord
      Digby, if he could not live as a king, to die like a gentleman; nor should
      any of his friends, he said, ever have reason to blush for the prince whom
      they had so unfortunately served.[**] The murmurs of discontented
      officers, on the one hand, harassed their unhappy sovereign; while they
      overrated those services and sufferings which they now saw must forever go
      unrewarded.[***] The affectionate duty, on the other hand, of his more
      generous friends, who respected his misfortunes and his virtues as much as
      his dignity, wrung his heart with a new sorrow, when he reflected that
      such disinterested attachment would so soon be exposed to the rigor of his
      implacable enemies. Repeated attempts which he made for a peaceful and
      equitable accommodation with the parliament, served to no purpose but to
      convince them that the victory was entirely in their hands. They deigned
      not to make the least reply to several of his messages, in which he
      desired a passport for commissioners.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vii. p. 141. It was the same Astley who, before
     he charged at the battle of Edgehill, made this short
     prayer: "O Lord, thou knowest how busy I must be this day.
     If I forget thee, do not thou forget me," And with that rose
     up and cried, "March on, boys!" Warwick, p. 229. There were
     certainly much longer prayers said in the parliamentary
     army; but I doubt if there were so good a one.

     ** Carte's Ormond, vol. iii. No. 433.

     *** Walker, p. 147

     **** Rush, vol. vii. p. 215, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      At last, after reproaching him with the blood spilt during the war, they
      told him that they were preparing bills for him; and his passing them
      would be the best pledge of his inclination towards peace: in other words,
      he must yield at discretion.[*] He desired a personal treaty, and offered
      to come to London, upon receiving a safe-conduct for himself and his
      attendants: they absolutely refused him admittance, and issued orders for
      the guarding, that is, the seizing of his person, in case he should
      attempt to visit them.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vii. p. 217, 219. Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 741.

     ** Rush, vol. vii. p 249. Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 741.
</pre>
    <p>
      A new incident, which happened in Ireland, served to inflame the minds of
      men, and to increase those calumnies with which his enemies had so much
      loaded him, and which he ever regarded as the most grievous part of his
      misfortunes. After the cessation with the Irish rebels, the king was
      desirous of concluding a final peace with them, and obtaining their
      assistance in England: and he gave authority to Ormond, lord lieutenant,
      to promise them an abrogation of all the penal laws enacted against
      Catholics; together with the suspension of Poinings's statute, with regard
      to some particular bills which should be agreed on. Lord Herbert, created
      earl of Glamorgan, (though his patent had not yet passed the seals,)
      having occasion for his private affairs to go to Ireland, the king
      considered that this nobleman, being a Catholic, and allied to the best
      Irish families, might be of service: he also foresaw that further
      concessions with regard to religion might probably be demanded by the
      bigoted Irish; and that, as these concessions, however necessary, would
      give great scandal to the Protestant zealots in his three kingdoms, if
      would be requisite both to conceal them during some time, and to preserve
      Ormond's character by giving private orders to Glamorgan to conclude and
      sign these articles. But as he had a better opinion of Glamorgan's zeal
      and affection for his service than of his capacity, he enjoined him to
      communicate all his measures to Ormond; and though the final conclusion of
      the treaty must be executed only in Glamorgan's own name, he was required
      to be directed in the steps towards it by the opinion of the lord
      lieutenant. Glamorgan, bigoted to his religion, and passionate for the
      king's service, but guided in these pursuits by no manner of judgment or
      discretion, secretly, of himself, without any communication with Ormond,
      concluded a peace with the council of Kilkenny, and agreed, in the king's
      name, that the Irish should enjoy all the churches of which they had ever
      been in possession since the commencement of their insurrection, on
      condition that they should assist the king in England with a body of ten
      thousand men. This transaction was discovered by accident. The titular
      archbishop of Tuam being killed by a sally of the garrison of Sligo, the
      articles of the treaty were found among his baggage, and were immediately
      published every where, and copies of them sent over to the English
      parliament.[*] The lord lieutenant and Lord Digby, foreseeing the clamor
      which would be raised against the king, committed Glamorgan to prison,
      charged him with treason for his temerity, and maintained that he had
      acted altogether without any authority from his master. The English
      parliament, however, neglected not so favorable an opportunity of reviving
      the old clamor with regard to the king's favor of Popery, and accused him
      of delivering over, in a manner, the whole kingdom of Ireland to that
      hated sect. The king told them, "that the earl of Glamorgan, having made
      an offer to raise forces in the kingdom of Ireland, and to conduct them
      into England for his majesty's service, had a commission to that purpose,
      and to that purpose only; and that he had no commission at all to treat of
      any thing else, without the privity and direction of the lord lieutenant,
      much less to capitulate any thing concerning religion, or any property
      belonging either to church or laity."[**] Though this declaration seems
      agreeable to truth, it gave no satisfaction to the parliament; and some
      historians, even at present, when the ancient bigotry is somewhat abated,
      are desirous of representing this very innocent transaction, in which the
      king was engaged by the most violent necessity, as a stain on the memory
      of that unfortunate prince.[***] <a href="#linknote-16"
      name="linknoteref-16" id="linknoteref-16">16</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vii. p. 239.

     ** Birch, p. 119.

     *** See note P, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      Having lost all hope of prevailing over the rigor of the parliament,
      either by arms or by treaty, the only resource which remained to the king
      was derived from the intestine dissensions which ran very high among his
      enemies. Presbyterians and Independents, even before their victory was
      fully completed, fell into contests about the division of the spoil; and
      their religious as well as civil disputes agitated the whole kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament, though they had early abolished Episcopal authority, had
      not, during so long a time, substituted any other spiritual government in
      its place; and their committees of religion had hitherto assumed the whole
      ecclesiastical jurisdiction; but they now established, by an ordinance,
      the Presbyterian model in all its forms of congregational, classical,
      provincial, and national assemblies. All the inhabitants of each parish
      were ordered to meet and choose elders, on whom together with the
      minister, was bestowed the entire direction of all spiritual concerns
      within the congregation. A number of neighboring parishes, commonly
      between twelve and twenty, formed a classis; and the court which governed
      this division was composed of all the ministers, together with two, three,
      or four elders chosen from each parish. The provincial assembly retained
      an inspection over several neighboring classes, and was composed entirely
      of clergymen: the national assembly was constituted in the same manner;
      and its authority extended over the whole kingdom. It is probable, that
      the tyranny exercised by the Scottish clergy, had given warning not to
      allow laymen a place in the provincial or national assemblies; lest the
      nobility and more considerable gentry, soliciting a seat in these great
      ecclesiastical courts, should bestow a consideration upon them, and render
      them, in the eyes of the multitude, a rival to the parliament. In the
      inferior courts, the mixture of the laity might serve rather to temper the
      usual zeal of the clergy.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      But though the Presbyterians, by the establishment of parity among the
      ecclesiastics, were so far gratified, they were denied satisfaction in
      several other points on which they were extremely intent. The assembly of
      divines had voted Presbytery to be of divine right: the parliament refused
      their assent to that decision.[**] Selden, Whitlocke, and other political
      reasoners, assisted by the Independents, had prevailed in this important
      deliberation. They thought, that had the bigoted religionists been able to
      get their heavenly charter recognized, the presbyters would soon become
      more dangerous to the magistrate than had ever been the prelatical clergy.
      These latter, white they claimed to themselves a divine right, admitted of
      a like origin to civil authority: the former, challenging to their own
      order a celestial pedigree, derived the legislative power from a source no
      more dignified than the voluntary association of the people.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii. p. 224.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 106. Rush. vol. vii. p. 260, 261.
</pre>
    <p>
      Under color of keeping the sacraments from profanation, the clergy of all
      Christian sects had assumed what they call the power of the keys, or the
      right of fulminating excommunication. The example of Scotland was a
      sufficient lesson for the parliament to use precaution in guarding against
      so severe a tyranny. They determined, by a general ordinance, all the
      cases in which excommunication could be used. They allowed of appeals to
      parliament from all ecclesiastical courts. And they appointed
      commissioners in every province to judge of such cases as fell not within
      their general ordinance.[*] So much civil authority, intermixed with the
      ecclesiastical, gave disgust to all the zealots.
    </p>
    <p>
      But nothing was attended with more universal scandal than the propensity
      of many in the parliament towards a toleration of the Protestant
      sectaries. The Presbyterians exclaimed, that this indulgence made the
      church of Christ resemble Noah's ark, and rendered it a receptacle for all
      unclean beasts. They insisted, that the least of Christ's truths was
      superior to all political considerations.[**] They maintained the eternal
      obligation imposed by the covenant to extirpate heresy and schism. And
      they menaced all their opponents with the same rigid persecution under
      which they themselves had groaned, when held in subjection by the
      hierarchy.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii. p. 210.

     ** Rush, vol vii. p. 308.
</pre>
    <p>
      So great prudence and reserve, in such material points, does great honor
      to the parliament; and proves that, notwithstanding the prevalency of
      bigotry and fanaticism, there were many members who had more enlarged
      views, and paid regard to the civil interests of society. These men,
      uniting themselves to the enthusiasts, whose genius is naturally averse to
      clerical usurpations, exercised so jealous an authority over the assembly
      of divines, that they allowed them nothing but the liberty of tendering
      advice, and would not intrust them even with the power of electing their
      own chairman or his substitute, or of supplying the vacancies of their own
      members.
    </p>
    <p>
      While these disputes were canvassed by theologians, who engaged in their
      spiritual contests every order of the state the king, though he
      entertained hopes of reaping advantage from those divisions, was much at a
      loss which side it would be most for his interest to comply with. The
      Presbyterians were, by their principles, the least averse to regal
      authority but were rigidly bent on the extirpation of prelacy: the
      Independents were resolute to lay the foundation of a republican
      government; but as they pretended not to erect themselves into a national
      church, it might be hoped that, if gratified with am toleration, they
      would admit the reëstablishment of the hierarchy. So great attachment had
      the king to episcopal jurisdiction, that he was ever inclined to put it in
      balance even with his own power and kingly office.
    </p>
    <p>
      But whatever advantage he might hope to reap from the divisions in the
      parliamentary party, he was apprehensive lest it should come too late to
      save him from the destruction with which he was instantly threatened.
      Fairfax was approaching with a powerful and victorious army, and was
      taking the proper measures for laying siege to Oxford, which must
      infallibly fall into his hands. To be taken captive, and led in triumph by
      his insolent enemies, was what Charles justly abhorred; and every insult,
      if not violence, was to be dreaded from that enthusiastic soldiery who
      hated his person and despised his dignity. In this desperate extremity, he
      embraced a measure which, in any other situation, might lie under the
      imputation of imprudence and indiscretion.
    </p>
    <p>
      Montreville, the French minister, interested for the king more by the
      natural sentiments of humanity than any instructions from his court, which
      seemed rather to favor the parliament, had solicited the Scottish generals
      and commissioners to give protection to their distressed sovereign; and
      having received many general professions and promises, he had always
      transmitted these, perhaps with some exaggeration, to the king. From his
      suggestions, Charles began to entertain thoughts of leaving Oxford, and
      flying to the Scottish army, which at that time lay before Newark.[*] He
      considered, that the Scottish nation had been fully gratified in all their
      demands; and having already, in their own country, annihilated both
      episcopacy and regal authority, had no further concessions to exact from
      him. In all disputes which had passed about settling the terms of peace,
      the Scots, he heard, had still adhered to the milder side, and had
      endeavored to soften the rigor of the English parliament. Great disgusts
      also, on other accounts, had taken place between the nations; and the
      Scots found that, in proportion as their assistance became less necessary,
      less value was put upon them. The progress of the Independents gave them
      great alarm; and they were scandalized to hear their beloved covenant
      spoken of every day with less regard, and reverence. The refusal of a
      divine right to presbytery, and the infringing of ecclesiastical
      discipline from political considerations, were to them the subject of much
      offence; and the king hoped that, in their present disposition, the plight
      of their native prince, flying to them in this extremity of distress,
      would rouse every-spark of generosity in their bosom, and procure him
      their favor and protection.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. iv. p. 750; vol. v. p. 16.
</pre>
    <p>
      That he might the better conceal his intentions, orders were given at
      every gate in Oxford for allowing three persons to pass; and in the night
      the king, accompanied by none but Dr. Hudson and Mr. Ashburnham, went out
      at that gate which leads to London. He rode before a portmanteau, and
      called himself Ashburnham's servant. He passed through Henley, St. Albans,
      and came so near to London as Harrow on the Hill. He once entertained
      thoughts of entering into that city, and of throwing himself on the mercy
      of the parliament. But at last, after passing through many cross roads, he
      arrived at the Scottish camp before Newark.[*] The parliament, hearing of
      his escape from Oxford, issued rigorous orders, and threatened with
      instant death whoever should harbor or conceal him.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The Scottish generals and commissioners affected great surprise on the
      appearance of the king; and though they paid him all the exterior respect
      due to his dignity, they instantly set a guard upon him, under color of
      protection, and made him in reality a prisoner. They informed the English
      parliament of this unexpected incident, and assured them that they had
      entered into no private treaty with the king. They applied to him for
      orders to Bellasis, governor of Newark, to surrender that town, now
      reduced to extremity; and the orders were instantly obeyed. And hearing
      that the parliament laid claim to the entire disposal of the king's
      person, and that the English army was making some motion towards them,
      they thought proper to retire northwards, and to fix their camp at
      Newcastle.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vii. p. 267.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 208.

     *** Rush, vol. vii. p. 271. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 23.
</pre>
    <p>
      This measure was very grateful to the king; and he began to entertain
      hopes of protection from the Scots. He was particularly attentive to the
      behavior of their preachers, on whom all depended. It was the mode of that
      age to make the pulpit the scene of news; and on every great event, the
      whole Scripture was ransacked by the clergy for passages applicable to the
      present occasion. The first minister who preached before the king chose
      these words for his text: "And behold all the men of Israel came to the
      king, and said unto him, Why have our brethren, the men of Judah, stolen
      thee away, and have brought the king and his household, and all David's
      men with him, over Jordan? And all the men of Judah answered the men of
      Israel, Because the king is near of kin to us; wherefore then be ye angry
      for this matter? Have we eaten at all of the king's cost? or hath he given
      us any gift? And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, We
      have ten parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye:
      why then did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first had in
      bringing back our king? And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer
      than the words of the men of Israel."[*] But the king soon found, that the
      happiness chiefly of the allusion had tempted the preacher to employ this
      text, and that the covenanting zealots were nowise pacified towards him.
      Another preacher, after reproaching him to his face with his
      misgovernment, ordered this psalm to be sung:&mdash;
    </p>
    <p>
      "Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself, Thy wicked deeds to praise?"
    </p>
    <p>
      The king stood up, and called for that psalm which begins with these
      words,
    </p>
    <p>
      "Have mercy, Lord, on me, I pray; For men would me devour."
    </p>
    <p>
      The good-natured audience, in pity to fallen majesty, showed for once
      greater deference to the king than to the minister, and sung the psalm
      which the former had called for.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles had very little reason to be pleased with his situation. He not
      only found himself a prisoner, very strictly guarded: all his friends were
      kept at a distance; and no intercourse, either by letters or conversation,
      was allowed him with any one on whom he could depend, or who was suspected
      of any attachment towards him. The Scottish generals would enter into no
      confidence with him; and still treated him with distant ceremony and
      feigned respect. And every proposal which they made him tended further to
      his abasement and to his ruin.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * 2 Sam. chap. xix. ver. 41,42,43. See Clarendon, vol v. p.
     23, 24

     ** Whitlocke, p. 234.

     *** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 30.
</pre>
    <p>
      They required him to issue orders to Oxford and to all his other
      garrisons, commanding their surrender to the parliament; and the king,
      sensible that their resistance was to very little purpose, willingly
      complied. The terms given to most of them were honorable; and Fairfax, as
      far as it lay in his power, was very exact in observing them. Far from
      allowing violence, he would not even permit insults or triumph over the
      unfortunate royalists; and by his generous humanity, so cruel a civil war
      was ended, in appearance, very calmly between the parties.
    </p>
    <p>
      Ormond, having received like orders, delivered Dublin and other forts into
      the hands of the parliamentary officers. Montrose also, after having
      experienced still more variety of good and bad fortune, threw down his
      arms, and retired out of the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      The marquis of Worcester, a man past eighty-four, was the last in England
      that submitted to the authority of the parliament. He defended Raglan
      Castle to extremity; and opened not its gates till the middle of August.
      Four years, a few days excepted, were now elapsed since the king first
      erected his standard at Nottingham:[*] so long had the British nations, by
      civil and religious quarrels, been occupied in shedding their own blood,
      and laying waste their native country.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament and the Scots laid their proposals before the king. They
      were such as a captive, entirely at mercy, could expect from the most
      inexorable victor. Yet were they little worse than what were insisted on
      before the battle of Naseby. The power of the sword, instead of ten, which
      the king now offered, was demanded for twenty years, together with a right
      to levy whatever money the parliament should think proper for the support
      of their armies. The other conditions were, in the main, the same with
      those which had formerly been offered to the king.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles said, that proposals which introduced such important innovations
      in the constitution, demanded time for deliberation: the commissioners
      replied, that he must give his answer in ten days.[***] He desired to
      reason about the meaning and import of some terms: they informed him, that
      they had no power of debate; and peremptorily required his consent or
      refusal. He requested a personal treaty with the parliament. They
      threatened that, if he delayed compliance, the parliament would, by their
      own authority, settle the nation.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 293.

     ** Rush. vol. vi. p. 309.

     *** Rush. vol. vii. p. 319.
</pre>
    <p>
      What the parliament was most intent upon, was not their treaty with the
      king, to whom they paid little regard, but that with the Scots. Two
      important points remained to be settled with that nation: their delivery
      of the king, and the estimation of their arrears.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Scots might pretend, that, as Charles was king of Scotland as well as
      of England, they were entitled to an equal vote in the disposal of his
      person; and that, in such a case, where the titles are equal, and the
      subject indivisible, the preference was due to the present possessor. The
      English maintained, that the king, being in England, was comprehended
      within the jurisdiction of that kingdom, and could not be disposed of by
      any foreign nation: a delicate question this, and what surely could not be
      decided by precedent; since such a situation is not any where to be found
      in history.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vii. p. 339.
</pre>
    <p>
      As the Scots concurred with the English in imposing such severe conditions
      on the king, that, notwithstanding his unfortunate situation, he still
      refused to accept of them, it is certain that they did not desire his
      freedom: nor could they ever intend to join lenity and rigor together, in
      so inconsistent a manner. Before the settlement of terms, the
      administration must be possessed entirely by the parliaments of both
      kingdoms; and how incompatible that scheme with the liberty of the king,
      is easily imagined. To carry him a prisoner into Scotland, where few
      forces could be supported to guard him, was a measure so full of
      inconvenience and danger, that, even if the English had consented to it,
      it must have appeared to the Scots themselves altogether uneligible: and
      how could such a plan be supported in opposition to England, possessed of
      such numerous and victorious armies, which were, at that time at least
      seemed to be, in entire union with the parliament? The only expedient, it
      is obvious, which the Scots could embrace, if they scrupled wholly to
      abandon the king, was immediately to return, fully and cordially, to their
      allegiance; and, uniting themselves with the royalists in both kingdoms,
      endeavor, by force of arms, to reduce the English parliament to more
      moderate conditions: but, besides that this measure was full of extreme
      hazard, what was it but instantly to combine with their old enemies
      against their old friends; and, in a fit of romantic generosity, overturn
      what, with so much expense of blood and treasure, they had, during the
      course of so many years, been so carefully erecting?
    </p>
    <p>
      But though all these reflections occurred to the Scottish commissioners,
      they resolved to prolong the dispute, and to keep the king as a pledge for
      those arrears which they claimed from England, and which they were not
      likely, in the present disposition of that nation, to obtain by any other
      expedient. The sum, by their account, amounted to near two millions: for
      they had received little regular pay since they had entered England. And
      though the contributions which they had levied, as well as the price of
      their living at free quarters, must be deducted, yet still the sum which
      they insisted on was very considerable. After many discussions, it was at
      last agreed, that, in lieu of all demands, they should accept of four
      hundred thousand pounds, one half to be paid instantly, another in two
      subsequent payments.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. vii. p. 326. Parl. Hist. vol. xv. p. 236
</pre>
    <p>
      Great pains were taken by the Scots (and the English complied with their
      pretended delicacy) to make this estimation and payment of arrears appear
      a quite different transaction from that for the delivery of the king's
      person: but common sense requires that they should be regarded as one and
      the same. The English, it is evident, had they not been previously assured
      of receiving the king, would never have parted with so considerable a sum;
      and, while they weakened themselves, by the same measure, have
      strengthened a people with whom they must afterwards have so material an
      interest to discuss.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus the Scottish nation underwent, and still undergo, (for such grievous
      stains are not easily wiped off,) the reproach of selling their king and
      betraying their prince for money. In vain did they maintain, that this
      money was, on account of former services, undoubtedly their due; that in
      their present situation, no other measure, without the utmost,
      indiscretion, or even their apparent ruin, could be embraced; and that,
      though they delivered their king into the hands of his open enemies they
      were themselves as much his open enemies as those to whom they surrendered
      him; and their common hatred against him had long united the two parties
      in strict alliance with each other. They were still answered, that they
      made use of this scandalous expedient for obtaining their wages; and that,
      after taking arms without any provocation against their sovereign, who had
      ever loved and cherished them, they had deservedly fallen into a situation
      from which they could not extricate themselves without either infamy or
      imprudence.
    </p>
    <p>
      The infamy of this bargain had such an influence on the Scottish
      parliament, that they once voted that the king should be protected, and
      his liberty insisted on. But the general assembly interposed, and
      pronounced that, as he had refused to take the covenant, which was pressed
      on him, it became not the godly to concern themselves about his fortunes.
      After this declaration, it behoved the parliament to retract their
      vote.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Intelligence concerning the final resolution of the Scottish nation to
      surrender him, was brought to the king; and he happened, at that very
      time, to be playing at chess.[**] Such command of temper did he possess,
      that he continued his game without interruption; and none of the
      bystanders could perceive that the letter which he perused had brought him
      news of any consequence. The English commissioners, who, some days after,
      came to take him under their custody, were admitted to kiss his hands; and
      he received them with the same grace and cheerfulness as if they had
      travelled on no other errand than to pay court to him. The old earl of
      Pembroke, in particular, who was one of them, he congratulated on his
      strength and vigor, that he was still able, during such a season, to
      perform so long a journey, in company with so many young people.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1647.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, being delivered over by the Scots to the English commissioners,
      was conducted under a guard to Holdenby, in the county of Northampton. On
      his journey, the whole country flocked to behold him, moved partly by
      curiosity, partly by compassion and affection. If any still retained
      rancor against him, in his present condition, they passed in silence;
      while his well-wishers, more generous than prudent, accompanied his march
      with tears, with acclamations, and with prayers for his safety.[***] That
      ancient superstition, likewise, of desiring the king's touch in scrofulous
      distempers, seemed to acquire fresh credit among the people, from the
      general tenderness which began to prevail for this virtuous and unhappy
      monarch.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Parl. Hist. vol. xv. p. 243, 244.

     ** Burnet's Memoirs of the Hamiltons.

     *** Ludlow. Herbert.
</pre>
    <p>
      The commissioners rendered his confinement at Holdenby very rigorous;
      dismissing his ancient servants, debarring him from visits, and cutting
      off all communication with his friends or family. The parliament, though
      earnestly applied to by the king, refused to allow his chaplains to attend
      him, because they had not taken the covenant. The king refused to assist
      at the service exercised according to the directory; because he had not as
      yet given his consent to that mode of worship.[*] Such religious zeal
      prevailed on both sides; and such was the unhappy and distracted condition
      to which it had reduced king and people.
    </p>
    <p>
      During the time that the king remained in the Scottish army at Newcastle,
      died the earl of Essex, the discarded, but still powerful and popular
      general of the parliament. His death, in this conjuncture, was a public
      misfortune. Fully sensible of the excesses to which affairs had been
      carried, and of the worse consequences which were still to be apprehended,
      he had resolved to conciliate a peace, and to remedy, as far as possible,
      all those ills to which, from mistake rather than any bad intentions, he
      had himself so much contributed. The Presbyterian, or the moderate party
      among the commons, found themselves considerably weakened by his death;
      and the small remains of authority, which still adhered to the house of
      peers, were in a manner wholly extinguished.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, voL T. p. 39. Warwick, p. 298.

     ** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 48.
</pre>
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    <h2>
      CHAPTER LIX.
    </h2>
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    <h2>
      CHARLES I.
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1647.
    </p>
    <p>
      The dominion of the parliament was of short duration. No sooner had they
      subdued their sovereign, than their own servants rose against them, and
      tumbled them from their slippery throne. The sacred boundaries of the laws
      being once violated, nothing remained to confine the wild projects of zeal
      and ambition: and every successive revolution became a precedent for that
      which followed it.
    </p>
    <p>
      In proportion as the terror of the king's power diminished, the division
      between Independent and Presbyterian became every day more apparent; and
      the neuters found it at last requisite to seek shelter in one or the other
      faction. Many new writs were issued for elections, in the room of members
      who had died, or were disqualified by adhering to the king; yet still the
      Presbyterians retained the superiority among the commons: and all the
      peers, except Lord Say, were esteemed of that party. The Independents, to
      whom the inferior sectaries adhered, predominated in the army; and the
      troops of the new model were universally infected with that enthusiastic
      spirit. To their assistance did the Independent party among the commons
      chiefly trust in their projects for acquiring the ascendant over their
      antagonists.
    </p>
    <p>
      Soon after the retreat of the Scots, the Presbyterians, seeing every thing
      reduced to obedience, began to talk of diminishing the army; and, on
      pretence of easing the public burdens, they levelled a deadly blow at the
      opposite faction. They purposed to embark a strong detachment, under
      Skippon and Massey, for the service of Ireland; they openly declared their
      intention of making a great reduction of the remainder.[*] It was even
      imagined that another new model of the army was projected, in order to
      regain to the Presbyterians that superiority which they had so imprudently
      lost by the former.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Fourteen thousand men were only intended to be kept up;
     six thousand horse, six thousand foot, and two thousand
     dragoons. Bates.

     ** Rush. vol. vii. p. 564.
</pre>
    <p>
      The army had small inclination to the service of Ireland; a country
      barbarous, uncultivated, and laid waste by massacres and civil commotions:
      they had less inclination to disband, and to renounce that pay which,
      having earned it through fatigues and dangers, they now purposed to enjoy
      in ease and tranquillity. And most of the officers, having risen from the
      dregs of the people, had no other prospect, if deprived of their
      commission, than that of returning to languish in their native poverty and
      obscurity.
    </p>
    <p>
      These motives of interest acquired additional influence, and became more
      dangerous to the parliament, from the religious spirit by which the army
      was universally actuated. Among the generality of men educated in regular,
      civilized societies, the sentiments of shame, duty, honor, have
      considerable authority, and serve to counterbalance and direct the motives
      derived from private advantage: but, by the predominancy of enthusiasm
      among the parliamentary forces, these salutary principles lost their
      credit, and were regarded as mere human inventions, yea, moral
      institutions, fitter for heathens than for Christians.[*] The saint,
      resigned over to superior guidance, was at full liberty to gratify all his
      appetites, disguised under the appearance of pious zeal. And besides the
      strange corruptions engendered by this spirit, it eluded and loosened all
      the ties of morality, and gave entire scope, and even sanction, to the
      selfishness and ambition which naturally adhere to the human mind.
    </p>
    <p>
      The military confessors were further encouraged in disobedience to
      superiors, by that spiritual pride to which a mistaken piety is so
      subject. They were not, they said, mere janizaries; mercenary troops
      enlisted for hire, and to be disposed of at the will of their
      paymasters.[**] Religion and liberty were the motives which had excited
      them to arms; and they had a superior right to see those blessings, which
      they had purchased with their blood, insured to future generations. By the
      same title that the Presbyterians, in contradistinction to the royalists,
      had appropriated to themselves the epithet of godly, or the well
      affected,[***] the Independents did now, in contradistinction to the
      Presbyterians, assume this magnificent appellation, and arrogate all the
      ascendant which naturally belongs to it.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vi. p. 134.

     ** Rush, vol. vii. p. 565.

     *** Bush. vol. vii. p 474.
</pre>
    <p>
      Hearing of parties in the house of commons, and being informed that the
      minority were friends to the army, the majority enemies, the troops
      naturally interested themselves in that dangerous distinction, and were
      eager to give the superiority to their partisans. Whatever hardships they
      underwent, though perhaps derived from inevitable necessity, were ascribed
      to a settled design of oppressing them, and resented as an effect of the
      animosity and malice of their adversaries.
    </p>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding the great revenue which accrued from taxes, assessments,
      sequestrations, and compositions, considerable arrears were due to the
      army; and many of the private men, as well as officers, had near a
      twelvemonth's pay still owing them. The army suspected that this
      deficiency was purposely contrived in order to oblige them to live at free
      quarters; and, by rendering them odious to the country, serve as a
      pretence for disbanding them. When they saw such members as were employed
      in committees and civil offices accumulate fortunes, they accused them of
      rapine and public plunder. And as no plan was pointed out by the commons
      for the payment of arrears, the soldiers dreaded, that after they should
      be disbanded or embarked for Ireland, their enemies, who predominated in
      the two houses, would entirely defraud them of their right, and oppress
      them with impunity.
    </p>
    <p>
      On this ground or pretence did the first commotions begin in the army. A
      petition, addressed to Fairfax, the general, was handed about, craving an
      indemnity, and that ratified by the king, for any illegal actions of
      which, during the course of the war, the soldiers might have been guilty;
      together with satisfaction in arrears, freedom from pressing, relief of
      widows and maimed soldiers, and pay till disbanded.[*] The commons, aware
      of what combustible materials the army was composed, were alarmed at this
      intelligence. Such a combination, they knew, if not checked in its first
      appearance, must be attended with the most dangerous consequences, and
      must soon exalt the military above the civil authority. Besides summoning
      some officers to answer for this attempt, they immediately voted, that the
      petition tended to introduce mutiny, to put conditions upon the
      parliament, and to obstruct the relief of Ireland; and they threatened to
      proceed against the promoters of it as enemies to the state, and
      disturbers of public peace.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Parl. Hist. vol. xv. p. 342

     ** Parl. Hist vol. xv. p. 344.
</pre>
    <p>
      This declaration, which may be deemed violent, especially as the army had
      some ground for complaint, produced fatal effects. The soldiers lamented,
      that they were deprived of the privileges of Englishmen; that they were
      not allowed so much as to represent their grievances; that, while
      petitions from Essex and other places were openly encouraged against the
      army, their mouths were stopped; and that they, who were the authors of
      liberty to the nation, were reduced, by a faction in parliament, to the
      most grievous servitude.
    </p>
    <p>
      In this disposition was the army found by Warwick, Dacres, Massey, and
      other commissioners, who were sent to make them proposals for entering
      into the service of Ireland.[*] instead of enlisting, the generality
      objected to the terms; demanded an indemnity; were clamorous for their
      arrears; and, though they expressed no dissatisfaction against Skippon,
      who was appointed commander, they discovered much stronger inclination to
      serve under Fairfax and Cromwell.[**] Some officers, who were of the
      Presbyterian party, having entered into engagements for this service,
      could prevail on very few of the soldiers to enlist under them. And, as
      these officers lay all under the grievous reproach of deserting the army,
      and betraying the interests of their companions, the rest were further
      confirmed in that confederacy which they had secretly formed.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      To petition and remonstrate being the most cautious method of conducting a
      confederacy, an application to parliament was signed by near two hundred
      officers, in which they made their apology with a very imperious air,
      asserted their right of petitioning, and complained of that imputation
      thrown upon them by the former declaration of the lower house.[****] The
      private men, likewise, of some regiments sent a letter to Skippon, in
      which, together with insisting on the same topics, they lament that
      designs were formed against them and many of the godly party in the
      kingdom; and declare that they could not engage for Ireland, till they
      were satisfied in their expectations, and had their just desires
      granted.[v] The army, in a word, felt their power, and resolved to be
      masters.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii, p. 457.

     ** Rush. vol. vii. p. 458.

     *** Rush. vol. vii. p. 461, 556.

     **** Rush. vol. vii. p. 468.

     v Rush. vol. vii. p. 474.
</pre>
    <p>
      The parliament, too, resolved, if possible, to preserve their dominion;
      but being destitute of power; and not retaining much authority, it was not
      easy for them to employ any expedient which could contribute to their
      purpose. The expedient which they now made use of was the worst
      imaginable. They sent Skippon, Cromwell, Ireton, and Fleetwood, to the
      head quarters at Saffron Weldon, in Essex, and empowered them to make
      offers to the army, and inquire into the cause of its distempers. These
      very generals, at least the three last, were secretly the authors of all
      the discontents; and failed not to foment those disorders which they
      pretended to appease. By their suggestion, a measure was embraced which at
      once brought matters to extremity, and rendered the mutiny incurable.
    </p>
    <p>
      In opposition to the parliament at Westminster, a military parliament was
      formed. Together with a council of the principal officers, which was
      appointed after the model of the house of peers, a more free
      representative of the army was composed, by the election of two private
      men or inferior officers, under the title of agitators, from each troop or
      company.[*] By this means, both the general humor of that time was
      gratified, intent on plans of imaginary republics; and an easy method
      contrived for conducting, underhand, and propagating the sedition of the
      army.
    </p>
    <p>
      This terrible court, when assembled, having first declared that they found
      no distempers in the army, but many grievances under which it labored,
      immediately voted the offers of the parliament unsatisfactory. Eight
      weeks' pay alone, they said, was promised; a small part of fifty-six
      weeks, which they claimed as their due: no visible security was given for
      the remainder: and having been declared public enemies by the commons,
      they might hereafter be prosecuted as such, unless the declaration were
      recalled.[**] Before matters came to this height, Cromwell had posted up
      to London, on pretence of laying before the parliament the rising
      discontents of the army.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament made one vigorous effort more, to try the force of their
      authority: they voted, that all the troops which did not engage for
      Ireland, should instantly be disbanded in their quarters.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii p. 485. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 43.

     ** Rusk. vol. vii p. 497, 505. Whitlocke, p. 250.

     *** Rush. vol. vii. p. 487.
</pre>
    <p>
      At the same time, the council of the army ordered a general rendezvous of
      all the regiments, in order to provide for their common interests. And
      while they thus prepared themselves for opposition to the parliament, they
      struck a blow which at once decided the victory in their favor.
    </p>
    <p>
      A party of five hundred horse appeared at Holdenby, conducted by one
      Joyce, who had once been a tailor by profession, but was now advanced to
      the rank of cornet, and was an active agitator in the army. Without being
      opposed by the guard, whose affections were all on their side, Joyce came
      into the king's presence, armed with pistols, and told him, that he must
      immediately go along with him. "Whither?" said the king. "To the army,"
      replied Joyce. "By what warrant?" asked the king. Joyce pointed to the
      soldiers whom he brought along; tall, handsome, and well accoutred. "Your
      warrant," said Charles, smiling, "is writ in fair characters, legible
      without spelling."[*] The parliamentary commissioners came into the room:
      they asked Joyce whether he had any orders from the parliament? he said,
      "No;" from the general? "No;" by what authority he came? he made the same
      reply as to the king. "They would write," they said, "to the parliament to
      know their pleasure." "You may do so," replied Joyce; "but in the mean
      time, the king must immediately go with me." Resistance was vain. The
      king, after protracting the time as long as he could, went into his coach
      and was safely conducted to the army, who were hastening to their
      rendezvous at Triplo Heath, near Cambridge. The parliament, informed of
      this event by their commissioners, were thrown into the utmost
      consternation.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 254. Warwick, p. 299.

     ** Rush. vol. vii. p. 614, 515. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 47.
</pre>
    <p>
      Fairfax himself was no less surprised at the king's arrival. That bold
      measure, executed by Joyce, had never been communicated to the general.
      The orders were entirely verbal, and nobody avowed them. And while every
      one affected astonishment at the enterprise, Cromwell, by whose counsel it
      had been directed, arrived from London, and put an end to their
      deliberations.
    </p>
    <p>
      This artful and audacious conspirator had conducted himself in the
      parliament with such profound dissimulation, with such refined hypocrisy,
      that he had long deceived those who, being themselves very dexterous
      practitioners in the same arts, should naturally have entertained the more
      suspicion against others. At every intelligence of disorders in the army,
      he was moved to the highest pitch of grief and of anger. He wept bitterly:
      he lamented the misfortunes of his country: he advised every violent
      measure for suppressing the mutiny; and by these precipitate counsels at
      once seemed to evince his own sincerity, and inflamed those discontents of
      which he intended to make advantage. He obtested heaven and earth, that
      his devoted attachment to the parliament had rendered him so odious in the
      army, that his life, while among them, was in the utmost danger; and he
      had very narrowly escaped a conspiracy formed to assassinate him. But
      information being brought that the most active officers and agitators were
      entirely his creatures, the parliamentary leaders secretly resolved, that,
      next day, when he should come to the house, an accusation should be
      entered against him, and he should be sent to the Tower.[*] Cromwell, who,
      in the conduct of his desperate enterprises, frequently approached to the
      very brink of destruction, knew how to make the requisite turn with proper
      dexterity and boldness. Being informed of this design, he hastened to the
      camp; where he was received with acclamations, and was instantly invested
      with the supreme command both of general and army.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 46.
</pre>
    <p>
      Fairfax, having neither talents himself for cabal, nor penetration to
      discover the cabals of others, had given his entire confidence to
      Cromwell; who, by the best colored pretences, and by the appearance of an
      open sincerity and a scrupulous conscience, imposed on the easy nature of
      this brave and virtuous man. The council of officers and the agitators
      were moved altogether by Cromwell's direction, and conveyed his will to
      the whole army. By his profound and artful conduct, he had now attained a
      situation where he could cover his enterprises from public view; and
      seeming either to obey the commands of his superior officer, or yield to
      the movements of the soldiers, could secretly pave the way for his future
      greatness. While the disorders of the army were yet in their infancy, he
      kept at a distance, lest his counterfeit aversion might throw a damp upon
      them, or his secret encouragement beget suspicion in the parliament. As
      soon as they came to maturity, he openly joined the troops; and, in the
      critical moment, struck that important blow of seizing the king's person,
      and depriving the parliament of any resource of an accommodation with him.
      Though one visor fell off another still remained to cover his natural
      countenance.
    </p>
    <p>
      Where delay was requisite, he could employ the most indefatigable
      patience: where celerity was necessary, he flew to a decision. And by thus
      uniting in his person the most opposite talents, he was enabled to combine
      the most contrary interests in a subserviency to his secret purposes.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament, though at present defenceless, was possessed of many
      resources; and time might easily enable them to resist that violence with
      which they were threatened. Without further deliberation, therefore,
      Cromwell advanced the army upon them, and arrived in a few days at St.
      Albans.
    </p>
    <p>
      Nothing could be more popular than this hostility which the army commenced
      against the parliament. As much as that assembly was once the idol of the
      nation, as much was it now become the object of general hatred and
      aversion.
    </p>
    <p>
      The self-denying ordinance had no longer been put in execution, than till
      Essex, Manchester, Waller, and the other officers of that party, had
      resigned their commission: immediately after, it was laid aside by tacit
      consent; and the members, sharing all offices of power and profit among
      them, proceeded with impunity in exercising acts of oppression on the
      helpless nation. Though the necessity of their situation might serve as an
      apology for many of their measures, the people, not accustomed to such a
      species of government, were not disposed to make the requisite allowances.
    </p>
    <p>
      A small supply of one hundred thousand pounds a year could never be
      obtained by former kings from the jealous humor of parliaments; and the
      English, of all nations in Europe, were the least accustomed to taxes; but
      this parliament, from the commencement of the war, according to some
      computations, had levied, in five years, above forty millions;[*] yet were
      loaded with debts and incumbrances, which, during that age, were regarded
      as prodigious. If these computations should be thought much exaggerated,
      as they probably are,[**] the taxes and impositions were certainly far
      higher than in any former state of the English government; and such
      popular exaggerations are at least a proof of popular discontents.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clement Walker's History of the two Juntos, prefixed to
     his History of Independency, p. 8. This is an author of
     spirit and ingenuity; and being a zealous parliamentarian,
     his authority is very considerable, notwithstanding the air
     of satire which prevails in his writings. This computation,
     however, seems much too large; especially as the
     sequestrations during the time of war could not be so
     considerable as afterwards.

     * Yet the same sum precisely is assigned in another book,
     called Royal Treasury of England, p. 297.
</pre>
    <p>
      But the disposal of this money was no less the object of general complaint
      against the parliament than the levying of it. The sum of three hundred
      thousand pounds they openly took, it is affirmed,[*] and divided among
      their own members. The committees, to whom the management of the different
      branches of revenue was intrusted, never brought in their accounts, and
      had unlimited power of secreting whatever sums they pleased from the
      public treasure.[**] These branches were needlessly multiplied, in order
      to render the revenue more intricate, to share the advantages among
      greater numbers, and to conceal the frauds of which they were universally
      suspected.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      The method of keeping accounts practised in the exchequer, was confessedly
      the exactest, the most ancient, the best known, and the least liable to
      fraud. The exchequer was for that reason abolished, and the revenue put
      under the management of a committee, who were subject to no control.[****]
    </p>
    <p>
      The excise was an odious tax, formerly unknown to the nation; and was now
      extended over provisions, and the common necessaries of life. Near one
      half of the goods and chattels, and at least one half of the lands, rents,
      and revenues of the kingdom, had been sequestered. To great numbers of
      loyalists, all redress from these sequestrations was refused: to the rest,
      the remedy could be obtained only by paying large compositions, and
      subscribing the covenant, which they abhorred. Besides pitying the ruin
      and desolation of so many ancient and honorable families, indifferent
      spectators could not but blame the hardship of punishing with such
      severity actions which the law, in its usual and most undisputed
      interpretation, strictly required of every subject.
    </p>
    <p>
      The severities, too, exercised against the Episcopal clergy naturally
      affected the royalists, and even all men of candor, in a sensible manner.
      By the most moderate computation,[v] it appears, that above one half of
      the established clergy had been turned out to beggary and want, for no
      other crime than their adhering to the civil and religious principles in
      which they had been educated, and for their attachment to those laws under
      whose countenance they had at first embraced that profession.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clement Walker's History of Independency, p. 3, 166.

     ** Clement Walker's History of Independency, p, 8.

     *** Clement Walker's History of Independency, p. 8.

     **** Clement Walker's History of Independency, p. 8.

     v See John Walker's Attempt towards recovering an Account of
     the Numbers and Sufferings of the Clergy. The parliament
     pretended to leave the sequestered clergy a fifth of their
     revenue; but this author makes it sufficiently appear that
     this provision, small as it is, was never regularly paid the
     ejected clergy.
</pre>
    <p>
      To renounce Episcopacy and the liturgy, and to subscribe the covenant,
      were the only terms which could save them from so rigorous a fate; and if
      the least mark of malignancy, as it was called, or affection to the king,
      who so entirely loved them, had ever escaped their lips, even this hard
      choice was not permitted. The sacred character, which gives the priesthood
      such authority over mankind, becoming more venerable from the sufferings
      endured for the sake of principle by these distressed royalists,
      aggravated the general indignation against their persecutors.
    </p>
    <p>
      But what excited the most universal complaint was, the unlimited tyranny
      and despotic rule of the country committees. During the war, the
      discretionary power of these courts was excused, from the plea of
      necessity; but the nation was reduced to despair, when it saw neither end
      put to their duration, nor bounds to their authority. These could
      sequester, fine, imprison, and corporally punish, without law or remedy.
      They interposed in questions of private property. Under color of
      malignancy, they exercised vengeance against their private enemies. To the
      obnoxious, and sometimes to the innocent, they sold their protection. And
      instead of one star chamber, which had been abolished, a great number were
      anew erected, fortified with better pretences, and armed with more
      unlimited authority.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clement Walker's History of Independency, p. 5. Hollis
     gives the same representation as Walker, of the plundering,
     oppressions, and tyranny of the parliament; only, instead of
     laying the fault on both parties, as Walker does, he
     ascribes it solely to the Independent faction. The
     Presbyterians, indeed, being commonly denominated the
     moderate party, would probably be more inoffensive. See
     Rush. vol. vii. p. 598: and Parl. Hist. vol. xv. p. 230.
</pre>
    <p>
      Could any thing have increased the indignation against that slavery into
      which the nation, from the too eager pursuit of liberty, had fallen, it
      must have been the reflection on the pretences by which the people had so
      long been deluded. The sanctified hypocrites, who called their oppressions
      the spoiling of the Egyptians, and their rigid severity the dominion of
      the elect, interlarded all their iniquities with long and fervent prayers,
      saved themselves from blushing by their pious grimaces, and exercised, in
      the name of the Lord, all their cruelty on men. An undisguised violence
      could be forgiven: but such a mockery of the understanding, such an abuse
      of religion, were, with men of penetration, objects of peculiar
      resentment.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament, conscious of their decay in popularity, seeing a
      formidable armed force advance upon them, were reduced to despair, and
      found all their resources much inferior to the present necessity. London
      still retained a strong attachment to Presbyterianism; and its militia,
      which was numerous, and had acquired reputation in the wars, had, by a
      late ordinance, been put into hands in whom the parliament could entirely
      confide. This militia was now called out, and ordered to guard the lines
      which had been drawn round the city, in order to secure it against the
      king. A body of horse was ordered to be instantly levied. Many officers,
      who had been cashiered by the new model of the army, offered their service
      to the parliament. An army of five thousand men lay in the north under the
      command of General Pointz, who was of the Presbyterian faction; but these
      were too distant to be employed in so urgent a necessity. The forces
      destined for Ireland were quartered in the west; and, though deemed
      faithful to the parliament, they also lay at a distance. Many inland
      garrisons were commanded by officer: of the same party; but their troops,
      being so much dispersed, could at present be of no manner of service. The
      Scots were faithful friends, and zealous for Presbytery and the covenant;
      but a long time was required ere they could collect their forces and march
      to the assistance of the parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      In this situation it was thought more prudent to submit, and by compliance
      to stop the fury of the enraged army. The declaration by which the
      military petitioners had been voted public enemies was recalled, and
      erased from the journal book.[*] This was the first symptom which the
      parliament gave of submission; and the army, hoping by terror alone to
      effect all their purposes, stopped at St. Albans, and entered into
      negotiation with their masters.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii. p. 503, 547. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 45.
</pre>
    <p>
      Here commenced the encroachments of the military upon the civil authority.
      The army, in their usurpations on the parliament, copied exactly the model
      which the parliament itself had set them in their recent usurpations on
      the crown.
    </p>
    <p>
      Every day they rose in their demands. If one claim was granted, they had
      another ready, still more enormous and exorbitant; and were determined
      never to be satisfied. At first, they pretended only to petition for what
      concerned themselves as soldiers: next, they must have a vindication of
      their character: then, it was necessary that their enemies be punished:[*]
      at last, they claimed a right of modelling the whole government, and
      settling the nation.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      They preserved, in words, all deference and respect to the parliament;
      but, in reality, insulted them and tyrannized over them. That assembly
      they pretended not to accuse: it was only evil counsellors, who seduced
      and betrayed it.
    </p>
    <p>
      They proceeded so far as to name eleven members, whom, in general terms,
      they charged with high treason, as enemies to the army and evil
      counsellors to the parliament. Their names were Hollis, Sir Philip
      Stapleton, Sir William Lewis, Sir John Clotworthy, Sir William Waller, Sir
      John Maynard, Massey, Glyn, Long, Harley, and Nichols.[***] These were the
      very leaders of the Presbyterian party.
    </p>
    <p>
      They insisted, that these members should immediately be sequestered from
      parliament, and be thrown into prison.[****] The commons replied, that
      they could not, upon a general charge, proceed so far.[v] The army
      observed to them, that the cases of Strafford and Laud were direct
      precedents for that purpose.[v*] At last, the eleven members themselves,
      not to give occasion for discord, begged leave to retire from the house;
      and the army, for the present, seemed satisfied with this mark of
      submission.[v**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Pretending that the parliament intended to levy war upon them, and to
      involve the nation again in blood and confusion, they required that all
      new levies should be stopped. The parliament complied with this
      demand.[v***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii. p. 509.

     ** Rush. vol. vii. p. 567, 633, vol. viii. p. 731.

     *** Rush. vol. vii. p. 570.

     **** Rush. vol. vii. p. 572.

     v Rush. vol. vii. p. 592.

     v* Rush. vol vii. p. 594. Whitlocke, p. 259.

     v** Rush. vol. vii. p. 593, 594.

     v*** Rush. vol. vii. p. 572, 574.
</pre>
    <p>
      There being no signs of resistance, the army, in order to save
      appearances, removed, at the desire of the parliament to a greater
      distance from London, and fixed their head quarters at Reading. They
      carried the king along with them in all their marches.
    </p>
    <p>
      That prince now found himself in a better situation than at Holdenby, and
      had attained some greater degree of freedom as well as of consideration
      with both parties.
    </p>
    <p>
      All his friends had access to his presence: his correspondence with the
      queen was not interrupted: his chaplains were restored to him, and he was
      allowed the use of the liturgy. His children were once allowed to visit
      him, and they passed a few days at Caversham, where he then resided.[*] He
      had not seen the duke of Gloucester, his youngest son, and the princess
      Elizabeth, since he left London, at the commencement of the civil
      disorders;[**] nor the duke of York, since he went to the Scottish army
      before Newark. No private man, unacquainted with the pleasures of a court
      and the tumult of a camp, more passionately loved his family, than did
      this good prince; and such an instance of indulgence in the army was
      extremely grateful to him. Cromwell, who was witness to the meeting of the
      royal family, confessed that he never had been present at so tender a
      scene; and he extremely applauded the benignity which displayed itself in
      the whole disposition and behavior of Charles.
    </p>
    <p>
      That artful politician, as well as the leaders of all parties, paid court
      to the king; and fortune, notwithstanding all his calamities, seemed again
      to smile upon him. The parliament, afraid of his forming some
      accommodation with the army, addressed him in a more respectful style than
      formerly; and invited him to reside at Richmond, and contribute his
      assistance to the settlement of the nation. The chief officers treated him
      with regard, and spake on all occasions of restoring him to his just
      powers and prerogatives. In the public declarations of the army, the
      settlement of his revenue and authority was insisted on.[***] The
      royalists every where entertained hopes of the restoration of monarchy;
      and the favor which they universally bore to the army, contributed very
      much to discourage the parliament, and to forward their submission.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. i. p. 51, 52, 57.

     ** When the king applied to have his children, the
     parliament always told him, that they could take as much
     care at London, both of their bodies and souls, as could be
     done at Oxford. Parl. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 127.

     *** Rush. vol. vii. p. 590.
</pre>
    <p>
      The king began to feel of what consequence he was. The more the national
      confusions increased, the more was he confident that all parties would at
      length have recourse to his lawful authority, as the only remedy for the
      public disorders "You cannot be without me," said he, on several
      occasions: "you cannot settle the nation but by my assistance." A people
      without government and without liberty, a parliament without authority, an
      army without a legal master; distractions every where, terrors,
      oppressions, convulsions: from this scene of confusion, which could not
      long continue, all men, he hoped, would be brought to reflect on that
      ancient government under which they and their ancestors had so long
      enjoyed happiness and tranquillity.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though Charles kept his ears open to all proposals, and expected to hold
      the balance between the opposite parties, he entertained more hopes of
      accommodation with the army. He had experienced the extreme rigor of the
      parliament. They pretended totally to annihilate his authority: they had
      confined his person. In both these particulars, the army showed more
      indulgence.[*] He had a free intercourse with his friends. And, in the
      proposals which the council of officers sent for the settlement of the
      nation, they insisted neither on the abolition of Episcopacy, nor on the
      punishment of the royalists; the two points to which the king had the most
      extreme reluctance: and they demanded, that a period should be put to the
      present parliament, the event for which he most ardently longed.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Warwick, p. 303. Parl. Hist. vol. xvi. p. 40. Clarendon,
     vol. *v p. 50.
</pre>
    <p>
      His conjunction, too, seemed more natural with the generals, than with
      that usurping assembly who had so long assumed the entire sovereignty of
      the state, and who had declared their resolution still to continue
      masters. By gratifying a few persons with titles and preferments, he might
      draw over, he hoped, the whole military power, and in an instant reinstate
      himself in his civil authority. To Ireton he offered the lieutenancy of
      Ireland; to Cromwell the garter, the title of earl of Essex, and the
      command of the army. Negotiations to this purpose were secretly conducted.
      Cromwell pretended to hearken to them and was well pleased to keep the
      door open for an accommodation, if the course of events should at any time
      render it necessary. And the king, who had no suspicion that one born a
      private gentleman could entertain the daring ambition of seizing a
      sceptre, transmitted through a long line of monarchs, indulged hopes that
      he would at last embrace a measure which, by all the motives of duty,
      interest, and safety, seemed to be recommended to him.
    </p>
    <p>
      While Cromwell allured the king by these expectations, he still continued
      his scheme of reducing the parliament to subjection, and depriving them of
      all means of resistance. To gratify the army, the parliament invested
      Fairfax with the title of general-in-chief of all the forces in England
      and Ireland; and intrusted the whole military authority to a person who,
      though well inclined to their service, was no longer at his own disposal.
    </p>
    <p>
      They voted, that the troops which, in obedience to them had enlisted for
      Ireland, and deserted the rebellious army, should be disbanded, or, in
      other words, be punished for their fidelity. The forces in the north,
      under Pointz, had already mutinied against their general, and had entered
      into an association with that body of the army which was so successfully
      employed in exalting the military above the civil authority.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      That no resource might remain to the parliament, it was demanded, that the
      militia of London should be changed, the Presbyterian commissioners
      displaced, and the command restored to those who, during the course of the
      war, had constantly exercised it. The parliament even complied with so
      violent a demand, and passed a vote in obedience to the army.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      By this unlimited patience, they purposed to temporize under their present
      difficulties, and they hoped to find a more favorable opportunity for
      recovering their authority and influence: but the impatience of the city
      lost them all the advantage of their cautious measures. A petition against
      the alteration of the militia was carried to Westminster, attended by the
      apprentices and seditious multitude, who besieged the door of the house of
      commons; and by their clamor, noise, and violence, obliged them to reverse
      that vote which they had passed so lately. When gratified in this
      pretension, they immediately dispersed, and left the parliament at
      liberty.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. vii. p. 620.

     ** Rush. vol. vii. p. 629, 632.

     *** Rush. vol. vii. p. 641, 643. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 61.
     Whitlocke p. 269. Cl. Walker, p. 38
</pre>
    <p>
      No sooner was intelligence of this tumult conveyed to Reading, than the
      army was put in motion. The two houses being under restraint, they were
      resolved, they said, to vindicate, against the seditious citizens, the
      invaded privileges of parliament, and restore that assembly to its just
      freedom of debate and counsel. In their way to London, they were drawn up
      on Hounslow Heath; a formidable body, twenty thousand strong, and
      determined, without regard to laws or liberty, to pursue whatever measures
      their generals should dictate to them. Here the most favorable event
      happened to quicken and encourage their advance. The speakers of the two
      houses, Manchester and Lenthal, attended by eight peers and about sixty
      commoners, having secretly retired from the city, presented themselves
      with their maces, and all the ensigns of their dignity; and complaining of
      the violence put upon them, applied to the army for defence and
      protection. They were received with shouts and acclamations: respect was
      paid to them, as to the parliament of England: and the army, being
      provided with so plausible a pretence, which in all public transactions is
      of great consequence, advanced to chastise the rebellious city, and to
      reinstate the violated parliament.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Neither Lenthal nor Manchester were esteemed Independents; and such a step
      in them was unexpected. But they probably foresaw that the army must in
      the end prevail; and they were willing to pay court in time to that
      authority which began to predominate in the nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament, forced from their temporizing measures, and obliged to
      resign at once, or combat for their liberty and power, prepared themselves
      with vigor for defence, and determined to resist the violence of the army.
      The two houses immediately chose new speakers, Lord Hunsdon and Henry
      Pelham: they renewed their former orders for enlisting troops: they
      appointed Massey to be commander: they ordered the trained bands to man
      the lines: and the whole city was in a ferment, and resounded with
      military preparations.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      When any intelligence arrived, that the army stopped or retreated, the
      shout of "One and all." ran with alacrity, from street to street, among
      the citizens: when news came of their advancing, the cry of "Treat and
      capitulate," was no less loud and vehement.[***] The terror of a universal
      pillage, and even massacre, had seized the timid inhabitants.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. viii. p. 750. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 63.

     ** Rush vol. vii. p. 646

     *** Whitlocke, p. 266.
</pre>
    <p>
      As the army approached, Rainsborow, being sent by the general over the
      river, presented himself before Southwark, and was gladly received by some
      soldiers who were quartered there for its defence, and who were resolved
      not to separate their interests from those of the army. It behoved then
      the parliament to submit. The army marched in triumph through the city;
      but preserved the greatest order, decency, and appearance of humility.
      They conducted to Westminster the two speakers, who took their seats as if
      nothing had happened. The eleven impeached members, being accused as
      authors of the tumult, were expelled; and most of them retired beyond sea:
      seven peers were impeached; the mayor, one sheriff, and three aldermen,
      sent to the Tower, several citizens and officers of the militia committed
      to prison; every deed of the parliament annulled, from the day of the
      tumult till the return of the speakers; the lines about the city levelled;
      the militia restored to the Independents; regiments quartered in Whitehall
      and the Mews; and the parliament being reduced to a regular formed
      servitude, a day was appointed of solemn thanksgiving for the restoration
      of its liberty.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. viii. p. 797, 798, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      The Independent party among the commons exulted in their victory. The
      whole authority of the nation, they imagined, was now lodged in their
      hands; and they had a near prospect of moulding the government into that
      imaginary republic which had long been the object of their wishes. They
      had secretly concurred in all encroachments of the military upon the civil
      power; and they expected, by the terror of the sword, to impose a more
      perfect system of liberty on the reluctant nation. All parties, the king,
      the church, the parliament, the Presbyterians, had been guilty of errors
      since the commencement of these disorders: but it must be confessed, that
      this delusion of the Independents and republicans was, of all others, the
      most contrary to common sense and the established maxims of policy. Yet
      were the leaders of that party, Vane, Fiennes, St. John, Martin, the men
      in England the most celebrated for profound thought and deep contrivance;
      and by their well-colored pretences and professions, they had overreached
      the whole nation. To deceive such men, would argue a superlative capacity
      in Cromwell; were it not that besides the great difference there is
      between dark, crooked counsels and true wisdom, an exorbitant passion for
      rule and authority will make the most prudent overlook the dangerous
      consequences of such measures as seem to tend, in any degree, to their own
      advancement.
    </p>
    <p>
      The leaders of the army, having established their dominion over the
      parliament and city, ventured to bring the king to Hampton Court; and he
      lived for some time in that palace, with an appearance of dignity and
      freedom. Such equability of temper did he possess, that, during all the
      variety of fortune which he underwent, no difference was perceived in his
      countenance or behavior; and though a prisoner in the hands of his most
      inveterate enemies, he supported, towards all who approached him, the
      majesty of a monarch; and that neither with less nor greater state than he
      had been accustomed to maintain. His manner, which was not in itself
      popular nor gracious, now appeared amiable, from its great meekness and
      equality.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament renewed their applications to him, and presented him with
      the same conditions which they had offered at Newcastle. The king declined
      accepting them, and desired the parliament to take the proposals of the
      army into consideration, and make them the foundation of the public
      sentiment.[*] He still entertained hopes that his negotiations with the
      generals would be crowned with success; though every thing, in that
      particular, daily bore a worse aspect. Most historians have thought that
      Cromwell never was sincere in his professions; and that having by force
      rendered himself master of the king's person, and by fair pretences
      acquired the countenance of the royalists, he had employed these
      advantages to the enslaving of the parliament; and afterwards thought of
      nothing but the establishment of his own unlimited authority, with which
      he esteemed the restoration, and even life, of the king altogether
      incompatible. This opinion, so much warranted by the boundless ambition
      and profound dissimulation of his character, meets with ready belief;
      though it is more agreeable to the narrowness of human views, and the
      darkness of futurity, to suppose that this daring usurper was guided by
      events, and did not as yet foresee, with any assurance, that unparalleled
      greatness which he afterwards attained. Many writers of that age have
      asserted,[**] <a href="#linknote-17" name="linknoteref-17"
      id="linknoteref-17">17</a>that he really intended to make a private
      bargain with the king; a measure which carried the most plausible
      appearance both for his safety and advancement; but that he found
      insuperable difficulties in reconciling to it the wild humors of the army.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. viii. p. 810.

     ** See note Q, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      The horror and antipathy of these fanatics had for many years been
      artfully fomented against Charles; and though their principles were, on
      all occasions, easily warped and eluded by private interest, yet was some
      coloring requisite, and a flat contradiction to all former professions and
      tenets could not safely be proposed to them. It is certain, at least, that
      Cromwell made use of this reason why he admitted rarely of visits from the
      king's friends, and showed less favor than formerly to the royal cause.
      The agitators, he said, had rendered him odious to the army, and had
      represented him as a traitor, who, for the sake of private interest, was
      ready to betray the cause of God to the great enemy of piety and religion.
      Desperate projects, too, he asserted to be secretly formed for the murder
      of the king; and he pretended much to dread lest all his authority, and
      that of the commanding officers, would not be able to restrain these
      enthusiasts from their bloody purposes.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Intelligence being daily brought to the king of menaces thrown out by the
      agitators, he began to think of retiring from Hampton Court, and of
      putting himself in some place of safety. The guards were doubled upon him;
      the promiscuous concourse of people restrained; a more jealous care
      exerted in attending his person; all under color of protecting him from
      danger, but really with a view of making him uneasy in his present
      situation. These artifices soon produced the intended effect. Charles, who
      was naturally apt to be swayed by counsel, and who had not then access to
      any good counsel, took suddenly a resolution of withdrawing himself,
      though without any concerted, at least, any rational scheme for the future
      disposal of his person. Attended only by Sir John Berkeley, Ashburnham,
      and Leg, he privately left Hampton court; and his escape was not
      discovered till near an hour after; when those who entered his chamber,
      found on the table some letters directed to the parliament, to the
      general, and to the officer who had attended him.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 76.

