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KING AND COMMONWEALTH 
 
Kin AND COMMONWEALTH 
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 CHARLES I. AND THE GREAT REBELLION 
 
 B. MERITON CORDERY QrOJ^tkuy^Jl- 
 
 AND 
 
 J. SURTEES PHILLPOTTS 
 
 HEAD MASTER OF BEDFORD SCHOOL 
 ORMERLY FELLOW OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 
 Nothing extenuate 
 Nor set down aught in malice 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 JOS. H. COATES AND CO. 
 
 1876 
 

 c\& 
 
 JU/V i 13* 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The aim in "writing this short history has been to give within 
 a moderate compass a lively idea of the feelings and motives 
 at work in what was perhaps the most important epoch of our 
 national history. With this aim it seemed best to treat the 
 main events with all that fulness of detail, which assists the 
 imagination in realizing the past, and to omit such minor 
 actions as seemed not essential to the understanding of the 
 main facts. The same rule has been followed in dealing with 
 the military history. For this, personal visits have been 
 made to the battle-fields, and some rough sketches of the 
 ground have been added. "No constitutional question has 
 been touched without a preliminary attempt to put the 
 growth and forms of the Constitution before the reader in 
 such a manner as to encourage him to form a judgment for 
 himself. 
 
 In a joint work it is difficult to define exactly the part 
 taken by each writer, but my own share in the book may be 
 described rather as that of editor than author ; it has, in 
 fact, been mainly confined to matters of style and arrange- 
 
vi PKEFACE. 
 
 ment, with criticisms on events and on constitutional ques- 
 tions. My coadjutor, who kindly undertook the subject at my 
 suggestion, wrote the first draft of the whole book, and is 
 not only responsible for the accuracy of the facts, but de- 
 serves all the credit of research into original documents at 
 the British Museum and Bodleian libraries. 
 
 While for facts our endeavour has always been to go to 
 contemporary records, yet it is impossible that any one can 
 write on this period without feeling more obligation to the 
 labours of Mr. Eorster than can be adequately expressed in 
 foot-notes. Acknowledgement is also due for many sugges- 
 tive ideas not only to Hallam and other writers on the 
 time, but to Mr. Freeman for the light he has thrown on 
 the early history of the English constitution, and to Mr. 
 Bagehot for his vivid description of its practical working at 
 the present time. 
 
 I cannot conclude without expressing our thanks to Mr. 
 
 B. W. Taylor for some corrections in the proof, to the Bev. 
 
 C. E. Moberly for revising the earlier chapters, and above 
 all to the Bishop of Exeter, whose occasional hints have 
 given the kiud of help that can only be given by one who 
 has not only an accurate knowledge of the facts, but a tho- 
 rough grasp of the constitutional questions at issue. 
 
 J. SUBTEES PHILLPOTTS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAC.} 
 
 I. CONSTITUTIONAL INTRODUCTION. — GOVERNMENTS 
 
 OF ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. . .1 
 
 II. CHARLES' FIRST PARLIAMENTS.— IMPEACHMENT OF 
 
 BUCKINGHAM.— PETITION OF RIGHT (1625—1629) 29 
 
 III. ELEVEN YEARS OF ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT (1629 
 
 —1640) ...... 51 
 
 IV. MEETING OF LONG PARLIAMENT AND TRIAL OF 
 
 STRAFFORD (1640—1641) . ._ . .82 
 
 V. GRAND REMONSTRANCE. —IMPEACHMENT OF FIVE 
 
 MEMBERS (1641—1642) . . . .99 
 
 VI. FIRST YEAR OF THE AVAR. — BATTLES OF EDGEHILL 
 
 AND NEWBURY (1642—1643) . . .123 
 
 VII. RISE OF INDEPENDENTS. — EATTLE OF MARSTON 
 
 MOOR. — SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE (1643 — 1645) 148 
 VIII. NASEBY. — END OF AVAR (1645 — 1646) . .179 
 
 IX. PRESBYTERIANS, INDEPENDENTS, ERASTIANS, AND 
 
 THEIR THEORIES . . . . .199 
 
 X. TRIUMPH OF THE ARMY OVER PARLIAMENT. — 
 
 DEATH OF THE KING (1647 — 1649) , .212 
 
 XI. SOCIAL STATE OF ENGLAND .... 248 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XII. TEIUMPHS OF THE COMMONWEALTH BY LAND AND 
 
 SEA (1649—1652) 277 
 
 XIII. FALL OF EEPUBLICANS, AND BAEEBONE'S PAELXA- 
 
 MENT (1651—1653) . . . .303 
 
 XIV. THE FIEST THEEE YEAES OF THE PEOTECTOEATE 
 
 (1654—1656) 328 
 
 XV. THE LAST TWO YEAES OF THE PEOTECTOEATE 
 
 (1656—1658) 347 
 
 XVI. EICHAED CEOMWELL.— ANAECHY.— THE EESTOEA- 
 
 tion (1658—1660) . . . . .367 
 
 APPENDIX ....... 386 
 
 INDEX . . . . . . .39-2 
 
l, deciding what law is, 
 tker it is broken or not. 
 
 Arbitrary 
 No trial by jury 
 
 Ecclesiastical 
 Courts. No 
 trial by jury- 
 Legal Arbitrary 
 
 Exchequer 
 d by king, 
 e judgment 
 
 lo equal law 
 out having 
 
 I 
 Council 
 Board ; 
 council- 
 lors ap- 
 point, d 
 and re- 
 moved bi 
 king 
 
 use of 
 
 torture 
 
 I 
 Star 
 Cham- 
 ber ; 
 judges, 
 council- 
 lors, and 
 others 
 appoint- 
 ed by 
 king 
 
 Council 
 of North; 
 president 
 appoint- 
 ed by 
 king 
 
 Courts of High 
 
 bishops 
 who 
 were ap 
 pointed 
 by king 
 
 Commis- 
 sion ; 
 judges 
 appoint- 
 ed by 
 king 
 
GOVERNMENT, 
 
 Arlitrary 
 
 Judicial, deciding what law is, 
 and whether it is broken or not 
 I 
 
 Legal 
 
 Arbitrary 
 No trial by jury 
 
 Ecclesiastical 
 
 Courts. No 
 
 trial by jury 
 
 I 
 
 Legal Arlitrary 
 
 I 
 
 Equity 
 
 I 
 King who in King who by 
 the eye of prerogative 
 the law can 
 'do no 
 wrong ' 
 
 Common law. 
 Trial by jury 
 
 makes pro- raises loans, 
 IS in chip-money, 
 council grants mono- 
 
 polies 
 
 makes trea- 
 ties, de- 
 clares war, 
 but has no 
 standing 
 army, and 
 has no 
 
 arrests by 
 
 personal 
 mandate, im- 
 prisons with- 
 out habeas 
 corpus, bil- 
 lets soldiers 
 
 Court of 
 Chancery ; 
 lord chan- 
 cellor ap- 
 pointed 
 by king 
 
 King's Bench Common Pleas Exchequer 
 judges appointed and removed by king-, 
 b\it by their oaths bound to give judgment council 
 according to the laws, and to do equal la 
 
 and execution of 
 regard to any person ' 
 
 ;ht, without having 
 
 1 
 
 Council 
 
 1 
 Star 
 
 1 
 Council 
 
 Board ; 
 
 Cham- 
 
 of North; 
 
 council- 
 
 ber ; 
 
 jr sident 
 
 lors ap- 
 
 judges. 
 
 appoint- 
 
 point d 
 
 council- 
 
 ed by 
 
 and re- 
 
 lors, and 
 
 Jang 
 
 moved by 
 
 others 
 
 
 Icmy 
 
 appoint- 
 ed by 
 
 
 use of 
 
 king 
 
 
 torture 
 
 
 
 Courts of High 
 bishops Commis- 
 who sion ; 
 
 were ap- judges 
 pointed appoint- 
 by king ed by 
 kin? 
 
 Parliament ; 
 
 I 
 Secretaries and coun- 
 cillors appointed 
 and removed by 
 king, but in the 
 eye of the law ' re- 
 sponsible ;' carry- 
 ing out laws and 
 collecting revenue 
 through their 
 agents 
 
 appoints 
 lonls-licuten- 
 ant, and 
 officers of 
 militia by 
 sea and 
 laud 
 
 sheriffs enforce de» 
 cisions of judges 
 
KING AND COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL INTRODUCTION.— GOVERNMENTS OF ELIZA- 
 BETH AND JAMES I. 
 
 No people ever was and remained free, but because it was determined to bo 
 so; because neitber its rulers nor any other party in tbe nation could 
 compel it to be otherwise. If a people — especially one whose freedom has 
 not yet become prescriptive — does not value it sufficiently to fight for it 
 and maintain it against any force which can be mustered within the 
 country, it is only a question in how few years or months that people will 
 be enslaved. — Mill, Dissertations and Discussions. 
 
 A people, to be free, must take part in, or possess Three func- 
 oontrol over, the three powers of government, Legisla- tlon sofgov- 
 tive, Executive, Judicial. As to the first, if they are Legislative, 
 to be masters of their persons and properties, neither tive, III" 
 laws must be made nor taxes imposed without their Judicial 
 consent ; secondly, ministers of the executive, whether councillors 
 of state, tax-collectors, military or police officers, must be per- 
 sonally responsible to the law courts, or they may infringe with 
 impunity the laws the people have secured ; lastly, though per- 
 sons and properties be protected by laws, and though ministers 
 be liable to prosecution, this protection is nominal only, unless 
 the judges who interpret the laws, are sufficiently independent of 
 the executive. 
 
 I. Englishmen of the seventeenth century shared in j. Legisia- 
 the legislative power with the sovereign, who could make ^ ve - ¥^ er " 
 
 , . , „ & ' „ ties of En- 
 
 no laws without consent of the two Houses of Parlia- giishmenin 
 
 liament. Their properties were protected from arbi- 17th cen5 
 
 trary seizure, their persons from arbitrary imprison- turi es. 
 
 ment, by two statutes, the Magna Charta, first granted by King 
 
 John, and the Confirmatio Chartarum, first granted by Edward I. 
 
2 CONSTITUTION-I. LEGISLATIVE, [ixxeoduction-. 
 
 These together provide, first, that no person shall be put in 
 prison without legal warrant, or kept there without being brought 
 to trial according to the laws of the land ; that is, that the question 
 of law shall be decided by the established judge of the law ; 
 secondly, that the question of fact, whether a man accused at the 
 suit of the crown, has, or has not, committed the crime laid to 
 his charge, shaU be decided by a jury of twelve of his country- 
 men ; and lastly, that no taxes of any sort shall be imposed with- 
 out consent of Parliament. 
 
 Classes re- Several classes of the nation shared indirectly in the 
 tZZ^ul government by being represented in Parliament. In 
 " the Upper House sat the temporal and spiritual lords 
 of the realm in their own right. To the Lower House aU the fifty- 
 two counties of England and Wales, with the exception of Dur- 
 ham, returned two members each, elected by freeholders possessed 
 of lands or tenements to the annual value of 40s* The term 
 Freeholders freeholder included two classes, holders of land by 
 feudaf ten- kni g nt ' s service, and holders of land by free socage, f 
 yeomen d Tlie first class was com P ose d of feudal tenants, gentle- 
 men by birth, who had originally held land in return 
 for military service, and whose tenure was still subject to several 
 irksome burdens. The second class was composed of yeomen, 
 men of ignoble blood, but with a tenure dating from feudal 
 times. The Normans of the conquest would have thought it 
 beneath them to hold land by any other than a military tenure. 
 But in many cases they permitted the despised Saxons to remain 
 in possession of their lands, sometimes on condition of performing 
 agricultural services which soon took the form of a fixed annual 
 rent ; sometimes on condition merely of taking an oath of fealty 
 and paying occasional fines. Thus in England there sprang up 
 in quite early times an independent class who were owners of the 
 soil, and though not of gentle birth, sat on juries, voted at county 
 elections, and attended the courts in which freeholders met to- 
 gether to transact the business of their county. 
 
 • Money was about four times its present value, that is, one shilling 
 then could purchase as much food or other necessaries of life as four 
 shillings now; so this would now represent land which would bring in £8 a 
 year as rent and cost say £2oO to buy. 
 
 t Socagers probably derived froin Saxon soc, "liberty," "privilege," 
 J/^« 1Se U» 8 ° c ?9ers were bound to attend the court of the lord to whose 
 soc or "right" of justice they belonged. 
 
constitution.] REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT. 3 
 
 Besides county representatives, the House of Com- Burgesses, 
 mons contained over four hundred members, returned according 
 to usage by certain privileged towns. These were the classes 
 possessed of political rights. Below these were the whole mass of 
 the unenfranchised — hired labourers, tenants at will, and copy- 
 holders.* These were the descendants of those Saxons Copyhoid- 
 whom the Normans had reduced to a state of serfdom ; hired 
 and, unlike freeholders, were incapable either of sitting labourei * 
 on juries or voting at elections. For the last hundred sen ted. 
 years, however, they had nearly all been free, and were protected 
 in person and property by the same laws as freeholders. 
 
 All classes being thus possessed of the same liberties, their 
 common freedom gave them common interests, and caused them 
 to unite in spite of social distinctions, and oppose the establish- 
 ment of arbitrary government. 
 
 In France the political condition of the people was No privi- 
 inferior to that of the English, and thi° mainly from leged c ass ' 
 want of union and fellow-feeling between the different ranks into 
 which French society was divided. There was no class answeriug 
 to the English yeomanry ; the feudal tenants were a noble and pri- 
 vileged class, and were divided by this barrier of privilege from 
 their unfortunate inferiors in rank, on whom the main burden 
 of direct taxation fell ; as the inequalities of taxation increased, 
 the different classes became more and more isolated, and thus 
 the kings, never meeting with combined resistance from the 
 whole body of their subjects, came by degrees to usurp absolute 
 power, to impose taxes at will, and to govern without the aid of 
 any national assembly. 
 
 f II. A people are little benefited by the possession of n. Execu- 
 good laws, unless those laws are respected and obeyed jj™ ^w£ r 
 by those who are entrusted with the execution of them, cised by a 
 The executive power was then, as now, exercised by of the legis- 
 ministers of the crown. But in the course of two cen- lature « 
 turies the position of these ministers has been totally changed. 
 The queen's ministers are now in such close harmony with the 
 Parliament, that they have been denned as a committee of the 
 
 * The copyholder held land of the lord of the manor, subject to certain 
 restrictions and agricultural services enumerated in the copy of the roll of 
 the estate. So long as he performed those services he might not be dis- 
 possessed. 
 
 1-2 
 
4 CONSTITUTION— II. EXECUTIVE, [introduction. 
 
 legislature.* Chosen out of the predominant party in Parlia- 
 ment, they conduct the government only so long as they can 
 command a majority of votes in the Lower House. If their 
 measures are outvoted, they have no choice but to resign office, 
 or by obtaining a dissolution, to appeal to a new Parliament for 
 renewal of the support which is their only claim to power. 
 Executive ^ n ^e sixteenth century, on the contrary, the exe- 
 in i6th cen- cutive power lay entirely in the hands of the king, who 
 cised by the settled all questions of administration, made peace and 
 crown. war ^ appointed and dismissed officers of state, and ex- 
 
 pended the revenue, uncontrolled by the representatives of the 
 people. Yet, great as was the power thus exercised by the crown, 
 two safeguards were provided against its abuse. The first was 
 Two safe- negative, the absence of a standing army in England, 
 guards. In France absolute power was upheld by an army, 
 army in recruited in part by foreigners, and officered solely by 
 England. nobles ; this army the king found no difficulty in 
 maintaining, as he imposed taxes at pleasure. No such right, 
 however, belonged to English monarchs, who were without the 
 funds necessary for the support of a standing army ; and it was 
 only by means of a standing army, possessed with an ' esprit de 
 corps ' of its own, and divided in interest from the people, that 
 arbitrary government could be permanently established. The 
 House of Commons always originated money bills ; they held, 
 therefore, the purse-strings of the nation, and were careful only to 
 grant supplies sufficient for the ordinary purposes of government. 
 
 * Though this is substantially true as a contrast to the position of the 
 ministry in the 16th century, it would be a great mistake to disregard the 
 influence of the forms under which the constitution works, (i.) Even now 
 the control of the Commons is not so great as it seems. The ministers are 
 not mere delegates, for Parliament controls rather than directs ; it has no 
 right to tell the Queen's ministers what to do, though it can veto their pro- 
 posals, and censure them for their acts when done ; the initiative remains 
 with the cabinet, (n.) The influence of the crown is more than it seems, 
 (i.) It has a voice in discussing despatches which settle foreign policy, (ii.) 
 Though it cannot exclude from office a man who has made himself indis- 
 pensable to the nation, it has, no doubt, a negative voice in the selection of 
 the less conspicuous members of the cabinet, and thus exercises a real, 
 though imperceptible, influence on the attitude of rising politicians. 
 
 The form is always of vast importance in constitutional questions. The 
 popular influence, which seems to be the substantial power, is the wind that 
 fills the sails and gives the motion ; but the exact direction of the motion 
 must still depend in a large measure on the helmsman. The shipwreck of 
 the 17th century came from an attempt to sail in the teeth of the wind. A 
 skilful helmsman may do much by gaining and losing tacks, but the Stuarts 
 were not skilful. 
 
constitution.] SAFEGUAKDS— DANGER OF ABUSE. 5 
 
 The principles of the constitution contained a second and posi- 
 tive safeguard against the abuse of the regal power. (2) Respon- 
 Great lawyers had long since declared that the king, J 1 ^*" 7 ° f 
 like his subjects, was bound to respect the laws. " The ministers, 
 king," Bracton wrote as early as the thirteenth century, " also 
 hath a superior, namely God, and also the law, by which he was 
 made a king." It was not likely, however, that the subject 
 would have either the power or the desire to arraign sovereigns 
 themselves before courts of law. A fiction of the lawyers in- 
 tervened and gave a better means of securing the same end. 
 This fiction was that the " king could do no wrong." From this 
 it followed that if wrong was done, the ministers, and not 
 the king, must have advised and executed the wrong ; ministers 
 could not screen themselves behind the king's name ; if they 
 broke the laws in the performance of their functions, though, 
 it was at the king's bidding, they were still liable to be sued 
 by the injured parties in a court of justice. 
 
 Still these safeguards had not been found sufficient Liberties 
 to prevent the executive, from violating the law. In (i) inega| e ' 
 the first place, several powers, sometimes simply op- P mvei * ex- 
 pressive, sometimes actually illegal, were regarded as crown, 
 belonging to the crown in right of the royal prerogative. By 
 these both the subject's property and liberty were endangered. 
 Thus the king, though he dared not tax without consent of 
 Parliament, used to borrow large sums under the name of loans 
 which were seldom repaid. Both the king and his council im- 
 prisoned without showing legal cause. Proclamations were made 
 by the King in Council, which, though regarded as temporary 
 measures only, were in matter of fact laws, and sometimes had 
 penalties attached to them for disobedience. So again, though 
 the use of torture was not lawful by the common law, and 
 contrary to several statutes, State prisoners were constantly put 
 to the rack on the strength of warrants signed by the king. 
 
 In the second place, though the law allowed the subject to seek 
 
 redress, the redress was rarely attainable. Pew dared to incur 
 
 the king's displeasure by attacking the conduct of his ( 2 ) Judges 
 
 servants, and if they did, juries were often intimidated,* uponcrown. 
 
 judges were often corrupt. The strength of the chain is the- 
 
 * Under the Tudors, juries bad been fined and imprisoned for deciding 
 against tbe crown. If they decided for the crown, though unjustly, they 
 could not be punished, because thej could not have been tampered with by- 
 ike sovereign ! 
 
6 CONSTITUTION— III. JUDICATURE, [introduction. 
 
 strength of its weakest point. The weak point of the English 
 constitution lay in the dependence of the judges upon the crown ; 
 unless the interpreters of the laws were independent, no law 
 could ever effectually secure the liberties of the people. 
 (3) Arbi- -^- nc * * n * ne third place, besides the common law 
 
 trary courts, other courts of justice existed, in which the ac- 
 
 cused was neither tried by jury nor sentenced according 
 to known laws. 
 
 in. Judi- Omitting the Court of Chancery, which had no juris- 
 ciai. diction in political cases, there were then, as now, three 
 
 chief courts of justice, the King's Bench, the Common Pleas, and 
 the Exchequer, all of which sat at Westminster ; four or five 
 judges belonged to each, who in all cases were bound to give 
 judgment, not according to their own pleasure, or the will of the 
 king, but according to the law of the realm, whether statute or 
 common law.* 
 
 Since the Act of Settlement in 1702 the common law judges 
 hold office for life, receive salaries fixed by law, and can only be 
 dismissed from office if convicted of some offence, or in conse- 
 quence of an address of the two Houses of Parliament. But in 
 the seventeenth century they only held office at the pleasure of 
 the king, and being dependent in part upon his bounty for their 
 salaries, were regarded as the servants of the court, f 
 
 But these courts at any rate acknowledged the known laws, and 
 tried prisoners by jury. Of a very different character was the 
 Court of Star Chamber, so called because its sittings were 
 held in a room leading out of Westminster Hall, of which 
 the walls were decorated with stars. The germ of this court 
 lay in a jurisdiction exercised from the time of Edward III. 
 by the king's Common Council, which was accustomed to call 
 to account offenders too powerful to be brought to submit to 
 the ordinary courts of law. Then came a second stage. An 
 Act of Parliament was passed in the reign of Henry VII. (1491), 
 forming a court of justice, composed of certain members of the 
 
 * The common law consists of customs banded down from Norman times, 
 and of the judgments of judges founded upon those customs ; statute law of 
 acts of Parliament. 
 
 f Thus in James' time the Admiralty judge acknowledges the receipt of 
 instructions, "by which I understand his Majesty's resolution to continue 
 Sir John Eliot in prison. I am glad I did forbear to deliver my opinion of 
 the state of bis cause, lest perhaps it might have differed somewhat." — 
 Forster's Eliot, i. ii. 4. 
 
Elizabeth ] STAR CHAMBER— HIGH COMMISSION. 7 
 
 council, and entrusted with powers of judging cases of riots, the 
 bribing of juries, and other specified offences. This second stage 
 gave a parliamentary sanction to the court, but limited its powers 
 and specified its persons. It was out of this chrysalis that the 
 Court of Star Chamber emerged. By the end of Henry the 
 Eighth's reign, it had reached its third, or final stage, in which 
 it boasted parliamentary sanction, at the same time that it re- 
 pudiated the conditions under which that sanction had been 
 given. The limits of persons and of offences had both disap- 
 peared. The powers formerly vested only in the members of the 
 court of Henry VII. had silently passed into the hands of the 
 whole body of the Common Council,* while its jurisdiction had 
 been extended beyond the offences specified by the statute to 
 cases of breach of trust, fraud, and libel. 
 
 Besides the Court of Star Chamber, there was a second court, 
 the Court of High Commission, which deprived the subject of 
 the protection granted him by the common law, and of trial by 
 jury. After Henry VIII. quarrelled with Pope Clement VII. 
 about a divorce from Catherine of Arragon, Parliament passed 
 an Act of Supremacy, declaring the king the supreme head 
 of the Church. This was re-enacted when Elizabeth came to 
 the throne (1558), and an addition made to it, granting the 
 queen power to appoint persons to exercise jurisdiction in eccle- 
 siastical affairs, as, for instance, in the reformation of heresies 
 and abuses. Elizabeth, therefore, was acting within her powers 
 when, in 1583, she erected a permanent commission, consisting of 
 twelve bishops, privy councillors, and others ; but she undoubt- 
 edly was straining her power when she gave this court an au- 
 thority — not granted her by the statute — to try suspected persons 
 by juries, or by any other means they could devise, and to punish 
 by fine and imprisonment. Thus, while the Court of Star 
 Chamber, by judging cases of libel, deprived the subject of 
 liberty of speech, the Court of High Commission deprived him 
 of liberty of conscience. Both alike, therefore, soon came to be 
 hated by the people ; both were distinctly contrary to Magna 
 Charta, for in neither was the accused tried by jury or by the 
 laws of the land ; both were contrary to the first axioms of jus- 
 
 * The king had two councils: his Privy Council, which advised with him 
 in all State matters, and his Common Council. In the Common Council sat, 
 not only all members of the Privy Council, but also some of the common law 
 [judges, and others added at the pleasure of the king. 
 
8 EELIGIOUS DIFFEEENCES-EEFORMATION. [.iizabetb. 
 
 tice, the separation of accuser and judge, for in these courts the 
 rmmsters of the crown first prosecuted a man in their capacity of 
 jiXes ^selves passed sentence upon him as 
 
 Queen Elizabeth was not disposed to yield up any powers 
 
 ^ thin Xe fi had be0n eXerCiS6d by hCT P-«— on 
 the thione She, however, was careful not to strain them be- 
 yond what the temper of the nation would bear. Though sh. 
 StSfSkh °™ n ™! atedth e rights of individuals, she never at- 
 SSLtaS,° h , tacked tho ^ of large numbers at once, and always 
 ££&. Cpt ° n S ° 0d tems with her Parliaments, by making 
 
 ill w Tf T -1 timCS When a refusal would ha ™ ^used 
 lil-fcehng. But notwithstanding the tact with which her govern- 
 ment was conducted, as the people increased in knowledge and 
 wealth, they grew more and more sensitive to infringements 
 of then- rights, and gave signs that through their representative, 
 the House of Commons, they would soon call upon the crown 
 to resign the powers it had usurped to the great detriment of the 
 suojects liberty. 
 
 br^klw ^^tare should make laws, and the executive 
 
 b wee,, « ' T a SUffiC ' ent CaUSe iD itS6lf t0 P rod «^ a rupture 
 between the two powers. The probability, however, of such a 
 
 uar^ TZ W inCTeaSed * the fect ** a "^ d - -or 
 quarrel existed between the crown and the Parliament-religious 
 
 SSL SdS?. lD f nSknd ' the Eeformatio » had !>»». 
 directed b T f° aouDt > a popular movement, as it had been abroad • 
 u,e E„ g , is „ but it was controlled and directed by a monarchy 
 
 The o™ J" bUt a Part!al apathy ™«i its aims. 
 
 The consequence was an exceeding moderation. The kin* was 
 made head ofthe Church in place of the pope ; the monaster! s 
 were dissolved ; the clergy were allowed to marry ; the doctrine 
 
 efemcnf 2T" ^ " ™ S tk&t ° l a P^ sical ch »S e * the 
 from cl V Jframent; images and crosses were removed 
 
 iZ own f 6 ^ ^ Pe ? P ' e W6re aU ° Wed t0 ^ad the Bible in 
 sZiZl S " e ; f 1 f Dglish Ht " rg y was imposed; and the 
 
 ™£t>TZT%u ds of the Church > said > aS tt ™ re ' t0 «» 
 
 Peope, Thus fax shall ye go, and no farther.' But no sooner 
 " P T eS fiU ' Sbed their WOT k, than a new set of reformers 
 arose, preaching another, fuller, more popular reformation. 
 
 The mam principle of the reformers was to get rid of those 
 
1558-1603.J NO TOLEKATION. 9 
 
 superstitious observances which marred the freedom Popu i ar i 
 of the worshipper's communicating with his Maker ; reformers 
 they did not believe in the necessity of priestly in- popish 
 tervention, nor in the special sanctity of prayers in ceremorues - 
 a foreign tongue. On the continent, this principle had been 
 carried much further than in England ; and when exiles, who 
 had fled the country during the persecutions of Mary's reign, 
 returned home from Flanders, Strasburg, or Geneva, they 
 regarded the English Church as hardly deserving the name 
 of reformed. ' How many signs of Eomish superstition,' they 
 said, ' are left in the prayer-book, and the services ! What 
 abuses yet remain in administration ! Look at the plurality 
 of benefices. How can one man be in a dozen places at a time ? 
 Are the clergy still to flaunt the priestly surplice and gaudy 
 popish vestments, foolish and abominable apparel, in which the 
 Catholic priests pretend to make mere water holy, to achieve 
 a miraculous transformation of bread and wine, or to conjure the 
 devil out of persons and places possessed 1 Is the communion- 
 table not to stand, table-like, in the body of the church, but to 
 be set up in the chancel like the altar of the papists 1 Shall the 
 sign of the cross in baptism, the bowing at the name of Jesus, 
 the ring in marriage, the keeping of saints' days, all these re- 
 mains of popish superstitions, be observed in a church that calls 
 itself reformed ! Surely the snake is only scotched, not killed.' 
 
 Elizabeth, on the contrary, while she regarded the authority of 
 her bishops as a support to the power of the crown, also hoped, by 
 disallowing further change in church ceremonies, to No 
 conciliate Catholics. Her ecclesiastical power was ab- ai!owed°by 
 solute. She, therefore, refused to give the Puritans Elizabeth, 
 satisfaction even in matters of form. If the Puritan minister 
 would officiate at the services of the Church, he must wear vest- 
 ments he abhorred ; if he would baptize a child, he must make 
 the sign of the cross ; if he would join two people in marriage, 
 he must use the ring ; in all points, he must conform exactly to 
 the minutise of the rubric. 
 
 The Act of Supremacy was a double-edged sword, Act of 
 cruel to Puritans and Catholics alike. All clergymen Supremacy, 
 holding benefices, all laymen, holding office in the State, who re- 
 fused to take an oath, when tendered, recognizing the queen as- 
 hsad of the Church, were to be deprived of their benefices or 
 
10 RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES— PRESBYTERIANS. [Elizabeth. 
 
 Actof offices (1558). The Act of Uniformity forbade ministers, 
 
 Uniformity, beneficed or not, to use any other than the established 
 liturgy ; for the first offence, they forfeited all their goods and 
 chattels ; for the second, they suffered a year's imprisonment ; 
 for the third, imprisonment for life ; while fines were imposed 
 upon laymen who stayed away from their parish church on 
 Sundays or holidays (1559). 
 
 But persecution, instead of suppressing the reformers, only in- 
 creased their numbers and animosity. From attacking cere- 
 monies, they went on to attack the authority of the 
 desire^esta- bishops. If the Holy Scriptures, they said, contain all 
 of'presb" 4 things necessary for salvation, then where in them is 
 terian to be found mention of that proud hierarchy of arch- 
 
 bishops, bishops, and priests, by which the English 
 Church is governed ? Turning their eyes towards Scotland, they 
 there saw established a church on a Presbyterian model, go- 
 verned by assemblies of ministers and lay elders on less hierarchi- 
 cal principles than the Episcopal. For this model they claimed 
 the authority of a Divine Eight, as being the original form of 
 church government established by the will of God in the time of 
 the apostles. 
 
 To the queen, this new programme of reform, attacking, as it 
 did, not only episcopal authority, but her own prerogative as 
 head of the Church, was still more distasteful than that which 
 had required merely a reform of ceremonies. 
 
 An established church may be either self -governed or governed 
 Episcopal by the State. The Episcopal Church was a State church in 
 Church the fullest sense of the term ; archbishops and bishops, 
 upon the like ministers of state, were appointed by the sove- 
 state. reign ; no laws to regulate the conduct of the laity in 
 
 spiritual matters could emanate from any source but the queen 
 in Parliament ; and, in fact, there was no spiritual authority dis- 
 Presby- tinct from the State. On the other hand, the Presby- 
 Cilurch in- ter i arL Church prided itself on being self -governed, 
 dependent According to this system, every parish had its minister, 
 
 of State . ° . J ' •-', „ . ,. 
 
 control. its deacon, and its lay elder, together forming a little 
 court of justice, or kirk session, which called parishioners to ac- 
 count for spiritual and moral offences, such as drunkenness, 
 scolding, or Sabbath-breaking ; and punished by censures, fines, 
 or imprisonment. So many parishes formed a presbytery ; so 
 
1558-1603.] DIVINE EIGHT OF KINGS. 11 
 
 many presbyteries formed a province, and both presbytery and 
 province possessed a distinct judicial assembly, composed of lay 
 elders and ministers. Lastly, there was a general assembly of 
 the church, composed of all the ministers of parishes, together 
 with a sprinkling of lay elders, and to this body appeals were 
 made from the judicial decisions of the lesser assemblies. The 
 orders and regulations made by the general assembly of the 
 church were binding upon the whole nation, clergy and laity. 
 This church had been established in Scotland by rebellion, and 
 its ministers did not hesitate to set up their own authority in op- 
 position to that of king and State. " Disregard not our threat- 
 ening," they said to James VI., " for there was never yet one in 
 this realm, in the place where your grace is, who prospered after 
 the ministers began to threaten him." 
 
 Of these two systems, the Episcopal form of church govern- 
 ment, though less popular, was also less tyrannical 
 than the Presbyterian. The powers of English bishops church less 
 were far more limited than those of Scottish assem- t^nThe^ 
 blies. The Church of Scotland, however, which gave Presby- 
 
 terian. 
 
 power to the ministers of the people, instead of to 
 courtly prelates, suited the enthusiasm of the age, and naturally 
 recommended itself to the more earnest reformers on this side 
 the border. Rejoiced to find that Elizabeth regarded the Pres- 
 byterians as rebellious fanatics, the bishops on their side now set 
 up a counter claim of Divine Eight in favour of the Episcopal 
 Church as administered by the queen ; and, in return Bishops 
 for the privilege of fining, imprisoning, and ejecting poJErof 116 
 nonconformists, taught the people that kings rule by the crown. 
 Divine Eight, as the viceregents of God upon earth, and that 
 opposition to the commands of princes is disobedience to the 
 commands of God. 
 
 But Puritan ministers, though deprived of their livings, could 
 not be silenced. They thought the whole state of so- „ . ± 
 
 iruntfiTm 
 
 ciety and religion in England needed to be penetrated cannot be 
 with a new spirit. Themselves eager readers of their su PP ressed - 
 Bibles, zealous preachers, active reformers, filled with true mis- 
 sionary zeal, they found that the court and nobility cared little 
 for serious matters, and that noblemen and gentlemen spent their 
 time in gaming, in dancing, in attending grand shows, or in fight- 
 ing on the continent. They aimed at a social as well as a religious 
 
12 KELIGIOUS DIFFEKENCES— SECTARIANS, [elizabeth. 
 
 reform. Printing had largely increased the numbers of readers and 
 writers, and had at the same time extended the range not only 
 of serious but also of profane literature. It was an age of poets. 
 There were two hundred living in the last part of the century, 
 Spenser and Shakespeare amongst them. The middle classes 
 followed the same kind of amusements as their superiors, fre- 
 quenting the bear-garden, the bowling-green, the gaming-house, 
 and the theatre. The country people had their wakes and fairs 
 and festivals. Amidst so much rioting and pleasuring the 
 Puritans saw few ministers competent to lead the people to more 
 serious paths. The clergy, so far from checking the freedom of 
 society, were as eager in the pursuit of amusement as their 
 parishioners : before the Reformation their incapacity had been 
 the reproach of the Catholic Church ; it was now equally the 
 reproach of the newly established Church. Many Catholics, 
 rather than lose their livings, had taken the oaths required of 
 them — were they reformed 1 While they passed their time in 
 taverns, gaming and drinking, they were not likely to acquire 
 the new art of preaching. " Dumb dogs," said the Puritans, are 
 " left to guard the Church, while we are turned out." In many 
 villages no sermon was heard " from year's end to year's end." 
 Such a church seemed to invite reform ; and the Presbyterians 
 were ready for the task. Persecution not going far enough to 
 extirpate the reformers, only attracted the minds of others to the 
 consideration of the questions in dispute, and discussion led to more 
 advanced views on reform. Episcopacy was generally the religion 
 of the upper classes. Presbyterian opinions prevailed amongst 
 the middle ranks ; and now the very poorest of the 
 nation began also to have their special ideas on reli- 
 gious questions. Men, women, and children, poor people who 
 had nothing to support them but their handicrafts and trades, 
 would in summer-time meet in the fields outside London at five 
 o'clock in the morning, and in winter in private houses, in order 
 to worship after their own fashion. Every congregation, they 
 maintained, however small, ought to be left free to settle its own 
 affairs, without interference from either bishops or assemblies. 
 Amongst these latest reformers were several distinct sects, which, 
 without holding the same doctrines, agreed in their general view 
 of church government ; and being taught by weakness to com- 
 bine together in spite of minor differences of opinion, were the 
 
2558-1603.1 PKOTESTANT EOEEIGN POLICY. 13 
 
 first to raise the flag of ' liberty of conscience.' More cruelty 
 used than Presbyterians, many of these sectarians fled the country 
 for Holland, where they established churches on their own prin- 
 ciples. Those who stayed in England ran the risk of imprison- 
 ment for life. 
 
 In spite, however, of persecution, the reformers were Elizabeth 
 devotedly loyal to the queen. For though, through supports 
 political motives, she persecuted Puritans at home, causes" 
 abroad she supported the Protestants in the fierce contiaent - 
 conflict they were waging with Catholicism. On one side were 
 arrayed the pope, the King of Spain, the Emperor of Austria, 
 the Catholic princes of Germany ; on the other, Sweden, Den- 
 mark, Holland, and the Protestant German princes ; and it was 
 chiefly owing to the support of England that this side was able 
 to maintain its ground against the Catholics. 
 
 The popes had long desired to force back into their fold the 
 country that was thus recognized ?s the head of Protestant 
 States. Pius V. had said he wished he could shed his blood in 
 an expedition against England ; and now Gregory XIII. urged 
 on Philip II. of Spain to attempt the conquest of the heretic 
 kingdom. He could not have found a prince or nation more suited 
 for his purpose. The Spaniards and English hated one another 
 with a national as well as a religious hatred. A love of enter- 
 prize and discovery had spread rapidly amongst all classes during 
 Elizabeth's long reign. Adventurers, led often by noblemen and 
 gentlemen, sailed to America and the West Indies, making fruit- 
 less efforts to discover gold mines, or to found colonies. Enmity 
 On these expeditions they burnt the settlements and spahTand 
 seized the treasure ships of the Spaniards, who, being England, 
 already possessed of Mexico, Peru, and much of the West Indies, 
 regarded themselves as sole lords of the New World, and were 
 quite prepared for a war to the knife with the intruders. 
 
 It was thus to fight the battle at once of the pope and of the 
 nation that the Invincible Armada sailed from Spain. It sailed 
 to take vengeance on a heretic queen, who, while supporting the 
 Dutch in rebellion, disputed the claims of Philip to the possession 
 of two continents. It came threatening England with conquest 
 and Protestantism with destruction. But storms and winds and 
 the courage of English seamen shattered and destroyed the 
 Armada (1588). The triumph of England was the salvation of 
 
14 JAMES I.— ACCESSION. [james I. 
 
 the Protestant cause. The invaded now becoming the invaders, 
 burned Spanish galleons in the very harbours of Spain. 
 
 "With the people success will go far to justify even a 
 poUcy a ' tyrannical government. Hence it was that, although 
 ofEiiza" Se storms were rising, and the political atmosphere was 
 beth's po- charged with electricity, no violent contention ever 
 
 Dul&ritv 
 
 arose between Elizabeth and her subjects. The oc- 
 casional illegal acts committed by her government, the cruel 
 sentences passed upon Puritans by the courts of High Commis- 
 sion and Star Chamber, were forgiven because she pursued a 
 foreign policy that accorded with the wishes of the nation, and 
 caused England to be feared and respected. The bonds of loyalty 
 seemed strong because they had not been tried too severely. It 
 is a principle in mechanics that girders should not be strained 
 beyond the limits of perfect recovery. An excessive tension may 
 not only cause danger for the moment, but may be a source of 
 permanent weakness. Such a tension came when the nation was 
 ruled by monarchs who had neither the capacity to lead their 
 Parliaments nor the temper to follow them. 
 