     ** Rush. vol. viii. p 871.
</pre>
    <p>
      All night he travelled through the forest, and arrived next day at
      Tichfield, a seat of the earl of Southampton's, where the countess dowager
      resided, a woman of honor, to whom the king knew he might safely intrust
      his person. Before he arrived at this place, he had gone to the sea-coast;
      and expressed great anxiety that a ship which he seemed to look for, had
      not arrived; and thence, Berkeley and Leg, who were not in the secret,
      conjectured that his intention was to transport himself beyond sea.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king could not hope to remain long concealed at Tichfield: what
      measure should next be embraced, was the question. In the neighborhood lay
      the Isle of Wight, of which Hammond was governor. This man was entirely
      dependent on Cromwell. At his recommendation, he had married a daughter of
      the famous Hambden, who during his lifetime had been an intimate friend of
      Cromwell's, and whose memory was ever respected by him. These
      circumstances were very unfavorable: yet, because the governor was nephew
      to Dr. Hammond, the king's favorite chaplain, and had acquired a good
      character in the army, it was thought proper to have recourse to him in
      the present exigence, when no other rational expedient could be thought
      of. Ashburnham and Berkeley were despatched to the island. They had orders
      not to inform Hammond of the place where the king was concealed, till they
      had first obtained a promise from him not to deliver up his majesty,
      though the parliament and the army should require him; but to restore him
      to his liberty, if he could not protect him. This promise, it is evident,
      would have been a very slender security: yet, even without exacting it,
      Ashburnham imprudently, if not treacherously, brought Hammond to
      Tichfield; and the king was obliged to put himself in his hands, and to
      attend him to Carisbroke Castle, in the Isle of Wight where, though
      received with great demonstrations of respect and duty, he was in reality
      a prisoner.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
      <!-- IMG --></a> <a href="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_700_carisbrooke.jpg">ENLARGE</a>
    </p>
    <div class="fig" >
      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_700_carisbrooke_th.jpg" title="Carisbroke Castle"
      alt="1-700-carisbrooke.jpg Carisbroke Castle "  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      Lord Clarendon[*] is positive, that the king, when he fled from Hampton
      Court, had no intention of going to this island; and indeed all the
      circumstances of that historian's narrative, which we have here followed,
      strongly favor this opinion. But there remains a letter of Charles's to
      the earl of Laneric, secretary of Scotland, in which he plainly intimates,
      that that measure was voluntarily embraced: and even insinuates, that if
      he had thought proper, he might have been in Jersey, or any other place of
      safety.[**] <a href="#linknote-18" name="linknoteref-18"
      id="linknoteref-18">18</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Page 79, 80, etc.

     ** See note R, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      Perhaps he still confided in the promises of the generals; and flattered
      himself, that if he were removed from the fury of the agitators, by which
      his life was immediately threatened, they would execute what they had so
      often promised in his favor.
    </p>
    <p>
      Whatever may be the truth in this matter,&mdash;for it is impossible fully
      to ascertain the truth,&mdash;Charles never took a weaker step, nor one
      more agreeable to Cromwell and all his enemies. He was now lodged in a
      place removed from his partisans, at the disposal of the army, whence it
      would be very difficult to deliver him, either by force or artifice. And
      though it was always in the power of Cromwell, whenever he pleased, to
      have sent him thither, yet such a measure, without the king's consent,
      would have been very invidious, if not attended with some danger. That the
      king should voluntarily throw himself into the snare, and thereby gratify
      his implacable persecutors, was to them an incident peculiarly fortunate,
      and proved in the issue very fatal to him.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell, being now entirely master of the parliament and free from all
      anxiety with regard to the custody of the king's person, applied himself
      seriously to quell those disorders in the army, which he himself had so
      artfully raised, and so successfully employed, against both king and
      parliament. In order to engage the troops into a rebellion against their
      masters, he had encouraged an arrogant spirit among the inferior officers
      and private men; and the camp, in many respects, carried more the
      appearance of civil liberty than of military obedience. The troops
      themselves were formed into a kind of republic; and the plans of imaginary
      republics, for the settlement of the state, were every day the topics of
      conversation among these armed legislators. Royalty it was agreed to
      abolish: nobility must be set aside: even all ranks of men be levelled;
      and a universal equality of property, as well as of power, be introduced
      among the citizens. The saints, they said, were the salt of the earth: an
      entire parity had place among the elect; and by the same rule that the
      apostles were exalted from the most ignoble professions, the meanest
      sentinel, if enlightened by the Spirit, was entitled to equal regard with
      the greatest commander. In order to wean the soldiers from these,
      licentious maxims, Cromwell had issued orders for discontinuing the
      meetings of the agitators; and he pretended to pay entire obedience to the
      parliament, whom being now fully reduced to subjection, he purposed to
      make for the future, the instruments of his authority. But the
      "levellers,"&mdash;for so that party in the army was called,&mdash;having
      experienced the sweets of dominion, would not so easily be deprived of it.
      They secretly continued their meetings: they asserted, that their
      officers, as much as any part of the church or state, needed reformation:
      several regiments joined in seditious remonstrances and petitions:[*]
      separate rendezvouses were concerted; and every thing tended to anarchy
      and confusion. But this distemper was soon cured by the rough but
      dexterous hand of Cromwell. He chose the opportunity of a review, that he
      might display the greater boldness, and spread the terror the wider. He
      seized the ringleaders before their companions; held in the field a
      council of war; shot one mutineer instantly; and struck such dread into
      the rest, that they presently threw down the symbols of sedition, which
      they had displayed, and thenceforth returned to their wonted discipline
      and obedience.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell had great deference for the counsels of Ireton, a man who, having
      grafted the soldier on the lawyer the statesman on the saint, had adopted
      such principles as were fitted to introduce the severest tyranny, while
      they seemed to encourage the most unbounded license in human society.
      Fierce in his nature, though probably sincere in his intentions, he
      purposed by arbitrary power to establish liberty, and, in prosecution of
      his imagined religious purposes, he thought himself dispensed from all the
      ordinary rules of morality, by which inferior mortals must allow
      themselves to be governed. From his suggestion, Cromwell secretly called
      at Windsor a council of the chief officers, in order to deliberate
      concerning the settlement of the nation, and the future disposal of the
      king's person.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. viii. p. 845, 859.

     ** Rush. vol. viii. p. 875. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 87.

     *** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 92.
</pre>
    <p>
      In this conference, which commenced with devout prayers, poured forth by
      Cromwell himself and other inspired persons, (for the officers of this
      army received inspiration with their commission,) was first opened the
      daring and unheard-of counsel, of bringing the king to justice, and of
      punishing, by a judicial sentence, their sovereign, for his pretended
      tyranny and maleadministration. While Charles lived, even though
      restrained to the closest prison, conspiracies, they knew, and
      insurrections would never be wanting in favor of a prince who was so
      extremely revered and beloved by his own party, and whom the nation in
      general began to regard with great affection and compassion. To murder him
      privately was exposed to the imputation of injustice and cruelty,
      aggravated by the baseness of such a crime; and every odious epithet of
      "traitor" and "assassin" would, by the general voice of mankind, be
      indisputably ascribed to the actors in such a villany. Some unexpected
      procedure must be attempted, which would astonish the world by its
      novelty, would bear the semblance of justice, and would cover its
      barbarity by the audaciousness of the enterprise. Striking in with the
      fanatical notions of the entire equality of mankind, it would insure the
      devoted obedience of the army, and serve as a general engagement against
      the royal family, whom, by their open and united deed, they would so
      heinously affront and injure.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      This measure, therefore, being secretly resolved on, it was requisite, by
      degrees, to make the parliament adopt it, and to conduct them from
      violence to violence, till this last act of atrocious iniquity should seem
      in a manner wholly inevitable. The king, in order to remove those fears
      and jealousies, which were perpetually pleaded as reasons for every
      invasion of the constitution, had offered, by a message sent from
      Carisbroke Castle, to resign, during his own life, the power of the
      militia and the nomination to all the great offices; provided that, after
      his demise, these prerogatives should revert to the crown.[**] But the
      parliament acted entirely as victors and enemies; and, in all their
      transactions with him, paid no longer any regard to equity or reason. At
      the instigation of the Independents and army, they neglected this offer,
      and framed four proposals, which they sent him as preliminaries; and
      before they would deign to treat, they demanded his positive assent to all
      of them.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * The following was a favorite text among the enthusiasts of
     that age: "Let the high praises of God be in the mouths of
     his saints, and a twofold sword in their hands, to execute
     vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the people;
     to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with
     fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgments written:
     This honor have all his saints." Psalm cxlix, ver. 6, 7, 8,
     9. Hugh Peters, the mad chaplain of Cromwell, preached
     frequently upon this text.

     ** Rush. vol. viii. p 880.
</pre>
    <p>
      By one, he was required to invest the parliament with the military power
      for twenty years, together with an authority to levy whatever money should
      be necessary for exercising it; and even after the twenty years should be
      elapsed, they reserved a right of resuming the same authority, whenever
      they should declare the safety of the kingdom to require it. By the
      second, he was to recall all his proclamations and declarations against
      the parliament, and acknowledge that assembly to have taken arms in their
      just and necessary defence. By the third, he was to annul all the acts,
      and void all the patents of peerage, which had passed the great seal since
      it had been carried from London by Lord Keeper Littleton; and at the same
      time, renounce for the future the power of making peers without consent of
      parliament. By the fourth, he gave the two houses power to adjourn as they
      thought proper; a demand seemingly of no great importance, but contrived
      by the Independents, that they might be able to remove the parliament to
      places where it should remain in perpetual subjection to the army.[*]
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1648.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king regarded the pretension as unusual and exorbitant, that he should
      make such concessions, while not secure of any settlement; and should
      blindly trust his enemies for the conditions which they were afterwards to
      grant him. He required, therefore, a personal treaty with the parliament,
      and desired that all the terms on both sides should be adjusted, before
      any concession on either side should be insisted on. The republican party
      in the house pretended to take fire at this answer; and openly inveighed,
      in violent terms, against the person and government of the king; whose
      name, hitherto, had commonly, in all debates, been mentioned with some
      degree of reverence. Ireton, seeming to speak the sense of the army, under
      the appellation of many thousand godly men, who had ventured their lives
      in defence of the parliament, said, that the king, by denying the four
      bills, had refused safety and protection to his people; that their
      obedience to him was but a reciprocal duty for his protection of them; and
      that, as he had failed on his part, they were freed from all obligations
      to allegiance, and must settle the nation, without consulting any longer
      so misguided a prince.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 88

     ** Cl. Walker, p. 70.
</pre>
    <p>
      Cromwell, after giving an ample character of the valor, good affections,
      and godliness of the army, subjoined, that it was expected the parliament
      should guide and defend the kingdom by their own power and resolutions,
      and not accustom the people any longer to expect safety and government
      from an obstinate man, whose heart God had hardened; that those who, at
      the expense of their blood, had hitherto defended the parliament from so
      many dangers, would still continue, with fidelity and courage, to protect
      them against all opposition in this vigorous measure. "Teach them not,"
      added he, "by your neglecting your own safety and that of the kingdom, (in
      which theirs too is involved,) to imagine themselves betrayed, and their
      interests abandoned to the rage and malice of an irreconcilable enemy,
      whom, for your sake, they have dared to provoke. Beware," and at these
      words he laid his hand on his sword, "beware, lest despair cause them to
      seek safety by some other means than by adhering to you, who know not how
      to consult your own safety."[*] Such arguments prevailed; though
      ninety-one members had still the courage to oppose. It was voted, that no
      more addresses be made to the king, nor any letters or messages be
      received from him; and that it be treason for any one, without leave of
      the two houses, to have any intercourse with him. The lords concurred in
      the same ordinance.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      By this vote of non-addresses,&mdash;so it was called,&mdash;the king was
      in reality dethroned, and the whole constitution formally overthrown. So
      violent a measure was supported by a declaration of the commons no less
      violent. The blackest calumnies were there thrown upon the king; such as,
      even in their famous remonstrance, they thought proper to omit, as
      incredible and extravagant: the poisoning of his father, the betraying of
      Rochelle, the contriving of the Irish massacre.[***] By blasting his fame,
      had that injury been in their power, they formed a very proper prelude to
      the executing of violence on his person.
    </p>
    <p>
      No sooner had the king refused his assent to the four bills, than Hammond,
      by orders from the army, removed all his servants, cut off his
      correspondence with his friends, and shut him up in close confinement. The
      king afterwards showed to Sir Philip Warwick a decrepit old man, who, he
      said, was employed to kindle his fire, and was the best company he enjoyed
      during several months that this rigorous confinement lasted.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Cl. Walker, p. 70.

     ** Rush. vol. viii. p. 965, 967.

     *** Rush. vol. viii. p. 998. Clarendon, vol. v. p. 93.

     **** Warwick, p. 329.
</pre>
    <p>
      No amusement was allowed him, nor society, which might relieve his anxious
      thoughts: to be speedily poisoned or assassinated was the only prospect
      which he had every moment before his eyes; for he entertained no
      apprehension of a judicial sentence and execution; an event of which no
      history hitherto furnished an example. Meanwhile, the parliament was very
      industrious in publishing, from time to time, the intelligence which they
      received from Hammond; how cheerful the king was, how pleased with every
      one that approached him, how satisfied in his present condition:[*] as if
      the view of such benignity and constancy had not been more proper to
      inflame than allay the general compassion of the people.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush, vol. viii. p. 989.
</pre>
    <p>
      The great source whence the king derived consolation amidst all his
      calamities, was undoubtedly religion; a principle which, in him, seems to
      have contained nothing fierce or gloomy, nothing which enraged him against
      his adversaries, or terrified him with the dismal prospect of futurity.
      While every thing around him bore a hostile aspect; while friends, family,
      relations, whom he passionately loved, were placed at a distance, and
      unable to serve him, he reposed himself with confidence in the arms of
      that Being who penetrates and sustains all nature, and whose severities,
      if received with piety and resignation, he regarded as the surest pledges
      of unexhausted favor.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament and army, meanwhile, enjoyed not in tranquillity that power
      which they had obtained with so much violence and injustice. Combinations
      and conspiracies, they were sensible, were every where forming around
      them; and Scotland, whence the king's cause had received the first fatal
      disaster, seemed now to promise it support and assistance.
    </p>
    <p>
      Before the surrender of the king's person at Newcastle, and much more
      since that event, the subjects of discontent had been daily multiplying
      between the two kingdoms. The Independents, who began to prevail, took all
      occasions of mortifying the Scots, whom the Presbyterians looked on with
      the greatest affection and veneration. When the Scottish commissioners,
      who, joined to a committee of English lords and commons, had managed the
      war, were ready to depart, it was proposed in parliament to give them
      thanks for their civilities and good offices. The Independents insisted,
      that the words "good offices" should be struck out; and thus the whole
      brotherly friendship and intimate alliance with the Scots resolved itself
      into an acknowledgment of their being well-bred gentlemen.
    </p>
    <p>
      The advance of the army to London, the subjection of the parliament, the
      seizing of the king at Holdenby, his confinement in Carisbroke Castle,
      were so many blows sensibly felt by that nation, as threatening the final
      overthrow of Presbytery, to which they were so passionately devoted. The
      covenant was profanely called, in the house of commons an almanac out of
      date;[*] and that impiety, though complained of, had passed uncensured.
      Instead of being able to determine and establish orthodoxy by the sword
      and by penal statutes, they saw the sectarian army, who were absolute
      masters, claim an unbounded liberty of conscience, which the Presbyterians
      regarded with the utmost abhorrence. All the violences put on the king,
      they loudly blamed, as repugnant to the covenant by which they stood
      engaged to defend his royal person. And those very actions of which they
      themselves had been guilty, they denominated treason and rebellion, when
      executed by an opposite party.
    </p>
    <p>
      The earls of Loudon, Lauderdale, and Laneric, who were sent to London,
      protested against the four bills, as containing too great a diminution of
      the king's civil power, and providing no security for religion. They
      complained that, notwithstanding this protestation, the bills were still
      insisted on, contrary to the solemn league, and to the treaty between the
      two nations. And when they accompanied the English commissioners to the
      Isle of Wight, they secretly formed a treaty with the king for arming
      Scotland in his favor.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Cl. Walker, p. 80.

     ** Clarendon, vol. v. p. 101.
</pre>
    <p>
      Three parties at that time prevailed in Scotland: the "royalists," who
      insisted upon the restoration of the king's authority, without any regard
      to religion sects or tenets: of these, Montrose, though absent, was
      regarded as the head. The "rigid Presbyterians," who hated the king even
      more than they abhorred toleration; and who determined to give him no
      assistance, till he should subscribe the covenant: these were governed by
      Argyle. The "moderate Presbyterians," who endeavored to reconcile the
      interests of religion and of the crown; and hoped, by supporting the
      Presbyterian party in England, to suppress the sectarian army, and to
      reinstate the parliament, as well as the king, in their just freedom and
      authority: the two brothers, Hamilton and Laneric, were leaders of this
      party.
    </p>
    <p>
      When Pendennis Castle was surrendered to the parliamentary army, Hamilton,
      who then obtained his liberty, returned into Scotland; and being
      generously determined to remember ancient favors more than recent
      injuries, he immediately embraced, with zeal and success, the protection
      of the royal cause. He obtained a vote from the Scottish parliament to arm
      forty thousand men in support of the king's authority, and to call over a
      considerable body under Monro, who commanded the Scottish forces in
      Ulster. And though he openly protested that the covenant was the
      foundation of all his measures, he secretly entered into correspondence
      with the English royalists, Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Sir Philip
      Musgrave, who had levied considerable forces in the north of England.
    </p>
    <p>
      The general assembly, who sat at the same time, and was guided by Argyle,
      dreaded the consequences of these measures; and foresaw that the opposite
      party, if successful, would effect the restoration of monarchy, without
      the establishment of Presbytery in England. To join the king before he had
      subscribed the covenant, was, in their eyes, to restore him to his honor
      before Christ had obtained his;[*] and they thundered out anathemas
      against every one who paid obedience to the parliament.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 300.
</pre>
    <p>
      Two supreme independent judicatures were erected in the kingdom; one
      threatening the people with damnation and eternal torments, the other with
      imprisonment, banishment, and military execution. The people were
      distracted in their choice; and the armament of Hamilton's party, though
      seconded by all the civil power, went on but slowly. The royalists he
      would not as yet allow to join him, lest he might give offence to the
      ecclesiastical party; though he secretly promised them trust and
      preferment as soon as his army should advance into England.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the Scots were making preparations for the invasion of England,
      every part of that kingdom was agitated with tumults, insurrections,
      conspiracies, discontents. It is seldom that the people gain any thing by
      revolutions in government; because the new settlement, jealous and
      insecure, must commonly be supported with more expense and severity than
      the old: but on no occasion was the truth of this maxim more sensibly
      felt, than in the present situation of England. Complaints against the
      oppression of ship money, against the tyranny of the star chamber, had
      roused the people to arms: and having gained a complete victory over the
      crown, they found themselves loaded with a multiplicity of taxes, formerly
      unknown; and scarcely an appearance of law and liberty remained in the
      administration. The Presbyterians, who had chiefly supported the war, were
      enraged to find the prize, just when it seemed within their reach,
      snatched by violence from them. The royalists, disappointed in their
      expectations by the cruel treatment which the king now received from the
      army, were strongly animated to restore him to liberty, and to recover the
      advantages which they had unfortunately lost. All orders of men were
      inflamed with indignation at seeing the military prevail over the civil
      power, and king and parliament at once reduced to subjection by a
      mercenary army. Many persons of family and distinction had, from the
      beginning of the war, adhered to the parliament: but all these were, by
      the new party, deprived of authority; and every office was intrusted to
      the most ignoble part of the nation. A base populace, exalted above their
      superiors; hypocrites, exercising iniquity under the visor of religion:
      these circumstances promised not much liberty or lenity to the people; and
      these were now found united in the same usurped and illegal
      administration.
    </p>
    <p>
      Though the whole nation seemed to combine in their hatred of military
      tyranny, the ends which the several parties pursued were so different,
      that little concert was observed in their insurrections. Langhorne, Poyer,
      and Powel, Presbyterian officers, who commanded bodies of troops in Wales,
      were the first that declared themselves; and they drew together a
      considerable army in those parts, which were extremely devoted to the
      royal cause. An insurrection was raised in Kent by young Hales and the
      earl of Norwich. Lord Capel, Sir Charles Lucas, Sir George Lisle, excited
      commotions in Essex. The earl of Holland, who had several times changed
      sides since the commencement of the civil wars, endeavored to assemble
      forces in Surrey. Pomfret Castle, in Yorkshire, was surprised by Morrice.
      Langdale and Musgrave were in arms, and masters of Berwick and Carlisle in
      the north.
    </p>
    <p>
      What seemed the most dangerous circumstance, the general spirit of
      discontent had seized the fleet. Seventeen ships, lying in the mouth of
      the river, declared for the king; and putting Rainsborow, their admiral,
      ashore, sailed over to Holland, where the prince of Wales took the command
      of them.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 137.
</pre>
    <p>
      The English royalists exclaimed loudly against Hamilton's delays, which
      they attributed to a refined policy in the Scots as if their intentions
      were, that all the king's party should first be suppressed, and the
      victory remain solely to the Presbyterians. Hamilton, with better reason,
      complained of the precipitate humor of the English royalists, who, by
      their ill-timed insurrections, forced him to march his army before his
      levies were completed, or his preparations in any forwardness.
    </p>
    <p>
      No commotions beyond a tumult of the apprentices, which was soon
      suppressed, were raised in London: the terror of the army kept the
      citizens in subjection. The parliament was so overawed, that they declared
      the Scots to be enemies, and all who joined them traitors. Ninety members,
      however, of the lower house had the courage to dissent from this vote.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell and the military council prepared themselves with vigor and
      conduct for defence. The establishment of the army was at this time
      twenty-six thousand men; but by enlisting supernumeraries the regiments
      were greatly augmented, and commonly consisted of more than double their
      stated complement.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 284.
</pre>
    <p>
      Colonel Horton first attacked the revolted troops in Wales, and gave them
      a considerable defeat. The remnants of the vanquished threw themselves
      into Pembroke, and were there closely besieged, and soon after taken by
      Cromwell. Lambert was opposed to Langdale and Musgrave in the north, and
      gained advantages over them. Sir Michael Livesey defeated the earl of
      Holland at Kingston, and pursuing his victory, took him prisoner at St.
      Neots. Fairfax, having routed the Kentish royalists at Maidstone, followed
      the broken army; and when they joined the royalists of Essex, and threw
      themselves into Colchester, he laid siege to that place, which defended
      itself to the last extremity. A new fleet was manned, and sent out under
      the command of War wick, to oppose the revolted ships, of which the prince
      had taken the command.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the forces were employed in all quarters, the parliament regained
      its liberty, and began to act with its wonted courage and spirit. The
      members who had withdrawn from terror of the army, returned; and infusing
      boldness into their companions, restored to the Presbyterian party the
      ascendant which it had formerly lost. The eleven impeached members were
      recalled, and the vote by which they were expelled was reversed. The vote,
      too, of non-addresses was repealed; and commissioners, five peers and ten
      commoners, were sent to Newport in the Isle of Wight, in order to treat
      with the king.[*] He was allowed to summon several of his friends and old
      counsellors, that he might have their advice in this important
      transaction.[**] The theologians on both sides, armed with their
      syllogisms and quotations, attended as auxiliaries.[***] By them the flame
      had first been raised; and their appearance was but a bad prognostic of
      its extinction. Any other instruments seemed better adapted for a treaty
      of pacification.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the king presented himself to this company, a great and sensible
      alteration was remarked in his aspect, from what it appeared the year
      before, when he resided at Hampton Court. The moment his servants had been
      removed, he had laid aside all care of his person, and had allowed his
      beard and hair to grow, and to hang dishevelled and neglected. His hair
      was become almost entirely gray, either from the decline of years, or from
      that load of sorrows under which he labored; and which, though borne with
      constancy, preyed inwardly on his sensible and tender mind. His friends
      beheld with compassion, and perhaps even his enemies, "that gray and
      discrowned head," as he himself terms it, in a copy of verses, which the
      truth of the sentiment, rather than any elegance of expression, renders
      very pathetic.[****] Having in vain endeavored by courage to defend his
      throne from his armed adversaries, it now behoved him, by reasoning and
      persuasion, to save some fragments of it from these peaceful, and no less
      implacable negotiators.
    </p>
    <p>
      The vigor of the king's mind, notwithstanding the seeming decline of his
      body, here appeared unbroken and undecayed. The parliamentary
      commissioners would allow none of his council to be present, and refused
      to enter into reasoning with any but himself. He alone, during the
      transactions of two months, was obliged to maintain the argument against
      fifteen men of the greatest parts and capacity in both houses; and no
      advantage was ever obtained over him,[v] This was the scene above all
      others in which he was qualified to excel. A quick conception, a
      cultivated understanding, a chaste conclusion, a dignified manner; by
      these accomplishments he triumphed in all discussions of cool and
      temperate reasoning.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, vol. v. p. 180. Sir Edward Walker's Perfect
     Copies p. 6.

     ** Sir Edward Walker's Perfect Copies, p. 8.

     *** Sir Edward Walker's Perfect Copies, p. 8, 38.

     **** Burnet's Memoirs of Hamilton.

     v    Herbert's Memoirs, p. 72.
</pre>
    <p>
      "The king is much changed," said the earl of Salisbury to Sir Philip
      Warwick: "he is extremely improved of late." "No," replied Sir Philip, "he
      was always so: but you are now at last sensible of it."[*] Sir Henry Vane,
      discoursing with his fellow-commissioners, drew an argument from the
      king's uncommon abilities, why the terms of pacification must be rendered
      more strict and rigid.[**] But Charles's capacity shone not equally in
      action as in reasoning.
    </p>
    <p>
      The first point insisted on by the parliamentary commissioners, was the
      king's recalling all his proclamations and declarations against the
      parliament, and the acknowledging that they had taken arms in their own
      defence. He frankly offered the former concession, but long scrupled the
      latter. The falsehood, as well as indignity of that acknowledgment, begat
      in his breast an extreme reluctance against it. The king had, no doubt, in
      some particulars of moment, invaded, from a seeming necessity, the
      privileges of his people: but having renounced all claim to these usurped
      powers, having confessed his errors, and having repaired every breach in
      the constitution, and even erected new ramparts in order to secure it, he
      could no longer, at the commencement of the war, be represented as the
      aggressor. However it might be pretended, that the former display of his
      arbitrary inclinations, or rather his monarchical principles, rendered an
      offensive or preventive war in the parliament prudent and reasonable, it
      could never in any propriety of speech, make it be termed a defensive one.
      But the parliament, sensible that the letter of the law condemned them as
      rebels and traitors, deemed this point absolutely necessary for their
      future security; and the king, finding that peace could be obtained on no
      other terms, at last yielded to it. He only entered a protest, which was
      admitted, that no concession made by him should be valid, unless the whole
      treaty of pacification were concluded.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Warwick, p. 324.

     ** Clarendon. Sir Edward Walker, p. 319

     *** Walker, p. 11, 12, 24.
</pre>
    <p>
      He agreed that the parliament should retain, during the term of twenty
      years, the power over the militia and army, and that of levying what money
      they pleased for their support. He even yielded to them the right of
      resuming, at any time afterwards, this authority, whenever they should
      declare such a resumption necessary for public safety. In effect, the
      important power of the sword was forever ravished from him and his
      successors.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      He agreed that all the great offices, during twenty years should be filled
      by both houses of parliament.[**] He relinquished to them the entire
      government of Ireland, and the conduct of the war there.[***] He renounced
      the power of the wards, and accepted of one hundred thousand pounds a year
      in lieu of it.[****] He acknowledged the validity of their great seal, and
      gave up his own.[v] He abandoned the power of creating peers without
      consent of parliament. And he agreed, that all the debts contracted in
      order to support the war against him, should be paid by the people.
    </p>
    <p>
      So great were the alterations made on the English constitution by this
      treaty, that the king said, not without reason, that he had been more an
      enemy to his people by these concessions, could he have prevented them,
      than by any other action of his life.
    </p>
    <p>
      Of all the demands of the parliament, Charles refused only two. Though he
      relinquished almost every power of the crown, he would neither give up his
      friends to punishment, nor desert what he esteemed his religious duty. The
      severe repentance which he had undergone for abandoning Strafford, had no
      doubt confirmed him in the resolution never again to be guilty of a like
      error. His long solitude and severe afflictions had contributed to rivet
      him the more in those religious principles which had ever a considerable
      influence over him. His desire, however, of finishing an accommodation,
      induced him to go as far in both these particulars as he thought any wise
      consistent with his duty.
    </p>
    <p>
      The estates of the royalists being at that time almost entirely under
      sequestration, Charles who could give them no protection, consented that
      they should pay such compositions as they and the parliament should agree
      on; and only begged that they might be made as moderate as possible. He
      had not the disposal of offices; and it seemed but a small sacrifice to
      consent, that a certain number of his friends should be rendered incapable
      of public employments.[v*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Walker, p. 51.

     ** Walker, p. 78.

     *** Walker, p. 45.

     **** Walker, p. 69, 77

     v    Walker, p. 56, 68

     v*   Walker, p. 61
</pre>
    <p>
      But when the parliament demanded a bill of attainder and banishment
      against <i>seven</i> persons, the marquis of Newcastle, Lord Digby, Lord
      Biron, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, Sir Richard Granville, Sir Francis
      Doddington, and Judge Jenkins, the king absolutely refused compliance;
      their banishment for a limited time he was willing to agree to.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Religion was the fatal point about which the differences had arisen; and
      of all others, it was the least susceptible of composition or moderation
      between the contending parties. The parliament insisted on the
      establishment of Presbytery, the sale of the chapter lands, the abolition
      of all forms of prayer, and strict laws against Catholics. The king
      offered to retrench every thing which he did not esteem of apostolicat
      institution: he was willing to abolish archbishops, deans prebends,
      canons: he offered that the chapter lands should be let at low leases
      during ninety-nine years; he consented, that the present church government
      should continue during three years:[*] after that time, he required not
      that any thing should be restored to bishops but the power of ordination,
      and even that power to be exercised by advice of the presbyters.[**] If
      the parliament, upon the expiration of that period, still insisted on
      their demand, all other branches of episcopal jurisdiction were abolished,
      and a new form of church government must, by common consent, be
      established. The Book of Common Prayer he was willing to renounce, but
      required the liberty of using some other liturgy in his own chapel; [***]
      a demand, which, though seemingly reasonable, was positively refused by
      the parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the dispute on these articles, one is not surprised that two of the
      parliamentary theologians should tell the king, "that if he did not
      consent to the utter abolition of Episcopacy he would be damned." But it
      is not without some indignation that we read the following vote of the
      lords and commons: "The houses, out of their detestation to that
      abominable idolatry used in the mass, do declare, that they cannot admit
      of, or consent unto, any such indulgence in any law, as is desired by his
      majesty, for exempting the queen and her family from the penalties to be
      enacted against the exercise of the mass."****
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Walker, p. 91, 93. * Walker, p. 29, 35, 49

     ** Walker, p. 65.

     *** Walker, p. 75, 82. Rush. vol. viii. p. 1323

     **** Walker, p. 71.
</pre>
    <p>
      The treaty of marriage, the regard to the queen's sex and high station,
      even common humanity; all considerations were undervalued, in comparison
      of their bigoted prejudices.[*] <a href="#linknote-19"
      name="linknoteref-19" id="linknoteref-19">19</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note S, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      It was evidently the interest, both of king and parliament, to finish
      their treaty with all expedition; and endeavor by their combined force to
      resist, if possible, the usurping fury of the army. It seemed even the
      interest of the parliament to leave in the king's hand a considerable
      share of authority, by which he might be enabled to protect them and
      himself from so dangerous an enemy. But the terms on which they insisted
      were so rigorous, that the king, fearing no worse from the most implacable
      enemies, was in no haste to come to a conclusion. And so great was the
      bigotry on both sides, that they were willing to sacrifice the greatest
      civil interests, rather than relinquish the most minute of their
      theological contentions. From these causes, assisted by the artifice of
      the Independents, the treaty was spun out to such a length, that the
      invasions and insurrections were every where subdued; and the army had
      leisure to execute their violent and sanguinary purposes.
    </p>
    <p>
      Hamilton, having entered England with a numerous though undisciplined
      army, durst not unite his forces with those of Langdale; because the
      English royalists had refused to take the covenant; and the Scottish
      Presbyterians, though engaged for the king, refused to join them on any
      other terms. The two armies marched together, though at some distance; nor
      could even the approach of the parliamentary army under Cromwell, oblige
      the Covenanters to consult their own safety, by a close union with the
      royalists. When principles are so absurd and so destructive of human
      society, it may safely be averred, that the more sincere and the more
      disinterested they are, they only become the more ridiculous and the more
      odious.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell feared not to oppose eight thousand men to the numerous armies of
      twenty thousand commanded by Hamilton and Langdale. He attacked the latter
      by surprise near Preston, in Lancashire; and though the royalists made a
      brave resistance, yet, not being succored in time by their confederates,
      they were almost entirely cut in pieces. Hamilton was next attacked, put
      to rout, and pursued to Utoxeter, where he surrendered himself prisoner.
      Cromwell followed his advantage; and, marching into Scotland with a
      considerable body joined Argyle, who was also in arms; and having
      suppressed Laneric, Monro, and other moderate Presbyterians he placed the
      power entirely in the hands of the violent party. The ecclesiastical
      authority, exalted above the civil, exercised the severest vengeance on
      all who had a share in Hamilton's engagement, as it was called; nor could
      any of that party recover trust, or even live in safety, but by doing
      solemn and public penance for taking arms, by authority of parliament in
      defence of their lawful sovereign.
    </p>
    <p>
      The chancellor, Loudon, who had at first countenanced Hamilton's
      enterprise, being terrified with the menaces of the clergy, had some time
      before gone over to the other party; and he now openly in the church,
      though invested with the highest civil character in the kingdom, did
      penance for his obedience to the parliament, which he termed a "carnal
      self-seeking." He accompanied his penance with so many tears, and such
      pathetical addresses to the people for their prayers in this his uttermost
      sorrow and distress, that a universal weeping and lamentation took place
      among the deluded audience.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The loan of great sums of money, often to the ruin of families, was
      exacted from all such as lay under any suspicion of favoring the king's
      party, though their conduct had been ever so inoffensive. This was a
      device fallen upon by the ruling party, in order, as they said, to reach
      "heart malignants."[**] Never in this island was known a more severe and
      arbitrary government, than was generally exercised by the patrons of
      liberty in both kingdoms.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 360.

     ** Guthrey. Lucas and Sir George Lisle.
</pre>
    <p>
      The siege of Colchester terminated in a manner no less unfortunate than
      Hamilton's engagement for the royal cause. After suffering the utmost
      extremities of famine, after feeding on the vilest aliments, the garrison
      desired at last to capitulate. Fairfax required them to surrender at
      discretion; and he gave such an explanation to these terms, as to reserve
      to himself power, if he pleased, to put them all instantly to the sword.
      The officers endeavored, though in vain, to persuade the soldiers, by
      making a vigorous sally, to break through, at least to sell their lives as
      dear as possible. They were obliged to accept of the conditions offered;
      and Fairfax, instigated by Ireton, to whom Cromwell in his absence had
      consigned over the government of the passive general, seized Sir Charles
      and resolved to make them instant sacrifices to military justice. This
      unusual severity was loudly exclaimed against by all the prisoners. Lord
      Capel, fearless of danger, reproached Ireton with it; and challenged him,
      as they were all engaged in the same honorable cause, to exercise the same
      impartial vengeance on all of them. Lucas was first shot; and he himself
      gave orders to fire, with the same alacrity as if he had commanded a
      platoon of his own soldiers. Lisle instantly ran and kissed the dead body,
      then cheerfully presented himself to a like fate. Thinking that the
      soldiers destined for his execution stood at too great a distance, he
      called to them to come nearer: one of them replied, "I'll warrant you,
      sir, we'll hit you:" he answered, smiling, "Friends, I have been nearer
      you, when you have missed me." Thus perished this generous spirit, not
      less beloved for his modesty and humanity, than esteemed for his courage
      and military conduct.
    </p>
    <p>
      Soon after, a gentleman appearing in the king's presence clothed in
      mourning for Sir Charles Lucas, that humane prince, suddenly recollecting
      the hard fate of his friends, paid them a tribute which none of his own
      unparalleled misfortunes ever extorted from him: he dissolved into a flood
      of tears.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke.
</pre>
    <p>
      By these multiplied successes of the army, they had subdued all their
      enemies; and none remained but the helpless king and parliament to oppose
      their violent measures. From Cromwell's suggestion, a remonstrance was
      drawn by the council of general officers, and sent to the parliament. They
      there complain of the treaty with the king; demand his punishment for the
      blood spilt during the war; require a dissolution of the present
      parliament, and a more equal representative for the future; and assert
      that, though servants, they are entitled to represent these important
      points to their masters, who are themselves no better than servants and
      trustees of the people. At the same time, they advanced with the army to
      Windsor, and sent Colonel Eure to seize the king's person at Newport, and
      convey him to Hurst Castle, in the neighborhood, where he was detained in
      strict confinement.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006">
      <!-- IMG --></a> <a href="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_705_hurst_castle.jpg">ENLARGE</a>
    </p>
    <div class="fig" >
      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_705_hurst_castle_th.jpg" title="Hurst Castle"
      alt="1-705-hurst-castle.jpg Hurst Castle "  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      This measure being foreseen some time before, the king was exhorted to
      make his escape, which was conceived to be very easy: but having given his
      word to the parliament not to attempt the recovery of his liberty during
      the treaty, and three weeks after, he would not, by any persuasion, be
      induced to hazard the reproach of violating that promise. In vain was it
      urged, that a promise given to the parliament could no longer be binding;
      since they could no longer afford him protection from violence threatened
      him by other persons, to whom he was bound by no tie or engagement. The
      king would indulge no refinements of casuistry, however plausible, in such
      delicate subjects; and was resolved that, what depredations soever fortune
      should commit upon him, she never should bereave him of his honor.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Colonel Cooke's Memoirs, p. 174. Rush. vol. viii. p. 1347.
</pre>
    <p>
      The parliament lost not courage, notwithstanding the danger with which
      they were so nearly menaced. Though without any plan for resisting
      military usurpations, they resolved to withstand them to the uttermost;
      and rather to bring on a violent and visible subversion of government,
      than lend their authority to those illegal and sanguinary measures which
      were projected. They set aside the remonstrance of the army, without
      deigning to answer it; they voted the seizing of the king's person to be
      without their consent, and sent a message to the general, to know by what
      authority that enterprise had been executed; and they issued orders that
      the army should advance no nearer to London.
    </p>
    <p>
      Hollis, the present leader of the Presbyterians, was a man of
      unconquerable intrepidity; and many others of that party seconded his
      magnanimous spirit. It was proposed by them, that the generals and
      principal officers should, for their disobedience and usurpations, be
      proclaimed traitors by the parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      But the parliament was dealing with men who would not be frightened by
      words, nor retarded by any scrupulous delicacy. The generals, under the
      name of Fairfax, (for he still allowed them to employ his name,) marched
      the army to London, and placing guards in Whitehall, the Mews, St.
      James's, Durham House, Covent Garden, and Palace Yard, surrounded the
      parliament with their hostile armaments.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament, destitute of all hopes of prevailing, retained, however,
      courage to resist. They attempted, in the face of the army, to close their
      treaty with the king; and, though they had formerly voted his concessions
      with regard to the church and delinquents to be unsatisfactory, they now
      took into consideration the final resolution with regard to the whole.
    </p>
    <p>
      After a violent debate of three days, it was carried, by a majority of one
      hundred and twenty-nine against eighty-three, in the house of commons,
      that the king's concessions were a foundation for the houses to proceed
      upon in the settlement of the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      Next day, when the commons were to meet, Colonel Pride formerly a drayman,
      had environed the house with two regiments; and, directed by Lord Grey of
      Groby, he seized in the passage forty-one members of the Presbyterian
      party, and sent them to a low room, which passed by the appellation of
      "hell;" whence they were afterwards carried to several inns. Above one
      hundred and sixty members more were excluded, and none were allowed to
      enter but the most furious and the most determined of the Independents;
      and these exceeded not the number of fifty or sixty. This invasion of the
      parliament commonly passed under the name of "Colonel Pride's Purge;" so
      much disposed was the nation to make merry with the dethroning of those
      members who had violently arrogated the whole authority of government, and
      deprived the king of his legal prerogatives.
    </p>
    <p>
      The subsequent proceedings of the parliament, if this diminutive assembly
      deserve that honorable name, retain not the least appearance of law,
      equity, or freedom. They instantly reversed the former vote, and declared
      the king's concessions unsatisfactory. They determined that no member
      absent at this last vote should be received till he subscribed it, as
      agree able to his judgment. They renewed their former vote of
      non-addresses. And they committed to prison Sir William Waller, Sir John
      Clotworthy, the generals Massey, Brown, Copley, and other leaders of the
      Presbyterians. These men, by their credit and authority, which was then
      very high, had, at the commencement of the war, supported the parliament;
      and thereby prepared the way for the greatness of the present leaders, who
      at that time were of small account in the nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      The secluded members having published a paper, containing a narrative of
      the violence which had been exercised upon them, and a protestation, that
      all acts were void, which from that time had been transacted in the house
      of commons, the remaining members encountered it with a declaration, in
      which they pronounced it false, scandalous, seditious, and tending to the
      destruction of the visible and fundamental government of the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      These sudden and violent revolutions held the whole nation in terror and
      astonishment. Every man dreaded to be trampled under foot, in the
      contention between those mighty powers which disputed for the sovereignty
      of the state. Many began to withdraw their effects beyond sea: foreigners
      scrupled to give any credit to a people so torn by domestic faction, and
      oppressed by military usurpation: even the internal commerce of the
      kingdom began to stagnate: and in order to remedy these growing evils, the
      generals, in the name of the army, published a declaration, in which they
      expressed their resolution of supporting law and justice.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The more to quiet the minds of men, the council of officers took into
      consideration a scheme called "the agreement of the people;" being the
      plan of a republic, to be substituted in the place of that government
      which they so violently pulled in pieces. Many parts of this scheme for
      correcting the inequalities of the representative, are plausible; had the
      nation been disposed to receive it, or had the army intended to impose it.
      Other parts are too perfect for human nature, and savor strongly of that
      fanatical spirit so prevalent throughout the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      The height of all iniquity and fanatical extravagance yet remained&mdash;the
      public trial and execution of their sovereign. To this period was every
      measure precipitated by the zealous Independents. The parliamentary
      leaders of that party had intended, that the army themselves should
      execute that daring enterprise; and they deemed so irregular and lawless a
      deed best fitted to such irregular and lawless instruments.[**] But the
      generals were too wise to load themselves singly with the infamy which,
      they knew, must attend an action so shocking to the general sentiments of
      mankind. The parliament, they were resolved, should share with them the
      reproach of a measure which was thought requisite for the advancement of
      their common ends of safety and ambition. In the house of commons,
      therefore, a committee was appointed to bring in a charge against the
      king. On their report a vote passed, declaring it treason in a king to
      levy war against his parliament, and appointing a high court of justice to
      try Charles for this new-invented treason. This vote was sent up to the
      house of peers.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. viii. p. 1364.

     ** Whitlocke.
</pre>
    <p>
      The house of peers, during the civil wars, had all along been of small
      account; but it had lately, since the king's fall, become totally
      contemptible; and very few members would submit to the mortification of
      attending it. It happened that day to be fuller than usual, and they were
      assembled to the number of sixteen. Without one dissenting voice, and
      almost without deliberation, they instantly rejected the vote of the lower
      house, and adjourned themselves for ten days, hoping that this delay would
      be able to retard the furious career of the commons.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1649.
    </p>
    <p>
      The commons were not to be stopped by so small an obstacle. Having first
      established a principle which is noble in itself, and seems specious, but
      is belied by all history and experience, "that the people are the origin
      of all just power;" they next declared, that the commons of England,
      assembled in parliament, being chosen by the people, and representing
      them, are the supreme authority of the nation, and that whatever is
      enacted and declared to be law by the commons, hath the force of law,
      without the consent of king or house of peers. The ordinance for the trial
      of Charles Stuart, king of England, (so they called him,) was again read,
      and unanimously assented to.
    </p>
    <p>
      In proportion to the enormity of the violences and usurpations, were
      augmented the pretences of sanctity, among those regicides. "Should any
      one have voluntarily proposed," said Cromwell in the house, "to bring the
      king to punishment, I should have regarded him as the greatest traitor;
      but since Providence and necessity have cast us upon it, I will pray to
      God for a blessing on your counsels; though I am not prepared to give you
      any advice on this important occasion. Even I myself," subjoined he, "when
      I was lately offering up petitions for his majesty's restoration, felt my
      tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, and considered this preternatural
      movement as the answer which Heaven, having rejected the king, had sent to
      my supplications."
    </p>
    <p>
      A woman of Hertfordshire, illuminated by prophetical visions, desired
      admittance into the military council, and communicated to the officers a
      revelation, which assured them that their measures were consecrated from
      above, and ratified by a heavenly sanction. This intelligence gave them
      great comfort, and much confirmed them in their present resolutions.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 360.
</pre>
    <p>
      Colonel Harrison, the son of a butcher, and the most furious enthusiast in
      the army, was sent with a strong party to conduct the king to London. At
      Windsor, Hamilton, who was there detained a prisoner, was admitted into
      the king's presence: and falling on his knees, passionately exclaimed, "My
      dear master!"&mdash;-"I have indeed been so to you," replied Charles,
      embracing him. No further intercourse was allowed between them, The king
      was instantly hurried away. Hamilton long followed him with his eyes all
      suffused in tears, and prognosticated, that in this short salutation, he
      had given the last adieu to his sovereign and his friend.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles himself was assured that the period of his life was now
      approaching; but notwithstanding all the preparations which were making,
      and the intelligence which he received, he could not even yet believe that
      his enemies really meant to conclude their violences by a public trial and
      execution. A private assassination he every moment looked for; and though
      Harrison assured him that his apprehensions were entirely groundless, it
      was by that catastrophe, so frequent with dethroned princes, that he
      expected to terminate his life. In appearance, as well as in reality, the
      king was now dethroned. All the exterior symbols of sovereignty were
      withdrawn, and his attendants had orders to serve him without ceremony. At
      first, he was shocked with instances of rudeness and familiarity, to which
      he had been so little accustomed. "Nothing so contemptible as a despised
      prince!" was the reflection which they suggested to him. But he soon
      reconciled his mind to this, as he had done to his other calamities.
    </p>
    <p>
      All the circumstances of the trial were now adjusted, and the high court
      of justice fully constituted. It consisted of one hundred and thirty-three
      persons, as named by the commons; but there scarcely ever sat above
      seventy: so difficult was it, notwithstanding the blindness of prejudice
      and the allurements of interest, to engage men of any name or character in
      that criminal measure. Cromwell, Ireton, Harrison, and the chief officers
      of the army, most of them of mean birth, were members, together with some
      of the lower house, and some citizens of London. The twelve judges were at
      first appointed in the number: but as they had affirmed, that it was
      contrary to all the ideas of English law to try the king for treason, by
      whose authority all accusations for treason must necessarily be conducted,
      their names, as well as those of some peers, were afterwards struck out.
      Bradshaw, a lawyer, was chosen president. Coke was appointed solicitor for
      the people of England. Dorislaus, Steele, and Arke, were named assistants.
      The court sat in Westminster Hall.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is remarkable, that in calling over the court, when the crier
      pronounced the name of Fairfax, which had been inserted in the number, a
      voice came from one of the spectators, and cried, "He has more wit than to
      be here." When the charge was read against the king, "In the name of the
      people of England," the same voice exclaimed, "Not a tenth part of them."
      Axtel, the officer who guarded the court, giving orders to fire into the
      box whence these insolent speeches came, it was discovered that Lady
      Fairfax was there, and that it was she who had had the courage to utter
      them. She was a person of noble extraction, daughter of Horace Lord Vere
      of Tilbury; but being seduced by the violence of the times, she had long
      seconded her husband's zeal against the royal cause, and was now, as well
      as he, struck with abhorrence at the fatal and unexpected consequence of
      all his boasted victories.
    </p>
    <p>
      The pomp, the dignity, the ceremony of this transaction corresponded to
      the greatest conception that is suggested in the annals of human kind; the
      delegates of a great people sitting in judgment upon their supreme
      magistrate, and trying him for his misgovernment and breach of trust. The
      solicitor, in the name of the commons, represented, that Charles Stuart,
      being admitted king of England, and intrusted with a limited power, yet
      nevertheless, from a wicked design to erect an unlimited and tyrannical
      government, had traitorously and maliciously levied war against the
      present parliament, and the people, whom they represented, and was
      therefore impeached as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and a public and
      implacable enemy to the commonwealth. After the charge was finished, the
      president directed his discourse to the king, and told him that the court
      expected his answer.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, though long detained a prisoner, and now produced as a criminal,
      sustained, by his magnanimous courage, the majesty of a monarch. With
      great temper and dignity, he declined the authority of the court, and
      refused to submit himself to their jurisdiction. He represented, that
      having been engaged in treaty with his two houses of parliament, and
      having finished almost every article, he had expected to be brought to his
      capital in another manner, and ere this time to have been restored to his
      power, dignity, revenue, as well as to his personal liberty: that he could
      not now perceive any appearance of the upper house, so essential a member
      of the constitution; and had learned, that even the commons, whose
      authority was pretended, were subdued by lawless force, and were bereaved
      of their liberty: that he himself was their "native, hereditary king;" nor
      was the whole authority of the state, though free and united, entitled to
      try him, who derived his dignity from the Supreme Majesty of heaven: that,
      admitting those extravagant principles which levelled all orders of men,
      the court could plead no power delegated by the people; unless the consent
      of every individual, down to the meanest and most ignorant peasant, had
      been previously asked and obtained: that he acknowledged, without scruple,
      that he had a trust committed to him, and one most sacred and inviolable;
      he was intrusted with the liberties of his people, and would not now
      betray them by recognizing a power founded on the most atrocious violence
      and usurpation: that having taken arms, and frequently exposed his life in
      defence of public liberty, of the constitution, of the fundamental laws of
      the kingdom, he was willing in this last and most solemn scene, to seal
      with his blood those precious rights for which, though in vain, he had so
      long contended: that those who arrogated a title to sit as his judges,
      were born his subjects, and born subjects to those laws which determined
      "that the king can do no wrong:" that he was not reduced to the necessity
      of sheltering himself under this general maxim which guards every English
      monarch, even the least deserving; but was able, by the most satisfactory
      reasons, to justify those measures in which he had been engaged: that to
      the whole world, and even to them, his pretended judges, he was desirous,
      if called upon in another manner, to prove the integrity of his conduct,
      and assert the justice of those defensive arms to which, unwillingly and
      unfortunately, he had had recourse; but that, in order to preserve a
      uniformity of conduct, he must at present forego the apology of his
      innocence lest, by ratifying an authority no better founded than that of
      robbers and pirates, he be justly branded as the betrayer instead of being
      applauded as the martyr, of the constitution.
    </p>
    <p>
      The president, in order to support the majesty of the people, and maintain
      the superiority of his court above the prisoner still inculcated, that he
      must not decline the authority of his judges; that they overruled his
      objections; that they were delegated by the people, the only source of
      every lawful power; and that kings themselves acted but in trust from that
      community which had invested this high court of justice with its
      jurisdiction. Even according to those principles, which, in his present
      situation, he was perhaps obliged to adopt, his behavior in general will
      appear not a little harsh and barbarous; but when we consider him as a
      subject, and one too of no high character, addressing himself to his
      unfortunate sovereign, his style will be esteemed to the last degree
      audacious and insolent.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007">
      <!-- IMG --></a> <a href="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_706_charles1_th.jpg">ENLARGE</a>
    </p>
    <div class="fig" >
      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_706_charles1_th.jpg" title="Charles I."
      alt="1_706_charles1.jpg Charles I. "  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      Three times was Charles produced before the court, and as often declined
      their jurisdiction. On the fourth, the judges having examined some
      witnesses, by whom it was proved that the king had appeared in arms
      against the forces commissioned by the parliament, they pronounced
      sentence against him. He seemed very anxious at this time to be admitted
      to a conference with the two houses; and it was supposed, that he intended
      to resign the crown to his son: but the court refused compliance, and
      considered that request as nothing but a delay of justice.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is confessed, that the king's behavior during this last scene of his
      life does honor to his memory; and that, in all appearances before his
      judges, he never forgot his part, either as a prince or as a man. Firm and
      intrepid, he maintained, in each reply, the utmost perspicuity and
      justness both of thought and expression; mild and equable, he rose into no
      passion at that unusual authority which was assumed over him. His soul,
      without effort or affectation, seemed only to remain in the situation
      familiar to it, and to look down with contempt on all the efforts of human
      malice and iniquity. The soldiers, instigated by their superiors, were
      brought, though with difficulty, to cry aloud for justice. "Poor souls!"
      said the king to one of his attendants, "for a little money they would do
      as much against their commanders."[*] Some of them were permitted to go
      the utmost length of brutal insolence, and to spit in his face, as he was
      conducted along the passage to the court. To excite a sentiment of pity
      was the only effect which this inhuman insult was able to produce upon
      him.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Rush. vol. viii. p. 1425.
</pre>
    <p>
      The people, though under the rod of lawless, unlimited power, could not
      forbear, with the most ardent prayers, pouring forth their wishes for his
      preservation; and in his present distress, they avowed him, by their
      generous tears, for their monarch, whom, in their misguided fury, they had
      before so violently rejected. The king was softened at this moving scene,
      and expressed his gratitude for their dutiful affection. One soldier, too,
      seized by contagious sympathy, demanded from Heaven a blessing on
      oppressed and fallen majesty: his officer, overhearing the prayer, beat
      him to the ground in the king's presence. "The punishment, methinks,
      exceeds the offence:" this was the reflection which Charles formed on that
      occasion.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      As soon as the intention of trying the king was known in foreign
      countries, so enormous an action was exclaimed against by the general
      voice of reason and humanity; and all men, under whatever form of
      government they were born, rejected the example, as the utmost effort of
      undisguised usurpation, and the most heinous insult on law and justice.
      The French ambassador, by orders from his court, interposed in the king's
      behalf: the Dutch employed their good offices: the Scots exclaimed and
      protested against the violence: the queen, the prince, wrote pathetic
      letters to the parliament. All solicitations were found fruitless with men
      whose resolutions were fixed and irrevocable.
    </p>
    <p>
      Four of Charles's friends, persons of virtue and dignity, Richmond,
      Hertford, Southampton, Lindesey, applied to the commons. They represented,
      that they were the king's counsellors, and had concurred by their advice
      in all those measures which were now imputed as crimes to their royal
      master: that, in the eye of the law, and according to the dictates of
      common reason, they alone were guilty, and were alone exposed to censure
      for every blamable action of the prince; and that they now presented
      themselves, in order to save, by their own punishment, that precious life
      which it became the commons themselves, and every subject, with the utmost
      hazard to protect and defend.[**] Such a generous effort tended to their
      honor, but contributed nothing towards the king's safety.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Warwick, p. 339.

     ** Perinchef, p, 85. Lloyde, p. 319.
</pre>
    <p>
      The people remained in that silence and astonishment, which all great
      passions, when they have not an opportunity of exerting themselves,
      naturally produce in the human mind. The soldiers, being incessantly plied
      with prayers, sermons and exhortations, were wrought up to a degree of
      fury, and imagined, that in the acts of the most extreme disloyalty
      towards their prince consisted their greatest merit in the eye of
      Heaven.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Three days were allowed the king between his sentence and his execution.
      This interval he passed with great tranquillity, chiefly in reading and
      devotion. All his family that remained in England were allowed access to
      him. It consisted only of the princess Elizabeth and the duke of
      Gloucester; for the duke of York had made his escape. Gloucester was
      little more than an infant: the princess, notwithstanding her tender
      years, showed an advanced judgment; and the calamities of her family had
      made a deep impression upon her. After many pious consolations and
      advices, the king gave her in charge to tell the queen, that during the
      whole course of his life, he had never once, even in thought, failed in
      his fidelity towards her; and that his conjugal tenderness and his life
      should have an equal duration.
    </p>
    <p>
      To the young duke, too, he could not forbear giving some advice, in order
      to season his mind with early principles of loyalty and obedience towards
      his brother, who was so soon to be his sovereign. Holding him on his knee,
      he said, "Now they will cut off thy father's head." At these words, the
      child looked very steadfastly upon him. "Mark, child! what I say: they
      will cut off my head! and perhaps make thee a king: but mark what I say:
      thou must not be a king as long as thy brothers Charles and James are
      alive. They will cut off thy brothers' heads, when they can catch them!
      And thy head, too they will cut off at last! Therefore I charge thee, do
      not be made a king by them!" The duke, sighing, replied, "I will be torn
      in pieces first!" So determined an answer, from one of such tender years,
      filled the king's eyes with tears of joy and admiration.
    </p>
    <p>
      Every night during this interval the king slept as sound as usual; though
      the noise of workmen employed in framing the scaffold, and other
      preparations for his execution, continually resounded in his ears.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Burnet's History of his Own Times.