 James I ^ u *^ e death of Elizabeth the great Tudor line was 
 
 ins charac- extinct.* James VI. of Scotland, who outwardly united 
 the two kingdoms, failed to unite his subjects to him- 
 self. He was thought cowardly, conceited, pretentious. It was 
 believed that flattery was the readiest road to his favour ; he 
 certainly suffered himself to fall under the control of unworthy 
 favourites, so that his court received the character of being the 
 head-quarters of riot and vice, if not of far darker crimes. 
 * Henry VII., 1492- -1509. 
 
 Henry VIII., 1509—1548. Margaret= James IV. of Scotland. 
 
 Edward VI. Mary. Elizabeth. James V. of Scotland. 
 
 1548—1553. 1553— i558. 1558—1603. | 
 
 Mary, Queen= Lord 
 of Scots. I Darnley, 
 — ■ ' H. Stuart. 
 
 James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, 1603—1625. 
 
 Charles I., 1625—1649. Elizabeth=Frederick. 
 
 I I 
 
 Charles II. Mary. James II. Chaa Lcuis. Kupert. . Sophia. 
 
1603-1625.] AEBITKAEY GOVERNMENT. 15 
 
 The members of the Commons refused to grant the money of 
 the nation to be lavished on such favourites or wasted in such 
 riot. James, therefore, did not trouble himself with often meet- 
 ing the representatives of the peop'e. Holding the theory that 
 he was possessed of absolute power, he ventured to try to carry that 
 theory into practice. A few instances will show the manner in 
 which the liberties of the subject were violated by his government. 
 
 His first Parliament granted him for life duties on exports and 
 imports, called tonnage and poundage (1604). These Jamegim . 
 duties were fixed at a certain rate ; for instance, there poses nie- 
 was a duty of 2s. 6d. on every hundred-weight of ga 
 currants imported into the country. James, of his sole authority, 
 trebled this duty, and afterwards, without asking the consent of 
 Parliament, imposed heavy taxes upon almost all merchandise. In 
 principle there is no distinction between the illegal levying of 
 a direct or an indirect tax. The ignorant, however, are much 
 more struck by that which comes plainly before them. Hence, 
 had James attempted to raise a direct tax, such as the subsidies 
 granted in Parliament, which were levied on land and articles of 
 personal property, he would have aroused far more indignation 
 than he did by the imposition of illegal customs. The subsidy 
 must have been paid directly into the hands of the tax-gatherer, 
 whereas the illegal duties were paid in the first instance by the 
 merchants, and the fact that these merchants repaid themselves 
 out of the profits of the consumer by raising prices, was not 
 obvious to the vulgar. The people, however, really suffered in 
 purse as well as in right, and Parliament would have been 
 wanting in its duty, if it had not protested against this inter- 
 ference with the property of the subject. 
 
 The person of the subject was no safer than his property. 
 
 It is contrary to the common law of England to force any 
 man to criminate himself. The Courts of High Commission 
 and Star Chamber, however, did not follow the procedure of the 
 common law courts, and were in the habit of tendering the 
 prisoner an oath, technically called the oath ex officio, to answer 
 truly all questions put to him. Two Puritans, for refusing to 
 take this oath, were imprisoned by the Court of High Commission. 
 The common law allowed every man committed to illegal com- 
 prison upon a criminal charge, to apply to the court of mit ments. 
 King's Bench for a so-called writ of habeas corpus, directing the- 
 
16 HIGH COMMISSION— FULLER'S CASE. [james i, 
 
 gaoler to produce his prisoner and the warrant upon which he 
 was committed, before the court on a stated day.* The judge, 
 upon view of the warrant, discharged the prisoner, released him 
 on bail, or sent him back to prison to await his trial, according 
 as the charge against him was no offence in the eye of the law, 
 or a bailable offence, or one for which no bail could be received. 
 
 The two Puritans in question were brought before the judges 
 of the King's Bench on a writ of habeas corpus. Fuller, their 
 Arbitrary counsel, argued that they ought to be released, because 
 procedure the High Commissioners had not been empowered by 
 Higii Com- law to imprison, or fine, or administer the oath ex 
 mission. officio. This argument struck at the root of the au- 
 thority of the High Commission, and Fuller was himself sum- 
 moned before the court, on the ground that he had slandered 
 the king's authority. He refused, like his clients, to take the 
 oath, " to answer truly all questions put to him," and applied to 
 the Court of King's Bench for a prohibition to stay the proceed- 
 ings. It was by means of such prohibitions that the common 
 law courts were accustomed to prevent the ecclesiastical courts 
 from meddling with cases which properly came under the cogni- 
 zance of the common law. The judges sent the prohibition, but 
 s.t the same time signified that they should not interfere, if the 
 High Commissioners charged the prisoner with heresy and 
 schism. The Puritan advocate was accordingly convicted of 
 heresy, fined £200, and committed to prison. The common law 
 judges would not interfere in his favour, though he appealed 
 again to them, and he seems, eventually, to have regained his 
 liberty only by submitting, and paying the fine.f 
 
 The Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission, however 
 illegally their jurisdiction was acquired and conducted, at least 
 brought definite charges against the accused, and allowed him a 
 
 * Habeas corpus ad subjiciendum are the first words of the writ to the 
 gaoler, meaning that he is to have the person (of the prisoner) to produce 
 before the court (so habeas corpus ad testificandum are the first words of a 
 writ for producing a prisoner to give evidence). The writ was anciently 
 called corpus cum causa, because it required the return of the cause of de- 
 tention, as well as of the body imprisoned. The principle of the writ was 
 contained in the Magna Charta of King John, which enacted that "no 
 freeman should be imprisoned but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the 
 law of the land." It was used between subject and subject in the time of 
 Henry VI., and against the crown in that of Henry VII., so that it was 
 fully recognized as law long before the re-enactments in the reign of 
 Charles I., and the Habeas Corpus Act of Charles II., 1679. 
 
 t Gardiner, Hist, of Eng. (1603—1616), i. 445. 
 
1611.] ARABELLA STUAKT. 17 
 
 form of trial. The King's Council went even further than 
 this, and constantly committed political opponents of Arbitrary 
 the government, without bringing any charge against King's 0t - 
 them, or allowing them the benefit of a trial. The Council, 
 imprisonment extended from weeks, or months, to years, and the 
 writ of habeas corjms, which ought to have protected any subject 
 from such an outrage, was rarely obtainable. In the case of 
 Arabella Stuart, the causeless displeasure of the king formed the 
 ground of a life-long imprisonment. This lady, who was first 
 cousin to James, married, through pure affection, a distant rela- 
 tion, William Seymour, a descendant of Mary, the youngest 
 daughter of Henry VII. James, jealous of the union Case of 
 of two relations, both of whom had a distant claim to Jjabeiia 
 the crown, confined Seymour in the Tower, and placed Stuart. 
 Arabella in confinement at Lambeth. Both made their escape, 
 with the intention of meeting at Leigh, near Blackwall, on 
 board a French vessel, which was engaged to carry them across 
 the Channel. Arabella arrived before her husband, and, in spite 
 of her entreaties, her attendants, in fear of pursuit, forced the 
 captain to sail. Seymour, on his arrival, finding the French 
 vessel gone, hired a collier, and was landed in safety at Ostend. 
 Arabella was not so fortunate. When Within sight of Calais, a 
 vessel, sent from Dover in pursuit, overtook the fugitive, and 
 carried her back to England. On her arrival, she was immedi- 
 ately committed to the Tower, whence she wrote to the two 
 chief justices, imploring them to secure her a trial by the usual 
 writ of habeas corpus : " And if your lordships may not, or will 
 not, grant unto me the ordinary relief of a distressed subject, 
 then, I beseech you, become humble intercessors to his Majesty, 
 that I may receive such benefit of justice as both his Majesty by 
 his oath hath promised, and the laws of this realm afford to all 
 others, those of his blood not excepted. And though, unfortunate 
 woman ! I can obtain neither, yet, I beseech your lordships, re- 
 tain me in your good opinion, and judge charitably, till I be 
 proved to have committed any offence, either against God or his 
 Majesty, deserving so long restraint or separation from my lawful 
 husband.''" Arabella's just demand remained ungranted. Her 
 marriage was no crime at law, and had she been brought before 
 the judges, they could hardly have done less than order her re- 
 lease. The idea of attempting to change the succession would 
 
 2 
 
18 A PIEATE CASE. [james i. 
 
 have been ludicrous, if true, but there was no ground for suspicion 
 of political motive in the marriage to give a shadow of excuse for 
 her restraint. Separated from her husband, and broken-hearted,. 
 Arabella lost her reason, and, after some four years of confine- 
 ment, at last died in the Tower. 
 
 The Countess of Shrewsbury, Arabella's aunt, was brought up 
 before the council, on the charge of being an accomplice in her 
 niece's escape. Kef using to implicate herself, by answering- 
 in any way to a charge so unknown to the law, she bravely re- 
 plied, that, if the council had a charge against her, she would be 
 ready to answer before her peers. Such an appeal to the hated 
 liberties of the subject was not suffered to pass unpunished, and 
 for several years her name appears in the list of unhappy in- 
 mates of the Tower. 
 
 It was not only the king's animosity which was to be dreaded, 
 but the greed of the court. The interests of the nation were bought 
 and sold by courtiers and ministers. Several of James' council 
 were in receipt of salaries from the King of Spain. Others were 
 in a nefarious league with the pirates who then preyed on our 
 shipping. The story of Sir John Eliot and Captain Nutt sheds a 
 flood of light on various judicial and executive anomalies of the 
 reign. In 1623 Eliot was Vice-admiral of Devon. Amongst 
 his duties were those of boarding pirate vessels, and deciding 
 upon the lawfulness of prizes. Captain Nutt, an English pirate, 
 who, at the head of several ships, had for three years past ranged 
 the seas between the coasts of England and America, was noto- 
 rious alike for audacity and cruelty. Sailing to Torbay and 
 landing in force whenever he came ashore, he dared the vice- 
 admiral to seize him, and boasted of the pardons he had already 
 obtained. Armed with a copy of one of these pardons, con- 
 ditional on the captain's surrendering himself within a cer- 
 tain time, Eliot risked his life and went on board the pirate 
 vessel. There was little doubt that the time within which 
 the pardon was valid was already past, but Nutt, acting probably 
 on the supposition that Eliot could only be influenced by merce- 
 nary motives, agreed to surrender himself, and to pay a fine of 
 £500, together with six packs of calves' skins. If the pardon 
 were good, the fine would be shared between the vice-admiral,. 
 Eliot, and the lord-admiral, Buckingham. Directly the man was- 
 ashore, Eliot placed him under arrest, and then wrote an account 
 
J033.J IMPEISONMENT OF ELIOT. 19 
 
 of the whole transaction to the council. He took occasion to 
 point out how the pirate, even while treating, had audaciously- 
 seized a Colchester brig, laden with woods and sugar to the value 
 of some £4000, but left the question of the validity of the pardon 
 entirely to their lordships' decision. The first result of this was, 
 that Eliot received a letter from Conway, the under-secretary of 
 state, highly commending him for his good service, and intimat- 
 ing that he should before long receive the honour of kissing the 
 king's hand. "Within a few days Eliot repaired to London, not, 
 however, to kiss the king's hand, but to become a prisoner in the 
 Marshalsea, and answer in the Court of Admiralty charges pre- 
 ferred against him by the Council Board. The pirate, Nutt, 
 to give his court friends an excuse for shielding him, had the 
 audacity to come forward as the accuser of his captor, alleging 
 that Eliot, both by letter and message, had urged him to sail 
 to Dartmouth and make prizes of divers ships that were there, 
 laden with goods and money out of Spain ; and that it was 
 not until thus encouraged that he had ventured on seizing the 
 Colchester brig. The letter Nutt was unable to produce ; the 
 charges were denied both by Eliot and his officers. The judge of 
 the Admiralty, in his reports to the council, did not venture to 
 express an opinion in regard to Eliot, but pointed out how the 
 lord-admiral's interests might be neglected, if the vice-admiral 
 were kept long absent from his post in Devon. But while Buck- 
 ingham at the time was in Spain, Eliot's enemy, and Nutt'a 
 friend, Sir John Calvert, the principal secretary of state, was in 
 England. It was through his influence that the council had pro- 
 ceeded against Eliot. The pirate had rendered him some service 
 in the establishment of a colony in Newfoundland, and if his 
 word may be believed, this was his sole motive for seeking to 
 blacken the character of the vice-admiral, and obtain a pardon 
 from the king for that "unlucky fellow, Captain Nutt." It 
 was no wonder Eliot felt angry and used stronger language in 
 writing to Secretary Conway than he usually employed. " I can- 
 not so much yet undervalue my integrity, to doubt that the words 
 of a malicious assassin, now standing for his life, shall have repu- 
 tation equal to the credit of a gentleman." Nutt, however, by 
 means of his powerful friend, obtained his pardon and, in addi- 
 tion, a gra.ot of .£100 out of the ship and goods seized at Torbay. 
 The duration of Eliot's imprisonment is uncertain ; probably he 
 
 2—2 
 
20 PERSECUTION OF PURITANS. [jambs i. 
 
 remained in the Marshalsea until the following October, at which 
 time Charles and Buckingham returned from Spain. In the 
 following month he was canvassing for a seat in the last of James ; 
 parliaments.* 
 
 While person and property were thus dealt with, it was 
 hardly likely that there should "be any recognition of the later 
 rights of freedom of speech and freedom of thought. Presby- 
 terians and sectarians were forced to fly the country, in order to 
 Puritans escape imprisonment. Puritan preachers were ejected 
 persecuted. f rom their livings. Puritan writers were prosecuted 
 in the Star Chamber. James himself made a jest of the fines 
 inflicted on them ; — " it were no reason that those that will refuse 
 the airy sign of the cross after baptism should have their purses 
 stuffed with any more solid and substantial crosses."f But 
 persecution that does not go far enough to extirpate its victims 
 defeats its own ends. Sympathy was felt for the Puritans, their 
 opinions spread, and the division between the two parties grew 
 wider and wider. Clergymen who found favour at court adopted 
 doctrines approaching to those of Eome, and supported the power 
 of the crown by teaching the duty of passive obedience, and the 
 doctrine of the Divine Eight of kings. Clergymen who found 
 favour with the people taught that in the plain words of Scripture 
 is to be found all that the Christian needs for his guidance ; 
 and denounced to their hearers, as sinful and displeasing to God, 
 popish ceremonies and doctrines, and the worldly court-life, with 
 its drinking, swearing, acting, fine dressing, and dancing. 
 
 Thus, at the end of James' reign, men of very various opinions 
 were all alike designated Puritans. There was the sectarian, 
 who desired that each separate congregation should be allowed 
 its own special form of worship ; the Presbyterian, who desired 
 to see a church similar to that of Scotland established in 
 England ; the churchman, who objected to popish 
 Puritan ceremonies and doctrines ; the patriot, who, from op- 
 men g of ateS posing tyranny in the State, came to mistrust a church 
 that taught the duty of passive obedience to kings' 
 commands ; and, lastly, the earnest man, who, by 
 merely leading, in his own person, a pure life, seemed to reprove 
 
 * Forster : Life of Sir J. Eliot, i. 2. 
 
 + Ellis Orig. Letters, iii. 450: Coins were called crosses from the stamp of 
 the cross on the reverse, as sovereigns from the king's head on the obverse. 
 
 various 
 opinions 
 
1619.] 
 
 THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 21 
 
 the manners of the court ; all these became alike objects of the 
 scoffs and jeers of the king's friends, and were classed together 
 as factious hjqwcrites and Puritans. 
 
 But neither James' pretensions to absolute power, nor his ac- 
 tual infringement of the constitution, nor the persecution of 
 Puritans, nor the vices of his court, did so much to alienate the 
 affection of his subjects, as did the conduct of his foreign policy. 
 The Thirty Years' War had now begun. Matthias, JaTnes > f _ 
 Emperor of Germany, ruler of Austria, Hungary, and rei s n P° lic y 
 Bohemia, was childless. To secure the succession, he division be- 
 caused his cousin Ferdinand, archduke of Styria, to be s^and'hTs 
 crowned as next king of his great kingdoms of Bohemia subjects. 
 and Hungary.* This prince had been brought up by the Jesuits, 
 and was so ardent a Catholic that he said he would sooner beg 
 his bread from door to door, than that the Catholic Church 
 should suffer injury. He had long since driven the Protestants 
 out of his own duchy of Styria. Sooner than accept such a 
 fanatic as their king, the Bohemians, of whom the majority were 
 Protestants, rose in rebellion, and offered the crown to one of 
 their own persuasion, Frederick, prince of the Palatinate,f who 
 
 Ferdinand=Isabella 
 
 of 
 
 Spain. 
 
 Maximilian I., Em- 
 peror of Germany, 
 Archduke of Austria. 
 I 
 
 Joanna =Philip the Eair. 
 
 Kings of 
 
 Milan, 
 
 and Nether- 
 
 Spain, 
 
 Naples, 
 
 lands. 
 
 Archdukes of Austria, 
 Kings of Bohemia, Hun- 
 gary, and Emperors of 
 Germany. 
 
 CnARLES V., Emperor of 
 Germany, 1519 — 1556. 
 
 Philip II. , 
 1555— 159S. 
 
 Philip III., 
 1598—1621. 
 
 Philip IV., 
 1621—1667. 
 f Ti 
 
 Ferdinand I. (emperor 
 after resignation of 
 his brother Charles V.), 
 1556—1561. 
 
 Charles, Archduke 
 of Styria. 
 
 Maximilian II., 
 1564—1574. 
 I 
 
 Rodolph II., Matthias, Ferdinand II. 
 1574—1612. 1612—1619. 1619—1637. ' 
 
 Count Palatine represented, in theory, the king or emperor aa 
 
22 THIRTY YEARS' WAR. [james z. 
 
 accepted the dangerous gift, and was crowned King of Bohemia 
 (August, 1619). 
 
 Thirty This was the origin of the great religious struggle 
 
 Years'War. "between Catholics and Protestants, which is called the 
 Thirty Years' War. Frederick, the Protestant champion, had for 
 his enemies, Ferdinand, elected Emperor of Germany on the 
 death of Matthias (1619) ; the Catholic princes of the German 
 empire ; and Philip III. of Spain. 
 
 The Austrian Emperors of Germany, and the Kings of Spain, 
 Milan, and the Netherlands, being near relations, always acted in 
 one another's interests. Jealousy of the united power of Spain and 
 Austria inclined France to prefer political to religious considera- 
 tions, so that it usually supported the Protestant princes in with- 
 standing the encroachments of the emperors ; but it was useless 
 at the present time for Frederick to look for help to a country 
 torn by civil dissensions, and governed by a minor. 
 
 From James, his Protestant father-in-law, whose daughter, 
 Elizabeth, he had married amidst the rejoicings of the English 
 (1G13), as well as from his fellow Protestant princes of the em- 
 pire, he might, not without reason, hope for support, in a war 
 nominally undertaken in the interests of the Protestant cause. 
 
 James, however, hating war, had made peace, on his accession, 
 with the old Catholic enemy, Spain, and declared his intention 
 to the French ambassador, of " avoiding war as his own damna- 
 tion." But, on the breaking out of the Thirty Years' War, the 
 king found himself placed in a dilemma. For he must either 
 give up his theory of non-intervention, or suffer England to fall 
 from the proud position to which Elizabeth had raised her, as 
 head of the Protestant States. Even now, when we recognize 
 the full evil of war, it seems hardly generous in those themselves 
 possessed of liberty to refuse assistance to a free people maintain- 
 ing their freedom against foreign armies. To English Pro- 
 testants, in whose minds the remembrance of the Armada was 
 still fresh, it seemed at once both base and foolish to look on 
 
 judge in his own palace. Barons, especially those of frontier provinces, had 
 similar royal judicial privileges delegated to them. Such provinces were 
 called palatine. In Germany there was an upper and lower Palatinate; the 
 lower Palatinate comprised the upper part of the rich Rhine valley, with 
 Heidelberg for its capital, and conferred a vote at the election of the emperors 
 of Germany. 
 
1620.] WAVEKING FOREIGN POLICY. 
 
 • , • j-ff „„ while a Protestant people were deprived of 
 vf t^rscenTe ty aLies composed of foreigners and 
 Sic T—t Europe was one country and a blow 
 *uck atone Protestant State was regarded as a blow struck at 
 
 piace, ue uc negotiating for assist his 
 
 interests of a match that he naa oeen e * B(m -in-la W . 
 
 SSrtMS ESS wZr d^t e^ny looked 
 
 wfflof his subjected Infer ouroi The Bohemian 
 
 urged, ^^^S^,^. and lawless, 
 nobles, ^eauthors^hereb^^^ ^^ rf a 
 
 SS^entg^eimperial^er^^ch^some 
 took part in the ^strugg , Frederick was de f e ated and driven 
 
 i %tirm,nra 2 cti'cable for England to maintain a large army in 
 thStole and even the Attempt would have required sup- 
 pL for trt than the country was disposed to grant James 
 wis aware of these facts, and therefore the slower to enter upon 
 ZtS It must be 'allowed that the Commons acted unrea- 
 
24 FOREIGN POLICY. 
 
 [ JAMES I. 
 
 Commons sonably. The country gentlemen, who came up to 
 KLto Westminster once in five or six years, were not en- 
 TintS Ilghtened h ? newspapers, and had no means of ac- 
 poUcy! but q^amting themselves with the intricate course of f oreio- n 
 slow to politics, or of forming any correct estimate of the V vo- 
 liecessary bable cost of a war. Now, while knowledge of their 
 own incapacity prevented them from pretending to 
 direct operations, their Protestant zeal caused them to press 
 James to assist his son-in-law, and their ignorance to suppose 
 that this could be done at comparatively a small expense to the 
 country. Elizabeth had always had the skill so to direct the 
 blow that it should inflict the greatest injury to her adversary at 
 the least possible cost to herself. She would have seen that the 
 sea was England's field of fame, and would never have marched 
 an army to Heidelberg. Had she still sat on the throne, perhaps 
 a dash upon some Spanish port might have rendered the Pro- 
 testants a material assistance, by drawing Philip's armies oft 
 from Germany. But her foreign policy, when not marred by 
 misplaced parsimony or favouritism, had been marked by her 
 exceptional genius, and it was unreasonable to expect her com- 
 monplace successor to strike out a line of action at once spirited, 
 effective, and economical. It was probably fortunate for Ens- 
 gland that he never heartily made the attempt. 
 
 The Parliament was asked for money sufficient to maintain for 
 the winter some regiments of English volunteers, engaged in 
 defending Heidelberg, the capital of the Palatinate. But the 
 Commons, before voting money, desired to see the king commit 
 C et7tii 0ns nims ? lf to a decidecl policy, and prepared a petition, 
 SSmesto be gg in g nim to marry his son to a Protestant princess 
 many his and to make war on Spain. James, hearing before-' 
 Protestant hand of the contents of the petition, wrote a letter, 
 pnncess. forbidding the House to meddle with his son's match ; 
 and adding, as a warning to those who should disregard the 
 royal command, that, « as for liberty of speech, he was free to 
 punish any man's misdemeanours in Parliament, both durino- 
 and after their sitting." In meddling with matters of peace and 
 war, the Commons were not so sure of their ground, but liberty 
 of speech* they regarded as a precious inheritance from their 
 
 In™ J v ; en , in , Edward the Third's time, the Commons seem to have been al- 
 lowed to debate on many things concerning the king's prerogative ; and 
 
1621.] PARLIAMENT OVERRIDDEN. 25 
 
 earliest ancestors. A second petition was at once prepared, beg- 
 ging his Majesty, "such a wise and just king, to recognise liberty 
 of speech, their ancient and undoubted right." James replied 
 by saying " he would not infringe their privileges, only he did 
 not like their style of speaking — how could any privileges be 
 their undoubted right and inheritance, when these were all de- 
 rived from the grace and permission of his ancestors and himself V 
 
 The Commons, too wise to let such doctrine as this pass un- 
 challenged, entered a protest in their journals (18 Dec, 1621)$ 
 to the effect that, ' Their liberties and privileges commons 
 were the undoubted birthright of the subjects of enter in 
 England ; the State, the defence of the realm, the journals 
 Church, the laws and grievances were proper matters f theft 101 * 
 for them to debate ; members have liberty of speech, privileges, 
 and freedom from all imprisonment for speaking on any matters 
 touching Parliament business.' James, in the full assembly of 
 his council, and in presence of the judges, caused the journal- 
 book to be brought before him, and, with his own hand, erased 
 this protestation, declaring it to be invalid, void, and of none 
 effect. 
 
 The dissatisfaction of the nation at the king, and his Spanish 
 Catholic match, was greatly increased after the dissolution of 
 this Parliament (6 Jan., 1622). Abroad, the Pro- p r otestants 
 testants were being defeated, persecuted, crushed. def eated. 
 Frederick was driven, not only out of Bohemia, but out of 
 
 Henry IV. promised to take no notice of any reports made to him of their 
 proceedings before such matters were brought before him by the advice and 
 assent of all the Commons. A Parliament, or "speaking-house," would be 
 a poor guardian of liberties without itself having liberty of utterance. The 
 principle was well stated nearly half a century after this (1667) : " No man 
 can doubt but whatever is once enacted is lawful ; but nothing can come in- 
 to an Act of Parliament but it must be first affirmed or propounded by some- 
 body; so that if the Act can wrong nobody, no more can the first propound- 
 ing. The members must be as free as the Houses ; an Act of Parliament 
 cannot disturb the State; therefore the debate that tends to it cannot ; for 
 it must be propounded and debated before it can be enacted." — May ! 3 
 Pari. Practice, 102. 
 
 Besides freedom of speech on subjects of Parliamentary debate, the prin- 
 cipal privileges of Parliament were : 
 
 The right of both Houses of judging and punishing their own member* 
 for any misdemeanour committed in Parliament. 
 
 The right of the Commons of determining any disputed election. 
 
 The right of members of both Houses to enjoy freedom from arrest, andi 
 exemption from all legal process, while Parliament was sitting, except oa 
 eharges of treason, felony, -and breach of the peace. 
 
26 TOM TELL-TRUTH. [james I. 
 
 his hereditary dominions, the Palatinate, and forced, with his 
 family, to take refuge in Holland, and live on the alms of the 
 Prince of Orange. Protestants were banished from Austria 
 Proper. In Bohemia, the Protestant faith and civil liberty dis- 
 appeared together. In the Palatinate, the Protestant worship 
 was suppressed. In France, the government was in arms 
 against the Huguenots, and succeeded in wresting one strong- 
 hold from them after another. Spain seized the hopeful oppor- 
 tunity to renew the war with Holland. 
 
 The Puritan pulpits " rang against the Spanish rnar- 
 marriage riage." In vain James told the bishops to prevent the 
 written c l ei & v fr° m preaching on such topics ; in vain he issued 
 preached proclamations, forbidding the people to talk ; their 
 voices could no more be restrained than a " mountain 
 torrent." Pamphlets were written and published which risked 
 the ears, if not the lives of their authors. Most malignant of all, 
 Tom Tell- " Tom Tell-Truth " attacked the king and his govern- 
 Truth. ment on every side. 
 
 " I, a poor unknown subject," says the pamphleteer, " who hear the people 
 talk, will undertake that discontinued but noble office of telling your Majesty 
 the truth. Some there are that find fault with your government, even to 
 wishing Elizabeth were alive again, for we have lost by change of sex. Great 
 Britain, say they, is a great deal less than little England was wont to be. The 
 excess of peace hath long since turned virtue into vice, and health into sick- 
 ness. 
 
 " The Spaniards and the Duke of Bavaria play with your Majesty as men 
 do with little children, at handy-dandy, which hand will you have ? and give 
 them nothing. The very losers at cards fall a cursing and swearing at the 
 loss of the Palatinate ; and, when told of your Majesty's proclamation not to 
 talk about State affairs, answer in a chafe, ' You must give losers leave to 
 speak.' 
 
 " You sent my Lord of Doncaster into France to mediate peace. It would 
 have been better had the money spent on that embassage been given to the 
 poor Huguenots ; they may well call England the ' Land of Promise.' The 
 princes that serve the Pope send arms ; you — that should fight the battles 
 ■of the Lord — ambassadors. 
 
 " No need for your Majesty to fear the Puritan religion ; if a king will 
 be absolute and dissolute, it is a wonder he will suffer any other ; for it may 
 be observed in some parts of Christendom* that let a king ruling over a Pro- 
 testant people be never so wicked in his person, nor so enormous in his 
 government, let him stamp vice with his example, let him remove the ancient 
 bounds of sovereignty, and make every day new yokes and new scourges for 
 * I.e., in England, 
 
1623.] BEEACH WITH SPAIN. 27 
 
 his poor people, let liim take rewards and punishments out of the hand of 
 justice, and distribute them without regard to right or wrong ; in short, let 
 him so excel in mischief, ruin, and oppression, as Nero compared with him 
 may be held a very father of the people. Yet, when he hath done all that 
 can be imagined to procure hate and contempt, he may go boldly in and out 
 to his sports, clothed in his quilted garments, stiletto-proof, he shall not 
 need to take either the less drink when he goes to bed, or the more thought 
 when he riseth. 
 
 " His minions, a pack of ravenous curs, think all other subjects beasts, 
 and only made for them to prey upon ; they may revel and laugh, when all 
 the kingdom mourns. His poor Protestant subjects shall only think he is 
 given them of God for the punishment of their sins, for the preachers shall 
 praise him and make the pulpit a stage of flattery, He ought to be obeyed, 
 not because he is good but because he is their king. The subject is tied to 
 such wonderful patience and obedience as doth almost verify that bold speech 
 of Machiavel, when he said, ' Christianity made men cowards.' "* 
 
 James, after quarrelling with his Parliament, eagerly S ha ^ and 
 renewed the Marriage Treaty with Spain. He hankered ham go to 
 more than ever after the Infanta's dower, and hoped, pa,m ' 
 by means of Philip's interest with the Emperor, to secure the 
 restoration of the Palatinate to Frederick. The Spaniards, on 
 their side, were ready for a treaty which would secure them from 
 a war with England while fighting in Germany. Following the 
 suggestion of the Spanish ambassador, Charles undertook a secret 
 journey to Spain, intending to conclude the treaty in person, and 
 return home with his bride by his side (Feb., 1623). He was ac- 
 companied only by his father's favourite, George Villiers, Marquis 
 (afterwards Duke) of Buckingham. 
 
 Philip IV. took advantage of this foolish act to raise his de- 
 mands, and obtained the consent of both James and Charles to 
 secret articles, in which they engaged never to put the laws 
 against Catholics into force, and to obtain the consent of Parlia- 
 ment to their repeal within three years. The promise was worth- 
 less ; for James well knew the Parliament would never consent. 
 
 Wearied by the delays caused by the Spaniards, . 
 
 Charles returned home (Oct., 1623) before the time Treaty with 
 agreed on for the performance of the marriage cere- tenon?™" 
 mony, and afterwards wrote to the Earl of Bristol, with 
 whom he had left his proxy, that there was to be neither mar- 
 riage nor friendship, unless Philip consented to restore the Pala- 
 tinate to Frederick by force of arms. This demand broke off the 
 * Somers' Tracts, II. 487—9. 
 
28 DEATH OF JAMES. [1625. 
 
 treaty ; for whatever delusive hopes Philip had held out to 
 James, he had never undertaken to do more than endeavour, by 
 his interest with the Emperor, to effect a peace favourable to 
 Frederick. " We have a maxim of State," said a Spanish minis- 
 ter, for once speaking the truth, "that the King of Spain must 
 never fight the Emperor." 
 
 Money Buckingham, who had quarrelled with the Spaniards, 
 
 voted by was now eager for war. James found his favourite 
 
 Parliament . . ... 
 
 to carry on would leave him no peace till he summoned a Parlia- 
 Spain* 1 1 nient, which he did sorely against his will, and then 
 Buckingham, with Charles by his side to confirm his 
 story, gave the two Houses a false account of what had taken 
 place in Spain, declaring that the Spaniards broke off the match 
 because the prince would not become a Catholic. James' court 
 was not a good school for training a young prince in the duties of 
 veracity ; and it was certainly unfortunate for Charles' character 
 that the circumstance of his first introduction to Parliament 
 should have been of so ambiguous a nature. However, the story 
 thus supported was believed for the time, and the question of 
 peace and war with Spain being submitted to the Commons' con- 
 sideration, they voted a subsidy of £300,000 to defend the coasts 
 and help Holland. The same year four regiments crossed the 
 Channel to assist the Dutch in fighting the Spaniards in the 
 Netherlands (1624). 
 -. u While the nation desired a Protestant alliance, the 
 
 l'rencn , 
 
 Marriage king only thought of a dowry. James now proposed to 
 Treaty. marry his son to another Catholic princess, Henrietta, 
 sister of Louis XIII., King of France. He died, however, before 
 the marriage took place, after a reign of twenty-three years 
 (25th March, 1625). Though a French marriage was hailed as a 
 deliverance after the Spanish project, yet the history of the next 
 twenty years will perhaps seem to justify the Commons' antipathy 
 to any Catholic marriage. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHARLES' FIRST PARLIAMENTS.— IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKING- 
 HAM.— PETITION OF RIGHT.— (1625-1629). 
 
 How shall we do for money for these wars ? 
 
 Richakd II. 
 
 Little was known of the new king, who was only twenty-four 
 years old when he came to the throne, and had seldom appeared 
 in public. His manners were grave and cold ; he loved order 
 and propriety. " I will have no drunkards in my bedchamber," 
 he said, and turned out of office one of Buckingham's own bro- 
 thers. The courtiers followed the lead of their master, and led 
 outwardly decorous lives.* 
 
 But all hopes that were entertained or good agreement Certainty 
 between king and people were doomed to a speedy end. jJgJSJ* 
 Charles, who from his earliest years had heard taught King and 
 at his father's court the doctrine of the Divine Bight ar iamen 
 of kings, regarded it as the duty of Parliament submissively 
 to vote supplies and carry out the wishes of the monarch, 
 without questioning his government or bargaining for redress 
 of grievances. His subjects, on the other hand, still smart- 
 ing at James' disregard of the laws of the land and the pri- 
 vilege of Parliament, were determined to make the new king ac- 
 knowledge the limits which the laws set to the prerogative of 
 the Crown. 
 
 An immediate cause of quarrel between Charles and the 
 nation lay in the ascendancy of Buckingham, whose popularity 
 had faded almost as soon as born. For if he had broken off the 
 Spanish match on the grounds alleged by himself, be had since 
 brought about the king's marriage with another Catholic, Henri- 
 etta Maria, sister of Louis XIII. It is rare for a favourite to 
 
 * Birch, I. 12 ;— Hutch. Mem. 
 
30 TONNAGE AND POUNDAGE. [1 pael. 
 
 remain supreme during the life of one master ; still more rare for 
 Bucking- him to gain the affection of a second. Disappointment 
 his m C narac- *kat Buckingham had not been ruined on the death of 
 ter. James now intensified the hatred felt by all classes to- 
 
 wards him. Almost every officer employed by the Government 
 was his creature, and at his command. " He on whom the duke 
 smiled, was advanced; he on whom he frowned, cast down."* 
 The highest nobles in the land found that, to stand well in the eyes 
 of the king, they must court the favour of this haughty minion 
 — this upstart country squire. Buckingham himself was ill-fitted 
 to exercise power. Handsome, of fascinating manners, courageous 
 and not implacable, he was yet vain withal, insolent, reckless, no 
 genius, and utterly selfish ; a man who would embroil his country 
 in war to salve a wound of vanity, and then, after pledging his 
 country's word, break it again to satisfy a change of whim. 
 Such was the adviser with whom Charles met his first Parlia- 
 ment — a Parliament he soon summoned, as he was preparing a 
 fleet for an expedition carefully kept secret from the country, and 
 found himself in urgent need of money to fit this out. (18th June.) 
 chul , A dreadful plague was raging in London, of which 
 
 first Parlia- the people were dying by thousands a week, so that 
 the Houses were anxious to finish their business quickly 
 and end the session. A bill for two subsidies,! amounting to 
 something short of ,£200,000, was brought into the Lower House, 
 and the members understanding from a message sent by the king 
 
 * Strafford, Letters and Despatches, I. 28. 
 
 f A subsidy was an income tax of 4s. in the pound upon the annual value 
 of lands, and a property-tax of 2s. 8d. in the pound upon the actual value of 
 goods. Those whose lands were not worth 20s. a year, or whose personal 
 property was less than £3 in value, were not taxed. These subsidies were 
 levied by commissioners, appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 
 amongst the inhabitants of the county or borough. The assessment was 
 made with great laxity; owing to this tact and to a constant rise in the 
 money-value of lands, and goods (the price of wheat for Instance, doubling 
 in Elizabeth's reign, the real state of the subsidy was very much less than 
 the nominal. A tenth or a fifteenth was generally voted in addition to the 
 subsidy. These were originally the real tenth or fifteenth of all the movables 
 or personal property of the subject. Each county or borough was responsible 
 for a certain sum, which was levied by commissioners, appointed by its 
 representatives in the Commons. Since the last valuation had been made 
 in the reign of Edward III., in that of Charles I., when the purchasing 
 power of money had den-eased five times, the tenths and fifteenths instead of 
 being taxes of 2s. and of Is. 4d., were more like taxes of 5d. and 3d., in the £ 
 respectively. 
 
m j ADJOUMmrar to oxeokb-disconteht. 
 
 that he was satisfied with •^£££SZ£Z 
 to re-assemble at "^^M^ aLmy emptied 
 in large numbers to their homes i Tonnage and 
 
 'fflSSS. since the reign ? f Henry C_ . 
 
 Although tne usu , uf th Comm ons, yea r the 
 
 V Wbeen to grant the customs 101 m©, _ ^ Ton _ 
 
 • tnThP thinness of their House, and their wish for 
 owing to the thinness 01 on l y granted them Poundage. 
 
 time to regulate the scale of " omy g ^ ^ 
 
 to Charles ^J^J^^^M the U^per House ;* 
 next session of Parliament lUfi ^m not care to get 
 
 At tlic rallin" of James' last farliamem., »u liomentad- 
 
 At the camiig , , ff tl , e c i u ke had allied iourn ed to. 
 
 match with Spam was broken oft, the * au i^^ 
 
 himself with the popular leaders. N«,^» thefleet; 
 
 entirely free of their control, espeoaUy mttm nd ^ ^ 
 
 he determined to bring about a iup tor - ^ ^ 
 
 s0 effect a dissolution. Accordingly, on tte^ ay ^ 
 
 Honses adjourned, and the king s «m* was rve ftey 
 
 for two subsidies, the members hear^to their y,^ q 
 
 were required, within a fortnights **£*"£» = h Jul ) 
 a town where the plague ,had jt yet gj^fj^ J. 
 
 ^hort as the interval was between uuc discontent. 
 
 e^w^notwantingtobreeds^cion^dd*^ 
 
 Dr. Montague, a clergyman, censured by the Own ^ 
 
 Mng books upholding the Divine E gb of kin , ^ 
 
 confession, the use of images, and otto Kom ^ 
 been appointed chaplain to the k" ^ ™ h ^ F^^ 
 
 French Marriage Treaty not to put ^ m » a = were n ow 
 force; and these conditions *$£%£^ s ' t ill levied, 
 
 beginning to be divulged, Eta™* o faaed to 
 
82 FIRST PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED. [1625. 
 
 clear the channel of the Turkish pirates, now ravaging the coasts, 
 plundering merchant vessels, and carrying off captives by hun- 
 dreds. There was an ugly story abroad, that eight ships had 
 been actually lent the French king to assist him in blocking up 
 the Huguenots, brother Protestants, in Eochelle. And now, as 
 a crowning cause of discontent, the Parliament was re-assembled, 
 at an unusual place, at the hottest time of a plague-smitten 
 season (Aug 1st), and asked for sums that the king's ministers 
 should have shown were necessary before. Long journeys were 
 no light matter in those days, when roads were so bad that a 
 coach and four could often go little more than four miles an hour. 
 The members regarded the demand now made upon them almost 
 as an insult, and felt convinced that Charles and Buckingham 
 preferred this patent disregard of their convenience to revealing 
 their whole policy at first. Thus, instead of granting a second 
 supply, the House began to debate upon the abuses of the ad- 
 ministration, and to point at the duke as the cause of them. 
 
 " Strange, the adjournment for only a few days, and that meet- 
 ing there in Oxford ! As it could not be that the king should 
 have such mutability in himself, was not the real cause manifest 
 to them ? To have the whole kingdom hurried in such haste for 
 the will and pleasure of one subject ! All this was beyond example 
 and comparison."* 
 
 Parliament On this, Charley carried out Buckingham's intention, 
 dissolved. an( j dissolved the Parliament at once (12th Aug.). 
 There had been good cause for the caution displayed by the 
 Commons in granting supplies. In the spring, Charles and Buck- 
 ingham, keeping their purpose concealed even from the Privy 
 Council, pressed seven merchant vessels, and sent them with a ship 
 of war under Captain Pennington's command, to be employed by 
 Louis XIII. in blocking up the Huguenots in Eochelle. 
 lends Louis The sailors, however, showed their spirit. Learning 
 against* Ro- at Dieppe their destined service, masters and men per- 
 cheiie. sisted in sailing back to the Downs, swearing that they 
 
 would be hanged or thrown overboard before they would fight ; 
 while Pennington, who fully shared the feelings of the crews, 
 wrote to the king, asking to be removed from command. In re- 
 reply* however, he was only peremptorily ordered back to the 
 French coast, and received a royal warrant authorizing him to 
 * See Eorster's Life of Sir John Eliot, i. vi. 4. 
 
1625.] WAE WITH SPAIN— PAILUKE. 33 
 
 compel obedience, "even unto the sinking of the ships." The 
 
 men, being now told that the civil war in France was at an 
 
 end, and that they were to be employed against Genoa, an ally of 
 
 Spain, were with difficulty a second time persuaded to sail. At 
 
 Dieppe, however, the truth could no longer be concealed. One 
 
 vessel sailed back to the Downs, and the rest of the _ .. , 
 
 ii-i • i Sailors do- 
 
 crews deserted their ships, leaving them to be manned serttheves- 
 
 by Frenchmen. A gunner — the only Englishman who &e 3 * 
 
 took part in the service — was killed by a shot before Eochelle. 
 
 This story was the common talk of the nation at the time of 
 the dissolution of Parliament. An expedition so unpopular was 
 especially unfortunate when the king was bent on going to war 
 with Spain. No English king could hope to carry on war without 
 obtaining large parliamentary grants, unless he was prepared to 
 resort to illegal means of raising money. James had disliked 
 Parliaments, and therefore, with good reason, clung to peace. 
 Peace was still open to Charles, for war had not been declared ; 
 but he preferred breaking the law to breaking his resolution. 
 Money was raised in the form of loans. 
 
 By these means, a fleet of ninety vessels was collected. Meet .. 
 It sailed in the autumn (4th Oct.). Buckingham, against 
 though lord-admiral, was too wise to command in per- pam ' 
 son. Sir Edward Cecil, created Viscount Wimbledon for the 
 occasion, was sent as deputy, to take the blame in case of failure. 
 Success those who knew the state of the fleet hardly ventured to 
 hope for. The agents the duke employed in manning, provision- 
 ing, and furnishing the vessels, had shamefully embezzled the 
 funds, so that victuals were bad, men sick, and ships leaky, even 
 at starting. Wimbledon received secret instructions to seize 
 shipping and stores in the Spanish harbours, and to capture a 
 fleet of richly laden merchantmen, returning home from the West 
 Indies. Charles had great hopes that his exchequer would be 
 replenished with Spanish bullion. 
 
 Wimbledon, however, after entering the harbour of Returng 
 Cadiz and surprising a fort, found his troops disorderly, n °me dis- 
 and finally returned to England without having fought gra ° e ' 
 an enemy or made a prize (Nov., Dec). Disease broke out on the 
 voyage home ; hundreds perished at sea; hundreds were landed 
 in a dying condition, solely, as it was said, through the bad food 
 supplied for both soldiers and sailors. Upon the success of 
 
 3 
 
Si IMPEACHMENT OP BUCKINGHAM. [3 PAEU 
 
 this expedition Buckingham's reputation was staked. It had 
 been planned by him, by his advice its destination had been kept 
 secret from Parliament, and he was justly regarded as the real 
 author of the disgrace. 
 
 SnnSn, Meantime the loans had fallen short ; the seamen 
 
 a Second cam e up to London clamouring for their nav • ih* 
 
 T', Tl r Che<1Uer — « There™ Tnres'eape 
 and Charles had to snmmon a second Parliament, which met ord, 
 some si* months after the dissolution of the first 6th Feb 16 "of 
 The Ulega I methods of raising money, the employment of Enii 
 hsh ships for crushing French Protestants, the fiasco of the fleet 
 were all set down to Buckingham. ' 
 
 KSifeed J' 16 **» l e c f ved hints of what was coming. "The 
 to condyle office of high-admiral," wrote a friendly counsellor 
 
 he county << requi onewMe maato executei J You ~^ 
 
 hath another sea of business to wade through, and the voluntary 
 resigning of this office would fill all men, yea, even your enemie 7 
 w-ih affection^ Buckingham, Lord High-Admiral of £££ 
 
 Horse W 1 G °7™ 0, r. General ° f SCaS and Da ^> **«* *e 
 Horse, Warden of the Cinque Ports, refused to resign one of these 
 or his other titles to popular clamour. 
 
 . ™ W i!' e ? ai ' leS 1!"* f ° r a Subsid y> the Commons appointed 
 a committee to search into grievances. The committee soon 
 
 satisfied themselves that all evils found their head and source in 
 Buckingham. On this the king tried threats. « I must let you 
 
 anv o"f mv '1 \ l T *° ^ H ° USe ' " that l ** ™* -Ho- 
 
 any of my servants to be questioned amongst you, much less 
 
 « m t f ^ f place and n ™° me ° Th - Id 5-£ 
 
 But now it hath been the labour of some to seek what may be 
 done against him whom the king thinks fit to honour. I 
 
 wish you would hasten my supply, or else it will be worse for 
 
 ZTfelile' any m happen ' J thilik x shaI1 be *■ '<"' 
 
 Bucking- The Commons, undaunted, impeached the duke 
 
 SchS forh 'S h crimes and misdemeanours (22nd April). In 
 cases of parliamentary impeachment, the House of 
 Commons is accuser, the House of Lords judge. The eariie t case 
 occurred towards the end of Edward the Third's reign ( JW 
 From the time of Henry VI. there was no impeachment foAearly 
 
1626.] PRACTICE OF IMPEACHMENT. 35 
 
 two centuries (1449 — 1621), till the practice was revived in the 
 reign of James I., when two of the king's ministers were impeached 
 for bribery and corruption — Bacon, lord chancellor, in 1621 ; the 
 Earl of Middlesex, lord treasurer, in 1624. In times when the 
 Parliament and the crown, the law and the prerogative, were 
 struggling for mastery, and when the crown dismissed and ap- 
 pointed at pleasure both judges and ministers of State, such a 
 power was a most useful weapon in the hands of the Commons. 
 Now, since the trials of "Warren Hastings (1791) and Lord Mel- 
 ville (1805), the right of impeachment has ceased to be exercised, 
 because the relation of all parties has changed. The law has 
 gained the victory over the prerogative. Courts of justice are 
 independent, and ministers of the crown only hold office at the 
 pleasure of the Commons. 
 
 The reverse of all this might have been affirmed at the True charge 
 time when Buckingham was impeached. Jhe special B g uckSg- 
 allegations against him were his holding many offices at bam. 
 the same time, selling places of judicature, leu ding ships to Louis 
 to be used against Rochelle, with various other offences, in all 
 thirteen. But the Commons did not, in fact, impeach Bucking- 
 ham for any particular crime. Their quarrel with him was that he 
 alone possessed the royal ear, and that he counselled Charles to 
 commit illegal acts at home, and pursue a wavering course of 
 foreign policy, detrimental to the interests of the Protestants. 
 The English nation has always been intolerant of tyranny at 
 second hand. It seemed to them now monstrous that the wishes 
 of people and Parliament should be over-ruled by the fancies of 
 one unworthy favourite. They determined, therefore, to im- 
 peach the duke, as the only constitutional means then possessed 
 of securing the change of ministry they desired. 
 
 " What vast treasures he has gotten," said Sir John Eliot, con- g peec h of 
 ducting the impeachment before the Lords, " what infinite sums Sir John 
 of money, and what a mass of lands ! If your lordships please Ji ' 110t '- 
 to calculate, you will find it all amounting to little less than the whole of the 
 subsidies which the king has had within that time. A lamentable example 
 of the subjects' bounties so to be employed ! His profuse expenses, his 
 superfluous feasts, his magnificent buildings, his riots, his excesses, what are 
 they but the visible evidences of an express exhausting of the State, a 
 chronicle of the immensity of his waste of the revenues of the crown ? He 
 wonder, then, our king is now in want, this man abounding so. And as long 
 as he abounds, the king must still be wanting, . , . 
 
 3-2 
 
36 IMPEACHMENT OF BUCKINGHAM. [2pael, 
 
 " Of all the precedents I can find, none so near resembles him as doth Se- 
 ianus and him Tacitus describes thus : that he was audax, sui obtegens, in 
 alios criminator : juxta adulatio et superbia.* If your lordships please tc 
 measure him by this, pray see in what they vary. He is bold, and of such a 
 boldness, I dare be bold to say, as is seldom heard of. He is secret in his 
 purposes, and more, that we have showed already. Is he a slanderer ? Is 
 he an accuser ? I wish this Parliament had not felt it, nor that which was 
 before. As for his pride and flattery, what man can judge the greater ? . . 
 And now, my lords, I will conclude with a particular censure given on the 
 Bishop of Ely in the time of Bichard I. That prelate had the king's trea- 
 sures at his command, and had luxuriously abused them. His obscure kin- 
 dred were married to earls, barons, and others of great rank and place. No 
 man's business could be done without his help. He would not suffer the 
 kind's council to advise in the highest affairs of state. He gave ignotis per- 
 sonis et obscuris the custody of castles and great trusts. He ascended to 
 such a height of insolence and pride, that he ceased to be fit for characters of 
 mercy. And therefore, says the record, of which I now hold the original, 
 per totam insulam publice proclametur ; — Pereat qui perdere cuncta 
 
 EESTINAT; OpPRIMATUR NE 01INES OPPRIMAT"f (10th May). 
 
 Charles "When Charles heard that Eliot had compared the 
 
 visits the duke to Sejanus, he exclaimed, " He must intend me 
 Lords, for Tiberius !" and with the defendant by his side, 
 
 went to the Upper House, and tried to overawe the duke's judges 
 by informing the Lords that he had given orders for punishment 
 of some insolent speeches spoken to them yesterday, and that he 
 could himself be a witness to clear the duke of every charge 
 andim- brought against him (11th May). He was as good as 
 prisons two h_i s word, and the same day committed to the Tower 
 the Com- two of the managers of the impeachment, Sir Dudley 
 mons. Digges and Sir John Eliot. The Lords, of whom many 
 
 were concealed enemies of the favourite, let the king speak and 
 depart in silence. The Commons agreed to do no business until 
 their members were restored to the House. 
 
 Charles Charles might have ended the struggle by a dissolu- 
 
 soives y the S " ^ on ' but as ne s ^ hoped to obtain a supply, he pre- 
 Pariiament. f erred to release the two members. Einding, however, 
 that the Commons would not grant money, unless the duke waa 
 first removed from office, he determined to put a stop to the im- 
 peachment, by dissolving the Parliament. " No, not a minute!" he 
 said to the Lords, who came in person to petition him to stay the 
 
 * Tac. Ann. iv. 1. f Forster's Life of Sir J. Eliot, i. vii. 6. 
 
1626.] THIRTY YEAES' WAE. 37 
 
 dissolution, and the next day lie carried out his purpose (15th 
 June). 
 
 The people had been anxiously watching the course _ 
 
 Feirs enter* 
 
 of events within the House. " This is the king's last tained in 
 Parliament," they said, aware of Charles' indignation the countr y- 
 at the impeachment of his minister. "And now that the Parlia- 
 ment is dissolved, and the duke still in power, what will follow 
 next ?" " Is it not time to pray 1 Unless God show us the way 
 out, we are but in an ill case."* 
 
 Charles did not keep his subjects long in doubt of his inten- 
 tions. In fact, a series of measures followed, attacking more 
 classes and more interests within a shorter period than had been 
 ever known in English history. 
 
 Although Charles was already engaged in war with Spain, and 
 had not received a penny from his last Parliament, he had still 
 the temerity to enter into war with France. Several causes of 
 quarrel existed between himself and his brother-in-law, Louis 
 XIII. Shortly before the death of James, Cardinal Richelieu, 
 Louis' chief minister, had effected a league between 
 France and the Protestant powers (1624). The French Protestant 
 were to fight the armies of Austria and Spain, while ^Inst 
 the King of Denmark, Christian IV., assisted by men Spain and 
 from England, and money from France, was to lead the 
 Protestant forces of Germany for the recovery of the Palatinate. 
 The fleets of England and Holland were to attack Spain, while 
 the Turks were engaged to fall upon Hungary. But as soon as 
 Louis had reduced the Huguenots in Rochelle by the aid of the 
 ships borrowed from Charles, he deserted his allies, and made 
 peace with Spain (March, 1626). The reason of this sudden 
 change in French policy was that the Huguenots, regardless of the 
 interests of their co-religionists, seized the moment when France 
 was about to engage in foreign war, to rise in arms against the 
 government. The English contingent had already been fitted 
 out with the money granted in James' last Parliament. But 
 Louis now refused permission for these troops to pass through 
 France on their way to join the German army, so that they were 
 obliged to take a long sea passage to Zealand. Disease broken 
 
 * Ellis. 3rd Series, 227, 228. 
 
38 WAR WITH FRANCE. [162& 
 
 out, and 5000 men out of the 14,000 men perished before they 
 saw the face of a foe.* 
 
 Christian IV., thus left unsupported, was defeated at Lutter 
 (27th August, 1626), and the armies of the emperor, Ferdinand 
 II., were soon overrunning the north of Germany (1627-8). 
 Charles, who had agreed in his marriage treaty not to put the 
 laws against Catholics into force, and had afterwards lent Louis 
 ships, expecting, in return, to receive aid for the recovery of the 
 Palatinate, naturally felt aggrieved at the conduct of the French 
 government. Moreover, Buckingham had some personal dis- 
 agreement with Richelieu, which was believed to be his only 
 motive for breaking the peace between the two nations. 
 War with The war was unpopular in England, because the 
 
 France. French, through their well-known jealousy of Spain 
 and Austria, were regarded as the natural allies of the German 
 Protestants. But Charles and Buckingham were ill advised 
 enough to hope that, by merely declaring themselves friends of the 
 Huguenots, they would be carried along on a flood-tide of popu- 
 larity, and thus be able to raise money enough by illegal means for 
 the support of two wars at once. A general loan was 
 raised by il- demanded ; every man, rich or poor, was required to 
 legal means, g- ve ^ ^ e same proportion as he had been rated in 
 the last subsidy granted by Parliament. This so-called loan was 
 in fact nothing less than a tax laid on land and property, without 
 consent of Parliament. Henry VIII., the most absolute of the 
 Tudor sovereigns, once endeavoured to raise money by means of 
 a general loan ; but even in his time the attempt produced wide- 
 spread discontent ; a serious insurrection broke out in Suffolk, 
 and the imposition was withdrawn (1525). Since that time a 
 steady increase in wealth and knowledge had for more than a 
 century been strengthening the middle classes, and confirm- 
 ing their attachment to their liberties. Leaders were now 
 to be found in the House of Commons, ready boldly to point 
 the attention of the nation to acts of arbitrary power, and 
 to brave the consequences of the royal displeasure. It was- 
 
 * Vessels were not then required, as they happily are now, to have on 
 board a sufficient supply of lime juice, or other preventives against conse- 
 quences of a salt diet. Hence the fatal ravages of scurvy in those times. The 
 symptoms of this disease are described as — discoloured spots, swelled legs, 
 extraordinary lassitude and dejection, sudden death resulting on the least 
 motion or exertion of strength. See Gr. Anson's Voyage, I. x. 
 
1626 1 FORCED LOANS. 39 
 
 hardly likely, therefore, that an aet from which Henry VIIL 
 Z Cardinal Wolsey had shrunk, should fail to rouse nidigna- 
 tion when attempted by Charles and his detested favourite. 
 
 Opposition arose on all sides from rich and poor, oppose* 
 The prisons were full of gentlemen who refused to o s eT0 iby 
 lend. Lincolnshire "almost rebelled;" Shropshire ' **~ 
 "utterly denied." Several gentlemen, on being brought before 
 the Council Chamber, refused to kneel, for fear of seeming to 
 acknowledge that they were in any way responsible for a legiti- 
 mate refusal of an illegitimate demand. In London, only two or 
 three in a parish would pay, and that though goods wer< » seized, 
 aad the duke threatened, saying " Sirrah, take ? heeel w . t^ou 
 do ; did not you speak treason at such a time J Charles him 
 self was reported to be so inflamed against refusers, that he was 
 " vowing a perpetual remembrance, as well as a present pumsh- 
 
 01 F*ve gentlemen, imprisoned for refusing the loan, applied to 
 the Court of King's Bench for a writ of habeas cotyus.f the 
 judge sent a writ to the gaoler, commanding him to produc* Ins 
 prisoners before the court, with the warrant on which they had 
 been imprisoned. The gaoler replied that they were committed 
 by a warrant from the king's council, by the special command of 
 his Majesty, but that no special cause of impiisoment judgmert 
 was mentioned. Accordingly, the question was pleaded King 
 before the judges of the King's Bench, whether or not B-g-J. 
 the king had power to commit his subjects to prison „ 
 without alleging any crime against them. The court 
 was crowded, and shouts of applause were raised at the argu 
 ments of the prisoners' counsel. The judges however, W d S 
 ment in favour of the king, and the five gentlemen were remanded 
 
 t0 Cplr, who refused the loans, were pressed into the service 
 of the arm; and navy. On some districts » «^P"? £ 
 was laid called "coat and conduct money," for fitting out the 
 rdiet The rich had soldiers quartered on them who acted as 
 thou'h the king's soldiers were as much above the law as then 
 master. Not content with killing and carrying off oxen and 
 sheen from the owners' grounds, they muraered and Dis d ,. 
 robbed upon the highways, "nay, in fairs and mar- -ducttf 
 kets, for to meet a poor man coming from the market 
 
 • Straff. Letters, I. 38; Bireh. 190, 154, 167, 164. t S5. p. 16- 
 
40 DEFEAT AT EOCHELLE. [I* 32 ?. 
 
 with a pair of shoes, and take them from him, was but a sport 
 and merriment." The highways became so insecure, that, to sup- 
 Commis- press disorders, Charles issued commissions to execute 
 sions issued martial law. The ordinary course of justice was then 
 cutfonof set aside, and the commissioners tried and sentenced 
 martial law. faq, soldiers under forms more summary than those of 
 the common law. In spite, however, of the crimes committed, 
 the remedy seemed to the nation worse than the disease. Stand- 
 ing armies and courts-martial being alike unknown to English 
 statute or common law, Charles had no more legal power to issue 
 commissions to try soldiers by martial law than he had to try 
 civilians.* To increase the general indignation, the clergy re- 
 Clergy ceived orders to preach up the duty of passive obedi- 
 
 S 'SSive* 7 ence and the divine ri S' ht of km £ s - Those who looked 
 obedience, out for promotion complied, but the preachers were 
 regarded as mere lacqueys of the court. It was adding insult to 
 injury, first to take the people's properties illegally, and then to 
 tell them that submission was a duty, pleasing to God. 
 
 At last, at the expense of so much bitterness between king 
 and commons, a fleet of 100 vessels was fitted out, and sailed for 
 France (27th June). Buckingham took the command himself ; a 
 Expedition landing was effected on the Isle of Eh6, and the 
 hanito kmg " Huguenots in Eochelle were persuaded to trust to the 
 Kocheile. honour of the English, and try the event of war 
 against Louis XIII. once more. But, after two months had been 
 spent in an unsuccessful siege of the fortified town of St. Martin,t 
 Buckingham made a disastrous retreat along a narrow cause- 
 way, beset on either side with salt pits and ditches. So 
 many officers and soldiers were slain, so many taken pri- 
 soners, that not above half the number of those who sailed re- 
 turned to their homes. Beside the cries of private mourning 
 
 * Kings of England had indeed always exercised the right of issuing ordi- 
 nances of war for the regulation of their armies. But this military law had 
 been confined to military offences committed on actual service, while these 
 ' soldiers, mariners, and other dissolute persons,' were (1) not on actual ser- 
 vice, and (2) had committed offences which were cognizable at the courts of 
 common law ; hence fears were naturally entertained that so tempting a 
 method of procedure would be extended to civilians. Since England has had 
 a standing army, a Mutiny Act is annually passed, allowing courts-martial 
 for punishment of military offences, and reserving the crown power to frame 
 farther articles in case of actual war. 
 
 t For map, see p. 46. 
 
1838-] THIRD TAELIAMKNT. « 
 
 we heard these of public indignation. Buckingham ^he- 
 lved to have gone to Eoehelle in a pet, merely to gratify his 
 Xen a^n I* Lonis, without earing cither for the Huguenots or 
 t 1 troops ; and the people, in whose minds "embrace 
 Elizabeth's triumphs was still fresh, went back to King Johns 
 wl find a parallel disgrace, describing it, as *^— , f * 
 overthrow the English have received since we lost Normanciy. 
 
 AdTour was raised for a Parliament. The coasts were in- 
 fested pirates entered the harbours, and sailed up the rivers ; 
 he very fishermen were afraid to put out ; trade was decaying 
 or merchants refused to build vessels only to be P-^d into he 
 Ws service ; the sailors came round about the palace at White- 
 M ciX out for pay. Charles had pledged himself to relieve 
 » the siege of which, by Louis, was ^ on!y outcome o«s 
 intervention ; but how he was to carry on two wars, in the face 
 of al these difficulties, was a question to puzzle the wisest head. 
 The ords of the council were afraid to try toed loans again, 
 and Charles, though, as he truly said, he did " abomi- Cta*^ 
 nate the name," consented to follow their advice, and ^ 
 send out the summons for another Parliament. .,■ 
 
 The House was filled with patriots, elected against conrt cand - 
 dates by overwhelming majorities. Eliot Pym, Coke, »». of 
 Selden Wentworth, were all there ; and Oliver Crom- w, „ 
 weH a young man of twenty-nine, took his seat for I-* 
 Te first y time°as member for the town of Huntingdon Charles 
 opened this, his third Parliament, with threats (17th Mm-di). 
 yo< he said, "should not do your duties m contributing ^what 
 the State at this time needs, I must, in discharge of my con 
 science, use those other means which God hath put into my 
 hands" The threat only made the Commons more determined 
 to put an end to the loans, billeting of soldiers, and imprison- 
 ments, " those other means " which had caused such just and bit- 
 ter resentment. «„*•„» n 
 Debates on granting the king a supply, and. on finding a 
 remedy for grievances, advanced hand in hand. The decision of 
 the judges, that the king might not commit a subject to prison, 
 except at his pleasure*™ thought a wanton outrage on tfie 
 intelligence of the nation. According to this theory, the law* 
 were only binding on the king so long as he graciously chose not 
 * Forster's Life of Sir J. Eliot, ii. ix. 2. 
 
42 PETITION OF EIGHT. [3 parl. 
 
 to act in right of his royal prerogative, so that Acts of Parliament, 
 regarded for centuries as the bulwarks of public liberty, were 
 rendered absolutely meaningless. 
 
 Judgment " To have m ^ bod 7 P ent U P in a g ao V exclaimed 
 B iPh g a an incli g nant P atl "iot, " without remedy of law, and to 
 vassed in be so adjudged . . If this be law, why do we talk 
 Commons. of liberties <i Whj do we trouble ourselves with a 
 dispute about law, franchises, property of goods, and the like ? 
 What may a man call his own, if not the liberty of his person ?' 
 I am weary of treading these ways." 
 
 A security was needed that the old laws should be kept in 
 force, and the king's prerogative be prevented from trampling 
 them under foot. " We must vindicate — what V said Wentworth,. 
 " new things 1 No ! our ancient, lawful, and vital liberties ! 
 We must reinforce the laws made by our ancestors. We must 
 set such a stamp upon them as no licentious spirit shall dare- 
 hereafter to invade them." 
 
 The Commons, however, still believed the king would feel 
 bound in conscience to respect a law which he passed himself ; 
 Petition of and, under this impression, drew up a bill, in the form 
 Bight. f a Petition of Eight, to serve as a new guarantee for 
 
 the preservation of liberty. They called their bill the Petition 
 of Right, because it was but a confirmation of old laws, of rights 
 already possessed. The Petition demanded : 
 
 1st. That no freeman be required to give any gift, loan, bene- 
 volence, or tax without common consent by Act of Parliament. 
 
 2nd. That no freeman be imprisoned or detained contrary to 
 the laws of the land. 
 
 3rd. That soldiers and mariners be not billeted in private houses. 
 
 4th. That commissions to punish soldiers and sailors by martial 
 law be revoked, and no more issued. 
 
 The Upper House, which the king had partially packed by the 
 creation of several new lords, proposed to add to the petition the 
 following saving clause : — " We humbly present this petition to 
 your Majesty, with due regard to leave entire that sovereign 
 power wherewith your Majesty is entrusted for the protection of 
 Savin ^ our P e0 P^ e -" The Commons, however, refused to ac- 
 
 ciause pro- cept the amendment, which conceded the very point 
 Ki^e- at issue - " A11 our petition," said Pym, " is for Re- 
 jected by laws of England : this power seems to be another 
 
 Commons. . l .^ 
 
 power distinct from the power of the law. We can- 
 
1628 .] ATTEMPTED EVASION. 4S 
 
 not leave him a sovereign power, for he was never possessed of 
 it." After several conferences between the two Houses, the 
 Lords yielded and passed the petition in the form desired by the 
 Commons (27th May). Charles, being in want of money, did 
 not venture in any direct manner to refuse his consent, but when 
 the petition was read before assembled King, Lords, and Com- 
 mons, the lord keeper read out, instead of the usual <^ r J^ 
 words by which the royal assent is signified, a new t o Petition 
 form, "that the king wished that right should be of Right, 
 done' and that he held himself in conscience as much obliged to. 
 maintain their just rights and liberties as his own prerogative " 
 (2nd June). The Commons were engaged in preparing a remon- 
 strance against the evil advisers by whose counsel this worthless 
 answer had been given, when a message came from the king, for- 
 bidding the House to meddle with affairs of State (5th June). 
 There followed a prolonged silence. Not to meddle with affaire 
 of State, meant that they must endure the ascendancy Charleg for _ 
 of the duke, and see the name of England despised bids House 
 
 ' , . , . , , i 1 1 of Commons 
 
 abroad from a policy which was at once meddlesome, to mec idie 
 feeble, and fickle ; while at home outrages were done ^^ a 
 to the dearest liberties of their country, which it was 
 their bounden duty to defend. Some members sat down in tears, 
 dumb through grief ; others mingled their speech with tears ; 
 some hundred wept in all, they felt so much was at stake. " Let 
 us palliate no longer," cried the old lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, 
 " if we do, God will not prosper us. I think the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham is the cause of all our miseries— that man is the grievance 
 of grievances ; it is not the king but the duke"— (a .great cry of 
 "'Tishe, 'tis he !" " Yea, yea I" "Well moved, well spoken")— 
 "that saith, 'We require you not to meddle with State govern- 
 ment or the ministers thereof ; " (5th June). 
 
 Two days later, Charles yielded, the Petition of King's 
 
 J ' , . - i ,-, i • second an- 
 
 Eight was read a second time, and the reply given in swertoPeti- 
 the usual form: " Soit droit fait comme il est desire " tionofRight. 
 (7th June). 
 
 The Commons, on their side, passed a bill for five subsidies, 
 after which Parliament was prorogued (26th June). 
 
 While Parliament was sitting, another fleet which was sent to- 
 Eochelle, returned without raising the siege. " What wonder !" 
 said the people ; " was not the commander Buckingham's brother- 
 
44 MUEDEE OF BUCKINGHAM. [3 pabl. 
 
 in-law?" No allowance had. been made for the shallowness of 
 that sandy coast : Lord Denbigh, finding his ships drew too much 
 water to approach the city, seemed only too glad of an excuse for 
 sailing away at once. It was believed that the expedition had 
 been got up, not to save RocheUe, but merely to blind the eyes of 
 Parliament. One of the duke's household, called Dr. Lamb, was 
 set upon by the rabble in the streets of London, and so brutally 
 knocked about that he died the same night. The city magistrates 
 could not, or would not, find the offenders. The people sang, 
 
 "Let Charles and George do what they can, 
 The duke shall die like Dr. Lainb." 
 
 Felton mur- Felton, described as a gentleman of low stature, few 
 ^ ei ha BuCk " woro ^ s > an d melancholy spirit, after pondering over a 
 remonstrance of the Commons, declaring Buckingham 
 the cause of all the evils under which the kingdom suffered, con- 
 ceived it his duty to rid his country of an enemy. The duke was 
 at Portsmouth, preparing to set sail immediately in command of 
 another fleet for the relief of Rochelle. He was in company with 
 several officers, French and English, when, in passing through a 
 dark lobby leading from a breakfast-room into a hall, he was 
 stabbed to the heart. " The villain hath killed me !" he cried, 
 pulled out the knife, staggered to a table, and fell dead in the 
 •arms of the bystanders (23rd Aug.). No one had seen the blow 
 struck, and suspicion was falling on the Frenchmen, when Felton 
 stepped forward out of the crowd and said, " I am the man who 
 did the deed, let no one suffer who is innocent." The people could 
 not restrain their joy ; healths were drunk to the murderer, 
 verses written in his honour. Crowds gathered to see him on his 
 way to London and the Tower, greeting him as the slayer of the 
 Philistine. " Now, God bless thee, little David/' " The Lord be 
 merciful unto thee," " The Lord comfort thee," were the cries that 
 reached his ears. 
 
 On being brought before the council and threatened 
 dare use of by Bishop Laud with the rack, unless he revealed the 
 against the names oi his associates, he replied that he alone was 
 
 common author of the deed, and that as for the rack, he could 
 law. 
 
 not say whether torture might make him accuse his 
 
 lordship, or which of their lordships. The threat was not put 
 
 into execution. The judges unanimously declared the use of tor- 
 
1628.] POLITICAL ASSASSINATION. 4S 
 
 ture was contrary to the common law of England, and the king 
 did not think it prudent to override their decision. Felton was 
 hanged at Tyburn. To the last he felt little remorse for the 
 murder. Though he confessed he had done wrong in shedding 
 blood, he could not be brought to doubt but that good would re- 
 sult to Church and State from his act. 
 
 The duke was only thirty-five. Charles called him "his 
 martyr," and never forgave those who opposed him during life, or 
 spoke ill of him after death. His fate shows the truth of the 
 common maxim that those who are above the law are above the 
 protection of law ; but the crime was the crime of a fanatic. 
 Not a shadow of suspicion rests on the popular Popular 
 leaders. They were at once too far-sighted and too impiTcated 
 honourable. Acts of treachery and violence, whatever in the crime, 
 the immediate advantage gained, are sure in the long run to recoil 
 to the injury of the side that practises them. Sooner or later, 
 violence is condemned by public opinion, for in a constitutional 
 struggle, the mass of the nation have really more the feelings 
 of a jury than of parties to a case. It is only by winning a 
 favourable judgment from the large and wavering masses, that 
 any party, which has no armed force behind it, can obtain a sure 
 and final triumph. Violent partisans are always to be found 
 ready to approve and employ all means without distinction to 
 advance their euds ; but the English leaders knew that the 
 statue of Wingless Victory can only stand in the shrine of law 
 and right. 
 
 The fleet, which now sailed under Lord Lindsay, was as unsuc- 
 cessful as though Buckingham himself had lived to command it. 
 While Charles delayed, Richelieu's genius and energy were at 
 work. The city was gradually shut in on the land side by a line 
 of circumvallation extending nine miles, while a vast mole of 
 nearly a mile in length was raised across the roadstead. After 
 two unsuccessful attempts to force their way through the mole, 
 the English returned without having placed a morsel of food 
 within reach of the starving inhabitants. The town had a strong 
 position between the sea and the marshes on the rocky promon- 
 tory from which it got its name of the " little rock." Originally 
 a colony of serfs, who had fled from the oppressions of their 
 feudal lords, it had a tradition of political as well as of religious 
 freedom. Once a fief of the English kings, and now much dearer 
 
66 
 
 FALL OF ROCHELLE. 
 
 [3 FA.BL. 
 
 as a stronghold of Protestantism, the English were deeply- 
 interested in its heroic resistance, and regarded themselves and 
 their country as irretrievably disgraced, when, after 16,000 were 
 said to have died of famine, the city at last surrendered at dis- 
 
 Fall of 
 Rochelle, 
 
 The fall was a fatal blow to the cause of the Hugue- 
 nots. Liberty of conscience was still left them, but 
 their fortresses were destroyed, their assemblies, their privileges, 
 their organization by churches abolished. Instead of being a 
 power within the state, they became a sect.* 
 
 The English, after this defeat of their religion, could not con- 
 sole themselves for long with the victory they had obtained over 
 the government in the Petition of Eight. At first the people in 
 London rung bells and made bonfires, believing their liberties to 
 be now secured ; but their mistake was soon proved. Notwith- 
 *. Lavallee. Hist, de France. 
 
1628.1 WENTWOETH THE MINISTER, 47 
 
 standing the king's distinct promise to respect the rights enume- 
 rated in the Petition, the customs were still levied. A merchant, 
 a member of the Commons, who refused to pay ,£200 duty, had 
 his goods seized to the value of £5000. " If all the Petition of 
 Parliament were in you, we would take your goods," t en by 
 said the custom-house officers. Men who ventured on nainisters. 
 speaking or writing against the introduction of Catholic cere- 
 monies and doctrines into a Protestant church, were brought 
 before the Star Chamber on charges of libel, fined, cast into prison, 
 and, in some cases, mutilated. Bishop Laud, a cruel persecutor of 
 Puritans, was translated to the see of London (July). Clergy- 
 men, tried and censured by the last Parliament for publishing 
 books and sermons maintaining the right of the king to take his 
 subjects' goods without their own consent, were now rewarded 
 with bishoprics or rich livings. Charles did not seem to realize 
 the alteration he had made in his position by giving his consent 
 to the Petition of Right. Previously, no special tie bound him 
 to act by law. No special charge of deceit, therefore, could be 
 brought against him if, like his father, he tried to exalt his posi- 
 tion into that of a French king, free arbitrarily to tax and im- 
 prison his subjects. But now a victory had been fairly won by 
 patriots armed only with the legal weapons of the constitution, 
 and by confirming the old charters by a new statute, he had 
 pledged his word to their observance ; by infringement now, he 
 would lose the confidence as well as the affection of his subjects. 
 
 Meantime the place of Buckingham was filled. 
 The name of Sir Thomas Went worth had hitherto Went worth 
 been counted among the chief leaders of the opposition. ^J*" 
 But his subsequent conduct seemed to show that his P ldce ™ 
 actions had been dictated by pride rather than by 
 patriotism. Haughty and ambitious, scorning to hold a second 
 place, he had chosen to rise to influence as an enemy of the court, 
 rather than lower himself and sue for favour to Buckingham. 
 Promotion, however, is sure to be offered to a dangerous oppo- 
 nent, who will sacrifice principles to place. A month before 
 Buckingham's death, Wentworth was raised to a barony. 
 Thus when Felton made the first place vacant, Charles had 
 already enlisted in his service a man, whose great abilities and 
 commanding nature rendered him far more competent to be his 
 adviser in the exercise of arbitrary government than the vain 
 
48 WENTWOETH THE MINISTER. [3 paei, 
 
 and frivolous favourite lie had lost. "VVentworth made uo con- 
 ditions as to the policy to be pursued; thus he left his party, not 
 to forward their views in office, but simply to gratify his in- 
 ordinate ambition. He appointed a meeting with his old friend 
 and companion, Pym, at Greenwich, and there discoursed to him 
 " of the dangers they were like to run by the courses they were 
 in, and what advantages they might have, if they would listen to 
 some offers which would probably be made to them from court." 
 " You need not use all this art," replied Pym, " to tell me that 
 you have a mind to leave us. But remember what I tell you. 
 You are going to be undone. And remember also, that though 
 you leave us now, I will never leave you, while your head is upon 
 your shoulders." 
 
 Second ses- Thus "VVentworth, now Viscount "VVentworth, and a 
 sion of member of the Privy Council, at the next session of 
 
 Charles 
 
 Third Par- Parliament sat amongst the king's ministers in the 
 liament. XJpper House, ready to throw all the weight of his 
 abilities and eloquence upon the side of arbitrary power (20th 
 Jan.). 
 
 The Commons immediately began to debate upon their griev- 
 ances. ' The goods of merchants had been seized for refusing 
 to pay illegal customs. Further, though no man ought to lose 
 life or limb but by the law, the Star Chamber sentenced men to 
 lose their ears.' " Next it will be our arms, and then our legs, and 
 so our lives." Charles, not content with thus breaking his royal 
 promise, had descended to subterfuge. Though by the king's 
 own orders the Petition of Eight, with the proper answer, had 
 been entered in the journals of the House, yet copies had subse- 
 quently been dispersed over the country, with the first evasive- 
 answer annexed, as well as the second. It was found that the 
 printer had received royal orders to suppress the true copies, and 
 make a new impression. ' Noblesse oblige/ but such doubtful 
 dealing could only bring obloquy on the sovereign. The strength 
 of loyalty lies in sentiment, and this was a fatal omen of the 
 future for king and commons. 
 