     ** Clement Walker's History of Independency.
</pre>
    <p>
      The morning of the fatal day he rose early, and calling Herbert, one of
      his attendants, he bade him employ more than usual care in dressing him,
      and preparing him for so great and joyful a solemnity. Bishop Juxon, a man
      endowed with the same mild and steady virtues by which the king himself
      was so much distinguished, assisted him in his devotions, and paid the
      last melancholy duties to his friend and sovereign.
    </p>
    <p>
      The street before Whitehall was the place destined for the execution; for
      it was intended, by choosing that very place, in sight of his own palace,
      to display more evidently the triumph of popular justice over royal
      majesty. When the king came upon the scaffold, he found it so surrounded
      with soldiers, that he could not expect to be heard by any of the people:
      he addressed, therefore, his discourse to the few persons who were about
      him; particularly Colonel Tomlinson, to whose care he had lately been
      committed, and upon whom, as upon many others, his amiable deportment had
      wrought an entire conversion. He justified his own innocence in the late
      fatal wars; and observed, that he had not taken arms till after the
      parliament had enlisted forces; nor had he any other object in his warlike
      operations, than to preserve that authority entire which his predecessors
      had transmitted to him. He threw not, however, the blame upon the
      parliament, but was more inclined to think, that ill instruments had
      interposed, and raised in them fears and jealousies with regard to his
      intentions. Though innocent towards his people, he acknowledged the equity
      of his execution in the eyes of his Maker; and observed, that an unjust
      sentence which he had suffered to take effect, was now punished by an
      unjust sentence upon himself. He forgave all his enemies, even the chief
      instruments of his death; but exhorted them and the whole nation to return
      to the ways of peace, by paying obedience to their lawful sovereign, his
      son and successor. When he was preparing himself for the block, Bishop
      Juxon called to him: "There is, sir, but one stage more, which, though
      turbulent and troublesome, is yet a very short one. Consider, it will soon
      carry you a great way; it will carry you from earth to heaven; and there
      you shall find, to your great joy, the prize to which you hasten, a crown
      of glory." "I go," replied the king, "from a corruptible to an
      incorruptible crown; where no disturbance can have place." At one blow was
      his head severed from his body. A man in a visor performed the office of
      executioner: another, in a like disguise, held up to the spectators the
      head, streaming with blood, and cried aloud, "This is the head of a
      traitor!"
    </p>
    <p>
      It is impossible to describe the grief, indignation, and astonishment
      which took place, not only among the spectators, who were overwhelmed with
      a flood of sorrow, but throughout the whole nation, as soon as the report
      of this fatal execution was conveyed to them. Never monarch, in the full
      triumph of success and victory, was more dear to his people, than his
      misfortunes and magnanimity, his patience and piety, had rendered this
      unhappy prince. In proportion to their former delusions, which had
      animated them against him, was the violence of their return to duty and
      affection; while each reproached himself either with active disloyalty
      towards him, or with too indolent defence of his oppressed cause. On
      weaker minds, the effect of these complicated passions was prodigious.
      Women are said to have cast forth the untimely fruit of their womb: others
      fell into convulsions, or sunk into such a melancholy as attended them to
      their grave: nay, some, unmindful of themselves, as though they could not
      or would not survive their beloved prince, it is reported, suddenly fell
      down dead. The very pulpits were bedewed with unsuborned tears; those
      pulpits, which had formerly thundered out the most violent imprecations
      and anathemas against him. And all men united in their detestation of
      those hypocritical parricides, who, by sanctified pretences, had so long
      disguised their treasons, and in this last act of iniquity had thrown an
      indelible stain upon the nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      A fresh instance of hypocrisy was displayed the very day of the king's
      death. The generous Fairfax, not content with being absent from the trial,
      had used all the interest which he yet retained to prevent the execution
      of the fatal sentence; and had even employed persuasion with his own
      regiment, though none else should follow him, to rescue the king from his
      disloyal murderers. Cromwell and Ireton, informed of this intention,
      endeavored to convince him that the Lord had rejected the king; and they
      exhorted him to seek by prayer some direction from Heaven on this
      important occasion: but they concealed from him that they had already
      signed the warrant for the execution. Harrison was the person appointed to
      join in prayer with the unwary general. By agreement, he prolonged his
      doleful cant till intelligence arrived, that the fatal blow was struck. He
      then rose from his knees, and insisted with Fairfax, that this event was a
      miraculous and providential answer which Heaven had sent to their devout
      supplications.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Herbert, p. 135.
</pre>
    <p>
      It being remarked, that the king, the moment before he stretched out his
      neck to the executioner, had said to Juxon with a very earnest accent, the
      single word "Remember," great mysteries were supposed to be concealed
      under that expression; and the generals vehemently insisted with the
      prelate, that he should inform them of the king's meaning, Juxon told them
      that the king, having frequently charged him to inculcate on his son the
      forgiveness of his murderers, had taken this opportunity, in the last
      moment of his life, when his commands, he supposed would be regarded as
      sacred and inviolable, to reiterate that desire; and that his mild spirit
      thus terminated its present course by an act of benevolence towards his
      greatest enemies.
    </p>
    <p>
      The character of this prince, as that of most men, if not of all men, was
      mixed; but his virtues predominated extremely above his vices, or, more
      properly speaking, his imperfections; for scarce any of his faults rose to
      that pitch as to merit the appellation of vices. To consider him in the
      most favorable light, it may be affirmed, that his dignity was free from
      pride, his humanity from weakness, his bravery from rashness, his
      temperance from austerity, his frugality from avarice; all these virtues
      in him maintained their proper bounds, and merited unreserved praise. To
      speak the most harshly of him, we may affirm, that many of his good
      qualities were attended with some latent frailty, which, though seemingly
      inconsiderable was able, when seconded by the extreme malevolence of his
      fortune, to disappoint them of all their influence: his beneficent
      disposition was clouded by a manner not very gracious; his virtue was
      tinctured with superstition; his good sense was disfigured by a deference
      to persons of a capacity inferior to his own; and his moderate temper
      exempted him not from hasty and precipitate resolutions. He deserves the
      epithet of a good, rather than of a great man: and was more fitted to rule
      in a regular established government, than either to give way to the
      encroachments of a popular assembly, or finally to subdue their
      pretensions. He wanted suppleness and dexterity sufficient for the first
      measure; he was nor endowed with the vigor requisite for the second. Had
      he been born an absolute prince, his humanity and good sense had rendered
      his reign happy and his memory precious; had the limitations on
      prerogative been in his time quite fixed and certain, his integrity had
      made him regard as sacred the boundaries of the constitution. Unhappily,
      his fate threw him into a period, when the precedents of many former
      reigns savored strongly of arbitrary power, and the genius of the people
      ran violently towards liberty. And if his political prudence was not
      sufficient to extricate him from so perilous a situation, he may be
      excused; since, even after the event, when it is commonly easy to correct
      all errors, one is at a loss to determine what conduct, in his
      circumstances, could have maintained the authority of the crown, and
      preserved the peace of the nation. Exposed, without revenue, without arms,
      to the assault of furious, implacable, and bigoted factions, it was never
      permitted him, but with the most fatal consequences, to commit the
      smallest mistake; a condition too rigorous to be imposed on the greatest
      human capacity.
    </p>
    <p>
      Some historians have rashly questioned the good faith of this prince; but,
      for this reproach, the most malignant scrutiny of his conduct, which in
      every circumstance is now thoroughly known, affords not any reasonable
      foundation. On the contrary, if we consider the extreme difficulties to
      which he was so frequently reduced, and compare the sincerity of his
      professions and declarations, we shall avow, that probity and honor ought
      justly to be numbered among his most shining qualities. In every treaty,
      those concessions which he thought he could not in conscience maintain, he
      never could, by any motive or persuasion, be induced to make. And though
      some violations of the petition of right may perhaps be imputed to him,
      these are more to be ascribed to the necessity of his situation, and to
      the lofty ideas of royal prerogative, which, from former established
      precedents, he had imbibed, than to any failure in the integrity of his
      principles.[*] <a href="#linknote-20" name="linknoteref-20"
      id="linknoteref-20">20</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note T, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      This prince was of a comely presence; of a sweet, but melancholy aspect.
      His face was regular, handsome, and well complexioned; his body strong,
      healthy, and justly proportioned; and being of a middle stature, he was
      capable of enduring the greatest fatigues. He excelled in horsemanship and
      other exercises; and he possessed all the exterior, as well as many of the
      essential qualities which form an accomplished prince.
    </p>
    <p>
      The tragical death of Charles begat a question, whether the people, in any
      case, were entitled to judge and to punish their sovereign; and most men,
      regarding chiefly the atrocious usurpation of the pretended judges, and
      the merit of the virtuous prince who suffered, were inclined to condemn
      the republican principle, as highly seditious and extravagant: but there
      still were a few who, abstracting from the particular circumstances of
      this case, were able to consider the question in general, and were
      inclined to moderate, not contradict, the prevailing sentiment. Such might
      have been their reasoning. If ever, on any occasion, it were laudable to
      conceal truth from the populace, it must be confessed, that the doctrine
      of resistance affords such an example; and that all speculative reasoners
      ought to observe, with regard to this principle, the same cautious silence
      which the laws, in every species of government, have ever prescribed to
      themselves. Government is instituted in order to restrain the fury and
      injustice of the people; and being always founded on opinion, not on
      force, it is dangerous to weaken, by these speculations, the reverence
      which the multitude owe to authority, and to instruct them beforehand,
      that the case can ever happen when they may be freed from their duty of
      allegiance. Or should it be found impossible to restrain the license of
      human disquisitions, it must be acknowledged, that the doctrine of
      obedience ought alone to be inculcated; and that the exceptions, which are
      rare, ought seldom or never to be mentioned in popular reasonings and
      discourses. Nor is there any danger that mankind, by this prudent reserve,
      should universally degenerate into a state of abject servitude. When the
      exception really occurs, even though it be not previously expected and
      descanted on, it must, from its very nature, be so obvious and undisputed,
      as to remove all doubt, and overpower the restraint, however great,
      imposed by teaching the general doctrine of obedience. But between
      resisting a prince and dethroning him, there is a wide interval; and the
      abuses of power which can warrant the latter violence, are greater and
      more enormous than those which will justify the former. History, however,
      supplies us with examples even of this kind; and the reality of the
      supposition, though for the future it ought ever to be little looked for,
      must, by all candid inquirers, be acknowledged in the past. But between
      dethroning a prince and punishing him, there is another very wide
      interval; and it were not strange, if even men of the most enlarged
      thought should question, whether human nature could ever, in any monarch,
      reach that height of depravity, as to warrant, in revolted subjects, this
      last act of extraordinary jurisdiction. That illusion, if it be an
      illusion, which teaches us to pay a sacred regard to the persona of
      princes, is so salutary, that to dissipate it by the formal trial and
      punishment of a sovereign, will have more pernicious effects upon the
      people, than the example of justice can be supposed to have a beneficial
      influence upon princes, by checking their career of tyranny. It is
      dangerous also, by these examples, to reduce princes to despair, or bring
      matters to such extremities against persons endowed with great power as to
      leave them no resource, but in the most violent and most sanguinary
      counsels. This general position being established, it must, however, be
      observed, that no reader, almost of any party or principle, was ever
      shocked, when he read in ancient history, that the Roman senate voted
      Nero, their absolute sovereign, to be a public enemy, and, even without
      trial, condemned him to the severest and most ignominious punishment; a
      punishment from which the meanest Roman citizen was, by the laws,
      exempted. The crimes of that bloody tyrant are so enormous, that they
      break through all rules; and extort a confession, that such a dethroned
      prince is no longer superior to his people, and can no longer plead, in
      his own defence, laws which were established for conducting the ordinary
      course of administration. But when we pass from the case of Nero to that
      of Charles, the great disproportion, or rather total contrariety, of
      character immediately strikes us; and we stand astonished, that, among a
      civilized people, so much virtue could ever meet with so fatal a
      catastrophe. History, the great mistress of wisdom, furnishes examples of
      all kinds; and every prudential, as well as moral precept, may be
      authorized by those events which her enlarged mirror is able to present to
      us. From the memorable revolutions which passed in England during this
      period, we may naturally deduce the same useful lesson which Charles
      himself, in his later years, inferred; that it is dangerous for princes,
      even from the appearance of necessity, to assume more authority than the
      laws have allowed them. But it must be confessed, that these events
      furnish us with another instruction, no less natural and no less useful,
      concerning the madness of the people, the furies of fanaticism, and the
      danger of mercenary armies.
    </p>
    <p>
      In order to close this part of British history, it is also necessary to
      relate the dissolution of the monarchy in England: that event soon
      followed upon the death of the monarch. When the peers met, on the day
      appointed in their adjournment, they entered upon business, and sent down
      some votes to the commons, of which the latter deigned not to take the
      least notice. In a few days, the lower house passed a vote, that they
      would make no more addresses to the house of peers nor receive any front
      them; and that that house was useless and dangerous, and was therefore to
      be abolished. A like vote passed with regard to the monarchy; and it is
      remarkable, that Martin, a zealous republican, in the debate on this
      question, confessed, that if they desired a king, the last was as proper
      as any gentleman in England.[*] The commons ordered a new great seal to be
      engraved, on which that assembly was represented, with this legend, "On
      the first year of freedom, by God's blessing, restored, 1648." The forms
      of all public business were changed, from the king's name, to that of the
      keepers of the liberties of England.[**] And it was declared high treason
      to proclaim, or any otherwise acknowledge Charles Stuart, commonly called
      prince of Wales.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Walker's History of Independency, part ii.

     * The court of king's bench was called the court of public
     bench. So cautious on this head were some of the
     republicans, that, it is pretended, in reciting the Lord's
     prayer, they would not say, "thy kingdom come," but always,
     "thy commonwealth come."
</pre>
    <p>
      The commons intended, it is said, to bind the princess Elizabeth
      apprentice to a button-maker: the duke of Gloucester was to be taught some
      other mechanical employment. But the former soon died; of grief, as is
      supposed, for her father's tragical end: the latter was, by Cromwell, sent
      beyond sea.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king's statue, in the exchange, was thrown down; and on the pedestal
      these words were inscribed: "Exit tyrannus, regum ultimus;" The tyrant is
      gone, the last of the kings.
    </p>
    <p>
      Duke Hamilton was tried by a new high court of justice, as earl of
      Cambridge, in England; and condemned for treason. This sentence, which was
      certainly hard, but which ought to save his memory from all imputations of
      treachery to his master, was executed on a scaffold erected before
      Westminster Hall. Lord Capel underwent the same fate. Both these noblemen
      had escaped from prison, but were afterwards discovered and taken. To all
      the solicitations of their friends for pardon, the generals and
      parliamentary leaders still replied, that it was certainly the intention
      of Providence they should suffer; since it had permitted them to fall into
      the hands of their enemies, after they had once recovered their liberty.
    </p>
    <p>
      The earl of Holland lost his life by a like sentence. Though of a polite
      and courtly behavior, he died lamented by no party. His ingratitude to the
      king, and his frequent changing of sides, were regarded as great stains on
      his memory. The earl of Norwich and Sir John Owen, being condemned by the
      same court, were pardoned by the commons.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king left six children&mdash;three males: Charles, born in 1630;
      James, duke of York, born in 1633; Henry, duke of Gloucester, born in
      1641;&mdash;and three females: Mary, princess of Orange, born 1631;
      Elizabeth, born 1635; and Henrietta, afterwards duchess of Orleans, born
      at Exeter, 1644.
    </p>
    <p>
      The archbishops of Canterbury in this reign were Abbot and Laud; the lord
      keepers, Williams bishop of Lincoln, Lord Coventry, Lord Finch, Lord
      Littleton, and Sir Richard Lane; the high admirals, the duke of Buckingham
      and the earl of Northumberland; the treasurers, the earl of Marlborough,
      the earl of Portland, Juxon bishop of London, and Lord Cottington; the
      secretaries of state, Lord Conway, Sir Albertus Moreton, Coke, Sir Henry
      Vane, Lord Falkland, Lord Digby, and Sir Edward Nicholas.
    </p>
    <p>
      It may be expected that we should here mention the Icon Basiliké, a work
      published in the king's name a few days after his execution. It seems
      almost impossible, in the controverted parts of history, to say any thing
      which will satisfy the zealots of both parties: but with regard to the
      genuineness of that production, it is not easy for an historian to fix any
      opinion which will be entirely to his own satisfaction. The proofs brought
      to evince that this work is or is not the king's, are so convincing, that
      if an impartial reader peruse any one side apart,[*] he will think it
      impossible that arguments could be produced, sufficient to counterbalance
      so strong an evidence: and when he compares both sides, he will be some
      time at a loss to fix any determination. Should an absolute suspense of
      judgment be found difficult or disagreeable in so interesting a question,
      I must confess, that I much incline to give the preference to the
      arguments of the royalists. The testimonies which prove that performance
      to be the king's, are more numerous, certain, and direct, than those on
      the other side. This is the case, even if we consider the external
      evidence: but when we weigh the internal, derived from the style and
      composition, there is no manner of comparison. These meditations resemble,
      in elegance, purity, neatness, and simplicity, the genius of those
      performances which we know with certainty to have flowed from the royal
      pen; but are so unlike the bombast, perplexed, rhetorical, and corrupt
      style of Dr. Gauden, to whom they are ascribed, that no human testimony
      seems sufficient to convince us that he was the author. Yet all the
      evidences which would rob the king of that honor, tend to prove that Dr.
      Gauden had the merit of writing so fine a performance, and the infamy of
      imposing it on the world for the king's.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See, on the one hand, Toland's Amyntor, and on the other,
     Wagataffe's Vindication of the Royal Martyr, with Young's
     Addition. We may remark, that Lord Clarendon's total silence
     with regard to this subject, in so full of history, composed
     in vindication of the king's measures and character, forms a
     presumption on Toland's side, and a presumption of which
     that author was ignorant; the works of the noble historian
     not being then published. Bishop Burnet's testimony, too,
     must be allowed of some weight against the Icon.
</pre>
    <p>
      It is not easy to conceive the general compassion excited towards the
      king, by the publishing, at so critical a juncture, a work so full of
      piety, meekness, and humanity. Many have not scrupled to ascribe to that
      book the subsequent restoration of the royal family. Milton compares its
      effects to those which were wrought on the tumultuous Romans by Anthony's
      reading to them the will of Cæsar. The Icon passed through fifty editions
      in a twelvemonth; and, independent of the great interest taken in it by
      the nation, as the supposed production of their murdered sovereign, it
      must be acknowledged the best prose composition which, at the time of its
      publication, was to be found in the English language.
    </p>
    <p>
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    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER LX.
    </h2>
    <p>
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    <div style="height: 4em;">
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    <h2>
      THE COMMONWEALTH.
    </h2>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
   CONTEMPORARY MONARCHS.

   EMP of GERM.         K. OF FRANCE.   K. or SPAIN.

   Ferdinand III 1658    Lewis XIII.    Philip IV.
</pre>
    <p class="side">
      1649.
    </p>
    <p>
      The confusions which overspread England after the murder of Charles I.,
      proceeded as well from the spirit of refinement and innovation which
      agitated the ruling party, as from the dissolution of all that authority,
      both civil and ecclesiastical, by which the nation had ever been
      accustomed to be governed. Every man had framed the model of a republic;
      and, however new it was, or fantastical, he was eager in recommending it
      to his fellow-citizens, or even imposing it by force upon them. Every man
      had adjusted a system of religion, which, being derived from no
      traditional authority, was peculiar to himself; and being founded on
      supposed inspiration, not on any principles of human reason, had no means,
      besides cant and low rhetoric, by which it could recommend itself to
      others. The levellers insisted on an equal distribution of power and
      property, and disclaimed all dependence and subordination. The
      Millenarians, or Fifth Monarchy men, required, that government itself
      should be abolished, and all human powers be laid in the dust, in order to
      pave the way for the dominion of Christ, whose second coming they suddenly
      expected. The Antinomians even insisted, that the obligations of morality
      and natural law were suspended, and that the elect, guided by an internal
      principle more perfect and divine, were superior to the beggarly elements
      of justice and humanity. A considerable party declaimed against tithes and
      a hireling priesthood, and were resolved that the magistrate should not
      support by power or revenue any ecclesiastical establishment. Another
      party inveighed against the law and its professors; and, on pretence of
      rendering more simple the distribution of justice, were desirous of
      abolishing the whole system of English jurisprudence, which seemed
      interwoven with monarchical government. Even those among the republicans
      who adopted not such extravagancies, were so intoxicated with their
      saintly character, that they supposed themselves possessed of peculiar
      privileges; and all professions, oaths, laws, and engagements, had, in a
      great measure, lost their influence over them. The bands of society were
      every where loosened; and the irregular passions of men were encouraged by
      speculative principles, still more unsocial and irregular.
    </p>
    <p>
      The royalists, consisting of the nobles and more considerable gentry,
      being degraded from their authority and plundered of their property, were
      inflamed with the highest resentment and indignation against those ignoble
      adversaries who had reduced them to subjection. The Presbyterians, whose
      credit had first supported the arms of the parliament, were enraged to
      find that, by the treachery or superior cunning of then associates, the
      fruits of all their successful labors were ravished from them. The former
      party, from inclination and principle, zealously attached themselves to
      the son of their unfortunate monarch, whose memory they respected, and
      whose tragical death they deplored. The latter cast their eye towards the
      same object; but they had still many prejudices to overcome, many fears
      and jealousies to be allayed, ere they could cordially entertain thoughts
      of restoring the family which they had so grievously offended, and whose
      principles they regarded with such violent abhorrence.
    </p>
    <p>
      The only solid support of the republican independent faction, which,
      though it formed so small a part of the nation, had violently usurped the
      government of the whole, was a numerous army of near fifty thousand men.
      But this army, formidable from its discipline and courage, as well as its
      numbers, was actuated by a spirit that rendered it dangerous to the
      assembly which had assumed the command over it. Accustomed to indulge
      every chimera in politics, every frenzy in religion, the soldiers knew
      little of the subordination of citizens, and had only learned, from
      apparent necessity, some maxims of military obedience. And while they
      still maintained, that all those enormous violations of law and equity, of
      which they had been guilty, were justified by the success with which
      providence had blessed them; they were ready to break out into any new
      disorder, wherever they had the prospect of a like sanction and authority.
    </p>
    <p>
      What alone gave some stability to all these unsettled humors was the great
      influence, both civil and military, acquired by Oliver Cromwell. This man,
      suited to the age in which he lived, and to that alone, was equally
      qualified to gain the affection and confidence of men, by what was mean,
      vulgar, and ridiculous in his character, as to command their obedience by
      what was great, daring, and enterprising. Familiar even to buffoonery with
      the meanest sentinel, he never lost his authority: transported to a degree
      of madness with religious ecstasies, he never forgot the political
      purposes to which they might serve. Hating monarchy while a subject,
      despising liberty while a citizen, though he retained for a time all
      orders of men under a seeming obedience to the parliament, he was secretly
      paving the way, by artifice and courage, to his own unlimited authority.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament,&mdash;for so we must henceforth call a small and
      inconsiderable part of the house of commons,&mdash;having murdered their
      sovereign with so many appearing circumstances of solemnity and justice,
      and so much real violence, and even fury, began to assume more the air of
      a civil legal power, and to enlarge a little the narrow bottom upon which
      they stood. They admitted a few of the excluded and absent members, such
      as were liable to least exception; but on condition that these members
      should sign an approbation of whatever had been done in their absence with
      regard to the king's trial; and some of them were willing to acquire a
      share of power on such terms: the greater part disdained to lend their
      authority to such apparent usurpations. They issued some writs for new
      elections, in places where they hoped to have interest enough to bring in
      their own friends and dependents. They named a council of state,
      thirty-eight in number, to whom all addresses were made, who gave orders
      to all generals and admirals, who executed the laws, and who digested all
      business before it was introduced into parliament.[*] They pretended to
      employ themselves entirely in adjusting the laws, forms, and plan of a new
      representative; and as soon as they should have settled the nation, they
      professed their intention of restoring the power to the people, from whom
      they acknowledged they had entirely derived it.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Their names were, the earls of Denbigh, Mulgrave,
     Pembroke, Salisbury, Lords Grey and Fairfax, Lisle, Rolles,
     St. John, Wilde, Bradshaw, Cromwell, Skippon, Pickering,
     Massam, Haselrig, Harrington, Vane, Jun., Danvers, Armine,
     Mildmay, Constable, Pennington, Wilson, Whitlocke, Martin,
     Ludlow, Stapleton, Hevingham, Wallop, Hutchinson, Bond,
     Popham, Valentine, Walton, Scott, Purefoy, Jones.
</pre>
    <p>
      The commonwealth found every thing in England composed into a seeming
      tranquillity by the terror of their arms. Foreign powers, occupied in wars
      among themselves, had no leisure or inclination to interpose in the
      domestic dissensions of this island. The young king, poor and neglected,
      living sometimes in Holland, sometimes in France, sometimes in Jersey,
      comforted himself amidst his present distresses with the hopes of better
      fortune. The situation alone of Scotland and Ireland gave any immediate
      inquietude to the new republic.
    </p>
    <p>
      After the successive defeats of Montrose and Hamilton, and the ruin of
      their parties, the whole authority in Scotland fell into the hands of
      Argyle and the rigid churchmen, that party which was most averse to the
      interests of the royal family. Their enmity, however, against the
      Independents, who had prevented the settlement of Presbyterian discipline
      in England, carried them to embrace opposite maxims in their political
      conduct. Though invited by the English parliament to model their
      government into a republican form, they resolved still to adhere to
      monarchy, which had ever prevailed in their country, and which, by the
      express terms of their covenant they had engaged to defend. They
      considered, besides, that as the property of the kingdom lay mostly in the
      hands of great families, it would be difficult to establish a common
      wealth; or without some chief magistrate, invested with royal authority,
      to preserve peace or justice in the community. The execution, therefore,
      of the king, against which they had always protested, having occasioned a
      vacancy of the throne, they immediately proclaimed his son and successor,
      Charles II.; but upon condition "of his good behavior, and strict
      observance of the covenant, and his entertaining no other persons about
      him but such as were godly men, and faithful to that obligation." These
      unusual clauses, inserted in the very first acknowledgment of their
      prince, sufficiently showed their intention of limiting extremely his
      authority. And the English commonwealth, having no pretence to interpose
      in the affairs of that kingdom, allowed the Scots, for the present, to
      take their own measures in settling their government.
    </p>
    <p>
      The dominion which England claimed over Ireland, demanded more immediately
      their efforts for subduing that country. In order to convey a just notion
      of Irish affairs, it will be necessary to look backwards some years, and
      to relate briefly those transactions which had passed during the memorable
      revolutions in England. When the late king agreed to that cessation of
      arms with the Popish rebels,[*] which was become so requisite, as well for
      the security of the Irish Protestants as for promoting his interests in
      England, the parliament, in order to blacken his conduct, reproached him
      with favoring that odious rebellion, and exclaimed loudly against the
      terms of the cessation. They even went so far as to declare it entirely
      null and invalid, because finished without their consent; and in this
      declaration the Scots in Ulster, and the earl of Inchiquin, a nobleman of
      great authority in Munster, professed to adhere. By their means the war
      was still kept alive; but as the dangerous distractions in England
      hindered the parliament from sending any considerable assistance to their
      allies in Ireland, the marquis of Ormond, lord lieutenant, being a native
      of Ireland, and a person endowed with great prudence and virtue, formed a
      scheme for composing the disorders of his country, and for engaging the
      rebel Irish to support the cause of his royal master. There were many
      circumstances which strongly invited the natives of Ireland to embrace the
      king's party. The maxims of that prince had always led him to give a
      reasonable indulgence to the Catholics throughout all his dominions; and
      one principal ground of that enmity which the Puritans professed against
      him, was this tacit toleration. The parliament, on the contrary, even when
      unprovoked, had ever menaced the Papists with the most rigid restraint, if
      not a total extirpation; and immediately after the commencement of the
      Irish rebellion, they put to sale all the estates of the rebels, and had
      engaged the public faith for transferring them to the adventurers, who had
      already advanced money upon that security. The success, therefore, which
      the arms of the parliament met with at Naseby, struck a just terror into
      the Irish; and engaged the council of Kilkenny, composed of deputies from
      all the Catholic counties and cities, to conclude a peace with the marquis
      of Ormond.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * 1643.

     ** 1646.
</pre>
    <p>
      They professed to return to their duty and allegiance, engaged to furnish
      ten thousand men for the support of the king's authority in England, and
      were content with stipulating, in return, indemnity for their rebellion,
      and toleration of their religion. Ormond, not doubting but a peace, so
      advantageous and even necessary to the Irish, would be strictly observed,
      advanced with a small body of troops to Kilkenny, in order to concert
      measures for common defence with his new allies. The pope had sent over to
      Ireland a nuncio, Rinuccini, an Italian; and this man, whose commission
      empowered him to direct the spiritual concerns of the Irish, was
      emboldened, by their ignorance and bigotry, to assume the chief authority
      in the civil government. Foreseeing that a general submission to the lord
      lieutenant would put an end to his own influence, he conspired with Owen
      O'Neal, who commanded the native Irish, in Ulster, and who bore a great
      jealousy to Preston, the general chiefly trusted by the council of
      Kilkenny. By concert, these two malecontents secretly drew forces
      together, and were ready to fall on Ormond, who remained in security,
      trusting to the pacification so lately concluded with the rebels. He
      received intelligence of their treachery, made his retreat with celerity
      and conduct, and sheltered his small army in Dublin and the other
      fortified towns, which still remained in the hands of the Protestants.
    </p>
    <p>
      The nuncio, full of arrogance, levity, and ambition, was not contented
      with this violation of treaty. He summoned an assembly of the clergy at
      Waterford, and engaged them to declare against that pacification which the
      civil council had concluded with their sovereign. He even thundered out a
      sentence of excommunication against all who should adhere to a peace so
      prejudicial, as he pretended, to the Catholic religion; and the deluded
      Irish, terrified with his spiritual menaces, ranged themselves every where
      on his side, and submitted to his authority. Without scruple, he carried
      on war against the lord lieutenant, and threatened with a siege the
      Protestant garrisons, which were all of them very ill provided for
      defence.
    </p>
    <p>
      Meanwhile, the unfortunate king was necessitated to take shelter in the
      Scottish army; and being there reduced to close confinement, and secluded
      from all commerce with his friends, despaired that his authority, or even
      his liberty, would ever be restored to him. He sent orders to Ormond, if
      he could not defend himself, rather to submit to the English than to the
      Irish rebels; and accordingly the lord lieutenant, being reduced to
      extremities, delivered up Dublin, Tredah, Dundalk, and other garrisons, to
      Colonel Michael Jones, who took possession of them in the name of the
      English parliament. Ormond himself went over to England, was admitted into
      the king's presence, received a grateful acknowledgment for his past
      services, and during some time lived in tranquillity near London. But
      being banished, with the other royalists, to a distance from that city,
      and seeing every event turn out unfortunately for his royal master, and
      threaten him with a catastrophe still more direful, he thought proper to
      retire into France, where he joined the queen and the prince of Wales.
    </p>
    <p>
      In Ireland, during these transactions, the authority of the nuncio
      prevailed without control among all the Catholics; and that prelate, by
      his indiscretion and insolence, soon made them repent of the power with
      which they had intrusted him. Prudent men likewise were sensible of the
      total destruction which was hanging over the nation from the English
      parliament, and saw no resource or safety but in giving support to the
      declining authority of the king. The earl of Clanricarde, a nobleman of an
      ancient family, a person too of merit, who had ever preserved his loyalty,
      was sensible of the ruin which threatened his countrymen, and was
      resolved, if possible, to prevent it. He secretly formed a combination
      among the Catholics; he entered into a correspondence with Inchiquin, who
      preserved great authority over the Protestants in Munster; he attacked the
      nuncio, whom he chased out of the island; and he sent to Paris a
      deputation, inviting the lord lieutenant to return and take possession of
      his government.
    </p>
    <p>
      Ormond, on his arrival in Ireland, found the kingdom divided into many
      factions, among which either open war or secret enmity prevailed. The
      authority of the English parliament was established in Dublin, and the
      other towns which he himself had delivered into their hands. O'Neal
      maintained his credit in Ulster; and having entered into a secret
      correspondence with the parliamentary generals, was more intent on schemes
      for his own personal safety, than anxious for the preservation of his
      country or religion. The other Irish, divided between their clergy, who
      were averse to Ormond, and their nobility, who were attached to him, were
      very uncertain in their motions and feeble in their measures. The Scots in
      the north, enraged, as well as their other countrymen, against the
      usurpations of the sectarian army, professed their adherence to the king;
      but were still hindered by many prejudices from entering into a cordial
      union with his lieutenant. All these distracted councils and contrary
      humors checked the progress of Ormond, and enabled the parliamentary
      forces in Ireland to maintain their ground against him. The republican
      faction, meanwhile, in England, employed in subduing the revolted
      royalists, in reducing the parliament to subjection, in the trial,
      condemnation, and execution of their sovereign, totally neglected the
      supplying of Ireland, and allowed Jones and the forces in Dublin to remain
      in the utmost weakness and necessity. The lord lieutenant, though
      surrounded with difficulties, neglected not the favorable opportunity of
      promoting the royal cause. Having at last assembled an army of sixteen
      thousand men, he advanced upon the parliamentary garrisons. Dundalk, where
      Monk commanded, was delivered up by the troops, who mutinied against their
      governor. Tredah, Neury, and other forts, were taken. Dublin was
      threatened with a siege; and the affairs of the lieutenant appeared in so
      prosperous a condition, that the young king entertained thoughts of coming
      in person into Ireland.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the English commonwealth was brought to some tolerable settlement,
      men began to cast their eyes towards the neighboring island. During the
      contest of the two parties, the government of Ireland had remained a great
      object of intrigue; and the Presbyterians endeavored to obtain the
      lieutenancy for Waller, the Independents for Lambert. After the execution
      of the king, Cromwell himself began to aspire to a command, where so much
      glory, he saw, might be won, and so much authority acquired. In his
      absence, he took care to have his name proposed to the council of state;
      and both friends and enemies concurred immediately to vote him into that
      important office: the former suspected, that the matter had not been
      proposed merely by chance, without his own concurrence; the latter desired
      to remove him to a distance, and hoped, during his absence, to gain the
      ascendant over Fairfax, whom he had so long blinded by his hypocritical
      professions. Cromwell himself, when informed of his election, feigned
      surprise, and pretended at first to hesitate with regard to the acceptance
      of the command. And Lambert, either deceived by his dissimulation, or, in
      his turn, feigning to be deceived, still continued, notwithstanding this
      disappointment his friendship and connections with Cromwell.
    </p>
    <p>
      The new lieutenant immediately applied himself with his wonted vigilance
      to make preparations for his expedition. Many disorders in England it
      behoved him previously to compose. All places were full of danger and
      inquietude. Though men, astonished with the successes of the army,
      remained in seeming tranquillity, symptoms of the greatest discontent
      every where appeared. The English, long accustomed to a mild
      administration, and unacquainted with dissimulation, could not conform
      their speech and countenance to the present necessity, or pretend
      attachment to a form of government which they generally regarded with such
      violent abhorrence. It was requisite to change the magistracy of London,
      and to degrade, as well as punish, the mayor and some of the aldermen,
      before the proclamation for the abolition of monarchy could be published
      in the city. An engagement being framed to support the commonwealth
      without king or house of peers, the army was with some difficulty brought
      to subscribe it; but though it was imposed upon the rest of the nation
      under severe penalties, no less than putting all who refused out of the
      protection of law, such obstinate reluctance was observed in the people,
      that even the imperious parliament was obliged to desist from it. The
      spirit of fanaticism, by which that assembly had at first been strongly
      supported, was now turned, in a great measure, against them. The pulpits,
      being chiefly filled with Presbyterians or disguised royalists, and having
      long been the scene of news and politics, could by no penalties be
      restrained from declarations unfavorable to the established government.
      Numberless were the extravagancies which broke out among the people.
      Everard, a disbanded soldier, having preached that the time was now come
      when the community of goods would be renewed among Christians, led out his
      followers to take possession of the land; and being carried before the
      general, he refused to salute him, because he was but his
      fellow-creature.[*] What seemed more dangerous, the army itself was
      infected with like humors.[**] <a href="#linknote-21" name="linknoteref-21"
      id="linknoteref-21">21</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke.

     ** See note U, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      Though the levellers had for a time been suppressed by the audacious
      spirit of Cromwell, they still continued to propagate their doctrines
      among the private men and inferior officers, who pretended a right to be
      consulted, as before, in the administration of the commonwealth. They now
      practised against their officers the same lesson which they had been
      taught against the parliament. They framed a remonstrance, and sent five
      agitators to present it to the general and council of war: these were
      cashiered with ignominy by sentence of a court martial. One Lockier,
      having carried his sedition further, was sentenced to death; but this
      punishment was so far from quelling the mutinous spirit, that above a
      thousand of his companions showed their adherence to him, by attending his
      funeral, and wearing in their hats black and sea-green ribbons by way of
      favors. About four thousand assembled at Burford, under the command of
      Thomson, a man formerly condemned for sedition by a court martial, but
      pardoned by the general. Colonel Reynolds, and afterwards Fairfax and
      Cromwell, fell upon them, while unprepared for defence, and seduced by the
      appearance of a treaty. Four hundred were taken prisoners; some of them
      capitally punished, the rest pardoned. And this tumultuous spirit, though
      it still lurked in the army, and broke, out from time to time, seemed for
      the present to be suppressed.
    </p>
    <p>
      Petitions, framed in the same spirit of opposition, were presented to the
      parliament by Lieutenant-Colonel Lilburn, the person who, for dispersing
      seditious libels, had formerly been treated with such severity by the star
      chamber. His liberty was at this time as ill relished by the parliament;
      and he was thrown into prison, as a promoter of sedition and disorder in
      the commonwealth. The women applied by petition for his release; but were
      now desired to mind their household affairs, and leave the government of
      the state to the men. From all quarters the parliament was harassed with
      petitions of a very free nature, which strongly spoke the sense of the
      nation, and proved how ardently all men longed for the restoration of
      their laws and liberties. Even in a feast which the city gave to the
      parliament and council of state, it was deemed a requisite precaution, if
      we may credit Walker and Dugdale, to swear all the cooks, that they would
      serve nothing but wholesome food to them.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament judged it necessary to enlarge the laws of high treason
      beyond those narrow bounds within which they had been confined during the
      monarchy. They even comprehended verbal offences, nay, intentions, though
      they had never appeared in any overt act against the state. To affirm the
      present government to be a usurpation, to assert that the parliament or
      council of state were tyrannical or illegal, to endeavor subverting their
      authority, or stirring up sedition against them: these offences were
      declared to be high treason. The power of imprisonment, of which the
      petition of right had bereaved the king, it was now found necessary to
      restore to the council of state; and all the jails in England were filled
      with men whom the jealousies and fears of the ruling party had represented
      as dangerous.[*] The taxes continued by the new government, and which,
      being unusual, were esteemed heavy, increased the general ill will under
      which it labored. Besides the customs and excise, ninety thousand pounds a
      month were levied on land for the subsistence of the army. The
      sequestrations and compositions of the royalists, the sale of the crown
      lands, and of the dean and chapter lands, though they yielded great sums,
      were not sufficient to support the vast expenses, and, as was suspected,
      the great depredations, of the parliament and of their creatures.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * History of Independency, part ii.

     ** Parl. History, vol. xix. p. 136, 176.
</pre>
    <p>
      Amidst all these difficulties and disturbances, the steady mind of
      Cromwell, without confusion or embarrassment, still pursued its purpose.
      While he was collecting an army of twelve thousand men in the west of
      England, he sent to Ireland, under Reynolds and Venables, a reënforcement
      of four thousand horse and foot, in order to strengthen Jones, and enable
      him to defend himself against the marquis of Ormond, who lay at Finglass,
      and was making preparations for the attack of Dublin. Inchiquin, who had
      now made a treaty with the king's lieutenant, having, with a separate
      body, taken Tredah and Dundalk, gave a defeat to Offarrell, who served
      under O'Neal, and to young Coot, who commanded some parliamentary forces.
      After he had joined his troops to the main army, with whom for some time
      he remained united, Ormond passed the River Liffy, and took post at
      Rathmines, two miles from Dublin, with a view of commencing the siege of
      that city. In order to cut off all further supply from Jones, he had begun
      the reparation of an old fort which lay at the gates of Dublin; and being
      exhausted with continual fatigue for some days, he had retired to rest,
      after leaving orders to keep his forces under arms. He was suddenly awaked
      with the noise of firing; and starting from his bed, saw every thing
      already in tumult and confusion. Jones, an excellent officer, formerly a
      lawyer, had sallied out with the reënforcement newly arrived; and
      attacking the party employed in repairing the fort, he totally routed
      them, pursued the advantage, and fell in with the army, which had
      neglected Ormond's orders. These he soon threw into disorder; put them to
      flight, in spite of all the efforts of the lord lieutenant; chased them
      off the field; seized all their tents, baggage, ammunition; and returned
      victorious to Dublin, after killing a thousand men, and taking above two
      thousand prisoners.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Parl. Hist. vol. xix. p. 165.
</pre>
    <p>
      This loss, which threw some blemish on the military character of Ormond,
      was irreparable to the royal cause. That numerous army, which, with so
      much pains and difficulty, the lord lieutenant had been collecting for
      more than a year, was dispersed in a moment. Cromwell soon after arrived
      in Dublin, where he was welcomed with shouts and rejoicings. He hastened
      to Tredah. That town was well fortified: Ormond had thrown into it a good
      garrison of three thousand men, under Sir Arthur Aston, an officer of
      reputation. He expected that Tredah, lying in the neighborhood of Dublin,
      would first be attempted by Cromwell, and he was desirous to employ the
      enemy some time in that siege, while he himself should repair his broken
      forces. But Cromwell knew the importance of despatch. Having made a
      breach, he ordered a general assault. Though twice repulsed with loss, he
      renewed the attack, and himself, along with Ireton, led on his men. All
      opposition was overborne by the furious valor of the troops. The town was
      taken sword in hand; and orders being issued to give no quarter, a cruel
      slaughter was made of the garrison. Even a few, who were saved by the
      soldiers, satiated with blood, were next day miserably butchered by orders
      from the general. One person alone of the garrison escaped to be a
      messenger of this universal havoc and destruction.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell pretended to retaliate by this severe execution the cruelty of
      the Irish massacre: but he well knew, that almost the whole garrison was
      English; and his justice was only a barbarous policy, in order to terrify
      all other garrisons from resistance. His policy, however, had the desired
      effect. Having led the army without delay to Wexford, he began to batter
      the town. The garrison, after a slight defence, offered to capitulate; but
      before they obtained a cessation, they imprudently neglected their guards;
      and the English army rushed in upon them. The same severity was exercised
      as at Tredah.
    </p>
    <p>
      Every town before which Cromwell presented himself, now opened its gates
      without resistance. Ross, though strongly garrisoned, was surrendered by
      Lord Taffe. Having taken Estionage, Cromwell threw a bridge over the
      Barrow, and made himself master of Passage and Carrie. The English had no
      further difficulties to encounter than what arose from fatigue and the
      advanced season. Fluxes and contagious distempers crept in among the
      soldiers, who perished in great numbers. Jones himself, the brave governor
      of Dublin, died at Wexford. And Cromwell had so far advanced with his
      decayed army, that he began to find it difficult, either to subsist in the
      enemy's country, or retreat to his own garrisons. But while he was in
      these straits, Corke, Kinsale, and all the English garrisons in Munster
      deserted to him, and opening their gates, resolved to share the fortunes
      of their victorious countrymen.
    </p>
    <p>
      This desertion of the English put an end to Ormond's authority, which was
      already much diminished by the misfortunes at Dublin, Tredah, and Wexford.
      The Irish, actuated by national and religious prejudices, could no longer
      be kept in obedience by a Protestant governor, who was so unsuccessful in
      all his enterprises. The clergy renewed their excommunications against him
      and his adherents, and added the terrors of superstition to those which
      arose from a victorious enemy. Cromwell, having received a reënforcement
      from England, again took the field early in the spring. He made himself
      master of Kilkenny and Clonmel, the only places where he met with any
      vigorous resistance. The whole frame of the Irish union being in a manner
      dissolved, Ormond soon after left the island, and delegated his authority
      to Clanricarde, who found affairs so desperate as to admit of no remedy.
      The Irish were glad to embrace banishment as a refuge, Above forty
      thousand men passed into foreign service; and Cromwell, well pleased to
      free the island from enemies who never could be cordially reconciled to
      the English, gave them full liberty and leisure for their embarkation.
    </p>
    <p>
      While Cromwell proceeded with such uninterrupted success in Ireland, which
      in the space of nine months he had almost entirely subdued, fortune was
      preparing for him a new scene of victory and triumph in Scotland. Charles
      was at the Hague, when Sir Joseph Douglas brought him intelligence, that
      he was proclaimed king by the Scottish parliament. At the same time,
      Douglas informed him of the hard conditions annexed to the proclamation,
      and extremely damped that joy which might arise from his being recognized
      sovereign in one of his kingdoms. Charles too considered, that those who
      pretended to acknowledge his title, were at that very time in actual
      rebellion against his family, and would be sure to intrust very little
      authority in his hands, and scarcely would afford him personal liberty and
      security. As the prospect of affairs in Ireland was at that time not
      unpromising, he intended rather to try his fortune in that kingdom, from
      which he expected more dutiful submission and obedience.
    </p>
    <p>
      Meanwhile he found it expedient to depart from Holland. The people in the
      United Provinces were much attached to his interests. Besides his
      connection with the family of Orange, which was extremely beloved by the
      populace, all men regarded with compassion his helpless condition, and
      expressed the greatest abhorrence against the murder of his father; a deed
      to which nothing, they thought, but the rage of fanaticism and faction
      could have impelled the parliament. But though the public in general bore
      great favor to the king, the states were uneasy at his presence. They
      dreaded the parliament, so formidable by their power, and so prosperous in
      all their enterprises. They apprehended the most precipitate resolutions
      from men of such violent and haughty dispositions. And after the murder of
      Dorislaus, they found it still more necessary to satisfy the English
      commonwealth, by removing the king to a distance from them.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1650.
    </p>
    <p>
      Dorislaus, though a native of Holland, had lived long in England; and
      being employed as assistant to the high court of justice which condemned
      the late king, he had risen to great credit and favor with the ruling
      party. They sent him envoy to Holland; but no sooner had he arrived at the
      Hague, than he was set upon by some royalists, chiefly retainers to
      Montrose. They rushed into the room where he was sitting with some
      company; dragged him from the table; put him to death as the first victim
      to their murdered sovereign f very leisurely and peaceably separated
      themselves; and though orders were issued by the magistrates to arrest
      them, these were executed with such slowness and reluctance, that the
      criminals had all of them the opportunity of making their escape.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, having passed some time at Paris, where no assistance was given
      him, and even few civilities were paid him, made his retreat into Jersey,
      where his authority was still acknowledged. Here Winram, laird of
      Liberton, came to him as deputy from the committee of estates in Scotland,
      and informed him of the conditions to which he must necessarily submit
      before he could be admitted to the exercise of his authority. Conditions
      more severe were never imposed by subjects upon their sovereign; but as
      the affairs of Ireland began to decline, and the king found it no longer
      safe to venture himself in that island, he gave a civil answer to Winram,
      and desired commissioners to meet him at Breda, in order to enter into a
      treaty with regard to these conditions.
    </p>
    <p>
      The earls of Cassilis and Lothian, Lord Burley, the laird of Liberton, and
      other commissioners, arrived at Breda; but without any power of treating:
      the king must submit without reserve to the terms imposed upon him. The
      terms were, that he should issue a proclamation, banishing from court all
      excommunicated persons, that is, all those who, either under Hamilton or
      Montrose, had ventured their lives for his family; that no English subject
      who had served against the parliament, should be allowed to approach him;
      that he should bind himself by his royal promise to take the covenant;
      that he should ratify all acts of parliament by which Presbyterian
      government, the directory of worship, the confession of faith, and the
      catechism were established; and that in civil affairs he should entirely
      conform himself to the direction of parliament, and in ecclesiastical to
      that of the assembly. These proposals the commissioners, after passing
      some time in sermons and prayers, in order to express the more determined
      resolution, very solemnly delivered to the king.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king's friends were divided with regard to the part which he should
      act in this critical conjuncture. Most of his English counsellors
      dissuaded him from accepting conditions so disadvantageous and
      dishonorable. They said, that the men who now governed Scotland were the
      most furious and bigoted of that party which, notwithstanding his gentle
      government, had first excited a rebellion against the late king; after the
      most unlimited concessions, had renewed their rebellion, and stopped the
      progress of his victories in England; and after he had intrusted his
      person to them in his uttermost distress, had basely sold him, together
      with their own honor, to his barbarous enemies: that they had as yet shown
      no marks of repentance; and even in the terms which they now proposed,
      displayed the same anti-monarchical principles, and the same jealousy of
      their sovereign, by which they had ever been actuated: that nothing could
      be more dishonorable, than that the king, in his first enterprise, should
      sacrifice, merely for the empty name of royalty those principles for which
      his father had died a martyr, and in which he himself had been strictly
      educated: that by this hypocrisy he might lose the royalists, who alone
      were sincerely attached to him; but never would gain the Presbyterians,
      who were averse to his family and his cause, and would ascribe his
      compliance merely to policy and necessity: that the Scots had refused to
      give him any assurances of their intending to restore him to the throne of
      England; and could they even be brought to make such an attempt, it had
      sufficiently appeared, by the event of Hamilton's engagement, how unequal
      their force was to so great an enterprise: that on the first check which
      they should receive, Argyle and his partisans would lay hold of the
      quickest expedient for reconciling themselves to the English parliament,
      and would betray the king, as they had done his father, into the hands of
      his enemies: and that, however desperate the royal cause, it must still be
      regarded as highly imprudent in the king to make a sacrifice of his honor,
      where the sole purchase was to endanger his life or liberty.
    </p>
    <p>
      The earl of Laneric, now duke of Hamilton, the earl of Lauderdale, and
      others of that party who had been banished their country for the late
      engagement, were then with the king; and being desirous of returning home
      in his retinue, they joined the opinion of the young duke of Buckingham,
      and earnestly pressed him to submit to the conditions required of him. It
      was urged, that nothing would more gratify the king's enemies than to see
      him fall into the snare laid for him, and by so scrupulous a nicety, leave
      the possession of his dominions to those who desired but a pretence for
      excluding him: that Argyle, not daring so far to oppose the bent of the
      nation as to throw off all allegiance to his sovereign, had embraced this
      expedient, by which he hoped to make Charles dethrone himself, and refuse
      a kingdom which was offered him: that it was not to be doubted but the
      same national spirit, assisted by Hamilton and his party, would rise still
      higher in favor of their prince after he had intrusted himself to their
      fidelity, and would much abate the rigor of the conditions now imposed
      upon him: that whatever might be the present intentions of the ruling
      party, they must unavoidably be engaged in a war with England, and must
      accept the assistance of the king's friends of all parties, in order to
      support themselves against a power so much superior: that how much soever
      a steady, uniform conduct might have been suitable to the advanced age and
      strict engagements of the late king, no one would throw any blame on a
      young prince for complying with conditions which necessity had extorted
      from him: that even the rigor of those principles professed by his father,
      though with some it had exalted his character, had been extremely
      prejudicial to his interests; nor could any thing be more serviceable to
      the royal cause, than to give all parties room to hope for more equal and
      more indulgent maxims of government; and that where affairs were reduced
      to so desperate a situation, dangers ought little to be regarded; and the
      king's honor lay rather in showing some early symptoms of courage and
      activity, than in choosing strictly a party among theological
      controversies, with which, it might be supposed, he was as yet very little
      acquainted.
    </p>
    <p>
      These arguments, seconded by the advice of the queen mother and of the
      prince of Orange, the king's brother-in-law, who both of them thought it
      ridiculous to refuse a kingdom merely from regard to Episcopacy, had great
      influence on Charles. But what chiefly determined him to comply, was the
      account brought him of the fate of Montrose, who, with all the
      circumstances of rage and contumely, had been put to death by his zealous
      countrymen. Though in this instance the king saw more evidently the
      furious spirit by which the Scots were actuated, he had now no further
      resource, and was obliged to grant whatever was demanded of him.
    </p>
    <p>
      Montrose, having laid down his arms at the command of the late king, had
      retired into France, and, contrary to his natural disposition, had lived
      for some time inactive at Paris. He there became acquainted with the
      famous Cardinal de Retz, and that penetrating judge celebrates him in his
      memoirs as one of those heroes, of whom there are no longer any remains in
      the world, and who are only to be met with in Plutarch. Desirous of
      improving his martial genius, he took a journey to Germany, was caressed
      by the emperor, received the rank of mareschal, and proposed to levy a
      regiment for the imperial service. While employed for that purpose in the
      Low Countries, he heard of the tragical death of the king; and at the same
      time received from his young master a renewal of his commission of
      captain-general in Scotland.[*] His ardent and daring spirit needed but
      this authority to put him in action. He gathered followers in Holland and
      the north of Germany whom his great reputation allured to him. The king of
      Denmark and duke of Holstein sent him some small supply of money; the
      queen of Sweden furnished him with arms; the prince of Orange with ships;
      and Montrose, hastening his enterprise, lest the king's agreement with the
      Scots should make him revoke his commission, set out for the Orkneys with
      about five hundred men, most of them Germans.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Burnet. Clarendon.
</pre>
    <p>
      These were all the preparations which he could make against a kingdom,
      settled in domestic peace, supported by a disciplined army, fully apprised
      of his enterprise, and prepared against him. Some of his retainers having
      told him of a prophecy, that "to him and him alone it was reserved to
      restore the king's authority in all his dominions," he lent a willing ear
      to suggestions which, however ill grounded or improbable, were so
      conformable to his own daring character.
    </p>
    <p>
      He armed several of the inhabitants of the Orkneys, though an unwarlike
      people, and carried them over with him to Caithness; hoping that the
      general affection to the king's service, and the fame of his former
      exploits, would make the Highlanders flock to his standard. But all men
      were now harassed and fatigued with wars and disorders: many of those who
      formerly adhered to him, had been severely punished by the Covenanters:
      and no prospect of success was entertained in opposition to so great a
      force as was drawn together against him. But however weak Montrose's army,
      the memory of past events struck a great terror into the committee of
      estates. They immediately ordered Lesley and Holborne to march against him
      with an army of four thousand men. Strahan was sent before with a body of
      cavalry to check his progress. He fell unexpectedly on Montrose, who had
      no horse to bring him intelligence. The royalists were put to flight; all
      of them either killed or taken prisoners; and Montrose himself, having put
      on the disguise of a peasant, was perfidiously delivered into the hands of
      his enemies by a friend to whom he had intrusted his person.
    </p>
    <p>
      All the insolence which success can produce in ungenerous minds, was
      exercised by the Covenanters against Montrose, whom they so much hated and
      so much dreaded. Theological antipathy further increased their indignities
      towards a person, whom they regarded as impious on account of the
      excommunication which had been pronounced against him. Lesley led him
      about for several days in the same low habit under which he had disguised
      himself. The vulgar, wherever he passed, were instigated to reproach and
      vilify him. When he came to Edinburgh, every circumstance of elaborate
      rage and insult was put in practice by order of the parliament. At the
      gate of the city he was met by the magistrates, and put into a new cart,
      purposely made with a high chair or bench, where he wus placed, that the
      people might have a full view of him. He was bound with a cord, drawn over
      his breast and shoulders, and fastened through holes made in the cart. The
      hangman then took off the hat of the noble prisoner, and rode himself
      before the cart in his livery, and with his bonnet on; the other officers,
      who were taken prisoners with the marquis, walking two and two before
      them.
    </p>
    <p>
      The populace, more generous and humane, when they saw so mighty a change
      of fortune in this great man, so lately their dread and terror, into whose
      hands the magistrates, a few years before, had delivered on their knees
      the keys of the city, were struck with compassion, and viewed him with
      silent tears and admiration. The preachers next Sunday exclaimed against
      this movement of rebel nature, as they termed it; and reproached the
      people with their profane tenderness towards the capital enemy of piety
      and religion.
    </p>
    <p>
      When he was carried before the parliament, which was then sitting, Loudon,
      the chancellor, in a violent declamation, reproached him with the breach
      of the national covenant, which he had subscribed; his rebellion against
      God, the king, and the kingdom; and the many horrible murders, treasons,
      and impieties for which he was now to be brought to condign punishment.
      Montrose, in his answer, maintained the same superiority above his
      enemies, to which, by his fame and great actions, as well as by the
      consciousness of a good cause, he was justly entitled. He told the
      parliament, that since the king, as he was informed, had so far avowed
      their authority as to enter into a treaty with them, he now appeared
      uncovered before their tribunal: a respect which, while they stood in open
      defiance to their sovereign, they would in vain have required of him: that
      he acknowledged, with infinite shame and remorse, the errors of his early
      conduct, when their plausible pretences had seduced him to tread with them
      the paths of rebellion, and bear arms against his prince and country: that
      his following services, he hoped, had sufficiently testified his
      repentance; and his death would now atone for that guilt, the only one
      with which he could justly reproach himself. That in all his warlike
      enterprises he was warranted by that commission which he had received from
      his and their master, against whose lawful authority they had erected
      their standard: that to venture his life for his sovereign was the least
      part of his merit: he had even thrown down his arms in obedience to the
      sacred commands of the king; and had resigned to them the victory, which,
      in defiance of all their efforts, he was still enabled to dispute with
      them: that no blood had ever been shed by him but in the field of battle;
      and many persons were now in his eye, many now dared to pronounce sentence
      of death upon him, whose life, forfeited by the laws of war, he had
      formerly saved from the fury of the soldiers: that he was sorry to find no
      better testimony of their return to allegiance than the murder of so
      faithful a subject, in whose death the king's commission must be at once
      so highly injured and affronted: that as to himself, they had in vain
      endeavored to vilify and degrade him by all their studied indignities: the
      justice of his cause, he knew, would ennoble any fortune; nor had he other
      affliction than to see the authority of his prince, with which he was
      invested, treated with so much ignominy: and that he now joyfully
      followed, by a like unjust sentence, his late sovereign; and should be
      happy, if in his future destiny he could follow him to the same blissful
      mansions, where his piety and humane virtues had already, without doubt,
      secured him an eternal recompense.
    </p>
    <p>
      Montrose's sentence was next pronounced against him: "That he James
      Graham," (for this was the only name they vouchsafed to give him,) "should
      next day be carried to Edinburgh Cross, and there be hanged on a gibbet,
      thirty feet high, for the space of three hours: then be taken down, his
      head, he cut off upon a scaffold, and affixed to the prison: his legs and
      arms be stuck up on the four chief towns of the kingdom: his body be
      buried in the place appropriated for common malefactors; except the
      church, upon his repentance, should take off his excommunication."
    </p>
    <p>
      The clergy, hoping that the terrors of immediate death had now given them
      an advantage over their enemy, flocked about him, and insulted over his
      fallen fortunes. They pronounced his damnation, and assured him that the
      judgment which he was so soon to suffer, would prove but an easy prologue
      to that which he must undergo hereafter. They next offered to pray with
      him; but he was too well acquainted with those forms of imprecation which
      they called prayers. "Lord, vouchsafe yet to touch the obdurate heart of
      this proud, incorrigible sinner; this wicked, perjured, traitorous, and
      profane person, who refuses to hearken to the voice of thy church." Such
      were the petitions which he expected they would, according to custom,
      offer up for him. He told them, that they were a miserably deluded and
      deluding people; and would shortly bring their country under the most
      insupportable servitude to which any nation had ever been reduced. "For my
      part," added he, "I am much prouder to have my head affixed to the place
      where it is sentenced to stand, than to have my picture hang in the king's
      bed-chamber. So far from being sorry that my quarters are to be sent to
      four cities of the kingdom, I wish I had limbs enow to be dispersed into
      all the cities of Christendom, there to remain as testimonies in favor of
      the cause for which I suffer." This sentiment, that very evening, while in
      prison, he threw into verse. The poem remains; a single monument of his
      heroic spirit, and no despicable proof of his poetical genius.
    </p>
    <p>
      Now was led forth, amidst the insults of his enemies, and the tears of the
      people, this man of illustrious birth, and of the greatest renown in the
      nation, to suffer, for his adhering to the laws of his country, and the
      rights of his sovereign, the ignominious death destined to the meanest
      malefactor. Every attempt which the insolence of the governing party had
      made to subdue his spirit, had hitherto proved fruitless; they made yet
      one effort more, in this last and melancholy scene, when all enmity,
      arising from motives merely human, is commonly softened and disarmed. The
      executioner brought that book which had been published in elegant Latin,
      of his great military actions, and tied it with a cord about his neck.
      Montrose smiled at this new instance of their malice. He thanked them,
      however, for their officious zeal; and said, that he bore this testimony
      of his bravery and loyalty with more pride than he had ever worn the
      garter. Having asked whether they had any more indignities to put upon
      him, and renewing some devout ejaculations, he patiently endured the last
      act of the executioner.
    </p>
    <p>
      Thus perished, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, the gallant marquis
      of Montrose; the man whose military genius both by valor and conduct had
      shone forth beyond any which, during these civil disorders, had appeared
      in the three kingdoms. The finer arts, too, he had in his youth
      successfully cultivated; and whatever was sublime, elegant, or noble
      touched his great soul. Nor was he insensible to the pleasures either of
      society or of love. Something, however, of the vast and unbounded
      characterized his actions and deportment; and it was merely by an heroic
      effort of duty, that he brought his mind, impatient of superiority, and
      even of equality, to pay such unlimited submission to the will of his
      sovereign.
    </p>
    <p>
      The vengeance of the Covenanters was not satisfied with Montrose's
      execution. Urrey, whose inconstancy now led him to take part with the
      king, suffered about the same time: Spotiswood of Daersie, a youth of
      eighteen, Sir Francis Hay of Dalgetie, and Colonel Sibbald, all of them of
      birth and character, underwent a like fate. These were taken prisoners
      with Montrose. The marquis of Huntley, about a year before, had also
      fallen a victim to the severity of the Covenanters.
    </p>
    <p>
      The past scene displays in a full light the barbarity of this theological
      faction: the sequel will sufficiently display their absurdity.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, in consequence of his agreement with the commissioners of
      Scotland, set sail for that country; and being escorted by seven Dutch
      ships of war, who were sent to guard the herring fishery, he arrived in
      the Frith of Cromarty. Before he was permitted to land, he was required to
      sign the covenant; and many sermons and lectures were made him, exhorting
      him to persevere in that holy confederacy.[*] Hamilton, Lauderdale,
      Dumfermling, and other noblemen of that party whom they called engagers,
      were immediately separated from him, and obliged to retire to their
      houses, where they lived in a private manner, without trust or authority.
      None of his English friends, who had served his father, were allowed to
      remain in the kingdom. The king himself found that he was considered as a
      mere pageant of state, and that the few remains of royalty which he
      possessed, served only to draw on him the greater indignities. One of the
      quarters of Montrose, his faithful servant, who had borne his commission,
      had been sent to Aberdeen, and was still allowed to hang over the gates
      when he passed by that place.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Sir Edward Walker's Historical Discourses, p. 159.

     ** Sir Edward Walker's Historical Discourses, p, 160.
</pre>
    <p>
      The general assembly, and afterwards the committee of estates and the
      army, who were entirely governed by the assembly, set forth a public
      declaration, in which they protested, "that they did not espouse any
      malignant quarrel or party, but fought merely on their former grounds or
      principles; that they disclaimed all the sins and guilt of the king, and
      of his house; nor would they own him or his interest, otherwise than with
      a subordination to God, and so far as he owned and prosecuted the cause of
      God, and acknowledged the sins of his house, and of his former ways."[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, lying entirely at mercy, and having no assurance of life or
      liberty further than was agreeable to the fancy of these austere zealots,
      was constrained to embrace a measure which nothing but the necessity of
      his affairs and his great youth and inexperience could excuse. He issued a
      declaration, such as they required of him.[**] He there gave thanks for
      the merciful dispensations of Providence, by which he was recovered from
      the snare of evil counsel, had attained a full persuasion of the
      righteousness of the covenant, and was induced to cast himself and his
      interests wholly upon God. He desired to be deeply humbled and afflicted
      in spirit, because of his father's following wicked measures, opposing the
      covenant and the work of reformation, and shedding the blood of God's
      people throughout all his dominions. He lamented the idolatry of his
      mother, and the toleration of it in his father's house; a matter of great
      offence, he said, to all the Protestant churches, and a great provocation
      to him who is a jealous God, visiting the sins of the father upon the
      children, He professed, that he would have no enemies but the enemies of
      the covenant; and that he detested all Popery, superstition, prelacy,
      heresy, schism, and profaneness; and was resolved not to tolerate, much
      less to countenance, any of them in any of his dominions. He declared that
      he should never love or favor those who had so little conscience as to
      follow his interests, in preference to the gospel and the kingdom of Jesus
      Christ. And he expressed his hope, that whatever ill success his former
      guilt might have drawn upon his cause, yet now, having obtained mercy to
      be on God's side, and to acknowledge his own cause subordinate to that of
      God, divine providence would crown his arms with victory.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Sir Edward Walker's Historical Discourses, p. 166, 167.

     ** Sir Edward Walker's Historical Discourses, p. 170.
</pre>
    <p>
      Still the Covenanters and the clergy were diffident of the king's
      sincerity. The facility which he discovered in yielding whatever was
      required of him, made them suspect, that he regarded all his concessions
      merely as ridiculous farces, to which he must of necessity submit. They
      had another trial prepared for him. Instead of the solemnity of his
      coronation, which was delayed, they were resolved, that he should pass
      through a public humiliation, and do penance before the whole people. They
      sent him twelve articles of repentance, which he was to acknowledge; and
      the king had agreed that he would submit to this indignity. The various
      transgressions of his father and grandfather, together with the idolatry
      of his mother, are again enumerated and aggravated in these articles; and
      further declarations were insisted on, that he sought the restoration of
      his rights, for the sole advancement of religion, and in subordination to
      the kingdom of Christ.[*] In short, having exalted the altar above the
      throne, and brought royalty under their feet, the clergy were resolved to
      trample on it and vilify it, by every instance of contumely which their
      present influence enabled them to impose upon their unhappy prince.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, in the mean time, found his authority entirely annihilated, as
      well as his character degraded. He was consulted in no public measure. He
      was not called to assist at any councils. His favor was sufficient to
      discredit any pretender to office or advancement. All efforts which he
      made to unite the opposite parties, increased the suspicion which the
      Covenanters had entertained of him, as if he were not entirely their own,
      Argyle, who, by subtleties and compliances, partly led and partly was
      governed by this wild faction, still turned a deaf ear to all advances
      which the king made to enter into confidence with him. Malignants and
      engagers continued to be the objects of general hatred and persecution;
      and whoever was obnoxious to the clergy, failed not to have one or other
      of these epithets affixed to him. The fanaticism which prevailed, being so
      full of sour and angry principles, and so overcharged with various
      antipathies, had acquired a new object of abhorrence: these were the
      sorcerers. So prevalent was the opinion of witchcraft, that great numbers,
      accused of that crime, were burnt by sentence of the magistrates
      throughout all parts of Scotland. In a village near Berwick, which
      contained only fourteen houses, fourteen persons were punished by
      fire;[**] and it became a science, every where much studied and
      cultivated, to distinguish a true witch by proper trials and
      symptoms.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Sir Edward Walker's Historical Discourses, p. 178.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 404, 408.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 396, 418.
</pre>
    <p>
      The advance of the English army under Cromwell was not able to appease or
      soften the animosities among the parties in Scotland. The clergy were
      still resolute to exclude all but their most zealous adherents. As soon as
      the English parliament found that the treaty between the king and the
      Scots would probably terminate in an accommodation, they made preparations
      for a war, which, they saw, would in the end prove inevitable. Cromwell,
      having broken the force and courage of the Irish, was sent for; and he
      left the command of Ireland to Ireton, who governed that kingdom in the
      character of deputy, and with vigilance and industry persevered in the
      work of subduing and expelling the natives.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was expected that Fairfax, who still retained the name of general,
      would continue to act against Scotland, and appear at the head of the
      forces; a station for which he was well qualified, and where alone he made
      any figure. But Fairfax, though he had allowed the army to make use of his
      name in murdering their sovereign, and offering violence to the
      parliament, had entertained unsurmountable scruples against invading the
      Scots, whom he considered as zealous Presbyterians, and united to England
      by the sacred bands of the covenant. He was further disgusted at the
      extremities into which he had already been hurried; and was confirmed in
      his repugnance by the exhortations of his wife, who had great influence
      over him, and was herself much governed by the Presbyterian clergy. A
      committee of parliament was sent to reason with him; and Cromwell was of
      the number. In vain did they urge, that the Scots had first broken the
      covenant by their invasion of England under Hamilton; and that they would
      surely renew their hostile attempts, if not prevented by the vigorous
      measures of the commonwealth. Cromwell, who knew the rigid inflexibility
      of Fairfax, in every thing which he regarded as matter of principle,
      ventured to solicit him with the utmost earnestness; and he went so far as
      to shed tears of grief and vexation on the occasion. No one could suspect
      any ambition in the man who labored so zealously to retain his general in
      that high office, which, he knew, he himself was alone entitled to fill.
      The same warmth of temper which made Cromwell a frantic enthusiast,
      rendered him the most dangerous of hypocrites; and it was to this turn of
      mind, as much as to his courage and capacity, that he owed all his
      wonderful successes. By the contagious ferment of his zeal, he engaged
      every one to coöperate with him in his measures; and entering easily and
      affectionately into every part which he was disposed to act, he was
      enabled, even after multiplied deceits, to cover, under a tempest of
      passion, all his crooked schemes and profound artifices.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fairfax having resigned his commission, it was bestowed on Cromwell, who
      was declared captain-general of all the forces in England. This command,
      in a commonwealth which stood entirely by arms, was of the utmost
      importance; and was the chief step which this ambitious politician had yet
      made towards sovereign power. He immediately marched his forces, and
      entered Scotland with an army of sixteen thousand men.
    </p>
    <p>
      The command of the Scottish army was given to Lesley, an experienced
      officer, who formed a very proper plan of defence. He intrenched himself
      in a fortified camp between Edinburgh and Leith, and took care to remove
      from the counties of Merse and the Lothians every thing which could serve
      to the subsistence of the English army. Cromwell advanced to the Scotch
      camp, and endeavored by every expedient to bring Lesley to a battle: the
      prudent Scotchman knew that, though superior in numbers, his army was much
      inferior in discipline to the English; and he carefully kept himself
      within his intrenchments. By skirmishes and small rencounters he tried to
      confirm the spirits of his soldiers; and he was successful in these
      enterprises. His army daily increased both in numbers and courage. The
      king came to the camp; and having exerted himself in an action, gained on
      the affections of the soldiery, who were more desirous of serving under a
      young prince of spirit and vivacity, than under a committee of talking
      gown-men. The clergy were alarmed. They ordered Charles immediately to
      leave the camp. They also purged it carefully of about four thousand
      malignants and engagers whose zeal had led them to attend the king, and
      who were the soldiers of chief credit and experience in the nation.[*]
      They then concluded that they had an army composed entirely of saints, and
      could not be beaten. They murmured extremely, not only against their
      prudent general, but also against the Lord, on account of his delays in
      giving them deliverance;[**] and they plainly told him, that if he would
      not save them from the English sectaries, he should no longer be their
      God.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Sir Edw. Walker, p. 165.

     ** Sir Edw. Walker p. 168.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 449.
</pre>
    <p>
      An advantage having offered itself on a Sunday, they hindered the general
      from making use of it, lest he should involve the nation in the guilt of
      Sabbath-breaking.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell found himself in a very bad situation. He had no provisions but
      what he received by sea. He had not had the precaution to bring these in
      sufficient quantities; and his army was reduced to difficulties. He
      retired to Dunbar. Lesley followed him, and encamped on the heights of
      Lammermure, which overlook that town. There lay many difficult passes
      between Dunbar and Berwick, and of these Lesley had taken possession. The
      English general was reduced to extremities. He had even embraced a
      resolution of sending by sea all his foot and artillery to England, and of
      breaking through, at all hazards, with his cavalry. The madness of the
      Scottish ecclesiastics saved him from this loss and dishonor.
    </p>
    <p>
      Night and day the ministers had been wrestling with the Lord in prayer, as
      they termed it; and they fancied that they had at last obtained the
      victory. Revelations, they said, were made them, that the sectarian and
      heretical army, together with Agag, meaning Cromwell, was delivered into
      their hands. Upon the faith of these visions, they forced their general,
      in spite of his remonstrances, to descend into the plain with a view of
      attacking the English in their retreat. Cromwell, looking through a glass,
      saw the enemy's camp in motion; and foretold, without the help of
      revelations, that the Lord had delivered them into his hands. He gave
      orders immediately for an attack. In this battle it was easily observed,
      that nothing in military actions can supply the place of discipline and
      experience; and that, in the presence of real danger, where men are not
      accustomed to it, the fumes of enthusiasm presently dissipate, and lose
      their influence. The Scots, though double in number to the English, were
      soon put to flight, and pursued with great slaughter. The chief, if not
      only resistance, was made by one regiment of Highlanders, that part of the
      army which was the least infected with fanaticism. No victory could be
      more complete than this which was obtained by Cromwell. About three
      thousand of the enemy were slain, and nine thousand taken prisoners.
      Cromwell pursued his advantage, and took possession of Edinburgh and
      Leith. The remnant of the Scottish army fled to Stirling. The approach of
      the winter season, and an ague which seized Cromwell, kept him from
      pushing the victory any further.
    </p>
    <p>
      The clergy made great lamentations, and told the Lord that to them it was
      little to sacrifice their lives and estates, but to him it was a great
      loss to suffer his elect to be destroyed.[*] They published a declaration
      containing the cause of their late misfortunes. These visitations they
      ascribed to the manifold provocations of the king's house, of which, they
      feared, he had not yet thoroughly repented; the secret intrusion of
      malignants into the king's family, and even into the camp; the leaving of
      a most malignant and profane guard of horse, who, being sent for to be
      purged, came two days before the defeat, and were allowed to fight with
      the army; the owning of the king's quarrel by many without subordination
      to religion and liberty; and the carnal self-seeking of some, together
      with the neglect of family prayers by others.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell, having been so successful in the war of the sword, took up the
      pen against the Scottish ecclesiastics. He wrote them some polemical
      letters, in which he maintained the chief points of the Independent
      theology. He took care likewise, to retort on them their favorite argument
      of providence; and asked them, whether the Lord had not declared against
      them. But the ministers thought that the same events which to their
      enemies were judgments, to them were trials, and they replied, that the
      Lord had only hid his face for a time from Jacob. But Cromwell insisted
      that the appeal had been made to God in the most express and solemn
      manner; and that, in the fields of Dunbar, an irrevocable decision had
      been awarded in favor of the English army.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Sir Edward Walker.

     * This is the best of Cromwell's wretched compositions that
     remains, and we shall here extract a passage out of it. "You
     say you have not so learned Christ as to hang the equity of
     your cause upon events. We could wish that blindness had not
     been upon your eyes to all those marvellous dispensations
     which God hath wrought lately in England. But did not you
     solemnly appeal and pray? Did not we do so too? And ought
     not we and you to think, with fear and trembling, of the
     hand of the great God, in this mighty and strange appearance
     of his, but can slightly call it an event? Were not both
     your and our expectations renewed from time to time, while
     we waited on God, to see which way he would manifest himself
     upon our appeals? And shall we, after all these our prayers,
     fastings, tears, expectations, and solemn appeals, call
     these mere events? The Lord pity you. Surely we fear,
     because it has been a merciful and a gracious deliverance to
     us.

     "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, search after the
     mind of the Lord in it towards you, and we shall help you by
     our prayers, that you may find it. For yet, if we know our
     heart at all, our bowels do in Christ yearn after the godly
     in Scotland." Thurloe, vol. i. p. 158.
</pre>
    <p class="side">
      1651.
    </p>
    <p>
      The defeat of the Scots was regarded by the king as a fortunate event. The
      armies which fought on both sides, were almost equally his enemies; and
      the vanquished were now obliged to give him some more authority, and apply
      to him for support. The parliament was summoned to meet at St.
      Johnstone's. Hamilton, Lauderdale, and all the engagers were admitted into
      court and camp, on condition of doing public penance, and expressing
      repentance for their late transgressions. Some malignants also crept in
      under various pretences. The intended humiliation or penance of the king
      was changed into the ceremony of his coronation, which was performed at
      Scone with great pomp and solemnity. But amidst all this appearance of
      respect, Charles remained in the hands of the most rigid Covenanters; and
      though treated with civility and courtesy by Argyle, a man of parts and
      address, he was little better than a prisoner, and was still exposed to
      all the rudeness and pedantry of the ecclesiastics.
    </p>
    <p>
      This young prince was in a situation which very ill suited his temper and
      disposition. All those good qualities which he possessed, his affability,
      his wit, his gayety, his gentleman-like, disengaged behavior, were here so
      many vices; and his love of ease, liberty, and pleasure, was regarded as
      the highest enormity. Though artful in the practice of courtly
      dissimulation, the sanctified style was utterly unknown to him; and he
      never could mould his deportment into that starched grimace which the
      Covenanters required as an infallible mark of conversion. The duke of
      Buckingham was the only English courtier allowed to attend him; and by his
      ingenious talent for ridicule, he had rendered himself extremely agreeable
      to his master. While so many objects of derision surrounded them, it was
      difficult to be altogether insensible to the temptation, and wholly to
      suppress the laugh. Obliged to attend from morning to night at prayers and
      sermons, they betrayed evident symptoms of weariness or contempt. The
      clergy never could esteem the king sufficiently regenerated; and by
      continual exhortations, remonstrances, and reprimands, they still
      endeavored to bring him to a juster sense of his spiritual duty.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king's passion for the fair could not altogether be restrained. He had
      once been observed using some familiarities with a young woman; and a
      committee of ministers was appointed to reprove him for a behavior so
      unbecoming a covenanted monarch. The spokesman of the committee, one
      Douglas began with a severe aspect, informed the king, that great scandal
      had been given to the godly, enlarged on the heinous nature of sin, and
      concluded with exhorting his majesty, whenever he was disposed to amuse
      himself, to be more careful for the future in shutting the windows. This
      delicacy, so unusual to the place and to the character of the man, was
      remarked by the king; and he never forgot the obligation.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king, shocked at all the indignities, and perhaps still more tired
      with all the formalities to which he was obliged to submit, made an
      attempt to regain his liberty. General Middleton, at the head of some
      royalists, being proscribed by the Covenanters, kept in the mountains,
      expecting some opportunity of serving his master. The king resolved to
      join this body. He secretly made his escape from Argyle, and fled towards
      the Highlands. Colonel Montgomery, with a troop of horse, was sent in
      pursuit of him. He overtook the king, and persuaded him to return. The
      royalists being too weak to support him, Charles was the more easily
      induced to comply. This incident procured him afterwards better treatment
      and more authority; the Covenanters being afraid of driving him, by their
      rigors, to some desperate resolution. Argyle renewed his courtship to the
      king; and the king, with equal dissimulation, pretended to repose great
      confidence in Argyle. He even went so far as to drop hints of his
      intention to marry that nobleman's daughter; but he had to do with a man
      too wise to be seduced by such gross artifices.
    </p>
    <p>
      As soon as the season would permit, the Scottish army was assembled under
      Hamilton and Lesley; and the king was allowed to join the camp. The forces
      of the western counties, notwithstanding the imminent danger which
      threatened their country, were resolute not to unite their cause with that
      of an army which admitted any engagers or malignants among them; and they
      kept in a body apart under Ker. They called themselves the protesters; and
      their frantic clergy declaimed equally against the king and against
      Cromwell. The other party were denominated resolutioners; and these
      distinctions continued long after to divide and agitate the kingdom.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles encamped at the Torwood; and his generals resolved to conduct
      themselves by the same cautious maxims, which so long as they were
      embraced, had been successful during the former campaign. The town of
      Stirling lay at his back, and the whole north supplied him with
      provisions. Strong intrenchments defended his front; and it was in vain
      that Cromwell made every attempt to bring him to an engagement. After
      losing much time, the English general sent Lambert over the Frith into
      Fife, with an intention of cutting off the provisions of the enemy.
      Lambert fell upon Holborne and Brown, who commanded a party of the Scots,
      and put them to rout with great slaughter. Cromwell also passed over with
      his whole army; and lying at the back of the king, made it impossible for
      him to keep his post any longer.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles, reduced to despair, embraced a resolution worthy of a young
      prince contending for empire. Having the way open, he resolved immediately
      to march into England, where he expected that all his friends, and all
      those who were discontented with the present government, would flock to
      his standard. He persuaded the generals to enter into the same views; and
      with one consent the army, to the number of fourteen thousand men, rose
      from their camp, and advanced by great journeys towards the south.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell was surprised at this movement of the royal army. Wholly intent
      on offending his enemy, he had exposed his friends to imminent danger, and
      saw the king with numerous forces marching into England; where his
      presence, from the general hatred which prevailed against the parliament,
      was capable of producing some great revolution. But if this conduct was an
      oversight in Cromwell, he quickly repaired it by his vigilance and
      activity. He despatched letters to the parliament, exhorting them not to
      be dismayed at the approach of the Scots: he sent orders every where for
      assembling forces to oppose the king: he ordered Lambert with a body of
      cavalry to hang upon the rear of the royal army, and infest their march;
      and he himself, leaving Monk with seven thousand men to complete the
      reduction of Scotland, followed the king with all the expedition possible.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles found himself disappointed in his expectations of increasing his
      army. The Scots, terrified at the prospect of so hazardous an enterprise,
      fell off in great numbers. The English Presbyterians, having no warning
      given them of the king's approach, were not prepared to join him. To the
      royalists, this measure was equally unexpected; and they were further
      deterred from joining the Scottish army by the orders which the committee
      of ministers had issued, not to admit any, even in this desperate
      extremity, who would not subscribe the covenant. The earl of Derby,
      leaving the Isle of Man, where he had hitherto maintained his
      independence, was employed in levying forces in Cheshire and Lancashire;
      but was soon suppressed by a party of the parliamentary army. And the
      king, when he arrived at Worcester, found that his forces, extremely
      harassed by a hasty and fatiguing march, were not more numerous than when
      he rose from his camp in the Torwood.
    </p>
    <p>
      Such is the influence of established government, that the commonwealth,
      though founded in usurpation the most unjust and unpopular, had authority
      sufficient to raise every where the militia of the counties; and these,
      united with the regular forces, bent all their efforts against the king.
      With an army of about thirty thousand men, Cromwell fell upon Worcester;
      and attacking it on all sides, and meeting with little resistance, except
      from Duke Hamilton and General Middleton, broke in upon the disordered
      royalists. The streets of the city were strowed with dead. Hamilton, a
      nobleman of bravery and honor, was mortally wounded; Massey wounded and
      taken prisoner; the king himself, having given many proofs of personal
      valor, was obliged to fly. The whole Scottish army was either killed or
      taken prisoners. The country people, inflamed with national antipathy, put
      to death the few that escaped from the field of battle.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king left Worcester at six o'clock in the afternoon, and without
      halting, travelled about twenty-six miles, in company with fifty or sixty
      of his friends. To provide for his safety, he thought it best to separate
      himself from his companions; and he left them without communicating his
      intentions to any of them. By the earl of Derby's directions, he went to
      Boscobel, a lone house in the borders of Staffordshire, inhabited by one
      Penderell, a farmer. To this man Charles intrusted himself. The man had
      dignity of sentiments much above his condition, and though death was
      denounced against all who concealed the king, and a great reward promised
      to any one who should betray him, he professed and maintained unshaken
      fidelity. He took the assistance of his four brothers, equally honorable
      with himself: and having clothed the king in a garb like their own, they
      led him into the neighboring wood, put a bill in his hand, and pretended
      to employ themselves in cutting fagots. Some nights he lay upon straw in
      the house, and fed on such homely fare as it afforded. For a better
      concealment, he mounted upon an oak, where he sheltered himself among the
      leaves and branches for twenty-four hours. He saw several soldiers pass
      by. All of them were intent in search of the king; and some expressed in
      his hearing their earnest wishes of seizing him. This tree was afterwards
      denominated the royal oak, and for many years was regarded by the
      neighborhood with great veneration.
    </p>
    <p>
      Charles was in the middle of the kingdom, and could neither stay in his
      retreat, nor stir a step from it, without the most imminent danger. Fears,
      hopes, and party zeal interested multitudes to discover him; and even the
      smallest indiscretion of his friends might prove fatal. Having joined Lord
      Wilmot, who was skulking in the neighborhood, they agreed to put
      themselves into the hands of Colonel Lane, a zealous royalist, who lived
      at Bentley, not many miles distant. The king's feet were so hurt by
      walking about in heavy boots or countrymen's shoes which did not fit him,
      that he was obliged to mount on horseback; and he travelled in this
      situation to Bentley, attended by the Penderells, who had been so faithful
      to him. Lane formed a scheme for his journey to Bristol, where, it was
      hoped, he would find a ship in which he might transport himself. He had a
      near kinswoman, Mrs. Norton, who lived within three miles of that city,
      and was with child, very near the time of her delivery. He obtained a pass
      (for during those times of confusion this precaution was requisite) for
      his sister, Jane Lane, and a servant, to travel towards Bristol, under
      pretence of visiting and attending her relation. The king rode before the
      lady, and personated the servant.
    </p>
    <p>
      When they arrived at Norton's, Mrs. Lane pretended that she had brought
      along, as her servant, a poor lad, a neighboring farmer's son, who was ill
      of an ague; and she begged a private room for him, where he might be
      quiet. Though Charles kept himself retired in this chamber, the butler,
      one Pope, soon knew him: the king was alarmed, but made the butler promise
      that he would keep the secret from every mortal, even from his master; and
      he was faithful to his engagement.
    </p>
    <p>
      No ship, it was found, would for a month set sail from Bristol, either for
      France or Spain, and the king was obliged to go elsewhere for a passage.
      He intrusted himself to Colone Windham of Dorsetshire, an affectionate
      partisan of the royal family. The natural effect of the long civil wars,
      and of the furious rage to which all men were wrought up in their
      different factions, was, that every one's inclinations and affections were
      thoroughly known; and even the courage and fidelity of most men, by the
      variety of incidents, had been put to trial. The royalists, too, had, many
      of them, been obliged to make concealments in their houses for themselves,
      their friends, or more valuable effects; and the arts of eluding the enemy
      had been frequently practised. All these circumstances proved favorable to
      the king in the present exigency. As he often passed through the hands of
      Catholics, the priests hole, as they called it, the place where they were
      obliged to conceal their persecuted priests, was sometimes employed for
      sheltering their distressed sovereign.
    </p>
    <p>
      Windham, before he received the king, asked leave to intrust the important
      secret to his mother, his wife, and four servants, on whose fidelity he
      could rely. Of all these, no one proved wanting either in honor or
      discretion. The venerable old matron, on the reception of her royal guest,
      expressed the utmost joy, that having lost, without regret, three sons and
      one grandchild in defence of his father, she was now reserved, in her
      declining years, to be instrumental in the preservation of himself.
      Windham told the king, that Sir Thomas, his father, in the year 1636, a
      few days before his death, called to him his five sons. "My children,"
      said he, "we have hitherto seen serene and quiet times under our three
      last sovereigns: but I must now warn you to prepare for clouds and storms.
      Factions arise on every side, and threaten the tranquillity of your native
      country. But whatever happen, do you faithfully honor and obey your
      prince, and adhere to the crown. I charge you never to forsake the crown,
      though it should hang upon a bush." "These last words," added Windham,
      "made such impressions on all our breasts, that the many afflictions of
      these sad times could never efface their indelible characters." From
      innumerable instances, it appears how deep rooted, in the minds of the
      English gentry of that age, was the principle of loyalty to their
      sovereign; that noble and generous principle, inferior only in excellence
      to the more enlarged and more enlightened affection towards a legal
      constitution. But during those times of military usurpation, these
      passions were the same.
    </p>
    <p>
      The king continued several days in Windham's house; and all his friends in
      Britain, and in every part of Europe, remained in the most anxious
      suspense with regard to his fortunes: no one could conjecture whether he
      were dead or alive; and the report of his death, being generally believed,
      happily relaxed the vigilant search of his enemies. Trials were made to
      procure a vessel for his escape; but he still met with disappointments.
      Having left Windham's house, he was obliged again to return to it. He
      passed through many other adventures; assumed different disguises; in
      every step was exposed to imminent perils and received daily proofs of
      uncorrupted fidelity and attachment. The sagacity of a smith, who remarked
      that his horse's shoes had been made in the north, not in the west, as he
      pretended, once detected him; and he narrowly escaped. At Shoreham, in
      Sussex, a vessel was at last found, in which he embarked. He had been
      known to so many, that if he had not set sail in that critical moment, it
      had been impossible for him to escape. After one and forty days'
      concealment, he arrived safely at Fescamp, in Normandy. No less than forty
      men and women had at different times been privy to his concealment and
      escape.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The battle of Worcester, afforded Cromwell what he called his "crowning
      mercy."[**] So elated was he, that he intended to have knighted in the
      field two of his generals, Lambert and Fleetwood; but was dissuaded by his
      friends from exerting this act of regal authority. His power and ambition
      were too great to brook submission to the empty name of a republic, which
      stood chiefly by his influence, and was supported by his victories. How
      early he entertained thoughts of taking into his hand the reins of
      government, is uncertain. We are only assured, that he now discovered to
      his intimate friends these aspiring views; and even expressed a desire of
      assuming the rank of king, which he had contributed with such seeming zeal
      to abolish.[***]
    </p>
    <p>
      The little popularity and credit acquired by the republicans, further
      stimulated the ambition of this enterprising politician. These men had not
      that large thought, nor those comprehensive views, which might qualify
      them for acting the part of legislators: selfish aims and bigotry chiefly
      engrossed their attention. They carried their rigid austerity so far as to
      enact a law declaring fornication, after the first act, to be felony,
      without benefit of clergy.[****] They made small progress in that
      important work which they professed to have so much at heart, the settling
      of a new model of representation, and a bill was introduced into the house
      against painting, patches, and other immodest dress of women; but it did
      not pass.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Heath's Chronicle, p. 301.

     ** Parl. Hist. vol. xx. p. 47.

     *** Whitlocke, p. 523.

     **** Scobel, p. 121.

     v    Parl. Hist. vol. xix. p. 263.
</pre>
    <p>
      The nation began to apprehend that they intended to establish themselves
      as a perpetual legislature, and to confine the whole power to sixty or
      seventy persons, who called themselves the parliament of the commonwealth
      of England. And while they pretended to bestow new liberties upon the
      nation, they found themselves obliged to infringe even the most valuable
      of those which, through time immemorial, had been transmitted from their
      ancestors. Not daring to intrust the trials of treason to juries, who,
      being chosen indifferently from among the people, would have been little
      favorable to the commonwealth, and would have formed their verdict upon
      the ancient laws, they eluded that noble institution, by which the
      government of this island has ever been so much distinguished. They had
      evidently seen in the trial of Lilburn what they could expect from juries.
      This man, the most turbulent, but the most upright and courageous of human
      kind, was tried for a transgression of the new statute of treasons: but
      though he was plainly guilty, he was acquitted, to the great joy of the
      people. Westminster Hall, nay, the whole city, rang with shouts and
      acclamations. Never did any established power receive so strong a
      declaration of its usurpation and invalidity; and from no institution,
      besides the admirable one of juries, could be expected this magnanimous
      effort.
    </p>
    <p>
      That they might not for the future be exposed to affronts which so much
      lessened their authority, the parliament erected a high court of justice,
      which was to receive indictments from the council of state. This court was
      composed of men devoted to the ruling party, without name or character,
      determined to sacrifice every thing to their own safety or ambition.
      Colonel Eusebius Andrews and Colonel Walter Slingsby were tried by this
      court for conspiracies, and condemned to death. They were royalists, and
      refused to plead before so illegal a jurisdiction. Love, Gibbons, and
      other Presbyterians, having entered into a plot against the republic, were
      also tried, condemned, and executed. The earl of Derby, Sir Timothy
      Featherstone, Bemboe, being taken prisoners after the battle of Worcester,
      were put to death by sentence of a court martial; a method of proceeding
      declared illegal by that very petition of right, for which a former
      parliament had so strenuously contended, and which, after great efforts,
      they had extorted from the king.
    </p>
    <p>
      Excepting their principles of toleration, the maxims by which the
      republicans regulated ecclesiastical affairs no more prognosticated any
      durable settlement, than those by which they conducted their civil
      concerns. The Presbyterian model of congregations, classes, and assemblies
      was not allowed to be finished: it seemed even the intention of many
      leaders in the parliament to admit of no established church, and to leave
      every one, without any guidance of the magistrate, to embrace whatever
      sect and to support whatever clergy were most agreeable to him.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament went so far as to make some approaches, in one province, to
      their Independent model. Almost all the clergy of Wales being ejected as
      malignants, itinerant preachers with small salaries were settled, not
      above four or five in each county; and these, being furnished with horses
      at the public expense, hurried from place to place, and carried, as they
      expressed themselves, the glad tidings of the gospel.[*] They were all of
      them men of the lowest birth and education, who had deserted mechanical
      trades, in order to follow this new profession. And in this particular, as
      well as in their wandering life, they pretended to be more truly
      apostolical.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Dr. John Walker's Attempt, p. 147, et seq.
</pre>
    <p>
      The republicans, both by the turn of their disposition, and by the nature
      of the instruments which they employed, were better qualified for acts of
      force and vigor, than for the slow and deliberate work of legislation.
      Notwithstanding the late wars and bloodshed, and the present factions, the
      power of England had never, in any period, appeared so formidable to the
      neighboring kingdoms as it did at this time, in the hands of the
      commonwealth. A numerous army served equally to retain every one in
      implicit subjection to established authority, and to strike a terror into
      foreign nations. The power of peace and war was lodged in the same hands
      with that of imposing taxes; and no difference of views, among the several
      members of the legislature, could any longer be apprehended. The present
      impositions, though much superior to what had ever formerly been
      experienced, were in reality moderate, and what a nation so opulent could
      easily bear. The military genius of the people had, by the civil contests,
      been roused from its former lethargy; and excellent officers were formed
      in every branch of service. The confusion into which all things had been
      thrown, had given opportunity to men of low stations to break through
      their obscurity, and to raise themselves by their courage to commands
      which they were well qualified to exercise, but to which their birth could
      never have entitled them. And while so great a power was lodged in such
      active hands, no wonder the republic was successful in all its
      enterprises.
    </p>
    <p>
      Blake, a man of great courage and a generous disposition the same person
      who had defended Lyme and Taunten with such unshaken obstinacy against the
      late king, was made an admiral; and though he had hitherto been accustomed
      only to land service, into which, too, he had not entered till past fifty
      years of age, he soon raised the naval glory of the nation to a greater
      height than it had ever attained in any former period. A fleet was put
      under his command, and he received orders to pursue Prince Rupert, to whom
      the king had intrusted that squadron which had deserted to him. Rupert
      took shelter in Kinsale; and escaping thence, fled towards the coast of
      Portugal. Blake pursued, and chased him into the Tagus, where he intended
      to make an attack upon him. But the king of Portugal, moved by the favor
      which throughout all Europe attended the royal cause, refused Blake
      admittance, and aided Prince Rupert in making his escape. To be revenged
      of this partiality, the English admiral made prize of twenty Portuguese
      ships, richly laden; and he threatened still further vengeance. The king
      of Portugal, dreading so dangerous a foe to his newly-acquired dominion,
      and sensible of the unequal contest in which he was engaged, made all
      possible submissions to the haughty republic, and was at last admitted to
      negotiate the renewal of his alliance with England. Prince Rupert, having
      lost a great part of his squadron on the coast of Spain, made sail towards
      the West Indies. His brother, Prince Maurice, was there shipwrecked in a
      hurricane. Every where this squadron subsisted by privateering, sometimes
      on English, sometimes on Spanish vessels. And Rupert at last returned to
      France, where he disposed of the remnants of his fleet, together with his
      prizes.
    </p>
    <p>
      All the settlements in America, except New England, which had been planted
      entirely by the Puritans, adhered to the royal party, even after the
      settlement of the republic; and Sir George Ayscue was sent with a squadron
      to reduce them. Bermudas, Antigua, and Virginia were soon subdued.
      Barbadoes, commanded by Lord Willoughby of Parham, made some resistance;
      but was at last obliged to submit.
    </p>
    <p>
      With equal ease were Jersey, Guernsey, Scilly, and the Isle of Man brought
      under subjection to the republic; and the sea, which had been much
      infested by privateers from these islands, was rendered safe to the
      English commerce. The countess of Derby defended the Isle of Man; and with
      great reluctance yielded to the necessity of surrendering to the enemy.
      This lady, a daughter of the illustrious house of Trimoille, in France,
      had, during the civil war, displayed a manly courage by her obstinate
      defence of Latham House against the parliamentary forces; and she retained
      the glory of being the last person in the three kingdoms, and in all their
      dependent dominions, who submitted to the victorious commonwealth.[*] <a
      href="#linknote-24" name="linknoteref-24" id="linknoteref-24">24</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note X, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      Ireland and Scotland were now entirely subjected, and reduced to
      tranquillity. Ireton, the new deputy of Ireland, at the head of a numerous
      army, thirty thousand strong, prosecuted the work of subduing the revolted
      Irish; and he defeated them in many rencounters, which, though of
      themselves of no great moment, proved fatal to their declining cause. He
      punished without mercy all the prisoners who had any hand in the
      massacres. Sir Phelim O'Neale, among the rest, was some time after brought
      to the gibbet, and suffered an ignominious death, which he had so well
      merited by his inhuman cruelties. Limeric, a considerable town, still
      remained in the hands of the Irish; and Ireton, after a vigorous siege,
      made himself master of it. He was here infected with the plague, and
      shortly after died; a memorable personage, much celebrated for his
      vigilance, industry, capacity even for the strict execution of justice in
      that unlimited command which he possessed in Ireland. He was observed to
      be inflexible in all his purposes; and it was believed by many that he was
      animated with a sincere and passionate love of liberty, and never could
      have been induced by any motive to submit to the smallest appearance of
      regal government. Cromwell appeared to be much affected by his death; and
      the republicans, who reposed great confidence in him, were inconsolable.
      To show their regard for his merit and services, they bestowed an estate
      of two thousand pounds a year on his family, and honored him with a
      magnificent funeral at the public charge. Though the established
      government was but the mere shadow of a commonwealth, yet was it beginning
      by proper arts, to encourage that public spirit, which no other species of
      civil polity is ever able fully to inspire.
    </p>
    <p>
      The command of the army in Ireland devolved on Lieutenant-General Ludlow.
      The civil government of the island was intrusted to commissioners. Ludlow
      continued to push the advantages against the Irish, and every where
      obtained an easy victory. That unhappy people, disgusted with the king on
      account of those violent declarations against them and their religion
      which had been extorted by the Scots, applied to the king of Spain, to the
      duke of Lorraine; and found assistance nowhere. Clanricarde, unable to
      resist the prevailing power, made submissions to the parliament, and
      retired into England, where he soon after died. He was a steady Catholic,
      but a man much respected by all parties.
    </p>
    <p>
      The successes which attended Monk in Scotland were no less decisive. That
      able general laid siege to Stirling Castle, and though it was well
      provided for defence, it was soon surrendered to him. He there became
      master of all the records of the kingdom; and he sent them to England. The
      earl of Leven, the earl of Crawford, Lord Ogilvy, and other noblemen,
      having met near Perth, in order to concert measures for raising a new
      army, were suddenly set upon by Colonel Alured, and most of them taken
      prisoners. Sir Philip Musgrave, with some Scots, being engaged at Dumfries
      in a like enterprise, met with a like fate. Dundee was a town well
      fortified, supplied with a good garrison under Lumisden, and full of all
      the rich furniture, the plate and money of the kingdom, which had been
      sent thither as to a place of safety. Monk appeared before it; and having
      made a breach, gave a general assault. He carried the town; and following
      the example and instructions of Cromwell, put all the inhabitants to the
      sword, in order to strike a general terror into the kingdom. Warned by
      this example, Aberdeen, St. Andrew's, Inverness, and other towns and
      forts, yielded of their own accord to the enemy. Argyle made his
      submissions to the English commonwealth; and excepting a few royalists,
      who remained some time in the mountains, under the earl of Glencairn, Lord
      Balcarras, and General Middleton, that kingdom, which had hitherto,
      through all ages, by means of its situation, poverty, and valor,
      maintained its independence, was reduced to total subjection.
    </p>
    <p>
      The English parliament sent Sir Harry Vane, St. John, and other
      commissioners to settle Scotland. These men, who possessed little of the
      true spirit of liberty, knew how to maintain the appearance of it; and
      they required the voluntary consent of all the counties and towns of this
      conquered kingdom, before they would unite them into the same commonwealth
      with England. The clergy protested; because, they said, this incorporating
      union would draw along with it a subordination of the church to the state
      in the things of Christ.[*] English judges, joined to some Scottish, were
      appointed to determine all causes; justice was strictly administered;
      order and peace maintained; and the Scots, freed from the tyranny of the
      ecclesiastics, were not much dissatisfied with the present government.[**]
      <a href="#linknote-25" name="linknoteref-25" id="linknoteref-25">25</a>
      The prudent conduct of Monk, a man who possessed a capacity for the arts
      both of peace and war, served much to reconcile the minds of men, and to
      allay their prejudices.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1652.
    </p>
    <p>
      By the total reduction and pacification of the British dominions, the
      parliament had leisure to look abroad, and to exert their vigor in foreign
      enterprises. The Dutch were the first that felt the weight of their arms.
    </p>
    <p>
      During the life of Frederic Henry, prince of Orange, the Dutch republic
      had maintained a neutrality in the civil wars of England, and had never
      interposed, except by her good offices, between the contending parties.
      When William, who had married an English princess, succeeded to his
      father's commands and authority,[***] the states, both before and after
      the execution of the late king, were accused of taking steps more
      favorable to the royal cause, and of betraying a great prejudice against
      that of the parliament. It was long before the envoy of the English
      commonwealth could obtain an audience of the states general. The murderers
      of Dorislaus were not pursued with such vigor as the parliament expected.
      And much regard had been paid to the king, and many good offices performed
      to him, both by the public, and by men of all ranks, in the United
      Provinces.
    </p>
    <p>
      After the death of William, prince of Orange,[****] which was attended
      with the depression of his party and the triumph of the Dutch republicans,
      the parliament thought that the time was now favorable for cementing a
      closer confederacy with the states.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 496. Heathe's Chronicle, p. 307.

     ** See note Y, at the end of the volume.

     *** 1647.

     **** October 17, 1650.
</pre>
    <p>
      St. John, chief justice, who was sent over to the Hague, had entertained
      the idea of forming a kind of coalition between the two republics, which
      would have rendered their interests totally inseparable; but fearing that
      so extraordinary a project would not be relished, he contented himself
      with dropping some hints of it, and openly went no further than to propose
      a strict defensive alliance between England and the United Provinces, such
      as has now, for near seventy years taken place between these friendly
      powers.[*] But the states, who were unwilling to form a nearer confederacy
      with a government whose measures were so obnoxious, and whose situation
      seemed so precarious, offered only to renew the former alliances with
      England. And the haughty St. John, disgusted with this disappointment, as
      well as incensed at many affronts which had been offered him with impunity
      by the retainers of the Palatine and Orange families, and indeed by the
      populace in general, returned into England, and endeavored to foment a
      quarrel between the republics.
    </p>
    <p>
      The movement of great states are often directed by as slender springs as
      those of individuals. Though war with so considerable a naval power as the
      Dutch, who were in peace with all their other neighbors, might seem
      dangerous to the yet unsettled commonwealth, there were several motives
      which at this time induced the English parliament to embrace hostile
      measures. Many of the members thought, that a foreign war would serve as a
      pretence for continuing the same parliament, and delaying the new model of
      a representative, with which the nation had so long been flattered. Others
      hoped, that the war would furnish a reason for maintaining, some time
      longer, that numerous standing army, which was so much complained of.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. i. p. 182.

     ** We are told, in the Life of Sir Harry Vane, that that
     famous republican opposed the Dutch war, and that it was the
     military gentlemen chiefly who supported that measure.
</pre>
    <p>
      On the other hand, some, who dreaded the increasing power of Cromwell,
      expected that the great expense of naval armaments would prove a motive
      for diminishing the military establishment. To divert the attention of the
      public from domestic quarrels towards foreign transactions, seemed, in the
      present disposition of men's minds, to be good policy. The superior power
      of the English commonwealth, together with its advantages of situation,
      promised success; and the parliamentary leaders hoped to gain many rich
      prizes from the Dutch, to distress and sink their flourishing commerce,
      and by victories to throw a lustre on their own establishment, which was
      so new and unpopular. All these views, enforced by the violent spirit of
      St. John, who had great influence over Crom-well, determined the
      parliament to change the purposed alliance into a furious war against the
      United Provinces.
    </p>
    <p>
      To cover these hostile intentions, the parliament, under pretence of
      providing for the interests of commerce, embraced such measures as they
      knew would give disgust to the states. They framed the famous act of
      navigation; which prohibited all nations from importing into England in
      their bottoms any commodity which was not the growth and manufacture of
      their own country. By this law, though the terms in which it was conceived
      were general, the Dutch were principally affected; because their country
      produces few commodities, and they subsist chiefly by being the general
      carriers and factors of Europe. Letters of reprisal were granted to
      several merchants, who complained of injuries which, they pretended, they
      had received from the states; and above eighty Dutch ships fell into their
      hands, and were made prizes. The cruelties committed on the English at
      Amboyna, which were certainly enormous, but which seemed to be buried in
      oblivion by a thirty years' silence, were again made the ground of
      complaint. And the allowing the murderers of Dorislaus to escape, and the
      conniving at the insults to which St. John had been exposed, were
      represented as symptoms of an unfriendly, if not a hostile disposition in
      the states.
    </p>
    <p>
      The states, alarmed at all these steps, sent orders to their ambassadors
      to endeavor the renewal of the treaty of alliance, which had been broken
      off by the abrupt departure of St. John. Not to be unprepared, they
      equipped a fleet of a hundred and fifty sail, and took care, by their
      ministers at London, to inform the council of the state of that armament.
      This intelligence, instead of striking terror into the English republic,
      was considered as a menace, and further confirmed the parliament in their
      hostile resolutions. The minds of men in both states were every day more
      irritated against each other; and it was not long before these humors
      broke forth into action.
    </p>
    <p>
      Tromp, an admiral of great renown, received from the states the command of
      a fleet of forty-two sail, in order to protect the Dutch navigation
      against the privateers of the English. He was forced by stress of weather,
      as he alleged, to take shelter in the road of Dover, where he met with
      Blake, who commanded an English fleet much inferior in number. Who was the
      aggressor in the action which ensued between these two admirals, both of
      them men of such prompt and fiery dispositions, it is not easy to
      determine; since each of them sent to his own state a relation totally
      opposite in all its circumstances to that of the other, and yet supported
      by the testimony of every captain in his fleet. Blake pretended, that
      having given a signal to the Dutch admiral to strike, Tromp, instead of
      complying, fired a broadside at him. Tromp asserted, that he was preparing
      to strike, and that the English admiral, nevertheless, began hostilities.
      It is certain that the admiralty of Holland, who are distinct from the
      council of state, had given Tromp no orders to strike, but had left him to
      his own discretion with regard to that vain but much contested ceremonial.
      They seemed willing to introduce the claim of an equality with the new
      commonwealth, and to interpret the former respect paid the English flag as
      a deference due only to the monarchy. This circumstance forms a strong
      presumption against the narrative of the Dutch admiral. The whole Orange
      party, it must be remarked, to which Tromp was suspected to adhere, was
      desirous of a war with England.
    </p>
    <p>
      Blake, though his squadron consisted only of fifteen vessels, reënforced,
      after the battle began, by eight under Captain Bourne, maintained the
      fight with bravery for five hours, and sunk one ship of the enemy, and
      took another. Night parted the combatants, and the Dutch fleet retired
      towards the coast of Holland. The populace of London were enraged, and
      would have insulted the Dutch ambassadors, who lived at Chelsea, had not
      the council of state sent guards to protect them.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the states heard of this action, of which the consequences were
      easily foreseen, they were in the utmost consternation. They immediately
      despatched Paw, pensionary of Holland, as their ambassador extraordinary
      to London, and ordered him to lay before the parliament the narrative
      which Tromp had sent of the late rencounter. They entreated them, by all
      the bands of their common religion and common liberties, not to
      precipitate themselves into hostile measures, but to appoint
      commissioners, who should examine every circumstance of the action, and
      clear up the truth, which lay in obscurity. And they pretended, that they
      had given no orders to their admiral to offer any violence to the English,
      but would severely punish him, if they found, upon inquiry, that he had
      been guilty of an action which they so much disapproved. The imperious
      parliament would hearken to none of these reasons or remonstrances. Elated
      by the numerous successes which they had obtained over their domestic
      enemies, they thought that every thing must yield to their fortunate arms;
      and they gladly seized the opportunity, which they sought, of making war
      upon the states. They demanded that, without any further delay or inquiry,
      reparation should be made for all the damages which the English had
      sustained. And when this demand was not complied with, they despatched
      orders for commencing war against the United Provinces.
    </p>
    <p>
      Blake sailed northwards with a numerous fleet, and fell upon the herring
      busses, which were escorted by twelve men-of-war. All these he either took
      or dispersed. Tromp followed him with a fleet of above a hundred sail.
      When these two admirals were within sight of each other, and preparing for
      battle, a furious storm attacked them. Blake took shelter in the English
      harbors. The Dutch fleet was dispersed, and received great damage.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sir George Ayscue, though he commanded only forty ships, according to the
      English accounts, engaged near Plymouth the famous De Ruiter, who had
      under him fifty ships of war, with thirty merchantmen. The Dutch ships
      were indeed of inferior force to the English. De Ruiter, the only admiral
      in Europe who has attained a renown equal to that of the greatest general,
      defended himself so well, that Ayscue gained no advantage over him. Night
      parted them in the greatest heat of the action. De Ruiter next day sailed
      off with his convoy. The English fleet had been so shattered in the fight,
      that it was not able to pursue.
    </p>
    <p>
      Near the coast of Kent, Blake, seconded by Bourne and Pen, met a Dutch
      squadron, nearly equal in numbers, commanded by De Witte and De Ruiter. A
      battle was fought, much to the disadvantage of the Dutch. Their
      rear-admiral was boarded and taken. Two other vessels were sunk, and one
      blown up. The Dutch next day made sail towards Holland.
    </p>
    <p>
      The English were not so successful in the Mediterranean. Van Galen, with
      much superior force, attacked Captain Badily, and defeated him. He bought,
      however, his victory with the loss of his life.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sea fights are seldom so decisive as to disable the vanquished from making
      head in a little time against the victors. Tromp, seconded by De Ruiter,
      met near the Goodwins, with Blake; whose fleet was inferior to the Dutch,
      but who resolved not to decline the combat. A furious battle commenced
      where the admirals on both sides, as well as the inferior officers and
      seamen, exerted great bravery. In this action the Dutch had the advantage.
      Blake himself was wounded. The Garland and Bonaventure were taken. Two
      ships were burned, and one sunk; and night came opportunely to save the
      English fleet. After this victory, Tromp, in a bravado fixed a broom to
      his mainmast; as if he were resolved to sweep the sea entirely of all
      English vessels.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1653.
    </p>
    <p>
      Great preparations were made in England, in order to wipe off this
      disgrace. A gallant fleet of eighty sail was fitted out. Blake commanded,
      and Dean under him, together with Monk, who had been sent for from
      Scotland. When the English lay off Portland, they descried, near break of
      day, a Dutch fleet of seventy-six vessels, sailing up the Channel, along
      with a convoy of three hundred merchantmen, who had received orders, to
      wait at the Isle of Rhé, till the fleet should arrive to escort them.
      Tromp, and under him De Ruiter, commanded the Dutch. This battle was the
      most furious that had yet been fought between these warlike and rival
      nations. Three days was the combat continued with the utmost rage and
      obstinacy; and Blake, who was victor, gained not more honor than Tromp,
      who was vanquished. The Dutch admiral made a skilful retreat, and saved
      all the merchant ships, except thirty. He lost, however, eleven ships of
      war, had two thousand men slain, and near fifteen hundred taken prisoners.
      The English, though many of their ships were extremely shattered, had but
      one sunk. Their slain were not much inferior in number to those of the
      enemy.
    </p>
    <p>
      All these successes of the English were chiefly owing to the superior size
      of their vessels; an advantage which all the skill and bravery of the
      Dutch admirals could not compensate. By means of ship money, an imposition
      which had been so much complained of, and in some respects with reason,
      the late king had put the navy into a situation which it had never
      attained in any former reign; and he ventured to build ships of a size
      which was then unusual. But the misfortunes which the Dutch met with in
      battle, were small in comparison of those which their trade sustained from
      the English. Their whole commerce by the Channel was cut off: even that to
      the Baltic was much infested by English privateers. Their fisheries were
      totally suspended. A great number of their ships, above sixteen hundred,
      had fallen into the hands of the enemy. And all this distress they
      suffered, not for any national interests or necessity, but from vain
      points of honor and personal resentments, of which it was difficult to
      give a satisfactory account to the public. They resolved therefore to
      gratify the pride of the parliament, and to make some advances towards
      peace. They met not, however, with a favorable reception; and it was not
      without pleasure that they learned the dissolution of that haughty
      assembly by the violence of Cromwell; an even from which they expected a
      more prosperous turn to their affairs.
    </p>
    <p>
      The zealous republicans in the parliament had not been the chief or first
      promoters of the war; but, when it was once entered upon, they endeavored
      to draw from it every possible advantage. On all occasions, they set up
      the fleet in opposition to the army, and celebrated the glory and
      successes of their naval armaments. They insisted on the intolerable
      expense to which the nation was subjected, and urged the necessity of
      diminishing it by a reduction of the land forces. They had ordered some
      regiments to serve on board the fleet in the quality of marines. And
      Cromwell, by the whole train of their proceedings, evidently saw that they
      had entertained a jealousy of his power and ambition, and were resolved to
      bring him to a subordination under their authority. Without scruple or
      delay, he resolved to prevent them.
    </p>
    <p>
      On such firm foundations was built the credit of this extraordinary man,
      that though a great master of fraud and dissimulation, he judged it
      superfluous to employ any disguise in conducting this bold enterprise. He
      summoned a general council of officers; and immediately found, that they
      were disposed to receive whatever impressions he was pleased to give them.
      Most of them were his creatures, had owed their advancement to his favor,
      and relied entirely upon him for their future preferment. The breach being
      already made between the military and civil powers, when the late king was
      seized at Holdenby, the general officers regarded the parliament as at
      once their creature and their rival; and thought, that they themselves
      were entitled to share among them those offices and riches, of which its
      members had so long kept possession. Harrison, Rich, Overton, and a few
      others, who retained some principle, were guided by notions so
      extravagant, that they were easily deluded into measures the most violent
      and most criminal. And the whole army had already been guilty of such
      illegal and atrocious actions, that they could entertain no further
      scruple with regard to any enterprise which might serve their selfish or
      fanatical purposes.
    </p>
    <p>
      In the council of officers it was presently voted to frame a remonstrance
      to the parliament. After complaining of the arrears due to the army, they
      there desired the parliament to reflect how many years they had sitten,
      and what professions they had formerly made of their intentions to new
      model the representative, and establish successive parliaments, who might
      bear the burden of national affairs, from which they themselves would
      gladly, after so much danger and fatigue, be at last relieved. They
      confessed that the parliament had achieved great enterprises, and had
      surmounted mighty difficulties; yet was it an injury, they said, to the
      rest of the nation to be excluded from bearing any part in the service of
      their country. It was now full time for them to give place to others; and
      they therefore desired them, after settling a council, who might execute
      the laws during the interval, to summon a new parliament, and establish
      that free and equal government which they had so long promised to the
      people.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament took this remonstrance in ill part, and made a sharp reply
      to the council of officers. The officers insisted on their advice; and by
      mutual altercation and opposition, the breach became still wider between
      the army and the commonwealth. Cromwell, finding matters ripe for his
      purpose, called a council of officers, in order to come to a determination
      with regard to the public settlement. As he had here many friends, so had
      he also some opponents. Harrison having assured the council, that the
      general sought only to pave the way for the government of Jesus and his
      saints, Major Streater briskly replied, that Jesus ought then to come
      quickly: for if he delayed it till after Christmas, he would come too
      late; he would find his place occupied. While the officers were in debate,
      Colonel Ingoldsby informed Cromwell, that the parliament was sitting, and
      had come to a resolution not to dissolve themselves, but to fill up the
      house by new elections; and was at that very time engaged in deliberations
      with regard to this expedient. Cromwell in a rage immediately hastened to
      the house, and carried a body of three hundred soldiers along with him.
      Some of them he placed at the door, some in the lobby, some on the stairs.
      He first addressed himself to his friend St. John, and told him that he
      had come with a purpose of doing what grieved him to the very soul, and
      what he had earnestly with tears besought the Lord not to impose upon him:
      but there was a necessity, in order to the glory of God and good of the
      nation. He sat down for some time, and heard the debate. He beckoned
      Harrison, and told him that he now judged the parliament ripe for a
      dissolution. "Sir," said Harrison "the work is very great and dangerous: I
      desire you seriously to consider, before you engage in it." "You say
      well," replied the general; and thereupon sat still about a quarter of an
      hour. When the question was ready to be put, he said again to Harrison,
      "This is the time: I must do it." And suddenly starting up, he loaded the
      parliament with the vilest reproaches, for their tyranny, ambition,
      oppression, and robbery of the public. Then stamping with his foot, which
      was a signal for the soldiers to enter, "For shame," said he to the
      parliament, "get you gone: give place to honester men; to those who will
      more faithfully discharge their trust. You are no longer a parliament. I
      tell you, you are no longer a parliament. The Lord has done with you: he
      has chosen other instruments for carrying on his work." Sir Harry Vane
      exclaiming against this proceeding, he cried with a loud voice, "O! Sir
      Harry Vane, Sir Harry Vane! The Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane!"
      Taking hold of Martin by the cloak, "Thou art a whoremaster," said he; to
      another, "Thou art an adulterer;" to a third, "Thou art a drunkard and a
      glutton;" "And thou an extortioner," to a fourth. He commanded a soldier
      to seize the mace. "What shall we do with this bauble? Here, take it away.
      It is you," said he, addressing himself to the house, "that have forced me
      upon this. I have sought the Lord night and day, that he would rather slay
      me than put me upon this work." Having commanded the soldiers to clear the
      hall, he himself went out the last, and ordering the doors to be locked,
      departed to his lodgings in Whitehall.
    </p>
    <p>
      In this furious manner, which so well denotes his genuine character, did
      Cromwell, without the least opposition, or even murmur, annihilate that
      famous assembly, which had filled all Europe with the renown of its
      actions, and with astonishment at its crimes, and whose commencement was
      not more ardently desired by the people than was its final dissolution.
      All parties now reaped successively the melancholy pleasure of seeing the
      injuries which they had suffered, revenged on their enemies, and that too
      by the same arts which had been practised against them. The king had, in
      some instances, stretched his prerogative beyond its just bounds; and
      aided by the church, had well nigh put an end to all the liberties and
      privileges of the nation. The Presbyterians checked the progress of the
      court and clergy, and excited, by cant and hypocrisy, the populace, first
      to tumults, then to war against the king, the peers, and all the
      royalists. No sooner had they reached the pinnacle of grandeur, than the
      Independents, under the appearance of still greater sanctity, instigated
      the army against them, and reduced them to subjection. The Independents,
      amidst their empty dreams of liberty, or rather of dominion, were
      oppressed by the rebellion of their own servants, and found themselves at
      once exposed to the insults of power and hatred of the people. By recent,
      as well as all ancient example, it was become evident, that illegal
      violence, with whatever preferences it may be covered, and whatever object
      it may pursue, must inevitably end at last in the arbitrary and despotic
      government of a single person.
    </p>
    <p>
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    <h2>
      CHAPTER LXI.
    </h2>
    <p>
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    <h2>
      THE COMMONWEALTH.
    </h2>
    <p class="side">
      1653.
    </p>
    <p>
      OLIVER CROMWELL, in whose hands the dissolution of the parliament had left
      the whole power, civil and military, of three kingdoms, was born at
      Huntingdon, the last year of the former century, of a good family; though
      he himself, being the son of a second brother, inherited but a small
      estate from his father. In the course of his education, he had been sent
      to the university; but his genius was found little fitted for the calm and
      elegant occupations of learning; and he made small proficiency in his
      studies. He even threw himself into a dissolute and disorderly course of
      life; and he consumed, in gaming, drinking, debauchery, and country riots,
      the more early years of his youth, and dissipated part of his patrimony.
      All of a sudden, the spirit of reformation seized him; he married,
      affected a grave and composed behavior entered into all the zeal and rigor
      of the Puritanical party, and offered to restore to every one whatever
      sums he had formerly gained by gaming. The same vehemence of temper which
      had transported him into the extremes of pleasure, now distinguished his
      religious habits. His house was the resort of all the zealous clergy of
      the party; and his hospitality, as well as his liberalities to the
      silenced and deprived ministers, proved as chargeable as his former
      debaucheries. Though he had acquired a tolerable fortune by a maternal
      uncle, he found his affairs so injured by his expenses, that he was
      obliged to take a farm at St. Ives, and apply himself for some years to
      agriculture as a profession. But this expedient served rather to involve
      him in further debts and difficulties. The long prayers which he said to
      his family in the morning, and again in the afternoon, consumed his own
      time and that of his ploughmen; and he reserved no leisure for the care of
      his temporal affairs. His active mind, superior to the low occupations to
      which he was condemned, preyed upon itself; and he indulged his
      imagination in visions, illuminations, revelations; the great nourishment
      of that hypochondriacal temper to which he was ever subject. Urged by his
      wants and his piety, he had made a party with Hambden, his near kinsman,
      who was pressed only by the latter motive, to transport himself into New
      England, now become the retreat of the more zealous among the Puritanical
      party; and it was an order of council which obliged them to disembark and
      remain in England. The earl of Bedford, who possessed a large estate in
      the fen country near the Isle of Ely, having undertaken to drain these
      morasses, was obliged to apply to the king; and by the powers of the
      prerogative, he got commissioners appointed, who conducted that work, and
      divided the new-acquired land among the several proprietors. He met with
      opposition from many, among whom Cromwell distinguished himself; and this
      was the first public opportunity which he had met with, of discovering the
      factious zeal and obstinacy of his character.
    </p>
    <p>
      From accident and intrigue he was chosen by the town of Cambridge member
      of the long parliament. His domestic affairs were then in greater
      disorder; and he seemed not to possess any talents which could qualify him
      to rise in that public sphere into which he was now at last entered. His
      person was ungraceful, his dress slovenly, his voice untonable, his
      elocution homely, tedious, obscure, and embarrassed. The fervor of his
      spirit frequently prompted him to rise in the house; but he was not heard
      with attention: his name, for above two years, is not to be found oftener
      than twice in any committee; and those committees into which he was
      admitted, were chosen for affairs which would more interest the zealots
      than the men of business. In comparison of the eloquent speakers and fine
      gentlemen of the house, he was entirely overlooked; and his friend Hambden
      alone was acquainted with the depth of his genius, and foretold that, if a
      civil war should ensue, he would soon rise to eminence and distinction.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell himself seems to have been conscious where his strength lay; and
      partly from that motive, partly from the uncontrollable fury of his zeal,
      he always joined that party which pushed every thing to extremities
      against the king. He was active in promoting the famous remonstrance,
      which was the signal for all the ensuing commotions; and when, after a
      long debate, it was carried by a small majority, he told Lord Falkland,
      that if the question had been lost, he was resolved next day to have
      converted into ready money the remains of his fortune, and immediately to
      have left the kingdom. Nor was this resolution, he said, peculiar to
      himself: many others of his party he knew to be equally determined.
    </p>
    <p>
      He was no less than forty-three years of age when he first embraced the
      military profession; and by force of genius, without any master, he soon
      became an excellent officer; though perhaps he never reached the fame of a
      consummate commander. He raised a troop of horse; fixed his quarters in
      Cambridge; exerted great severity towards that university which zealously
      adhered to the royal party; and showed himself a man who would go all
      lengths in favor of that cause which he had espoused. He would not allow
      his soldiers to perplex their heads with those subtleties of fighting by
      the king's authority against his person, and of obeying his majesty's
      commands signified by both houses of parliament: he plainly told them,
      that if he met the king in battle, he would fire a pistol in his face as
      readily as against any other man. His troop of horse he soon augmented to
      a regiment; and he first instituted that discipline, and inspired that
      spirit, which rendered the parliamentary armies in the end victorious.
      "Your troops," said he to Hambden, according to his own account,[*] "are
      most of them old, decayed serving men and tapsters, and such kind of
      fellows; the king's forces are composed of gentlemen's younger sons and
      persons of good quality. And do you think that the mean spirits of such
      base and low fellows as ours will ever be able to encounter gentlemen,
      that have honor, and courage, and resolution in them? You must get men of
      spirit; and take it not ill that I say, of a spirit that is likely to go
      as far as gentlemen will go, or else I am sure you will still be beaten,
      as you have hitherto been, in every encounter."
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Conference held at Whitehall.
</pre>
    <p>
      He did as he proposed. He enlisted the sons of freeholders and farmers. He
      carefully invited into his regiment all the zealous fanatics throughout
      England. When they were collected in a body, their enthusiastic spirit
      still rose to a higher pitch. Their colonel, from his own natural
      character, as well as from policy, was sufficiently inclined to increase
      the flame. He preached, he prayed, he fought, he punished, he rewarded.
      The wild enthusiasm, together with valor and discipline, still propagated
      itself; and all men cast their eyes on so pious and so successful a
      leader. From low commands, he rose with great rapidity to be really the
      first, though in appearance only the second, in the army. By fraud and
      violence, he soon rendered himself the first in the state. In proportion
      to the increase of his authority, his talents always seemed to expand
      themselves; and he displayed every day new abilities, which had lain
      dormant till the very emergence by which they were called forth into
      action. All Europe stood astonished to see a nation, so turbulent and
      unruly, who, for some doubtful encroachments on their privileges, had
      dethroned and murdered an excellent prince, descended from a long line of
      monarchs, now at last subdued and reduced to slavery by one who, a few
      years before, was no better than a private gentleman, whose name was not
      known in the nation, and who was little regarded even in that low sphere
      to which he had always been confined.
    </p>
    <p>
      The indignation entertained by the people against an authority founded on
      such manifest usurpation, was not so violent as might naturally be
      expected. Congratulatory addresses, the first of the kind, were made to
      Cromwell by the fleet, by the army, even by many of the chief corporations
      and counties of England; but especially by the several congregations of
      saints dispersed throughout the kingdom.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See Milton's State Papers.
</pre>
    <p>
      The royalists, though they could not love the man who had imbrued his
      hands in the blood of their sovereign, expected more lenity from him than
      from the jealous and imperious republicans, who had hitherto governed. The
      Presbyterians were pleased to see those men by whom they had been
      outwitted and expelled, now in their turn expelled and outwitted by their
      own servant; and they applauded him for this last act of violence upon the
      parliament. These two parties composed the bulk of the nation, and kept
      the people in some tolerable temper. All men, likewise, harassed with wars
      and factions, were glad to see any prospect of settlement. And they deemed
      it less ignominious to submit to a person of such admirable talents and
      capacity, than to a few ignoble, enthusiastic hypocrites, who, under the
      name of a republic, had reduced them to a cruel subjection.
    </p>
    <p>
      The republicans, being dethroned by Cromwell, were the party whose
      resentment he had the greatest reason to apprehend. That party, besides
      the Independents, contained two sets of men who are seemingly of the most
      opposite principles, but who were then united by a similitude of genius
      and of character. The first and most numerous were the Millenarians, or
      Fifth Monarchy men, who insisted that, dominion being founded in grace,
      all distinction in magistracy must be abolished, except what arose from
      piety and holiness; who expected suddenly the second coming of Christ upon
      earth; and who pretended, that the saints in the mean while, that is,
      themselves, were alone entitled to govern. The second were the Deists, who
      had no other object than political liberty, who denied entirely the truth
      of revelation, and insinuated, that all the various sects, so heated
      against each other, were alike founded in folly and in error. Men of such
      daring geniuses were not contented with the ancient and legal forms of
      civil government; but challenged a degree of freedom beyond what they
      expected ever to enjoy under any monarchy. Martin, Challoner, Harrington,
      Sidney, Wildman, Nevil, were esteemed the heads of this small division.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Deists were perfectly hated by Cromwell, because he had no hold of
      enthusiasm by which he could govern or overreach them; he therefore
      treated them with great rigor and disdain, and usually denominated them
      the heathens. As the Millenarians had a great interest in the army, it was
      much more important for him to gain their confidence; and their size of
      understanding afforded him great facility in deceiving them. Of late
      years, it had been so usual a topic of conversation to discourse of
      parliaments, and councils, and senates, and the soldiers themselves had
      been so much accustomed to enter into that spirit, that Cromwell thought
      it requisite to establish something which might bear the face of a
      commonwealth. He supposed that God, in his providence, had thrown the
      whole right, as well as power, of government into his hands; and without
      any more ceremony, by the advice of his council of officers, he sent
      summons to a hundred and twenty-eight persons of different towns and
      counties of England, to five of Scotland, to six of Ireland. He pretended
      by his sole act and deed, to devolve upon these the whole authority of the
      state. This legislative power they were to exercise during fifteen months;
      and they were afterwards to choose the same number of persons, who might
      succeed them in that high and important office.
    </p>
    <p>
      There were great numbers at that time who made it a principle always to
      adhere to any power which was uppermost, and to support the established
      government. This maxim is not peculiar to the people of that age; but what
      may be esteemed peculiar to them is, that there prevailed a hypocritical
      phrase for expressing so prudential a conduct: it was called a waiting
      upon providence. When providence, therefore, was so kind as to bestow on
      these men, now assembled together, the supreme authority, they must have
      been very ungrateful, if, in their turn, they had been wanting in
      complaisance towards it. They immediately voted themselves a parliament;
      and having their own consent, as well as that of Oliver Cromwell, for
      their legislative authority, they now proceeded very gravely to the
      exercise of it.
    </p>
    <p>
      In this notable assembly were some persons of the rank of gentlemen; but
      the far greater part were low mechanics; Fifth Monarchy men, Anabaptists,
      Antinomians, Independents; the very dregs of the fanatics. They began with
      seeking God by prayer: this office was performed by eight or ten gifted
      men of the assembly; and with so much success, that, according to the
      confession of all, they had never before, in any of their devotional
      exercises, enjoyed so much of the Holy Spirit as was then communicated to
      them.[*] Their hearts were, no doubt, dilated when they considered the
      high dignity to which they supposed themselves exalted. They had been told
      by Cromwell, in his first discourse, that he never looked to see such a
      day, when Christ should be so owned.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Parl. Hist. vol. xx. p. 182.