 Meantime Charles sent message after message bidding 
 
 Commons . , . , - , . 
 
 inquire into the House pass a bill, granting him the customs, ror this 
 of ministers was * n ^ ac ^ *he only purpose for which he had called 
 
 and officers the Parliament. " Let the merchants have their goods 
 of. executive 
 
 restored," said the Commons, " before the bill is 
 
1629.] ELIOT'S DECLARATION. 49 
 
 passed." " Kings," said one, " ought not, by the law of God, thus 
 to oppress their subjects. I know we have a good king, and this 
 is the advice of his wicked ministers, but there is nothing can be 
 more dishonourable unto him." They proceeded to question those 
 ministers ; they demanded of the king's attorney-general by 
 whose warrant he had discharged Catholic priests; they de- 
 manded of the farmers of the customs on what warrants they had 
 seized the goods of merchants who refused to pay illegal duties ; 
 they demanded of the judges on what grounds they had refused 
 to let the merchants have their cause tried at law. No acts could 
 have given more dire offence to Charles. Other Houses of Com- 
 mons had attacked some single minister of state, but none had 
 ever ventured on questioning the conduct of the king's servants 
 at large. An immediate dissolution being fully expected, the 
 popular leaders determined not to separate, without first passing 
 a vote against the illegal levying of the customs. On the. 2nd of 
 March Eliot rose to address the House. The Speaker, The g pea]ier 
 Pinch, a thorough courtier, rose also, and saying that refuses to 
 he had the king's orders for an immediate adjourn- declaration 
 ment, left his chair. Two members, Denzil Hollis and to the vote - 
 Valentine, standing on either side, forced him back to his seat, 
 and held him down, whilst Eliot made a short speech, in which 
 he declared it to be the duty of the House to maintain religion 
 and the rights of the subject, and brought forward a declaration 
 to that effect, which he desired the Speaker to put to the vote. 
 But Finch, with tears, refused to receive it or put it to the vote, 
 declaring that he had the king's command to the contrary. 
 Again he tried to rise from his chair, and again was forced 
 down by Hollis and Valentine. " God's wounds," said Hollis, 
 " he should sit there until it pleased them to rise." " You are 
 the disgrace of your country, and the blot of a noble family," 
 
 cried one of his own kinsmen. The king's councillors, m 
 
 ,-n -i r -i i Tumult in, 
 
 coming forward to rescue the Speaker, were forcibly theHouse. 
 
 driven back to their seats. Blows were given, and messenger 
 sword hilts handled. " Let all," said Strode, " who refused ad- 
 desire the declaration read and put to the vote, stand 
 up." Whereupon the majority of the House started to their feet, 
 and Eliot flung down the paper before them. At this moment 
 a messenger from the king came to the door, with orders to the 
 sergeant to withdraw with the mace, which, by custom, always 
 
 4 
 
ANGBY DISSOLUTION. [3 PiM ,., 1629 . 
 
 lies on the Commons' table, while the Honse is proceeding with 
 business. No sooner, however, had the sergeant laid his hand 
 upon the mace than a cry was raised to lock the door, and Sir 
 Miles Hobert urned the lock, and pnt the key in his pocket. 
 Ehotthen read a protest against any who shonld levy or pay 
 customs. "And for myself," he said, "I protest further^ as Iarf 
 a gentleman rf my fortune be ever again to meet in thia'honour- 
 able assembly, where I now leave, I will begin again." While he 
 was speaking, the gentleman usher of the black rod, sent by 
 
 for Id J?/ r0n0 T e , a dissolution > ™^ knocked at the door 
 for adm ttance. And now Hollis, standing by the Speaker's 
 chau^ with a paper containing three resolutions in his hand called 
 oiit that he put the question, - that they were traitors who 'sho„ H 
 introduce Popery; that they were traitors who should levy he 
 customs, ungranted by Parliament ; that they were traitawho 
 
 ?d°e U s ThT" 7 ^ Tf: " AJ ' "*" ™ touted 1 al 
 sides. The door was unlocked, and the member rushed out 
 
 Z23LEZ£&£r'- *" *—»"*«-£ 
 
 The next day Charles signed a proclamation for a dissolution. 
 
 xhe Commons "had," he said, « tried to erect an universal over 
 whelming power to themselves, which belongs only to us, Ind 
 not to them." They had in fact tried to gain control ov"r 
 the executive power. So far the charge was true. The nation 
 was weary of entering upon wars without its own a P p oval or 
 
 on ent ; of givmg money for one object, and seeing TIpTt on 
 another ; o seeing good laws not only violated by ministers of 
 
 Xr n Th Ut ?1 A r d m ; gat ° ry by the < ' Uibbks <* t-e^v;^ 
 judges. The Petition of Eight was already a dead letter 
 Judges, ministers, custom-house officers, all acted as though the 
 king , consent to such a law had never been given The Com 
 
 "aveTV^ *T bUt aVain ««" ■*« gainst tyranny! 
 have a king's word to the contrary.' They were on the X£ 
 took when they sought to make the office^ the ^eutfve 
 ES™;^ " f cording to the pri nci pl es of the c »- 
 stitution they had always been. Charles, on his side, published a 
 proclamation against Parliament, threatening "certain viperTof 
 
 >resi , : t rr ta '' withcondign i«»»A«2 i*«zi 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 ELEVEN YEARS OF ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT. — 1629—1640. 
 
 KPEQN. dWfij yap »/ fioi XP*1 yc rr}o8' dp%eiv yQovog; 
 
 AIMQN. froXig yap ovk 'iaQ' ijrig avdpog koQ' kvog. 
 
 KPEi2N. ov tov KparovvTog r) TroXig vofxi^BTai ; 
 
 AIMQN. KaXojg tprjfitig y dv ov yfjg dp\oig f^ovog. 
 
 Ceeon. lor my behoof I have right to rule this land. 
 
 Haemon. It is no state where all belongs to one. 
 
 Ceeon. Is not the state the sovereign's property ? 
 
 Haemon. Amauless state how grand to rule — alone ! — Soph. Ant. 739, 
 
 CHARLES had now made up his mind to govern without the aid 
 of Parliament, and thus raise himself into the position of an 
 absolute monarch. His education and his character had alike 
 tended to blind his mind to the fact that, from the subjects' point 
 of view, such an intention was criminal. Princes rarely converse 
 with their fellows on an equal footing, or hear their own Charles' 
 opinions and actions freely criticized. They are, there- and^charac- 
 fore, apt to grow up prejudiced. Charles was especially ter. 
 unfortunate in this respect. In James' court, no man could main- 
 tain a footing who was not obsequious enough to let his own 
 opinion follow that of his Majesty. The divine right by which 
 kings rule, the superiority of the prerogative to the law, the sub- 
 ject's duty of passive obedience, were household words to the 
 young prince. His social training was as bad as his political ; the 
 companions amongst whom he was thrown, were not only obse- 
 quious but immoral, and when he became king, his father's 
 influence lived on in one of the most worthless of his fa- 
 vourites. Edward I., indeed, a king whose only thought was for 
 his people's " security under fixed laws and customs " yet failed 
 in inspiring his son with any such noble aims, though he banished 
 the evil companions who were bent on marring that son's mind. 
 But Charles was in all points a prince far superior to Edward II. 
 Had he been trained by a father endowed with the noble qualities 
 of Edward I., he might have run a peaceful course and lived and 
 
 4—2 
 
82 CHAELES AND WE NT WORTH; [no pari. 
 
 died in accord with his subjects. Charles' virtues, in fact, 
 were his own, and displayed themselves in spite of his education. 
 His manners and his tastes were refined, and his enemies were 
 never able to deny that he was both a good husband and a 
 good father. On the other hand, nature had bestowed on him 
 no special gifts to counteract the evil effects of his political train- 
 ing. His character was cold and unbending, and he was without 
 any generous sympathies, that might have brought him to recog- 
 nize good in cause or man opposed to his own fixed ideas. 
 Obstinate and opinionated when he came to the throne at twenty- 
 •four, so he remained to the last day of his life ; no amount of 
 experience proved sufficient to teach him the necessity of yielding 
 to public opinion, or even of listening with patience to arguments 
 that offended his high notions of what was due to himself as a 
 king. With such an education and such a character, he was born 
 in an evil time for himself. He had found a minister who could 
 put his wishes into act, for Wentworth set himself, with all the 
 energy of his nature, to the support of arbitrary government. 
 Having shared in the counsels of the patriots, and knowing their 
 deep-rooted love of liberty, this clear-sighted counsellor never de- 
 ceived himself into thinking that any half measures were sufficient 
 for success. On the Continent, many instances had proved that 
 a standing army was the surest support to an arbitrary throne. 
 With a fleet only and without such an army, Wentworth would 
 Advice of say, a government had but 'one leg to stand upon. ; To 
 too^ood"f or secure an army he must have money. At present much 
 Charles. f the monies taken from the pockets of the people 
 passed into those of courtiers and their dependents, instead of 
 enriching the royal exchequer. It was easier to save money than 
 to get it, and Wentworth, therefore, advocated economy in admin- 
 istration, in fact, the true financial policy of getting money's worth 
 for money given. But Wentworth's advice was too good and his 
 energy too great for his master. The minister was to be like the 
 dwarf in the fairy tale, he was not to prescribe prudence but to 
 save his employer from the results of imprudence. Advancing 
 Wentworth as he did, Charles shrank from opposing the wishes of 
 his wife and curtailing the perquisites of his friends. Under these 
 conditions, the king's government might be violent, it could never 
 be strong. 
 
 Wentworth speedily concluded peace with France (April, 1629) 
 
jjggj COURT AND QUEEN. 6S 
 
 and Spain (Nov., 1630). Experience had already proved that it 
 was impossible to carry on war without applying to Parliament 
 for aid To provide for the expenses of the court and govern- 
 ment was no easy matter, even when the country was at peace. 
 
 Charles' vain and passionate wife, Henrietta Maria, charaetor of 
 who in an ill-temper could dash her hands through the Henrietta 
 panes of a window, or turn a whole company out ot 
 her presence with one of her royal scowls, was not a queen to be 
 easily guided by a minister. With some, however, her smiles 
 were fas potent as her frowns, and she soon won an ascendancy 
 over her husband equal to that which Buckingham once exercised. 
 To her, happiness meant a gay life at Whitehall, with a constant 
 series of balls and masques, so that the expenses of the Charley 
 court rose rapidly, and soon reached sums iar larger g0VOTi ment 
 than those considered enormous in the time of James, corrupt 
 Delighting, as she did, in the exercise of pow«r and patronage , it 
 wi to the queen, and not to the king, or to Wentworth, that 
 courtiers andVir dependents applied, in order to obtain lucrative 
 monopolies, offices, or pensions. The court offices were, indeed 
 Regarded as a sort of booty. Fixed salaries there -ere none 
 but fees and perquisites were numerous, and every mans hand 
 was open to a" bribe. There was no shame felt in the matte. 
 The Earl of Dorset, a member o£ council, and a judge in the Star 
 Chamber, openly declared that he thought it no crime for a cour- 
 tier to receive a reward from one for whom he procured a favour. 
 Out of the royal revenue* had to be provided, not only money 
 sufficient to satisfy the desires of the court, but also to keep up 
 the navy, to provide for the repairs of castles and forts, the ex- 
 penses of ambassadors, and the salaries of officers of the executive. 
 * The king's ordinary revenue consisted— 
 (1 ) Of tines paid by feudal tenants. 
 
 2 \ Of rents accruing from lands belonging to the crown. 
 (3 ) Of fines and fees paid in courts of justice. 
 U'{ Of forfeitures of lands and goods for offences. 
 
 5 Of the first-fruits and tenths of all spmtual preferments m the king- 
 don^ Tnelstluits or annates .ere the first year s who e pr o^s by a 
 
 (Q)0£ the customduties, when granted to the king for life. To theso 
 however, Charles had no legal claim. See p. 31. 
 
S4 DESPEKATE FINANCE. [no pam 
 
 Since Parliamentary grants were out of the question and tha 
 ordinary revenue did not nearly meet the demand, a raid was 
 made upon the property of all classes of society. 
 
 The nobility and gentry suffered as much as any. Holders of 
 
 rSdV l Tt ° n the b ° rderS 0f ro ? al forests w ^re accused 
 illegal ot having encroached on the king's domains ; the 
 
 means judges received orders to ferret out the weak points 
 
 of titles, and when the cases came into court, to intimidate jurors 
 into giving verdicts in the king's favour. Adverse verdicts en- 
 tailed fines of ruinous amounts, and the legal rule that no pre- 
 scription holds good against the crown was carried so far that 
 even lands held by a title of three hundred years were reclaimed 
 as royal property. By these means, the bounds of Eockingham 
 Forest were increased from six miles to sixty. But < depression 
 of the nobility/ says Bacon, 'may make a king more absolute 
 but less safe/ These, and similar encroachments, only helped to 
 cement the alliance between peers and commoners. 
 
 There was an old feudal custom, long fallen into disuse, that 
 on the accession of a new king, all who held land of him by 
 knights' service, worth above the paltry sum of ^20 per annum 
 should receive the order of knighthood, or pay a fine. Fines 
 were now exacted from noblemen and gentlemen in all parts of 
 the country, for having neglected to be knighted when Charles 
 came to the throne. The fines levied were three or four times 
 the amount at which the delinquents would have been rated for 
 subsidies. The Catholics in return for their support were allowed 
 to compound at an easier rate.* 
 
 The poor were also attacked. A statute, passed during the 
 reign of Elizabeth, requiring that cottagers should have four acres 
 of ground attached to their dwellings, had probably never been 
 
 ?aked u S enf ° rCed ' had certainl y lon S since fall en into disuse ■■ 
 up - the poor householders were now held responsible and 
 complained that they were " mightily vexed," for commissioners- 
 were sent twenty miles round London to search out and fine 
 those who had disobeyed the statute. The commissioners employed 
 were "needy men of no fame, prisoners out of the Fleet," whose 
 services, of course, could be cheaply bought ; the money they 
 collected mostly went to enrich two lords, who had received as a 
 favour from the king, leave to put the commission into execution. 
 * Ellis, Orig. Letters, ii. eclxxi. 
 
1629 -j MONOPOLIES. 55 
 
 If no old law could be raked up, Charles would act by procla- 
 mation For instance, lie forbade by proclamation the building 
 of new houses, in or about London. Builders either bought 
 licences, or else ran the risk of being called to account and 
 punished for disregarding the proclamation * Thus one man waa 
 fined £1000, and ordered to pull down forty-two dwelling-houses, 
 stables, and coach-houses, by a certain time, on pain of paying a. 
 second £1000. Any classes who refused such black mail were 
 severely dealt with. The innkeepers of London were inhibited 
 from dressing any meat, because they declined to pay an excise 
 duty on wine, when levied by the sole authority of the Council. 
 They were soon glad to compound. , 
 
 As a further means of raising money, the king granted or sold 
 patents for the exclusive sale or manufacture of certain articles. 
 The monopolists formed companies, of which all Monopolies 
 traders or manufacturers were forced to - become 
 members and obey the regulations. By these means taxes were 
 laid on articles of every-day use and consumption, such as salt, 
 com, lace, tobacco, barrels, linen, cloth ; but most of the money 
 so raised, while impoverishing the nation by raising the price of 
 all necessaries, enriched, not the king, but his courtiers and then- 
 dependents. For instance, out of every £12 raised by the mono- 
 poly of wine, only £1 reached the exchequer, the other £11 stop- 
 ping by the way amongst the vintners and the owners of the 
 patent If the companies sold bad articles, there was no redress. 
 The poor women in London complained that the soap made by the 
 company burnt the linen, scalded their fingers and was full of 
 tallow and lime. The soap-boilers were Catholics, and got the 
 queen's laundress to subscribe to the goodness of the soap, but 
 "she tells her Majesty she does not wash her linen with any 
 other than Castile soap, and the truth is, most of the ladies tha* 
 have subscribed have their linen washed with Castile soap. 
 The Lord Mayor, whom the women followed about in the streets, 
 
 * Lawful proclamations were those— 
 
 m Issued bv the crown in its purely executive capacity. 
 
 2 Siting acts already prohibited bj 'law or calling on the subject 
 4 n Perform some duty to which he was bound by law. 
 
 l ° CXl proclamations were those usurping the ^^ % V^^ 
 the crown by right could only exercise in common with the two Houses ot 
 Parliament as for instance, those granting individuals privileges against 
 fhe rights of others, imposing duties not imposed by law, prohibiting under 
 penalties acts which the law did not recognize as oftences. 
 
66 PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT. [no pabi* 
 
 clamorously petitioning against the new soap, received a sharp 
 reproof at the Council Board for giving too soft answers. The 
 monopolies alienated London, which might have supplied the 
 sinews of war to the king, as it eventually did for the Parlia- 
 ment. It was noted that " discontinuance of Parliaments brings 
 up this kind of grain, which commonly is blasted when they 
 come." 
 
 Besides being extortionate and arbitrary, the government was 
 often cruel ; and the common law judges, instead of administer- 
 ing justice impartially between subject and sovereign, allowed 
 themselves to be made the instruments of oppression. Upon the 
 dissolution of the last Parliament, several members of the Com- 
 mons were imprisoned on warrants signed by the king, charging 
 Members of them with having stirred up sedition. Their counsel 
 
 late Parlia- 
 
 ment com- argued that sedition was a bailable offence, and that, 
 Sj]yto ille " therefore, they ought to be let free on bail. The 
 prison. judges, however, following the king's instructions, 
 
 required the prisoners, not only to find bail for the present 
 charge, but securities for their good behaviour in the future. As 
 they refused to comply with these demands, which would have 
 kept them under the thumb of the court and its judges, they were 
 ordered back into prison. 
 
 These country leaders, who led the opposition in Parliament, 
 risked much — property, liberty, life. Sir John Eliot, being of too 
 noble a nature to be wrought upon either by corruption or intimi- 
 dation, naturally became the victim of a government that always 
 required submission before it relaxed its hold. He had long 
 since been obliged to give away his property in trust for his 
 children, to preserve himself and his family from ruin. An in- 
 formation in the King's Bench was now brought against Hollis 
 and Yalentine for raising a tumult in the Commons on the last 
 day of the session, and against Eliot, for words spoken in the 
 House. The three pleaded that the offences with which they were 
 
 charged, being committed in Parliament, were not 
 of King's punishable in any other place. The most important 
 ifiot h ° U °f a ^ privileges of Parliament, freedom of speech con- 
 Hollis, cerning matters of Parliamentary debate, was here 
 
 called into question ; and the prisoners' counsel brought 
 forward many precedents to show that the liberties and privileges 
 of Parliament could only be determined in Parliament, and not 
 
1629.] DEATH OF ELIOT. 57 
 
 by any inferior court. The King's Bench, however, decided that 
 it had a right to judge the alleged offences, though committed in 
 Parliament, and condemned the defendants to be imprisoned 
 during the king's pleasure ; Eliot to pay a fine to the king of 
 .£2000, Hollis 1000 marks* Valentine £500 (Feb. 12, 1630). t 
 
 In the course of twelve months' time, the other prisoners either 
 consented to find sureties for good behaviour, or paid their fines, 
 or were allowed to go at large on some excuse or other. Sir John 
 Eliot alone refused to make any concession of principle, and was still 
 closely confined in the Tower. Consumption attacked him, and 
 his doctors prescribed air and exercise, but he was not allowed 
 to pass out of the walls of his prison. " I am now," he writes, 
 " where candlelight may be suffered, but scarce fire f and this, 
 though his lodgings had been changed to a dark End of Sir 
 gloomy chamber. He sent a petition to the king, John Eliot, 
 informing him that he had fallen into a dangerous disease, 
 and praying to be allowed to take some fresh air. Charles 
 replied that the petition was not humble enough. Sir John 
 sent a second by the hand of his son. " I am heartily sorry," 
 he wrote, "I have displeased your Majesty, and beseech 
 you once again to command your judges to set me at liberty, 
 that when I have recovered my health, I may return back 
 to my prison." But no order for release came : and the 
 Lieutenant of the Tower offered to present a third petition 
 with his own hand, and made no doubt but that Charles would 
 grant it if Sir John would only write so as to acknowledge his 
 fault, and humbly pray for pardon. " I thank you. sir," re- 
 plied Eliot, " for your friendly advice, but my spirits are grown 
 feeble and faint, which when it shall please God to restore unto 
 their former vigour, I will take it into consideration." He did 
 not mean to use the language of a culprit, and purchase his 
 own life by betraying the cause of the nation. Death soon re- 
 leased him while still in the prime of his life (set. 40). His son 
 sent a petition to the king, begging that his father's body might 
 be buried in his own county of Cornwall. Charles wrote under 
 
 * 1 mark = 13s. 4d. ; therefore.. 1000 marks, £666 13s. 4d. 
 
 •}• In 1667, only seven years after the Kestoration, the Commons resolved 
 that the judgment now given against Eliot, Hollis, and Valentine, though 
 right as regarded the imputed riot, was illegal in extending to words spoken, 
 in Parliament; the Lords concurred in the vote and reversed the judgment. 
 This decision established, once for all, the privilege of freedom of speech iu 
 Parliament, unlimited by any authority except that of the House itself. 
 
58 CHAEiCTEE OF ELIOT. [no pabl/ 
 
 the petition these words : " 'Let Sir John Eliot's body be buried 
 in the church of that parish where he died.' And so he was 
 buried in the Tower." Such was the fate of one of the purest- 
 hearted of patriots (1632). 
 
 His history shows in an eminent degree the nobleness of the 
 leaders of the opposition and the constitutional rectitude of their 
 aims : with a true loyalty to his king, whom he tried in vain to 
 urge into right courses, he won the leadership of the Commons, not 
 more by his vivid eloquence than by the single-minded devotion 
 of his character. There was a true pathos in his stoical bearing 
 under suffering. In the solitude of his prison he bade his friends, 
 * for their own sakes forbear coming to visit him.' Dying in the 
 Tower he appealed to his son at college not to let him 'receive by 
 any misconduct of his that wound which no enemy could give — 
 sorrow and affliction of the mind.' The limit he gently put to 
 the intercessions of the friendly governor reminds us of the scene 
 in Plato when Socrates put Crito's appeal aside by telling him 
 that he heard the laws of his land remonstrating with him ' to 
 think of right first, and of life and children afterwards.' Thus, 
 unlike the Koyalist victim of the Revolution, he departed ' as a 
 sufferer and not a doer of evil.'* His country did not lose by his 
 adherence to principle. In later times when the cause of liberty 
 was in peril its defenders thought of Eliot and fought on.f 
 Illegal Illegal judgments were now the curse of the nation* 
 
 Courtofthe ^ nere th e common law courts could find no crime, 
 North. the illegal courts came into action. North of the 
 
 Humber. the Court of the North, of which "Wentworth was 
 president, took the place of the Star Chamber in the south. Its 
 origin was even more questionable. Henry VIII., after an insur- 
 rection in 1536, issued a commission to the Archbishop of York 
 and several gentlemen of the north, to examine into the grounds 
 of the disorder, and to punish offenders in riots and conspiracies. 
 But long after all traces of the insurrection had disappeared, the 
 court remained, and its authority was gradually extended. The 
 people dwelling north of the Humber complained that they were, 
 shut out from the protection of the common law courts at. 
 "Westminster, and that their personal liberty and property were 
 at the mercy of arbitrary judges, who sentenced according to their 
 
 * See p. 98, and Plato, "Crito," 54. 
 t See p. 105. 
 
1629.] ILLEGAL COURTS. 6$ 
 
 discretion. While the Court of the North was thus accused of 
 encroaching even upon the civil jurisdiction of the Westminster 
 courts, the Star Chamber was chiefly concerned with criminal 
 cases, such as forgery, perjury, riot, libel, conspiracy, and every 
 kind of misdemeanour. It adjudged any punishment short of 
 death, as pillory, whipping, branding, cutting off the ears, fine, 
 and imprisonment. 
 
 The customs were levied with rigour, though they had never 
 been granted to Charles by statute. 
 
 Chambers, one of several merchants whose goods had been 
 seized for refusing to pay illegal duties, vented his in- Sentence oi ; 
 dignation by saying before the Council Board, "that the g^ £ ham " 
 merchants in no part of the world were so screwed and Chambers, 
 wrung as in England ; that in Turkey they had more encourage- 
 ment." The judges of the common law courts could have found 
 no law by which to inflict a heavy punishment for a few hasty 
 words. The judges of the Star Chamber, guided in their judg- 
 ment by their discretion, declared the expressions used were likely 
 to make the people believe that Charles' happy government was a 
 Turkish tyranny, and sentenced Chambers to pay a fine of £2000, 
 and to sign a submission. Chambers wrote under the submission 
 these words : "I do utterly abhor and detest the contents of 
 this submission, and never, till death, will acknowledge any part 
 thereof." He was refused by the judges his habeas corpus, and 
 remained a prisoner many years. 
 
 Wentworth, as the councillor who possessed most influence in 
 the government, incurred the hatred of all lovers of liberty, with- 
 out gaining the friendship of the queen or the court. Begardless 
 of the interests of courtiers and their dependents, he Administra- 
 resolutely endeavoured, as far as he could obtain wentworth. 
 Charles' support, to govern with a view to increase the and Laud, 
 power of the crown. This administration required the surrender 
 of illicit gains, and the punishment of criminals, however close 
 their connection with men in high places. While, therefore, its 
 vices incurred the odium of the country, its virtues incurred the 
 odium of the court. However much a Somerset or a Buckingham 
 may have been hated by rival aspirants to royal favour, it was 
 the men who were hated and not their regime. Under them, so 
 long as the interests of the favourite remained untouched, free 
 licence was given to all to make their fortunes by the first means 
 
CO WENTWORTH IN ENGLAND/ [no pael. 
 
 that came to hand. The court and government of James had been 
 thoroughly corrupt. The corruption of the courtiers under James 
 had continued under Charles. But, where free rein was given 
 him, Wentworth thus, not unaptly, describes the character of his 
 administration : " Where I found a crown, a church, and a people 
 spoiled, I could not imagine to redeem them from under the pres- 
 sure with gracious smiles and gentle looks ; it would cost warmer 
 water than so ... . True it was, indeed, I knew no other rule 
 to govern by but by reward and punishment ; and I must profess 
 that where I found a person well and entirely set for the service 
 of my master, I should lay my hand under his foot, and add to 
 his respect and power all I might ; and that where I found the 
 contrary, I should not dandle him in my arms, or soothe him 
 in his untoward humour, but if he came in my reach, so 
 far as honour and justice would warrant me, I must knock him 
 soundly over the knuckles."* In Yorkshire, as president of the 
 Court of the North, by preventing the proceeds of his trenchant 
 measures from being filched by petty tax-gatherers, he succeeded 
 in raising the royal revenue in the four northern counties to four 
 or five times its previous amount. In London, Laud was also a 
 zealous servant of the crown, and though ruthlessly trampling on 
 recalcitrant merchants who refused to pay illegal customs, would 
 try to remedy abuses and give ear to complaints, if trade were in 
 any way injured for the advantage of a courtier. 
 
 In the year 1632 Wentworth was appointed Lord Deputy of 
 Ireland. During the reigns of Elizabeth and James L, Ireland 
 m t „ had for the first time been brought into complete 
 
 Wentworth, 
 
 LordDeputy subjection to English rule. English laws and English 
 o re an . cus ^ oms k ac i been introduced into every province, 
 and the Protestant Church established in place of the Catholic. 
 The population was divided into three parts : 1st, the native 
 Irish ; 2nd, the old English settlers in Dublin and the neighbour- 
 ing counties of Kildare, Louth, and the two Meaths, which con- 
 stituted ' the English pale ' ; 3rd, new English and Scotch 
 settlers who had been planted upon lands taken from Irish rebela 
 by Elizabeth and James. 
 
 State of Ire- The Irish and old English settlers, forming a large 
 
 land. majority of the population, were Catholics ; the new 
 
 eettlers Protestants. Though the Acts of Supremacy and Uni- 
 
 * Straff. Letters and Despatches, ii. 20. 
 
1632.] WENTWORTH IN IRELAND. 81 
 
 formity had been enacted by an Irish Parliament, they were not 
 fully put into force, because it was hardly possible to fine non- 
 conformists, when 'in six parishes scarce six came to church/ 
 Those, however, who refused to take the oath of supremacy 
 when tendered, were shut out from holding any office in the State, 
 or even from practising as lawyers. The people were ignorant 
 and untaught. The Protestant clergy could not speak the same 
 language as their flocks, and, while living with idle hands in a 
 false position, had won for themselves an indifferent character. 
 The Catholic bishops exercised far more power than the Protes- 
 tant ; the great lords, whether English or Irish, oppressed their 
 tenants ; the ministers of justice took bribes ; the officers em- 
 ployed by the government, and the Protestant clergy, extorted 
 large fees on every possible pretext ; an undisciplined army was 
 scattered over the country, living at free quarters ; pirates from 
 Dunkirk, Algiers, Spain, the Bay of Biscay, so infested the coasts, 
 that the people were plundered in every creek ; while the cap- 
 tains of the king's ships refused to move against them, alleging 
 want of victuals, though the crews — 'mere rabbles of dis- 
 orderly people ' — did the country more injury than the pirates 
 themselves ; meantime merchant vessels were run aground, rifled 
 and burnt in sight of Dublin Castle ; there was little trade ; the 
 taxes did not pay the expenses of the government, so that there 
 was a debt of ,£100,000 owing by the crown.* 
 
 Wentworth was probably sent there because fair promises had 
 been made to the Irish, which it was disagreeable to fulfil. The 
 king hoped Wentworth's genius would keep Ireland quiet ; he 
 could not yet have hoped it would forge Ireland into a weapon to 
 use against English liberty, f Wentworth set himself to work to 
 rule despotically, but after he had put first his master's interest, he 
 showed some regard for that of the people entrusted to Went- 
 him. No corruption was allowed ; the fees received by ministra^ 
 the officers, high and low, in the government employ, tion - 
 were inquired into ; judges were not allowed to act as mere in- 
 struments of great lords' oppression : the army was remodelled ; 
 discipline enforced ; Wentworth saw every single man himself, 
 though it numbered nearly 4000 ; the soldier paid for all he took ; 
 captains were made to understand that for the future they must 
 perform garrison duty, must drill their troops, and provide them 
 * Straff. Letters and Despatches, f See p. 89. 
 
32 WENTWORTH IN IRELAND. [no fabl. 
 
 with good arms and horses, instead of appropriating the funds 
 for their own uses. They soon found that the lord deputy was 
 not the sort of man to jest with ; they had either to do as they 
 were told, or leave the service. The navy was unfortunately in- 
 dependent of his control. In Went worth's own words, it grieved 
 his heart that he had no power over the Admiralty. His grief 
 indeed was no matter for wonder. The ship that was conveying 
 over from England his wardrobe, furniture, and plate, was seized 
 on the passage by that same Captain Nutt whom James I. and 
 Secretary Calvert in 1623 let loose a second time upon the 
 world.* As it was, to protect Dublin harbour from pirates, 
 he fitted ont a vessel at his own charge. He encouraged trade, 
 but only so far as he thought the increase of Irish trade not detri- 
 mental to that of England. Thus in order to ensure to English 
 manufacturers a readier sale for their cloths from the absence of 
 Irish competition, he actually destroyed the woollen trade in 
 Ireland. At the same time he introduced into Ulster the manu- 
 facture of linen from flax, erected looms, brought workmen from 
 France and Flanders, and sent the first cargo of linen to Spain at 
 his own risk. For this prohibitive policy in the supposed interest 
 of England, Wentworth deserves no special blame. It is a blot 
 attaching quite as much to the character of English parliaments as 
 to that of English kings. What was special in that policy now, 
 was the length to which it was carried. No deputy before Went- 
 worth had been in possession at once of the necessary energy, 
 determination, and disregard of human suffering, to uproot one 
 branch of industry in the vain hope of seeing another spring up 
 in a moment. Notwithstanding this suicidal act, the vigour of the 
 government soon produced striking results ; the debts of the 
 crown were paid off, and in four years the customs were raised 
 from ,£1200 to £40,000 and were still on the increase. 
 
 Yet the Irish felt no gratitude to the deputy, for if he pro- 
 tected them from the oppression of the government officers, and 
 of their own aristocracy, he laid their property open to the rapa- 
 city of the king, and their personal freedom to his own vengeance. 
 
 The Irish had been required by Elizabeth and James to sur- 
 render their lands, in order to receive them back to hold by 
 feudal tenure. The grants, by which the land had been restored, 
 ought to have been enrolled in the Court of Chancery. But 
 though the Irish of Connaught had paid £3000 for the purpose, 
 * See p. 18. 
 
1634.] IRISH PARLIAMENT. 68 
 
 the enrolment had in many cases been neglected, and James' 
 council had advised him on this pretext to forfeit the whole pro- 
 vince, and to plant English Protestants on the lands thus taken 
 from their rightful owners. When Charles came to the throne, the 
 Irish, in terror of this project, proposed to support an army of 
 5000 men for three years, in return for fifty-three royal concessions 
 or " graces." Of these the most important were, that the inhabi- 
 tants of Connaught should be allowed to enrol their grants ; that 
 the crown should lay claim to no estates that had been held for 
 sixty years ; and that an Irish Parliament should be held to con- 
 firm these graces. Charles had agreed, signed the graces, and pro- 
 mised that a Parliament should be summoned to confirm them. 
 
 This Parliament was at last summoned by Wentworth, wentworth 
 after the army had been supported for four, instead of obtains a 
 for three years, the time originally agreed upon. It from Irish 
 would seem hardly credible that neither the king nor Parliament - 
 his deputy, after having received the money, should have had the 
 smallest intention of performing their part of the compact. Yet 
 such was the case ; it was only with great reluctance that Charles 
 allowed a Parliament, " that hydra, cunning as malicious/' to be 
 summoned at all. Wentworth, however, was confident that he 
 should be able to manage it, by playing off the jealousies of 
 Protestants against Catholics, and of Catholics against Protes- 
 tants, and succeeded so well, that he persuaded the Parliament 
 to grant the king six subsidies, giving the members to understand 
 that after they had proved themselves such dutiful subjects, the 
 king would be sure to grant them their desires. Never were 
 men more deceived. The perfidious deputy, when sure of the 
 money, turned round and told the Commons that most of the 
 graces were prejudicial to the crown, and that it was his duty to 
 beseech his Majesty not to grant them. They were helpless. A 
 law called Poyning's Law had been passed in 1495, by which no 
 bills could be introduced into the Irish Parliament except/such 
 as had been first allowed by the king and the English council. 
 Hence the Irish House of Commons was not nearly so indepen- 
 dent in action as the English, and the Parliament was dissolved 
 without the most important graces having been passed into law. 
 
 The consequences were soon experienced. Went- Lands in 
 worth travelled west into Connaught, and inquired forfeited to 
 into defective titles (1635). The Council Chamber, an crown. 
 
M WENTWORTH IN IRELAND, [no pakl. 
 
 arbitrary court, answering the same purpose as the Star Chamber 
 in England, fined the first jurors who declared against the crown 
 .£4000 each. After this example, little resistance was made. 
 Some lands were declared to belong to the crown, that had been 
 held for 300 years, and land-owners were glad to be allowed to 
 pay a rent to the king for part of their lands, and to give up the 
 rest for him to bestow on new Protestant settlers. This attack 
 upon their property was far from being all that the Irish suf- 
 fered. The deputy's pride and vindictiveness were unparalleled. 
 Any who offended he marked out for destruction, and hunted 
 down. Lord Mountnorris, vice-treasurer in Ireland, and a captain 
 in the navy, was suddenly summoned, with several other officers in 
 Dublin, to attend the deputy at a council of war (12th Dec, 1635). 
 Mountnorris found himself accused of having said, six months 
 before, at a dinner table, that a gentleman, struck by Wentworth, 
 " had a brother that would not have taken such a blow." The 
 court, composed mainly of councillors, then and there, in the 
 presence of the deputy, sentenced the victim to be deprived of all 
 office, and to be shot dead. The latter part of the sentence Went- 
 worth only intended to be passed, not executed ; the former he 
 caused to be put in force, and prided himself on thus having 
 humbled a man towards whom he had for a long time felt ill 
 will. 
 
 Laws against His ecclesiastical policy was somewhat less severe, 
 not en- CS Though the endowments of churches had been given 
 forced. to p ro testant bishops and clergymen, every parish was 
 
 allowed its priest and its mass-house, simply because Wentworth 
 did not feel himself strong enough to put the Act of Uniformity 
 into full force. When the English should be more thickly settled, 
 when there should be in the country an army composed entirely 
 of Protestants, strong enough to crush rebellion, he looked forward 
 to forcing every Papist to conform to the Protestant worship. 
 
 Meantime the success of his Irish government did not lessen the 
 number of the deputy's enemies at home. The queen and her tribe 
 looked upon Ireland as a country where offices ought to be bestowed, 
 as in England, upon her Majesty's recommendation. Wentworth 
 begged the king that no office might be given away without the 
 deputy's consent. Charles agreed, but ungenerously objected to 
 make the denials himself. " You," he wrote, " must take upon 
 you the refusing part." The disappointed courtiers displayed 
 
1632.] THIRTY YEAES' WAE. 65 
 
 their spite by exclaiming against the deputy's pride and tyranny. 
 True, they said, he refused to take bribes, but he was none the 
 worse off, for he never gave any, as others refused his presents. If 
 "Wentworth's enemies in London might be believed, Mountnorris 
 was actually shot, and people could even tell where the bullets 
 had entered his body. 
 
 In spite of the great financial success of the Irish administra- 
 tion, the revenue raised in that country could not possibly be 
 made to provide for the expenses of the English government. 
 Hence although Wentworth carefully husbanded his surplus 
 funds, and although so many illegal modes of taxation were re- 
 sorted to in England, poverty prevented Charles from rendering 
 the Protestant cause on the continent any effectual support either 
 by arms or by negotiation. 
 
 The Thirty Years' War was still raging. The Em- Thirty 
 peror Ferdinand II., after his armies had overrun the Years ' War - 
 north of Germany, nourished hopes, not only of rooting the Pro- 
 testant doctrines out of Germany, but also of reducing the 
 Catholic princes to dependence upon Austria (1628 — 1630). But 
 at the moment when his power seemed greatest, the Protestants 
 were saved by the break up of the Catholic camp. The Catholic 
 princes of Germany feared they niighu lose their own indepen- 
 dence if they suffered the emperor to overpower their Protestant 
 fellows. The pope himself, Urban VIII., alarmed at the inter- 
 ference of Austria in Italy, joined the side of the French, and 
 thus indirectly aided the Protestants. Finally Bichelieu, still 
 the chief minister of Louis XIII., eager as his successors for a 
 divided Germany, called on Gustavus Adolphus, King of 
 Sweden, to help in restoring the German princes to their ancient 
 rights, by overthrowing the tyranny of the einperor. 
 
 Gustavus, with a small army of 30,000 men, defeated the Lxl- 
 perial general, Tilly, at Leipzig (Sept., 1631), and penetrated into 
 the heart of Bavaria. At Lutzen he defeated the celebrated 
 "Wallenstein, and lost his own life (Nov., 1632). After his 
 death every nation engaged was fighting for some special in- 
 terest, and the war continued for seventeen years with varied 
 success. Frederic, prince of the palatinate, died in 1632, still 
 an exile from his dominions, but leaving his son to continue his. 
 claims. 
 
 6 
 
66 SHIP-MONEY. |no pakl. 
 
 The course of Gustavus -was followed in England with, deep 
 interest. English and Scotch volunteers, after serving in the 
 Swedish armies, returned home to note with grief that while 
 they had been fighting in defence of the Protestant faith and 
 political rights, their own country was falling subject to the sway 
 of a religion that differed little from the Romish, and of a 
 tyranny in the State that threatened to make government by 
 Parliaments a thing of the past. Wentworth's influence, how- 
 ever, foiled the war-party ; " Good my lord," he wrote to Laud 
 in 1637, "if it be not too late, use your best to divert us from 
 this war [with Austria] ; it will necessarily put the king into all 
 high ways possible, else will he not be able to subsist under the 
 charge of it, and if these fail the next will be but the sacrificing 
 those who have been his ministers." 
 
 Coasts of Not only, however, was Charles too poor to aid the 
 
 festedby*" Protestant cause, he could not even defend the coasts of 
 pirates. his own kingdom. Dutch and French fishing vessels 
 
 encroached on the English fisheries, refusing even to ' vail their 
 flags' to the king's ships, while pirates from Algiers made 
 descents upon the coasts of both England and Ireland, and carried 
 off captives to be slaves to the Mussulman. 
 „, . To raise a fleet, Charles ventured on a great strain 
 
 bhip-money. * ° 
 
 of his prerogative, A lawyer, Nov, had found in the 
 
 Tower some old writs, calling on the ports and maritime counties 
 to provide ships for the public service. It was suggested by Finch, 
 chief justice of the Common Pleas, that the same demand should 
 now be made, not only on ports and maritime places, but also 
 on inland counties, and that instead of causing each county to 
 jDrovide so many ships, a general tax under the name of ship- 
 money, should be levied on land and property, in the same man- 
 ner as a subsidy granted in Parliament. 
 
 People wondered, and even dependents of "Wentworth ventured 
 to express their dislike to the new imposition. " I would rather," 
 one wrote, " pay ten subsidies in Parliament, than ten shillings 
 this new-old -way of dead Noy^." None, however, had yet re- 
 sisted illegal demands with impunity, and no immoderate oppo- 
 sition being offered, Charles gained yearly a sum of about 
 £200,000 by this tax. He employed, indeed, the money on the 
 object for which it was nominally raised. The Dutch fishers 
 
1637] SHIP MONEY. 67 
 
 one year bought licences, and Eainsborough led an expedition 
 against Salee on the coast of Algiers, whence he brought back 
 from slavery 370 Englishmen and Irishmen (1637). So far the 
 fleet restored England's supremacy, and the court gloried in the 
 success of this high-handed policy. Privy councillors would laugh 
 when the expression ' Liberty of the subject ' was used before 
 them ; they said that the taxes and monopolies in England were 
 nothing compared with those endured by other king- Di scon t e nt 
 doms, and that the people ought to be thankful for the general in 
 happiness of England, which grew rich in long years of 
 peace while cruel wars devastated the continent and its inhabi- 
 tants perished from famine. The facts were true enough, but it 
 offers no satisfaction to sufferers to be told that others suffer 
 more. The English people, who prided themselves on the 
 free constitution of their country, felt as though an insult were 
 offered them when their condition was compared with that of the 
 slavish peasant of France, who could call nothing his own.* 
 Gentlemen, freeholders, artisans, would talk and argue about 
 their rights, and regret their old government by Parliaments. 
 The students at the Inns of Court were noted for their loyalty, 
 but even they, in getting up a masque in the queen's honour, 
 could not forbear having a sly cut at the government. After the 
 well-mounted masquers, with their gold and silver lace, their 
 cloth of tissue, their silver spangles, followed the antimasquers, 
 cripples, and beggars, on " poor lean jades ;" amongst them a 
 fellow with a bunch of carrots upon his head, and a capon upon 
 his fist, who begged a patent of monopoly as the first inventor of 
 the art to feed capons fat with carrots ; after him came riding a 
 man on a little horse with a great bit, who begged a patent that 
 none might use any bits but such as were made by him. The 
 crowd in the streets applauded, understanding a covert reproach 
 at the monopolies, which raised the prices of the commonest 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 * During the reign of Henri IV. the prisons of Normandy were full of 
 prisoners unable to pay the tax on salt. So many died, that 120 corpses were 
 taken out at a time. The Parliament of Rouen begged his Majesty to take 
 pity on his people ; but the king, who had been informed that the tax waa 
 very productive, said he wished it to be continued, and seemed as though ha 
 would make a joke of the rest — ' Semblait qu'il voulut tourner le reste en 
 ristSe.' — La valine, iii. 57. 
 
 5—2 
 
€B HAMPDEN— SHIP-MONEY CASE. [no pa*c 
 
 Judgmentof John Hampden, a gentleman of Buckinghamshire, 
 Court of Ex- wa s among the first to endanger his property and 
 
 cn6Qu.er in ox ± */ 
 
 Hampden's liberty in support of his country's rights. He refused 
 case ' to pay the twenty shillings at which a piece of his land 
 
 was rated for ship-money. Charles consented to allow the case to 
 be tried at law. He thought himself sure of the judges, for he 
 had already obtained the signatures of all twelve to an extra- 
 judicial opinion, publicly read in the Star Chamber, ' that his 
 Majesty might command all his subjects to provide and furnish 
 such number of ships with men, munition, and victuals, and for 
 such time as he should think fit, for the defence and safeguard of 
 the kingdom, and that he was the sole judge both of the danger, 
 and when and how the same was to be prevented and avoided.' 
 
 The cause of Hampden was pleaded for twelve days before 
 all the twelve judges of the Westminster courts, who by virtue 
 of the Star Chamber opinion, stood in the same relation to the 
 parties, as though previous to a trial for murder they had in a 
 public and notorious manner declared their belief in the innocence 
 of the accused. The whole nation, poor and rich, Puritans and 
 Episcopalians, alike waited eagerly for the judgment. 
 
 Hampden's counsel brought forward what seemed an overwhelm- 
 ing weight of evidence. They could point to the various statutes 
 from Magna Charta to the Petition of Eight, that declared taxation, 
 without consent of Parliament, illegal. Even if precedents to 
 the contrary were to be found in times when " the government 
 was more of force than of law," such, they argued, must give way 
 before the authority of statute law. This was in fact unanswer- 
 able. But the crown lawyers maintained that absolute power 
 — power to act without consent of Parliament — was innate 
 in the person of the King of England. Some of the judges 
 in giving sentence treated all constitutional statutes as waste 
 paper. " Where Mr. Holborne," said Justice Berkeley, " sup- 
 posed a fundamental policy in the creation of the frame of 
 this kingdom — that in case the monarch of England should be 
 inclined to exact from his subjects at his pleasure, he should be 
 restrained, for he could have nothing from them but upon a 
 common consent in Parliament — he is utterly mistaken herein. 
 The law knows no such king-yoking policy. The law is itself 
 an old and trusty servant of the king's ; it is his instrument or 
 means which he useth to govern his people by. I never read noi 
 
1637.] FAVOURS TO CATHOLICS. 6* 
 
 heard that lex was rex, but it is common and most true that rex 
 is lex." " The king," said another, u may dispense with any law 
 in cases of necessity.'' Out of the twelve judges only two pro- 
 nounced in favour of Hampden ; one of these had intended to 
 give his judgment on the side of the crown, but changed his 
 mind through the persuasion of his wife, who bade him not to 
 fear danger for himself or his family, for she would sooner suffer 
 any want or misery with him, than that he should act against his 
 conscience (1637-8). 
 
 But at the moment when the victory of the king seemed com- 
 plete and courtiers were most exultant, danger was nearer than 
 they thought. The decision gave universal discontent. It is hard 
 to have your property taken from you illegally, but harder still 
 to be told that that illegality is law. It was a Cadmean victory 
 Charles had won ; the levying of ship-money was more difficult 
 after the verdict than before, and he could not put thousands 
 into prison for expressing discontent. Wentworth, wiser than his 
 master, had not approved of the trial at all — " Hampden," like 
 other opposers of tyranny, " had better have been whipped into 
 his right senses ;" " if the rod be so used that it smarts not, I 
 am the more sorry." 
 
 The nation hated the government of the State as arbitrary, 
 corrupt, and cruel; it hated, however, still more the con- 
 nivance at Popery, which characterized the government of 
 the Church. During the reign of Elizabeth, several severe 
 laws had been passed against Catholics, condemning Government 
 priests and Jesuits to suffer death as traitors, forbid- church. 
 ding the exercise of the Catholic worship, and ordering recusants 
 who refused to attend service in the parish church, to pay a fine 
 of ,£20 a month. But now these laws were not put into force ; 
 fines were not regularly levied : if priests were arrested, they 
 were at once discharged on warrants signed by the king or his 
 secretaries. A Catholic chapel, built at Somerset House for Queen 
 Henrietta's use, was publicly consecrated with three days' cere- 
 monies, masses, and singing of litanies. Agents from the court of 
 Rome actually resided in London ; they were known to everybody ; 
 their carriages rolled down the streets without any one daring to 
 say a word against them. Many of the courtiers, some of the 
 king's council, and even some of the bishops, were open or con- 
 cealed Catholics ; court ladies constantly went over to Rome, and 
 
70 FEELING AGAINST CATHOLICS. [no paiu. 
 
 the queen's Capuchin friars boasted that not a week passed but 
 there were two or three conversions. 
 
 The king, however, all the time, had no thoughts of weakening 
 his own prerogative by making the Church of England depen- 
 dent on a foreign see. He was courting Eome to procure the 
 pope's interest for the restoration of the palatinate to Charles, the 
 eldest son of his sister, Elizabeth. The pope, on his side, was 
 willing to keep on good terms with the heretical government, in 
 order to save English Catholics from persecution. In itself this 
 toleration was laudable. The motives, however, that influenced 
 Charles to exercise it, were no enlarged views of religious tolera- 
 tion. He forbore to put the laws against Catholics in force, 
 because the Catholics supported his pretensions to arbitrary 
 power. The public law was set aside by a private agreement. 
 At the same time, to make the contrast more bitter, Puritans, 
 often guiltless of any crime at law, were suffered to pine away in 
 prison under sentences of the courts of High Commission and 
 Star Chamber. 
 
 Various causes afford excuse for the bitter and intolerant spirit 
 Excuse for w ith which the Puritan regarded his Catholic fellow- 
 of Puritans, countrymen. Many still lived who could recall to 
 mind the events of 1588, when the Armada threatened the shores 
 of England. Thousands still lived who remembered the discovery 
 of the Gunpowder Plot. Jesuits had taught the doctrine, that here- 
 tic princes might be dethroned and murdered. Several attempts 
 had been made upon Elizabeth's life. William the Silent, the 
 heroic maintainer of Dutch liberty, had perished by the hand of 
 a fanatic. The same fate had befallen the great Henri IV. of 
 France. Diversity in the Church was thought incompatible with 
 unity in the State. On the continent, not only did Catholics 
 persecute Protestants, and Protestants Catholics, but one Protes- 
 tant sect could not tolerate another ; in England Presbyterians- 
 approved of the persecution of sectarians. In fact the principles 
 of toleration had hardly as yet been enunciated, much less had 
 they received a fair trial. It is experience alone that gives con- 
 fidence, and few are bold enough to enter upon an untried course 
 of action. The ordinary Englishman regarded the free toleration 
 of Catholics as a crime both against his God and his country ; as 
 a Protestant he considered it a direct encouragement to the 
 b-pread of idolatry and superstition ; as a patriot, an opening for 
 
1637 -j THE PUEITANS. 71 
 
 Catholic priests to usurp political power, and bring England again 
 into dependence upon a foreign jurisdiction. 
 
 There were, indeed, grounds for the fear, entertained by -atony, 
 that a union would finally be effected between the Established 
 Church of England and of Borne. Altars and images were restored 
 to churches ; popish ceremonies were revived, popish doctrines 
 taucdrt ; the work of the Eeforniation was in part undone ; the 
 worshipper was required to believe that all his church taught 
 him was true and necessary for salvation, even though her teach- 
 in- found no foundation in the Bible ; and again, in order to hold 
 communion with God, he must seek the aid of priests g«**£ 
 and assist in ceremonies he regarded as superstitious, tans. 
 But though a Puritan, even if a Presbyterian or sectarian, could be 
 forced to conform and attend his parish church, he could not be pre- 
 vented from spreading his opinions and making them felt by others 
 For his manners and his conduct betrayed him, and they were such 
 as to command approval. Morality was inculcated by the ministers 
 of the Church, as much as by the more popular preachers, but 
 practice is more than profession, and that Church was supported 
 by a court which treated vice lightly and made a scoff of virtue. 
 The genuine Puritan, on the contrary, was distinguished by his 
 strict observance of the moral virtues. He sought in the Bible, 
 but more especially in the books of the Old Testament, for the 
 rules by which to guide his actions ; he gained a vivid conception 
 of a personal God, with whom his own soul could enter into .direct 
 communion, and beneath whose displeasure it was fata to fall ; 
 and he felt with the Hebrew of the Old Testament "he that 
 keepeth the law, happy is he ; its ways are ways of pleasantness 
 and all its paths are peace ; if thouhadst walked m its ways, thou 
 shouldst have dwelt in peace for ever." 
 
 Imbued with such feelings, a certain seriousness of demeanour 
 characterized the Puritan, and he not unnaturally preferred to 
 pass his time in listening to sermons, in prayer, and in attending 
 to the business of his calling, to idly seeking amusement at the 
 theatre, the fair, or the dance, where he was sure to hear coarse 
 and profane language spoken, and to fall into the society of 
 drunkards. Confident that his conduct was approved by God, 
 he could look down upon the unregenerate, and regard their 
 scoffs with contempt. Amongst uneducated tradesmen and arti- 
 Bans, there were manv fanatics, who refused to take part m any 
 
72 LAUD AS PERSECUTOR. [no pahl. 
 
 amusements, however innocent, and who almost seemed to court 
 ridicule by their austere mode of life, their ostentatiously plain 
 dress, their close-cut hair, and their frequent use of the words of 
 scripture. 
 
 At the head of the Church stood Laud, Archbishop of Canter- 
 Character of bury. A man more unsuited to assuage the religious 
 Laud. passions of the times could hardly have held the posi- 
 
 tion. However great a virtue in itself, sincere zeal, when untem- 
 pered by charity, has produced the cruellest of persecutors. Some 
 by nature are possessed of a largeness of mind that enables them 
 to sympathize with the thoughts and feelings of others ; while to 
 some experience and education teach the duty, or at least the 
 necessity of tolerating what they fail themselves to understand. 
 Laud was sincere in his views, but nature had not generously gifted 
 him with the quality of mercy. He came into power untutored by 
 the experience won by working with others of different opinions. 
 His abilities were only ordinary, and though his education was 
 good for his time, it gave him learning rather than wisdom, and 
 never succeeded in making up for the deficiencies of his heart. The 
 new opinions seething around were nothing to him but a trouble- 
 some and dangerous fanaticism that required to be suppressed. Such 
 sincere bigots placed in power have often wrought their country 
 untold harm. They may by force succeed in stifling the new 
 movement for years, perhaps for centuries ; but, in either case, it 
 is sure at last to break forth, possibly in some new form, and 
 always with dangerous violence. Philip II., acting in the full 
 belief that his work was sacred, drove freedom of thought out of 
 Spain ; hence, to this very day, the tyranny of extremes retards 
 his country's advance and prosperity. Happily for England, 
 Laud's success was of short duration. The reaction came in his 
 lifetime, and he paid a heavy penalty for his rash attempt to force 
 conformity upon a people panting for spiritual freedom. 
 
 The courts held by bishops, as well as the Court of High Com- 
 Puritans mission, called to account ministers and laymen who 
 conform, did not attend church, or who failed to perform every 
 ceremony exactly as ordained in the Prayer-book, or, indeed, 
 as prescribed by Laud on his sole authority. A minister of 
 Durham, for speaking in a sermon against the use of pictures and 
 images, was degraded by the Court of High Commission, fined 
 i!500, and placed in prison, where he waited eleven years for the 
 
1637.] PRYNNE AND LILBURNE. 73 
 
 hour of release. The Court of Star Chamber, in which Laud him- 
 self sat as a judge, was always ready to support the cause of the 
 Church. Three professional men, Prynne, a lawyer ; Burton, a 
 London minister ; and Bastwick, a doctor, had written books in- 
 veighing against the bishops. On being brought before Sentences of 
 the Star Chamber, they were charged with felony, for b er on B Ur . 
 having tried to stir up sedition, and sentenced to pay ^^. Bast " 
 fines of £5000 each, to stand in the pillory in Palace Prynne. 
 Yard, Westminster, to have their ears cut off, and to be im- 
 prisoned for life. 
 
 " So far," said Bastwick, addressing the crowd, surging round 
 the pillories, " am I from base fear, or caring for anything that 
 they can do, that had I as much blood as would swell the Thames, 
 I would shed it every drop in this cause. Therefore, be not any 
 of you discouraged, be not daunted at their power." " Had we," 
 said Prynne, "respected (regarded) our liberties we had not 
 stood here at this time." " Sir," said a woman to Burton, 
 "there are many hundreds which, by God's assistance, would 
 willingly suffer for the cause you suffer for this day." A 
 mournful cry arose from the crowd, as the prisoners' ears were 
 cropped, and many pressed forward to dip handkerchiefs into 
 the blood streaming down the scaffold. 
 
 John Lilburne, a young man about twenty years Lttbume re- 
 old, was brought before the Star Chamber on a charge fuses illegal 
 of being concerned in bringing seditious books over 
 from Holland. He was required to swear, laying his hand 
 upon the Gospels, to answer truly all questions put to him. He 
 refused. " The oath," he said, " is of the same nature as the High 
 Commission oath, which oath I know to be unlawful, and withal 
 I find no warrant in the word of God for an oath of inquiry, and 
 therefore, my lords, I dare not take it."* In accordance with 
 his sentence, Lilburne was tied to a cart's tail and whipped from 
 the Fleet prison to Westminster Yard, at every two or three steps 
 receiving on his bare back a blow from a knotted treble-corded 
 whip. The young enthusiast never flinched, but all the way 
 quoted texts of Scripture, exhorting the crowd to resist the 
 bishops. At Westminster Yard he bowed to his judges, whom 
 he saw looking out at him from the Court of Star Chamber win- 
 
 * State Trials, 1. 
 
74. PEESECUTION OF PUKITAtfS. [no pasl. 
 
 dow, and then sitting in the bent painful attitude required by the- 
 pillory, continued his exhortations. " I will never take the oath,, 
 though I be pulled to pieces by wild horses ; neither shall I think 
 that man a faithful subject of Christ's kingdom, that shall at any 
 time hereafter take it. My brethren, we are all at this present 
 in a very dangerous and fearful condition, in regard we have 
 turned traitors unto our God, in seeing His almighty great name 
 and His heavenly truth trodden under foot, and yet we not only 
 let the bishops alone in holding our peace, but most slavishly 
 subject ourselves unto them, fearing the face of a piece of dirt 
 more than the almighty great God of heaven and earth, who is 
 able to cast both body and soul into everlasting damnation." He 
 was still addressing the people in the same strain, when the 
 warden of the Fleet came and placed a gag on his mouth. 
 
 Such were the means taken by the archbishop to crush the spirit 
 of the Puritans, and by him not considered sufficiently "thorough." 
 As if for the sole purpose of irritating his opponents, the king, 
 by his advice, ordered a proclamation, called the Book of Sports,, 
 to be read by ministers after service, declaring that certain 
 games, such as leaping, vaulting, and wrestling were lawful on 
 Sundays. It had been originally published by James, but its 
 reading not enforced. Now no minister might escape. Thirty 
 who refused to obey in the diocese of Norwich — a stronghold of 
 Puritanism — were suspended. Some temporized. A London 
 minister read the proclamation, and after it the ten command- 
 ments. "Dearly beloved," he said, "you have heard the com- 
 mandment of God and of man, obey which you please." 
 •Lecturers' The Puritans raised subscriptions for purchasing, 
 put down, from laymen their right of presentation to livings and. 
 for hiring lecturers to preach on afternoons in market towns. 
 But Laud, not content with ordering that lecturers should wear 
 the surplice and read the service, determined to break up the 
 whole association. The trustees were declared by the Court of 
 Exchequer to have misused the funds with which they were 
 entrusted, and the whole were forfeited to the king, to be used 
 for the good of the Church and the maintenance of conformable- 
 ministers. The Church, however, lost its hold on the people, when 
 it lost the most earnest and most popular of its preachers. Into 
 the livings of the ejected Puritans were put ignorant men or court 
 clergy, who bade their people be passively obedient, while they 
 
1637.] PERSECUTION OF PUEITANS. 7& 
 
 lost their cherished liberties. Of such pastors Milton wrote, 
 as — 
 
 " Blind mouths that scarce themselves know how to hold 
 
 A sheephook, or have learned aught else the least 
 
 That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs ! 
 
 What recks it them ? What need they ? They are sped ; 
 
 And when they list, their lean and flashy songs 
 
 Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw ; 
 
 The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 
 
 But swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, 
 
 Eot inwardly, and foul contagion spread ; 
 
 Beside what the grim wolf with privy paw* 
 
 Daily devours apace, and nothing said." 
 
 While Laud thus awoke the hate of Puritans by intolerance, he 
 aroused that of the laity geuerally by endeavouring to raise the 
 political importance of the Church. As a politician, he was both 
 ambitious and unscrupulous, as might be expected of one who 
 had risen to power at the heels of Buckingham. Courts held by 
 bishops now sent out writs in their own names, instead of in that 
 of the king. Clergymen were made justices of the peace in place 
 of country gentlemen. Bishops sat in the king's council and in 
 the Court of Star Chamber. Juxon, Bishop of London, was ap- 
 pointed by the king to the influential and coveted office of lord 
 treasurer. "Now," wrote Laud in his diary, "if the Church 
 will not hold themselves up under God, I can do no more." 
 
 In order to escape persecution and tyranny, new Emigration 
 homes were sought in America. In Virginia a Church to America - 
 of England colony had been founded by adventurers in 1607. 
 The earliest settlers in New England were the Pilgrim Fathers, 
 a body of persecuted sectarians, who had sailed across the Atlantic 
 in the " Mayflower," in 1620. Ehode Island was colonized in 1634, 
 and liberty of conscience established. Lord Baltimore, a Poman 
 Catholic, granted the same boon to all settlers in Maryland (1638). 
 In the ten years preceding 1640, the number of emigrants to 
 New England was estimated at 21,200. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church had been long since established in 
 Scotland by an act of the Scotch Parliament (1592). James I., 
 however, had succeeded by not very creditable means in restoring 
 Scotch bishops to the possession of their former titles, though to 
 little of their former influence and position. 
 
 * For the conversions to Popery, see p. 69. 
 
76 LITURGY FOR SCOTLAND. [wo pael. 
 
 Charles and Laud now determined on setting up a church 
 government in Scotland, to answer in all respects to that esta- 
 blished in England. Canons, to regulate the Church of Scotland, 
 were drawn up by the Scotch bishops, and afterwards revised 
 by Laud, in which no place was left for the action of any Presby- 
 terian assemblies. The following year, in place of "Knox's 
 Liturgy," as the Service-book ordinarily used by the Scots was 
 called, a new Prayer-book, nearly the same as the English, was 
 ordered to be read in all churches, from the 23rd July, 1637. In St. 
 Giles', the cathedral church of Edinburgh, no sooner had the dean 
 opened the new liturgy, than all the lower order of people in the 
 church began to scream, clap their hands, hiss and groan, making 
 such a hideous outcry that no one could either hear or be heard. 
 Episcopacy The cry was, " Sorrow, sorrow, for this dreadful day ; 
 in Scotland, they are bringing Popery amongst us." Sticks, stones, 
 Bibles, stools, were hurled at the dean's head. In other places the 
 Prayer-book received a like reception. By most it was looked 
 on as little better than the mass itself. Its very exterior gave 
 offence to the Presbyterian ; the red and black type, the Gothic 
 letters, pictorial capitals, and other illustrations, seemed to imply 
 a revival of Catholic times. The nobles were afraid of being 
 required to restore church property acquired at the Eeformation ; 
 when not moved by religious fervour themselves, their interests 
 made them at heart on the side of the rioters. 
 
 The whole nation was enraged. When James I. had introduced 
 changes into the Presbyterian form of church government, he 
 had at least obtained the sanction of a corrupt church-assembly 
 and parliament. But Charles was endeavouring to establish the 
 Episcopalian Church in the place of the Presbyterian, upon his 
 own sole authority, as though he were indeed an absolute monarch, 
 able to make laws without the consent of his subjects. 
 
 The king, to whom a tumult raised by the rabble seemed no 
 cause for alarm, sent orders that the new Service-book was still 
 to be read. The lords of the Scotch council, however, dared not 
 put his commands into execution. They Were themselves as- 
 saulted in the streets of Edinburgh by an infuriated mob, and 
 only rescued from death by the nobles and gentry, who now, 
 following the example of the people, came flocking into the capital 
 to sign an accusation against the bishops (18th Oct., 1637). 
 
1639.] THE SCOTCH COVENANT. 77 
 
 The tumults rapidly took the form of rebellion : a 
 council was chosen, composed of members from the into a cove- 
 four classes, nobles, gentry, clergy, burgesses, which ^Vof^e- 
 soon became a new power in the State, more formid- Hgious laws 
 able than the king's council (15th Nov., 1637) ; at last, 
 a national league was formed under the name of the Covenant 
 (a forerunner of the 'Solemn League and Covenant' with the 
 English in 1643), binding the signers to reject the new canons 
 and liturgy, and to defend their sovereign, their religion, their 
 laws, and liberties (1st March, 1638). An assembly of the 
 Church, which met at Glasgow, refused to dissolve at the 
 instance of the Duke of Hamilton, the king's deputy (28th 
 Nov., 1638), and proceeded to abolish liturgy, canons, and epis- 
 copacy itself. After thus defying the royal authority, the Cove- 
 nanters prepared for war. The question of war had also to be 
 debated in the king's council at home. The critical moment was now 
 come, when the strength of the government was put to the test. 
 " I am not for war," wrote one of the privy council ; " in the ex- 
 chequer there is but £200 ; the magazines are totally -war with 
 unfurnished ; commanders are there none for execution Sc °tkmd. 
 or advice ; the people are so discontented, there is reason to fear 
 a greater part of them will be readier to join the Scots than to 
 draw swords in the king's service." Wentworth, who did not 
 despair so quickly as these panic-stricken councillors, began to 
 increase the size of the army in Ireland, and to call for sterner 
 measures against defaulters. Yet to advise Charles to do nothing 
 by halves, to introduce episcopacy into Scotland, and to govern 
 that country as he himself governed Ireland, was much like tell- 
 ing a man with a palsied hand to drive the nail home. The deputy, 
 so proud of his Irish government, could not, or would not, read 
 aright the signs of the times. Some of the council advised the 
 calling of a Parliament, but Charles could not hear the pro- 
 posal with patience. Money was therefore raised by loans and 
 other illegal means. By the spring of 1639 an army of Charles and 
 some 12,000 men was fitted out, and the king pro- ceecUo* " 
 ceeded to York, followed, not only by his court, but by York. 
 all the nobility and most influential gentry of the kingdom, whom 
 he summoned to attend his person at their own charge, as had 
 been customary in feudal times. He hoped by this display to 
 overawe his needy Scottish subjects. 
 
78 PACIFICATION AT BERWICK, [no pael., 1639. 
 
 But the Scots were too much in earnest, and too well under- 
 stood the state of feeling in England, to be easily overawed. By 
 the time Charles reached Berwick, it was evident that they could 
 not be reduced that summer. The first English force that saw 
 the face of an enemy, made a precipitate retreat. The courtiers 
 who longed for a return to their pleasures, the nobles and gen- 
 tlemen who desired a redress of their wrongs, all urged the ne- 
 cessity of coming to an agreement with the Covenanters. Charles 
 Pacification f° un d himself obliged to sign a Pacification at Berwick, 
 of Berwick. f n which it was agreed that both a Parliament and a 
 Church Assembly should be summoned in Scotland, for the settle- 
 ment of all grievances, religious and civil (18th June, 1639). 
 
 The king, however, signed the agreement merely as a temporary 
 measure, and with the full intention of raising a larger force and 
 renewing the war next summer. The Scots had plenty of friends 
 in England to warn them of the policy pursued ; how Wentworth 
 had been summoned from Ireland, and created Earl of Strafford ; 
 how the Irish army was being increased in size ; how a new army 
 was being raised in England, and every nerve strained to get 
 money. 
 
 In foreign policy meantime Charles had been inconsistent 
 and wavering. At one time he had entered into negotiations 
 with France, at another with Spain, for the restoration of the 
 palatinate to his nephew. Now, therefore, that he was involved 
 Foreign m difficulties with his subjects, governments which 
 govern- na d received cause of offence assumed an unfriendly 
 friendly to attitude. The pope forbade the Catholics to be so 
 
 iar es * ready in lending money and offering to serve in the 
 army, for after all, Laud's religion, which did not acknowledge 
 the pope as head of the Church, was no more the Catholic reli- 
 gion than that of the Puritans. The Dutch grew so insolent 
 that they destroyed a Spanish fleet which was riding in the Downs 
 under Charles' own protection, while the English ambassador 
 wrote from Spain that the Spaniards were instigating the Irish 
 to rebel. Bichelieu, bearing in mind the expeditions in aid of 
 Bochelle, now took the opportunity to repay his injuries by send- 
 ing supplies of money and arms to the Covenanters. A copy of 
 a letter written by the Scots to Louis XIII. was intercepted by 
 Charles, who thought that with this proof of treason in his hand, 
 he might venture on meeting a Parliament. But indeed, the neces- 
 
mat, 1640.] SHOUT PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED. 79 
 
 sity of calling a Parliament if the war were to be con- IU al . 
 tinued, was daily becoming more and more manifest, mands op- 
 ' Men's consciences awoke/ and forbade them to pay pose . ' 
 ship money. Even in Yorkshire, where Strafford possessed sc 
 much influence, gentlemen refused to equip soldiers without re- 
 ceiving some security for repayment of the money. Strafford 
 advised the lords of the council to send for them to London, and 
 " lay them up by the heels."* " What," he asked, " should be- 
 come of the levy of 30,000 men in case the other counties should 
 return the like answer 1" A pregnant question, for everywhere 
 the same spirit was manifested ; London refused loans, country 
 gentlemen made excuses, and the king was at last driven to that 
 resource, which last year he would not hear mentioned. He 
 summoned his fourth Parliament on the 13th April, 1640. 
 
 Charles asked for an immediate grant of money. 
 
 . Charles* 
 
 Pym rose, and in a speech of two hours, while speak- fourth Par- 
 ing respectfully of the king, laid bare the offences of liameut - 
 the government against religion, justice, and the power and 
 privilege of Parliament. The House, with deep attention, heard 
 him out, and then voted that they would find a remedy for their 
 grievances before granting the king a supply. The letter of the 
 Scots to Louis XIII. did not trouble the Commons at all, and was 
 no fair proof of treason, as it was dated before the Pacification 
 of Berwick. " The people," it was said, " would sooner pay sub- 
 sidies to prevent the unhappy war than to carry it on." Grievances 
 formed such an ample subject of debate, that Charles, growing 
 impatient, sent a message saying, if the Parliament would grant 
 him twelve subsidies, to be paid in three years, he would never 
 levy ship money without consent of Parliament (4th May, 1640)* 
 Though the Commons felt indignant that they should be asked 
 to purchase immunity from an illegal tax, they were about, after 
 a long debate, to put the question to the vote, whether a supply 
 should be given to the king, without, for the present, specifying 
 any particular sum, when Sir Henry Vane, Charles' secretary, 
 rose and said it was of no use to put # that question, for the king 
 would not accept less than he had asked. In disgust the House 
 broke up ; and the next morning, Charles having lost patience, 
 dissolved the Parliament (5th May, 1640). 
 
 * I.e., to fetter, or put in gyves. See Shaks. Henry VIII. v. 3. 
 
80 PEEES AT YOEK. [no pael. 
 
 Arbitrary measures were now again employed to raise money 
 for the war ; and refusers of loans were imprisoned. But no 
 severity was able to suppress the spirit of opposition. The gentry 
 of Yorkshire sent a petition to the king, complaining of the bil- 
 leting of unruly soldiers, " to whose violence and insolence we are 
 so daily subject, as we cannot say we possess our wives and chil- 
 dren in security. Wherefore, 5 ' continues the petition, "we are 
 emboldened to present these our complaints, beseeching your 
 Majesty that, as the billeting of soldiers in any of your subjects' 
 houses is contrary to the ancient laws of this kingdom confirmed 
 by your Majesty in the Petition of Eight, this insupportable 
 Soldiers mu- charge mav be taken off."* Eiots broke out in Lon- 
 tinous ; re- don ; the militia refused to serve ; officers and soldiers 
 g ' said they would not fight ' to support the power 
 and pride of bishops.' Soldiers had to be pressed, and arti- 
 sans were daily dragged from the shops and forced on board 
 the fleet. A disorderly army was at length formed ; when 
 formed it would not fight. Some regiments dispersed of them- 
 selves ; others killed officers who were Catholics ; others broke 
 open the prisons, and made havoc of the country through 
 which they passed. Before Strafford, the general of the army, 
 reached the camp, his soldiers fled before the enemy ; this 
 was at Newburn Ford, on the borders of the two kingdoms 
 (28th Aug., 1640). The Scots, having by this easy success gained 
 possession of the passage of the Tyne, entered Newcastle without 
 opposition, and continued to advance in the direction of York. 
 
 Charles' weakness was now proved. Doubtful and despondent, 
 he knew not what to do or whither to turn for counsel. The Irish 
 army, though in good training, was only about 5000 strong, and was 
 required in Ireland to overawe the people. The Scots were in the 
 kingdom, masters of the four northern counties, while his own army 
 refused to fight. Yet a Parliament seemed a terribly caustic remedy 
 to apply to his difficulties, and he bethought himself of calling an 
 assembly, composed solely of peers, as had occasionally been the 
 Assembly of custora of English kings four centuries before, when the 
 peers at House of Commons was hardly recognized as an in- 
 tegral part of the government. Perhaps, thought 
 some credulous courtier, this assembly of peers might even vote 
 
 * Petition of Yorkshire gentry, 28th July, 1640, MSS. Clar. Pap. and 
 Eushworth. 
 
NOV., 1640.] LONG PARLIAMENT SUMMONED. 81 
 
 the king money. But the nation thought otherwise. " If," said 
 two lords consulted by the king's council, " it be intended to 
 raise money by any other way than a Parliament, it will give no 
 satisfaction."* Charles was left in no doubt of his subjects' 
 wishes ; counties sent petitions for a Parliament ; twelve of the 
 chief peers of the realm signed a petition for a Parliament ; the 
 City of London petitioned for a Parliament ; the Scots sent a 
 petition : ' they were loyal subjects, their grievances were the 
 cause of their being in arms ; they begged their king to settle 
 a firm and durable peace by advice of a Parliament/ Charles 
 So at last, forced by necessity, Charles yielded. When KTti^Par- 
 the peers met at York (24th Sept., 1640), he informed liament. 
 them that he had already sent out writs for a Parliament, and 
 asked their advice for treating with the Scots. " They were so 
 taken," writes the king's secretary, " with his Majesty's speech 
 and with his Majesty's offer of a Parliament that whatever was 
 afterwards proposed they yielded to. . . . There is no doubt but 
 this black storm will be dispersed."f 
 
 Sixteen peers, none of them favourable to arbitrary govern- 
 ment, negotiated with eight Scottish commissioners at Eipon. It 
 was agreed that a cessation of arms should be made for two 
 months ; that both armies should remain where they were; that the 
 northern counties should support the Scottish army by paying it 
 .£5600 a week, until a peace should be concluded in London 
 (23rd Oct., 1640). Then king, lords, and Scottish commissioners 
 hastened to the capital, where Charles met his fifth and last Par- 
 liament (3rd Nov., 1640). 
 
 * Clar. State Papers, 1—112. 
 
 f Windebank to Sir A. Hopton, 1st Oct., 1640, MSS. Clar. Papers in. 
 Bodleian. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 MEETING OF LONG PARLIAMENT AND TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. 
 1640—1641. 
 
 Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
 I served my king 1 , he would not in mine age 
 Have left me naked to mine enemies. — Henry VIII., iii. 2. 
 
 "Westminster Hall, in the year 1640, was just the same build- 
 ing that we see to-day : but the house in which the Commons 
 sat was utterly different. At right angles to the hall, between 
 it and the river, stood a building which was once a chapel of the 
 old palace of Westminster, but was now fitted with tiers of horse- 
 shoe benches for the members of the Commons. The building 
 House of itself was small, somewhat dingy and gloomy ; though 
 Commons, sittings were generally by day, on winter afternoons 
 candles were placed on a table in the centre. The appearance of the 
 members, however, belied the meanness of their meeting-house; for 
 these were peers' sons, country gentlemen, merchants, lawyers, dis- 
 tinguished in their towns or counties for birth or wealth, or both ; 
 their dress displayed their quality — the sword by the side, the vel- 
 vet coat, the large frilled linen collar to protect the lace and gold or 
 silver trimming from the long hair falling in curls upon the shoulders, 
 were sure signs that the House did not count among its members 
 any of the fanatics from the lower orders, who cut their hair close 
 and prided themselves upon the especial plainness of their attire. 
 Leading Chief amongst the many notables of that assembly were 
 members. John p^ John Hampden, Lord Falkland,* Edward 
 Hyd e, Oliver Cromwell . Tym, the old opposer of tyranny in the pre- 
 vious reign ; Hampden, the ship-money hero, gentle and affable to 
 all, aud now the most popular man in the House ; Lord Falkland, 
 whose truthful, generous nature made him the declared enemy of 
 injustice in high places ; Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, and 
 
 * He had succeeded his father (Sir H. Cavy, Deputy of Ireland), as second 
 Viscount of Falkland, in the county of Fife, in Scotland. He sat as burgess 
 for Newport, Scotch peers being eligible before the Act of Union (1707). 
 
»ov., 1640.] MEETING OF LONG PARLIAMENT. 83 
 
 the Koyalist historian of the Kebellion, now carried along with the 
 stream, and as eager as his friend Falkland to restore the old govern- 
 ment of England by Parliaments ; Cromwell, member for the town 
 of Cambridge, a country gentleman, dressed in a plain cloth suit ; 
 and as yet little remarked, save for his activity in defending the 
 poor of his own neighbourhood from oppression. 
 
 The members of both Houses of Parliament, urged by a hun- 
 dred different motives, were almost unanimous in their deter- 
 mination to make the agents of the government answer for their 
 conduct, and above all, the chief offender, Strafford. The noble 
 ruinously fined in the Star Chamber ; the courtier of whom 
 Strafford had used sharp words, as ' that the king would do well 
 to cut off his head ;' the merchant, forced to pay illegal customs ; 
 the patriot, indignant at the judges' verdict that Grievances, 
 ship-money was a just and legal tax ; the Presby- delinquents, 
 terian fined and insulted by the Court of High Commission, were 
 all alike eager to gratify, as the case might be, their desires for 
 reform, or justice, or revenge. 
 
 The House proceeded to business at once. Votes were passed 
 that all monopolists should be deprived of their seats (9th Nov.), 
 that ship-money was against the laws of the realm (7th Dec.),* 
 that all agents of the crown who had taken part in the collection 
 of ship-money, or had shared in any other acts condemned by the 
 
 * Lord Falkland felt and spoke strongly on the extra-judicial opinion the 
 judges had given at Charles' request, on the king's right to ship-money. 
 " No meal undigested," he said, "can lie heavier upon the stomach than that 
 unsaid would have lain upon my conscience." He complained that the 
 judges, " the persons who should have been as dogs to defend the flock, have 
 become the wolves to devour it ;" that they had exceeded their functions, 
 "being judges of law and not of necessity, that is, being judges and not philo- 
 sophers or politicians;" that to justify the plea of necessity, they have "sup- 
 posed mighty and eminent dangers in the most quiet and halcyon days, but a 
 few contemptible pirates being our most formidable enemies ;" they also " sup- 
 posing the supposed doings to be so sudden that it could not stay for a Parlia- 
 ment which required but a forty days' stay, allowed to the king the sole power 
 in necessity, the sole judgment of necessity, and by that enabled him to take 
 from us what he would, when he would, and how he would." He especially de- 
 claimed against the Chief Justice (at this time Lord Keeper) Finch, who impor- 
 
 tuned the other judges " as a most admirable solicitor, but a most abominable 
 judge." ..." He it was who gave away with his breath what our ancestors 
 have purchased with so long expense of their time, their care, their treasures, 
 
 and their bloods, and strove to make our grievances mortal and our slavery 
 irreparable," . . . " he who hath already undone us by wholesale [and no-w- 
 as chancellor] hath the power of undoing us by retail." — MSS. Clarendon 
 Papers, No. 1464, and Eushworth. 
 
 6-2 
 
84 STRAFFORD IMPEACHED. [long pael 
 
 House, were l delinquents,' and might be proceeded against at 
 any moment. This made offenders of all ranks tremble, lords of 
 the Council and Star Chamber, lords-lieutenant of counties, 
 sheriffs, judges, besides a host of inferior officers. It was not so 
 much the intention of the Commons to proceed against all these 
 delinquents, as to terrify them into submission. The chief crimi- 
 nals alone had real cause to fear. 
 