     * These are his expressions: "Indeed, I have but one word
     more to say to you, though in that perhaps I shall show my
     weakness: it is by way of encouragement to you in this work;
     give me leave to begin thus: I confess I never looked to
     have seen such a day as this,&mdash;it may be nor you neither,&mdash;
     when Jesus Christ should be so owned as he is at this day
     and in this work. Jesus Christ is owned this day by your
     call, and you own him by your willingness to appear for him,
     and you manifest this (as far as poor creatures can do) to
     be a day of the power of Christ. I know you will remember
     that scripture, 'he makes his people willing in the day of
     his power.' God manifests it to be the day of the power of
     Christ, having through so much blood and so much trial as
     has been upon this nation, he makes this one of the greatest
     mercies, next to his own Son, to have his people called to
     the supreme authority. God hath owned his Son, and hath
     owned you, and hath made you to own him. I confess I never
     looked to have seen such a day: I did not." I suppose at
     this passage he cried; for he was very much given to
     weeping, and could at any time shed abundance of tears. The
     rest of the speech may be seen among Milton's State Papers,
     p. 106. It is very curious, and full of the same obscurity,
     confusion, embarrassment, and absurdity, which appear in
     almost all Oliver's productions.
</pre>
    <p>
      They thought it, therefore, their duty to proceed to a thorough
      reformation, and to pave the way for the reign of the Redeemer, and for
      that great work which, it was expected, the Lord was to bring forth among
      them. All fanatics, being consecrated by their own fond imaginations,
      naturally hear an antipathy to the ecclesiastics, who claim a peculiar
      sanctity, derived merely from their office and priestly character. This
      parliament took into consideration the abolition of the clerical function,
      as savoring of Popery; and the taking away of tithes, which they called a
      relic of Judaism. Learning also and the universities were deemed
      heathenish and unnecessary: the common law was denominated a badge of the
      conquest and of Norman slavery; and they threatened the lawyers with a
      total abrogation of their profession. Some steps were even taken towards
      an abolition of the chancery,[*] the highest court of judicature in the
      kingdom; and the Mosaical law was intended to be established as the sole
      system of English jurisprudence.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      Of all the extraordinary schemes adopted by these legislators, they had
      not leisure to finish any, except that which established the legal
      solemnization of marriage by the civil magistrate alone, without the
      interposition of the clergy. They found themselves exposed to the derision
      of the public. Among the fanatics of the house, there was an active member
      much noted for his long prayers, sermons, and harangues. He was a
      leather-seller in London, his name Praise-God Barebone. This ridiculous
      name, which seems to have been chosen by some poet or allegorist to suit
      so ridiculous a personage struck the fancy of the people; and they
      commonly affixed to this assembly the appellation of Barebone's
      parliament.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 543, 548.

     * Conference held at Whitehall.

     * It was usual for the pretended saints at that time to
     change their names from Henry, Edward, Anthony, William,
     which they regarded as heathenish, into others more
     sanctified and godly: even the New Testament names, James,
     Andrew, John, Peter, were not held in such regard as those
     which were borrowed from the Old Testament, Hezekiah
     Habakkuk, Joshua, Zerobabel. Sometimes a whole godly
     sentence was adopted as a name. Here are the names of a jury
     said to be enclosed in the county of Sussex about that
     time:&mdash;

     Accepted, Trevor of Norsham. Redeemed, Compton of Battle.
     Faint not, Hewit of Heathfield. Make Peace, Heaton of Hare.
     God Reward, Smart of Fivehurst. Standfast on High, Stringer
     of Crowhurst. Earth, Adams of Warbleton. Called, Lower of
     the same. Kill Sin, Pimple of Witham. Return, Spelman of
     Watling. Be Faithful, Joiner of Britling. Fly Debate,
     Roberts of the same. Fight the good Fight of Faith, White of
     Emer. More Fruit, Fowler of East Hadley. Hope for, Bending
     of the same. Graceful, Harding of Lewes. Weep not, Billing
     of the same. Meek, Brewer of Okeham.

     See Brome's Travels into England, p. 279. "Cromwell," says
     Cleveland, "hath beat up his drums clean through the Old
     Testament. You may learn the genealogy of our Savior by the
     names of his regiment. The mustermaster has no other list
     than the first chapter of St. Matthew." The brother of this
     Praise-God Barebone had for name, "If Christ had not died
     for you, you had been damned, Barebone." But the people,
     tired of this long name, retained only the last word, and
     commonly gave him the appellation of Damn'd Barebone.
</pre>
    <p>
      The Dutch ambassadors endeavored to enter into negotiation with this
      parliament; but though Protestants, and even Presbyterians, they met with
      a bad reception from those who pretended to a sanctity so much superior.
      The Hollanders were regarded as worldly-minded men, intent only on
      commerce and industry; whom it was fitting the saints should first
      extirpate, ere they undertook that great work, to which they believed
      themselves destined by Providence, of subduing Antichrist, the man of sin,
      and extending to the uttermost bounds of the earth the kingdom of the
      Redeemer.[*] The ambassadors, finding themselves proscribed, not as
      enemies of England but of Christ, remained in astonishment, and knew not
      which was most to be admired, the implacable spirit or egregious folly of
      these pretended saints.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell began to be ashamed of his legislature. If he ever had any design
      in summoning so preposterous an assembly beyond amusing the populace and
      the army, he had intended to alarm the clergy and lawyers; and he had so
      far succeeded as to make them desire any other government, which might
      secure their professions, now brought in danger by these desperate
      fanatics. Cromwell himself was dissatisfied, that the parliament, though
      they had derived all their authority from him, began to pretend power from
      the Lord,[**] and to insist already on their divine commission. He had
      been careful to summon in his writs several persons entirely devoted to
      him.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. i. p. 273, 591. Also Stubbe, p. 91, 92.

     ** Thurloe, vol. i. p 393
</pre>
    <p>
      By concert, these met early; and it was mentioned by some among them, that
      the sitting of this parliament any longer would be of no service to the
      nation. They hastened, therefore, to Cromwell, along with Rouse, their
      speaker; and, by a formal deed or assignment, restored into his hands that
      supreme authority which they had so lately received from him. General
      Harrison and about twenty more remained in the house; and that they might
      prevent the reign of the saints from coming to an untimely end, they
      placed one Moyer in the chair, and began to draw up protests. They were
      soon interrupted by Colonel White, with a party of soldiers. He asked them
      what they did there. "We are seeking the Lord," said they. "Then you may
      go elsewhere," replied he; "for to my certain knowledge, he has not been
      here these many years."
    </p>
    <p>
      The military being now, in appearance, as well as in reality the sole
      power which prevailed in the nation, Cromwell though fit to indulge a new
      fancy; for he seems not to have had any deliberate plan in all these
      alterations. Lambert, his creature, who, under the appearance of
      obsequiousness to him, indulged in unbounded ambition, proposed, in a
      council of officers, to adopt another scheme of government, and to temper
      the liberty of a commonwealth by the authority of a single person, who
      should be known by the appellation of protector. Without delay, he
      prepared what was called "the instrument of government," containing the
      plan of this new legislature; and as it was supposed to be agreeable to
      the general, it was immediately voted by the council of officers. Cromwell
      was declared protector; and with great solemnity installed in that high
      office.
    </p>
    <p>
      So little were these men endowed with the spirit of legislation, that they
      confessed, or rather boasted, that they had employed only four days in
      drawing this instrument, by which the whole government of three kingdoms
      was pretended to be regulated and adjusted to all succeeding generations.
      There appears no difficulty in believing them, when it is considered how
      crude and undigested a system of civil polity they endeavored to
      establish. The chief articles of the instrument are these: A council was
      appointed, which was not to exceed twenty-one, nor be less than thirteen
      persons. These were to enjoy their office during life or good behavior;
      and in case of a vacancy, the remaining members named three, of whom the
      protector chose one. The protector was appointed supreme magistrate of the
      commonwealth: in his name was all justice to be administered; from him
      were all magistracy and honors derived; he had the power of pardoning all
      crimes, excepting murder and treason; to him the benefit of all
      forfeitures devolved. The right of peace, war, and alliance, rested in him
      but in these particulars he was to act by the advice and with the consent
      of his council. The power of the sword was vested in the protector jointly
      with the parliament, while it was sitting, or with the council of state in
      the intervals. He was obliged to summon a parliament every three years,
      and allow them to sit five months, without adjournment, prorogation, or
      dissolution. The bills which they passed were to be presented to the
      protector for his assent; but if within twenty days it were not obtained,
      they were to become laws by the authority alone of parliament. A standing
      army for Great Britain and Ireland was established, of twenty thousand
      foot and ten thousand horse; and funds were assigned for their support.
      These were not to be diminished without *consent of the protector; and in
      this article alone he assumed a negative, During the intervals of
      parliament, the protector and council had the power of enacting laws,
      which were to be valid till the next meeting of parliament. The
      chancellor, treasurer, admiral, chief governors of Ireland and Scotland,
      and the chief justices of both the benches, must be chosen with the
      approbation of parliament; and in the intervals, with the approbation of
      the council, to be afterwards ratified by parliament. The protector was to
      enjoy his office during life; and on his death, the place was immediately
      to be supplied by the council. This was the instrument of government
      enacted by the council of officers, and solemnly sworn to by Oliver
      Cromwell. The council of state named by the instrument, were fifteen; men
      entirely devoted to the protector, and by reason of the opposition among
      themselves in party and principles, not likely ever to combine against
      him.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell said, that he accepted the dignity of protector, merely that he
      might exert the duty of a constable, and preserve peace in the nation.
      Affairs indeed were brought to that pass, by the furious animosities of
      the several factions, that the extensive authority and even arbitrary
      power of some first magistrate was become a necessary evil, in order to
      keep the people from relapsing into blood and confusion. The Independents
      were too small a party ever to establish a popular government, or intrust
      the nation, where they had so little interest, with the free choice of its
      representatives. The Presbyterians had adopted the violent maxims of
      persecution; incompatible at all times with the peace of society, much
      more with the wild zeal of those numerous sects which prevailed among the
      people. The royalists were so much enraged by the injuries which they had
      suffered, that the other prevailing parties would never submit to them,
      who, they knew, were enabled, merely by the execution of the ancient laws,
      to take severe vengeance upon them. Had Cromwell been guilty of no crime
      but this temporary usurpation, the plea of necessity and public good,
      which he alleged, might be allowed, in every view, a reasonable excuse for
      his conduct.
    </p>
    <p>
      During the variety of ridiculous and distracted scenes which the civil
      government exhibited in England, the military force was exerted with
      vigor, conduct, and unanimity; and never did the kingdom appear more
      formidable to all foreign nations. The English fleet, consisting of a
      hundred sail, and commanded by Monk and Dean, and under them by Pen and
      Lauson, met near the coast of Flanders with the Dutch fleet equally
      numerous, and commanded by Tromp. The two republics were not inflamed by
      any national antipathy, and their interests very little interfered: yet
      few battles have been disputed with more fierce and obstinate courage,
      than were those many naval combats which were fought during this short but
      violent war. The desire of remaining sole lords of the ocean animated
      these states to an honorable emulation against each other. After a battle
      of two days, in the first of which Dean was killed, the Dutch, inferior in
      the size of their ships, were obliged, with great loss, to retire into
      their harbors. Blake, towards the end of the fight, joined his countrymen
      with eighteen sail. The English fleet lay off the coast of Holland, and
      totally interrupted the commerce of that republic.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
      <!-- IMG --></a> <a href="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_734_blake.jpg">ENLARGE</a>
    </p>
    <div class="fig" >
      <img src="https://brian.carnell.com/wiki/_media/etext:d:david-hume-history-of-england-vol-i-part-e-1_734_blake_th.jpg" title="Admiral Blake"
      alt="1-734-blake.jpg Admiral Blake "  /><br />
    </div>
    <p>
      The ambassadors whom the Dutch had sent over to England, gave them hopes
      of peace. But as they could obtain no cessation of hostilities, the
      states, unwilling to suffer any longer the loss and dishonor of being
      blockaded by the enemy, made the utmost efforts to recover their injured
      honor. Never, on any occasion, did the power and vigor of that republic
      appear in a more conspicuous light. In a few weeks, they had repaired and
      manned their fleet; and they equipped some Ships of a larger size than any
      which they had hitherto sent to sea. Tromp issued out, determined again to
      fight the victors, and to die rather than to yield the contest. He met
      with the enemy, commanded by Monk; and both sides immediately rushed into
      the combat. Tromp, gallantly animating his men, with his sword drawn, was
      shot through the heart with a musket ball. This event alone decided the
      battle in favor of the English. Though near thirty ships of the Dutch were
      sunk and taken, they little regarded this loss compared with that of their
      brave admiral.
    </p>
    <p>
      Meanwhile the negotiations of peace were continually advancing. The
      states, overwhelmed with the expense of the war, terrified by their
      losses, and mortified by their defeats, were extremely desirous of an
      accommodation with an enemy whom they found by experience too powerful for
      them. The king having shown an inclination to serve on board their fleet,
      though they expressed their sense of the honor intended them, they
      declined an offer which might inflame the quarrel with the English
      commonwealth. The great obstacle to the peace was found, not to be any
      animosity on the part of the English, but, on the contrary, a desire too
      earnest of union and confederacy. Cromwell had revived the chimerical
      scheme of a coalition with the United Provinces; a total conjunction of
      government, privileges, interests, and councils.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1654.
    </p>
    <p>
      This project appeared so wild to the states, that they wondered any man of
      sense could ever entertain it; and they refused to enter into conferences
      with regard to a proposal which could serve only to delay any practicable
      scheme of accommodation. The peace was at last signed by Cromwell now
      invested with the dignity of protector, and it proves sufficiently, that
      the war had been impolitic, since, after the most signal victories, no
      terms more advantageous could be obtained. A defensive league was made
      between the two republics. They agreed, each of them, to banish the
      enemies of the other: those who had been concerned in the massacre of
      Amboyna were to be punished, if any remained alive; the honor of the flag
      was yielded to the English: eighty-five thousand pounds were stipulated to
      be paid by the Dutch East India Company for losses which the English
      Company had sustained; and the Island of Polerone, in the East Indies was
      promised to be ceded to the latter.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell, jealous of the connections between the royal family and that of
      Orange, insisted on a separate article; that neither the young prince nor
      any of his family should ever be invested with the dignity of stadtholder.
      The province of Holland, strongly prejudiced against that office, which
      they esteemed dangerous to liberty, secretly ratified this article. The
      protector, knowing that the other provinces would not be induced to make
      such a concession, was satisfied with this security.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Dutch war, being successful, and the peace reasonable brought credit
      to Cromwell's administration. An act of justice, which he exercised at
      home, gave likewise satisfaction to the people: though the regularity of
      it may perhaps appear somewhat doubtful. Don Pantaleon, brother to the
      Portuguese ambassador, and joined with him in the same commission,[*]
      fancying himself to be insulted, came upon the exchange, armed and
      attended by several servants. By mistake, he fell on a gentleman whom he
      took for the person that had given him the offence; and having butchered
      him with many wounds, he and all his attendants took shelter in the house
      of the Portuguese ambassador, who had connived at this base
      enterprise.[**] The populace surrounded the house, and threatened to set
      fire to it. Cromwell sent a guard, who seized all the criminals. They were
      brought to trial; and notwithstanding the opposition of the ambassador,
      who pleaded the privileges of his office, Don Pantaleon was executed on
      Tower Hill. The laws of nations were here plainly violated; but the crime
      committed by the Portuguese gentleman was to the last degree atrocious;
      and the vigorous chastisement of it, suiting so well the undaunted
      character of Cromwell, was universally approved of at home, and admired
      among foreign nations. The situation of Portugal obliged that court to
      acquiesce; and the ambassador soon after signed, with the protector, a
      treaty of peace and alliance, which was very advantageous to the English
      commerce.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. ii. p. 429.

     ** Thurloe, vol. i. p. 616.
</pre>
    <p>
      Another act of severity, but necessary in his situation, was, at the very
      same time, exercised by the protector, in the capital punishment of Gerard
      and Vowel, two royalists, who were accused of conspiring against his life.
      He had erected a high court of justice for their trial; an infringement of
      the ancient laws which at this time was become familiar, but one to which
      no custom or precedent could reconcile the nation. Juries were found
      altogether unmanageable. The restless Lilburn, for new offences, had been
      brought to a new trial; and had been acquitted with new triumph and
      exultation. If no other method of conviction had been devised during this
      illegal and unpopular government, all its enemies were assured of entire
      impunity.
    </p>
    <p>
      The protector had occasion to observe the prejudices entertained against
      his government, by the disposition of the parliament, which he summoned on
      the third of September, that day of the year on which he gained his two
      great victories of Dunbar and Worcester, and which he always regarded as
      fortunate for him. It must be confessed that, if we are left to gather
      Cromwell's intentions from his instrument of government, it is such a
      motley piece, that we cannot easily conjecture whether he seriously meant
      to establish a tyranny or a republic. On one hand, a first magistrate in
      so extensive a government seemed necessary both for the dignity and
      tranquillity of the state; and the authority which he assumed as protector
      was, in some respects, inferior to the prerogatives which the laws
      intrusted and still intrust to the king. On the other hand, the
      legislative power which he reserved to himself and council, together with
      so great an army, independent of the parliament, were bad prognostics of
      his intention to submit to a civil and legal constitution. But if this
      were not his intention, the method in which he distributed and conducted
      the elections, being so favorable to liberty, form an inconsistency which
      is not easily accounted for. He deprived of their right of election all
      the small boroughs, places the most exposed to influence and corruption.
      Of four hundred members which represented England, two hundred and seventy
      were chosen by the counties. The rest were elected by London, and the more
      considerable corporations. The lower populace too, so easily guided or
      deceived, were excluded from the elections: an estate of two hundred
      pounds' value was necessary to entitle any one to a vote. The elections of
      this parliament were conducted with perfect freedom; and, excepting that
      such of the royalists as had borne arms against the parliament and all
      their sons were excluded, a more fair representation of the people could
      not be desired or expected. Thirty members were returned from Scotland; as
      many from Ireland.
    </p>
    <p>
      The protector seems to have been disappointed, when he found that all
      these precautions, which were probably nothing but covers to his ambition,
      had not procured him the confidence of the public. Though Cromwell's
      administration was less odious to every party than that of any other
      party, yet was it entirely acceptable to none. The royalists had been
      instructed by the king to remain quiet, and to cover themselves under the
      appearance of republicans; and they found in this latter faction such
      inveterate hatred against the protector, that they could not wish for more
      zealous adversaries to his authority. It was maintained by them, that the
      pretence of liberty and a popular election was but a new artifice of this
      great deceiver, in order to lay asleep the deluded nation, and give
      himself leisure * rivet their chains more securely upon them: that in the
      instrument of government he openly declared his intention of still
      retaining the same mercenary army, by whose assistance he had subdued the
      ancient established government, and who would with less scruple obey him
      in overturning, whenever he should please to order them, that new system
      which he himself had been pleased to model: that being sensible of the
      danger and uncertainty of all military government, he endeavored to
      intermix some appearance, and but an appearance, of civil administration,
      and to balance the army by a seeming consent of the people: that the
      absurd trial which he had made of a parliament, elected by himself,
      appointed perpetually to elect their successors, plainly proved, that he
      aimed at nothing but temporary expedients, was totally averse to a free
      republican government, and possessed not that mature and deliberate
      reflection which could qualify him to act the part of a legislator: that
      his imperious character, which had betrayed itself in so many incidents,
      could never seriously submit to legal limitations; nor would the very
      image of popular government be longer upheld than while conformable to his
      arbitrary will and pleasure: and that the best policy was to oblige him to
      take off the mask at once; and either submit entirely to that parliament
      which he had summoned, or, by totally rejecting its authority, leave
      himself no resource but in his seditious and enthusiastic army.
    </p>
    <p>
      In prosecution of these views, the parliament, having heard the
      protector's speech, three hours long,[*] and having chosen Lenthal for
      their speaker, immediately entered into a discussion of the pretended
      instrument of government, and of that authority which Cromwell, by the
      title of protector, had assumed over the nation.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. ii. p. 588.
</pre>
    <p>
      The greatest liberty was used in arraigning this new dignity; and even the
      personal character and conduct of Cromwell escaped not without censure.
      The utmost that could be obtained by the officers and by the court party,&mdash;-for
      so they were called,&mdash;was to protract the debate by arguments and
      long speeches, and prevent the decision of a question which, they were
      sensible, would be carried against them by a great majority. The
      protector, surprised and enraged at this refractory spirit in the
      parliament, which, however, he had so much reason to expect, sent for them
      to the painted chamber, and with an air of great authority inveighed
      against their conduct. He told them, that nothing could be more absurd
      than for them to dispute his title; since the same instrument of
      government which made them a parliament, had invested him with the
      protectorship: that some points in the new constitution were supposed to
      be fundamentals, and were not, on any pretence, to be altered or disputed:
      that among these were the government of the nation by a single person and
      a parliament, their joint authority over the army and militia, the
      succession of new parliaments, and liberty of conscience: and that, with
      regard to these particulars, there was reserved to him a negative voice;
      to which, in the other circumstances of government, he confessed himself
      nowise entitled.
    </p>
    <p>
      The protector now found the necessity of exacting a security, which, had
      he foreseen the spirit of the house, he would with better grace have
      required at their first meeting.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol ii. p. 620.
</pre>
    <p>
      He obliged the members to sign a recognition of his authority, and an
      engagement not to propose or consent to any alteration in the government,
      as it was settled in a single person and a parliament; and he placed
      guards at the door of the house, who allowed none but subscribers to
      enter. Most of the members, after some hesitation, submitted to this
      condition; but retained the same refractory spirit which they had
      discovered in their first debates. The instrument of government was taken
      in pieces, and examined, article by article, with the most scrupulous
      accuracy: very free topics were advanced with the general approbation of
      the house: and during the whole course of their proceedings, they neither
      sent up one bill to the protector, nor took any notice of him. Being
      informed that conspiracies were entered into between the members and some
      malecontent officers, he hastened to the dissolution of so dangerous an
      assembly. By the instrument of government, to which he had sworn, no
      parliament could be dissolved till it had sitten five months; but Cromwell
      pretended, that a month contained only twenty-eight days, according to the
      method of computation practised in paying the fleet and army. The full
      time, therefore, according to this reckoning, being elapsed, the
      parliament was ordered to attend the protector, who made them a tedious,
      confused, angry harangue, and dismissed them.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1655.
    </p>
    <p>
      Were we to judge of Cromwell's capacity by this, and indeed by all his
      other compositions, we should be apt to entertain no very favorable idea
      of it. But in the great variety of human geniuses, there are some which,
      though they see their object clearly and distinctly in general, yet, when
      they come to unfold its parts by discourse or writing, lose that luminous
      conception which they had before attained. All accounts agree in ascribing
      to Cromwell a tiresome, dark, unintelligible elocution, even when he had
      no intention to disguise his meaning: yet no man's actions were ever, in
      such a variety of difficult incidents, more decisive and judicious.
    </p>
    <p>
      The electing of a discontented parliament is a proof of a discontented
      nation: the angry and abrupt dissolution of that parliament is always sure
      to increase the general discontent. The members of this assembly,
      returning to their counties, propagated that spirit of mutiny which they
      had exerted in the house. Sir Harry Vane and the old republicans, who
      maintained the indissoluble authority of the long parliament, encouraged
      the murmurs against the present usurpation; though they acted so
      cautiously as to give the protector no handle against them. Wildman and
      some others of that party carried still further their conspiracies against
      the protector's authority. The royalists, observing this general ill will
      towards the establishment, could no longer be retained in subjection; but
      fancied that every one who was dissatisfied like them, had also embraced
      the same views and inclinations. They did not consider, that the old
      parliamentary party, though many of them were displeased with Cromwell,
      who had dispossessed them of their power, were still more apprehensive of
      any success to the royal cause; whence, besides a certain prospect of the
      same consequence, they had so much reason to dread the severest vengeance
      for their past transgressions.
    </p>
    <p>
      In concert with the king, a conspiracy was entered into by the royalists
      throughout England, and a day of general rising appointed. Information of
      this design was conveyed to Cromwell. The protector's administration was
      extremely vigilant. Thurloe, his secretary, had spies every where.
      Manning, who had access to the king's family, kept a regular
      correspondence with him; and it was not difficult to obtain intelligence
      of a confederacy so generally diffused, among a party who valued
      themselves more on zeal and courage, than on secrecy and sobriety Many of
      the royalists were thrown into prison. Others, on the approach of the day,
      were terrified with the danger of the undertaking, and remained at home.
      In one place alone the conspiracy broke into action. Penruddoc, Groves,
      Jones, and other gentlemen of the west, entered Salisbury with about two
      hundred horse, at the very time when the sheriff and judges were holding
      the assizes. These they made prisoners; and they proclaimed the king.
      Contrary to their expectations, they received no accession of force; so
      prevalent was the terror of the established government. Having in vain
      wandered about for some time, they were totally discouraged; and one troop
      of horse was able at last to suppress them. The leaders of the conspiracy,
      being taken prisoners, were capitally punished. The rest were sold for
      slaves, and transported to Barbadoes.
    </p>
    <p>
      The easy subduing of this insurrection, which, by the boldness of the
      undertaking, struck at first a great terror into the nation, was a
      singular felicity to the protector; who could not, without danger, have
      brought together any considerable body of his mutinous army in order to
      suppress it. The very insurrection itself he regarded as a fortunate
      event; since it proved the reality of those conspiracies which his enemies
      on every occasion represented as mere fictions, invented to color his
      tyrannical severities. He resolved to keep no longer any terms with the
      royalists, who, though they were not perhaps the most implacable of his
      enemies, were those whom he could oppress under the most plausible
      pretences, and who met with least countenance and protection from his
      adherents. He issued an edict, with the consent of his council, for
      exacting the tenth penny from that whole party; in order, as he pretended,
      to make them pay the expenses to which their mutinous disposition
      continually exposed the public. Without regard to compositions, articles
      of capitulation, or acts of indemnity, all the royalists, however harassed
      with former oppressions, were obliged anew to redeem themselves by great
      sums of money; and many of them were reduced by these multiplied disasters
      to extreme poverty. Whoever was known to be disaffected, or even lay under
      any suspicion, though no guilt could be proved against him, was exposed to
      the new exaction.
    </p>
    <p>
      In order to raise this imposition, which commonly passed by the name of
      decimation, the protector instituted twelve major-generals; and divided
      the whole kingdom of England into so many military jurisdictions.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Parl. Hist. vol. xx. p. 433.
</pre>
    <p>
      These men, assisted by commissioners, had power to subject whom they
      pleased to decimation, to levy all the taxes imposed by the protector and
      his council, and to imprison any person who should be exposed to their
      jealousy or suspicion; nor was there any appeal from them but to the
      protector himself and his council. Under color of these powers, which were
      sufficiently exorbitant, the major-generals exercised an authority still
      more arbitrary, and acted as if absolute masters of the property and
      person of every subject. All reasonable men now concluded, that the very
      mask of liberty was thrown aside, and that the nation was forever
      subjected to military and despotic government, exercised not in the legal
      manner of European nations, but according to the maxims of Eastern
      tyranny. Not only the supreme magistrate owed his authority to illegal
      force and usurpation; he had parcelled out the people into so many
      subdivisions of slavery, and had delegated to his inferior ministers the
      same unlimited authority which he himself had so violently assumed.
    </p>
    <p>
      A government totally military and despotic, is almost sure, after some
      time, to fall into impotence and languor: but when it immediately succeeds
      a legal constitution, it may, at first, to foreign nations appear very
      vigorous and active, and may exert with more unanimity that power, spirit,
      and riches, which had been acquired under a better form. It seems now
      proper, after so long an interval, to look abroad to the general state of
      Europe, and to consider the measures which England at this time embraced
      in its negotiations with the neighboring princes. The moderate temper and
      unwarlike genius of the two last princes, the extreme difficulties under
      which they labored at home, and the great security which they enjoyed from
      foreign enemies, had rendered them negligent of the transactions on the
      continent; and England, during their reigns, had been, in a manner,
      overlooked in the general system of Europe. The bold and restless genius
      of the protector led him to extend his alliances and enterprises to every
      part of Christendom; and partly from the ascendant of his magnanimous
      spirit, partly from the situation of foreign kingdoms, the weight of
      England, even under its most legal and bravest princes, was never more
      sensibly felt than during this unjust and violent usurpation.
    </p>
    <p>
      A war of thirty years, the most signal and most destructive that had
      appeared in modern annals, was at last finished in Germany,[*] and by the
      treaty of Westphalia, were composed those fatal quarrels which had been
      excited by the palatine's precipitate acceptance of the crown of Bohemia.
      The young palatine was restored to part of his dignities and of his
      dominions.[**] The rights, privileges, and authority of the several
      members of the Germanic body were fixed and ascertained: sovereign princes
      and free states were in some degree reduced to obedience under laws: and
      by the valor of the heroic Gustavus, the enterprises of the active
      Richelieu, the intrigues of the artful Mazarine, was in part effected,
      after an infinite expense of blood and treasure, which had been fondly
      expected and loudly demanded from the feeble efforts of the pacific James,
      seconded by the scanty supplies of his jealous parliaments.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * In 1648.

     ** This prince, during the civil wars, had much neglected
     his uncle, and paid court to the parliament; he accepted of
     a pension of eight thousand pounds a year from them, and
     took a place in their assembly of divines.
</pre>
    <p>
      Sweden, which had acquired by conquest large dominions in the north of
      Germany, was engaged in enterprises which promised her, from her success
      and valor, still more extensive acquisitions on the side both of Poland
      and of Denmark. Charles X., who had mounted the throne of that kingdom
      after the voluntary resignation of Christina, being stimulated by the fame
      of Gustavus, as well as by his own martial disposition, carried his
      conquering arms to the south of the Baltic, and gained the celebrated
      battle of Warsaw, which had been obstinately disputed during the space of
      three days. The protector, at the time his alliance was courted by every
      power in Europe, anxiously courted the alliance of Sweden; and he was fond
      of forming a confederacy with a Protestant power of such renown, even
      though it threatened the whole north with conquest and subjection.
    </p>
    <p>
      The transactions of the parliament and protector with France had been
      various and complicated. The emissaries of Richelieu had furnished fuel to
      the flame of rebellion, when it first broke out in Scotland; but after the
      conflagration had diffused itself, the French court, observing the
      materials to be of themselves sufficiently combustible, found it
      unnecessary any longer to animate the British malecontents to an
      opposition of their sovereign. On the contrary, they offered their
      mediation for composing these intestine disorders; and their ambassadors,
      from decency, pretended to act in concert with the court of England, and
      to receive directions from a prince with whom their master was connected
      by so near an affinity. Meanwhile Richelieu died, and soon after him the
      French king, Louis XIII., leaving his son, an infant four years old, and
      his widow, Anne of Austria, regent of the kingdom. Cardinal Mazarine
      succeeded Richelieu in the ministry; and the same general plan of policy,
      though by men of such opposite characters, was still continued in the
      French councils. The establishment of royal authority, the reduction of
      the Austrian family, were pursued with ardor and success; and every year
      brought an accession of force and grandeur to the French monarchy. Not
      only battles were won, towns and fortresses taken; the genius too of the
      nation seemed gradually to improve, and to compose itself to the spirit of
      dutiful obedience and of steady enterprise. A Condé, a Turenne were
      formed; and the troops, animated by their valor, and guided by their
      discipline, acquired every day a greater ascendant over the Spaniards. All
      of a sudden, from some intrigues of the court, and some discontents in the
      courts of judicature, intestine commotions were excited, and every thing
      relapsed into confusion. But these rebellions of the French, neither
      ennobled by the spirit of liberty, nor disgraced by the fanatical
      extravagancies which distinguished the British civil wars, were conducted
      with little bloodshed, and made but a small impression on the minds of the
      people. Though seconded by the force of Spain, and conducted by the prince
      of Condé, the malecontents in a little time were either expelled or
      subdued; and the French monarchy, having lost a few of its conquests,
      returned with fresh vigor to the acquisition of new dominion.
    </p>
    <p>
      The queen of England and her son Charles, during these commotions, passed
      most of their time at Paris; and notwithstanding their near connection of
      blood, received but few civilities, and still less support, from the
      French court. Had the queen regent been ever so much inclined to assist
      the English prince, the disorders of her own affairs would, for a long
      time, have rendered such intentions impracticable. The banished queen had
      a moderate pension assigned her; but it was so ill paid, and her credit
      ran so low, that, one morning, when the cardinal De Retz waited on her,
      she informed him that her daughter, the princess Henrietta, was obliged to
      lie abed for want of a fire to warm her. To such a condition was reduced,
      in the midst of Paris, a queen of England, and daughter of Henry IV. of
      France.
    </p>
    <p>
      The English parliament, however, having assumed the sovereignty of the
      state, resented the countenance, cold as it was, which the French court
      gave to the unfortunate monarch. On pretence of injuries of which the
      English merchants complained, they issued letters of reprisal upon the
      French; and Blake went so far as to attack and seize a whole squadron of
      ships which were carrying supplies to Dunkirk, then closely besieged by
      the Spaniards. That town, disappointed of these supplies, fell into the
      hands of the enemy. The French ministers soon found it necessary to change
      their measures. They treated Charles with such affected indifference, that
      he thought it more decent to withdraw, and prevent the indignity of being
      desired to leave the kingdom. He went first to Spaw, thence he retired to
      Cologne; where he lived two years, on a small pension, about six thousand
      pounds a year, paid him by the court of France, and on some contributions
      sent him by his friends in England. In the management of his family he
      discovered a disposition to order and economy; and his temper, cheerful,
      careless, and sociable, was more than a sufficient compensation for that
      empire of which his enemies had bereaved him. Sir Edward Hyde, created
      lord chancellor, and the marquis of Ormond, were his chief friends and
      confidants.
    </p>
    <p>
      If the French ministry had thought it prudent to bend under the English
      parliament, they deemed it still more necessary to pay deference to the
      protector, when he assumed the reins of government. Cardinal Mazarine, by
      whom all the counsels of France were directed, was artful and vigilant,
      supple and patient, false and intriguing; desirous rather to prevail by
      dexterity than violence, and placing his honor more in the final success
      of his measures, than in the splendor and magnanimity of the means which
      he employed. Cromwell, by his imperious character, rather than by the
      advantage of his situation, acquired an ascendant over this man; and every
      proposal made by the protector, however unreasonable in itself, and urged
      with whatever insolence, met with a ready compliance from the politic and
      timid cardinal. Bourdeaux was sent over to England as minister; and all
      circumstances of respect were paid to the daring usurper, who had imbrued
      his hands in the blood of his sovereign, a prince so nearly related to the
      royal family of France. With indefatigable patience did Bourdeaux conduct
      this negotiation, which Cromwell seemed entirely to neglect; and though
      privateers with English commission committed daily depredations on the
      French commerce, Mazarine was content, in hopes of a fortunate issue,
      still to submit to these indignities.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. iii. p. 103, 619, 653. In the treaty, which
     was signed after long negotiation, the protector's name was
     inserted before the French king's in that copy which
     remained in England. Thurloe vol. vi. p. 116 See further,
     vol. vii. p. 178.
</pre>
    <p>
      The court of Spain, less connected with the unfortunate royal family, and
      reduced to greater distress than the French monarchy, had been still more
      forward in her advances to the prosperous parliament and protector. Don
      Alonzo de Cardenas, the Spanish envoy, was the first public minister who
      recognized the authority of the new republic; and in return for this
      civility, Ascham was sent envoy into Spain by the parliament. No sooner
      had this minister arrived in Madrid, than some of the banished royalists,
      inflamed by that inveterate hatred which animated the English factions,
      broke into his chamber, and murdered him together with his secretary.
      Immediately they took sanctuary in the churches; and, assisted by the
      general favor which every where attended the royal cause, were enabled,
      most of them, to make their escape. Only one of the criminals suffered
      death; and the parliament seemed to rest satisfied with this atonement.
    </p>
    <p>
      Spain, at this time, assailed every where by vigorous enemies from
      without, and laboring under many internal disorders, retained nothing of
      her former grandeur, except the haughty pride of her counsels, and the
      hatred and jealousy of her neighbors. Portugal had rebelled, and
      established her monarchy in the house of Braganza: Catalonia, complaining
      of violated privileges, had revolted to France: Naples was shaken with
      popular convulsions: the Low Countries were invaded with superior forces,
      and seemed ready to change their master: the Spanish infantry, anciently
      so formidable, had been annihilated by Condé in the fields of Rocroy: and
      though the same prince, banished France, sustained by his activity and
      valor the falling fortunes of Spain, he could only hope to protract, not
      prevent, the ruin with which that monarchy was visibly threatened.
    </p>
    <p>
      Had Cromwell understood and regarded the interests of his country, he
      would have supported the declining condition of Spain against the
      dangerous ambition of France, and preserved that balance of power on which
      the greatness and security of England so much depend. Had he studied only
      his own interests, he would have maintained an exact neutrality between
      those great monarchies; nor would he have hazarded his ill-acquired and
      unsettled power by provoking foreign enemies who might lend assistance to
      domestic faction, and overturn his tottering throne. But his magnanimity
      undervalued danger; his active disposition and avidity of extensive glory
      made him incapable of repose: and as the policy of men is continually
      warped by their temper, no sooner was peace made with Holland, than he
      began to deliberate what new enemy he should invade with his victorious
      arms.
    </p>
    <p>
      The extensive empire and yet extreme weakness of Spain in the West Indies,
      the vigorous courage and great naval power of England, were circumstances
      which, when compared, excited the ambition of the enterprising protector,
      and made him hope that he might, by some gainful conquest, render forever
      illustrious that dominion which he had assumed over his country. Should he
      fail of these durable acquisitions, the Indian treasures, which must every
      year cross the ocean to reach Spain, were, he thought, a sure prey to the
      English navy, and would support his military force without his laying new
      burdens on the discontented people. From France a vigorous resistance must
      be expected: no plunder, no conquests could be hoped for: the progress of
      his arms, even if attended with success, must there be slow and gradual;
      and the advantages acquired, however real, would be less striking to the
      multitude, whom it was his interest to allure. The royal family, so
      closely connected with the French monarch, might receive great assistance
      from that neighboring kingdom; and an army of French Protestants landed in
      England would be able, he dreaded, to unite the most opposite factions
      against the present usurpation.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      These motives of policy were probably seconded by his bigoted prejudices;
      as no human mind ever contained so strange a mixture of sagacity and
      absurdity as that of this extraordinary personage. The Swedish alliance,
      though much contrary to the interests of England, he had contracted merely
      from his zeal for Protestantism;[**] and Sweden being closely connected
      with France, he could not hope to maintain that confederacy, in which he
      so much prided himself, should a rupture ensue between England and this
      latter kingdom.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See the account of the negotiations with France and Spain
     by Thurloe, vol. i. p. 759.

     ** He proposed to Sweden a general league and confederacy of
     all the Protestants. Whitlocke, p. 620. Thurloe, vol. vii.
     p. 1. In order to judge of the maxims by which he conducted
     his foreign politics see, further, Thurloe, vol. iv. p. 295,
     343, 443; vol. vii. p. 174.

     *** Thurloe, vol. i. p. 759.
</pre>
    <p>
      The Hugonots, he expected, would meet with better treatment while he
      engaged in a close union with their sovereign.[*] And as the Spaniards
      were much more Papists than the French, were much more exposed to the old
      Puritanical hatred,[**] and had even erected the bloody tribunal of the
      inquisition, whose rigors they had refused to mitigate on Cromwell's
      solicitation,[***] he hoped that a holy and meritorious war with such
      idolaters could not fail of protection from Heaven.[****] A preacher,
      likewise, inspired as was supposed by a prophetic spirit, bid him "go and
      prosper;" calling him "a stone cut out of the mountains without hands,
      that would break the pride of the Spaniard, crush Antichrist, and make way
      for the purity of the gospel over the whole world."[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. i. p. 759.

     ** Thurloe, vol. i. p. 759.

     *** Thurloe, vol. i. p. 759. Don Alonzo said, that the
     Indian trade and the inquisition were his master's two eyes,
     and the protector insisted upon the putting out both of them
     at once.

     **** Carrington, p. 191.

     v    Bates.
</pre>
    <p>
      Actuated equally by these bigoted, these ambitious, and these interested
      motives, the protector equipped two considerable squadrons; and while he
      was making those preparations, the neighboring states, ignorant of his
      intentions, remained in suspense, and looked with anxious expectation on
      what side the storm should discharge itself. One of these squadrons,
      consisting of thirty capital ships, was sent into the Mediterranean under
      Blake, whose fame was now spread over Europe. No English fleet, except
      during the crusades, had ever before sailed in those seas; and from one
      extremity to the other there was no naval force, Christian or Mahometan,
      able to resist them. The Roman pontiff, whose weakness and whose pride
      equally provoked attacks, dreaded invasion from a power which professed
      the most inveterate enmity against him, and which so little regulated its
      movements by the usual motives of interest and prudence. Blake, casting
      anchor before Leghorn, demanded and obtained from the duke of Tuscany
      reparation for some losses which the English commerce had formerly
      sustained from him. He next sailed to Algiers, and compelled the dey to
      make peace, and to restrain his piratical subjects from further violences
      on the English. He presented himself before Tunis; and having there made
      the same demands, the dey of that republic bade him look to the castles of
      Porto-Farino and Goletta, and do his utmost. Blake needed not to be roused
      by such a bravado: he drew his ships close up to the castles, and tore
      them in pieces with his artillery. He sent a numerous detachment of
      sailors in their long boats into the harbor, and burned every ship which
      lay there. This bold action, which its very temerity perhaps rendered
      safe, was executed with little loss, and filled all that part of the world
      with the renown of English valor.
    </p>
    <p>
      The other squadron was not equally successful. It was commanded by Pen,
      and carried on board four thousand men under the command of Venables.
      About five thousand more joined them from Barbadoes and St. Christopher's.
      Both these officers were inclined to the king's service;[*] and it is
      pretended that Cromwell was obliged to hurry the soldiers on board, in
      order to prevent the execution of a conspiracy which had been formed among
      them in favor of the exiled family.[**] The ill success of this enterprise
      may justly be ascribed as much to the injudicious schemes of the protector
      who planned it, as to the bad execution of the officers by whom it was
      conducted. The soldiers were the refuse of the whole army: the forces
      enlisted in the West Indies were the most profligate of mankind: Pen and
      Venables were of incompatible tempers: the troops were not furnished with
      arms fit for such an expedition: their provisions were defective both in
      quantity and quality: all hopes of pillage, the best incentive to valor
      among such men, were refused the soldiers and seamen: no directions or
      intelligence were given to conduct the officers in then enterprise: and at
      the same time they were tied down to follow the advice of commissioners,
      who disconcerted them in all their projects.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon.

     * Vita de Berwici, p. 124

     ** Burchet's Naval History. See also Carte's Collection,
     vol. ii. p. 46, 47. Thurloe, vol. iii. p. 505.
</pre>
    <p>
      It was agreed by the admiral and general to attempt St. Domingo, the only
      place of strength in the Island of Hispaniola. On the approach of the
      English, the Spaniards in a fright deserted their houses, and fled into
      the woods. Contrary to the opinion of Venables, the soldiers were
      disembarked without guides ten leagues distant from the town. They
      wandered four days through the woods without provisions, and was still
      more intolerable in that sultry climate, without water. The Spaniards
      recovered spirit, and attacked them. The English, discouraged with the bad
      conduct of their officers and scarcely alive from hunger, thirst, and
      fatigue, were unable to resist. An inconsiderable number of the enemy put
      the whole army to rout, killed six hundred of them, and chased the rest on
      board their vessels.
    </p>
    <p>
      The English commanders, in order to atone as much as possible for this
      unprosperous attempt, bent their course to Jamaica, which was surrendered
      to them without a blow. Pen and Venables returned to England, and were
      both of them sent to the Tower by the protector, who, though commonly
      master of his fiery temper, was thrown into a violent passion at this
      disappointment. He had made a conquest of greater importance than he was
      himself at that time aware of; yet was it much inferior to the vast
      projects which he had formed. He gave orders, however, to support it by
      men and money; and that island has ever since remained in the hands of the
      English; the chief acquisition which they owe to the enterprising spirit
      of Cromwell.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1656.
    </p>
    <p>
      As soon as the news of this expedition, which was an unwarrantable
      violation of treaty, arrived in Europe, the Spaniards declared war against
      England, and seized all the ships and goods of English merchants, of which
      they could make themselves masters. The commerce with Spain, so profitable
      to the English, was cut off; and near fifteen hundred vessels, it is
      computed,[*] fell in a few years into the hands of the enemy. Blake, to
      whom Montague was now joined in command, after receiving new orders,
      prepared himself for hostilities against the Spaniards.
    </p>
    <p>
      Several sea officers, having entertained scruples of conscience with
      regard to the justice of the Spanish war, threw up their commissions, and
      retired.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. iv. p. 135. World's Mistake in Oliver
     Cromwell in the Harl. Miscel. vol. i.

     ** Thurloe. vol. iv. p. 670, 688.
</pre>
    <p>
      No commands, they thought, of their superiors could justify a war which
      was contrary to the principles of natural equity, and which the civil
      magistrate had no right to order. Individuals, they maintained, in
      resigning to the public their natural liberty, could bestow on it only
      what they themselves were possessed of, a right of performing lawful
      actions, and could invest it with no authority of commanding what is
      contrary to the decrees of Heaven. Such maxims, though they seem
      reasonable, are perhaps too perfect for human nature; and must be regarded
      as one effect, though of the most innocent and even honorable kind, of
      that spirit, partly fanatical, partly republican, which predominated in
      England.
    </p>
    <p>
      Blake lay some time off Cadiz, in expectation of intercepting the Plate
      fleet, but was at last obliged, for want of water, to make sail towards
      Portugal. Captain Stayner, whom he had left on the coast with a squadron
      of seven vessels, came in sight of the galleons, and immediately set sail
      to pursue them. The Spanish admiral ran his ship ashore: two others
      followed his example: the English took two ships, valued at near two
      millions of pieces of eight. Two galleons were set on fire; and the
      marquis of Badajox, viceroy of Peru, with his wife, and his daughter,
      betrothed to the young duke of Medina Celi, were destroyed in them. The
      marquis himself might have escaped; but seeing these unfortunate women,
      astonished with the danger, fall in a swoon, and perish in the flames, he
      rather chose to die with them, than drag out a life imbittered with the
      remembrance of such dismal scenes.[*] When the treasures gained by this
      enterprise arrived at Portsmouth, the protector, from a spirit of
      ostentation, ordered them to be transported by land to London.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. v. p. 433.
</pre>
    <p>
      The next action against the Spaniards was more honorable, though less
      profitable, to the nation. Blake, having heard that a Spanish fleet of
      sixteen ships, much richer than the former, had taken shelter in the
      Canaries, immediately made sail towards them. He found them in the Bay of
      Santa Cruz, disposed in a formidable posture. The bay was secured with a
      strong castle, well provided with cannon, besides seven forts in several
      parts of it, all united by a line of communication, manned with
      musketeers. Don Diego Diagues, the Spanish admiral, ordered all his
      smaller vessels to moor close to the shore, and posted the larger galleons
      farther off, at anchor, with their broadsides to the sea.
    </p>
    <p>
      Blake was rather animated than daunted with this appearance. The wind
      seconded his courage, and blowing full into the bay, in a moment brought
      him among the thickest of his enemies. After a resistance of four hours,
      the Spaniards yielded to English valor, and abandoned their ships, which
      were set on fire, and consumed with all their treasure. The greatest
      danger still remained to the English. They lay under the fire of the
      castle and all the forts, which must in a little time have torn them in
      pieces. But the wind, suddenly shifting, carried them out of the bay;
      where they left the Spaniards in astonishment at the happy temerity of
      their audacious victors.
    </p>
    <p>
      This was the last and greatest action of the gallant Blake. He was
      consumed with a dropsy and scurvy, and hastened home, that he might yield
      up his breath in his native country, which he had so much adorned by his
      valor. As he came within sight of land, he expired.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * 20th of April, 1657.
</pre>
    <p>
      Never man, so zealous for a faction, was so much respected and esteemed
      even by the opposite factions. He was by principle an inflexible
      republican; and the late usurpations, amidst all the trust and caresses
      which he received from the ruling powers, were thought to be very little
      grateful to him. "It is still our duty," he said to the seamen, "to fight
      for our country, into what hands soever the government may fall."
      Disinterested, generous, liberal; ambitious only of true glory, dreadful
      only to his avowed enemies; he forms one of the most perfect characters of
      the age, and the least stained with those errors and violences which were
      then so predominant. The protector ordered him a pompous funeral at the
      public charge: but the tears of his countrymen were the most honorable
      panegyric on his memory.
    </p>
    <p>
      The conduct of the protector in foreign affairs, though imprudent and
      impolitic, was full of vigor and enterprise, and drew a consideration to
      his country, which, since the reign of Elizabeth, it seemed to have
      totally lost. The great mind of this successful usurper was intent on
      spreading the renown of the English nation; and while he struck mankind
      with astonishment at his extraordinary fortune, he seemed to ennoble
      instead of debasing, that people whom he had reduced to subjection. It was
      his boast, that he would render the name of an Englishman as much feared
      and revered as ever was that of a Roman; and as his countrymen found some
      reality in these pretensions, their national vanity, being gratified, made
      them bear with more patience all the indignities and calamities under
      which they labored.
    </p>
    <p>
      It must also be acknowledged, that the protector, in his civil and
      domestic administration, displayed as great regard both to justice and
      clemency, as his usurped authority, derived from no law, and founded only
      on the sword, could possibly permit. All the chief offices in the courts
      of judicature were filled with men of integrity: amidst the virulence of
      faction, the decrees of the judges were upright and impartial; and to
      every man but himself, and to himself, except where necessity required the
      contrary, the law was the great rule of conduct and behavior. Vane and
      Lilburn, whose credit with the republicans and levellers he dreaded, were
      indeed for some time confined to prison: Cony, who refused to pay illegal
      taxes, was obliged by menaces to depart from his obstinacy: high courts of
      justice were erected to try those who had engaged in conspiracies and
      insurrections against the protector's authority, and whom he could not
      safely commit to the verdict of juries. But these irregularities were
      deemed inevitable consequences of his illegal authority. And though often
      urged by his officers, as is pretended,[*] to attempt a general massacre
      of the royalists, he always with horror rejected such sanguinary counsels.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon, Life of Lord Berwick, etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      In the army was laid the sole basis of the protector's power; and in
      managing it consisted the chief art and delicacy of his government. The
      soldiers were held in exact discipline; a policy which both accustomed
      them to obedience, and made them less hateful and burdensome to the
      people. He augmented their pay; though the public necessities sometimes
      obliged him to run in arrears to them. Their interests, they were
      sensible, were closely connected with those of their general and
      protector. And he entirely commanded their affectionate regard, by his
      abilities and success in almost every enterprise which he had hitherto
      undertaken. But all military government is precarious; much more where it
      stands in opposition to civil establishments; and still more where it
      encounters religious prejudices. By the wild fanaticism which he had
      nourished in the soldiers, he had seduced them into measures, for which,
      if openly proposed to them, they would have entertained the utmost
      aversion. But this same spirit rendered them more difficult to be
      governed, and made their caprices terrible even to that hand which
      directed their movements. So often taught, that the office of king was a
      usurpation upon Christ, they were apt to suspect a protector not to be
      altogether compatible with that divine authority. Harrison, though raised
      to the highest dignity, and possessed of Cromwell's confidence, became his
      most inveterate enemy as soon as the authority of a single person was
      established, against which that usurper had always made such violent
      protestations. Overton, Rich, Okey, officers of rank in the army, were
      actuated with like principles, and Cromwell was obliged to deprive them of
      their commissions. Their influence, which was before thought unbounded
      among the troops, seemed from that moment to be totally annihilated.
    </p>
    <p>
      The more effectually to curb the enthusiastic and seditious spirit of the
      troops, Cromwell established a kind of militia in the several counties.
      Companies of infantry and cavalry were enlisted under proper officers,
      regular pay distributed among them, and a resource by that means provided
      both against the insurrections of the royalists and mutiny of the army.
    </p>
    <p>
      Religion can never be deemed a point of small consequence in civil
      government: but during this period, it may be regarded as the great spring
      of men's actions and determinations. Though transported himself with the
      most frantic whimseys, Cromwell had adopted a scheme for regulating this
      principle in others, which was sagacious and political. Being resolved to
      maintain a national church, yet determined neither to admit Episcopacy nor
      Presbytery, he established a number of commissioners, under the name of
      tryers, partly laymen, partly ecclesiastics, some Presbyterians, some
      Independents. These presented to all livings which were formerly in the
      gift of the crown; they examined and admitted such persons as received
      holy orders; and they inspected the lives, doctrine, and behavior of the
      clergy. Instead of supporting that union between learning and theology,
      which has so long been attempted in Europe, these tryers embraced the
      latter principle in its full purity, and made it the sole object of their
      examination. The candidates were no more perplexed with questions
      concerning their progress in Greek and Roman erudition; concerning their
      talent for profane arts and sciences: the chief object of scrutiny
      regarded their advances in grace, and fixing the critical moment of their
      conversion.
    </p>
    <p>
      With the pretended saints of all denominations Cromwell was familiar and
      easy. Laying aside the state of protector, which on other occasions he
      well knew how to maintain, he insinuated to them, that nothing but
      necessity could ever oblige him to invest himself with it. He talked
      spiritually to *them; he sighed he wept, he canted, he prayed. He even
      entered with them into an emulation of ghostly gifts, and these men,
      instead of grieving to be outdone in their own way, were proud that his
      highness, by his princely example, had dignified those practices in which
      they themselves were daily occupied.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Cromwell followed, though but in part, the advice which he
     received from General Harrison, at the time when the
     intimacy and endearment most strongly subsisted betwixt
     them. "Let the waiting upon Jehovah," said that military
     saint, "be the greatest and most considerable business you
     have every day: reckon it so, more than to eat, sleep, and
     counsel together. Run aside sometimes from your company, and
     get a word with the Lord. Why should not you have three or
     four precious souls always standing at your elbow, with whom
     you might now and then turn into a corner? I have found
     refreshment and mercy in such a way."&mdash;Milton's State
     Papers, p. 12.
</pre>
    <p>
      If Cromwell might be said to adhere to any particular form of religion,
      they were the Independents who could chiefly boast of his favor; and it
      may be affirmed, that such pastors of that sect as were not passionately
      addicted to civil liberty, were all of them devoted to him. The
      Presbyterian clergy, also saved from the ravages of the Anabaptists and
      Millenarians, and enjoying their establishments and tithes, were not
      averse to his government; though he still entertained a great jealousy of
      that ambitious and restless spirit by which they were actuated. He granted
      an unbounded liberty of conscience to all but Catholics and Prelatists;
      and by that means he both attached the wild sectaries to his person, and
      employed them in curbing the domineering spirit of the Presbyterians. "I
      am the only man," he was often heard to say, "who has known how to subdue
      that insolent sect, which can suffer none but itself."
    </p>
    <p>
      The Protestant zeal which possessed the Presbyterians and Independents,
      was highly gratified by the haughty manner in which the protector so
      successfully supported the persecuted Protestants throughout all Europe.
      Even the duke of Savoy, so remote a power, and so little exposed to the
      naval force of England, was obliged, by the authority of France, to comply
      with his mediation, and to tolerate the Protestants of the valleys,
      against whom that prince had commenced a furious persecution. France
      itself was constrained to bear, not only with the religion, but even, in
      some instances, with the seditious insolence of the Hugonots; and when the
      French court applied for a reciprocal toleration of the Catholic religion
      in England, the protector, who arrogated in every thing the superiority,
      would hearken to no such proposal. He had entertained a project of
      instituting a college, in imitation of that at Rome, for the propagation
      of the faith; and his apostles, in zeal, though not in unanimity, had
      certainly been a full match for the Catholics.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell retained the church of England in constraint though he permitted
      its clergy a little more liberty than the Republican parliament had
      formerly allowed. He was pleased that the superior lenity of his
      administration should in every thing be remarked. He bridled the
      royalists, both by the army which he retained, and by those secret spies
      which he found means to intermix in all their counsels. Manning being
      detected, and punished with death, he corrupted Sir Richard Willis, who
      was much trusted by Chancellor Hyde and all the royalists; and by means of
      this man he was let into every design and conspiracy of the party. He
      could disconcert any project, by confining the persons who were to be the
      actors in it; and as he restored them afterwards to liberty, his severity
      passed only for the result of general jealousy and suspicion, The secret
      source of his intelligence remained still unknown and unsuspected.
    </p>
    <p>
      Conspiracies for an assassination he was chiefly afraid of; these being
      designs which no prudence or vigilance could evade. Colonel Titus, under
      the name of Allen, had written a spirited discourse, exhorting every one
      to embrace this method of vengeance; and Cromwell knew, that the inflamed
      minds of the royal party were sufficiently disposed to put the doctrine in
      practice against him. He openly told them, that assassinations were base
      and odious, and he never would commence hostilities by so shameful an
      expedient; but if the first attempt or provocation came from them, he
      would retaliate to the uttermost. He had instruments, he said, whom he
      could employ; and he never would desist till he had totally exterminated
      the royal family. This menace, more than all his guards, contributed to
      the security of his person.[*] <a href="#linknote-26" name="linknoteref-26"
      id="linknoteref-26">26</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note Z at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      There was no point about which the protector was more solicitous than to
      procure intelligence. This article alone, it is said, cost him sixty
      thousand pounds a year. Postmasters, both at home and abroad, were in his
      pay: carriers were searched or bribed: secretaries and clerks were
      corrupted the greatest zealots in all parties were often these who
      conveyed private information to him: and nothing could escape his vigilant
      inquiry. Such at least is the representation made by historians of
      Cromwell's administration: but it must be confessed, that, if we may judge
      by those volumes of Thurloe's papers which have been lately published,
      this affair, like many others, has been greatly magnified. We scarcely
      find by that collection, that any secret counsels of foreign states,
      except those of Holland, which are not expected to be concealed, were
      known to the protector.
    </p>
    <p>
      The general behavior and deportment of this man, who had been raised from
      a very private station, who had passed most of his youth in the country,
      and who was still constrained so much to frequent bad company, was such as
      might befit the greatest monarch. He maintained a dignity without either
      affectation or ostentation; and supported with all strangers that high
      idea with which his great exploits and prodigious fortune had impressed
      them. Among his ancient friends, he could relax himself; and by trifling
      and amusement, jesting and making verses, he feared not exposing himself
      to their most familiar approaches.[*] With others he sometimes pushed
      matters to the length of rustic buffoonery; and he would amuse himself by
      putting burning coals into the boots and hose of the officers who attended
      him.[**] Before the king's trial, a meeting was agreed on between the
      chiefs of the republican party and the general officers, in order to
      concert the model of that free government which they were to substitute in
      the room of the monarchical constitution now totally subverted. After
      debates on this subject, the most important that could fall under the
      discussion of human creatures, Ludlow tells us that Cromwell, by way of
      frolic, threw a cushion at his head; and when Ludlow took up another
      cushion, in order to return the compliment, the general ran down stairs,
      and had almost fallen in the hurry. When the high court of justice was
      signing the warrant for the execution of the king, a matter, if possible,
      still more serious, Cromwell, taking the pen in his hand, before he
      subscribed his name, bedaubed with ink the face of Martin, who sat next
      him. And the pen being delivered to Martin, he practised the same frolic
      upon Cromwell.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 647.