 Strafford* had seen the storm gathering and was anxious to 
 return to Ireland, but Charles wrote him a positive 
 trusts in command to come to London, assuring him, ' as he 
 Charles. was jQ n g f England, he was able to secure him from 
 any danger, and the Parliament should not touch one hair of his 
 head/ The king was in fact afraid of meeting his enraged Par- 
 liament unsupported. Accordingly Strafford came prepared with 
 charges of treason against some of the leading members, for having 
 . encouraged the Scots in rebellion. They were aware of his inten- 
 tion and determined to strike first. No time was lost. Their 
 feelings at this crisis are analyzed in Browning's lines : 
 
 " Now, by Heaven, 
 They may be cool who can, silent who will — 
 Some have a gift that way ! Wentworth is here ; 
 Here, and the king's safe closeted with him 
 Ere this. And when I think on all that's past — 
 
 how all this while 
 
 That man has set himself to one dear task, 
 The bringing Charles to relish more and more 
 Power — power without law, power and blood too — 
 Can I be still?" 
 
 Strafford had only been one day in London when, on the 11th of 
 November, Pym proposed in the House of Commons to 
 ment of impeach of high treason the man who, " according to 
 Strafford. ^.e nature of apostates, had become the greatest enemy 
 to the liberties of his country, and the greatest promoter of 
 tyranny that any age had produced." 
 
 The process by impeachment has been described in Bucking- 
 ham's case,t it is still more familiar to us from the trial of Warren 
 Hastings in the following century (1788). The king having no 
 part in an impeachment, and the House of Lords being judge, the 
 only preliminary required is a resolution of the Commons to pro- 
 
 * Wentworth created Earl of Strafford, 12 Jan. 1640. f See page 34. 
 
1640 .] STRAFFORD AND LAUD IN TOWER. 85 
 
 secute The Commons now agreed to the proposal without a dis- 
 senting voice, and Pym, followed by a train of three hundred 
 members, went up straight to the Lords' house, and there accused 
 the earl of high treason, desiring that he might be lodged a pri- 
 soner in the Tower, until the time of his trial came on. 
 
 Thus, at one blow, was the king deprived of his ablest adviser, 
 and Strafford himself of the awe with which power had previously 
 invested him. Strafford was in consultation with the king when 
 the news came. Hastening to the Lords' house with a " proud, 
 glooming countenance, he makes towards his place at the board- 
 head But at once many bid him void the house. After con- 
 sultation, being called in, he stands, but is commanded to kneel, 
 and on his knees, is delivered to the keeper of the black stra fford 
 rod, to be prisoner until he was cleared of those crimes ^J to 
 the House of Commons had charged him with. As he 
 passed through the gazing crowd outside to find his coach, nc 
 man capped to him, before whom that morning the greatest of 
 Euo-land would have stood discovered, all crying, 'What is the 
 matter V He said, < A small matter, I warrant you.' They re- 
 plied ' Yes, indeed, high treason is a small matter.' " 
 
 The next month Laud was impeached too (18th Dec), and 
 followed his friend to the Tower, amid the curses and other <de- 
 howlings of the populace. Windebank, the king's »**""«* 
 secretary, wise in time, jumped into an open boat, and, steering 
 through the mist, succeeded in putting the Channel between him 
 and his foes. Finch, though known as the first adviser of impos- 
 ing ship-money on the inland counties, hoped much from the 
 graceful defence he made before the Commons. But the temper 
 of his hearers was too stern ; " There be birds," said one, that 
 in the summer of Parliament will sing sweetly, that in winter 
 turn into birds of prey !" The most he could effect was to be 
 allowed, like others, to escape into exile. 
 
 Judge Berkeley, the principal supporter of ship-money, was 
 also a marked man. The messenger of the Lords entered West- 
 minster Hall, while the courts of justice were sitting, and then 
 and there carried him off to the Tower, impeached by the Com- 
 mons of bicrh treason. The gazing crowd felt awe-struck, while 
 Ahe consciences of some of Berkeley's brethren gave them uneasy 
 qualms. 
 
86 TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. [lono pael. 
 
 Reparation Hand in hand with justice went reparation. The 
 to sufferers. p r i SO ii doors were opened to men shut up for five or 
 eight or ten years, as the case might be. Chambers, the merchant, 
 came out ruined ; Leighton, a minister, unable to walk or stand or 
 see; Lilburne, with a tale to tell of starvation, irons, and the scourge. 
 Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick came from their distant prisons in 
 Jersey, Guernsey, and Scilly, to forget the shame of the pillory 
 and the loss of their ears, in the triumph of the day when they 
 were welcomed back to London by thousands of men and women 
 decked with white rosemary and bay and tilling the air with 
 their acclamations.* Large numbers of sufferers brought their 
 cases before committees of Parliament, and had the satisfaction of 
 hearing their sentences declared illegal, while many received 
 compensation in money for their losses. 
 
 But the event which above all others excited men's minds,, 
 was the trial of Strafford. Until March, a committee of Par- 
 liament was engaged in examining witnesses and preparing the 
 case. The Scots joined in the prosecution, accusing Strafford of 
 having been the cause of the war, and even the Irish, lately so 
 submissive, now sent over charges against the deputy. On the 
 22nd of March the trial began. In the cold spring morning, 
 Scene of as early as five o'clock, crowds might be seen gathering 
 t™^ about "Westminster. A stage was erected, reaching 
 
 right across the end of the hall. Here sat the judges, the mem- 
 bers of the House of Lords, about eighty in number, ' wearing- 
 their red robes lined with white ermine/ The lawn of the 
 bishops was not seen at trials for life. At one end of the stage- 
 sat the committee of the Commons who conducted the impeach- 
 ment, at the other Strafford's secretaries and counsel. Behind the- 
 lords' seats was the empty throne ; the king and queen, though 
 present, sat in a gallery concealed by curtains. On both sides of 
 the hall, east and west, the forms rising one above another to tha 
 roof were occupied by the members of the Commons, with the 
 Scottish commissioners, and some favoured friends. Ladies paid 
 high prices for seats in galleries, and diligently took notes of the 
 proceedings. 
 
 About eight Strafford was brought from the Tower by water. 
 All were struck with his appearance. Clad in black, his coun- 
 
 * May, Long Pari., 64; BaiMe,i. 222. 
 
1641 -j LAW OF HIGH TKEASON. 8" 
 
 tenance pale through suffering, his body bent by illness, he bore 
 himself with a proud humility, implying excess of courtesy and 
 not defect of confidence. Having first bowed to the court,. he 
 took his place in a small desk in front of his judges, where he 
 stood or sat at pleasure. 
 
 Precedents of harsh procedure too often return to plague the 
 inventors. The difficulties put in the way of state criminals whom 
 kings attacked, were now all cast in the way of Strafford, whose 
 life the people were seeking. He had himself to examine wit- 
 nesses brought against him, and to speak as to the course of 
 truth of the facts of which he was accused. His coun- ^te taa 
 sel were only allowed at the close of the trial to argue teenth cen- 
 that the facts did not fall within the legal definition of • 
 high treason. Though most of his witnesses were in Ireland he 
 had not been allowed to summon them to attend, until three days 
 before the trial. He did not know from day to day what charges 
 would be brought against him, but after his accusers had spoken, 
 was allowed half an hour to sit down with his secretaries and pre- 
 pare his answer. The time given was not favourable for quiet 
 thought. During these intervals the whole hall rose to its feet, 
 judges, prosecutors, spectators, talking and laughing ; bread and 
 meat were handed about, bottles of beer and wine went thick 
 from mouth to mouth/ and all this in the king's eyes, who, in the 
 excitement of the trial, with his own hands tore down the curtains 
 in front of his gallery, and there sat visible to all, but as unre- 
 garded as if he had not been present * 
 
 Thus unaided for seventeen days, from eight in the morning 
 until three or four in the afternoon, Strafford had to hear ana 
 answer his accusers and their witnesses. 
 
 The crime of high treason was defined by a statute La w of high 
 of Edward III. (1351), to consist of seven offences. 
 Five of these did not touch Strafford. The two ^der which he 
 was prosecuted were those of 'levying war upon the krng 
 and 'compa-ing the king's death/ Of ^^^^T 
 seditions for high treason are the most unmteUigible to the 
 ordinary mind. The interpretations of the judgeshad Forced^, 
 extended the meaning of < levying war/ to mean any tejgjrt 
 overt act which was considered objectionable ; that or 
 
 * Baillie, i. 259, 265. 
 
88 TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. [long pabl. 
 
 compassing or imagining the king's death/ to mean any objec- 
 tionable purpose which was not carried into act. To understand 
 this process it is necessary to recall the origin of the act, and the 
 fact of the dependence of the judges upon the crown. The act 
 was brought forward by the nobles as a safeguard to themselves, 
 by denning more clearly in what treason consisted. They had 
 found before that if the crown wished to confiscate their lands, it 
 could make out anything to be treason ; but though they hoped 
 much from a clearer definition, they gained little ; first, because the 
 judges extended the meaning of the words of the law ; secondly, 
 because untrustworthy evidence was admitted as to the facts. 
 As an instance of the first, a rioter who had joined in an attack 
 upon Laud's palace at Lambeth, was convicted of high treason 
 Laxity of f or ' having levied war upon the king.' Of the second, 
 evidence. g^, Walter Ealeigh's case may serve as an epitome.* 
 The evidence on which he was convicted of having intrigued with 
 Spanish emissaries to set Arabella Stuart on the throne, was the 
 written accusation of one witness, who retracted, and then re- 
 tracted his retractation, and was never confronted with the pri- 
 soner. A correspondent of the time wrote of Ealeigh's trial thus : 
 " The evidence was no more to be weighed than the barking of a 
 dog. I would not for much have been of the jury to have found 
 him guilty."f 
 
 These forced interpretations of the judges and their laxity 
 about evidence, were unjustifiable enough, but there was another 
 process at work, of a perfectly legitimate character, which had 
 enlarged the meaning of laws containing the king's name. In 
 England the constitution has continually changed in fact, without 
 changing in form, and the fictions of the constitutional lawyers have 
 been the regular means by which, as liberty has advanced, new 
 facts have been brought under old forms. It is on this principle, 
 Ideal king of that from the doctrine of the irresponsibility of the king, 
 ng snlaw. the constitutional lawyers have justly treated the name 
 of king as meaning not the mere fallible being who wears the 
 crown for the moment, but the true king who acts in accordance 
 with the constitution he represents. The obvious plea, that Straf- 
 ford had acted according to Charles' wishes and therefore could not 
 have levied war upon the king, no lawyer would have thought of 
 urging in the earl's defence. The king, the ideal king of English 
 * See page 23. f Jardine : Criminal Trials. 
 
1641.1 TWO MAIN CHARGES. 89 
 
 law, * can do no wrong,' and under all circumstances is the main- 
 tainer of the rights and liberties of his subjects. Though illegal 
 acts are done by a king's command, a court of justice is bound to set 
 this fact aside, and regard them as committed contrary to his 
 wishes. The minister, therefore, who attacks the liberties of the 
 subject, is also in the eye of the law attacking the authority of 
 the king. 
 
 Yet the managers of the prosecution had a difficult task in try- 
 ing to bring Strafford's acts within the definition of treason. As 
 to the question of law, there were two main charges, which 
 must be kept clearly distinct. The first and finally successful 
 charge was the billeting of soldiers upon the people of , 
 Ireland, in order to make them submit to illegal com- war upon 
 mands, which was said to amount to ' levying war the kmg " 
 upon the king,' as it was really reducing the country by conquest. 
 It must be allowed that technically Strafford had broken the law, 
 and that what he had done amounted to treason within the 
 meaning of the statute. But his counsel could argue that like 
 arbitrary acts of power had been committed by previous deputies, 
 and that he had not committed the offence in a manner syste- 
 matic enough to be found guilty upon a liberal interpretation of 
 the law. 
 
 The second and unsuccessful point was the ' compass- \ Compass- 
 ing the death of the king,' which they interpreted as king's 
 meaning an endeavour to subvert the laws of the death - 
 realm represented by the king. This accusation rested on Straf- 
 ford's having advised Charles in council to bring over the Irish 
 army to reduce ' this kingdom,' meaning England, to subjection. 
 They had to prove both the question of fact and the question of 
 law. 
 
 As to the facts, Strafford could point to a straining of evidence, 
 and could show up some charges as absurd in themselves, others 
 as breaking down in proof. The prosecutors could retort, they were 
 sufficiently proved, the sufficiency being in the custom of the time, 
 and the usage of the courts which Strafford had administered. 
 The fact that was most stoutly contested was 'the advising 
 Charles to use the Irish army to reduce this kingdom.' The 
 witness to this was no less than Sir Henry Vane, the king's 
 secretary. Strafford's answer was that ' this kingdom ' meant 
 not England, but Scotland, which was then in rebellion, and he 
 
90 TEIAL OF STRAFFORD. [long pael. 
 
 brought other members of the council to swear that they had no 
 recollection of his advising Charles to use an army against English 
 liberty. The importance which the Commons attached to the 
 proof of this fact will be shown in the sequel. 
 Cumulative As to the question of law, the Commons argued that it 
 treason. j j^ not c i e p en( j on ^his single article, but that the whole 
 of the charges, twenty-eight in all, mounted up to a sort of accumu~ 
 lative treason, proving that Strafford had formed a scheme to sub- 
 vert the laws of the realm, and govern by means of a standing army. 
 This design of enforcing submission by means of an armed force 
 was what moved the Commons most deeply. If that was not 
 high treason, the constitution was a mockery indeed. If the law of 
 high treason was to protect the sovereign power of the State, and if 
 this sovereign power was not the king only, but the king acting 
 through his Parliament, then to destroy Parliament was to destroy 
 the vitality of the king. Was it ' compassing the king's death V 
 Well, would it not have been the death of the constitution ? It 
 would, no doubt, and should certainly have been included in a good 
 law defining high treason against the State. But it was not. Pym 
 felt this himself when he made the following grand rhetorical appeal 
 to the earl's judges. " Shall it be treason to embase the king's coin, 
 though but a piece of twelvepence or sixpence 1 ? and must it not 
 needs be the effect of a greater treason to embase the spirit of his 
 subjects, and to set up a stamp and character of servitude upon 
 them, whereby they shall be disabled to do anything for the service 
 of the king and the commonwealth?" The king can indeed have 
 no interest but the good of his subjects, and Pym's view was here 
 as ever that of the true constitutional statesman, but it lacked the 
 support of precedents to commend it to judges. Strafford's plea of 
 moderation on the other hand was easily met. "His moderation ! 
 when you find so many imprisoned of the nobility ! so many men, 
 some adjudged to death, some executed without law ! when you find 
 so many public rapines on the state, soldiers sent to make good his 
 decrees, so many whippings in defence of monopolies, so many gen- 
 tlemen that were jurors, because they would not apply themselves 
 to give verdicts on his side, to be fined in the Star Chamber, men 
 of quality to be disgraced, set in the pillory, and wearing papers 
 and such things — can you, my lords, think there was any modera- 
 tion?" 
 
 On the 10th of April, additional evidence, hitherto kept back,, 
 
1641. BILL OP ATTAINDER. 91 
 
 was read in the House of Commons, in support of the charge of 
 advising the king to use the Irish army against English liberty. 
 Before the meeting of the present Parliament, young Sir Henry 
 Vane had found in his father's despatch box some notes made in 
 council of the very debate in which Strafford advised the king to 
 use the Irish army to reduce 'this kingdom.' He had shown 
 them to Pym, who had made a copy, now produced. Bill of 
 The double evidence upon the same article was con- Attamder - 
 sidered conclusive of Strafford's guilt, and Sir Arthur Haslerig 
 proposed to proceed against him by Bill of Attainder,* in other 
 words to vote him guilty by act of Parliament. The motive for 
 this change in procedure was " to avoid delay, which was now of 
 extreme dangerous consequence." The known faithlessness of 
 the king, and the peril impending from it, justified much in- 
 formality. When a prisoner's friends threaten violence, they 
 can hardly complain if his foes quicken the slow processes of 
 law. 
 
 It has generally been supposed that this measure was brought 
 in by the extreme patriots ; but a member's notes, made in Par- 
 liament at the time, have revealed the fact that whereas it was 
 warmly supported by the moderates, such as Hyde,t Falkland, 
 Culpepper, and others, who took the Eoyalist side in the war ; it 
 was opposed by both Pym and Hampden, who preferred to ask 
 the Lords to give judgment on the trial by impeachment. They 
 had a quiet confidence in the goodness of their ease, and were 
 anxious to avoid even the appearance of differing from the Lords. 
 However, on finding those who supported them were bent on the 
 measure, they acquiesced, sharing, as they did, the universal con- 
 viction that, if Strafford escaped with his life, the king would 
 restore him to power. But others gave utterance to the criticism 
 to which such measures are undoubtedly open. 
 
 " I do not say," said the Royalist, Lord Digby, " but the charges may repre- 
 sent him as a man worthy to die, and perhaps worthier than many a traitor. 
 
 * Bills of Attainder were first introduced by Henry VIII. The last in- 
 stance of the legislature's passing a Bill of Attainder, was in the case of Sir 
 John Fenwick, in the reign of William III. See a remarkably clear state- 
 ment of the character of such bills in Macaulay's Hist., c. 22 and 23. 
 
 + It is a significant fact that, among the Clarendon State Papers at Ox- 
 ford, none are to be found relating to Strafford's trial. As there must have 
 been such, it is presumed that Hyde destroyed them, wishing to conceal that 
 he had acted on the popular side. His name is not in the list of ' Straffordiaus/ 
 
Q2 TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. [long pabl. 
 
 I do not say but they may justly direct us to enact that they shall be treason for 
 the future. But God keep me from giving judgment of death on any man upon 
 a law made d posteriori. Let the mark be set on the door where the plague 
 is, and then let him that will enter, die. I believe his practices in themselves 
 as high, as tyrannical, as any subject ever ventured on ; and the malignity 
 of them largely aggravated by those rare abilities of his, whereof God has 
 given him the use, but the devil the application. In one word, I believe him 
 to be still that grand apostate to the commonwealth, who must not expect 
 to be pardoned in this world till he be despatched to the other. And yet let 
 me tell you, Mr. Speaker, my hand must not be to that despatch." 
 
 The bill, however, easily passed the Commons (21st April) ; 
 only fifty-nine members voted against it, whose names were 
 posted up in the streets of London, as i Straffordians, enemies to 
 their country.' The trial by impeachment in Westminster Hall 
 still continued. Strafford made a brilliant defence, in which he 
 carefully turned the attention of his hearers away from the 
 billeting or ' levying war upon the king/ the weak point of his 
 case, to the weak point of the prosecution, the charge of ' com- 
 passing the king's death.' The highway, which brought him to 
 the Tower, furnished a simple illustration which seemed to de- 
 molish their laboured construction. 
 
 " My lords," he said, K I do not conceive that there is either stat- 
 defence S u * e ^ aw ' or comm011 l aw > that hath declared this — endeavouring 
 to subvert the fundamental laws — to be high treason. Jesu! my 
 lords, where hath this fire lain all this while, so many hundred years together 
 that no smoke should appear till it burst out now, to consume me and my 
 children ? Hard it is, and extreme hard, in my opinion, that I should be 
 punished by a law subsequent to the act done. ... If I pass down the 
 Thames in a boat, and run and split myself upon an anchor, if there be not 
 a buoy to give me warning, the party shall give me damages ; but if it be 
 marked out, then it is at my own peril. Now, my lords, where is the mark 
 set upon this crime ? where is the token by which I should discover ? if it be 
 not marked, if it lie under water and not above, there is no human provi- 
 dence can prevent the destruction of a man instantly and presently. My 
 lords, I have troubled your lordships a great deal longer than I would have 
 done ; were it not for the interest of those pledges, that a saint in heaven 
 left me, I should be loath, my lords [here his weeping stopped him] — what I 
 forfeit for myself is nothing ; but I confess that my indiscretion should for- 
 feit for them, it wounds me very deeply ; you will be pleased to pardon my 
 importunity, something I should have said, but I see I shall not be able, 
 and therefore I will leave it. . . ."* 
 
 * Nalson, ii. 123. 
 
1641.] KING PROPOSES A COMPROMISE. 93 
 
 And then lifting up his hands and eyes, he said, * In te, 
 Domine, coniido ne confundar in sternum.' Strafford's defence 
 had laid bare the real principle at issue, as far as the court was 
 concerned. A law has a relation to the innocent as well as to the 
 guilty. If the law of high treason meant that those guilty of 
 such and such crimes should die, it meant just as much that those 
 not guilty of them should have their lives safe, as far as the 
 crime of treason was concerned. Such stretching of a law might 
 be as dangerous to the liberty of the subject as the offences with 
 which Strafford was charged. For if the words, ' compassing the 
 king's death ' should at one time be made to include a scheme of 
 subverting the laws, they might, he argued, at another be made to 
 include some other offence equally far from their literal meaning, 
 and thus men's lives, finding no protection in the law, would lie at 
 the mercy of any party in power. Strafford carried his judges 
 with him in thus repelling the charge of compassing the king's 
 death. Peers indeed had no wish to extend the responsibility of 
 ministers too far. The prosecutors, however, felt that the exten- 
 sion of this principle was the only security for their lives ; they 
 considered that the simple meaning of the words could not 
 be trusted as a complete exponent of the cases included, with- 
 out implying a perfection of form in English law which did 
 not exist, and that the gist of his argument was, that a male- 
 factor who found a new way to break the principle of a law 
 should get the benefit of his ability at the expense of their 
 liberties, while, as to the possibility of future consequences from 
 such straining of law, they felt that their chief fear in that respect 
 was from Strafford himself. It had fallen to Pym to reply to the 
 earl's defence. As he ended his speech, he caught the eye of his 
 old friend earnestly fixed upon him : he faltered, turned over his 
 papers, and, with difficulty recovering himself, asked their lord- 
 ships to close the proceedings for the day. Strafford's friends, 
 meanwhile, were not idle. The queen, fond of exercising power, 
 and anxious to avert this blow to royalty, now exerted herself 
 in his behalf. Torch in hand, she was nightly to be found 
 holding conferences with popular lords, offering them, as she 
 thought, all they could desire, if only they would save Strafford's 
 life.* A compromise was proposed : Charles offered to opposition 
 form a ministry out of the opposition leaders both in refu se office. 
 
 * De Motteville, i. 
 
94 TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. [long parl. 
 
 Lords and Commons ; the Earl of Bedford was to be treasurer ; 
 St. John, a member of the Commons, had already been made 
 solicitor-general ; places were to be found for the Earl of Essex ; 
 for Hampden, Pym, Hollis, and others. The new ministry, on 
 their side, were to allow Strafford to escape with his life, and to 
 ward off any attack made against the bishops by the Presbyte- 
 rians. The compromise, however, was never effected. Bedford 
 died, Essex was not to be persuaded : " Stone dead," said the 
 blunt, plain-spoken earl, " hath no fellow ;* if he be fined or 
 imprisoned, the king will grant him his pardon as soon as the 
 Parliament is ended." Pym and Hampden were not less far- 
 sighted than Essex, and had even better reasons for distrusting 
 any advances from the king. 
 
 The Scottish and English armies were still in the 
 northern counties, awaiting the ratification of the 
 treaty, after which the one was to be disbanded and the other to 
 return to Scotland. The Parliament, looking upon the Scots as 
 friends, who would, in case of need, render assistance against the 
 king, had voted them £300,000 as a free gift. But the English 
 army had no love for the Parliament, which had no wish to do 
 anything for them. The soldiers had become discontented be- 
 cause their pay was in arrear, while of the officers, many were 
 Catholics, almost all devoted partizans of the king. Ill-feeling 
 towards the Parliament was so general, that some of the leading 
 officers in London ventured on talking over with the queen an 
 ill-matured plan of bringing up the army to coerce the Parlia- 
 ment. Charles gave his assent, though at the very time he was 
 negotiating with the leaders of the Parliament. Naturally he 
 would sooner have seen Hampden, Pym, and Essex changing 
 places with Strafford and Laud in the Tower, than have had 
 them sitting by his side in the council chamber. Still, such a 
 double-dealing game was a hazardous one to play, and Pjth was 
 not an easy man to overreach : he had his spies abroad to tell 
 him the tavern discourse of too sanguine officers ; he had his 
 friends even in the court circle ; in fact, the whole plan had been 
 betrayed by Lord Goring, one of the conspirators, and Pym was 
 only holding back his knowledge from the Parliament until he 
 should find the fittest moment for revealing it. While these 
 
 * Clar. Hist., i. 395. 
 
1641.] ARMY PLOT REVEALED. 95 
 
 negotiations and army plots were going on behind the scenes, the 
 nation still had its attention fixed on the Bill of Attainder, which 
 did not easily make its way through the Lords. Charles tried 
 to intimidate by threatening to refuse his assent. He summoned 
 the two Houses, and told them that he did not consider the earl 
 fit to serve him even in the position of a constable, but that no fear, 
 no respect whatsoever should make him act against his conscience 
 in consenting to his death (1st May). But if the king threatened 
 on the one side, the people threatened on the other. The next 
 day was Sunday; the London pulpits preached the duty of 
 justice upon a great delinquent. By the Monday London was 
 roused ; some thousands of apprentices and others, armed with 
 swords and cudgels, gathered around Westminster Hall, crying, 
 ' Justice on Strafford, justice on traitors/ and demanding from 
 every lord as he went into the house, 'that they might have 
 speedy execution on the earl, or they were all undone, their 
 wives and children.' The Lords, dismayed at their violence, spoke 
 them fair, and sent word to the Commons to demand aid in 
 suppressing the tumult. But the messenger could gain no ad- 
 mittance; the doors of the Commons' house had been locked since 
 seven o'clock in the morning, and remained locked until eight 
 o'clock that evening. Within, fear, horror, and amazement sat 
 on the faces of the members, for Pym was revealing to them, not 
 only that grand idea of bringing up the army to crush the Par- 
 liament, but various other desperate designs formed by the friends 
 of Strafford ; how there was a plan of sending a hundred picked 
 men into the Tower, where Strafford was confined, under the 
 name of a guard ; how bribery had been attempted on the 
 governor to let his prisoner escape : how, lastly, there was 
 some dark design of bringing over a French force into Ports- 
 mouth. 
 
 A protestation was drawn up on Pym's motion, to defend the 
 privileges of Parliament and the lawful rights of the people, and 
 signed by every member present. Hyde, who had written his 
 name second on the list, took it up to the Lords himself to receive 
 their signatures.* Great was the panic in London when the doors 
 of the Commons were unbarred. To think of an army led by 
 Boyalist and Papist officers, marching into their city, the strong- 
 
 * Eorster : Lives of British Statesmen, iii. 185. Grand Remonstrance. 
 
93 TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. [long pakl. 
 
 hold of Presbyterian faith ! Eumours of plots, true and false, 
 were in every man's mouth, and easily found credence. The 
 Lords began to think their own lives in danger from the populace, 
 if they delayed the trial any longer. Having already voted the 
 facts of some of the articles of impeachment proved, they now 
 appealed to the judges on the question of law. The judges unani- 
 mously declared ' that upon all their lordships had voted to be 
 proved, the earl was guilty of high treason.' On this the Lords 
 passed the Bill of Attainder, voting the earl guilty, not 
 Bm of paSS upon all the articles, but only upon the fifteenth, the 
 Attainder, quartering of troops upon the people of Ireland, and 
 the nineteenth, the imposing an unlawful oath upon the Scots in 
 Ireland. In voting on the bill, it is important to observe, that 
 they acted as nearly as possible as if they had been giving judg- 
 ment on the impeachment, for they used the forms in which they 
 were accustomed to vote as judges, not as legislators.* Thirty- 
 four lords stayed away ; twenty-six voted for the bill, nineteen 
 against it (7th May). 
 
 Strafford's warning that the precedent of the case might be 
 used against others no doubt had weight with many who had 
 supported the king in unconstitutional acts, but these only suc- 
 ceeded in protecting themselves so far as to insert a clause in the 
 bill, to the effect that the judges should count nothing as treason 
 in consequence of this bill which was not treason before. As the 
 judges had pronounced the acts were treason, the clause was un- 
 meaning. But now Charles' turn was come. If he had in him 
 the courage to resist, if not to resent, intimidation, in these des- 
 perate circumstances he had still the opportunity of securing one 
 of two triumphs, either of saving the life of the earl, or of throw- 
 ing on Parliament the reproach of executing him against law, 
 for that he possessed the legal right to refuse his consent to any 
 bill was at that time undisputed. It might have been thought, 
 therefore, that the king would have been glad of the substitution 
 
 * The difference between voting on a Bill of Attainder and an impeachment 
 is, that in giving judgment on the latter a peer professed to be bound by the 
 letter of the law and of the rules of evidence; in voting for the former, though 
 bound by the spirit, he professedly held himself emancipated from the letter. 
 Further, there was a great difference in form. Iu voting for a bdl a peer 
 says 'aye' in his seat, and if a division is called, walks in silence past the 
 teller of his side ; in voting on an impeachment each peer stands up in Lis 
 place, puts his hand on his breast, and says, ' Guilty (or not) on my honour.' 
 
1641.] TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. 97 
 
 of the bill for the impeachment, since the change gave him an 
 opportunity of making good his promises to Strafford. But 
 these were not Charles' feelings. His chief misery lay not in 
 the fact that Strafford must die, but that his own hand must 
 consent to his death. The angry rabble followed „, , 
 him to Whitehall, with their shouts of " justice, jus- passes Bill of 
 tice, we will have justice." The queen wept bit- Attaillder - 
 "terly, in fear, it seems, for her own safety, as she began to make 
 preparations to leave the country. In anguish of soul Charles 
 asked his councillors how the rioters were to be suppressed ; 
 they bade him please his Parliament and pass the Bill of Attain- 
 der : he asked five bishops how he was to remove his scruples 
 of conscience ; all but one told him he had both a public and a 
 private conscience, and that the duty of saving the life of a friend 
 or servant was as nothing compared with that of preserving his 
 kingdom. The same day a letter was handed him from the earl 
 bidding him pass the bill — " Sire, my consent shall more acquit 
 you herein to God than all the world can do besides ; to a will- 
 ing man there is no injury done." 
 
 "My Lord of Strafford's condition," said Charles, "is more 
 happy than mine."* He shed tears, but sent a commission for 
 others to sign the bill, a mode of relieving his conscience suggested 
 to him by his council. ' Put not your trust in princes, nor in the 
 sons of men, for in them there is no salvation,' Strafford ex- 
 claimed when told that the king had consented to his death. 
 After passing the bill, Charles sent a letter to the House of Lords 
 by the hands of the Prince of Wales, requesting the Parliament 
 to commute the punishment of death into that of perpetual im- 
 prisonment; the letter, however, had a postscript: 'If he must 
 die, it were charity to reprieve him till Saturday.' But the 
 discovery of the plot for Strafford's release had made longer im- 
 prisonment impossible, and the House ordered the execution for 
 the next day (12th May). 
 
 In forming a judgment on the justice of the conviction upon 
 which Strafford suffered, we must recall the various Question of 
 points— that the lawyers and judges in serving the straff owl's 
 interests of the crown, had really enlarged the statute ; conviction, 
 'that undoubtedly the earl had technically offended against the 
 
 * Radcliffe's Life in Straff. Despatches. 
 
98 TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. [long pabl. 
 
 law, by quartering troops to coerce the people ; that the Com- 
 mons heard the points of law argued at length in their house, 
 and decided that his acts fell within the provision of the statute, 
 before they passed the third reading of the bill ; that after this the 
 judges declared that the facts voted to be proved amounted to high 
 treason by law ; that the Lords, by voting judicially upon the 
 bill, were acting as supreme judges when they also declared that 
 in their view the offences came within the statute ; and lastly, 
 that proceeding by bill only gave the king a chance of exercising 
 his prerogative of mercy, which he would not otherwise have had. 
 Briefly put, the case would amount to this, that the judicial compe- 
 tence of the House of Lords was unquestioned, but in this case 
 Strafford's peers, acting simply as a jury, declared certain facts 
 proved, the judges of the land declared the law on these facts 
 against him, and the peers then pronounced the verdict ; and 
 though the fact that the conviction itself was on small and tech- 
 nical grounds might well be pleaded as an extenuating circum- 
 stance to reprieve him from the full punishment of death, yet 
 his own conduct towards others deprived him of any such claim 
 to exceptional mercy. It has hardly been sufficiently observed 
 that, whatever the contemplated object of the bill, its actual effect 
 was not to enlarge the statute retrospectively, but only to alter 
 the procedure. If we apply the standard of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury to judge of the procedure of the seventeenth, we shall say 
 that this conviction of treason was not just, though it was far 
 more just than any other of that day. 
 
 So far as to the technical issue. At the bar of history, Strafford 
 is arraigned as a traitor to the constitution. He is proved guilty 
 by the undoubted evidence of his own correspondence. The two 
 restraints on the executive are, the freedom of Parliament and 
 the independence of the judges. According to Strafford's scheme, 
 judges were to receive percentages on verdicts for the crown, and 
 dismissal for verdicts against it. Parliament was only to vote 
 subsidies, and not inquire into grievances. Discontent at griev- 
 ances unredressed was to be quelled by a standing army. This 
 standing army was to be supported by taxes levied, like ship- 
 money, on the sole authority of the crown. If we turn now to 
 Pym's ideal, since realized, and look upon this picture and on that, 
 we shall with Hallam 'distrust any one's attachment to the English 
 constitution, who reveres the name of the Earl of Strafford.' 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 GRAND REMONSTRANCE. — IMPEACHMENT OP FIVE MEMBERS. 
 1641—1642. 
 
 * * It is not so, thou hast misspoke, misheard ; 
 
 Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again : 
 
 It cannot be ; thou dost but say 'tis so : 
 
 I trust I may not trust thee ; for thy word 
 
 Is but the vain breath of a common man : 
 
 Believe me, I do not believe thee, man ; 
 
 I have a king's oath to the contrary. — KlNG JOHN, iii. 1. 
 
 DURING Strafford's trial, the Commons had not been unmindful 
 of reform. Early in the year Charles had given his consent to a 
 bill which required that a Parliament should be elected once 
 every three years, and that no future Parliament should be dis- 
 solved or adjourned, without its own consent, in less than fifty 
 days from the opening of the session (16th Feb.). In order 
 that the act might not remain a dead letter, it provided that if 
 the Idug failed in his duty, various officers employed in the 
 Government should send out writs for elections in his stead ; and 
 that if these failed in their duty, the electors should meet of them- 
 selves and choose their representatives. 
 
 The too long continuance of the same Parliament changes the 
 character of the House of Commons from that of a popular 
 assembly to that of an oligarchical senate, by making the members 
 heedless of the wishes of their constituents, and apt to sacrifice 
 their duties to their interests. The too frequent election of new 
 Parliaments renders members subservient to their electors, so that 
 instead of following some settled course of action according to 
 their own convictions, they act merely as delegates apt to reflect 
 every prejudice that obtains amongst the multitude. There is no 
 universal rule of right in this matter. In the seventeenth century, 
 new Parliaments might, without injuryto their character, have been 
 elected every year, so slight was the control constituents possessed 
 over their representatives. The House of Commons was subject 
 
 7-2 
 
100 AN INDISSOLUBLE PAKLIAMENT. [long PAUL, 
 
 to the influence of the court ; the county members were gentle- 
 men by birth, often connected by blood or marriage with peers and 
 ministers ; while the members for small boroughs were returned 
 according to the directions of neighbouring peers and gentlemen. 
 No public meetings were held for the debate of political questions. 
 No petitions of a political character had been presented to any 
 previous Parliament. No newspaper press existed before the com- 
 mencement of the civil war. The votes of members were un- 
 recorded. Parliamentary debates were never published. The 
 privilege of excluding strangers from the House was constantly 
 exerted by the Commons. London, however, in stirring times, 
 knew much and judged freely ; but at duller periods there was a 
 want of the coffee-houses of a later date to bring public opinion 
 to a focus. The knowledge of events in London took months in 
 circulating through the country. The action, therefore, of a 
 Triennial Bill would have been beneficial in itself, and the expe- 
 rience of the last eleven years had shown the absolute necessity of 
 a guarantee for the meeting of Parliaments. The measure which 
 followed was of a different character. 
 
 At the same time that he gave his consent to the Bill of At- 
 tainder, Charles, sick at heart, without heeding its contents, passed 
 Parliament a second bill, depriving him of the right to dissolve the 
 Sss n oivc b d Parliament without its own consent (10th May). This 
 without its i^vi had been introduced into the Commons upon the 
 S. C ° n " disclosure of the Army Plot, which gave Pym and 
 Hampden good cause to doubt, whether their own lives or the 
 liberties of the people would be safe, were the Parliament once 
 
 dissolved. . _ 
 
 If too long Parliaments become oligarchical, much more will a 
 Parliament which is indissoluble. It may now, in fact, 
 Sembly be taken as an axiom that a Parliament which can only 
 nSbeS" dissolve of its own consent, will never dissolve unless 
 solved, forced to do so by some power external to itself. 
 Either it is in accordance with the popular feeling, in which case 
 there is no reason it should dissolve as it is still representative ; 
 or, again, if the pulse of popular opinion beats feebly, it feels it can 
 go on governing as it likes ; or, lastly, public opinion is strongly 
 against it, and under these circumstances it feels that dissolution 
 is suicide, so it is then most determined to ride over the storm 
 and wait for a time when sympathy is restored. But in a moment 
 of terror like this such far-sighted calculations would have seemed 
 
1641.] EEFOEM IN LAW AND CHURCH. 101 
 
 but mistrust of the patriotism of fellow-members.* It is not the 
 only occasion on which the disregard of future dangers, induced 
 by the terrors of the present, has brought countries into a consti- 
 tutional dead-lock. 
 
 Statutes were passed to abolish those great engines of tyranny, 
 the courts of Star Chamber, of High Commission, and „, , 
 
 IllC°*cll 
 
 of the North, and deprive the king's council of all juris- courts 
 diction, criminal or civil, and of the power of imprison- abollshed - 
 ing without showing legal causef (July) ; as also to prevent the 
 recurrence of what was practically confiscation, by fixing the 
 extent of the royal forests ; and, lastly, to declare the illegality of 
 all customs levied without consent of Parliament. 
 
 In the Church, reform was also carried on. The Reform in 
 times were likened to ' a little Doomsday ;' ministers churcl1 - 
 who frequented taverns instead of teaching and preaching, those 
 who burned three hundred wax candles in honour of our Lady, 
 who called the communion table, altar, who taught the people 
 that all they had belonged to the king, or in other ways had 
 the character of being popishly or slavishly inclined, were now 
 all alike turned out of their livings, fined, and imprisoned. 
 
 All over the country the Presbyterians and sectarians rose 
 again to the surface. The Presbyterians looked for- p res bytcri- 
 ward to overthrowing the Episcopal Church; the aspira- a n s and In- 
 tions of the sectarians, or Independents, as they were 
 often called, from the name of their most influential sect, looked 
 rather to securing liberty to worship as they pleased. Men who 
 had lain hid in corners, or migrated to New England, re-appeared 
 to spread their special doctrines. Conventicles were filled, preach- 
 ings held, by the poorest of the people. No wonder, it was said, 
 " that chandlers, salters, and such like preached, when the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, instead of preaching, had busied himself in 
 projects about leather, salt, soap, and the like. They had but 
 reciprocally invaded each other's calling."^ Nevertheless there 
 
 * According to an act passed in the first year of George I. (1717), Parlia- 
 ments now sit for seven years, unless previously dissolved by the crown. 
 
 f The statute abolishing the arbitrary courts contained a clause, that any 
 person imprisoned by the command or warrant of the king, or any of his 
 council, should be entitled to a writ of Habeas Corpus from the Courts of 
 King's Bench or Common Pleas, without delay on any pretence whatsoever. 
 —See p. 16.) 
 
 % May, L. P., 75. 
 
102 QUESTION OF EPISCOPACY. [long pael. 
 
 were numbers both in the Parliament and the country unwilling 
 to see strange forms of Church government, free preaching, and the 
 Episcopaii- growth of schism uncontrolled by the authority of 
 political re- tne bishops. Hence when religious matters were de- 
 formers, bated, the House was far from being at unity. ' Let 
 us keep the Church as it is/ said Hyde and his Church party. 
 ' Let us allow bishops to keep their office, but shut them out of 
 all share in State government, and lessen their power over the 
 clergy/ said Pym and Hampden and the political reformers. 
 'Let us bring them down, root and branch/ said a third, the 
 Different Presbyterians. The Independents joined their votes 
 religious to the Presbyterians, for although they did not wish 
 the Presbyterian Church to be established by law, they 
 knew there was little hope of escaping persecution, until the old 
 rule of Episcopacy was overthrown. " I can tell you, sir, what I 
 would not have, though I cannot tell you what I would," said 
 Cromwell, their leader, one day when pressed to declare his views.* 
 The country was as divided in its wishes as the House. The 
 abolition of Episcopal government was demanded by a petition of 
 15,000 Londoners (11th Dec, 1640), its maintenance by nineteen 
 petitions from different counties. 
 
 After the discovery of the Army Plot, the force of the Presby- 
 terians in the Commons was much increased, for Pym and Hamp- 
 den, with the political reformers, though not ill disposed to the 
 Church, found it necessary to form an alliance with the Presbyteri- 
 ans. Hence for the present, in religious or political questions alike, 
 these two sections voted as one. The results of this powerful coa- 
 lition were soon shown in the introduction into the Lower House of 
 a bill called the ' Eoot and Branch Bill/ which required, not simply 
 ' Eoot and ^ that the clergy should be deprived of all civil power, and 
 thrown out. the bishops consequently of their seats in the House of 
 Lords, as one did that had already passed the Commons (1st 
 May), but that the very order of bishops should be abolished, 
 their titles, their power over the clergy, their revenues, all taken 
 from them (27th May). On this parties plainly declared them- 
 selves, and the previous unanimity gave way to a fierce division, 
 which crushed the bill. Men such as Hyde and Falkland drew 
 back from further change whether in Church or State. The work 
 of reform and justice, they argued, had now been completed ; 
 * Warwick, Memoirs, 177. 
 
1641 ., EOYALISTS DEAW APAKT. 103 
 
 Strafford had paid the foil penalty of Wj fS£ 
 Laud was in the Tower, a prisoner tor life , othei *orm«L 
 clrits had been punished by fine, imprisonment or banish- 
 ment; to ensure liberty, new statutes had been made, and I the 
 illegal courts abolished. If more was demanded of the km 
 the* Commons would be trespassing on h* p- Mng* and 
 altering the ancient form of government as it had existed _More 
 Charles' first encroached on the liberties of the people. On the 
 other hand to Pym, Hampden, and their followers the r^ 
 Army Plot, and other intrigues in Strafford s behalf 
 
 • • ~-p~ +i-,of Phqrlp^ was not to be tinsteci. 
 
 ZZ"Z d^to C mS bills, how had he given 
 "1": 1 His deep reluctance was not subdued it was on y 
 Kdineita time till he could use force to recover what he had 
 lost" Even now the queen was talking of going to Spa nomi- 
 :ly to recover her health, really to try and gam some foreign 
 aid to help her husband in crushing the Parliament ; Charles, ot 
 tturncv to Scotland, no doubt to strengthen his party there, and 
 ZT to foster the discontent of the English army he would 
 Z through. And what then? So old friends parted com- 
 ,P T„ The mrtv of Hyde and Falkland, now become royalist, 
 r/t'onlwa^ tiat ofpymand Hampden, foUowed by all the 
 Presbvterians and Independents, another. 
 
 Clilrles, on his way to Scotland, visited the English army, at 
 the time disbanding (Aug.), and readily obtained promises of 
 assistance from Papist officers and soldiers of for- *,« 
 tune But his opponents were generals enough to 
 have organized their intelligence department well : they num- 
 bered friends among the king's friends, and one wrote to the 
 Earl of Essex, that strange attempts had been made to pervert 
 
 ^iSintoTad, Charles granted the Scottish Parliament 
 the establishment of the Presbyterian Church and tnennial 
 Parliaments, and bestowed honours and pensions upon the lead- 
 L Covenanters, hoping by such means to win the favour of 
 nobles and people, and prevent them from befriending g^ 
 his enemies in England. At the same time he sought **- _ 
 to obtain proofs against the leaders of the Parliament of having 
 been in communication with the Covenanters in 1640, and or 
 *hese he intended impeaching them of high treason on his return. 
 
104 IRISH REBELLION. jlong pare, 
 
 "I believe after all be done," he wrote to his secretary, who 
 reported Pym's apparent cheerfulness, " that they will not have 
 such great cause of joy." While his conduct, narrowly scanned 
 as it was, was making Parliament more and more doubtful of his 
 good faith, an act fell out that cast upon him the suspicion of 
 all his Protestant subjects. On the 1st November, the Commons, 
 holding their breaths through horror, heard that on the 23rd of 
 Irish October, the Irish of Ulster had risen in arms, and 
 
 Rebellion, nearly surprised Dublin, and all over their own pro- 
 vince were driving the Scotch and English from their homes with 
 robbery, plunder, murder, while they displayed a commission, 
 stamped, as they said, with the king's great seal, authorizing 
 them to take up arms. Every week with fresh despatches the 
 tale increased in horror. Ulster was the province where the 
 settlers were most thickly planted, but the rebellion and its atten- 
 dant massacre spread fast from county to county, from province 
 to province. The scattered remains of Strafford's army, still 
 some 3000 in number, joined the insurgents, the ' degenerate 
 English/ also Papists, uniting with the Irish. It was a fearful 
 time, a whole people in rebellion to avenge years of oppression 
 and wrong, a people, moreover, brutal through ignorance, burning 
 with fanaticism. Heartrending were the accounts that came to 
 England, how men, women, and children were mercilessly 
 butchered ; how people of all conditions, spoiled and stripped, 
 with only rags for coverings, some wounded to death, others 
 frozen with cold, came crowding into Dublin, now almost their 
 only asylum, until barns, stables, and outhouses were over-filled 
 with dying wretches ; how the Irish boldly declared their pur- 
 pose to extirpate English Protestants, and not to lay down arms 
 until the Romish religion was established, the government 
 settled in the hands of natives, and the Irish restored to the 
 lands of their ancestors.* 
 
 King and Though Charles declared that the commission pub- 
 
 pecteVo?" listed in his name was a forgery, and offered to commit 
 complicity the care of the war entirely to the Parliament, he did 
 not succeed in counteracting the prevailing and persis- 
 tent opinion that both he and the queen had been concerned in 
 the rebellion. 
 
 * Lingard, vii. 283, from Nalson. 
 
1641.] GEAND EEMONSTEANCE. 105 
 
 History has revealed that there was grave cause of suspicion. 
 Charles, when the Parliament had insisted on his disbanding 
 Strafford's army, had sent private instructions to the Earl of 
 Antrim, in Ireland, to get the same forces together again, and 
 to engage the lords of the Pale to seize possession of Dublin 
 castle, and declare for himself against the English Parliament. 
 But it is ill playing with edged tools. The native Irish, who had 
 planned an insurrection on their own account, possibly with the 
 knowledge and consent of the queen,* seized the occasion to wreak 
 vengeance for the seizure of their lands, and rising before the 
 English Catholics were ready to join them, began the rebellion 
 with the inhuman massacre of the Protestant settlers, f The king 
 seems now to have cherished the strangely mistaken idea that the 
 horrors of the rebellion might make his English subjects more in- 
 clined to support his own authority. " I hope," he wrote to his 
 secretary, "this ill news in Ireland will hinder some of these 
 follies in England." 
 
 It had, of course, quite the opposite effect. Before Grand Re- 
 Charles returned from Scotland, Pym and Hampden monstrance, 
 caused a Kemonstrance to be drawn up, which it was intended 
 afterwards to print and disperse thi oughout the country. This 
 Remonstrance began by indicting the king's government for all its 
 past errors, the voyage to Cadiz, the loss of Eochelle, the long im- 
 prisonments and cruel sentences of the Star Chamber, and the 
 death of one whose "blood still cries for vengeance, or repentance 
 of those ministers of State who at once obstructed the course both 
 of his Majesty's justice and mercy."£ Next followed a statement 
 of the reforms effected by the Parliament, the abolition of the 
 illegal courts, the beneficial laws passed, the justice meted to evil 
 councillors. After this came a complaint against the enemies of 
 the Parliament, who had tampered with the army, and whose " de- 
 signs defeated in England and Scotland, had succeeded in Ire- 
 land," and this led up to the final demand that for the future the 
 king should select councillors in whom Parliament could confide. 
 To understand the motives which led a body of country gentle- 
 
 * The suspicion against the queen was revived at the Eestoration by the ex- 
 traordinary exertions she then made to procure for Antrim the restoration of 
 the estates forfeited by his treasonable belp to Cromwell. It was supposed ho 
 knew some dark secret ; and the only other motive her apologist suggests was 
 certainly inadequate. See Carte's Ormond, 277 — 293. 
 
 t Godwin, ii. J See p. 58. 
 
106 GRAND REMONSTRANCE. [long pael : 
 
 men to propose what was in fact the first step to a revolution, we 
 must imagine ourselves environed with the dangers that they 
 saw around them on every side. 
 
 In England, Pyni's life had been attempted, not only by a loath- 
 some attempt to inoculate him with the plague, but in Westminster 
 Hall another man had been stabbed by mistake for him. From 
 Scotland accounts came of a plot to assassinate both Hamilton and 
 Argyle ; there were suspicions, which history has confirmed, that 
 the would-be murderer was Montrose. The popular leaders had 
 strong reasons for believing that there was a second Army Plot 
 brewing in Scotland, by which Parliament was to be crushed. 
 Meantime, within the House the union which had \ been strength 
 was gone ; the Lords were inclined to retrace their steps ; in the 
 Commons, the longer Parliament lasted the more court influence 
 increased. The secession of Hyde had carried with it even Falk- 
 land, though noted as a lover of justice, and of Parliament as the 
 fountain of justice. Outside there was one of the reactions which 
 ensue on revolutionary legislation, however salutary. The weak 
 are alarmed ; the violent remain dissatisfied ; while the masses, 
 on finding their wild and unreasonable hopes have met with an 
 inevitable disappointment, are apt to echo the cries of the privi- 
 leged classes who resent or dread interference. The people in 
 such a mood will sacrifice their friends, and let slip all they have 
 gained, unless some leader appears to restore confidence by show- 
 ing clearly what is yet to be done, and how. The Eemonstrance 
 was Pym's manifesto. In its pages the good of government by 
 Parliament was contrasted with the well-known evils of govern- 
 ment by Prerogative ; the remedy was shown ; the old method of 
 electing the king's council must give way to a new and more con- 
 stitutional one ; and the country must be governed by ministers 
 in whom the Parliament had confidence, whether the king had 
 confidence in them or not. After a debate which lasted for more 
 than fifteen hours, the House divided on the question whether the 
 Eemonstrance should be passed. It was passed. The yeas num- 
 bered 159, the noes 148. Whereupon a member moved that it 
 should be printed at once. To print it was to appeal from the 
 king to the people. Hyde and Colepepper said, if the motion were 
 persisted in, they should ask leave to enter their protest in the 
 journals of the House, a custom occasionally adopted in the 
 Upper House, but unknown in the Lower. Pym and Hollis re- 
 
1641.] GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 107 
 
 f erred to the usage of the House. An opponent then, putting aside 
 the question of leave, called out that he did then and there protest 
 for himself and for all the rest of his party. ' All ! all !' shouted 
 the enemies of the Remonstrance, waving their hats over their 
 heads and snatching their swords from their belts. In the passion 
 of the moment, blood might have been shed within the walls of 
 the Commons' House itself, had not Hampden, ever ready, calmed 
 the turbulent spirits by a few well-timed words. Debates were 
 then by day and not by night, but though no final vote was 
 taken, it was not until two o'clock in the morning that the wearied 
 members, depressed or elated by that majority of eleven, left their 
 gloomy chamber for their homes* (Nov. 22). 
 
 So far the political reformers had gained a victory, but they 
 were still far from carrying the whole sense of the House or the 
 nation with them. Even in London, among the wealthier citizens 
 a royalist party appeared, and celebrated the king's Royalist 
 return from Scotland by a great demonstration. A W*?- 
 royalist Lord Mayor was elected, who, attended by the city alder- 
 men in their scarlet robes, by troops of horsemen, by gentlemen 
 richly clad in velvet coats and chains of gold, went out to meet 
 the king and queen, and entertained them royally in the city. 
 
 Charles, elated by the rise of a royalist party, and with the 
 lightly-given promises of Scotch nobles and army officers fresh 
 in his mind, felt confident that he should yet be able to get 
 the better of his enemies in the Parliament. But his acts gave 
 warning of danger. A proclamation for the enforcement of laws 
 against Puritans was published ; the trainband that formed the 
 guard of the two Houses, was dismissed by his orders ; Balfour, a 
 friend of the Parliament, was removed from the command of the 
 Tower ; and Lunsford, a cavalier of bad reputation, appointed 
 in his place (22nd Dec). On the news of this appointment, 
 tumults arose in the city, where there was already excitement 
 enough to warn Charles that his friends were not so many as he 
 thought. But though he consented to cancel it within twenty- 
 four hours at the representation of his friend the Lord Mayor, he 
 could not allay the suspicion to which such peculiar measures had 
 given rise. 
 
 The Remonstrance, printed by order of the House (15th Dec), was 
 
 * Forster's Grand Remonstrance ; Warwick's Mem 
 
108 BISHOPS' EXCLUSION BILL. [long pari* 
 
 already in the hands of the citizens. Reports were abroad that a 
 charge of treason was intended against some members of Parlia- 
 Biiifor ment. At this critical time, a bill to deprive the 
 
 bMiopsofc bishops of their seats in the House of Lords, was 
 seats. rejected for the second time, owing, as was said, to the 
 
 opposition of papist peers. It was the Christmas holidays ; and 
 apprentices, watermen, workmen, crowds of all sorts, came flood- 
 ing out of the city to Westminster, threatening the lords opposed 
 to the bill, and insulting the bishops. 
 
 Meanwhile, there had gathered round Charles at Whitehall, 
 officers from the late disbanded army, young students from the 
 inns of court, gentlemen from the country, eager for a fight with 
 the Parliament. " What !" said one, in actual hearing of some 
 members, " shall we suffer these base fellows at Westminster to 
 domineer thus 1 Let us go into the country and bring up our 
 tenants to pull them out?"* These reckless men, spreading 
 themselves between Whitehall and Westminster, soon drew 
 their swords upon the citizens, who were often armed only with 
 clubs. In Westminster Hall, in Westminster Abbey, frays 
 took place ; citizens were wounded, and a knight, who supported 
 the Parliament, was slain. The names of Roundheads and Cava- 
 Frays be- ^ ers were now ^ rs ^ heard, bandied as epithets of re- 
 fcween J Ca- proach. The spiritual peers, as the cause of the 
 'Round- quarrel, suffered most from the insolence of the mob ; 
 heads.' one j a y ^ e Archbishop of York nearly had his robes 
 
 torn off his back; on another, in real or pretended fear, the bishops 
 slipped out of the House by back ways, or went home in the 
 coaches of the popular lords. 
 
 After this last adventure, eleven bishops, following the lead of 
 Protest of Williams, Archbishop of York, who, as some think, 
 bishops. liacl arranged the whole matter with Charles, drew up 
 a protestation declaring that all that should be done during their 
 compelled absence from the Parliament was null and void- The 
 protestation was presented to the king, who ordered it without 
 delay to be read to the Lords (30th Dec.) fancying that now any 
 bill passed by them during the bishops' absence would be recog- 
 nized as void in law. The Lords, deeply offended at the conduct 
 of the absentees, sent the protestation down to the Commous, who 
 
 * Ludlow, i. 19. 
 
16*1-3.1 PEOTEST OF BISHOPS. 109 
 
 immediately impeached the bishops of high treason, for endeavour- 
 ing to subvert the fundamental laws of the realm (30th Bishops 
 Dec). The violence offered in no case seems to have been impeached. 
 great, in fact three prelates still continued to frequent the House ; 
 and, if a bishop had met with injuries while attending his post in 
 the House of Lords, the question might have entered the minds 
 of those not unfriendly to the Parliament, whether, after all, the 
 tyranny of a king was not more tolerable than the tyranny of 
 a mob. But, at the very time when his friends might have won 
 golden opinions as the victims of violence, he laid himself open 
 to the suspicion of double dealing. Straws show which way the 
 wind blows ; and his message only made the House think that he 
 intended hereafter to declare acts of Parliament null and void, be- 
 cause the bishops had been too timid to face the menaces of a crowd. 
 The suspicion in Pym's mind was not removed by a secret offer 
 now made him of the chancellorship of the exchequer. At a pre- 
 vious crisis, such an offer had tempted one of the ablest pym re f U scs 
 leaders of the opposition to forsake the principles he office - 
 professed. But Pym was not Strafford. The Eemonstrance was 
 not a bid for office, but a demand for a constitutional ministry. 
 This demand could be satisfied not by a secret concession to one 
 of its subscribers, but by the public resignation of a point of pre- 
 rogative. The secrecy was itself a proof that there was no con- 
 cession of the principle. Failing Pym, Charles sought new 
 ministers out of the party of his friends. 
 
 Lord Falkland, with reluctance, became secretary of Falkland 
 state. "I choose to serve the king," he said to his peppe^take 
 friend Hyde, " because honesty obliges me to it, but I office - 
 foresee my own ruin." Charles, who had made him his minister 
 only because of his influence in the Parliament, felt no gratitude; 
 a man who objected to the opening of letters, or the employment 
 of spies, was of little use for the measures he contemplated. Sir 
 John Colepepper, another member belonging to the same party, 
 was made chancellor of the exchequer (1st Jan., 1642). Hyde 
 refused office, only to serve the king's interests in the House with 
 less suspicion of his honesty. Charles, however, had framed his 
 policy before he appointed bis ministers ; for he now determined 
 on carrying into execution a deep-laid plot, which he had been 
 discussing with the queen and his confidants ever since he went 
 to Scotland. Among patriots, vague rumours of impending danger 
 
110 FIVE MEMBERS IMPEACHED. [lono pari, 
 
 thickened. The Commons, growing more and more suspicious, 
 petitioned the king to allow the restoration of their proper guard 
 (31st Dec). Charles took three days in replying, and then sent 
 a refusal, concluding thus : "We do engage unto you solemnly, 
 
 ON THE WORD OF A KING, THAT THE SECURITY OF ALL AND 
 EVERY ONE OF YOU FROM VIOLENCE IS, AND SHALL EVER BE, 
 AS MUCH OUR CARE AS THE PRESERVATION OF US AND OUR 
 
 children " (3rd Jan.). Upon the same day that this 
 message was received, the king's attorney impeached of high 
 treason, in the king's name, at the bar of the House of 
 Lords, Lord Kimbolton, and five members of the Commons, 
 Im h- -P ym > Hampden, Hollis, Haslerig, and Strode ; and 
 ment of five desired immediate possession of the persons of the 
 mem ers. accuse d. He read seven articles of accusation, but the 
 real charge, which Charles hoped hereafter to substantiate by 
 proof, was the fourth, that of having invited a foreign foe to in- 
 vade England. This referred to secret encouragement that had 
 been given by some of the popular leaders to the invading Cove- 
 nanters of 1640, the very men on whom the king had just been 
 conferring honours in Scotland ; and though such a charge could 
 not be fairly made after the Scotch Act of Oblivion, passed in 
 1641, it was quite possible that, the members once in his power, he 
 could find means to ensure tk< dr suffering the penalty of high trea- 
 son. Shortly after the articles of impeachment had been read in 
 the Upper House, a sergeant-at-arms entered the Lower and 
 said, " In the name of the king, my master, I am come to require 
 Mr. Speaker to place in my custody five gentlemen, members of 
 this House, whom his Majesty hath commanded me to arrest for 
 high treason." The Lords had refused to deliver up Lord Kim- 
 bolton ; the Commons replied by sending a committee to the 
 king, in which were both Falkland and Colepepper, to inform 
 him that their members should be forthcoming as soon as a legal 
 ill ralitv of c ^arge was preferred against them (3rd Jan.). The 
 kin- s pro- answer of the Commons meant more than it said, for 
 . ^ e king's whole method of proceeding was illegal : 
 1st, a commoner cannot be called to answer at the suit of the 
 crown to a criminal charge, unless the articles contained in the 
 bill of accusation are first declared by a grand jury not to be 
 groundless ; 2nd, a commoner, unless impeached by the Commons 
 before the House of Lords, can only be tried for treason before 
 
1642.] ATTEMPT ON FIVE MEMBEES. Ill 
 
 the common law judges by a petty jury, after the bill of accusa- 
 tion has been 'found' by a grand jury; 3rd, the king cannot 
 arrest in person or by a messenger, but only by a warrant drawn 
 up and signed by a magistrate or councillor ; and for this reason, 
 that, if the arrest is illegal, an action may be brought against a 
 fellow-subject, but not against the king, who, in the eye of the 
 law, is himself the fountain of justice. 
 
 Though the members, who should have been prisoners, were 
 the heroes of the hour, Charles was far as yet from doubting his 
 triumph. The next morning the queen at Whitehall was urging 
 him not to hesitate in playing out the second act of his plan. 
 li Allez, poltron" said she, as he seemed to hesitate, "go, pull 
 those rogues out by the ears, ou ne me revoyez jamais." " In an 
 hour," said the king, as he kissed her, " I will return master of 
 my kingdom ;" and, followed by a train of some three hundred 
 armed men, proceeded to Westminster to arrest his enemies in 
 person. 
 
 The Commons had received intimations from various quarters 
 that some violence was intended, and were sitting, foreboding 
 evil, when a friendly officer, who had climbed over the roofs of 
 some neighbouring houses to be in time, entered the House with 
 the information that, from this vantage point, he had seen the 
 king set out from Whitehall, attended by his guards and a long 
 train of cavaliers. The five members slipped out Five mem- 
 through the Speaker's garden, and thence took boat bers esca P e - 
 for the city, not a moment too soon, as they were hardly out of 
 the House before Charles was entering Palace Yard, outside 
 Westminster Hall. He came to the door of the Commons' 
 House, and taking his nephew, now elector palatine,* in with him, 
 commanded all others upon their lives to stay without. "So 
 the doors were kept open, and the Earl of Eoxburgh stood within 
 the door leaning upon it. Then the king came upwards towards 
 the chair with his hat off, and the Speaker stepped out to meet 
 him ; then the king stepped up to his place, and stood upon the 
 steps, but sat not down in the chair. And after he had looked a 
 great while, he told us he would not break our privileges, but 
 treason had no privilege ; he came for those five gentlemen, 
 for he expected obedience yesterday, and not an answer. Then, 
 
 * Charles Louis, p. 14. 
 
112 ATTEMPT ON FIVE MEMBERS. [long parl. 
 
 lie called Mr. Pym and Mr. Hollis by name, but no answer was 
 made. Then he asked the Speaker if they were here, or where 
 they were. Upon this, the Speaker fell on his knees, and said, 
 'May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor 
 tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to 
 direct me, whose servant I am here, and humbly beg your 
 Majesty's pardon, that I cannot give any other answer than this, 
 to what your Majesty is pleased to demand of me.' l Well/ 
 replied the king, ' since I see all the birds are flown, I do expect 
 from you that you shall send them unto me as soon as they : 
 hither, otherwise, I must take my own course to find them. 
 I assure you, on the word of a king, I never did intend 
 force, but shall proceed against them in a fair and legal 
 He then left the House, amid cries of ' Privilege ! privile^ 
 (4th Jan.). 
 
 Notwithstanding his protest, the House felt that bloodshed 
 had only been averted by the narrow escape of the five members. 
 The next morning, still adhering to his resolution of obtaining 
 the persons of the accused, Charles, unattended by any guards, 
 drove from Whitehall into the cit3 r . As he passed through the 
 streets, cries were raised of ' Privilege of Parliament/ 
 to Guildhall, and some daring hand flung into his coach a paper 
 mands per- Scribed, ' To your tents, O Israel !' a menace of re- 
 sons of five volt like that of the ten tribes to Rehoboam. Arrived 
 at Guildhall, he addressed the lord mayor, aldermen, 
 and common councilmen, demanding them not to shelter in the 
 city those whom he had accused of high treason, and saying re- 
 peatedly he must have those traitors. But he had come on a 
 bootless errand. Even among the city dignitaries his friends 
 were few, while his foes were many, and cries of ' God bless the 
 King/ were drowned by those of ' Privilege of Parliament.'* " I 
 have/' said Charles, " and will observe all privileges of Parlia- 
 ment, but no privileges can protect a traitor from a trial " (5th 
 Jan.). Westminster being regarded as no longer safe, the Com- 
 mons were installed in the Guildhall, where the city set a guard 
 to defend them. There was no chance of Charles getting the 
 members into his power, unless by force. The citizens were com- 
 pletely alienated. Even those who had doubted the reports of 
 previous plots against the Parliament, now believed in them all, 
 * Forster, Five Members. 
 
1642.] FATAL RESULTS OF ATTEMPT. 113 
 
 and recognized the foresight of Pym and Hampden, city alien- 
 whom they had thought alarmists. All that had been ated - 
 whispered of Ireland was now talked aloud and printed, while 
 the shops of the city were shut, as if an enemy were at the gates. 
 " Our late troubles have been attended with one benefit," said 
 Hampden to Hyde, " that we know who are our friends. I 
 know well you have a mind we should be all in prison." "Whether 
 Hyde and the two new ministers did know or not, is still a moot 
 point. Every one disclaims complicity in a plot that has failed. 
 In Hyde's case even a knowledge of the intended impeachment 
 involved treachery to friends he had long worked with. Accord- 
 ing to Hyde's own account, Charles had promised nothing should 
 be done without their knowledge, and then concealed this from 
 them. The best solution is to suppose that Hyde knew he was 
 not to know. 
 
 There was now no hope of reconciliation between the two 
 parties, short of Charles submitting to rule through a ministry 
 responsible to Parliament. The march of those 300 on West- 
 minster was in fact looked on as the declaration of war, war in- 
 or rather as war without a declaration. Men who re- evitable - 
 membered Eliot's fate, could not renounce self-defence after such 
 a hair-breadth escape. Charles' hope had been, Periander like, 
 to cut off the ears that overtopped. History has shown that a 
 country can be unmanned by such a policy for a time. But 
 by failure he had rather given the party heads than taken them 
 away. 
 
 The 11th of January was a gala day, a day of triumph for Pres- 
 byterians and reformers. While the London train-bands marched 
 along the banks of the Thames, to the sound of drum and trum- 
 pet, as a guard, the five heroes of the day went by water from 
 London Bridge to Westminster, followed by hundreds of boats 
 and barges thronged with people and adorned with flags and 
 streamers. Whitehall was silent as they passed. Charles had 
 retired the day before to Hampton Court with his family to 
 avoid the spectacle. " Where now are the king and his cavaliers ? 
 What has become of them ?" cried the people, as with shouts of 
 triumph they rowed on to reseat the members at Westminster. 
 On landing the members were met by 4000 gentlemen and free- 
 holders, who had come on horseback from Buckinghamshire, 
 Hampden's native county, as a guard of honour for their insulted 
 
 8 
 
114 COMMAND OF MILITIA. [long pael, 
 
 representative, bringing with them a petition to the Parliament 
 against the king's evil councillors. 
 
 The king had made a great mistake. A momentary triumph, 
 if won, is not a final victory ; and no successes won by violence 
 or chicanery can make up for the lost vantage ground of clean 
 hands and frank conduct. Charles was especially unfortunate ; 
 his secret plots were always revealed, always failed, and always 
 County precipitated the discussion of vital questions. It was 
 militia. now necessary to raise forces to send against the Irish 
 
 rebels. To whom was the right of commanding and calling out the 
 county militia to belong 1 By the statute of "Winchester, passed 
 in the thirteenth year of Edward I., every man was required to 
 possess arms in quantity and value according to the value of his 
 lands and goods, so that each county was provided with a sort of 
 feudal militia, which was called out in lieu of police by the lord- 
 lieutenant of the county, in case of any tumult or riot. Two 
 rights with regard to this militia the king of England had always 
 exercised ; first, that of nominating the lords-lieutenant and 
 other officers in command ;* secondly, when invasion was threa- 
 tened, that of sending so-called commissions of array to the 
 lords-lieutenant, bidding them call out the militia and train them 
 for service. But whether in time of peace the king could summon 
 his subjects to service outside their respective counties, was a 
 question that had never yet been determined, or if at all in the 
 negative, as Charles had just passed a bill which deprived him of 
 the power of pressing troops into his service. 
 
 Both sides were equally keen on the question. The failure that 
 rankled in Charles' breast was due, he thought, to the fact that 
 his volunteers were enough to overawe the Commons, but not 
 Command of enough to overawe the capital. The Parliament had 
 militia. seen i w h a t use Charles intended to put the sword, if 
 he got it. Accordingly the Commons sent a petition to the 
 king, asking that Parliament should nominate the command- 
 ers of fortified places, and the lords-lieutenant and other officers, 
 of the militia forces. The people beset the Upper House, de- 
 manding that the lords should both join in petitioning for the 
 inilitia, which they had refused to do, and pass the bill removing 
 ecclesiastics from all civil offices. 
 
 Between the 20th of January, and 5th of February, numbers of 
 * Hallam, Const, Hist. i. p. 552. 
 
1642.] KING LEAVES LONDON. 115 
 
 petitions to this effect flowed in from town and country, Lordg pass 
 from young men, apprentices, seamen, tradesmen, por- ^J^^'^f 
 ters, women. Many lords left the House in disgust at 
 the noise and violence of their petitioners. Those that remained 
 yielded in both the points required, and an ordinance was at once 
 prepared to transfer the command of the militia from the king 
 to the Parliament (Feb.). Since his departure from London, 
 Charles had been preparing for war. The queen was to cross 
 to Holland to procure arms and ammunition by the sale of the 
 crown jewels. He intended himself to fix his residence at York, 
 where it was expected his friends would gather round him, and 
 the people be found more devoted to their king than in the im- 
 mediate neighbourhood of London. When the bill to deprive the 
 bishops of their seats in the House of Lords was presented to 
 Charles, Colepepper urged him to yield, hoping that he Charles con- 
 might save the command of the militia. ' It is better/ Chops' Ex- 
 he said, ' to satisfy them in one or other of these bills ; elusion Bill, 
 this one can easily be repealed, and while the sword remains in 
 your hands, there will be no attempts to make further alterations.'* 
 1 Is Ned Hyde of this mind V asked the king. ' No, he does not 
 wish that either of the bills should be passed ; a very unreason- 
 able judgment, as times go.' ' It is mine too, though/ replied 
 Charles, ' and I will run the hazard.' Finding the king obsti- 
 nate, Colepepper went to the queen, and assured her that in con- 
 sequence of this refusal, the Parliament would stop her journey 
 abroad. Henrietta, eager to get out of a country in which she 
 felt herself always hated and now defenceless, never ceased impor- 
 tuning her husband with tears till he gave his consent to this 
 bill. 
 
 At Newmarket, on his way to York, Charles gave his final 
 answer to the commissioners sent by the Parliament to ask his 
 consent to the Militia Ordinance. 'Talk of your fears and 
 jealousies/ he said indignantly, after hearing a bitterly worded 
 declaration read, ' what would you have ? Have I violated your 
 laws ? Have I declined to pass one bill for the ease and security 
 of my subjects ? I do not ask you what you have done for me. 
 God so deal with me and mine as all my thoughts and bu t refuses 
 intentions are upright for the observance of the laws Militia Bm - 
 of the land.' ' I wish/ said one of the commissioners, ' your 
 
 * Clar. Mem. 114. 
 
 8—2 
 
116 
 
 PEELUDE TO WAE. [long paei. 
 
 Majesty would reside nearer your Parliament.' * I would you. 
 had given me cause ; but I am sure this declaration is not the 
 way to it.' ' Might not the militia be granted for a time f 
 1 By God, not for an hour. You have asked that of me in this, 
 was never asked of a king, and with which I will not trust my 
 wife and children ' (9th March). 
 
 At York, Charles found himself again in possession of power. 
 The Cavaliers followed in eager crowds ; friends, who had been 
 forced into exile, returned to his side, and many gentlemen 
 from the neighbouring counties came to offer their support to his 
 Ccause. His first step was to demand admittance to Hull, at that 
 Charles re- time the arsenal of the north. On his approach he 
 Knee into 11 " f° un(i tne S ates snut ' tne k rid g es drawn, the walls 
 Hull. manned, as though an enemy were expected : and Sir 
 
 John Hotham, who had been lately sent down as governor by 
 the Commons, came upon the walls and, kneeling down, said 
 he durst not open the gates, being placed in trust by 
 the Parliament (April). When the Commons were attacked 
 as endangering the foundations of private property by thus 
 denying the king access to his own arsenal, Pym replied by 
 attacking as unconstitutional the principle, "that his Majesty 
 hath the same right and title to his towns and magazines that 
 every particular man hath to his house, lands, and goods. ... 
 This erroneous maxim, being infused into princes, that their 
 kingdoms are their own, and that they may do with them what 
 they will (as if their kingdoms were for them, and not they for 
 their kingdoms) is the root of all the subjects' misery, and of all 
 the invading of their just rights and liberties. Whereas, they 
 are only intrusted with their kingdoms. . . . By the known law 
 of this kingdom, the very jewels of the crown are not the king's 
 proper goods, but are only intrusted to him for the use and orna- 
 ment thereof ; as the towns, forts, treasures, magazines, offices, 
 and people of the kingdom, and the whole kingdom itself, are 
 intrusted unto him for the good, and safety, and best advantage 
 thereof ; and as this trust is for the use of the kingdom, so it 
 ought to be managed by the advice of the Houses of Parliament, 
 whom the kingdom hath trusted for that purpose ; it being their 
 duty to see it be discharged according to the condition and true 
 intent thereof." 
 
 Even the pretence of peace could hardly be maintained much 
 
1642 .] MEETINGS IN "5T0EK.SHIEE. u » 
 
 loucer : and events we hurried on by the gentlemen of York- 
 diffe who held a meeting in which it was proposed to ra.se a 
 g^rd for the king's person (14th May). On the other s,de a e 
 I century and a half of civil peace, the great body of the nation 
 whatever the injuries they suffered, were not willing to see tne 
 fl^nes of civil war re-lighted; and now, whale the gentleme 
 were assembling, the freeholders of the county came crowding 
 into York, declaring that they also ought to have been summoned, 
 for the knights and gentlemen had no right to act m their name,. 
 To satisfy them, a second meeting was held on the 3rd of June, 
 at Heyworth Moor, where some 40,000 men assemb ed Meeting at 
 to meet the king. The freeholders had prepared a geywth 
 petition beting him to dismiss the Cavaliers and be 
 at accord wTthliis Parliament. The Cavaliers, indignant at its 
 contents tore the petition out of the hands of those who were 
 r ad ng it to approving group, Yet the freeholders had their 
 wish for young Thomas Fairfax, a Yorkshire gentleman, who 
 Vmpathize'd with them, forced his way right up to the king, and 
 Jailing upon one knee, fixed a copy of the petition npon the pom- 
 mel of the royal saddle. 
 
 The Parliament, on its side, was making active preparations. 
 First it formed itself into a war-council, eliminating Parliament 
 obstructives. The House had made np its mind on the b-ome^ 
 end to be pursued, and freedom of discussion was eon- 
 fined henceforward to the mean, Open supporters of theroyal 
 enemy were put in confinement for a time or expelled the House 
 One by one, as occasion or excuse offered, the king's friends fled to 
 York the House of Peers, in which, when the Parliament first 
 met lad sat above eighty, now dwindled down to twenty mem- 
 beitt of the House of Commons sixty-five departed, amongst 
 them Hyde and Falkland. An order was passed for raising troops 
 and money (10th June) ; the money lent was to receive eight per 
 Z, interest, the Parliament promising repayment »n the nation s 
 credit Within a few days, such an amount of money and plate 
 was brought to the treasurer at Guildhall, that there was hardly 
 Tom to stow it; the wealthy bringing then- large bags and 
 goblets, the poor women their very wedding-rings, and their gold 
 fnd slver hair-pins, thimble and bodkin money,* as the 
 realists contemptuously called it. The city was treated as a 
 * Clar. Mem. 134 t Hallam, i. 537. J May, 1„9. 
 
118 PKELTTDE TO WAII. [long fabl. 
 
 camp ; one who called the leaders traitors as a spy. In the 
 artillery grounds in Finsbury fields, the muster ground of 
 the volunteer troops, citizens were nearly all day at drill. The 
 Presbyterians, who had formerly looked on the grounds with dis- 
 favour, as the resort of courtiers and gentlemen, now hastened 
 thither to practise themselves in arms, and enlist in the London 
 trained bands. Major-General Skippon soon commanded eight 
 regiments, above 8000 soldiers. The militia ordinance was put 
 in force without further care for the king's consent. In the 
 same counties, in the same towns, sometimes on the very same 
 day, appeared the officer appointed by the Parliament, and the 
 officer appointed by the crown, the one summoning the people to 
 arms in the name of the ordinance, the other in that of the king's 
 commission of array. 
 
 Without slackening their preparations, the Parliament sent to 
 the king at York nineteen propositions, for the first time formally- 
 tabulating their demands. Their hope was not so much that the 
 king would grant them, as that the blame of the war would fall 
 upon him for his refusal. They asked, that he should resign to 
 Parliament (1) the nomination of his privy councillors and other 
 officers of state, (2) the command of the militia and all fortified 
 places ; (3) that he should suffer the Church to be reformed by 
 the advice of Parliament, and (4) not marry his children without 
 Charles re- asking its consent. Though securities practically equiva- 
 sitions of 1 * " ^ en ^ *° these ar e now incorporated in the constitution, 
 York. the king of the seventeenth century was indignant at 
 
 their bare proposal. " These being passed," he said, " we may be 
 waited on bare-headed, have swords and maces carried before us, 
 and please ourselves with the sight of a crown and sceptre, but as to 
 true and real power, we should remain but the picture, but the sign 
 of a king." The Commons fixed on the Earl of Essex as the general 
 for their army. He had fought in his youth for the Protestant 
 cause in the Low Countries. Charles had appointed him lieute- 
 nant-general in the first Scotch campaign, and after it had dis- 
 missed him with studied discourtesy. In earlier times he had suf- 
 fered a deeper wrong from the Stuart court, for James the First 
 had caused him to be divorced from his wife, in order to marry 
 her to his own profligate favourite, Robert Carr, afterwards Earl of 
 Somerset. Thus experience and personal antecedents seemed alike 
 to fit him for the post. His nomination was acceptable to the Pres- 
 
1642.] ESSEX APPOINTED GENERAL. 119 
 
 byterians, who sympathized with his creed ; to gentlemen, who 
 would have scorned to serve under a general of inferior 
 rank ; to the people at large, who loved his honest, pointed 
 straightforward nature. On being voted general (4th s eneral - 
 July), he proved at once his honesty and courage, by accept- 
 ing the dangerous honour, defeat meaning death to the leader of 
 a rebel army. Several members of the Parliament received 
 commands ; St. John, Hampden, Hollis, were named colonels of 
 regiments of foot ; Cromwell, Haslerig, Fiennes, of regiments 
 of horse. Great excitement prevailed in London ; everybody 
 went about decorated with orange ribands, the colour of Essex' 
 house, the shops were closed, and civil business was almost at a 
 standstill. 
 