     ** Bates.

     *** Trial of the Regicides.
</pre>
    <p>
      He frequently gave feasts to his inferior officers; and when the meat was
      set upon the table, a signal was given; the soldiers rushed in upon, them;
      and with much noise, tumult, and confusion, ran away with all the dishes,
      and disappointed the guests of their expected meal.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Bates.
</pre>
    <p>
      That vein of frolic and pleasantry which made a part, however
      inconsistent, of Cromwell's character, was apt sometimes to betray him
      into other inconsistencies, and to discover itself even where religion
      might seem to be a little concerned. It is a tradition, that one day,
      sitting at table, the protector had a bottle of wine brought him, of a
      kind which he valued so highly, that he must needs open the bottle
      himself; but in attempting it, the corkscrew dropped from his hand.
      Immediately his courtiers and generals flung themselves on the floor to
      recover it. Cromwell burst out a laughing. "Should any fool," said he,
      "put in his head at the door, he would fancy, from your posture, that you
      were seeking the Lord; and you are only seeking a corkscrew."
    </p>
    <p>
      Amidst all the unguarded play and buffoonery of this singular personage,
      he took the opportunity of remarking the characters, designs, and
      weaknesses of men; and he would sometimes push them, by an indulgence in
      wine, to open to him the most secret recesses of their bosom. Great
      regularity, however, and even austerity of manners, were always maintained
      in his court; and he was careful never by any liberties to give offence to
      the most rigid of the godly. Some state was upheld; but with little
      expense, and without any splendor. The nobility, though courted by him,
      kept at a distance, and disdained to intermix with those mean persons who
      were the instruments of his government. Without departing from economy, he
      was generous to those who served him; and he knew how to find out and
      engage in his interests every man possessed of those talents which any
      particular employment demanded. His generals, his admirals, his judges,
      his ambassadors, were persons who contributed, all of them, in their
      several spheres, to the security of the protector, and to the honor and
      interest of the nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      Under pretence of uniting Scotland and Ireland in one commonwealth with
      England, Cromwell had reduced those kingdoms to a total subjection; and he
      treated them entirely as conquered provinces. The civil administration of
      Scotland was placed in a council, consisting mostly of English, of which
      Lord Broghile was president. Justice was administered by seven judges,
      four of whom were English. In order to cure the tyrannical nobility, he
      both abolished all vassalage,[*] and revived the office of justice of
      peace, which King James had introduced, but was not able to support.[**] A
      long line of forts and garrisons was maintained throughout the kingdom. An
      army of ten thousand men[***] kept everything in peace and obedience; and
      neither the banditti of the mountains nor the bigots of the Low Countries
      could indulge their inclination to turbulence and disorder. He courted the
      Presbyterian clergy though he nourished that intestine enmity which
      prevailed between the resolutioners and protesters; and he found that very
      little policy was requisite to foment quarrels among theologians. He
      permitted no church assemblies; being sensible that from thence had
      proceeded many of the past disorders. And in the main, the Scots were
      obliged to acknowledge, that never before, while they enjoyed their
      irregular, factious liberty, had they attained so much happiness as at
      present, when reduced to subjection under a foreign nation.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 570.

     ** Thurloe, vol. iv. p. 57.

     *** Thurloe, vol. vi. p. 557.
</pre>
    <p>
      The protector's administration of Ireland was more severe and violent. The
      government of that island was first intrusted to Fleetwood, a notorious
      fanatic, who had married Ireton's widow; then to Henry Cromwell, second
      son of the protector, a young man of an amiable, mild disposition, and not
      destitute of vigor and capacity. Above five millions of acres, forfeited
      either by the Popish rebels or by the adherents of the king, were divided,
      partly among the adventurers, who had advanced money to the parliament,
      partly among the English soldiers, who had arrears due to them. Examples
      of a more sudden and violent change of property are scarcely to be found
      in any history. An order was even issued to confine all the native Irish
      to the province of Connaught, where they would be shut up by rivers,
      lakes, and mountains, and could not, it was hoped, be any longer dangerous
      to the English government: but this barbarous and absurd policy, which,
      from an impatience of attaining immediate security, *must have depopulated
      all the other provinces, and rendered the English estates of no value, was
      soon abandoned as impracticable.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell began to hope that, by his administration, attended with so much
      lustre and success abroad, so much order and tranquillity at home, he had
      now acquired such authority as would enable him to meet the
      representatives of the nation, and would assure him of their dutiful
      compliance with his government. He summoned a parliament; but not trusting
      altogether to the good will of the people, he used every art which his new
      model of representation allowed him to employ, in order to influence the
      elections, and fill the house with his own creatures. Ireland, being
      entirely in the hands of the army, chose few but such officers as were
      most acceptable to him. Scotland showed a like compliance; and as the
      nobility and gentry of that kingdom regarded their attendance on English
      parliaments as an ignominious badge of slavery, it was on that account
      more easy for the officers to prevail in the elections. Notwithstanding
      all these precautions, the protector still found that the majority would
      not be favorable to him. He set guards, therefore, on the door, who
      permitted none to enter but such as produced a warrant from his council;
      and the council rejected about a hundred, who either refused a recognition
      of the protector's government, or were on other accounts obnoxious to him.
      These protested against so egregious a violence, subversive of all
      liberty; but every application for redress was neglected both by the
      council and the parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      The majority of the parliament, by means of these arts and violences, was
      now at last either friendly to the protector, or resolved, by their
      compliance, to adjust, if possible, this military government to their laws
      and liberties. They voted a renunciation of all title in Charles Stuart,
      or any of his family; and this was the first act, dignified with the
      appearance of national consent, which had ever had that tendency. Colonel
      Jephson, in order to sound the inclinations of the house, ventured to
      move, that the parliament should bestow the crown on Cromwell; and no
      surprise or reluctance was discovered on the occasion. When Cromwell
      afterwards asked Jephson what induced him to make such a motion, "As
      long," said Jephson, "as I have the honor to sit in parliament, I must
      follow the dictates of my own conscience, whatever offence I may be so
      unfortunate as to give you." "Get thee gone," said Cromwell, giving him a
      gentle blow on the shoulder; "get thee gone, for a mad fellow as thou
      art."
    </p>
    <p>
      In order to pave the way to this advancement, for which he so ardently
      longed, Cromwell resolved to sacrifice his major-generals, whom he knew to
      be extremely odious to the nation That measure was also become necessary
      for his own security. All government, purely military, fluctuates
      perpetually between a despotic monarchy and a despotic aristocracy,
      according as the authority of the chief commander prevails, or that of the
      officers next him in rank and dignity. The major-generals, being possessed
      of so much distinct jurisdiction, began to establish a separate title to
      power, and had rendered themselves formidable to the protector himself;
      and for this inconvenience, though he had not foreseen it, he well knew,
      before it was too late, to provide a proper remedy. Claypole, his
      son-in-law, who possessed his confidence, abandoned them to the pleasure
      of the house; and though the name was still retained, it was agreed to
      abridge, or rather entirely annihilate, the power of the major-generals.
    </p>
    <p>
      At length, a motion in form was made by Alderman Pack, one of the city
      members, for investing the protector with the dignity of king. This motion
      at first excited great disorder, and divided the whole house into parties.
      The chief opposition came from the usual adherents of the protector, the
      major-generals, and such officers as depended on them. Lambert a man of
      deep intrigue, and of great interest in the army, had long entertained the
      ambition of succeeding Cromwell in the protectorship; and he foresaw, that
      if the monarchy were restored, hereditary right would also be established,
      and the crown be transmitted to the posterity of the prince first elected.
      He pleaded, therefore, conscience; and rousing all those civil and
      religious jealousies against kingly government, which had been so
      industriously encouraged among the soldiers, and which served them as a
      pretence for so many violences, he raised a numerous, and still more
      formidable party, against the motion.
    </p>
    <p>
      On the other hand, the motion was supported by every one who was more
      particularly devoted to the protector, and who hoped, by so acceptable a
      measure, to pay court to the prevailing authority. Many persons also,
      attached to their country, despaired of ever being able to subvert the
      present illegal establishment; and were desirous, by fixing it on ancient
      foundations, to induce the protector, from views of his own safety, to pay
      a regard to the ancient laws and liberties of the kingdom. Even the
      royalists imprudently joined in the measure; and hoped that, when the
      question regarded only persons, not forms of government, no one would any
      longer balance between the ancient royal family and an ignoble usurper,
      who, by blood, treason, and perfidy, had made his way to the throne.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1657.
    </p>
    <p>
      The bill was voted by a considerable majority; and a committee was
      appointed to reason with the protector, and to overcome those scruples
      which he pretended against accepting so liberal an offer.
    </p>
    <p>
      The conference lasted for several days. The committee urged, that all the
      statutes and customs of England were founded on the supposition of regal
      authority, and could not, without extreme violence, be adjusted to any
      other form of government: that a protector, except during the minority of
      a king, was a name utterly unknown to the laws; and no man was acquainted
      with the extent or limits of his authority; that if it were attempted to
      define every part of his jurisdiction, many years, if not ages, would be
      required for the execution of so complicated a work; if the whole power of
      the king were at once transferred to him, the question was plainly about a
      name, and the preference was indisputably due to the ancient title: that
      the English constitution was more anxious concerning the form of
      government, than concerning the birthright of the first magistrate; and
      had provided, by an express law of Henry VII., for the security of those
      who act in defence of the king in being, by whatever means he might have
      acquired possession: that it was extremely the interest of all his
      highness's friends to seek the shelter of this statute; and even the
      people in general were desirous of such a settlement, and in all juries
      were with great difficulty induced to give their verdict in favor of a
      protector: that the great source of all the late commotions had been the
      jealousy of liberty: and that a republic, together with a protector, had
      been established in order to provide further securities for the freedom of
      the constitution; but that by experience the remedy had been found
      insufficient, even dangerous and pernicious; since every indeterminate
      power, such as that of a protector, must be arbitrary; and the more
      arbitrary, as it was contrary to the genius and inclination of the people.
    </p>
    <p>
      The difficulty consisted not in persuading Cromwell. He was sufficiently
      convinced of the solidity of these reasons; and his inclination, as well
      as judgment, was entirely on the side of the committee. But how to bring
      over the soldiers to the same way of thinking, was the question. The
      office of king had been painted to them in such horrible colors, that
      there were no hopes of reconciling them suddenly to it, even though
      bestowed upon their general, to whom they were so much devoted. A
      contradiction, open and direct, to all past professions, would make them
      pass, in the eyes of the whole nation, for the most shameless hypocrites,
      enlisted, by no other than mercenary motives, in the cause of the most
      perfidious traitor. Principles, such as they were, had been encouraged in
      them by every consideration, human and divine; and though it was easy,
      where interest concurred, to deceive them by the thinnest disguises, it
      might be found dangerous at once to pull off the mask, and to show them in
      a full light the whole crime and deformity of their conduct. Suspended
      between these fears and his own most ardent desires, Cromwell protracted
      the time, and seemed still to oppose the reasonings of the committee; in
      hopes that by artifice he might be able to reconcile the refractory minds
      of the soldiers to his new dignity.
    </p>
    <p>
      While the protector argued so much in contradiction both to his judgment
      and inclination, it is no wonder that his elocution, always confused,
      embarrassed, and unintelligible, should be involved in tenfold darkness,
      and discover no glimmering of common sense or reason. An exact account of
      this conference remains, and may be regarded as a great curiosity. The
      members of the committee in their reasonings discover judgment, knowledge,
      elocution: Lord Broghill in particular exerts himself on this memorable
      occasion. But what a contrast when we pass to the protector's replies!
      After so singular a manner does nature distribute her talents, that, in a
      nation abounding with sense and learning, a man who, by superior personal
      merit alone, had made his way to supreme dignity, and had even obliged the
      parliament to make him a tender of the crown, was yet incapable of
      expressing himself on this occasion, but in a manner which a peasant of
      the most ordinary capacity would justly be ashamed of.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * We shall produce any passage at random; for his discourse
     is all of a piece. "I confess, for it behoves me to deal
     plainly with you, I must confess, I would say, I hope I may
     be understood in this; for indeed I must be tender what I
     say to such an audience as this; I say, I would be
     understood, that in this argument I do not make parallel
     betwixt men of a different mind, and a parliament, which
     shall have their desires. I know there is no comparison, nor
     can it be urged upon me that my words have the least color
     that way, because the parliament seems to give liberty to me
     to say any thing to you; as that, that is a tender of my
     humble reasons and judgment and opinion to them; and if I
     think they are such, and will be such to them, and are
     faithful servants, and will be so to the supreme authority,
     and the legislative wheresoever it is: if, I say, I should
     not tell you, knowing their minds to be so, I should not be
     faithful if I should not tell you so, to the end you may
     report it to the parliament: I shall say something for
     myself, for my own mind, I do profess it, I urn not a man
     scrupulous about words or names of such things I have not;
     but as I have the word of God, and I hope I shall ever have
     it, for the rule of my conscience, for my informations; so
     truly men that have been led in dark paths, through the
     providence and dispensation of God; why, surely it is not to
     be objected to a man; for who can love to walk in the dark?
     But providence does so dispose. And though a man may impute
     his own folly and blindness to providence sinfully, yet it
     must be at my peril; the case may be that it is the
     providence of God that doth lead men in darkness: I must
     need say, that I have had a great deal of experience of
     providence; and though it is no rule without or against the
     word, yet it is a very good expositor of the word in many
     cases." Conference at Whitehall. The great defect in
     Oliver's speeches consists not in his want of elocution, but
     in his want of ideas. The sagacity of his actions, and the
     absurdity of his discourse, form the most prodigious
     contrast that ever was known. The collection of all his
     speeches, letters, sermons, (for he also wrote sermons,)
     would make a great curiosity, and, with a few exceptions,
     might justly pass for one of the most nonsensical books in
     the world.
</pre>
    <p>
      The opposition which Cromwell dreaded, was not that which came from
      Lambert and his adherents, whom he now regarded as capital enemies, and
      whom he was resolved, on the first occasion, to deprive of all power and
      authority; it was that which he met with in his own family, and from men
      who, by interest as well as inclination, were the most devoted to him.
      Fleetwood had married his daughter; Desborow his sister; yet these men,
      actuated by principle alone, could by no persuasion, artifice, or entreaty
      be induced to consent that their friend and patron should be invested with
      regal dignity. They told him, that if he accepted of the crown, they would
      instantly throw up their commissions, and never afterwards should have it
      in their power to serve him.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. vi. p. 261.
</pre>
    <p>
      Colonel Pride procured a petition against the office of king, signed by a
      majority of the officers who were in London and the neighborhood. Several
      persons, it is said, had entered into an engagement to murder the
      protector within a few hours after he should have accepted the offer of
      the parliament. Some sudden mutiny in the army was justly dreaded. And
      upon the whole, Cromwell, after the agony and perplexity of long doubt,
      was at last obliged to refuse that crown which the representatives of the
      nation, in the most solemn manner, had tendered to him. Most historians
      are inclined to blame his choice; but he must be allowed the best judge of
      his own situation. And in such complicated subjects, the alteration of a
      very minute circumstance, unknown to the spectator, will often be
      sufficient to cast the balance, and render a determination, which in
      itself may be uneligible, very prudent, or even absolutely necessary to
      the actor.
    </p>
    <p>
      A dream or prophecy, Lord Clarendon mentions, which, he affirms, (and he
      must have known the truth,) was universally talked of almost from the
      beginning of the civil wars, and long before Cromwell was so considerable
      a person as to bestow upon it any degree of probability. In this prophecy,
      it was foretold that Cromwell should be the greatest man in England, and
      would nearly, but never would fully, mount the throne. Such a
      prepossession probably arose from the heated imagination either of himself
      or of his followers; and as it might be one cause of the great progress
      which he had already made, it is not an unlikely reason which may be
      assigned for his refusing at this time any further elevation.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament, when the regal dignity was rejected by Cromwell, found
      themselves obliged to retain the name of a commonwealth and protector; and
      as the government was hitherto a manifest usurpation, it was thought
      proper to sanctify it by a seeming choice of the people and their
      representatives. Instead of the "instrument of government," which was the
      work of the general officers alone, "an humble petition and advice" was
      framed, and offered to the protector, by the parliament. This was
      represented as the great basis cf the republican establishment, regulating
      and limiting the powers of each member of the constitution, and securing
      the liberty of the people to the most remote posterity. By this deed, the
      authority of protector was in some particulars enlarged; in others, it was
      considerably diminished. He had the power of nominating his successor; he
      had a perpetual revenue assigned him, a million a year for the pay of the
      fleet and army, three hundred thousand pounds for the support of civil
      government; and he had authority to name another house, who should enjoy
      their seats during life, and exercise some functions of the former house
      of peers. But he abandoned the power, assumed in the intervals of
      parliament, of framing laws with the consent of his council; and he
      agreed, that no members of either house should be excluded but by the
      consent of that house of which they were members. The other articles were
      in the main the same as in the instrument of government. The instrument of
      government Cromwell had formerly extolled as the most perfect work of
      human invention: he now represented it as a rotten plank, upon which no
      man could trust himself without sinking. Even the humble petition and
      advice, which he extolled in its turn, appeared so lame and imperfect,
      that it was found requisite, this very session, to mend it by a
      supplement; and after all, it may be regarded as a crude and undigested
      model of government. It was, however, accepted for the voluntary deed of
      the whole people in the three united nations; and Cromwell, as if his
      power had just commenced from this popular consent, was anew inaugurated
      in Westminster Hall, after the most solemn and most pompous manner.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament having adjourned itself, the protector deprived Lambert of
      all his commissions; but still allowed him a considerable pension of two
      thousand pounds a year, as a bribe for his future peaceable deportment.
      Lambert's authority in the army, to the surprise of every body, was found
      immediately to expire with the loss of his commission. Packet and some
      other officers, whom Cromwell suspected, were also displaced.
    </p>
    <p>
      Richard, eldest son of the protector, was brought to court, introduced
      into public business, and thenceforth regarded by many as his heir in the
      protectorship; though Cromwell sometimes employed the gross artifice of
      flattering others with hopes of the succession. Richard was a person
      possessed of the most peaceable, inoffensive, unambitious character; and
      had hitherto lived contentedly in the country, on a small estate which his
      wife had brought him. All the activity which he discovered, and which
      never was great, was, however, exerted to beneficent purposes: at the time
      of the king's trial, he had fallen on his knees before his father, and had
      conjured him, by every tie of duty and humanity, to spare the life of that
      monarch. Cromwell had two daughters unmarried; one of them he now gave in
      marriage to the grandson and heir of his great friend the earl of Warwick,
      with whom he had, in every fortune, preserved an uninterrupted intimacy
      and good correspondence. The other he married to the viscount Fauconberg
      of a family formerly devoted to the royal party. He was ambitious of
      forming connections with the nobility; and it was one chief motive for his
      desiring the title of king, that he might replace every thing in its
      natural order, and restore to the ancient families the trust and honor of
      which he now found himself obliged, for his own safety, to deprive them.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1658.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament was again assembled; consisting, as in the times of
      monarchy, of two houses, the commons and the other house. Cromwell, during
      the interval, had sent writs to his house of peers, which consisted of
      sixty members. They were composed of five or six ancient peers, of several
      gentlemen of fortune and distinction, and of some officers who had risen
      from the meanest stations. None of the ancient peers, however, though
      summoned by writ, would deign to accept of a seat which they must share
      with such companions as were assigned them. The protector endeavored at
      first to maintain the appearance of a legal magistrate. He placed no guard
      at the door of either house; but soon found how incompatible liberty is
      with military usurpations. By bringing so great a number of his friends
      and adherents into the other house he had lost the majority among the
      national representatives. In consequence of a clause in the humble
      petition and advice the commons assumed a power of readmitting those
      members whom the council had formerly excluded. Sir Arthur Hazelrig and
      some others, whom Cromwell had created lords, rather chose to take their
      seat with the commons. An incontestable majority now declared themselves
      against the protector; and they refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of
      that other house which he had established. Even the validity of the humble
      petition and advice was questioned, as being voted by a parliament which
      lay under force, and which was deprived by military violence of a
      considerable number of its members. The protector, dreading combinations
      between the parliament and the malecontents in the army, resolved to allow
      no leisure for forming any conspiracy against him; and, with expressions
      of great displeasure, he dissolved the parliament. When urged by Fleetwood
      and others of his friends not to precipitate himself into this rash
      measure, he swore by the living God that they should not sit a moment
      longer.
    </p>
    <p>
      These distractions at home were not able to take off the protector's
      attention from foreign affairs; and in all his measures, he proceeded with
      the same vigor and enterprise, as if secure of the duty and attachment of
      the three kingdoms. His alliance with Sweden he still supported; and he
      endeavored to assist that crown in its successful enterprises for reducing
      all its neighbors to subjection, and rendering itself absolute master of
      the Baltic. As soon as Spain declared war against him, he concluded a
      peace and an alliance with France, and united himself in all his counsels
      with that potent and ambitious kingdom. Spain, having long courted in vain
      the friendship of the successful usurper, was reduced at last to apply to
      the unfortunate prince. Charles formed a league with Philip, removed his
      small court to Bruges in the Low Countries, and raised four regiments of
      his own subjects, whom he employed in the Spanish service. The duke of
      York, who had with applause served some campaigns in the French army, and
      who had merited the particular esteem of Marshal Turenne, now joined his
      brother, and continued to seek military experience under Don John of
      Austria, and the prince of Condé.
    </p>
    <p>
      The scheme of foreign politics adopted by the protector was highly
      imprudent, but was suitable to that magnanimity and enterprise with which
      he was so signally endowed. He was particularly desirous of conquest and
      dominion on the continent;[*] and he sent over into Flanders six thousand
      men under Reynolds, who joined the French army commanded by Turenne. In
      the former campaign, Mardyke was taken, and put into the hands of the
      English. Early this campaign, siege was laid to Dunkirk; and when the
      Spanish army advanced to relieve it, the combined armies of France and
      England marched out of their trenches, and fought the battle of the Dunes,
      where the Spaniards were totally defeated.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * He aspired to get possession of Elsinore and the passage
     of the Sound. See World's Mistake in Oliver Cromwell. He
     also endeavored to get possession of Bremen. Thurloe, vol.
     vi. p. 478.

     * It was remarked by the saints of that time, that the
     battle was fought on a day which was held for a fast in
     London; so that, as Fleetwood said, (Thurloe, vol. vii. p.
     159,) "while we were praying, they were fighting; and the
     Lord hath given a signal answer. The Lord has not only owned
     us in our work there, but in our waiting upon him in a way
     of prayer, which is indeed our old experienced approved way
     in all streights and difficulties." Cromwell's letter to
     Blake and Montague, his brave admirals, is remarkable for
     the same spirit. Thurloe, vol. iv. p. 744. "You have," says
     he, "as I verily believe and am persuaded, a plentiful stock
     of prayers going for you daily, sent up by the soberest and
     most approved ministers and Christians in this nation; and,
     notwithstanding some discouragements very much wrestling of
     faith for you, which are to us, and I trust will be to you,
     matter of great encouragement. But notwithstanding all this,
     it will be good for you and us to deliver up ourselves and
     all our affairs to the disposition of our all-wise Father,
     who, not only out of prerogative, but because of his
     goodness, wisdom, and truth, ought to be resigned unto by
     his creatures, especially those who are children of his
     begetting through the spirit," etc.
</pre>
    <p>
      The valor of the English was much remarked on this occasion. Dunkirk,
      being soon after surrendered, was by agreement delivered to Cromwell. He
      committed the government of that important place to Lockhart, a Scotchman
      of abilities, who had married his niece, and was his ambassador at the
      court of France.
    </p>
    <p>
      This acquisition was regarded by the protector as the means only of
      obtaining further advantages. He was resolved to concert measures with the
      French court for the final conquest and partition of the Low Countries.[*]
      Had he lived much longer, and maintained his authority in England, so
      chimerical, or rather so dangerous, a project would certainly have been
      carried into execution. And this first and principal step towards more
      extensive conquest, which France during a whole century has never yet been
      able, by an infinite expense of blood and treasure, fully to attain, had
      at once been accomplished by the enterprising, though unskilful politics
      of Cromwell.
    </p>
    <p>
      During these transactions, great demonstrations of mutual friendship and
      regard passed between the French king and the protector. Lord Fauconberg,
      Cromwell's son-in-law, was despatched to Louis, then in the camp before
      Dunkirk; and was received with the regard usually paid to foreign princes
      by the French court.[**] Mazarine sent to London his nephew Mancini, along
      with the duke of Crequi; and expressed his regret that his urgent affairs
      should deprive him of the honor which he had long wished for, of paying in
      person his respects to the greatest man in the world.[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, vol. i. p. 762.

     ** Thurloe, vol. vii. p. 151, 158.

     *** In reality, the cardinal had not entertained so high an
     idea of Cromwell. He used to say that he was a fortunate
     madman. Vie de Cromwell, par Raguenet. See also Carte's
     Collection, vol. ii. p. 81 Gumble's Life of Monk, p. 93.
     World's Mistake in Oliver Cromwell.
</pre>
    <p>
      The protector reaped little satisfaction from the success of his arms
      abroad: the situation in which he stood at home kept him in perpetual
      uneasiness and inquietude. His administration, so expensive both by
      military enterprises and secret intelligence, had exhausted his revenue,
      and involved him in a considerable debt. The royalists, he heard, had
      renewed their conspiracies for a general insurrection; and Ormond was
      secretly come over with a view of concerting measures for the execution of
      this project. Lord Fairfax, Sir William Waller, and many heads of the
      Presbyterians, had secretly entered into the engagement. Even the army was
      infected with the general spirit of discontent; and some sudden and
      dangerous eruption was every moment to be dreaded from it. No hopes
      remained, after his violent breach with the last parliament, that he
      should ever be able to establish, with general consent, a legal
      settlement, or temper the military with any mixture of civil authority.
      All his arts and policy were exhausted; and having so often, by fraud and
      false pretences, deceived every party, and almost every individual, he
      could no longer hope, by repeating the same professions, to meet with
      equal confidence and regard.
    </p>
    <p>
      However zealous the royalists, their conspiracy took not effect: Willis
      discovered the whole to the protector. Ormond was obliged to fly, and he
      deemed himself fortunate to have escaped so vigilant an administration.
      Great numbers were thrown into prison. A high court of justice was anew
      erected for the trial of those criminals whose guilt was most apparent.
      Notwithstanding the recognition of his authority by the last parliament,
      the protector could not as yet trust to an unbiased jury. Sir Henry
      Slingsby and Dr. Huet were condemned and beheaded. Mordaunt, brother to
      the earl of Peterborough, narrowly escaped. The numbers for his
      condemnation and his acquittal were equal; and just as the sentence was
      pronounced in his favor. Colonel Pride, who was resolved to condemn him,
      came into court. Ashton, Storey, and Bestley were hanged in different
      streets of the city.
    </p>
    <p>
      The conspiracy of the Millenarians in the army struck Cromwell with still
      greater apprehensions. Harrison and the other discarded officers of that
      party could not remain at rest. Stimulated equally by revenge, by
      ambition, and by conscience, they still harbored in their breast some
      desperate project; and there wanted not officers in the army who, from
      like motives, were disposed to second all their undertakings. The
      levellers and agitators had been encouraged by Cromwell to interpose with
      their advice in all political deliberations; and he had even pretended to
      honor many of them with his intimate friendship, while he conducted his
      daring enterprises against the king and the parliament. It was a usual
      practice with him, in order to familiarize himself the more with the
      agitators, who were commonly corporals or sergeants, to take them to bed
      with him, and there, after prayers and exhortations, to discuss together
      their projects and principles, political as well as religious. Having
      assumed the dignity of protector, he excluded them from all his councils,
      and had neither leisure nor inclination to indulge them any further in
      their wonted familiarities. Among those who were enraged at this treatment
      was Sexby, an active agitator, who now employed against him all that
      restless industry which had formerly been exerted in his favor. He even
      went so far as to enter into a correspondence with Spain, and Cromwell,
      who knew the distempers of the army, was justly afraid of some mutiny, to
      which a day, an hour, an instant, might provide leaders.
    </p>
    <p>
      Of assassinations, likewise, he was apprehensive, from the zealous spirit
      which actuated the soldiers. Sindercome had undertaken to murder him; and
      by the most unaccountable accidents, had often been prevented from
      executing his bloody purpose. His design was discovered; but the protector
      could never find the bottom of the enterprise, nor detect any of his
      accomplices. He was tried by a jury; and, notwithstanding the general
      odium attending that crime, notwithstanding the clear and full proof of
      his guilt, so little conviction prevailed of the protector's right to the
      supreme government, it was with the utmost difficulty[*] that this
      conspirator was condemned. When every thing was prepared for his
      execution, he was found dead; from poison, as is supposed, which he had
      voluntarily taken.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Thurloe, voL vi. p. 53.
</pre>
    <p>
      The protector might better have supported those fears and apprehensions
      which the public distempers occasioned, had he enjoyed any domestic
      satisfaction, or possessed any cordial friend of his own family, in whose
      bosom he could safely have unloaded his anxious and corroding cares. But
      Fleetwood, his son-in-law, actuated by the wildest zeal, began to estrange
      himself from him; and was enraged to discover, that Cromwell, in all his
      enterprises, had entertained views of promoting his own grandeur, more
      than of encouraging piety and religion, of which he made such fervent
      professions. His eldest daughter, married to Fleetwood, had adopted
      republican principles so vehement, that she could not with patience behold
      power lodged in a single person, even in her indulgent father. His other
      daughters were no less prejudiced in favor of the royal cause, and
      regretted the violences and iniquities into which, they thought, their
      family had so unhappily been transported. Above all, the sickness of Mrs.
      Claypole, his peculiar favorite, a lady endued with many humane virtues
      and amiable accomplishments, depressed his anxious mind, and poisoned all
      his enjoyments. She had entertained a high regard for Dr. Huet, lately
      executed; and being refused his pardon, the melancholy of her temper,
      increased by her distempered body, had prompted her to lament to her
      father all his sanguinary measures, and urge him to compunction for those
      heinous crimes into which his fatal ambition had betrayed him. Her death,
      which followed soon after, gave new edge to every word which she had
      uttered.
    </p>
    <p>
      All composure of mind was now forever fled from the protector: he felt
      that the grandeur which he had attained with so much guilt and courage,
      could not insure him that tranquillity which it belongs to virtue alone,
      and moderation, fully to ascertain. Overwhelmed with the load of public
      affairs, dreading perpetually some fatal accident in his distempered
      government, seeing nothing around him but treacherous friends or enraged
      enemies, possessing the confidence of no party, resting his title on no
      principle, civil or religious, he found his power to depend on so delicate
      a poise of factions and interests, as the smallest event was able, without
      any preparation, in a moment to overturn. Death, too, which with such
      signal intrepidity he had braved in the field, being incessantly
      threatened by the poniards of fanatical or interested assassins, was ever
      present to his terrified apprehension, and haunted him in every scene of
      business or repose. Each action of his life betrayed the terrors under
      which he labored. The aspect of strangers was uneasy to him: with a
      piercing and anxious eye he surveyed every face to which he was not daily
      accustomed. He never moved a step without strong guards attending him: he
      wore armor under his clothes, and further secured himself by offensive
      weapons, a sword, falchion, and pistols, which he always carried about
      him. He returned from no place by the direct road, or by the same way
      which he went. Every journey he performed with hurry and precipitation.
      Seldom he slept above three nights together in the same chamber; and he
      never let it be known beforehand what chamber he intended to choose, nor
      intrusted himself in any which was not provided with back doors, at which
      sentinels were carefully placed. Society terrified him, while he reflected
      on his numerous, unknown, and implacable enemies: solitude astonished him,
      by withdrawing that protection which he found so necessary for his
      security.
    </p>
    <p>
      His body, also, from the contagion of his anxious mind, began to be
      affected, and his health seemed sensibly to decline. He was seized with a
      slow fever, which changed into a tertian ague. For the space of a week, no
      dangerous symptoms appeared: and in the intervals of the fits he was able
      to walk abroad. At length the fever increased, and he himself began to
      entertain some thoughts of death, and to cast his eye towards that future
      existence, whose idea had once been intimately present to him; though
      since, in the hurry of affairs, and the shock of wars and factions, it
      had, no doubt, been considerably obliterated. He asked Goodwin, one of his
      preachers, if the doctrine were true, that the elect could never fall, or
      suffer a final reprobation. "Nothing more certain," replied the preacher.
      "Then I am safe," said the protector; "for I am sure that once I was in a
      state of grace."
    </p>
    <p>
      His physicians were sensible of the perilous condition to which his
      distemper had reduced him; but his chaplains, by their prayers, visions,
      and revelations, so buoyed up his hopes, that he began to believe his life
      out of all danger. A favorable answer, it was pretended, had been returned
      by Heaven to the petitions of all the godly: and he relied on their
      asseverations much more than on the opinion of the most experienced
      physicians. "I tell you," he cried with confidence to the latter, "I tell
      you, I shall not die of this distemper: I am well assured of my recovery.
      It is promised by the Lord, not only to my supplications, but to those of
      men who hold a stricter commerce and more intimate correspondence with
      him. Ye may have skill in your profession; but nature can do more than all
      the physicians in the world, and God is far above nature."(*) Nay, to such
      a degree of madness did their enthusiastic assurances mount, that, upon a
      fast day, which was observed on his account both at Hampton Court and at
      Whitehall, they did not so much pray for his health, as give thanks for
      the undoubted pledges which they had received of his recovery. He himself
      was overheard offering up his addresses to Heaven; and so far had the
      illusions of fanaticism prevailed over the plainest dictates of natural
      morality, that he assumed more the character of a mediator, in interceding
      for his people, than that of a criminal, whose atrocious violation of
      social duty had, from every tribunal, human and divine, merited the
      severest vengeance.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Bates. See also Ihurloe, vol. vii. p. 356, 416.
</pre>
    <p>
      Meanwhile, all the symptoms began to wear a more fatal aspect; and the
      physicians were obliged to break silence, and to declare that the
      protector could not survive the next fit with which he was threatened. The
      council was alarmed. A deputation was sent to know his will with regard to
      his successor His senses were gone, and he could not now express his
      intentions. They asked him whether he did not mean that his eldest son,
      Richard, should succeed him in the protectorship. A simple affirmative
      was, or seemed to be, extorted from him. Soon after, on the third of
      September, that very day which he had always considered as the most
      fortunate for him, he expired, A violent tempest, which immediately
      succeeded his death, served as a subject of discourse to the vulgar. His
      partisans, as well as his enemies, were fond of remarking this event; and
      each of them endeavored, by forced inferences, to interpret it as a
      confirmation of their particular prejudices.
    </p>
    <p>
      The writers attached to the memory of this wonderful person, make his
      character, with regard to abilities, bear the air of the most extravagant
      panegyric: his enemies form such a representation of his moral qualities
      as resembles the most virulent invective. Both of them, it must be
      confessed, are supported by such striking circumstances in his conduct and
      fortune, as bestow on their representation a great air of probability.
      "What can be more extraordinary," it is said,[*] "than that a person of
      private birth and education, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body,
      which have sometimes, nor shining talents of mind, which have often,
      raised men to the highest dignities, should have the courage to attempt,
      and the abilities to execute, so great a design as the subverting one of
      the most ancient and best established monarchies in the world? That he
      should have the power and boldness to put his prince and master to an open
      and infamous death? Should banish that numerous and strongly allied
      family? Cover all these temerities under a seeming obedience to a
      parliament, in whose service he pretended to be retained? Trample, too,
      upon that parliament in their turn, and scornfully expel them as soon as
      they gave him ground of dissatisfaction? Erect in their place the dominion
      of the saints, and give reality to the most visionary idea which the
      heated imagination of any fanatic was ever able to entertain? Suppress
      again that monster in its infancy, and openly set up himself above all
      things that ever were called sovereign in England? Overcome first all his
      enemies by arms, and all his friends afterwards by artifice? Serve all
      parties patiently for a while, and command them victoriously at last?
      Overrun each corner of the three nations, and subdue, with equal facility,
      both the riches of the south and the poverty of the north? Be feared and
      courted by all foreign princes, and be adopted a brother to the gods of
      the earth? Call together parliaments with a word of his pen, and scatter
      them again with the breath of his mouth? Reduce to subjection a warlike
      and discontented nation, by means of a mutinous army? Command a mutinous
      army by means of seditious and factious officers? Be humbly and daily
      petitioned, that he would be pleased, at the rate of millions a year, to
      be hired as master of those who had hired him before to be their servant?
      Have the estates and lives of three nations as much at his disposal as was
      once the little inheritance of his father, and be as noble and liberal in
      the spending of them? And lastly, (for there is no end of enumerating
      every particular of his glory,) with one word bequeath all this power and
      splendor to his posterity? He possessed of peace at home and triumph
      abroad? Be buried among kings, and with more than regal solemnity; and
      leave a name behind him not to be extinguished but with the whole world;
      which as it was too little for his praise, so might it have been for his
      conquests, if the short line of his mortal life could have stretched out
      to the extent of his immortal designs?"
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Cowley's Discourses. This passage is altered in some
     particulars from the original.
</pre>
    <p>
      My intention is not to disfigure this picture, drawn by so masterly a
      hand: I shall only endeavor to remove from it somewhat of the marvellous;
      a circumstance which, on all occasions, gives much ground for doubt and
      suspicion. It seems to me, that the circumstance of Cromwell's life in
      which his abilities are principally discovered, is his rising from a
      private station, in opposition to so many rivals, so much advanced before
      him, to a high command and authority, in the army. His great courage, his
      signal military talents, his eminent dexterity and address, were all
      requisite for this important acquisition. Yet will not this promotion
      appear the effect of supernatural abilities, when we consider, that
      Fairfax himself, a private gentleman, who had not the advantage of a seat
      in parliament, had, through the same steps, attained even a superior rank,
      and, if endued with common capacity and penetration, had been able to
      retain it. To incite such an army to rebellion against the parliament,
      required no uncommon art or industry: to have kept them in obedience had
      been the more difficult enterprise. When the breach was once formed
      between the military and civil powers, a supreme and absolute authority,
      from that moment, is devolved on the general; and if he be afterwards
      pleased to employ artifice or policy, it may be regarded, on most
      occasions, as great condescension, if not as superfluous caution. That
      Cromwell was ever able really to blind or overreach either the king or the
      republicans, does not appear: as they possessed no means of resisting the
      force under his command, they were glad to temporize with him, and, by
      seeming to be deceived, wait for opportunities of freeing themselves from
      his dominion. If he seduced the military fanatics, it is to be considered,
      that their interests and his evidently concurred; that their ignorance and
      low education exposed them to the grossest imposition; and that he himself
      was at bottom as frantic an enthusiast as the worst of them; and, in order
      to obtain their confidence, needed but to display those vulgar and
      ridiculous habits which he had early acquired, and on which he set so high
      a value. An army is so forcible, and at the same time so coarse a weapon,
      that any hand which wields it, may, without much dexterity, perform any
      operation, and attain any ascendant, in human society.
    </p>
    <p>
      The domestic administration of Cromwell, though it discovers great
      abilities, was conducted without any plan either of liberty or arbitrary
      power: perhaps his difficult situation admitted of neither. His foreign
      enterprises, though full of intrepidity, were pernicious to national
      interest, and seem more the result of impetuous fury or narrow prejudices,
      than of cool foresight and deliberation. An eminent personage, however, he
      was in many respects, and even a superior genius; but unequal and
      irregular in his operations. And though not defective in any talent,
      except that of elocution, the abilities which in him were most admirable,
      and which most contributed to his marvellous success, were the magnanimous
      resolution of his enterprises, and his peculiar dexterity in discovering
      the characters, and practising on the weaknesses, of mankind.
    </p>
    <p>
      If we survey the moral character of Cromwell with that indulgence which is
      due to the blindness and infirmities of the human species, we shall not be
      inclined to load his memory with such violent reproaches as those which
      his enemies usually throw upon it. Amidst the passions and prejudices of
      that period, that he should prefer the parliamentary to the royal cause,
      will not appear extraordinary; since, even at present, some men of sense
      and knowledge are disposed to think, that the question, with regard to the
      justice of the quar* *rel, may be regarded as doubtful and uncertain. The
      murder of the king, the most atrocious of all his actions, was to him
      covered under a mighty cloud of republican and fanatical illusions; and it
      is not impossible, but he might believe it, as many others did, the most
      meritorious action that he could perform. His subsequent usurpation was
      the effect of necessity, as well as of ambition; nor is it easy to see how
      the various factions could at that time have been restrained, without a
      mixture of military and arbitrary authority. The private deportment of
      Cromwell, as a son, a husband, a father, a friend, is exposed to no
      considerable censure, if it does not rather merit praise. And, upon the
      whole, his character does not appear more extraordinary and unusual by the
      mixture of so much absurdity with so much penetration, than by his
      tempering such violent ambition and such enraged fanaticism with so much
      regard to justice and humanity.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell was in the fifty-ninth year of his age when he died. He was of a
      robust frame of body, and of a manly, though not of an agreeable aspect.
      He left only two sons, Richard and Henry; and three daughters; one married
      to General Fleetwood, another to Lord Fauconberg, a third to Lord Rich.
      His father died when he was very young. His mother lived till after he was
      protector; and, contrary to her orders, he buried her with great pomp in
      Westminster Abbey. She could not be persuaded that his power or person was
      ever in safety. At every noise which she heard, she exclaimed that her son
      was murdered; and was never satisfied that he was alive, if she did not
      receive frequent visits from him. She was a decent woman; and by her
      frugality and industry had raised and educated a numerous family upon a
      small fortune. She had even been obliged to set up a brewery at
      Huntingdon, which she managed to good advantage. Hence Cromwell, in the
      invectives of that age, is often stigmatized with the name of the brewer.
      Ludlow, by way of insult, mentions the great accession which he would
      receive to his royal revenues upon his mother's death, who possessed a
      jointure of sixty pounds a year upon his estate. She was of a good family,
      of the name of Stuart; remotely allied, as is by some supposed, to the
      royal family.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      CHAPTER LXII
    </h2>
    <h3>
      THE COMMONWEALTH.
    </h3>
    <p class="side">
      1658.
    </p>
    <p>
      All the arts of Cromwell's policy had been so often practised, that they
      began to lose their effect; and his power, instead of being confirmed by
      time and success, seemed every day to become more uncertain and
      precarious. His friends the most closely connected with him, and his
      counsellors the most trusted, were entering into cabals against his
      authority; and with all his penetration into the characters of men, he
      could not find any ministers on whom he could rely. Men of probity and
      honor, he knew, would not submit to be the instruments of a usurpation
      violent and illegal: those who were free from the restraint of principle,
      might betray, from interest, that cause in which, from no better motives,
      they had enlisted themselves. Even those on whom he conferred any favor,
      never deemed the recompense an equivalent for the sacrifices which they
      made to obtain it: whoever was refused any demand, justified his anger by
      the specious colors of conscience and of duty. Such difficulties
      surrounded the protector, that his dying at so critical a time is esteemed
      by many the most fortunate circumstance that ever attended him; and it was
      thought, that all his courage and dexterity could not much longer have
      extended his usurped administration.
    </p>
    <p>
      But when that potent hand was removed which conducted the government,
      every one expected a sudden dissolution of the unwieldy and ill-jointed
      fabric. Richard, a young man of no experience, educated in the country,
      accustomed to a retired life, unacquainted with the officers, and unknown
      to them, recommended by no military exploits, endeared by no
      familiarities, could not long, it was thought, maintain that authority
      which his father had acquired by so many valorous achievements and such
      signal successes. And when it was observed, that he possessed only the
      virtues of private life, which in his situation were so many vices; that
      indolence, incapacity, irresolution, attended his facility and good
      nature, the various hopes of men were excited by the expectation of some
      great event or revolution. For some time, however, the public was
      disappointed in this opinion. The council recognized the succession of
      Richard: Fleetwood, in whose favor it was supposed, Cromwell had formerly
      made a will, renounced all claim or pretension to the protectorship:
      Henry, Richard's brother, who governed Ireland with popularity, insured
      him the obedience of that kingdom: Monk, whose authority was well
      established in Scotland, being much attached to the family of Cromwell,
      immediately proclaimed the new protector: the army, every where, the
      fleet, acknowledged his title: above ninety addresses, from the counties
      and most considerable corporations, congratulated him on his accession, in
      all the terms of dutiful allegiance: foreign ministers were forward in
      paying him the usual compliments: and Richard, whose moderate, unambitious
      character never would have led him to contend for empire, was tempted to
      accept of so rich an inheritance, which seemed to be tendered to him by
      the consent of all mankind.
    </p>
    <p>
      It was found necessary to call a parliament, in order to furnish supplies,
      both for the ordinary administration, and for fulfilling those engagements
      with foreign princes, particularly Sweden, into which the late protector
      had entered. In hopes of obtaining greater influence in elections, the
      ancient right was restored to all the small boroughs; and the counties
      were allowed no more than their usual members.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1659.
    </p>
    <p>
      The house of peers, or the other house, consisted of the same persons that
      had been appointed by Oliver.
    </p>
    <p>
      All the commons, at first, signed without hesitation an engagement not to
      alter the present government. They next proceeded to examine the humble
      petition and advice; and after great opposition and many vehement debates,
      it was at length, with much difficulty, carried by the court party to
      confirm it. An acknowledgment, too, of the authority of the other house,
      was extorted from them; though it was resolved not to treat this house of
      peers with any greater respect than they should return to the commons. A
      declaration was also made, that the establishment of the other house
      should nowise prejudice the right of such of the ancient peers as had from
      the beginning of the war adhered to the parliament. But in all these
      proceedings, the opposition among the commons was so considerable, and the
      debates were so much prolonged, that all business was retarded, and great
      alarm given to the partisans of the young protector.
    </p>
    <p>
      But there was another quarter from which greater dangers were justly
      apprehended. The most considerable officers of the army, and even
      Fleetwood, brother-in-law to the protector, were entering into cabals
      against him. No character in human society is more dangerous than that of
      the fanatic; because, if attended with weak judgment, he is exposed to the
      suggestions of others; if supported by more discernment, he is entirely
      governed by his own illusions, which sanctify his most selfish views and
      passions. Fleetwood was of the former species; and as he was extremely
      addicted to a republic, and even to the fifth monarchy or dominion of the
      saints, it was easy for those who had insinuated themselves into his
      confidence, to instil disgusts against the dignity of protector. The whole
      republican party in the army, which was still considerable, Fitz, Mason,
      Moss, Farley, united themselves to that general. The officers, too, of the
      same party, whom Cromwell had discarded, Overton, Ludlow, Rich, Okey,
      Alured, began to appear, and to recover that authority which had been only
      for a time suspended. A party, likewise, who found themselves eclipsed in
      Richard's favor, Sydenham, Kelsey, Berry, Haines, joined the cabal of the
      others. Even Desborow, the protector's uncle, lent his authority to that
      faction. But above all, the intrigues of Lambert, who was now roused from
      his retreat, inflamed all those dangerous humors, and threatened the
      nation with some great convulsion. The discontented officers established
      their meetings in Fleetwood's apartments; and because he dwelt in
      Wallingford House, the party received a denomination from that place.
    </p>
    <p>
      Richard, who possessed neither resolution nor penetration, was prevailed
      on to give an unguarded consent for calling a general council of officers,
      who might make him proposals, as they pretended, for the good of the army.
      No sooner were they assembled than they voted a remonstrance. They there
      lamented, that the good old cause, as they termed it, that is, the cause
      for which they had engaged against the late king, was entirely neglected;
      and they proposed as a remedy, that the whole military power should be
      intrusted to some person in whom they might all confide. The city militia,
      influenced by two aldermen, Tichburn and Ireton, expressed the same
      resolution of adhering to the good old cause.
    </p>
    <p>
      The protector was justly alarmed at those movements among the officers.
      The persons in whom he chiefly confided, were all of them, excepting
      Broghill, men of civil characters and professions; Fiennes, Thurloe,
      Whitlocke, Wolseley, who could only assist him with their advice and
      opinion. He possessed none of those arts which were proper to gain an
      enthusiastic army. Murmurs being thrown out against some promotions which
      he had made, "Would you have me," said he, "prefer none but the godly?
      Here is Dick Ingoldsby," continued he, "who can neither pray nor preach;
      yet will I trust him before ye all."[*] This imprudence gave great offence
      to the pretended saints. The other qualities of the protector were
      correspondent to these sentiments: he was of a gentle, humane, and
      generous disposition. Some of his party offering to put an end to those
      intrigues by the death of Lambert, he declared that he would not purchase
      power or dominion by such sanguinary measures.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament was no less alarmed at the military cabals. They voted that
      there should be no meeting or general council of officers, except with the
      protector's consent, or by his orders. This vote brought affairs
      immediately to a rupture. The officers hastened to Richard, and demanded
      of him the dissolution of the parliament. Desborow, a man of a clownish
      and brutal nature, threatened him, if he should refuse compliance. The
      protector wanted the resolution to deny, and possessed little ability to
      resist. The parliament was dissolved; and by the same act, the protector
      was by every one considered as effectually dethroned. Soon after, he
      signed his demission in form.
    </p>
    <p>
      Henry, the deputy of Ireland, was endowed with the same moderate
      disposition as Richard; but as he possessed more vigor and capacity, it
      was apprehended that he might make resistance. His popularity in Ireland
      was great; and even his personal authority, notwithstanding his youth, was
      considerable. Had his ambition been very eager, he had, no doubt, been
      able to create disturbance: but being threatened by Sir Hardress Waller,
      Colonel John Jones, and other officers, he very quietly resigned his
      command, and retired to England. He had once entertained thoughts, which
      he had not resolution to execute, of proclaiming the king in Dublin.[**]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Ludlow.

     ** Carte's Collections, vol. ii. p. 243.
</pre>
    <p>
      Thus fell, suddenly and from an enormous height, but, by a rare fortune,
      without any hurt or injury, the family of the Cromwells. Richard continued
      to possess an estate, which was moderate, and burdened too with a large
      debt, which he had contracted for the interment of his father. After the
      restoration, though he remained unmolested, he thought proper to travel
      for some years; and at Pezenas, in Languedoc, he was introduced under a
      borrowed name to the prince of Conti. That prince, talking of English
      affairs, broke out into admiration of Cromwell's courage and capacity.
      "But as for that poor, pitiful fellow Richard," said he, "what has become
      of him? How could he be such a blockhead as to reap no greater benefit
      from all his father's crimes and successes?" Richard extended his peaceful
      and quiet life to an extreme old age, and died not till the latter end of
      Queen Anne's reign. His social virtues, more valuable than the greatest
      capacity, met with a recompense more precious than noisy fame, and more
      suitable&mdash;contentment and tranquillity.
    </p>
    <p>
      The council of officers, now possessed of supreme authority, deliberated
      what form of government they should establish. Many of them seemed
      inclined to exercise the power of the sword in the most open manner; but
      as it was apprehended, that the people would with great difficulty be
      induced to pay taxes levied by arbitrary will and pleasure, it was agreed
      to preserve the shadow of civil administration, and to revive the long
      parliament, which had been expelled by Cromwell. That assembly could not
      be dissolved, it was asserted, but by their own consent; and violence had
      interrupted, but was not able to destroy, their right to government. The
      officers also expected, that as these members had sufficiently felt their
      own weakness, they would be contented to act in subordination to the
      military commanders, and would thenceforth allow all the authority to
      remain where the power was so visibly vested.
    </p>
    <p>
      The officers applied to Lenthal, the speaker, and proposed to him, that
      the parliament should resume their seats. Lenthal was of a low, timid
      spirit; and being uncertain what issue might attend these measures, was
      desirous of evading the proposal. He replied, that he could by no means
      comply with the desire of the officers; being engaged in a business of far
      greater importance to himself, which he could not omit on any account,
      because it concerned the salvation of his own soul. The officers pressed
      him to tell what it might be. He was preparing, he said, to participate of
      the Lord's supper, which he resolved to take next Sabbath. They insisted,
      that mercy was preferable to sacrifice; and that he could not better
      prepare himself for that great duty, than by contributing so the public
      service. All their remonstrances had no effect.
    </p>
    <p>
      However, on the appointed day, the speaker, being informed that a quorum
      of the house was likely to meet, thought proper, notwithstanding the
      salvation of his soul, as Ludlow observes, to join them; and the house
      immediately proceeded upon business. The secluded members attempted, but
      in vain, to resume their seats among them.
    </p>
    <p>
      The numbers of this parliament were small, little exceeding seventy
      members: the authority in the nation, ever since they had been purged by
      the army, was extremely diminished; and, after their expulsion, had been
      totally annihilated; but being all of them men of violent ambition, some
      of them men of experience and capacity, they were resolved, since they
      enjoyed the title of the supreme authority, and observed that some
      appearance of a parliament was requisite for the purposes of the army, not
      to act a subordinate part to those who acknowledged themselves their
      servants. They chose a council, in which they took care that the officers
      of Wallingford House should not be the majority: they appointed Fleetwood
      lieutenant-general, but inserted in his commission, that it should only
      continue during the pleasure of the house: they chose seven persons, who
      should nominate to such commands as became vacant; and they voted, that
      all commissions should be received from the speaker, and be signed by him
      in the name of the house. These precautions, the tendency of which was
      visible, gave great disgust to the general officers; and their discontent
      would immediately have broken out into some resolution fatal to the
      parliament, had it not been checked by the apprehensions of danger from
      the common enemy.
    </p>
    <p>
      The bulk of the nation consisted of royalists and Presbyterians; and to
      both these parties the dominion of the pretended parliament had ever been
      to the last degree odious. When that assembly was expelled by Cromwell,
      contempt had succeeded to hatred; and no reserve had been used in
      expressing the utmost derision against the impotent ambition of these
      usurpers. Seeing them reinstated in authority, all orders of men felt the
      highest indignation; together with apprehensions, lest such tyrannical
      rulers should exert their power by taking vengeance upon their enemies,
      who had so openly insulted them. A secret reconciliation, therefore, was
      made between the rival parties; and it was agreed, that, burying former
      enmities in oblivion, all efforts should be used for the overthrow of the
      rump; so they called the parliament, in allusion to that part of the
      animal body. The Presbyterians, sensible from experience that their
      passion for liberty, how ever laudable, had carried them into
      unwarrantable excesses were willing to lay aside ancient jealousies, and
      at all hazards to restore the royal family. The nobility, the gentry, bent
      their passionate endeavors to the same enterprise, by which alone they
      could be redeemed from slavery. And no man was so remote from party, so
      indifferent to public good, as not to feel the most ardent wishes for the
      dissolution of that tyranny, which, whether the civil or the military part
      of it were considered, appeared equally oppressive and ruinous to the
      nation.
    </p>
    <p>
      Mordaunt, who had so narrowly escaped on his trial before the high court
      of justice, seemed rather animated than daunted with past danger; and
      having by his resolute behavior obtained the highest confidence of the
      royal party, he was now become the centre of all their conspiracies. In
      many counties, a resolution was taken to rise in arms. Lord Willoughby of
      Parham and Sir Horatio Townshend undertook to secure Lynne. General Massey
      engaged to seize Gloucester: Lord Newport, Littleton, and other gentlemen,
      conspired to take possession of Shrewsbury; Sir George Booth of Chester;
      Sir Thomas Middleton of North Wales; Arundel, Pollar, Granville,
      Trelawney, of Plymouth and Exeter. A day was appointed for the execution
      of all these enterprises. And the king, attended by the duke of York, had
      secretly arrived at Calais, with a resolution of putting himself at the
      head of his loyal subjects. The French court had promised to supply him
      with a small body of forces, in order to countenance the insurrections of
      the English.
    </p>
    <p>
      This combination was disconcerted by the infidelity of Sir Richard Willis.
      That traitor continued with the parliament the same correspondence which
      he had begun with Cromwell. He had engaged to reveal all conspiracies, so
      far as to destroy their effect; but reserved to himself, if he pleased,
      the power of concealing the conspirators. He took care never to name any
      of the old genuine cavaliers, who had zealously adhered, and were resolved
      still to adhere, to the royal cause in every fortune. These men he
      esteemed; these he even loved. He betrayed only the new converts among the
      Presbyterians, or such lukewarm royalists as, discouraged with their
      disappointments, were resolved to expose themselves to no more hazards; a
      lively proof how impossible it is, even for the most corrupted minds, to
      divest themselves of all regard to morality and social duty.
    </p>
    <p>
      Many of the conspirators in the different counties were thrown into
      prison: others, astonished at such symptoms of secret treachery, left
      their houses, or remained quiet: the most tempestuous weather prevailed
      during the whole time appointed for the rendezvouses; insomuch that some
      found it impossible to join their friends, and others were dismayed with
      fear and superstition at an incident so unusual during the summer season.
      Of all the projects, the only one which took effect, was that of Sir
      George Booth for the seizing of Chester. The earl of Derby, Lord Herbert
      of Cherbury, Mr. Lee, Colonel Morgan, entered into this enterprise. Sir
      William Middleton joined Booth with some troops from North Wales; and the
      malecontents were powerful enough to subdue all in that neighborhood who
      ventured to oppose them. In their declaration they made no mention of the
      king; they only demanded a free and full parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament was justly alarmed. How combustible the materials, they
      well knew; and the fire was now fallen among them. Booth was of a family
      eminently Presbyterian; and his conjunction with the royalists they
      regarded as a dangerous symptom. They had many officers whose fidelity
      they could more depend on than that of Lambert; but there was no one in
      whose vigilance and capacity they reposed such confidence. They
      commissioned him to suppress the rebels. He made incredible haste. Booth
      imprudently ventured himself out of the walls of Chester, and exposed, in
      the open field, his raw troops against these hardy veterans. He was soon
      routed and taken prisoner. His whole army was dispersed. And the
      parliament had no further occupation than to fill all the jails with their
      open or secret enemies. Designs were even entertained of transporting the
      loyal families to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and the other colonies, lest they
      should propagate in England children of the same malignant affections with
      themselves.
    </p>
    <p>
      This success hastened the ruin of the parliament. Lambert, at the head of
      a body of troops, was no less dangerous to them than Booth. A thousand
      pounds, which they sent him to buy a jewel, were employed by him in
      liberalities to his officers. At his instigation, they drew up a petition,
      and transmitted it to Fleetwood, a weak man, and an honest, if sincerity
      in folly deserve that honorable name. The import of this petition was,
      that Fleetwood should be made commander-in-chief, Lambert major-general,
      Desborow lieutenant-general of the horse, Monk major-general of the foot.
      To which a demand was added, that no officer should be dismissed from his
      command but by a court martial.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament, alarmed at the danger, immediately cashiered Lambert,
      Desborow, Berry, Clarke, Barrow, Kelsey, Cobbet. Sir Arthur Hazelrig
      proposed the impeachment of Lambert for high treason. Fleetwood's
      commission was vacated, and the command of the army was vested in seven
      persons, of whom that general was one. The parliament voted, that they
      would have no more general officers. And they declared it high treason to
      levy any money without consent of parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      But these votes were feeble weapons in opposition to the swords of the
      soldiery. Lambert drew some troops together, in order to decide the
      controversy. Okey, who was leading his regiment to the assistance of the
      parliament, was deserted by them. Morley and Moss brought their regiments
      into Palace-yard, resolute to oppose the violence of Lambert. But that
      artful general knew an easy way of disappointing them. He placed his
      soldiers in the streets which led to Westminster Hall. When the speaker
      came in his coach, he ordered the horses to be turned, and very civilly
      conducted him home. The other members were in like manner intercepted. And
      the two regiments in Palace-yard, observing that they were exposed to
      derision, peaceably retired to their quarters. A little before this bold
      enterprise, a solemn fast had been kept by the army; and it is remarked,
      that this ceremony was the usual prelude to every signal violence which
      they committed.
    </p>
    <p>
      The officers found themselves again invested with supreme authority, of
      which they intended forever to retain the substance, however they might
      bestow on others the empty shadow or appearance. They elected a committee
      of twenty-three persons, of whom seven were officers. These they pretended
      to invest with sovereign authority; and they called them a "committee of
      safety." They spoke every where of summoning a parliament chosen by the
      people; but they really took some steps towards assembling a military
      parliament, composed of officers elected from every regiment in the
      service.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Ludlow.
</pre>
    <p>
      Throughout the three kingdoms there prevailed nothing but the melancholy
      fears, to the nobility and gentry of a bloody massacre and extermination;
      to the rest of the people, of perpetual servitude beneath those sanctified
      robbers, whose union and whose divisions would be equally destructive and
      who, under pretence of superior illuminations, would soon extirpate, if
      possible, all private morality, as they had already done all public law
      and justice, from the British dominions.
    </p>
    <p>
      During the time that England continued in this distracted condition, the
      other kingdoms of Europe were hastening towards a composure of those
      differences by which they had so long been agitated. The parliament, while
      it preserved authority, instead of following the imprudent politics of
      Cromwell, and lending assistance to the conquering Swede, embraced the
      maxims of the Dutch commonwealth, and resolved, in conjunction with that
      state, to mediate by force an accommodation between the northern crowns.
      Montague was sent with a squadron to the Baltic, and carried with him, as
      ambassador, Algernon Sidney, the celebrated republican. Sidney found the
      Swedish monarch employed in the siege of Copenhagen, the capital of his
      enemy; and was highly pleased that, with a Roman arrogance, he could check
      the progress of royal victories, and display in so signal a manner the
      superiority of freedom above tyranny. With the highest indignation, the
      ambitious prince was obliged to submit to the imperious mediation of the
      two commonwealths. "It is cruel," said he, "that laws should be prescribed
      me by parricides and pedlers." But his whole army was enclosed in an
      island, and might be starved by the combined squadrons of England and
      Holland. He was obliged therefore to quit his prey, when he had so nearly
      gotten possession of it; and having agreed to a pacification with Denmark,
      he retired into his own country, where he soon after died.
    </p>
    <p>
      The wars between France and Spain were also concluded by the treaty of the
      Pyrenees. These animosities had long been carried on between the rival
      states, even while governed by a sister and brother, who cordially loved
      and esteemed each other. But politics, which had so long prevailed over
      these friendly affections, now at last yielded to their influence; and
      never was the triumph more full and complete. The Spanish Low Countries,
      if not every part of that monarchy, lay almost entirely at the mercy of
      its enemy. Broken armies, disordered finances, slow and irresolute
      counsels by these resources alone were the dispersed provinces of Spain
      defended against the vigorous power of France. But the queen regent,
      anxious for the fate of her brother, employed her authority with the
      cardinal to stop the progress of the French conquests, and put an end to a
      quarrel which, being commenced by ambition, and attended with victory, was
      at last concluded with moderation. The young monarch of France, though
      aspiring and warlike in his character, was at this time entirely occupied
      in the pleasures of love and gallantry, and had passively resigned the
      reins of empire into the hands of his politic minister. And he remained an
      unconcerned spectator, while an opportunity for conquest was parted with,
      which he never was able, during the whole course of his active reign,
      fully to retrieve.
    </p>
    <p>
      The ministers of the two crowns, Mazarine and Don Louis de Haro, met at
      the foot of the Pyrenees, in the Isle of Pheasants, a place which was
      supposed to belong to neither kingdom. The negotiation being brought to an
      issue by frequent conferences between the ministers, the monarchs
      themselves agreed to a congress; and these two splendid courts appeared in
      their full lustre amidst those savage mountains. Philip brought his
      daughter, Mary Therese, along with him; and giving her in marriage to his
      nephew Louis, endeavored to cement by this new tie the incompatible
      interests of the two monarchies. The French king made a solemn
      renunciation of every succession which might accrue to him in right of his
      consort; a vain formality, too weak to restrain the ungoverned ambition of
      princes.
    </p>
    <p>
      The affairs of England were in so great disorder, that it was not possible
      to comprehend that kingdom in the treaty, or adjust measures with a power
      which was in such incessant fluctuation. The king, reduced to despair by
      the failure of all enterprises for his restoration, was resolved to try
      the weak resource of foreign succors; and he went to the Pyrenees at the
      time when the two ministers were in the midst of their negotiations. Don
      Louis received him with that generous civility peculiar to his nation; and
      expressed great inclination, had the low condition of Spain allowed him,
      to give assistance to the distressed monarch. The cautious Mazarine,
      pleading the alliance of France with the English commonwealth, refused
      even to see him; and though the king offered to marry the cardinal's
      niece,[*] he could for the present obtain nothing but empty profusions of
      respect and protestations of services. The condition of that monarch, to
      all the world, seemed totally desperate.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * King James's Memoirs.
</pre>
    <p>
      His friends had been baffled in every attempt for his service: the
      scaffold had often streamed with the blood of the more active royalists:
      the spirits of many were broken with tedious imprisonments: the estates of
      all were burdened by the fines and confiscations which had been levied
      upon them: no one durst openly avow himself of that party: and so small
      did their number seem to a superficial view, that, even should the nation
      recover its liberty, which was deemed nowise probable, it was judged
      uncertain what form of government it would embrace. But amidst all these
      gloomy prospects, fortune, by a surprising revolution, was now paving the
      way for the king to mount, in peace and triumph, the throne of his
      ancestors. It was by the prudence and loyalty of General Monk that this
      happy change was at last accomplished.
    </p>
    <p>
      George Monk, to whom the fate was reserved of reëstablishing monarchy, and
      finishing the bloody dissensions of three kingdoms, was the second son of
      a family in Devonshire, ancient and honorable, but lately, from too great
      hospitality and expense, somewhat fallen to decay. He betook himself in
      early youth to the profession of arms; and was engaged in the unfortunate
      expeditions to Cadiz and the Isle of Rhé. After England had concluded
      peace with all her neighbors, he sought military experience in the Low
      Countries, the great school of war to all the European nations; and he
      rose to the command of a company under Lord Goring. This company consisted
      of two hundred men, of whom a hundred were volunteers, often men of family
      and fortune, sometimes noblemen, who lived upon their own income in a
      splendid manner: such a military turn at that time prevailed among the
      English.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the sound of war was first heard in this island, Monk returned to
      England, partly desirous of promotion in his native country, partly
      disgusted with some ill usage from the states, of which he found reason to
      complain. Upon the Scottish pacification, he was employed by the earl of
      Leicester against the Irish rebels; and having obtained a regiment, was
      soon taken notice of for his military skill, and for his calm and
      deliberate valor. Without ostentation, expense, or caresses, merely by his
      humane and equal temper, he gained the good will of the soldiery; who,
      with a mixture of familiarity and affection, usually called him "honest
      George Monk," an honorable appellation, which they still continued to him
      even during his greatest elevation. He was remarkable for his moderation
      in party; and while all around him were inflamed into rage against the
      opposite faction, he fell under suspicion from the candor and tranquillity
      of his behavior. When the Irish army was called over into England,
      surmises of this kind had been so far credited, that he had even been
      suspended from his command, and ordered to Oxford, that he might answer
      the charge laid against him. His established character for truth and
      sincerity here stood him in great stead; and upon his earnest
      protestations and declarations, he was soon restored to his regiment,
      which he joined at the siege of Nantwich. The day after his arrival,
      Fairfax attacked and defeated the royalists commanded by Biron, and took
      Colonel Monk prisoner. He was sent to the Tower, where he endured, above
      two years, all the rigors of poverty and confinement. The king, however,
      was so mindful as to send him, notwithstanding his own difficulties, a
      present of one hundred guineas; but it was not till after the royalists
      were totally subdued that he recovered his liberty. Monk, however
      distressed, had always refused the most inviting offers from the
      parliament: but Cromwell, sensible of his merit, having solicited him to
      engage in the wars against the Irish, who were considered as rebels both
      by king and parliament, he was not unwilling to repair his broken fortunes
      by accepting a command which, he flattered himself, was reconcilable to
      the strictest principles of honor. Having once engaged with the
      parliament, he was obliged to obey orders; and found himself necessitated
      to fight both against the marquis of Ormond in Ireland, and against the
      king himself in Scotland. Upon the reduction of the latter kingdom, Monk
      was left with the supreme command; and by the equality and justice of his
      administration, he was able to give contentment to that restless people,
      now reduced to subjection by a nation whom they hated. No less acceptable
      was his authority to the officers and soldiers; and foreseeing that the
      good will of the army under his command might some time be of great
      service to him, he had with much care and success cultivated their
      friendship.
    </p>
    <p>
      The connections which he had formed with Cromwell, his benefactor,
      preserved him faithful to Richard, who had been enjoined by his father to
      follow in every thing the directions of General Monk. When the long
      parliament was restored, Monk, who was not prepared for opposition,
      acknowledged their authority, and was continued in his command, from which
      it would not have been safe to attempt dislodging him. After the army had
      expelled the parliament, he protested against the violence, and resolved,
      as he pretended, to vindicate their invaded privileges. Deeper designs,
      either in the king's favor or his own, were from the beginning suspected
      to be the motive of his actions.
    </p>
    <p>
      A rivalship had long subsisted between him and Lambert; and every body saw
      the reason why he opposed the elevation of that ambitious general, by
      whose success his own authority, he knew, would soon be subverted. But
      little friendship had ever subsisted between him and the parliamentary
      leaders; and it seemed nowise probable that he intended to employ his
      industry, and spend his blood, for the advancement of ene enemy above
      another. How early he entertained designs for the king's restoration, we
      know not with certainty: it is likely that, as soon as Richard was
      deposed, he foresaw that, without such an expedient, it would be
      impossible ever to bring the nation to a regular settlement. His elder and
      younger brothers were devoted to the royal cause: the Granvilles, his near
      relations, and all the rest of his kindred, were in the same interests: he
      himself was intoxicated with no fumes of enthusiasm, and had maintained no
      connections with any of the fanatical tribe. His early engagements had
      been with the king; and he had left that service without receiving any
      disgust from the royal family. Since he had enlisted himself with the
      opposite party, he had been guilty of no violence or rigor which might
      render him obnoxious. His return, therefore, to loyalty, was easy and
      open; and nothing could be supposed to counterbalance his natural
      propensity to that measure, except the views of his own elevation, and the
      prospect of usurping the same grandeur and authority which had been
      assumed by Cromwell. But from such exorbitant, if not impossible projects,
      the natural tranquillity and moderation of his temper, the calmness and
      solidity of his genius, not to mention his age, now upon the decline, seem
      to have set him at a distance. Cromwell himself, he always asserted,[*]
      could not long have maintained his usurpation; and any other person, even
      equal to him in genius, it was obvious, would now find it more difficult
      to practise arts of which every one from experience was sufficiently
      aware. It is more agreeable, therefore, to reason as well as candor, to
      suppose, that Monk, as soon as he put himself in motion, had entertained
      views of effecting the king's restoration; nor ought any objections,
      derived from his profound silence even to Charles himself, to be regarded
      as considerable. His temper was naturally reserved; his circumstances
      required dissimulation; the king, he knew, was surrounded with spies and
      traitors; and, upon the whole, it seems hard to interpret that conduct
      which ought to exalt our idea of his prudence, as a disparagement of his
      probity.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Gumble's Life of Monk, p. 93.
</pre>
    <p>
      Sir John Granville, hoping that the general would engage in the king's
      service, sent into Scotland his younger brother, a clergyman, Dr. Monk,
      who carried him a letter and invitation from the king. When the doctor
      arrived, he found that his brother was then holding a council of officers,
      and was not to be seen for some hours. In the mean time, he was received
      and entertained by Price, the general's chaplain, a man of probity, as
      well as a partisan of the king's. The doctor, having an entire confidence
      in the chaplain, talked very freely to him about the object of his
      journey, and engaged him, if there should be occasion, to second his
      applications. At last, the general arrives; the brothers embrace; and
      after some preliminary conversation, the doctor opens his business. Monk
      interrupted him, to know whether he had ever before to any body mentioned
      the subject. "To nobody," replied his brother, "but to Price, whom I know
      to be entirely in your confidence." The general, altering his countenance,
      turned the discourse; and would enter into no further confidence with him,
      but sent him away with the first opportunity. He would not trust his own
      brother the moment he knew that he had disclosed the secret, though to a
      man whom he himself could have trusted.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Lord Lansdowne's Defence of General Monk.
</pre>
    <p>
      His conduct in all other particulars was full of the same reserve and
      prudence; and no less was requisite for effecting the difficult work which
      he had undertaken. All the officers in his army of whom he entertained any
      suspicion, he immediately cashiered; Cobbet, who had been sent by the
      committee of safety, under pretence of communicating their resolutions to
      Monk, but really with a view of debauching his army, he committed to
      custody: he drew together the several scattered regiments: he summoned an
      assembly somewhat resembling a convention of states; and having
      communicated to them his resolution of marching into England, he received
      a seasonable, though no great supply of money.
    </p>
    <p>
      Hearing that Lambert was advancing northward with his army, Monk sent
      Cloberry and two other commissioners to London, with large professions of
      his inclination to peace, and with offers of terms for an accommodation.
      His chief aim was to gain time, and relax the preparations of his enemies.
      The committee of safety fell into the snare. A treaty was signed by Monk's
      commissioners; but he refused to ratify it, and complained that they had
      exceeded their powers. He desired, however, to enter into a new
      negotiation at Newcastle. The committee willingly accepted this fallacious
      offer.
    </p>
    <p>
      Meanwhile these military sovereigns found themselves surrounded on all
      hands with inextricable difficulties. The nation had fallen into total
      anarchy; and by refusing the payment of all taxes, reduced the army to the
      greatest necessities. While Lambert's forces were assembling at Newcastle,
      Hazelrig and Morley took possession of Portsmouth, and declared for the
      parliament. A party, sent to suppress them, was persuaded by their
      commander to join in the same declaration. The city apprentices rose in a
      tumult, and demanded a free parliament. Though they were suppressed by
      Colonel Hewson, a man who from the profession of a cobbler had risen to a
      high rank in the army, the city still discovered symptoms of the most
      dangerous discontent. It even established a kind of separate government,
      and assumed the supreme authority within itself. Admiral Lawson with his
      squadron came into the river, and declared for the parliament. Hazelrig
      and Morley, hearing of this important event, left Portsmouth, and advanced
      towards London. The regiments near that city, being solicited by their old
      officers, who had been cashiered by the committee of safety, revolted
      again to the parliament. Desborow's regiment, being sent by Lambert to
      support his friends, no sooner arrived at St. Albans, than it declared for
      the same assembly.
    </p>
    <p>
      Fleetwood's hand was found too weak and unstable to support this
      ill-founded fabric, which every where around him was falling into ruins.
      When he received intelligence of any murmurs among the soldiers, he would
      prostrate himself in prayer, and could hardly be prevailed with to join
      the troops. Even when among them, he would, in the midst of any discourse,
      invite them all to prayer, and put himself on his knees before them. If
      any of his friends exhorted him to more vigor, they could get no other
      answer than, that God had spitten in his face, and would not hear him. Men
      now ceased to wonder why Lambert had promoted him to the office of
      general, and had contented himself with the second command in the army.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lenthal, the speaker, being invited by the officers, again assumed
      authority, and summoned together the parliament, which twice before had
      been expelled with so much reproach and ignominy. As soon as assembled,
      they repealed their act against the payment of excise and customs; they
      appointed commissioners for assigning quarters to the army; and, without
      taking any notice of Lambert, they sent orders to the forces under his
      command immediately to repair to those quarters which were appointed them.
    </p>
    <p class="side">
      1660.
    </p>
    <p>
      Lambert was now in a very disconsolate condition. Monk, he saw, had passed
      the Tweed at Coldstream, and was advancing upon him. His own soldiers
      deserted him in great multitudes, and joined the enemy. Lord Fairfax, too,
      he heard, had raised forces behind him, and had possessed himself of York,
      without declaring his purpose. The last orders of the parliament so
      entirely stripped him of his army, that there remained not with him above
      a hundred horse: all the rest went to their quarters with quietness and
      resignation; and he himself was, some time after, arrested and committed
      to the Tower. The other officers, who had formerly been cashiered by the
      parliament, and who had resumed their commands that they might subdue that
      assembly, were again cashiered and confined to their houses. Sir Harry
      Vane and some members who had concurred with the committee of safety, were
      ordered into a like confinement. And the parliament now seemed to be again
      possessed of more absolute authority than ever, and to be without any
      danger of opposition or control.
    </p>
    <p>
      The republican party was at this time guided by two men, Hazelrig and
      Vane, who were of opposite characters, and mortally hated each other.
      Hazelrig, who possessed greater authority in the parliament, was haughty,
      imperious, precipitate, vainglorious; without civility, without prudence;
      qualified only by his noisy, pertinacious obstinacy to acquire an
      ascendant in public assemblies. Vane was noted in all civil transactions
      for temper, insinuation, address, and a profound judgment; in all
      religious speculations, for folly and extravagance. He was a perfect
      enthusiast; and fancying that he was certainly favored with inspiration,
      he deemed himself, to speak in the language of the times, to be a <i>man
      above ordinances</i>, and, by reason of his perfection, to be unlimited
      and unrestrained by any rules which govern inferior mortals. These
      whimseys, mingling with pride, had so corrupted his excellent
      understanding, that sometimes he thought himself the person deputed to
      reign on earth for a thousand years over the whole congregation of the
      faithful.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Clarendon.
</pre>
    <p>
      Monk, though informed of the restoration of the parliament, from whom he
      received no orders, still advanced with his army, which was near six
      thousand men: the scattered forces in England were above five times more
      numerous. Fairfax, who had resolved to declare for the king, not being
      able to make the general open his intentions, retired to his own house in
      Yorkshire. In all counties through which Monk passed, the prime gentry
      flocked to him with addresses, expressing their earnest desire that he
      would be instrumental in restoring the nation to peace and tranquillity,
      and to the enjoyment of those liberties which by law were their
      birthright, but of which, during so many years, they had been fatally
      bereaved; and that, in order to this salutary purpose, he would prevail,
      either for the restoring of those members who had been secluded before the
      king's death, or for the election of a new parliament, who might legally
      and by general consent again govern the nation. Though Monk pretended not
      to favor these addresses, that ray of hope which the knowledge of his
      character and situation afforded, mightily animated all men. The tyranny
      and the anarchy which now equally oppressed the kingdom; the experience of
      past distractions, the dread of future convulsions, the indignation
      against military usurpation, against sanctified hypocrisy; all these
      motives had united every party, except the most desperate, into ardent
      wishes for the king's restoration, the only remedy for all these fatal
      evils.
    </p>
    <p>
      Scot and Robinson were sent as deputies by the parliament, under pretence
      of congratulating the general, but in reality to serve as spies upon him.
      The city despatched four of their principal citizens to perform like
      compliments; and at the same time to confirm the general in his
      inclination to a free parliament, the object of all men's prayers and
      endeavors. The authority of Monk could scarcely secure the parliamentary
      deputies from those insults which the general hatred and contempt towards
      their masters drew from men of every rank and denomination.
    </p>
    <p>
      Monk continued his march with few interruptions till he reached St.
      Albans. He there sent a message to the parliament, desiring them to remove
      from London those regiments which, though they now professed to return to
      their duty, had so lately offered violence to that assembly. This message
      was unexpected, and exceedingly perplexed the house. Their fate, they
      found, must still depend on a mercenary army; and they were as distant as
      ever from their imaginary sovereignty. However, they found it necessary to
      comply. The soldiers made more difficulty. A mutiny arose among them. One
      regiment in particular, quartered in Somerset House, expressly refused to
      yield their place to the northern army. But those officers who would
      gladly on such an occasion have inflamed the quarrel, were absent or in
      confinement; and for want of leaders, the soldiers were at last, with
      great reluctance, obliged to submit. Monk with his army took quarters in
      Westminster.
    </p>
    <p>
      The general was introduced to the House; and thanks were given him by
      Lenthal, for the eminent services which he had done his country. Monk was
      a prudent, not an eloquent speaker. He told the house, that the services
      which he had been enabled to perform were no more than his duty, and
      merited not such praises as those with which they were pleased to honor
      him: that among many persons of greater worth who bore their commission,
      he had been employed as the instrument of Providence for effecting their
      restoration; but he considered this service as a step only to more
      important services, which it was their part to render to the nation: that
      while on his march, he observed all ranks of men, in all places, to be in
      earnest expectation of a settlement, after the violent convulsions to
      which they had been exposed; and to have no prospect of that blessing but
      from the dissolution of the present parliament, and from the summoning of
      a new one, free and full, who, meeting without oaths or engagements, might
      finally give contentment to the nation: that applications had been made to
      him for that purpose; but that he, sensible of his duty, had still told
      the petitioners, that the parliament itself, which was now free, and would
      soon be full, was the best judge of all these measures; and that the whole
      community ought to acquiesce in their determination: that though he
      expressed himself in this manner to the people, he must now freely inform
      the house, that the fewer engagements were exacted, the more comprehensive
      would their plan prove, and the more satisfaction would it give to the
      nation: and that it was sufficient for public security, if the fanatical
      party and the royalists were excluded; since the principles of these
      factions were destructive either of government or of liberty.
    </p>
    <p>
      This speech, containing matter which was both agreeable and disagreeable
      to the house, as well as to the nation, still kept every one in suspense,
      and upheld that uncertainty in which it seemed the general's interest to
      retain the public. But it was impossible for the kingdom to remain long in
      this doubtful situation: the people, as well as the parliament, pushed
      matters to a decision. During the late convulsions, the payment of taxes
      had been interrupted; and though the parliament, upon their assembling,
      renewed the ordinances for impositions, yet so little reverence did the
      people pay to those legislators, that they gave very slow and unwilling
      obedience to their commands. The common council of London flatly refused
      to submit to an assessment required of them; and declared that, till a
      free and lawful parliament imposed taxes, they never should deem it their
      duty to make any payment. This resolution, if yielded to, would
      immediately have put an end to the dominion of the parliament: they were
      determined, therefore, upon this occasion, to make at once a full
      experiment of their own power, and of their general's obedience.
    </p>
    <p>
      Monk received orders to march into the city; to seize twelve persons, the
      most obnoxious to the parliament; to remove the posts and chains from all
      the streets; and to take down and break the portcullises and gates of the
      city; and very few hours were allowed him to deliberate upon the execution
      of these violent orders. To the great surprise and consternation of all
      men, Monk prepared himself for obedience. Neglecting the entreaties of his
      friends, the remonstrances of his officers, the cries of the people, he
      entered the city in a military manner; he apprehended as many as he could
      of the proscribed persons, whom he sent to the Tower; with all the
      circumstances of contempt, he broke the gates and portcullises; and having
      exposed the city to the scorn and derision of all who hated it, he
      returned in triumph to his quarters in Westminster.
    </p>
    <p>
      No sooner had the general leisure to reflect, than he found that this last
      measure, instead of being a continuation of that cautious ambiguity which
      he had hitherto maintained, was taking party without reserve, and laying
      himself, as well as the nation, at the mercy of that tyrannical
      parliament, whose power and long been odious, as their persons
      contemptible, to all men. He resolved, therefore, before it were too late,
      to repair the dangerous mistake into which he had been betrayed, and to
      show the whole world, still more without reserve, that he meant no longer
      to be the minister of violence and usurpation. After complaining of the
      odious service in which ha had been employed, he wrote a letter to the
      house, reproaching them, as well with the new cabals which they had formed
      with Vane and Lambert, as with the encouragement given to a fanatical
      petition presented by Praise-God Barebone; and he required them, in the
      name of the citizens, soldiers, and whole commonwealth, to issue writs
      within a week, for the filling of their house, and to fix the time for
      their own dissolution and the assembling of a new parliament. Having
      despatched this letter, which might be regarded, he thought, as an
      undoubted pledge of his sincerity, he marched with his army into the city,
      and desired Allen, the mayor, to summon a common council at Guildhall. He
      there made many apologies for the indignity which two days before he had
      been obliged to put upon them; assured them of his perseverance in the
      measures which he had adopted; and desired that they might mutually plight
      their faith for a strict union between city and army, in every enterprise
      for the happiness and settlement of the commonwealth.
    </p>
    <p>
      It would be difficult to describe the joy and exultation which displayed
      itself throughout the city, as soon as intelligence was conveyed of this
      happy measure embraced by the general. The prospect of peace, concord,
      liberty, justice, broke forth at once from amidst the deepest darkness in
      which the nation had ever been involved. The view of past calamities no
      longer presented dismal prognostics of the future: it tended only to
      enhance the general exultation for those scenes of happiness and
      tranquillity which all men now confidently promised themselves. The
      royalists, the Presbyterians, forgetting all animosities, mingled in
      common joy and transport, and vowed never more to gratify the ambition of
      false and factious tyrants by their calamitous divisions. The populace
      more outrageous in their festivity, made the air resound with
      acclamations, and illuminated every street with signals of jollity and
      triumph. Applauses of the general were every where intermingled with
      detestation against the parliament The most ridiculous inventions were
      adopted, in order to express this latter passion. At every bonfire rumps
      were roasted; and where these could no longer be found, pieces of flesh
      were cut into that shape; and the funeral of the parliament (the populace
      exclaimed) was celebrated by these symbols of hatred and derision.
    </p>
    <p>
      The parliament, though in the agonies of despair, made still one effort
      for the recovery of their dominion. They sent a committee with offers to
      gain the general. He refused to hear them, except in the presence of some
      of the secluded members. Though several persons, desperate from guilt and
      fanaticism, promised to invest him with the dignity of supreme magistrate,
      and to support his government, he would not hearken to such wild
      proposals. Having fixed a close correspondence with the city, and
      established its militia in hands whose fidelity could be relied on, he
      returned with his army to Westminster, and pursued every proper measure
      for the settlement of the nation. While he still pretended to maintain
      republican principles, he was taking large steps towards the
      reëstablishment of the ancient monarchy.
    </p>
    <p>
      The secluded members, upon the general's invitation, went to the house,
      and finding no longer any obstruction, they entered, and immediately
      appeared to be the majority: most of the Independents left the place. The
      restored members first repealed all the ordinances by which they had been
      excluded: they gave Sir George Booth and his party their liberty and
      estates: they renewed the general's commission, and enlarged his powers:
      they fixed an assessment for the support of the fleet and army: and having
      passed these votes for the present composure of the kingdom, they
      dissolved themselves, and issued writs for the immediate assembling of a
      new parliament. This last measure had been previously concerted with the
      general, who knew that all men, however different in affections,
      expectations, and designs, united in their detestation of the long
      parliament.
    </p>
    <p>
      A council of state was established, consisting of men of character and
      moderation; most of whom, during the civil wars, had made a great figure
      among the Presbyterians. The militia of the kingdom was put into such
      hands as would promote order and settlement. These, conjoined with Monk's
      army, which lay united at London, were esteemed a sufficient check on the
      more numerous, though dispersed army, of whose inclinations there was
      still much reason to be diffident Monk, however, was every day removing
      the more obnoxious officers, and bringing the troops to a state of
      discipline and obedience.
    </p>
    <p>
      Overton, governor of Hull, had declared his resolution to keep possession
      of that fortress till the coming of King Jesus, but when Alured produced
      the authority of parliament for his delivering the place to Colonel
      Fairfax, he thought proper to comply.
    </p>
    <p>
      Montague, who commanded the fleet in the Baltic, had entered into the
      conspiracy with Sir George Booth; and pretending want of provisions, had
      sailed from the Sound towards the coast of England, with an intention of
      supporting that insurrection of the royalists. On his arrival, he received
      the news of Booth's defeat, and the total failure of the enterprise. The
      great difficulties to which the parliament was then reduced, allowed them
      no leisure to examine strictly the reasons which he gave for quitting his
      station; and they allowed him to retire peaceably to his country house.
      The council of state now conferred on him, in conjunction with Monk, the
      command of the fleet; and secured the naval, as well as military force, in
      hands favorable to the public settlement.
    </p>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding all these steps which were taking towards the
      reëstablishment of monarchy, Monk still maintained the appearance of zeal
      for a commonwealth, and hitherto allowed no canal of correspondence
      between himself and the king to be opened. To call a free parliament, and
      to restore the royal family, were visibly, in the present disposition of
      the kingdom, one and the same measure: yet would not the general declare,
      otherwise than by his actions, that he had adopted the king's interests;
      and nothing but necessity extorted at last the confession from him. His
      silence in the commencement of his enterprise ought to be no objection to
      his sincerity; since he maintained the same reserve at a time when,
      consistent with common sense, he could have entertained no other
      purpose.[*] <a href="#linknote-27" name="linknoteref-27"
      id="linknoteref-27">27</a>
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * See note AA, at the end of the volume.
</pre>
    <p>
      There was one Morrice, a gentleman of Devonshire, of a sedentary, studious
      disposition, nearly related to Monk, and one who had always maintained the
      strictest intimacy with him. With this friend alone did Monk deliberate
      concerning that great enterprise which he had projected. Sir John
      Granville, who had a commission from the king, applied to Morrice for
      access to the general; but received for answer, that the general desired
      him to communicate his business to Morrice. Granville, though
      importunately urged, twice refused to deliver his message to any but Monk
      himself; and this cautious politician, finding him now a person whose
      secrecy could be safely trusted, admitted him to his presence, and opened
      to him his whole intentions. Still he scrupled to commit any thing to
      writing: he delivered only a verbal message by Granville assuring the king
      of his services, giving advice for his conduct, and exhorting him
      instantly to leave the Spanish territories, and retire into Holland. He
      was apprehensive lest Spain might detain him as a pledge for the recovery
      of Dunkirk and Jamaica. Charles followed these directions, and very
      narrowly escaped to Breda. Had he protracted his journey a few hours, he
      had certainly, under pretence of honor and respect, been arrested by the
      Spaniards.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      Lockhart, who was governor of Dunkirk, and nowise averse to the king's
      service, was applied to on this occasion. The state of England was set
      before him, the certainty of the restoration represented, and the prospect
      of great favor displayed, if he would anticipate the vows of the kingdom,
      and receive the king into his fortress. Lockhart still replied, that his
      commission was derived from an English parliament, and he would not open
      his gates but in obedience to the same authority.[**] This scruple, though
      in the present emergence it approaches towards superstition, it is
      difficult for us entirely to condemn.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Lansdowne, Clarendon.

     ** Burnet.
</pre>
    <p>
      The elections for the new parliament went every where in favor of the
      king's party. This was one of those popular torrents, where the most
      indifferent, or even the most averse, are transported with the general
      passion, and zealously adopt the sentiments of the community to which they
      belong. The enthusiasts themselves seemed to be disarmed of their fury;
      and, between despair and astonishment, gave way to those measures which
      they found it would be impossible for them, by their utmost efforts, to
      withstand. The Presbyterians and the royalists, being united, formed the
      voice of the nation, which, without noise, but with infinite ardor, called
      for the king's restoration. The kingdom was almost entirely in the hands
      of the former party; and some zealous leaders among them began to renew
      the demand of those conditions which had been required of the late king in
      the treaty of Newport: but the general opinion seemed to condemn all those
      rigorous and jealous capitulations with their sovereign. Harassed with
      convulsions and disorders, men ardently longed for repose; and were
      terrified at the mention of negotiations or delays, which might afford
      opportunity to the seditious army still to breed new confusion. The
      passion too for liberty, having been carried to such violent extremes, and
      having produced such bloody commotions, began, by a natural movement, to
      give place to a spirit of loyalty and obedience; and the public was less
      zealous in a cause which was become odious, on account of the calamities
      which had so long attended it. After the legal concessions made by the
      late king, the constitution seemed to be sufficiently secured; and the
      additional conditions insisted on, as they had been framed during the
      greatest ardor of the contest, amounted rather to annihilation than a
      limitation of monarchy. Above all, the general was averse to the mention
      of conditions; and resolved, that the crown, which he intended to restore,
      should be conferred on the king entirely free and unencumbered. Without
      further scruple, therefore, or jealousy, the people gave their voice in
      elections for such as they knew to entertain sentiments favorable to
      monarchy; and all paid court to a party, which they foresaw was soon to
      govern the nation. Though the parliament had voted, that no one should be
      elected who had himself, or whose father, had borne arms for the late
      king, little regard was any where paid to this ordinance. The leaders of
      the Presbyterians, the earl of Manchester, Lord Fairfax, Lord Robarts,
      Hollis, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Annesley, Lewis, were determined to
      atone for past transgressions by their present zeal for the royal
      interests; and from former merits, successes, and sufferings, they had
      acquired with their party the highest credit and authority.
    </p>
    <p>
      The affairs of Ireland were in a condition no less favorable to the king.
      As soon as Monk declared against the English army, he despatched
      emissaries into Ireland, and engaged the officers in that kingdom to
      concur with him in the same measures. Lord Broghill, president of Munster,
      and Sir Charles Coote, president of Connaught, went so far as to enter
      into a correspondence with the king, and to promise their assistance for
      his restoration. In conjunction with Sir Theophilus Jones and other
      officers, they took possession of the government, and excluded Ludlow, who
      was zealous for the rump parliament, but whom they, pretended to be in a
      confederacy with the committee of safety. They kept themselves in
      readiness to serve the king; but made no declarations, till they should
      see the turn which affairs took in England.
    </p>
    <p>
      But all these promising views had almost been blasted by an untoward
      accident. Upon the admission of the secluded members, the republican
      party, particularly the late king's judges, were seized with the justest
      despair, and endeavored to infuse the same sentiment into the army. By
      themselves or their emissaries, they represented to the soldiers, that all
      those brave actions which had been performed during the war, and which
      were so meritorious in the eyes of the parliament, would, no doubt, be
      regarded as the deepest crimes by the royalists, and would expose the army
      to the severest vengeance: that in vain did that party make professions of
      moderation and lenity; the king's death, the execution of so many of the
      nobility and gentry, the sequestration and imprisonment of the rest, were
      in their eyes crimes so deep, and offences so personal, as must be
      prosecuted with the most implacable resentment: that the loss of all
      arrears, and the cashiering of every officer and soldier, were the
      lightest punishment which must be expected; after the dispersion of the
      army, no further protection remained to them, either for life or property,
      but the clemency of enraged victors: and that, even if the most perfect
      security could be obtained, it were inglorious to be reduced by treachery
      and deceit to subjection under a foe, who, in the open field, had so often
      yielded to their superior valor.
    </p>
    <p>
      After these suggestions had been infused into the army, Lambert suddenly
      made his escape from the Tower, and threw Monk and the council of state
      into great consternation. They knew Lambert's vigor and activity; they
      were acquainted with his popularity in the army; they were sensible that,
      though the soldiers had lately deserted him, they sufficiently expressed
      their remorse, and their detestation of those who, by false professions,
      they found had so egregiously deceived them. It seemed necessary,
      therefore, to employ the greatest celerity in suppressing so dangerous a
      foe: Colonel Ingoldsby, who had been one of the late king's judges, but
      who was now entirely engaged in the royal cause, was despatched after him.
      He overtook him at Daventry, while he had yet assembled but four troops of
      horse. One of them deserted him. Another quickly followed the example. He
      himself, endeavoring to make his escape, was seized by Ingoldsby, to whom
      he made submissions not suitable to his former character of spirit and
      valor. Okey, Axtel, Cobbet, Crede, and other officers of that party, were
      taken prisoners with him. All the roads were full of soldiers hastening to
      join them. In a few days, they had been formidable. And it was thought,
      that it might prove dangerous for Monk himself to have assembled any
      considerable body of his republican army for their suppression: so that
      nothing could be more happy than the sudden extinction of this rising
      flame.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the parliament met, they chose Sir Harbottle Grimstone speaker, a man
      who, though he had for some time concurred with the late parliament, had
      long been esteemed affectionate to the king's service. The great dangers
      incurred during former usurpations, joined to the extreme caution of the
      general, kept every one in awe; and none dared for some days to make any
      mention of the king. The members exerted their spirit chiefly in bitter
      invectives against the memory of Cromwell, and in execrations against the
      inhuman murder of their late sovereign. At last, the general, having
      sufficiently sounded their inclinations, gave directions to Annesley,
      president of the council, to inform them, that one Sir John Granville, a
      servant of the king's, had been sent over by his majesty, and was now at
      the door with a letter to the commons. The loudest acclamations were
      excited by this intelligence. Granville was called in; the letter,
      accompanied with a declaration, greedily read: without one moment's delay,
      and without a contradictory vote, a committee was appointed to prepare an
      answer: and in order to spread the same satisfaction throughout the
      kingdom, it was voted that the letter and declaration should immediately
      be published.
    </p>
    <p>
      The people, freed from the state of suspense in which they had so long
      been held, now changed their anxious hope for the unmixed effusions of
      joy; and displayed a social triumph and exultation, which no private
      prosperity, even the greatest, is ever able fully to inspire. Traditions
      remain of men, particularly of Oughtred, the mathematician, who died of
      pleasure, when informed of this happy and surprising event. The King's
      declaration was well calculated to uphold the satisfaction inspired by the
      prospect of public settlement. It offered a general amnesty to all persons
      whatsoever: and that without any exceptions but such as should afterwards
      be made by parliament: it promised liberty of conscience; and a
      concurrence in any act of parliament which, upon mature deliberation,
      should be offered, for insuring that indulgence: it submitted to the
      arbitration of the same assembly, the inquiry into all grants, purchases,
      and alienations; and it assured the soldiers of all their arrears, and
      promised them, for the future, the same pay which they then enjoyed.
    </p>
    <p>
      The lords, perceiving the spirit by which the kingdom as well as the
      commons was animated, hastened to reinstate themselves in their ancient
      authority, and to take their share in the settlement of the nation. They
      found the doors of their house open; and all were admitted, even such as
      had formerly been excluded on account of their pretended delinquency.
    </p>
    <p>
      The two houses attended; while the king was proclaimed, with great
      solemnity, in Palace Yard, at Whitehall, and at Temple Bar. The commons
      voted five hundred pounds to buy a jewel for Granville, who had brought
      them the king's gracious messages: a present of fifty thousand pounds was
      conferred on the king, ten thousand pounds on the duke of York, five
      thousand pounds on the duke of Gloucester. A committee of lords and
      commons was despatched to invite his majesty to return and take possession
      of the government. The rapidity with which all these events were conducted
      was marvellous, and discovered the passionate zeal and entire unanimity of
      the nation. Such an impatience appeared, and such an emulation, in lords,
      and commons, and city, who should make the most lively expressions of
      their joy and duty, that, as the noble historian expresses it, a man could
      not but wonder where those people dwelt who had done all the mischief, and
      kept the king so many years from enjoying the comfort and support of such
      excellent subjects. The king himself said, that it must surely have been
      his own fault, that he had not sooner taken possession of the throne;
      since he found every body so zealous in promoting his happy restoration.
    </p>
    <p>
      The respect of foreign powers soon followed the submission of the king's
      subjects. Spain invited him to return to the Low Countries, and embark in
      some of her maritime towns. France made protestations of affection and
      regard, and offered Calais for the same purpose. The states general sent
      deputies with a like friendly invitation. The king resolved to accept of
      this last offer. The people of the republic bore him a cordial affection;
      and politics no longer restrained their magistrates from promoting and
      expressing that sentiment. As he passed from Breda to the Hague, he was
      attended by numerous crowds, and was received with the loudest
      acclamations; as if themselves, not their rivals in power and commerce,
      were now restored to peace and security. The states general in a body, and
      afterwards the states of Holland apart, performed their compliments with
      the greatest solemnity: every person of distinction was ambitious of being
      introduced to his majesty; all ambassadors and public ministers of kings,
      princes, or states, repaired to him, and professed the joy of their
      masters in his behalf; so that one would have thought, that from the
      united efforts of Christendom had been derived this revolution, which
      diffused every where such universal satisfaction.
    </p>
    <p>
      The English fleet came in sight of Scheveling. Montague had not waited for
      orders from the parliament; but had persuaded the officers of themselves
      to tender their duty to his majesty. The duke of York immediately went on
      board, and took the command of the fleet as high admiral.
    </p>
    <p>
      When the king disembarked at Dover, he was met by the general, whom he
      cordially embraced. Never subject in fact, probably in his intentions, had
      deserved better of his king and country. In the space of a few months,
      without effusion of blood, by his cautious and disinterested conduct
      alone, he had bestowed settlement on three kingdoms, which had long been
      torn with the most violent convulsions; and having obstinately refused the
      most inviting conditions offered him by the king, as well as by every
      party in the kingdom, he freely restored his injured master to the vacant
      throne. The king entered London on the twenty-ninth of May, which was also
      his birthday. The fond imaginations of men interpreted as a happy omen the
      concurrence of two such joyful periods.
    </p>
    <p>
      At this era, it may be proper to stop a moment, and take a general survey
      of the age, so far as regards manners, finances, arms, commerce, arts, and
      sciences. The chief use of history is, that it affords materials for
      disquisitions of this nature; and it seems the duty of an historian to
      point out the proper inferences and conclusions.
    </p>
    <p>
      No people could undergo a change more sudden and entire in their manners,
      than did the English nation during this period. From tranquillity,
      concord, submission, sobriety, they passed in an instant to a state of
      faction, fanaticism, rebellion, and almost frenzy. The violence of the
      English parties exceeded any thing which we can now imagine: had they
      continued but a little longer, there was just reason to dread all the
      horrors of the ancient massacres and proscriptions. The military usurpers,
      whose authority was founded on palpable injustice, and was supported by no
      national party, would have been impelled by rage and despair into such
      sanguinary measures; and if these furious expedients had been employed on
      one side, revenge would naturally have pushed the other party, after a
      return of power, to retaliate upon their enemies. No social intercourse
      was maintained between the parties; no marriages or alliances contracted.
      The royalists, though oppressed, harassed, persecuted, disdained all
      affinity with their masters. The more they were reduced to subjection, the
      greater superiority did they affect above those usurpers, who, by violence
      and injustice, had acquired an ascendant over them.
    </p>
    <p>
      The manners of the two factions were as opposite as those of the most
      distant nations. "Your friends, the cavaliers," said a parliamentarian to
      a royalist, "are very dissolute and debauched." "True," replied the
      royalist, "they have the infirmities of men; but your friends, the
      roundheads, have the vices of devils&mdash;tyranny, rebellion, and
      spiritual pride."[*] Riot and disorder, it is certain, notwithstanding the
      good example set them by Charles I., prevailed very much among his
      partisans. Being commonly men of birth and fortune, to whom excesses are
      less pernicious than to the vulgar, they were too apt to indulge
      themselves in all pleasures, particularly those of the table. Opposition
      to the rigid preciseness of their antagonists increased their inclination
      to good fellow-ship; and the character of a man of pleasure was affected
      among them, as a sure pledge of attachment to the church and monarchy.
      Even when ruined by confiscations and sequestrations, they endeavored to
      maintain the appearance of a careless and social jollity. "As much as hope
      is superior to fear," said a poor and merry cavalier, "so much is our
      situation preferable to that of our enemies. We laugh while they tremble."
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Sir Philip Warwick.
</pre>
    <p>
      The gloomy enthusiasm which prevailed among the parliamentary party, is
      surely the most curious spectacle presented by any history; and the most
      instructive, as well as entertaining, to a philosophical mind. All
      recreations were in a manner suspended by the rigid severity of the
      Presbyterians and Independents. Horse-races and cock-matches were
      prohibited as the greatest enormities.[*]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Killing no Murder
</pre>
    <p>
      Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian: the sport of
      it, not the inhumanity, gave offence. Colonel Hewson, from his pious zeal,
      marched with his regiment into London, and destroyed all the bears which
      were kept there for the diversion of the citizens. This adventure seems to
      have given birth to the fiction of Hudibras. Though the English nation be
      naturally candid and sincere, hypocrisy prevailed among them beyond any
      example in ancient or modern times. The religious hypocrisy, it may be
      remarked, is of a peculiar nature; and being generally unknown to the
      person himself, though more dangerous, it implies less falsehood than any
      other species of insincerity. The Old Testament, preferably to the New,
      was the favorite of all the sectaries. The Eastern poetical style of that
      composition made it more easily susceptible of a turn which was agreeable
      to them.
    </p>
    <p>
      We have had occasion, in the course of this work, to speak of the many
      sects which prevailed in England: to enumerate them all would be
      impossible. The Quakers, however, are so considerable, at least so
      singular, as to merit some attention; and as they renounced by principle
      the use of arms, they never made such a figure in public transactions as
      to enter into any part of our narrative.
    </p>
    <p>
      The religion of the Quakers, like most others, began with the lowest
      vulgar, and, in its progress, came at last to comprehend people of better
      quality and fashion. George Fox, born at Drayton, in Lancashire, in 1624,
      was the founder of this sect. He was the son of a weaver, and was himself
      bound apprentice to a shoemaker. Feeling a stronger impulse towards
      spiritual contemplations than towards that mechanical profession, he left
      his master, and went about the country clothed in a leathern doublet, a
      dress which he long affected, as well for its singularity as its
      cheapness. That he might wean himself from sublunary objects, he broke off
      all connections with his friends and family, and never dwelt a moment in
      one place; lest habit should beget new connections, and depress the
      sublimity of his aerial meditations. He frequently wandered into the
      woods, and passed whole days in hollow trees without company, or any other
      amusement than his Bible. Having reached that pitch of perfection as to
      need no other book, he soon advanced to another state of spiritual
      progress, and began to pay less regard even to that divine composition
      itself. His own breast, he imagined, was full of the same inspiration
      which had guided the prophets and apostles themselves; and by this inward
      light must every spiritual obscurity be cleared, by this living spirit
      must the dead letter be animated.
    </p>
    <p>
      When he had been sufficiently consecrated in his own imagination, he felt
      that the fumes of self-applause soon dissipate, if not continually
      supplied by the admiration of others; and he began to seek proselytes.
      Proselytes were easily gained, at a time when all men's affections were
      turned towards religion, and when the most extravagant modes of it were
      sure to be most popular. All the forms of ceremony, invented by pride and
      ostentation, Fox and his disciples, from a superior pride and ostentation,
      carefully rejected: even the ordinary rites of civility were shunned, as
      the nourishment of carnal vanity and self-conceit. They would bestow no
      titles, of distinction: the name of "friend" was the only salutation, with
      which they indiscriminately accosted every one. To no person would they
      make a bow, or move their hat, or give any signs of reverence. Instead of
      that affected adulation introduced into modern tongues, of speaking to
      individuals as if they were a multitude, they returned to the simplicity
      of ancient languages; and "thou" and "thee" were the only expressions
      which, on any consideration, they could be brought to employ.
    </p>
    <p>
      Dress too, a material circumstance, distinguished the members of this
      sect. Every superfluity and ornament was carefully retrenched: no plaits
      to their coat, no buttons to their sleeves; no lace, no ruffles, no
      embroidery. Even a button to the hat, though sometimes useful, yet not
      being always so, was universally rejected by them with horror and
      detestation.
    </p>
    <p>
      The violent enthusiasm of this sect, like all high passions, being too
      strong for the weak nerves to sustain, threw the preachers into
      convulsions, and shakings, and distortions in their limbs; and they thence
      receded the appellation of "Quakers." Amidst the great toleration which
      was then granted to all sects, and even encouragement given to all
      innovations, this sect alone suffered persecution. From the fervor of
      their zeal, the Quakers broke into churches, disturbed public worship, and
      harassed the minister and audience with railing and reproaches. When
      carried before a magistrate, they refused him all reverence, and treated
      him with the same familiarity as if he had been their equal. Sometimes
      they were thrown into mad-houses, sometimes into prisons; sometimes
      whipped, sometimes pilloried. The patience and fortitude with which they
      suffered, begat compassion, admiration, esteem.[*] A supernatural spirit
      was believed to support them under those sufferings, which the ordinary
      state of humanity, freed from the illusions of passion, is unable to
      sustain.
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * The following story is told by Whitlocke, p. 599. Some
     Quakers at Hasington, in Northumberland, coming to the
     minister on the Sabbath day, and speaking to him, the people
     fell upon the Quakers, and almost killed one or two of them,
     who, going out, fell on their knees, and prayed God to
     pardon the people, who knew not what they did; and
     afterwards speaking to the people, so convinced them of the
     evil they had done in beating them, that the country people
     fell a quarrelling, and beat one another more than they had
     before beaten the Quakers.
</pre>
    <p>
      The Quakers crept into the army; but as they preached universal peace,
      they seduced the military zealots from their profession, and would soon,
      had they been suffered, have put an end, without any defeat or calamity,
      to the dominion of the saints. These attempts became a fresh ground of
      persecution, and a new reason for their progress among the people.
    </p>
    <p>
      Morals with this sect were carried, or affected to be carried to the same
      degree of extravagance as religion. Give a Quaker a blow on one cheek, he
      held up the other: ask his cloak, he gave you his coat also; the greatest
      interest could not engage him, in any court of judicature, to swear even
      to the truth: he never asked more for his wares than the precise sum which
      he was determined to accept. This last maxim is laudable, and continues
      still to be religiously observed by the sect.
    </p>
    <p>
      No fanatics ever carried further the hatred to ceremonies forms, orders,
      rites, and positive institutions. Even baptism and the Lord's supper, by
      all other sects believed to be interwoven with the very vitals of
      Christianity, were disdainfully rejected by them. The very Sabbath they
      profaned. The holiness of churches they derided; and they would give to
      these sacred edifices no other appellation than that of shops or
      steeplehouses. No priests were admitted in their sect: every one had
      received from immediate illumination a character much superior to the
      sacerdotal. When they met for divine worship, each rose up in his place,
      and delivered the extemporary inspirations of the Holy Ghost: women also
      were admitted to teach the brethren, and were considered as proper
      vehicles to convey the dictates of the spirit. Sometimes a great many
      preachers were moved to speak at once sometimes a total silence prevailed
      in their congregations.
    </p>
    <p>
      Some Quakers attempted to fast forty days, in imitation of Christ; and one
      of them bravely perished in the experiment.[*] A female Quaker came naked
      into the church where the protector sat; being moved by the spirit, as she
      said, to appeal as a sign to the people. A number of them fancied, that
      the renovation of all things had commenced, and that clothes were to be
      rejected, together with other superfluities. The sufferings which followed
      the practice of this doctrine, were a species of persecution not well
      calculated for promoting it.
    </p>
    <p>
      James Naylor was a Quaker, noted for blasphemy, or rather madness, in the
      time of the protectorship. He fancied, that he himself was transformed
      into Christ, and was become the real savior of the world; and in
      consequence of this frenzy, he endeavored to imitate many actions of the
      Messiah related in the evangelists. As he bore a resemblance to the common
      pictures of Christ, he allowed his beard to grow in a like form: he raised
      a person from the dead:[**] he was ministered unto by women:[***] he
      entered Bristol mounted on a horse, (I suppose, from the difficulty in
      that place of finding an ass:) his disciples spread their garments before
      him, and cried, "Hosanna to the highest; holy, holy is the Lord God of
      Sabaoth." When carried before the magistrate, he would give no other
      answer to all questions than "Thou hast said it." What is remarkable, the
      parliament thought that the matter deserved their attention. Near ten days
      they spent in inquiries and debates about him.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 624.

     ** Harleian Miscellany, vol. vi. p. 399. One Dorcas Barberry
     made oath before a magistrate, that she had been dead two
     days, and that Naylor had brought her to life.

     *** Harleian Miscellany, vol. vi. p. 399

     **** Thurloe, vol v. p. 708.
</pre>
    <p>
      They condemned him to be pilloried, whipped, burned in the face, and to
      have his tongue bored through with a red-hot iron. All these severities he
      bore with the usual patience. So far his delusion supported him. But the
      sequel spoiled all. He was sent to Bridewell, confined to hard labor, fed
      on bread and water, and debarred from all his disciples, male and female.
      His illusions dissipated; and after some time, he was contented to come
      out an ordinary man, and return to his usual occupations.
    </p>
    <p>
      The chief taxes in England, during the time of the commonwealth, were the
      monthly assessments, the excise, and the customs. The assessments were
      levied on personal estates as well as on land;[*] and commissioners were
      appointed in each county for rating the individuals. The highest
      assessment amounted to one hundred and twenty thousand pounds a month in
      England; the lowest was thirty-five thousand. The assessments in Scotland
      were sometimes ten thousand pounds a month;[**] commonly six thousand.
      Those on Ireland nine thousand. At a medium, this tax might have afforded
      about a million a year. The excise, during the civil wars, was levied on
      bread, flesh-meat, as well as beer, ale, strong waters and many other
      commodities. After the king was subdued bread and flesh-meat were exempted
      from excise. The customs on exportation were lowered in 1656.[***] In
      1650, commissioners were appointed to levy both customs and excises.
      Cromwell, in 1657, returned to the old practice of farming. Eleven hundred
      thousand pounds were then offered, both for customs and excise, a greater
      sum than had ever been levied by the commissioners:[****] the whole of the
      taxes during that period might at a medium amount to above two millions a
      year; a sum which, though moderate, much exceeded the revenue of any
      former king.[v] Sequestrations, compositions, sale of crown and church
      lands, and of the lands of delinquents, yielded also considerable sums,
      but very difficult to be estimated. Church lands are said to have been
      sold for a million.[v*] None of these were ever valued at above ten or
      eleven years' purchase.[v**] The estates of delinquents amounted to above
      two hundred thousand pounds a year.[**] Cromwell died more than two
      millions in debt;[v***] though the parliament had left him in the treasury
      above five hundred thousand pounds; and in stores, the value of seven
      hundred thousand pounds.[v****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Scobel, p. 419.

     ** Thurloe, vol. ii. p. 476.

     *** Scobel, p. 376.

     **** Thurloe, vol. vi. p. 425.

     v It appears that the late king's revenue, from 1637 to the
     meeting of the long parliament, was only nine hundred
     thousand pounds of which two hundred thousand may be
     esteemed illegal.

     v* Dr Walker, p. 14.

     v** Thurloe, vol. i. p. 753.

     v*** Thurloe, vol. ii. p. 414.

     v**** Thurloe, vol. vii. p. 667.
</pre>
    <p>
      The committee of danger, in April, 1648, voted to raise the army to forty
      thousand men.[*] The same year, the pay of the army was estimated at
      eighty thousand pounds a month.[**] The establishment of the army, in
      1652, was, in Scotland, fifteen thousand foot, two thousand five hundred
      and eighty horse, five hundred and sixty dragoons; in England, four
      thousand seven hundred foot, two thousand five hundred and twenty horse,
      garrisons six thousand one hundred and fifty-four. In all, thirty one
      thousand five hundred and fourteen, besides officers.[***] The army in
      Scotland was afterwards considerably reduced. The army in Ireland was not
      much short of twenty thousand men; so that, upon the whole, the
      commonwealth maintained, in 1652, a standing army of more than fifty
      thousand men. Its pay amounted to a yearly sum of one million forty-seven
      thousand seven hundred and fifteen pounds.[****] Afterwards the protector
      reduced the establishment to thirty thousand men; as appears by the
      "instrument of government and humble petition and advice." His frequent
      enterprises obliged him from time to time to augment them. Richard had on
      foot in England an army of thirteen thousand two hundred and fifty-eight
      men, in Scotland nine thousand five hundred and six, in Ireland about ten
      thousand men.[v] The foot soldiers had commonly a shilling a day.[v*] The
      horse had two shillings and sixpence; so that many gentlemen and younger
      brothers of good family enlisted in the protector's cavalry.[v**] No
      wonder that such men were averse from the reëstablishment of civil
      government, by which, they well knew, they must be deprived of so gainful
      a profession.
    </p>
    <p>
      At the time of the battle of Worcester the parliament had on foot about
      eighty thousand men, partly militia, partly regular forces. The vigor of
      the commonwealth, and the great capacity of those members who had assumed
      the government, never at any time appeared so conspicuous.[v***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Whitlocke, p. 298.

     ** Whitlocke, p. 378.

     *** Journal, 2d December, 1652.

     **** Journal, 2d December, 1652.

     v Journal, 6th of April, 1659.

     v* Thurloe, vol. i. p. 395; vol. ii. p. 414.

     v** Gumble's Life of Monk.

     v*** Whitlocke, p. 477.
</pre>
    <p>
      The whole revenue of the public during the protectorship of Richard was
      estimated at one million eight hundred and sixty-eight thousand seven
      hundred and seventeen pounds; his annual expenses at two millions two
      hundred and one thousand five hundred and forty pounds. An additional
      revenue was demanded from parliament.[*]
    </p>
    <p>
      The commerce and industry of England increased extremely during the
      peaceable period of Charles's reign: the trade to the East Indies and to
      Guinea became considerable. The English possessed almost the sole trade
      with Spain. Twenty thousand cloths were annually sent to Turkey.[**]
      Commerce met with interruption, no doubt, from the civil wars and
      convulsions which afterwards prevailed; though it soon recovered after the
      establishment of the commonwealth. The war with the Dutch, by distressing
      the commerce of so formidable a rival, served to encourage trade in
      England; the Spanish war was to an equal degree pernicious. All the
      effects of the English merchants, to an immense value, were confiscated in
      Spain. The prevalence of democratical principles engaged the country
      gentlemen to bind their sons apprentices to merchants;[***] and commerce
      has ever since been more honorable in England than in any other European
      kingdom. The exclusive companies, which formerly confined trade, were
      never expressly abolished by any ordinance of parliament during the
      commonwealth; but as men paid no regard to the prerogative whence the
      charters of these companies were derived, the monopoly was gradually
      invaded, and commerce increased by the increase of liberty. Interest in
      1650 was reduced to six per cent.
    </p>
    <p>
      The customs in England, before the civil wars, are said to have amounted
      to five hundred thousand pounds a year;[****] a sum ten times greater than
      during the best period in Queen Elizabeth's reign: but there is probably
      some exaggeration in this matter.
    </p>
    <p>
      The post-house, in 1653, was farmed at ten thousand pounds a year, which
      was deemed a considerable sum for the three kingdoms. Letters paid only
      about half the present postage.
    </p>
    <p>
      From 1619 to 1638, there had been coined six millions nine hundred
      thousand and forty-two pounds. From 1638 to 1657, the coinage amounted to
      seven millions seven hundred and thirty-three thousand five hundred and
      twenty-one pounds.[v]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Journal, 7th April, 1659.

     ** Strafford's Letters, vol. i. p. 421, 423, 430, 467.

     *** Clarendon.

     **** Lewis Roberts's Treasure of Traffick.

     v Happy Future State of England
</pre>
    <p>
      Dr. Davenant has told us, from the registers of the mint, that, between
      1558 and 1659, there had been coined nineteen millions eight hundred and
      thirty-two thousand four hundred and seventy-six pounds in gold and
      silver.
    </p>
    <p>
      The first mention of tea, coffee, and chocolate, is about 1660.[*]
      Asparagus, artichokes, cauliflower, and a variety of salads, were about
      the same time introduced into England.[**]
    </p>
    <p>
      The colony of New England increased by means of the Puritans, who fled
      thither in order to free themselves from the constraint which Laud and the
      church party had imposed upon them; and, before the commencement of the
      civil wars, it is supposed to have contained twenty-five thousand
      souls.[***] For a like reason, the Catholics, afterwards, who found
      themselves exposed to many hardships, and dreaded still worse treatment
      went over to America in great numbers, and settled the colony of Maryland.
    </p>
    <p>
      Before the civil wars, learning and the fine arts were favored at court,
      and a good taste began to prevail in the nation. The king loved pictures,
      sometimes handled the pencil himself, and was a good judge of the art. The
      pieces of foreign masters were bought up at a vast price; and the value of
      pictures doubled in Europe by the emulation between Charles and Philip IV.
      of Spain, who were touched with the same elegant passion. Vandyke was
      caressed and enriched at court. Inigo Jones was master of the king's
      buildings; though afterwards persecuted by the parliament, on account of
      the part which he had in rebuilding St. Paul's, and for obeying some
      orders of council, by which he was directed to pull down houses, in order
      to make room for that edifice. Laws, who had not been surpassed by any
      musician before him, was much beloved by the king, who called him the
      father of music. Charles was a good judge of writing, and was thought by
      some more anxious with regard to purity of style than became a
      monarch.[****]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Anderson, vol. ii. p. 111.

     ** Anderson, vol. ii. p. 111.

     *** British Empire in America, vol. i. p. 372.

     **** Purnet.
</pre>
    <p>
      Notwithstanding his narrow revenue, and his freedom from all vanity, he
      lived in such magnificence, that he possessed four and twenty palaces, all
      of them elegantly and completely furnished; insomuch that, when he removed
      from one to another, he was not obliged to transport any thing along with
      him.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cromwell, though himself a barbarian was not insensible to literary merit.
      Usher, notwithstanding his being a bishop, received a pension from him.
      Marvel and Milton were in his service. Waller, who was his relation, was
      caressed by him. That poet always said, that the protector himself was not
      so wholly illiterate as was commonly imagined. He gave a hundred pounds a
      year to the divinity professor at Oxford; and an historian mentions this
      bounty as an instance of his love of literature.[*] He intended to have
      erected a college at Durham for the benefit of the northern counties.
    </p>
    <p>
      Civil wars, especially when founded on principles of liberty are not
      commonly unfavorable to the arts of elocution and composition; or rather,
      by presenting nobler and more interesting objects, they amply compensate
      that tranquillity of which they bereave the muses. The speeches of the
      parliamentary orators, during this period, are of a strain much superior
      to what any former age had produced in England; and the force and compass
      of our tongue were then first put to trial. It must, however, be
      confessed, that the wretched fanaticism, which so much infected the
      parliamentary party, was no less destructive of taste and science, than of
      all law and order. Gayety and wit were proscribed; human learning
      despised; freedom of inquiry detested; cant and hypocrisy alone
      encouraged. It was an article positively insisted on in the preliminaries
      to the treaty of Uxbridge, that all play-houses should forever be
      abolished. Sir John Davenant, says Whitlocke,[**] speaking of the year
      1658, published an opera, notwithstanding the nicety of the times. All the
      king's furniture was put to sale: his pictures, disposed of at very low
      prices, enriched all the collections in Europe: the cartoons, when
      complete, were only appraised at three hundred pounds, though the whole
      collection of the king's curiosities was sold at above fifty
      thousand,[***]
    </p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
     * Neale's History of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 123.

     ** Page 639.

     *** Parl. Hist. vol. xix. p. 83.
</pre>
    <p>
      Even the royal palaces were pulled in pieces, and the materials of them
      sold. The very library and medals at St. James's were intended by the
      generals to be brought to auction, in order to pay the arrears of some
      regiments of cavalry quartered near London; but, Seiden, apprehensive of
      the loss, engaged his friend Whitlocke, then lord-keeper for the
      commonwealth, to apply for the office of librarian. This expedient saved
      that valuable collection.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is, however, remarkable, that the greatest genius by far that shone out
      in England during this period, was deeply engaged with these fanatics, and
      even prostituted his pen in theological controversy, in factious disputes,
      and in justifying the most violent measures of the party. This was John
      Milton, whose poems are admirable, though liable to some objections; his
      prose writings disagreeable, though not altogether defective in genius.
      Nor are all his poems equal: his Paradise Lost, his Comus, and a few
      others, shine out amidst some flat and insipid compositions. Even in the
      Paradise Lost, his capital performance, there are very long passages,
      amounting to near a third of the work, almost wholly destitute of harmony
      and elegance, nay, of all vigor of imagination. This natural inequality in
      Milton's genius was much increased by the inequalities in his subject; of
      which some parts are of themselves the most lofty that can enter into
      human conception; others would have required the most labored elegance of
      composition to support them. It is certain that this author, when in a
      happy mood, and employed on a noble subject, is the most wonderfully
      sublime of any poet in any language, Homer, and Lucretius, and Tasso not
      excepted. More concise than Homer, more simple than Tasso, more nervous
      than Lucretius, had he lived in a later age, and learned to polish some
      rudeness in his verses; had he enjoyed better fortune, and possessed
      leisure to watch the returns of genius in himself; he had attained the
      pinnacle of perfection, and borne away the palm of epic poetry.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is well known, that Milton never enjoyed in his lifetime the reputation
      which he deserved. His Paradise Lost was long neglected: prejudices
      against an apologist for the regicides, and against a work not wholly
      purged from the cant of former times, kept the ignorant world from
      perceiving the prodigious merit of that performance. Lord Somers, by
      encouraging a good edition of it, about twenty years after the author's
      death, first brought it into request; and Tonson, in his dedication of a
      smaller edition, speaks of it as a work just beginning to be known. Even
      during the prevalence of Milton's party, he seems never to have been much
      regarded, and Whitlocke talks of one Milton, as he calls him, a blind man,
      who was employed in translating a treaty with Sweden into Latin. These
      forms of expression are amusing to posterity, who consider how obscure
      Whitlocke himself though lord-keeper and ambassador, and indeed a man of
      great abilities and merit, has become in comparison of Milton.
    </p>
    <p>
      It is not strange that Milton received no encouragement after the
      restoration: it is more to be admired that he escaped with his life. Many
      of the cavaliers blamed extremely that lenity towards him, which was so
      honorable in the king, and so advantageous to posterity. It is said, that
      he had saved Davenant's life during the protectorship; and Davenant in
      return afforded him like protection after the restoration; being sensible
      that men of letters ought always to regard their sympathy of taste as a
      more powerful band of union, than any difference of party or opinion as a
      source of animosity. It was during a state of poverty, blindness,
      disgrace, danger, and old age, that Milton composed his wonderful poem,
      which not only surpassed all the performances of his contemporaries, but
      all the compositions which had flowed from his pen during the vigor of his
      age and the height of his prosperity. This circumstance is not the least
      remarkable of all those which attend that great genius. He died in 1674,
      aged sixty-six.
    </p>
    <p>
      Waller was the first refiner of English poetry, at least of English rhyme;
      but his performances still abound with many faults, and, what is more
      material, they contain but feeble and superficial beauties. Gayety, wit,
      and ingenuity are their ruling character: they aspire not to the sublime;
      still less to the pathetic. They treat of love, without making us feel any
      tenderness; and abound in panegyric, without exciting admiration. The
      panegyric, however, on Cromwell, contains more force than we should
      expect, from the other compositions of this poet.
    </p>
    <p>
      Waller was born to an ample fortune, was early introduced to the court,
      and lived in the best company. He possessed talents for eloquence as well
      as poetry; and till his death, which happened in a good old age, he was
      the delight of the house of commons. The errors of his life proceeded more
      from want of courage, than of honor or integrity. He died in 1687, aged
      eighty-two.
    </p>
    <p>
      Cowley is an author extremely corrupted by the bad taste of his age; but
      had he lived even in the purest times of Greece nor Rome, he must always
      have been a very indifferent poet. He had no ear for harmony; and his
      verses are only known to be such by the rhyme which terminates them. In
      his rugged untenable numbers are conveyed sentiments the most strained and
      distorted; long-spun allegories, distant allusions, and forced conceits.
      Great ingenuity, however, and vigor of thought, sometimes break out amidst
      those unnatural conceptions: a few anacreontics surprise us by their ease
      and gayety: his prose writings please by the honesty and goodness which
      they express, and even by their spleen and melancholy. This author was
      much more praised and admired during his lifetime, and celebrated after
      his death, than the great Milton. He died in 1667, aged forty-nine.
    </p>
    <p>
      Sir John Denham, in his Cooper's Hill, (for none of his other poems merit
      attention,) has a loftiness and vigor which had not before him been
      attained by any English poet who wrote in rhyme. The mechanical
      difficulties of that measure retarded its improvement. Shakspeare, whose
      tragic scenes are sometimes so wonderfully forcible and expressive, is a
      very indifferent poet when he attempts to rhyme. Precision and neatness
      are chiefly wanting in Denham. He died in 1688, aged seventy-three.
    </p>
    <p>
      No English author in that age was more celebrated, both abroad and at
      home, than Hobbes: in our time, he is much neglected; a lively instance
      how precarious all reputations founded on reasoning and philosophy. A
      pleasant comedy, which paints the manners of the age, and exposes a
      faithful picture of nature, is a durable work, and is transmitted to the
      latest posterity. But a system, whether physical or metaphysical, commonly
      owes its success to its novelty; and is no sooner canvassed with
      impartiality than its weakness is discovered. Hobbes's politics are fitted
      only to promote tyranny, and his ethics to encourage licentiousness.
      Though an enemy to religion, he partakes nothing of the spirit of
      scepticism; but is as positive and dogmatical as if human reason, and his
      reason in particular, could attain a thorough conviction in these
      subjects. Clearness and propriety of style are the chief excellencies of
      Hobbes's writings. In his own person, he is represented to have been a man
      of virtue; a character nowise surprising, notwithstanding his libertine
      system of ethics. Timidity is the principal fault with which he is
      reproached; he lived to an extreme old age, yet could never reconcile
      himself to the thoughts of death. The boldness of his opinions and
      sentiments form a remarkable contrast to this part of his character. He
      died in 1679, aged ninety-one.
    </p>
    <p>
      Harrington's Oceana was well adapted to that age, when the plans of
      imaginary republics were the daily subjects of debate and conversation;
      and even in our time, it is justly admired as a work of genius and
      invention. The idea however, of a perfect and immortal commonwealth, will
      always be found as chimerical as that of a perfect and immortal man. The
      style of this author wants ease and fluency; but the good matter which his
      work contains, makes compensation. He died in 1677, aged sixty-six.
    </p>
    <p>
      Harvey is entitled to the glory of having made, by reasoning alone,
      without any mixture of accident, a capital discovery in one of the most
      important branches of science. He had also the happiness of establishing
      at once his theory on the most solid and convincing proofs; and posterity
      has added little to the arguments suggested by his industry and ingenuity.
      His treatise of the circulation of the blood is further embellished by
      that warmth and spirit which so naturally accompany the genius of
      invention. This great man was much favored by Charles I., who gave him the
      liberty of using all the deer in the royal forests for perfecting his
      discoveries on the generation of animals. It was remarked, that no
      physician in Europe, who had reached forty years of age, ever, to the end
      of his life, adopted Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood;
      and that his practice in London diminished extremely, from the reproach
      drawn upon him by that great and signal discovery. So slow is the progress
      of truth in every science, even when not opposed by factious or
      superstitious prejudices. He died in 1657, aged seventy-nine.
    </p>
    <p>
      This age affords great materials for history; but did not produce any
      accomplished historian. Clarendon, however, will always be esteemed an
      entertaining writer, even independent of our curiosity to know the facts
      which he relates. His style is prolix and redundant, and suffocates us by
      the length of its periods: but it discovers imagination and sentiment, and
      pleases us at the same time that we disapprove of it. He is more partial
      in appearance than in reality for he seems perpetually anxious to
      apologize for the king; but his apologies are often well grounded. He is
      less partial in his relation of facts, than in his account of characters:
      he was too honest a man to falsify the former; his affections were easily
      capable, unknown to himself, of disguising the latter. An air of probity
      and goodness runs through the whole work; as these qualities did in
      reality embellish the whole life of the author. He died in 1674, aged
      sixty-six.
    </p>
    <p>
      These are the chief performances which engage the attention of posterity.
      Those numberless productions with which the press then abounded; the cant
      of the pulpit, the declamations of party, the subtilties of theology, all
      these have long ago sunk in silence and oblivion. Even a writer such as
      Selden, whose learning was his chief excellency, or Chillingworth, an
      acute disputant against the Papists, will scarcely be ranked among the
      classics of our language or country.
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE">
      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
    </p>
    <div style="height: 4em;">
      <br /><br /><br /><br />
    </div>
    <h2>
      NOTES
    </h2>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE A, p. 15. By a speech
      of Sir Simon D'Ewes, in the first year of the long parliament, it clearly
      appears, that the nation never had, even to that time, been rightly
      informed concerning the transactions of the Spanish negotiation, and still
      believed the court of Madrid to have been altogether insincere in their
      professions. What reason, upon that supposition, had they to blame either
      the prince or Buckingham for their conduct, or for the narrative delivered
      to the parliament? This is a capital fact, and ought to be well attended
      to. D'Ewes's speech is in Nalson, vol. ii. p. 368. No author or historian
      of that age mentions the discovery of Buckingham's impostures as a cause
      of disgust in the parliament. Whitlocke (p. 1) only says, that the commons
      began to suspect, that it had been spleen in Buckingham, not zeal for
      public good, which had induced him to break the Spanish match; a clear
      proof that his falsehood was not suspected. Wilson (p. 780) says, that
      Buckingham lost his popularity after Bristol arrived, not because that
      nobleman discovered to the world the falsehood of his narrative, but
      because he proved that Buckingham, while in Spain, had professed himself a
      Papist; which is false, and which was never said by Bristol. In all the
      debates which remain, not the least hint is ever given that any falsehood
      was suspected in the narrative. I shall further add, that even if the
      parliament had discovered the deceit in Buckingham's narrative, this ought
      not to have altered their political measures, or made them refuse supply
      to the king. They had supposed it practicable to wrest the Palatinate by
      arms from the house of Austria; they had represented it as prudent to
      expend the blood and treasure of the nation in such an enterprise; they
      had believed that the king of Spain never had any sincere intention of
      restoring that principality. It is certain that he had not now any such
      intention; and though there was reason to suspect, that this alteration in
      his views had proceeded from the ill conduct of Buckingham, yet past
      errors could not be retrieved; and the nation was undoubtedly in the same
      situation which the parliament had ever supposed, when they so much
      harassed their sovereign by their impatient, importunate, and even
      undutiful solicitations. To which we may add, that Charles himself was
      certainly deceived by Buckingham when he corroborated his favorite's
      narrative by his testimony. Party historians are somewhat inconsistent in
      their representations of these transactions. They represent the Spaniards
      as totally insincere, that they may reproach James with credulity in being
      so long deceived by them. They represent them as sincere, that they may
      reproach the king, the prince, and the duke with falsehood in their
      narrative to the parliament. The truth is, they were insincere at first;
      but the reasons, proceeding from bigotry, were not suspected by James, and
      were at last overcome, They became sincere; but the prince, deceived by
      the many unavoidable causes of delay, believed that they were still
      deceiving him.]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE B, p. 42. This
      petition is of so great importance, that we shall here give it at length:
      Humbly show unto our sovereign lord the king, the lords spiritual and
      temporal, and commons in parliament assembled, That, whereas it is
      declared and enacted, by a statute made in the time of the reign of King
      Edward I., commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo, That no
      tallage or aid shall be levied by the king or his heirs in this realm,
      without the good will and assent of the archbishops, bishops, earls,
      barons, knights, burgesses, and other the freemen of the commonalty of
      this realm; and, by authority of parliament holden in the five and
      twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it is declared and
      enacted, That, from thenceforth, no person shall be compelled to make any
      loans to the king against his will, because such loans were against
      reason, and the franchise of the land; and, by other laws of this realm,
      it is provided, That none should be charged by any charge or imposition
      called a benevolence, or by such like charge; by which the statutes before
      mentioned, and other the good laws and statutes of this realm, your
      subjects have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled to
      contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge, not set by
      common consent in parliament. <br /><br /> II. Yet, nevertheless, of late
      divers commissions, directed to sundry commissioners in several counties,
      with instructions, have issued; by means whereof your people have been in
      divers places assembled, and required to lend certain sums of money unto
      your majesty; and many of them, upon their refusal to do so, have had an
      oath administered unto them not warrantable by the laws or statutes of
      this realm, and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance
      and give attendance before your privy council, and in other places; and
      others of them have been therefore imprisoned, confined, and sundry other
      ways molested and disquieted; and divers other charges have been laid and
      levied upon your people, in several counties, by lord lieutenants, deputy
      lieutenants, commissioners for musters, justices of peace, and others, by
      command or direction from your majesty, or your privy council, against the
      laws and free customs of this realm. <br /><br /> III. And whereas also, by
      the statute called the Great Charter of the liberties of England, it is
      declared and enacted, That no freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be
      disseized of his freehold or liberties, or his free customs, or be
      outlawed or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment
      of his peers, or by the law of the land. <br /><br /> IV. And, in the eight
      and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it was declared and
      enacted, by authority of parliament, That no man, of what estate or
      condition that he be, should be put out of his land or tenements, nor
      taken, nor imprisoned, nor dispirited, nor put to death, without being
      brought to answer by due process of law. <br /><br /> V. Nevertheless,
      against the tenor of the said statutes, and other the good laws and
      statutes of your realm to that end provided, divers of your subjects have
      of late been imprisoned without any cause showed; and when, for their
      deliverance, they were brought before justice, by your majesty's writs of
      habeas corpus there to undergo and receive as the court should order, and
      their keepers commanded to certify the causes of their detainer, no cause
      was certified, but that they were detained by your majesty's special
      command, signified by the lords of your privy council, and yet were
      returned back to several prisons, without being charged with any thing to
      which they might make answer according to the law. <br /><br /> VI. And
      whereas of late great companies of soldiers and mariners have been
      dispersed into divers counties of the realm, and the inhabitants, against
      their wills, have been compelled to receive them into their houses, and
      there to suffer them to sojourn, against the laws and customs of this
      realm, and to the great grievance and vexation of the people. <br /><br />
      VII. And whereas also, by authority of parliament, in the five and
      twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it is declared and
      enacted, That no man should be forejudged of life or limb, against the
      form of the Great Charter and law of the land; and, by the said Great
      Charter, and other the laws and statutes of this your realm, no man ought
      to be judged to death but by the laws established in this your realm,
      either by the customs of the same realm, or by acts of parliament; and
      whereas no offender, of what kind soever, is exempted from the proceedings
      to be used, and punishments to be inflicted by the laws and statutes of
      this your realm; nevertheless, of late divers commissions, under your
      majesty's great seal, have issued forth, by which certain persons have
      been assigned and appointed commissioners, with power and authority to
      proceed within the land, according to the justice of martial law, against
      such soldiers and mariners, or other dissolute persons joining with them,
      as should commit any murther, robbery, felony, mutiny, or other outrage or
      misdemeanor whatsoever, and by such summary course and order as is
      agreeable to martial law, and as is used in armies in time of war, to
      proceed to the trial and condemnation of such offenders, and them to cause
      to be executed and put to death according to the law martial. <br /><br />
      VIII. By pretext whereof, some of your majesty's subjects have been by
      some of the said commissioners put to death, when and where, if by the
      laws and statutes of the land they had deserved death, by the same laws
      and statutes also they might, and by no other ought, to have been judged
      and executed. <br /><br /> IX. And also sundry grievous offenders, by color
      thereof claiming an exemption, have escaped the punishments due to them by
      the laws and statutes of this your realm, by reason that divers of your
      officers and ministers of justice have unjustly refused or forborne to
      proceed against such offenders, according to the same laws and statutes,
      upon pretence that the said offenders were punishable only by martial law,
      and by authority of such commissions as aforesaid; which commissions, and
      all other of like nature, are wholly and directly contrary to the said
      laws and statutes of this your realm. <br /><br /> X. They do therefore
      humbly pray your most excellent majesty That no man hereafter be compelled
      to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge,
      without common consent, by act of parliament; and that none be called to
      make answer, or take such oath, or to give attendance, or be confined, or
      otherways molested or disquieted concerning the same, or for refusal
      thereof; and that no freeman, in any such manner as is before mentioned,
      be imprisoned or detained; and that your majesty would be pleased to
      remove the said soldiers and mariners, and that people may not be so
      burdened in time to come; and that the aforesaid commissions, for
      proceeding by martial law, may be revoked and annulled; and that hereafter
      no commissions of like nature may issue forth, to any person or persons
      whatsoever, to be executed as aforesaid, lest, by color of them, any of
      your majesty's subjects be destroyed, or put to death, contrary to the
      laws and franchise of the land. <br /><br /> XL All which they most humbly
      pray of your most excellent majesty, as their rights and liberties,
      according to the laws and statutes of this realm; and that your majesty
      would also vouchsafe to declare, That the awards, doings, and proceedings
      to the prejudice of your people, in any of the premises, shall not be
      drawn hereafter into consequence or example; and that your majesty would
      be also graciously pleased, for the further comfort and safety of your
      people, to declare your royal will and pleasure, that in the things
      aforesaid, all your officers and ministers shall serve you according to
      the laws and statutes of this realm, as they tender the honor of your
      majesty, and the prosperity of this kingdom. Stat. 17 Car. cap. 14.]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE C, p. 52. The reason
      assigned by Sir Philip Warwick (p. 2) for this unusual measure of the
      commons, is, that they intended to deprive the crown of the prerogative
      which it had assumed, of varying the rates of the impositions, and at the
      same time were resolved to cut off the new rates fixed by James. These
      were considerable diminutions both of revenue and prerogative; and whether
      they would have there stopped, considering their present disposition, may
      be much doubted. The king, it seems, and the lords were resolved not to
      trust them; nor to render a revenue once precarious, which perhaps they
      might never afterwards be able to get reestablished on the old footing.]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE D, p. 80. Here is a
      passage of Sir John Davis's Question concerning Impositions, (p. 131.)
      "This power of laying on arbitrarily new impositions being a prerogative
      in point of government, as well as in point of profit, it cannot be
      restrained or bound by act of parliament; it can not be limited by any
      certain or fixt rule of law, no more than the course of a pilot upon the
      sea, who must turn the helm or bear higher or lower sail, according to the
      wind or weather; and therefore it may be properly said, that the king's
      prerogative, in this point, is as strong as Samson; it cannot be bound;
      for though an act of parliament be made to restrain it, and the king doth
      give his consent unto it, as Samson was bound with his own consent; yet if
      the Philistines come, that is, if any just or important occasion do arise,
      it cannot hold or restrain the prerogative; it will be as thread, and
      broken as easy as the bonds of Samson. The king's prerogatives are the
      sunbeams of the crown, and as inseparable from it as the sunbeams from the
      sun. The king's crown must be taken from him; Samson's hair must be cut
      off, before his courage can be any jot abated. Hence it is that neither
      the king's act, nor any act of parliament, can give away his
      prerogative."]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE E, p. 121. We shall
      here make use of the liberty allowed in a note to expatiate a little on
      the present subject. It must be confessed, that the king in this
      declaration touched upon that circumstance in the English constitution
      which it is most difficult, or rather altogether impossible, to regulate
      by laws, and which must be governed by certain delicate ideas of propriety
      and decency, rather than by any exact rule or prescription. To deny the
      parliament all right of remonstrating against what they esteem grievances,
      were to reduce that assembly to a total insignificancy, and to deprive the
      people of every advantage which they could reap from popular councils. To
      complain of the parliament's employing the power of taxation as the means
      of extorting concessions from their sovereign, were to expect that they
      would entirely disarm themselves, and renounce the sole expedient provided
      by the constitution for insuring to the kingdom a just and legal
      administration. In different periods of English story, there occur
      instances of their remonstrating with their princes in the freest manner,
      and sometimes of their refusing supply when disgusted with any
      circumstance of public conduct. It is, however, certain, that this power,
      though essential to parliaments, may easily be abused, as well by the
      frequency and minuteness of their remonstrances, as by their intrusion
      into every part of the king's counsels and determinations. Under color of
      advice, they may give disguised orders; and in complaining of grievances,
      they may draw to themselves every power of government. Whatever measure is
      embraced without consulting them, may be pronounced an oppression of the
      people; and, till corrected, they may refuse the most necessary supplies
      to their indigent sovereign. From the very nature of this parliamentary
      liberty, it is evident that it must be left unbounded by law; for who can
      foretell how frequently grievances may occur, or what part of
      administration may be affected by them? From the nature, too, of the human
      frame, it may be expected, that this liberty would be exerted in its full
      extent, and no branch of authority be allowed to remain unmolested in the
      hands of the prince; for will the weak limitations of respect and decorum
      be sufficient to restrain human ambition, which so frequently breaks
      through all the prescriptions of law and justice? <br /><br /> But here it
      is observable, that the wisdom of the English constitution, or rather the
      concurrence of accidents, has provided, in different periods, certain
      irregular checks to this privilege of parliament and thereby maintained,
      in some tolerable measure, the dignity and authority of the crown. <br /><br />
      In the ancient constitution, before the beginning of the seventeenth
      century, the meetings of parliament were precarious, and were not
      frequent. The sessions were short, and the members had no leisure either
      to get acquainted with each other, or with public business. The ignorance
      of the age made men more submissive to that authority which governed them.
      And above all, the large demesnes of the crown, with the small expense of
      government during that period, rendered the prince almost independent, and
      taught the parliament to preserve great submission and duty towards him.
      <br /><br /> In our present constitution, many accidents which have rendered
      governments every where, as well as in Great Britain, much more burdensome
      than formerly, have thrown into the hands of the crown the disposal of a
      large revenue, and have enabled the king, by the private interest and
      ambition of the members, to restrain the public interest and ambition of
      the body. While the opposition (for we must still have an opposition, open
      or disguised,) endeavors to draw every branch of administration under the
      cognizance of parliament, the courtiers reserve a part to the disposal of
      the crown; and the royal prerogative, though deprived of its ancient
      powers, still maintains a due weight in the balance of the constitution.
      <br /><br /> It was the fate of the house of Stuart to govern England at a
      period when the former source of authority was already much diminished,
      and before the latter began to flow in any tolerable abundance. Without a
      regular and fixed foundation, the throne perpetually tottered; and the
      prince sat upon it anxiously and precariously. Every expedient used by
      James and Charles in order to support their dignity, we have seen attended
      with sensible inconveniencies. The majesty of the crown, derived from
      ancient powers and prerogatives, procured respect, and checked the
      approaches of insolent intruders. But it begat in the king so high an idea
      of his own rank and station, as made him incapable of stooping to popular
      courses, or submitting, in any degree, to the control of parliament. The
      alliance with the hierarchy strengthened law by the sanction of religion;
      but it enraged the Puritanical party, and exposed the prince to the
      attacks of enemies, numerous, violent, and implacable. The memory, too, of
      these two kings, from like causes, has been attended, in some degree, with
      the same infelicity which pursued them during the whole course of their
      lives. Though it must be confessed, that their skill in government was not
      proportioned to the extreme delicacy of their situation, a sufficient
      indulgence has not been given them, and all the blame, by several
      historians, has been unjustly thrown on their side. Their violations of
      law, particularly those of Charles, are, in some few instances,
      transgressions of a plain limit which was marked out to loyal authority.
      But the encroachments of the commons, though in the beginning less
      positive and determinate, are no less discernible by good judges, and were
      equally capable of destroying the just balance of the constitution. While
      they exercised the powers transmitted to them in a manner more
      independent, and less compliant, than had ever before been practised, the
      kings were, perhaps imprudently, but as they imagined, from necessity,
      tempted to assume powers which had scarcely ever been exercised, or had
      been exercised in a different manner by the crown. And from the shock of
      these opposite pretensions, together with religious controversy, arose all
      the factions, convulsions, and disorders which attended that period. <br /><br />
      "This footnote was in the first editions a part of the text.]
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      6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE F, p. 166. Mr. Carte,
      in his Life of the duke of Ormond, has given us some evidence to prove
      that this letter was entirely a forgery of the popular leaders, in order
      to induce the king to sacrifice Strafford. He tells us, that Strafford
      said so to his son the night before his execution, But there are some
      reasons why I adhere to the common way of telling this story. 1. The
      account of the forgery comes through several hands, and from men of
      characters not fully known to the public; a circumstance which weakens
      every evidence. It is a hearsay of a hearsay. 2. It seems impossible but
      young Lord Strafford must inform the king, who would not have failed to
      trace the forgery, and expose his enemies to their merited infamy. 3. It
      is not to be conceived but Clarendon and Whitlocke, not to mention others,
      must have heard of the matter. 4. Sir George Ratcliffe, in his Life of
      Strafford, tells the story the same way that Clarendon and Whitlocke do.
      Would he also, who was Strafford's intimate friend, never have heard of
      the forgery? It is remarkable, that this Life is dedicated or addressed to
      young Strafford. Would not he have put Sir George right in so material and
      interesting a fact?]
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      7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE G, p. 167. What made
      this bill appear of less consequence was, that the parliament voted
      tonnage and poundage for no longer a period than two months; and as that
      branch was more than half of the revenue, and the government could not
      possibly subsist without it, it seemed indirectly in the power of the
      parliament to continue themselves as long as they pleased. This indeed was
      true in the ordinary administration of government; but on the approaches
      towards a civil war, which was not then foreseen, it had been of great
      consequence to the king to have reserved the right of dissolution, and to
      have endured any extremity rather than allow the continuance of the
      parliament.]
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      8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE H, p. 190. It is now
      so universally allowed, notwithstanding some muttering to the contrary,
      that the king had no hand in the Irish rebellion, that it will be
      superfluous to insist on a point which seems so clear. I shall only
      suggest a very few arguments, among an infinite number which occur. 1.
      Ought the affirmation of perfidious, infamous rebels ever to have passed
      for any authority? 2. Nobody can tell us what the words of the pretended
      commission were. That commission, which we find in Rush, (vol. v. p. 400,)
      and in Milton's Works, (Toland's edition,) is plainly an imposture;
      because it pretends to be dated in October, 1641, yet mentions facts which
      happened not till some months after. It appears that the Irish rebels,
      observing some inconsistence in their first forgery, were obliged to forge
      this commission anew, yet could not render it coherent or probable. 3.
      Nothing could be more obviously pernicious to the king's cause than the
      Irish rebellion: because it increased his necessities, and rendered him
      still more dependent on the parliament, who had before sufficiently shown
      on what terms they would assist him. 4. The instant the king heard of the
      rebellion, which was a very few days after its commencement, he wrote to
      the parliament, and gave over to them the management of the war. Had he
      built any projects on that rebellion, would he not have waited some little
      time, to see how they would succeed? Would he presently have adopted a
      measure which was evidently so hurtful to his authority? 5. What can be
      imagined to be the king's projects? To raise the Irish to arms, I suppose,
      and bring them over to England for his assistance. But is it not plain,
      that the king never intended to raise war in England? Had that been his
      intention, would he have rendered the parliament perpetual? Does it not
      appear, by the whole train of events, that the parliament forced him into
      the war? 6. The king conveyed to the justices intelligence which ought to
      have prevented the rebellion. 7. The Irish Catholics, in all their future
      transactions with the king, where they endeavor to excuse their
      insurrection, never had the assurance to plead his commission. Even
      amongst themselves they dropped that pretext. It appears that Sir Phelim
      O'Neale chiefly, and he only at first, promoted that imposture. See
      Carte's Ormond, vol. iii. No. 100, 111, 112, 114, 115, 121, 132, 137. 8.
      O'Neale himself confessed the imposture on his trial, and at his
      execution. See Nalson, vol. ii. p. 528. Maguire, at his execution, made a
      like confession. 9. It is ridiculous to mention the justification which
      Charles II. gave to the marquis of Antrim, as if he had acted by his
      father's commission. Antrim had no hand in the first rebellion and the
      massacre. He joined not the rebels till two years after; it was with the
      king's consent, and he did important service in sending over a body of men
      to Montrose.]
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    <p class="foot">
      9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE I, p. 220. The great
      courage and conduct displayed by many of the popular leaders, have
      commonly inclined men to do them, in one respect, more honor than they
      deserve, and to suppose that, like able politicians, they employed
      pretences which they secretly despised, in order to serve their selfish
      purposes. It is, however, probable, if not certain, that they were,
      generally speaking, the dupes of their own zeal. Hypocrisy, quite pure and
      free from fanaticism, is perhaps, except among men fixed in a determined
      philosophical scepticism, then unknown, as rare as fanaticism entirely
      purged from all mixture of hypocrisy. So congenial to the human mind are
      religions sentiments, that it is impossible to counterfeit long these holy
      fervors, without feeling some share of the assumed warmth: and, on the
      other hand, so precarious and temporary, from the frailty of human nature,
      is the operation of these spiritual views, that the religious ecstasies,
      if constantly employed, must often be counterfeit, and must be warped by
      those more familiar motives of interest and ambition, which insensibly
      gain upon the mind. This indeed teems the key to most of the celebrated
      characters of that age. Equally full of fraud and of ardor, these pious
      patriots talked perpetually of seeking the Lord, yet still pursued their
      own purposes; and have left a memorable lesson to posterity, how delusive,
      how destructive that principle is by which they were animated. <br /><br />
      With regard to the people, we can entertain no doubt that the controversy
      was, on their part, entirely theological. The generality of the nation
      could never have flown out into such fury, in order to obtain new
      privileges, and acquire greater liberty than they and their ancestors had
      ever been acquainted with. Their fathers had been entirely satisfied with
      the government of Elizabeth. Why should they have been thrown into such
      extreme rage against Charles, who, from the beginning of his reign, wished
      only to maintain such a government? And why not at least compound matters
      with him, when, by all his laws, it appeared that he had agreed to depart
      from it? especially AS he had put it entirely out of his power to retract
      that resolution. It is in vain, therefore, to dignify this civil war, and
      the parliamentary authors of it, by supposing it to have any other
      considerable foundation than theological zeal, that great source of
      animosity among men. The royalists also were very commonly zealots; but as
      they were at the same time maintaining the established constitution in
      state as well as church, they had an object which was natural, and which
      might produce the greatest passion, even without any considerable mixture
      of theological fervor. <br /><br /> The former part of this footnote was in
      the first editions a part of the text]
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      11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE K, p. 221. In some
      of these declarations, supposed to be penned by Lord Falkland, is found
      the first regular definition of the constitution, according to our present
      ideas of it, that occurs in any English composition; at least any
      published by authority. The three species of government, monarchical,
      aristocratical, and democratical, are there plainly distinguished, and the
      English government is expressly said to be none of them pure, but all of
      them mixed and tempered together. This style, though the sense of it was
      implied in many institutions, no former king of England would have used,
      and no subject would have been permitted to use. Banks and the crown
      lawyers against Hambden, in the case of ship money, insist plainly and
      openly on the king's absolute and sovereign power; and the opposite
      lawyers do not deny it; they only assert, that the subjects have also a
      fundamental property in their goods, and that no part of them can be taken
      but by their own consent in parliament. But that the parliament was
      instituted to check and control the king, and share the supreme power,
      would in all former times have been esteemed very blunt and indiscreet, if
      not illegal language. We need not be surprised that governments should
      long continue, though the boundaries of authority in their several
      branches be implicit, confused, and undetermined. This is the case all
      over the world. Who can draw an exact line between the spiritual and
      temporal powers in Catholic states? What code ascertained the precise
      authority of the Roman senate in every occurrence? Perhaps the English is
      the first mixed government where the authority of every part has been very
      accurately defined; and yet there still remain many very important
      questions between the two houses, that, by common consent, are buried in a
      discreet silence. The king's power is, indeed, more exactly limited; but
      this period of which we now treat is the time a which that accuracy
      commenced. And it appears from Warwick and Hobbes, that many royalists
      blamed this philosophical precision in the king's penman, and thought that
      the veil was very imprudently drawn off the mysteries of government. It is
      certain that liberty reaped mighty advantages from these controversies and
      inquiries; and the royal authority itself became more secure within those
      provinces which were assigned to it. <br /><br /> Since the first
      publication of this History, the sequel of Lord Clarendon has been
      published; where that nobleman asserts, that he himself was the author of
      most of these remonstrances and memorials of the king.]
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      12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE L, p. 240.
      Whitlocke, who was one of the commissioners, says, (p. 65,) "In this
      treaty the king manifested his great parts and abilities, strength of
      reason and quickness of apprehension, with much patience in hearing what
      was objected against him; wherein he allowed all freedom and would himself
      sum up the arguments, and give a most clear judgment upon them. His
      unhappiness was, that he had a better opinion of others' judgments than of
      his own, though they were weaker than his own; and of this the parliament
      commissioners had experience to their great trouble. They were often
      waiting on the king, and debating some points of the treaty with him until
      midnight, before they could come to a conclusion. Upon one of the most
      material points, they pressed his majesty with their reasons and best
      arguments they could use to grant what they desired. The king said he was
      fully satisfied, and promised to give them his answer in writing according
      to their desire; but because it was then past midnight, and too late to
      put it into writing, he would have it drawn up next morning, when he
      commanded them to wait on him again, and then he would give them his
      answer in writing as it was now agreed upon. But next morning the king
      told them that he had altered his mind; and some of his friends, of whom
      the commissioners inquired, told them, that after they were gone, and even
      his council retired, some of his bed-chamber never left pressing and
      persuading him till they prevailed on him to change his former
      resolutions." It is difficult, however, to conceive that any negotiation
      could have succeeded between the king and parliament, while the latter
      insisted, as they did all along, on a total submission to all their
      demands; and challenged the whole power, which they professedly intended
      to employ to the punishment of all the king's friends.]
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      13 (<a href="#linknoteref-13">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE M, p. 247. The
      author is sensible that some blame may be thrown upon him, on account of
      this last clause in Mr. Hambden's character; as if he were willing to
      entertain a suspicion of bad intentions where the actions were
      praiseworthy. But the author's meaning is directly contrary. He esteems
      the last actions of Mr. Hambden's life to hare been very blamable; though,
      as they were derived from good motives, only pushed to an extreme, there
      is room left to believe that the intentions of that patriot, as well as of
      many of his party, were laudable. Had the preceding administration of the
      king, which we are apt to call arbitrary, proceeded from ambition, and an
      unjust desire of encroaching on the ancient liberties of the people, there
      would have been less reason for giving him any trust, or leaving in his
      hands a considerable share of that power which he had so much abused. But
      if his conduct was derived in a great measure from necessity, and from a
      natural desire of defending that prerogative which was transmitted to him
      from his ancestors, and which his parliaments were visibly encroaching on,
      there is no reason why he may not be esteemed a very virtuous prince, and
      entirely worthy of trust from his people. The attempt, therefore, of
      totally annihilating monarchical power, was a very blamable extreme;
      especially as it was attended with the danger, to say the least, of a
      civil war, which, besides the numberless ills inseparable from it, exposed
      liberty to much greater perils than it could have incurred under the now
      limited authority of the king. But as these points could not be supposed
      be clear during the time as they are, or may be, at present, there are
      great reasons of alleviation for men who were heated by the controversy,
      or engaged in the action. And it is remarkable, that even at present,
      (such is the force of party prejudices,) there are few people who have
      coolness enough to see these matters in a proper light, or are convinced
      that the parliament could prudently have stopped in their pretensions.
      They still plead the violations of liberty attempted by the king, after
      granting the petition of right; without considering the extreme harsh
      treatment which he met with after making that great concession, and the
      impossibility of supporting government by the revenue then settled on the
      crown. The worst of it is, that there was a great tang of enthusiasm in
      the conduct of the parliamentary leaders, which, though it might render
      their conduct sincere, will not much enhance their character with
      posterity. And though Hambden was, perhaps, less infected with this spirit
      than many of his associates, he appears not to have been altogether free
      from it. Eds intended migration to America, where he could only propose
      the advantage of enjoying Puritanical prayers and sermons, will be allowed
      a proof of the prevalence of this spirit in him.]
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      14 (<a href="#linknoteref-14">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE N, p. 260. In a
      letter of the king to the queen, preserved in the British Museum, and
      published by Mrs. Macaulay, (vol. iv. p. 420,) he says, that unless
      religion was preserved, the militia (being not, as in France, a formed
      powerful strength) would be of little use to the crown; and that if the
      pulpits had not obedience, which would never be if Presbyterian government
      was absolutely established, the king would have but small comfort of the
      militia. This reasoning shows the king's good sense, and proves that his
      attachment to Episcopacy, though partly founded on religious principles,
      was also, in his situation, derived from the soundest views of civil
      policy. In reality, it was easy for the king to perceive, by the necessary
      connection between trifles and important matters, and by the connection
      maintained at that time between religion and politics, that, when he was
      contending for the surplice, he was in effect fighting for his crown, and
      even for his head. Few of the popular party could perceive this
      connection. Most of them were carried headlong by fanaticism; as might be
      expected in the ignorant multitude. Few even of the leaders seem to have
      had more enlarged views.]
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      15 (<a href="#linknoteref-15">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE O, p. 298. That
      Laud's severity was not extreme, appears from this feet, that he caused
      the acts or records of the high commission court to be searched, and found
      that there had been fewer suspensions, deprivations, and other
      punishments, by three, during the seven years of his time, than hi any
      seven years of his predecessor, Abbott, who was, notwithstanding, in great
      esteem with the house of commons. Troubles and Trials of Laud, p. 164. But
      Abbot was little attached to the court, and was also a Puritan in
      doctrine, and bore a mortal hatred to the Papists. Not to mention, that
      the mutinous spirit was rising higher in the time of Laud, and would less
      bear control. The maxims, however, of his administration were the same
      that had ever prevailed in England, and that had place in every other
      European nation, except Holland, which studied chiefly the interests of
      commerce, and France, which was fettered by edicts and treaties. To have
      changed them for the modern maxims of toleration, how reasonable soever,
      would have been deemed a very bold and dangerous enterprise. It is a
      principle advanced by President Montesquieu, that where the magistrate, is
      satisfied with the established religion, he ought to repress the first
      attempts towards innovation, and only grant a toleration to sects that are
      diffused and established. See L'Esprit des Loix, liv. 25, chap. 10.
      According to this principle, Laud's indulgence to the Catholics, and
      severity to the Puritans, would admit of apology. I own, however, that it
      is very questionable, whether persecution can in any case be justified;
      but, at the same time, it would be hard to give that appellation to Laud's
      conduct, who only enforced the act of uniformity, and expelled the
      clergymen that accepted of benefices, and yet refused to observe the
      ceremonies which they previously knew to be enjoined by law. He never
      refused them separate places of worship, because they themselves would
      have esteemed it impious to demand them, and no less impious to allow
      them.]
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      16 (<a href="#linknoteref-16">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE P, p. 319. Dr. Birch
      has written a treatise on this subject It is not my business to oppose any
      facts contained in that gentleman's performance. I shall only produce
      arguments, which prove that Glamorgan, when he received his private
      commission, had injunctions from the king to net altogether in concert
      with Ormond. 1. It seems to be implied in the very words of the
      commission. Glamorgan is empowered and authorized to treat and conclude
      with the confederate Roman Catholics in Ireland. "If upon necessity any
      (articles) be condescended unto, wherein the king's lieutenant cannot so
      well be seen in, as not fit for us at present publicly to own." Here no
      articles are mentioned which are not fit to be communicated to Ormond, but
      only not fit for him and the king publicly to be seen in, and to avow. 2.
      The king's protestation to Ormond ought, both on account of that prince's
      character, and the reasons he assigns, to have the greatest weight. The
      words are these: "Ormond, I cannot but add to my long letter, that, upon
      the word of a Christian, I never intended Glamorgan should treat any thing
      without your approbation, much less without your knowledge. For besides
      the injury to you, I was always diffident of his judgment (though I could
      not think him so extremely weak as now to my cost I have found;) which you
      may easily perceive in a postscript of a letter of mine to you." Carte,
      vol. ii. App. xxiii. It is impossible that any man of honor, however he
      might dissemble with his enemies, would assert a falsehood in so solemn a
      manner to his best friend, especially where that person must have had
      opportunities of knowing the truth. The letter, whose postscript is
      mentioned by the king, is to be found in Carte, vol. ii. App. xiii. 3. As
      the king had really so low an opinion of Glamorgan's understanding, it is
      very unlikely that he would trust him with the sole management of so
      important and delicate a treaty. And if he had intended that Glamorgan's
      negotiation should have been independent of Ormond, he would never have
      told the latter nobleman of it, nor have put him on his guard against
      Glamorgan's imprudence. That the king judged aright of this nobleman's
      character, appears from his Century of Arts, or Scantling of Inventions,
      which is a ridiculous compound of Hes, chimeras, and impossibilities, and
      shows what might be expected from such a man. 4. Mr. Carte has published a
      whole series of the king's correspondence with Ormond, from the time that
      Glamorgan came into Ireland; and it is evident that Charles all along
      considers the lord lieutenant as the person who was conducting the
      negotiations with the Irish. The 31st of July, 1645, after the battle of
      Naseby, being reduced to great straits, he writes earnestly to Ormond, to
      conclude a peace upon certain conditions mentioned, much inferior to those
      granted by Glamorgan; and to come over himself with all the Irish he could
      engage in his service. Carte, vol. iii. No. 400. This would have been a
      great absurdity, if he had already fixed a different canal, by which, on
      very different conditions, he purposed to establish a peace On the 22d of
      October, as his distresses multiply, he somewhat enlarges the conditions,
      though they still fall short of Glamorgan's; a new absurdity! See Carte,
      vol. iii. p. 411. 5. But What is equivalent to a demonstration that
      Glamorgan was conscious that he had no powers to conclude a treaty on
      these terms, or without consulting the lord lieutenant, and did not even
      expect that the king would ratify the articles, is the defeasance which he
      gave to the Irish council at the time of signing the treaty. "The earl of
      Glamorgan does no way intend hereby to oblige his majesty other than he
      himself shall please, after he has received these ten thousand men as a
      pledge and testimony of the said Roman Catholics' loyalty and fidelity to
      his majesty; yet he promises faithfully, upon his word and honor, not to
      acquaint his majesty with this defeasance, till he had endeavored, as far
      as in him lay, to induce his majesty to the granting of the particulars in
      the said articles; but that done, the said commissioners discharge the
      said earl of Glamorgan, both in honor and conscience, of any further
      engagement to them therein; though his majesty should not be pleased to
      grant the said particulars in the articles mentioned; the said earl having
      given them assurance, upon his word, honor, and voluntary oath, that he
      would never, to any person whatsoever, discover this defeasance in the
      interim without their consents." Dr. Birch, p. 96. All Glamorgan's view
      was to get troops for the king's service without hurting his own honor or
      his master's. The wonder only is, why the Irish accepted of a treaty which
      bound nobody, and which the very person who concludes it, seems to confess
      he does not expect to be ratified. They probably hoped that the king
      would, from their services, be more easily induced to ratify a treaty
      which was concluded, than to consent to its conclusion. 6. I might add,
      that the lord lieutenant's concurrence in the treaty was the more
      requisite, because without it the treaty could not be carried into
      execution by Glamorgan, nor the Irish troops be transported into England;
      and even with Ormond's concurrence, it clearly appears, that a treaty so
      ruinous to the Protestant religion in Ireland, could not be executed in
      opposition to the zealous Protestants in that kingdom. No one can doubt of
      this truth, who peruses Ormond's correspondence in Mr. Carte. The king was
      sufficiently apprised of this difficulty. It appears indeed to be the only
      reason why Ormond objected to the granting of high terms to the Irish
      Catholics. <br /><br /> Dr. Birch (in p. 360) has published a letter of the
      king's to Glamorgan, where he says, "Howbeit I know you cannot be but
      confident of my making good all instructions and promises to you and the
      nuncio." But it is to be remarked, that this letter is dated in April 6th,
      1646; after there had been a new negotiation entered into between
      Glamorgan and the Irish, and after a provisional treaty had even been
      concluded between them. See Dr. Birch, p. 179. The king's assurances,
      therefore, can plainly relate only to this recent transaction. The old
      treaty had long been disavowed by the king, and supposed by all parties to
      be annulled.]
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    <p class="foot">
      17 (<a href="#linknoteref-17">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE Q, p. 347. Salmonet,
      Ludlow, Hollis, etc., all these, especially the last, being the declared
      inveterate enemies of Cromwell, are the more to be credited, when they
      advance any fact which may serve to apologize for his violent and criminal
      conduct. There prevails a story, that Cromwell intercepted a letter
      written to the queen, where the king said, that he would first raise, and
      then destroy Cromwell. But, besides that this conduct seems to contradict
      the character of the king, it is, on other accounts, totally unworthy of
      credit. It is first told by Roger Coke, a very passionate and foolish
      historian, who wrote, too, so late as King William's reign; and even he
      mentions it only as a mere rumor or hearsay, without any known foundation.
      In the memoirs of Lord Broghill, we meet with another story of an
      intercepted letter, which deserves some more attention, and agrees very
      well with the narration here given. It is thus related by Mr. Maurice,
      chaplain to Roger, earl of Orrery: "Lord Orrery, in the time of his
      greatness with Cromwell, just after he had so seasonably relieved him in
      his great distress at Clonmell, riding out of Youghall one day with him
      and Ireton, they fell into discourse about the king's death. Cromwell
      thereupon said more than once, that if the king had followed his own
      judgment, and had been attended by none but trusty servants, he had fooled
      them all; and that once they had a mind to have closed with him; but, upon
      something that happened, fell off from that design. Orrery, finding them
      in good humor, and being alone with them, asked if he might presume to
      desire to know why they would once have closed with his majesty, and why
      they did not. Cromwell very freely told him, he would satisfy him in both
      his queries. The reason, says he, why we would have closed with the king
      was this: we found that the Scotch and Presbyterians began to be more
      powerful than we, and were likely to agree with him, and leave us in the
      lurch. For this reason, we thought it best to prevent them, by offering
      first to come in upon reasonable conditions; but whilst our thoughts were
      taken up with this subject, there came a letter to us from one of our
      spies, who was of the king's bedchamber, acquainting us, that our final
      doom was decreed that very day; that he could not possibly learn what it
      was, but we might discover it, if we could but intercept a letter sent
      from the king to the queen, wherein he informed her of his resolution;
      that this letter was sown up in the skirt of a saddle, and the bearer of
      it would come with the saddle upon his head, about ten of the clock that
      night, to the Blue Boar in Holborn, where he was to take horse for Dover.
      The messenger knew nothing of the letter in the saddle, though some in
      Dover did. 'We were at Windsor,' said Cromwell, 'when we received this
      letter; and immediately upon the receipt of it, Ireton and I resolved to
      take one trusty fellow with us, and to go in troopers' habits to that inn.
      We did so; and leaving our man at the gate of the inn, (which had a wicket
      only open to let persons in and out,) to watch and give us notice when any
      man came in with a saddle, we went into a drinking-stall. We there
      continued, drinking cans of beer, till about ten of the clock, when our
      sentinel at the gate gave us notice that the man with the saddle was come.
      We rose up presently, and just as the man was leading out his horse
      saddled, we came up to him with drawn swords, and told him we were to
      search all that went in and out there: but as he looked like an honest
      man, we would only search his saddle, and so dismiss him. The saddle was
      ungirt; we carried it into the stall where we had been drinking and
      ripping open one of the skirts, we there found the letter we wanted.
      Having thus got it into our hands, we delivered the man (whom we had left
      with our sentinel) his saddle, told him he was an honest fellow, and bid
      him go about his business; which he did, pursuing his journey without more
      ado, and ignorant of the harm he had suffered. We found in the letter,
      that his majesty acquainted the queen that he was courted by both
      factions, the Scotch Presbyterians and the army: and that those which bade
      the fairest for him should have him. But yet he thought he should close
      with the Scots sooner than with the other. Upon this we returned to
      Windsor; and finding we were not like to have good terms from the king, we
      from that time vowed his destruction.' This relation suiting well enough
      with other passages and circumstances at this time, I have inserted to
      gratify the reader's curiosity." Carte's Ormond, vol. ii. p. 12.]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-18" id="linknote-18">
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    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      18 (<a href="#linknoteref-18">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE R, p. 349. These are
      the words: "Laneric; I wonder to hear (if that be true) that some of my
      friends say, that my going to Jersey would have much more furthered my
      personal treaty, than my coming hither, for which, as I see no color of
      reason, so I had not been here, if I had thought that fancy true, or had
      not been secured of a personal treaty; of which I neither do, nor I hope
      will repent; for I am daily more and more satisfied with the governor, and
      find these islanders very good, peaceable, and quiet people. This
      encouragement I have thought not unfit for you to receive; hoping at least
      it may do good upon others, though needless to you." Burnet's Memoirs of
      Hamilton, p. 326. See also Rushworth, part 4, vol. ii. p. 941. All the
      writers of that age, except Clarendon, represent the king's going to the
      Isle of Wight as voluntary and intended. Perhaps the king thought it
      little for his credit to be trepanned into this measure, and was more
      willing to take it on himself as entirely voluntary. Perhaps he thought it
      would encourage his friends, if they thought him in a situation which was
      not disagreeable to him.]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-19" id="linknote-19">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      19 (<a href="#linknoteref-19">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE S, p. 364. The king
      composed a letter to the prince, in which he related the whole course of
      this transaction, and accompanied his narrative with several wise, as well
      as pathetical reflections and advices. The words with which he concluded
      the letter, are remarkable: "By what hath been said, you see how long I
      have labored in the search of peace. Do not you be disheartened to tread
      in the same steps. Use all worthy means to restore yourself to your
      rights, but prefer the way of peace. Show the greatness of your mine,
      rather to conquer your enemies by pardoning than by punishing. If you saw
      how unmanly and unchristian the implacable disposition is in our
      ill-wishers, you would avoid that spirit. Censure me not for having parted
      with so much of our right. The price was great, but the commodity was
      security to us, peace to my people. And I am confident, that another
      parliament would remember how useful a king's power is to a people's
      liberty; of how much power I divested myself, that I and they might meet
      once again in a parliamentary way, in order to agree the bounds of prince
      and people. Give belief to my experience, never to affect more greatness
      or prerogative than what is really and intrinsically for the good of the
      subjects, not the satisfaction of favorites If you thus use it, you will
      never want means to be a father to all, and a bountiful prince to any whom
      you incline to be extraordinarily gracious to. You may perceive, that all
      men intrust their treasure where it returns them interest; and if a
      prince, like the sea, receive and repay all the fresh streams which the
      rivers intrust with him, they will not grudge, but pride themselves to
      make him up an ocean. These considerations may make you as great a prince
      as your father if a low one; and your state may be so much the more
      established, as mine hath been shaken. For our subjects have learned, I
      dare say, that victories over their princes are but triumphs over
      themselves, and so will more unwillingly hearken to changes hereafter. The
      English nation are a sober people, however at present infatuated. I know
      not but this may be the last time I may speak to you or the world
      publicly. I am sensible into what hands I am fallen; and yet, I bless God,
      I have those inward refreshments which the malice of my enemies cannot
      perturb. I have learned to be busy myself, by retiring into myself; and
      therefore can the better digest whatever befalls me, not doubting but
      God's providence will restrain our enemies' power, and turn their
      fierceness into his praise. To conclude, if God give you success, use it
      humbly, and be ever far from revenge. If he restore you to your right on
      hard conditions, whatever you promise, keep These men who have violated
      laws which they were bound to preserve, will find their triumphs full of
      trouble. But do not you think any thing in the world worth attaining by
      foul and unjust means."]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-20" id="linknote-20">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      20 (<a href="#linknoteref-20">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE T, p. 380. The
      imputation of insincerity on Charles I., like most party clamors, is
      difficult to be removed; though it may not here be improper to say
      something with regard to it. I shall first remark, that this imputation
      seems to be of a later growth than his own age; and that even his enemies,
      though they loaded him with many calumnies, did not insist on this
      accusation. Ludlow, I think, is almost the only parliamentarian who
      imputes that vice to him; and how passionate a writer he is, must be
      obvious to every one. Neither Clarendon nor any other of the royalists
      ever justify him from insincerity, as not supposing that he had ever been
      accused of it. In the second place, his deportment and character in common
      life was free from that vice. He was reserved, distant, stately; cold in
      his address, plain in his discourse, inflexible in his principles; wide of
      the caressing, insinuating manners of his son, or the professing,
      talkative humor of his father. The imputation of insincerity must be
      grounded on some of his public actions, which we are therefore in the
      third place to examine. The following are the only instances which I find
      cited to confirm that accusation. 1. His vouching Buckingham's narrative
      of the transactions in Spain. But it is evident that Charles himself was
      deceived: why otherwise did he quarrel with Spain? The following is a
      passage of a letter from Lord Kensington, ambassador in France, to the
      duke of Buckingham Cabbala p. 318. "But his highness (the prince) had
      observed as great a weakness and folly as that, in that after they (the
      Spaniards) had used him so ill, they would suffer him to depart, which was
      one of the first speeches he uttered after he came into the ship. But did
      he say so? said the queen (of France.) Yes, madam, I will assure you,
      quoth I, from the witness of mine own ears. She smiled, and replied,
      Indeed, I heard he was used ill. So he was, answered I, but not in his
      entertainment; for that was as splendid as that country could afford it;
      but in their frivolous delays, and in the unreasonable conditions which
      they propounded and pressed, upon the advantage they had of his princely
      person." 2. Bishop Burnet, in his History of the House of Hamilton, (p.
      154.) has preserved a letter of the king's to the Scottish bishops, in
      which he desires them not to be present at the parliament, where they
      would be forced to ratify the abolition of their own order. "For," adds
      the king, "we do hereby assure you, that it shall be still one of our
      chiefest studies how to rectify and establish the government of that
      church aright, and to repair your losses, which we desire you to be most
      confident of." And in another place, "You may rest secure, that though
      perhaps we may give way for the present to that which will be prejudicial
      both to the church and our own government, yet we shall not leave thinking
      in time how to remedy both." But does the king say that he will
      arbitrarily revoke his concessions? Does not candor require us rather to
      suppose, that he hoped his authority would so far recover as to enable him
      to obtain the national consent to reestablish Episcopacy, which he
      believed so material a part of religion as well as of government? It is
      not easy indeed to think how he could hope to effect this purpose in any
      other way than his father had taken, that is, by consent of parliament. 3.
      There is a passage in Lord Clarendon, where it is said, that the king
      assented the more easily to the bill which excluded the bishops from the
      house of peers, because he thought that that law, being enacted by force,
      could not be valid. But the king certainly reasoned right in that
      conclusion. Three fourths of the temporal peers were at that time banished
      by the violence of the populace. Twelve bishops were unjustly thrown into
      the Tower by the commons. Great numbers of the commons themselves were
      kept away by fear or violence. The king himself was chased from London. If
      all this be not force, there is no such thing. But this scruple of the
      king's affects only the bishops' bill, and that against pressing. The
      other constitutional laws had passed without the least appearance of
      violence, as did indeed all the bills passed during the first year, except
      Strafford's attainder, which could not be recalled. The parliament,
      therefore, even if they had known the king's sentiments in this
      particular, could not, on that account, have had any just foundation of
      jealousy. 4. The king's letter intercepted at Naseby has been the source
      of much clamor. We have spoken of it already in chapter lviii. Nothing is
      more usual in all public transactions than such distinctions. Alter the
      death of Charles II. of Spain, King William's ambassadors gave the duke of
      Anjou the title of King of Spain; yet at that very time, King William was
      secretly forming alliances to dethrone him and soon after he refused him
      that title, and insisted (as he had reason) that he had not acknowledged
      his right. Yet King William justly passes for a very sincere prince; and
      this transaction is not regarded as any objection to his character in that
      particular. In all the negotiations at the peace of Ryswic, the French
      ambassadors always addressed King William as king of England; yet it was
      made an express article of the treaty, that the French king should
      acknowledge him as such. Such a palpable difference is there between
      giving a title to a prince, and positively recognizing his right to it. I
      may add, that Charles, when he asserted that protestation in the council
      books before his council, surely thought he had reason to justify his
      conduct. There were too many men of honor in that company to avow a
      palpable cheat. To which we may subjoin, that, if men were as much
      disposed to judge of this prince's actions with candor as severity, this
      precaution of entering a protest in his council books might rather pass
      for a proof of scrupulous honor; lest he should afterwards be reproached
      with breach of his word, when he should think proper again to declare the
      assembly at Westminster no parliament. 5. The denying of his commission to
      Glamorgan is another instance which has been cited. This matter has been
      already treated in a footnote to chapter lviii. That transaction was
      entirely innocent. Even if the king had given a commission to Glamorgan to
      conclude that treaty, and had ratified it, will any reasonable man, in our
      age, think it strange that, in order to save his own life, his crown, his
      family, his friends, and his party, he should make a treaty with Papists,
      and grant them very large concessions for their religion? 6. There is
      another of the king's intercepted letters to the queen commonly mentioned;
      where, it is pretended, he talked of raising and then destroying Cromwell.
      But that story stands on no manner of foundation, as we have observed in a
      preceding footnote to this chapter. In a word, the parliament, after the
      commencement of their violences, and still more after beginning the civil
      war, had reason for their scruples and jealousies, founded on the very
      nature of their situation, and on the general propensity of the human
      mind; not on any fault of the king's character, who was candid, sincere,
      upright; as much as any man whom we meet with in history. Perhaps it would
      be difficult to find another character so unexceptionable in this
      particular. <br /><br /> As to the other circumstances of Charles's
      character chiefly exclaimed against, namely, his arbitrary principles in
      government, one may venture to assert, that the greatest enemies of this
      prince will not find, in the long line of his predecessors, from the
      conquest to his time, any one king, except perhaps his father, whose
      administration was not more arbitrary and less legal, or whose conduct
      could have been recommended to him, by the popular party themselves, as a
      model, in this particular, for his government. Nor is it sufficient to
      say, that example and precedent can never authorize vices. Examples and
      precedents, uniform and ancient, can surely fix the nature of any
      constitution, and the limits of any form of government. There is indeed no
      other principle by which those landmarks or boundaries can be settled.
      <br /><br /> What a paradox in human affairs, that Henry VIII. should have
      been almost adored in his lifetime, and his memory be respected; while
      Charles I. should, by the same people, at no greater distance than a
      century, have been led to a public and ignominious execution, and his name
      be ever after pursued by falsehood and by obloquy! <br /><br /> Even at
      present, an historian, who, prompted by his courageous generosity, should
      venture, though from the most authentic and undisputed facts, to vindicate
      the fame of that prince, would be sure to meet with such treatment as
      would discourage even the boldest from so dangerous, however splendid an
      enterprise.]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-21" id="linknote-21">
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    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      21 (<a href="#linknoteref-21">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE U, p. 394. The
      following instance of extravagance is given by Walker, in his History of
      Independency, part ii. p. 152. About this time there came six soldiers
      into the parish church of Walton upon Thames, near twilight; Mr. Faucet,
      the preacher there, not having till then ended his sermon. One of the
      soldiers had a lantern in his hand, and a candle burning in it, and in the
      other hand four candles not lighted. He desired the parishioners to stay a
      while, saying he had a message from God unto them, and thereupon offered
      to go into the pulpit. But the people refusing to give him leave so to do,
      or to stay in the church, he went into the churchyard, and there told them
      that he had a vision, wherein he had received a command from God to
      deliver his will unto them, which he was to deliver and they to receive
      upon pain of damnation; consisting of five lights. 1. "That the Sabbath
      was abolished, as unnecessary, Jewish, and merely ceremonial. And here
      (quoth he) I should put out the first light, but the wind is so high I
      cannot kindle it. 2. That tithes are abolished, as Jewish and ceremonial,
      a great burden to the saints of God, and a discouragement of industry and
      tillage. And here I should put out my second light, etc. 3. That ministers
      are abolished, as anti-Christian, and of no longer use, now Christ himself
      descends into the hearts of his saints, and his spirit enlighteneth them
      with revelations and inspirations. And here I should put out my third
      light, etc. 4. Magistrates are abolished, as useless, now that Christ
      himself is in purity amongst us, and hath erected the kingdom of the
      saints upon earth. Besides they are tyrants, and oppressors of the liberty
      of the saints, and tie them to laws and ordinances, mere human inventions.
      And here I should put out my fourth light, etc. 5. Then putting his hand
      into his pocket, and pulling out a little Bible, he showed it open to the
      people, saying, Here is a book you have in great veneration, consisting of
      two parts, the Old and New Testament. I must tell you it is abolished. It
      containeth beggarly rudiments, milk for babes. But now Christ is in glory
      amongst us, and imparts a further measure of his spirit to his saints than
      this can afford. I am commanded to burn it before your face. Then putting
      out the candle, he said, And here my fifth light is extinguished." It
      became a pretty common doctrine at that time, that it was unworthy of a
      Christian man to pay rent to his fellow-creatures; and landlords were
      obliged to use all the penalties of law against their tenants, whose
      conscience was scrupulous.]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-24" id="linknote-24">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      24 (<a href="#linknoteref-24">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE X, p. 424. When the
      earl of Derby was alive, he had been summoned by Ireton to surrender the
      Isle of Man; and he returned this spirited and memorable answer: <br /><br />
      "I received your letter with indignation, and with scorn return you this
      answer; that I cannot but wonder whence you should gather any hopes that I
      should prove, like you, treacherous to my sovereign; since you cannot be
      ignorant of my former actions in his late majesty's service, from which
      principles of loyalty I am no whit departed. I scorn your proffers; I
      disdain your favor; I abhor your treason; and am so far from delivering up
      this island to your advantage, that I shall keep it to the utmost of my
      power to your destruction. Take this for your final answer, and forbear
      any farther solicitations; for if you trouble me with any more messages of
      this nature, I will burn the paper and hang up the bearer. This is the
      immutable resolution, and shall be the undoubted practice of him who
      accounts it his chiefest glory to be his majesty's most loyal and obedient
      subject,
    </p>
    <p>
      "DERBY."] <a name="linknote-25" id="linknote-25">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      25 (<a href="#linknoteref-25">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE Y, p. 426. It had
      been a usual policy of the Presbyterian ecclesiastics to settle a chaplain
      in the great families, who acted as a spy upon his master, and gave them
      intelligence of the most private transactions and discourses of the
      family; a signal instance of priestly tyranny, and the subjection of the
      nobility! They even obliged the servants to give intelligence against
      their masters. Whitlocke, p. 502. The same author (p. 512) tells the
      following story: The synod meeting at Perth, and citing the ministers and
      people who had expressed a dislike of their heavenly government, the men
      being out of the way, their wives resolved to answer for them. And on the
      day of appearance, one hundred and twenty women, with good clubs in their
      hands, came and besieged the church where the reverend ministers sat. They
      sent one of their number to treat with the females; and he, threatening
      excommunication, they basted him for his labor, kept him prisoner, and
      sent a party of sixty, who routed the rest of the clergy, bruised their
      bodies sorely, took all their baggage and twelve horses. One of the
      ministers, after a mile's running, taking all creatures for his foes,
      meeting with a soldier, fell on his knees, who, knowing nothing of the
      matter, asked the blackcoat what he meant. The female conquerors, having
      laid hold on the synod clerk, beat him till he forswore his office.
      Thirteen ministers rallied about four miles from the place, and voted that
      this village should never more have a synod in it, but be accursed; and
      that though in the years 1638, and 1639, the godly women were cried up for
      stoning the bishops, yet now the whole sex should be esteemed wicked.]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-26" id="linknote-26">
      <!-- Note --></a>
    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      26 (<a href="#linknoteref-26">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE Z, p. 468. About
      this time an accident had almost robbed the protector of his life, and
      saved his enemies the trouble of all their machinations. Having got six
      fine Friesland coach horses, as a present from the count of Oldenburgh, he
      undertook for his amusement to drive them about Hyde Park, his secretary,
      Thurloe, being in the coach. The horses were startled and ran away. He was
      unable to command them or keep the box. He fell upon the pole, was dragged
      upon the ground for some time. A pistol, which he carried in his pocket,
      went off and by that singular good fortune which ever attended him, he was
      taken up without any considerable hurt or bruise.]
    </p>
    <p>
      <a name="linknote-27" id="linknote-27">
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    </p>
    <p class="foot">
      27 (<a href="#linknoteref-27">return</a>)<br /> [ NOTE AA, p. 512. After
      Monk's declaration for a free parliament on the eleventh of February, he
      could mean nothing but the king's restoration; yet it was long before he
      would open himself even to the king. This declaration was within eight
      days after his arrival in London. Had he ever intended to have set up for
      himself, he would not surely have so soon abandoned a project so inviting;
      he would have taken some steps which would have betrayed it. It could only
      have been some disappointment, some frustrated attempt, which could have
      made him renounce the road of private ambition. But there is not the least
      symptom of such intentions. The story told of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper,
      by Mr. Locke, has not any appearance of truth. See Lord Linsdowne's
      Vindication, and Philips's Continuation of Baker. I shall add to what
      those authors have advanced, that Cardinal Mazarine wished for the king's
      restoration; though he would not have ventured much to have procured it.]
    </p>
    <p>
      END OF VOL. V. <br /> <br />
    </p>
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