 The king was not idle ; the queen sent arms and Ki raiseg 
 money from Holland, and, as soon as a small force his stan- 
 was collected, he raised his standard on a hill near 
 Nottingham (23rd August). Thence he marched into the west, 
 making many friendly speeches to the people on his way, de- 
 claring his good intentions towards the laws and liberties of the 
 kingdom.* His nephews, Rupert and Maurice, sons of his sister 
 Elizabeth, came over from Germany to fight for him ; the Ca- 
 tholics lent him money, and by the middle of October he mustered 
 at Shrewsbury an army of about 12,000 men. 
 
 And now the people had to choose between King _ , , 
 and Commons. Declarations and pamphlets were pictedby 
 eagerly devoured. Though half a year had passed, ^ty^t^ 
 the Grand Remonstrance still served as the chief mani- and persc- 
 festo of the Parliament. In that document the king 
 had been depicted as the tyrant, imprisoning without law, and 
 taxing without right ; as the friend of Rome and the persecutor, 
 cruelly maiming his subjects' bodies, and more cruelly maiming 
 their souls' health ; while the Parliament stood forth as the up- 
 holder of true and tempered liberty, who kept the property of 
 the rich safe from the grasping hand of confiscation, the hard- 
 won earnings of the poor from being wasted by monopolies and 
 illegal customs ; who enabled peer and peasant to walk again on 
 English soil, free of all constraint but the well-known laws ; and 
 above all as the protector of tender consciences, godly itself, and 
 
 * May, 134. 
 
120 PRELUDE TO WAR. [long pake. 
 
 a shield to the godly against the courts which formed the new- 
 English Inquisition. 
 
 Commons ^ n tne ro 7 a li s * pamphlets the king was God's 
 
 depicted by anointed, ruling by divine right, a pillar of the 
 rebels and Church, the preserver of order, the upholder of the 
 fanatics. ancient constitution, yet giving up his right at his sub- 
 jects' desire, and passing every law that conduced to his people's 
 good ; while the Commons were rebels, bent on encroaching alike 
 on the king's prerogative and the rightful authority of the peers, 
 friends of anarchy and misrule, ready to plunge the country in 
 civil war to gratify their inordinate ambition, with a sullen and 
 fanatical religion, which could neither take enjoyment itself, nor 
 tolerate it in others ; in fact, with that in them which might 
 make a tyranny of many, far worse than any tyranny of one. 
 Charles the But since the Bemonstrance the king had unf ortu- 
 deceiver. na tely added to the reckoning his enemies kept against 
 him. Not only had the tyranny received a new illustration in 
 their eyes from the attempted arrest of the five members ; the 
 friendship with Borne by the muster of Catholics, and the perse- 
 cution from a proclamation against Puritans ; but a new count 
 of crime was added. The solemn assurance to the Commons, 
 that their preservation was as much his care as that of his wife 
 and children, had been used to lull them into a false security ; 
 the oath that, on the honour of a king, he had never intended 
 force, stood blankly contradicted by his armed retinue at the door. 
 The untruthfulness of character suspected from his answer to the 
 Petition of Eight, and more than suspected from the army plots, 
 now seemed a certainty. To the Parliament the king was not 
 only the tyrant and the persecutor, but the deceiver. This count 
 was really the cause of the war. Charles was not incapable of 
 the position of a constitutional governor. He had ability above 
 the average, dignity of manners, and a higher dignity, raising- 
 him above all low tastes ; and he had not that unbending 
 obstinacy, which would amount to incapacity, as a governor. 
 But he was believed to have admitted an unfortunate distinction 
 between a public and private conscience, which dispensed him 
 from the necessity of keeping faith with political opponents. 
 Measures past, concessions obtained, promises to observe the law,, 
 all these the cherished victories of peaceful patriots, seemed as 
 unavailing as bands to bind a Proteus. The very awe of majesty 
 
1642.] CHAELES THE DECEIVER. 121 
 
 requires a king's truthfulness to be above suspicion. But the 
 leaders of the Commons had to work with a vision of the Tower 
 ever before their eyes : the fairer the offers made to them the 
 more the dread of foul play. This prevented the due action of that 
 safety-valve of the State, a constitutional opposition. Even in 
 foreign diplomacy, where bad faith is not uncommon, the dis- 
 coverer of fraud is held justified in laying arbitration aside and 
 drawing the sword at once : at home the interests of king and 
 subjects being really identical, deceit has still less occasion for 
 practice. 
 
 Devoted partisans on either side were not very many in num- 
 ber. Those of the king were mostly to be found in the soldiers 
 of fortune from Germany, and the more reckless of the country 
 gentlemen, who looked forward to the excitement of war. On 
 the Parliament's side the Presbyterians and sectarians, seeing in 
 their own cause the cause of God, strove for the overthrow of the 
 Established Church with all the ardour of religious enthusiasts. 
 But between the views of these two extreme parties opinion 
 generally fluctuated, and men took sides doubtingly as their natures 
 or circumstances prompted. 
 
 The greater part of the nobility and gentry either openly joined 
 the king, or tried to remain neutral, and generally had Gentry with 
 sufficient influence over their tenantry to cause them to ng * 
 embrace the same side as themselves. To many it seemed absurd 
 to hazard wealth and a secured position to avoid paying a few 
 shillings arbitrarily raised ; an upheaval from below was more 
 dangerous to them than pressure from above ; others, again, who 
 recognized the importance of the principle at stake, were still in- 
 clined to their king by the instincts of chivalry, or the abhorrence 
 of fanaticism. On the other hand, the inhabitants of manufactur- 
 ing towns, independent county freeholders, merchants, Towns and 
 and others, who had made fortunes in trade, and after- ^h com- 
 wards bought land in the country, showed themselves, mons. 
 as a rule, friendly to Parliament. Besides being influenced by re- 
 ligion and a sense of independence, these classes had especially 
 suffered from the monopolies and extortions which had raised the 
 price of necessaries and shackled the enterprise of trade. There 
 were exceptions, however, on both sides. Many gentlemen felt that 
 the cause of the Parliament was so good, they were bound to take 
 up arms in its defence ; many yeomen and burghers adhered to then* 
 
122 PRELUDE TO WAR. [loko pael. 
 
 county magnates and their king. As a general rule, where the con- 
 tagion of neighbourhood or the necessities of religion did not decide 
 the question, the king was preferred to the Parliament. It was only 
 the men of strong convictions, of unusual foresight, who would 
 coolly and deliberately embark on an unknown sea, without chart 
 or compass of guidance, and risk all for the sake of liberty, and 
 the doubtful gratitude of posterity. So with unwilling hearts 
 did men array themselves. One Royalist wrote to his wife, that 
 though he loved not his side, ' grinning honour 7 compelled him 
 to stay by it, for he could not bring himself to fight for the Par- 
 liament, and if he remained neutral he should be called a coward.* 
 " You," said Sir Edmund Verney, the king's standard-bearer, to 
 Hyde, who reproved him for looking melancholy, " are satisfied 
 in conscience that the king ought not to grant what they desire. 
 I have eaten my master's bread, and served him near these thirty 
 years, and will not do so base a thing as to forsake him, but for 
 my part I do not like the quarrel, and wish he would yield."f 
 
 Sir William "Waller, one of the Parliament's commanders, 
 wrote to Sir Ralph- Hopton, a Royalist officer : " The great God, 
 Avho is the searcher of my heart, knows with what reluctance I 
 go upon this service, and with what perfect hatred I look upon a 
 war without an enemy. The God of peace in His good time 
 send us peace, and in the meantime fit us to receive it ! We are 
 both on the stage, and we must act the parts that are assigned us 
 in this tragedy ; let us do it in a way of honour, and without per- 
 sonal animosities." 
 
 At any rate, thought these unwilling enemies, one battle will 
 decide everything, so that, whatever the consequences to the 
 vanquished, our country will soon rest again on 'the gentle 
 bosom of civil peace.' 
 
 * Forsfcer, B. S. iii. 50. f Clar. Mem. 160. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FIRST YEARS OF THE WAR. — BATTLES OF EDGEHILL AND 
 NEWBURY.— 1 642—1 643. 
 
 They stood aloof, the scavs remaining, 
 Like cliffs which had been rent asunder, 
 
 A dreary sea now flows between, — 
 
 But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, 
 
 Shall wholly do away, I ween, 
 
 The marks of that which once hath been. 
 
 COLEEIDGE. 
 
 It must not "be supposed that the Commons declared q nstitu- # 
 war against the king. The popular leaders were most tudefof 
 careful to maintain a quasi-legal ground for their re- Commons, 
 sistance. Novel and subtle as their principles seemed at the 
 time, they have since been largely accepted. Pym's speeches 
 in fact may be said to have laid down the lines of the theory on 
 which modern constitutional government is based. Thus the 
 Remonstrance was framed as an attack, not on the king, but on 
 his councillors ; and when the king objected that actions which 
 he avowed as his own were ' censured under that common style/ 
 Pym's answer was, "How often and undutifully soever these 
 wicked counsellors fix their dishonour upon the king, by making 
 his Majesty the author of those evil actions which are the effects 
 of their own evil counsels, we, his Majesty's loyal and dutiful 
 subjects, can use no other style, according to that maxim in the 
 law, ' the king can do no wrong,' but if any ill be committed in 
 matter of State, the council must answer for it : if in matters of 
 justice, the judges."* So now the Commons went to war with the 
 actual king to protect the ideal king of the constitution from evil 
 counsellors. This appears in their declaration " that, whereas the 
 king was seduced by wicked counsel to make war against the 
 Parliament, who proposed no other end unto themselves than the 
 * Forster, British Statesmen. Pym, p. 269. 
 
124 BATTLE OF EDGEHILL. [was 1st yb. 
 
 care of his kingdom and the performance of all loyalty to his-, 
 person, it was a breach of the trust reposed in him by his 
 people, and tending to the dissolution of his government." The 
 legal maxims of the royal lawyers of the past had received a new 
 reading from the popular lawyers of the present. The new wine 
 seemed bursting the old bottles, but the bottles have since ex- 
 panded to the strain. That these ideas were genuine beliefs of the 
 time, is shown as well by the cherished clause of the covenant, "to 
 preserve the king's person and authority," as by the real horror 
 felt when Republicans first broke through this reserve, or when 
 Cromwell averred that his pistol would be no respecter of persons. 
 The patriots were not, however, wanting in readiness to chastise 
 their ' poor, semi-divine, misguided father, fallen insane.'* 
 
 Essex marched from London into the west (9th Sept., 1642), 
 and took up his head-quarters at Worcester, where he remained 
 without venturing to offer the Royalists battle. Charles, wishing 
 to fight before the rebel army could be reinforced, broke up his 
 camp at Shrewsbury (12th Oct.), and marched across the country 
 in the direction of London, feeling certain that Essex would 
 follow him to protect the city. He went by way of Wolver- 
 hampton, Birmingham, Kenilworth, and passing Southam, on 
 the road to Banbury and Buckingham, arrived at Eclgecote, 
 without having any knowledge of his enemies' movements (22nd 
 Oct.).t Here, however, Rupert, who was encamped with the rear 
 at Wormleighton, learnt from his scouts that fires were to be seen 
 from the Dassett hills, and that Essex had his head-quarters that 
 night at the village of Kineton, half way between Warwick and 
 Banbury, and only ten miles to the north-west of Edgecote. 
 The king, aroused from sleep at three in the morning, on hearing 
 this news, at once summoned a council of war, in which it was 
 agreed to hold without delay a general rendezvous of the army on 
 the top of Edgehill. 
 
 To appreciate the tactics of the time it is necessary to remember 
 Armour of the nature of the weapons. The soldiers on, either side 
 foot soldiers. were arme d a fter the same fashion. The introduction 
 of fire-arms had caused the defensive armour of the ordinary horse 
 and foot soldiers to be reduced to a back and breast piece and a 
 1 1 road iron hat, commonly called a pot ; cal ves'-leather boots reach ing 
 up to the knees, and a long buff coat worn under the armour, 
 * Carl. i. 160. t See Map, p. 127. 
 
23 OCT., 1642.] ARMOUR AND WEAPONS. 125 
 
 completed their equipment. Officers often wore open helmets, arm 
 and shoulder pieces, and tassets or skirts to protect the thighs. 
 
 The cavalry was divided into three classes — the cuiras- Cavalry> _ 
 siers, the carabineers, and the dragoons.* The cuiras- three 
 siers being almost without exception gentlemen, arming 
 themselves at their own expense, came to battle magnificently 
 appointed, with silver-hilted swords, plumes of feathers waving 
 above open helmets, and buff coats gay with gold and silver trim- 
 mings. Their usual weapons were the sword and pistol. The 
 carabineers were so called from the name of their carbine or mus- 
 ket. The dragoons were light armed, having only the buff coat 
 and iron hat, and were like mounted riflemen, fighting as much 
 on foot as on horse, but with swords for cavalry work. 
 
 The infantry was divided into bodies of pikemen and M US k e t 
 musketeers, the use of musket and bayonet not yet and pike, 
 being combined in the same weapons. The pike, made of ash, 
 was fifteen or sixteen feet long, and headed with steel. 
 
 The musket or matchlock was not advanced beyond the first 
 stage of invention. The spark to fire the gunpowder was applied 
 from the outside, instead of being produced by the concussion of 
 flint and steel. The match consisted of little ropes of tow, 
 boiled in spirit ; these, when lighted at one end, smouldered on 
 until the whole was consumed. The musket was still such a 
 heavy and cumbersome weapon that it had to be fixed on a rest. 
 This rest was made of ash-wood, headed at one end with iron 
 to fix in the ground, and having at the other a half hoop of iron. 
 'Before the end of the war the musketeer was relieved of this 
 additional burden. Eests were disused owing to the introduction 
 of lighter and more portable muskets. To a belt, fastened 
 round the musketeer's left shoulder, hung a bullet bag, some 
 twists of spare match, a flask of touch powder, and a bandeleer, 
 with twelve little cases, made of leather or tin, each of which 
 contained a separate charge of powder. As loading and firing 
 were both long operations, only one rank fired at a time, and the 
 
 * The dragoons are said to have received their name from the locks of the 
 first muskets in use amongst them, on which was represented a dragorCs 
 head with a lighted match in its jaws, a natural image of a death-dealing 
 engine. Both weapon and name came from France, The cuirassiers were 
 so called from the original name of the hack and breast piece, a cuirasse. 
 Like other pieces of defensive arms the cuirasse was made of leather (euir) 
 before it was made of iron. Buff was leather like buffalo-hide ; it would often 
 turn a sword-cut. 
 
12Q BATTLE OF EDGEHILL. [wab, 1st te 
 
 musket was by no means so great an advance in the art of des- 
 truction as we might suppose from our experience of the modern 
 rifle. Field guns were also cumbersome, and seem to have done 
 little execution. It was when the ranks had come to push of 
 pike, or when the victors mercilessly cut down the flying foe 
 with the sword, that the dead fell thickest. There were no regu- 
 lar unforms. Different regiments of infantry on either side often 
 wore buff coats dyed the colour belonging to the house of their 
 colonel. Thus Hampden's men wore green coats ; Lord Grey's 
 blue ; others, red, purple, and gray. All the officers of the Parlia- 
 ment wore orange scarfs, the colour of the house of Essex. But 
 in the confusion of the battle, a twig of green, a sprig of broom, or 
 a bit of coloured riband, fastened to the hat, with the help of the 
 word for the day, was the chief guide by which to distinguish 
 friend from foe. 
 
 Edgehill, which forms ' the face or edge of the tableland of the 
 north of Oxfordshire,' looks abruptly down on the Warwickshire 
 level below, and as it is approached from Kineton, stands out a 
 Battle of long bold nne oi nu "l against the horizon. The eastern 
 Edgehill. slopes rise more gently, and hither on Sunday morn- 
 ing, the 23rd of October, came the Koyalist regiments from their 
 scattered quarters on the Southam and Banbury road, many of 
 them having to march eight miles or more before they reached 
 the summit. The side of the hill, which faces Kiueton, is now 
 covered with large trees, wearing on an October day all the varied 
 tints of autumn, but then only a few bushes were scattered over 
 it. The undulating plain below, lying between Kineton and Rad- 
 way,now all brought under cultivation and crossed by innumerable 
 hedgerows, was then an open desolate-looking pasture ground ; 
 one long hedge alone, which survives to the present day and 
 probably marked the enclosure of an old homestead there, struck 
 across it about midway between the two villages. 
 
 Essex saw the Royalist horse moving on the top of Edgehill 
 before eight o'clock, and at once formed his army in front of 
 Kineton, facing south-east, ready to fight if the king should 
 come down and offer battle on equal terms. Several causes 
 induced Charles to gratify the wishes of his enemies, and abandon 
 his unassailable position on the summit of Edgehill. Extreme 
 confidence prevailed amongst the Cavaliers. Rupert made no 
 doubt of victory, and urged immediate battle. It was known 
 
MAP OF EDGEHILL. 
 
 127 
 
 ^Northampton © ^ 
 
128 BATTLE OF EDGEHILL. [wab, 1st yb. 
 
 that two regiments of horse and one of foot under Colonel Hamp- 
 den were a day's march behind the rest of Essex' army, engaged 
 in bringing up some artillery, which it was hard to drag through 
 the heavy clayey soil. Lastly, ever since the army had reached 
 KLenilworth, there was no food to be got. The country people, in 
 these Midland counties more inclined to the Parliament than 
 to the king, and frightened by reports of the cruel and plunder- 
 ing habits of the Cavaliers, had hidden their provisions, so that 
 some of the common soldiers were half starved, and had hardly 
 eaten bread for forty-eight hours. The prince thought no better 
 remedy could be found to bring the people to their reason than 
 a victory gained over the rebels. Accordingly the Eoyalists' 
 formed on the top of Edgehill, fronting the north-west, ready to 
 march down the hill and give the enemy battle on the level 
 between Had way and Kineton. The king's army was about 
 12,000 strong ; that of Essex about 10,000. Both were disposed 
 Disposition according to the tactics of the time. The main body of 
 of armies. f 00 t ^g^ ^^g ce ntre. Every corps of infantry consisted 
 of pikemen and musketeers, the pikemen drawn up in the centre, 
 the musketeers in the flanks. The lines were rareJy less than 
 ten deep, in order that when the front rank of musketeers had 
 fired, they might have time to retire to the rear, form and reload, 
 while the other nine ranks were severally performing the same 
 motions. In either wing was placed the horse, generally supported 
 by regiments of infantry or dragoons. A body of horse was kept 
 in reserve, ready at any critical moment to assist friends or press 
 hard upon foes. Essex commanded his centre in person. On his 
 left wing, he placed his principal body of horse, and part of five 
 regiments of infantry ; on his right, three regiments of horse, 
 his artillery on some slightly rising ground near where Battle 
 Farm now stands, and dragoons on foot to line the long hedge 
 that ran across the ground. The king's centre was commanded 
 by his general-in-chief, the Earl of Lindsey. Rupert was half 
 a mile off to the right ; Colonel Wilmot, who commanded the left 
 vang, as far off on the left. 
 
 Rupert, though far more distinguished for courage than judg- 
 ment, and only twenty- three years old, had been made by Charles 
 lieutenant-general of the horse. His temper was imperious, his 
 manners overbearing, and now, refusing to obey any commands, 
 except those received directly from the king's lips, he acted as 
 though he was entirely independent of the Earl of Lindsey. 
 
23 OCT., 1642.] ESSEX' WINGS KOUTED. 129 
 
 About one o'clock, the Royalists, having a front of two miles, 
 streamed down the hill in three lines, their two wings gradually 
 converging towards their centre as they approached the enemy. 
 It was already three o'clock, and the October day on its decline, 
 before the battle commenced. "Come life or death," said 
 Charles to his principal officers, as he left his tent, " your king 
 will bear you company," and with his own hand fired the first 
 piece of artillery. 
 
 As Rupert was advancing upon the enemy's left wing, Sir 
 Faithful Fortescue, a major in Essex' army, and his whole troop 
 of horse, rode forward and joined the ranks of the prince. Thus 
 encouraged, the Cavaliers charged impetuously, while the Parlia- 
 ment's horse, inexperienced, and panic-stricken by the base deser- 
 tion of their comrades, having once fired their pistols into the 
 air, turned their horses' heads and fled, throwing into confusion 
 several regiments of infantry behind them, which also Essex' left 
 took to flight, in spite of all the efforts of their officers, wingrouted. 
 " The Lord Mancleville's* men would not stand the field, though 
 his lordship beseeched, nay cudgelled, them ; no nor yet the Lord 
 Wharton's men ; Sir William Fairfax his regiment, except some 
 eighty of them, used their heels." Horse and foot fled in one 
 confusion together towards Kineton, whither they were closely pur- 
 sued by Rupert, who was intent on plundering the baggage carts, 
 which could be seen standing unguarded in the village streets. 
 
 Meanwhile, on the king's left wing, the Royalists had been 
 equally successful in clearing the field of the larger part Essex' right 
 of the Parliamentary horse. But whatever advantage wing routed. 
 these mounted gentlemen gained over the raw recruits of the 
 Parliament, who had but just learnt to sit a horse or fire a pistol, 
 was all lost through want of subordination to their general. 
 For what folly in Rupert to be plundering at Kineton, instead of 
 seeing how the battle went under Edgehill ! What rashness in 
 the king's reserve of horse, whose special function it was to decide 
 the day by a charge at the critical moment on the critical point, 
 and as a reserve never to follow up an advantage till the whole 
 field was theirs, to clap spurs into their horses, and without orders 
 join in this idiotic pursuit of one wing of the enemy, while his 
 centre was still unbroken ! These heedless acts lost the king his 
 victory. In the absence of all the Royalist horse from the field, 
 
 * Lord Simbolion (p. Ill), afterwards Earl of Manchester (p. 155). 
 
 9 
 
igo BATTLE OE EDGEHILL. [>ab, 1st ye. 
 
 the Parliament's reserve, after charging through the enemy's 
 lines and spiking several pieces of cannon, fell upon the rear of 
 his centre. At the same time Essex, supported by the officers 
 from his broken wings, who, scorning to fly with their men, had 
 Meeting of rallied around their own main battle, put himself at the 
 centres? head of his infantry, and fiercely charged the Eoyalist 
 ranks in front. And now came the real struggle of the day. Charles, 
 conspicuous in his steel armour and black velvet mantle, on which 
 o-littered his Star and George, rode into the leading ranks, en- 
 couraging his troops to hold their ground. But no valour could 
 resist the odds against which his men were fighting, attacked at 
 once in front and rear, and outflanked through the absence of 
 their own wings and the superior numbers of the enemy. What 
 slope of the ground there was favoured the troops of the Parlia- 
 ment ; the slain and wounded fell by scores in the space of a few 
 yards ; the Earl of Lindsey, badly shot, was carried off the field by 
 the enemy ; the king's standard-bearer was slain, and his stand- 
 ard placed in the hands of Essex. But a gallant Royalist captain, 
 by the simple artifice of fastening an orange scarf to his person, 
 and riding boldly up to the earl's secretary, to whose keeping the 
 prize had been entrusted, succeeded in quietly taking it from him, 
 saying it was not fit for a penman to have the* honour of carrying 
 that standard ; then bearing it back in triumph to the king, he 
 was knighted beneath its shadow. 
 
 Charles, though he had only a hundred horse about him, and 
 was within half a musket- shot of the enemy, refused to retire. He 
 ordered Charles and James, his two boys of twelve and nine years 
 old, who were by his side, to be taken out of danger. His phy- 
 sician, the great Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the 
 blood, having retired with the princes to the shelter of some 
 bushes, took a book out of his pocket, and read, quite regardless 
 of the turmoil round him, until a bullet grazed the ground close 
 by, and warned him to remove his charges out of range. 
 
 Meanwhile Rupert and the Cavaliers, after plundering the 
 "baggage, were following up the pursuit of the Parliament's horse, 
 when they were stopped at a hill a little beyond Kineton, which 
 is still known as Rupert's headland, by the approach of Hampden's 
 three regiments with the artillery. Rupert retreated hastily, but 
 , only to find the Royal infantry forced up under the 
 
 tires before foot of the hill, and the ground he had occupied in 
 Hampden. the llI0 :-ning now held by the troops of the Parlia- 
 
1642.] DOUBTFUL EESULT. 131 
 
 ment. " I can give a good account of the enemy's horse," he said, 
 when he saw the confusion of his party. " Ay !" exclaimed a 
 Cavalier, with an oath, " and of their carts too." As it was now 
 half-past five, it was quite impossible to distinguish friends from 
 foes, and the two armies drew apart. The Royalists passed the 
 night at the foot and on the side of the hill, where, pinched with 
 cold and hunger, they made what fires they might out of the few 
 bushes growing about. Essex' troops also spent that Sunday 
 night on the field, in little better plight than their enemies. " I 
 had tasted no meat," says one, " since the Saturday before, and 
 having nothing to keep me warm but a suit of iron, I was obliged 
 to walk about all night, which proved very cold by reason of a 
 sharp frost." Large numbers on both sides deserted during the 
 night, and the next morning there was, in either army, a general 
 unwillingness to renew the battle. The king retired, over Edge- 
 hill into Oxfordshire ; Essex to Warwick, whence he had come.* 
 
 Though the Parliamentarians laid claim to a victory, the re- 
 sults of the battle seemed to favour the king. Banbury, Results of 
 Abingdon, Henley, opened their gates without a show battle - 
 of resistance ; and soon Rupert and the Cavaliers were plunder- 
 ing the country in the very neighbourhood of London. 
 
 The disposition of London was most important. Not only did 
 
 the opinions and acts of the Londoners exercise weight all over 
 
 the kingdom, but on the readiness of the city mer- „ 
 
 , . J Disposition 
 
 chants to lend money was likely for some time to de- of London- 
 
 pend the pay and maintenance of the Parliament's ers ' 
 army. Though often terrified, the city never failed in its support 
 to the Parliament, nor was it unfairly called by Charles " the 
 nursery of the rebellion." It opened wide its coffers ; sent out 
 apprentices by thousands to enlist in the army ; organized a for- 
 midable force of its own under the name of the city trained bands ; 
 and, in fact, was always ready to give the nation some striking, 
 if not turbulent, proof of its zeal. 
 
 The principal motive that urged the citizens to support the war 
 was their eager longing to be allowed to worship according to 
 the forms of the Presbyterian Church. Had Charles at this time 
 granted toleration to Presbyterians, he would have deprived the 
 Parliament of some half of its most zealous supporters. The day 
 
 * Gar. Hist., iii. ; Ludlow, i. ; Ellis, Ori£. Letters, 2nd series, iii. 303 ; 
 May, 23 ; Warwick Mem., 231 ; Beesley, Hist, of Banbury, 308, 320 ; Grose, 
 Hist, of Ancient Avniour. 
 
 9—2 
 
LONDON THREATENED. [wab, 1st yr. 
 
 Uidgenui, auui CB }j u t]imk t0 
 
 "Gentlemen, citizens of London, he said, you m u 
 fio-ht in the sighs and tears of your wives and children. Therefore 
 when you hefr the drums beat, say not, I beseech you I am not of 
 the" led band, nor this, nor that, nor the other, but doubt not to 
 2 out to the wok, and this shall be the day of your deliverance. 
 What is it we fight for ? It is for our religion, and for ^ our God 
 and for our liberty and all. And what is it they fight for I For 
 their lust, for their wills, and for their tyranny ; to make s 
 slaves, and to overthrow all. Gentlemen, methmks I see yom 
 courage in your faces. I spy you ready to do anything, and the 
 general's resolution is to go out to-morrow, and do as a man of 
 courage and resolution, and never man did like him. t 
 
 In spite however, of the exhortations of the leaders of the Par- 
 liament, and the presence of Essex and his army, fear was so pre- 
 valent in the city that the Commons sent a petition to the king, 
 Proposed proposing a treaty. Charles, after returning a gracious 
 Treaty. . answe r, in which he called God to witness his great 
 BreSd. desire for peace and offered to treat at Windsor or 
 wherever else he might be (12th Nov.), took advantage of a thick 
 mist to advance unperceived from Colnbrook, and f all upon a few 
 regiments of foot and a small party of horse, that garrisoned Brent- 
 ford and protected the road to London (13th Nov.).* For this 
 action he was accused by his enemies of treachery. Since no ces- 
 
 * Heir to Sir Fulke Greville, to whom James I. granted the barony, with 
 Warwick Castle. u . t Par .Hist. Ji 
 
 J On this occasion Milton fixed this sonnet on his door, claiming the revei- 
 ence Lysander showed to the city of Euripides, and Alexander to the poet ot 
 Thebes : 
 
 Captain or colonel, or knight in arms, 
 
 Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize, 
 If deed of honour did thee ever please, 
 Guard them, and him within protect from harms. 
 He can requite thee, for he knows the charms 
 That call fame on such gentle acts as these, 
 And he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas, 
 Whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms. 
 Lift not thy spear against the muses' bower : 
 The great Emathian conqueror bid spare 
 The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower 
 Went to the ground : and the repeated air 
 Of sad Electra's poet had the power 
 To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare. 
 
ie42 j EAST VERSUS WEST. 133 
 
 sation of arms had been made, lie was justified, by the rules of 
 war in seizing any advantage that offered him an opportunity 
 of treating from a more favourable position. Still he had been 
 trusted as a king rather than as an enemy, and the citizens were 
 exasperated on finding that his gracious answer to their petition 
 had been intended as a mere blind, and that his hope, when 
 he gave it, had been to enter London at the swords point 
 Not a word was any longer heard of a treaty. All the night 
 after the action at Brentford, the indignant city was indication 
 pouring out men, encouraging its apprentices to en- 1L ' _ 
 list, and reinforcing the army of Essex out of its own train- 
 bands. " Come, my boys, my brave boys," said their com- 
 mander, Skippon, to these new troops, "I will run the same 
 fortunes and hazards with you. Kemember, the cause is tor 
 God, and for the defence of yourselves, your wives and <*ndren 
 Come, my honest and brave boys, pray heartily, and tignt 
 heartily, and God will bless us." Two days after the fight, 
 24 000 men were reviewed on Turnham Green, midway between 
 London and Brentford ; yet Essex, habitually cautious, refused 
 to risk a battle, so that the king was allowed to withdraw his 
 troops, without opposition, to the neighbourhood of Oxford, a 
 town devoted to his cause, which he intended making his head- 
 quarters for the winter. 
 
 The whole country now began to take part in the whole 
 war. Leaders on either side appeared in nearly every ™l ged 
 
 • ._• -j _ j 14. — „ ■nr^vfo.-o Trvwms. struggle 
 
 in 
 
 le. 
 
 eounty, and maintained a desultory warfare. Towns, struggi 
 castles, houses, were fortified, garrisoned, and besieged. The 
 number of the troops on each side depended on the inclinations 
 of the people. Those counties alone enjoyed peace withm then- 
 borders, in which one party far outnumbered the other. 
 
 In the east, where there were many towns engaged in the 
 staple manufacture of England— woollen cloth— as Norwich, Sud- 
 bury, Colchester, Yarmouth, and Lynn, the king's enemies so far 
 outnumbered his friends, that all opposition to the Parliament was 
 quickly crushed by the energy of Colonel Cromwell, who associated 
 the seven counties of Norfolk, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridge, Hunt- 
 ingdon, Lincoln, and Hertford together into a confederacy against 
 the king. In Kent and the other south-eastern counties, though 
 many of the gentry were Royalists, the Parliament's friends were 
 so far the stronger, that little opposition could be offered them. 
 
13* TOWN VERSUS COUNTRY. [ WAE> 2nd tb. 
 
 Berkshire went with Oxford for the king, while Hampshire and 
 Wiltshire were battle-grounds between the two. In the west 
 where there were fewer freeholders than in the east, the king's 
 friends predominated, though even here many important trading, 
 manufacturing, or fishing towns were held for the Parliament, as 
 Bristol, the second town in the kingdom for size and wealth, Glou- 
 cester, Weymouth, Plymouth, and Lyme. The backward district 
 of Wales, and the Cornish, like their Breton brethren in later time, 
 went wholly with their king and feudal lords : but elsewhere in 
 the west, the king's enemies were generally to be found in num- 
 bers sufficient to keep the country in a state of constant warfare. 
 In the midland counties, the partisans of the Parliament again 
 predominated, though here the Eoyalists made head against their 
 enemies, and held a strong garrison at Newark, in Nottingham- 
 shire, by which communication was kept up between Oxford and 
 York. North of the Humber, the two parties were about equally 
 matched. The Earl of Newcastle and his numerous tenantry de- 
 clared for the king ; but many of the county freeholders joined 
 the inhabitants of Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield, Halifax, Man- 
 chester, and the other seats of the woollen manufacture, in ad- 
 hering to the Parliament. Thus, as generally happens in times of 
 movement, the towns favoured progress, the country reaction. 
 
 The queen, who had been successful in Holland, through the 
 interest of the Prince of Orange, her son-in-law, returned to Eng- 
 land in the spring, accompanied by four ships, laden with arms 
 and ammunition, soldiers and officers (22nd February.) She 
 escaped the fleet of the Parliament in her passage, but about 
 two days after her landing at Bridlington, in Yorkshire, the 
 town was bombarded by Admiral Batten with such effect,' that 
 she was forced to fly from her lodging, and seek shelter in a ditch 
 in the open fields, where balls scoured over her head. She 
 escaped however without injury, and by the union of her re- 
 sources with those of the Earl of Newcastle, a formidable army 
 was soon raised, which was called by the friends of the Parliament 
 ' the Northern Papist Army, ; being regarded with special aversion. 
 Newcastle's Papists there were in plenty amongst its ranks, for 
 n^litL. ' Charl es ' thou g n in his printed delarations he constantly 
 denied the fact, had ordered Newcastle to let any serve 
 who would. "You see," said the joking earl, one day as he 
 pointed out the weakness of some fortifications, "though they call 
 us the army of Papists, we cannot trust in our good works." 
 
1643.] , PEACE PARTY IN LONDON. 135 
 
 The increasing power and success of the Royalist forces now 
 caused discouragement to many friends of the Parliament, who 
 had thought to bring the king to terms within a few months. 
 In the Parliament and in the city, a peace party appeared, com- 
 posed in large part of men who observed with annoy- Peacs P arfc y 
 
 j.1. • a -x t,- -u 4.1, ■ • formed m 
 
 ance the influence into which the war was raising London, 
 both sectarians and people of inferior rank. It was not plea- 
 sant to the lord to hear himself spoken of as on an equality 
 with a plain country gentleman ; the Presbyterian did not like 
 to hear the sectarian demanding toleration for all creeds ; indig- 
 nation burnt in more breasts than those of Royalists, when the 
 tale was told how Admiral Batten had done such an ungracious, 
 unchivalrous act as to fire on the very house the queen was in. 
 Some began to think it time to change sides. The governor of 
 Scarborough betrayed his trust, and surrendered the town to the 
 queen. Sir John ITotham, governor of Hull, would now have fol- 
 lowed this example, had not the Parliament discovered his inten- 
 tion in tim* to prevent its execution. Many Presbyterians would 
 gladly have made peace, if only they could have obtained the king's 
 consent to the establishment of their own Church : while the evils 
 of the hour made those who were no friends to arbitrary power 
 overlook the many proofs they had experienced of Charles' ill 
 faith, and forget the importance of the cause for which they were 
 engaged. But the leaders of the Commons, Pym, Hampden, and 
 their close followers, never wavered for an instant ; they had 
 taken the resolution of continuing the war until the king was 
 really conquered and forced to submit to terms that would de- 
 prive him of power to injure his subjects' liberties, and from this 
 resolution they never swerved. These firmer spirits found the:r 
 warmest supporters in the sectarians, to whom peace and a conse- 
 quent triumph of Presbyterians or Episcopalians offered nothing 
 but a prospect of bitter persecution. At Oxford councils were as 
 divided as at Westminster. There also two parties appeared ; the 
 one desired to restore Charles to the exercise of absolute power at 
 the sword's point ; the other to obtain by negotiations a peace re- 
 storing him to the exercise of power bounded by law. p arties in 
 The war party was led by the king's nephews, Rupert Oxford. 
 and Maurice, two imperious young foreigners. " Tush," Rupert 
 would say, when any objection was made to his commands, as 
 contrary to law, " we will have no more law in England but the 
 
13 6 PEACE PARTY IN" OXFORD. [wab, 2nd ts. 
 
 sword." This party was supported by the professional soldiers 
 from the continent, the Papists, many of the country gentlemen, 
 and by courtiers and self-seekers generally, who thought that if 
 a peace were effected by negotiation, the rebels at Westminster 
 would get too good terms for themselves, and the king be unable 
 to reward his friends sufficiently for their services. The peace 
 party, on the other hand, was composed of men of less selfish 
 and less violent dispositions, who, though fighting under Charles' 
 banner, loved their country's liberties, and grieved over its suf- 
 ferings. The people, indeed, endured much, and the war was 
 raising up a bitter spirit even between members of the same 
 families. The nearest relations constantly fought in opposite 
 ranks, and it was no uncommon tale to hear of the dying 
 soldier who took his death the more heavily because he had 
 seen the fatal shot fired by a brother's hand. The courteous 
 and affable Lord Falkland was so altered by grief, that to his 
 friends he seemed hardly the same man. He became pale, morose, 
 short in his answers, untidy in his dress ; and sitting among his 
 friends would after a long silence cry out passionately, " Peace, 
 peace," and say, " that the very agony of the war, and the view 
 of the calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure, 
 took his sleep from him, and would shortly break his heart." So 
 loud was the cry for peace raised, both in London and at Oxford, 
 that the extreme party on either side was obliged to yield and 
 Peace pro- allow negotiations to be held (March). The proposi- 
 offaredat ^ ons now drawn up for the king's acceptance, like 
 Oxford. those before offered at York, required him to abolish 
 Episcopacy, and to resign the command of the militia and other 
 executive powers to Parliament. 
 
 Charles, having been proved a match for his opponents in 
 arms, of course refused these terms. Though he pretended to 
 be exceedingly desirous for peace, he belonged at heart to the 
 war party, and looked forward to being restored to an arbitrary 
 throne by the force of his friends' swords. Angrily interrupt- 
 ing the Earl of Northumberland, when reading as one of the 
 Parliament's propositions, 'A bill to vindicate the five mem- 
 bers,' he proposed as his final answer that the Parliament should 
 deliver into his hands forts, towns, magazines, ships, and revenue, 
 and adjourn to some place twenty v miles from the capital, in 
 which case he would consent to the disbanding of the armies, 
 
1643.] DISTRUST OF ESSES, 137 
 
 and speedily return to London. By this, negotiations were at 
 once broken off (15th. April). Soon after a plot was Waller's plot, 
 discovered, which had been formed by some of the disappointed 
 peace party. Their design was to seize the leaders of the Parlia- 
 ment, occupy the military posts, and then admit the royal forces 
 into the city (May). 
 
 The intercepted letters by which the plot was discovered im- 
 plicated Waller, the poet, a cousin of Hampden, and a member 
 of Parliament ; and by his confessions, several others were in- 
 volved. But though it was startling to discover the presence of 
 traitors within the very walls of the Commons' House, Pym, act- 
 ing with his accustomed moderation, did not increase the irrita- 
 tion of the friends of peace by pressing uncertain evidence. Out 
 of five persons condemned by court-martial, only two were exe- 
 cuted. Waller, who had made a most abject submission, was 
 allowed to escape with no greater punishment than a fine and a 
 short imprisonment. 
 
 Meanwhile, both parties made ready for a second summer's cam- 
 paign. The Parliament's officers were divided in counsel. Hamp- 
 den advised an immediate advance upon Oxford, but Essex persisted 
 in first laying siege to Beading. The war party began Distrast f 
 to be doubtful of the zeal of their general, and took Essex - 
 little trouble to see that his troops were well supplied with pay 
 and clothing. His conduct led men to think that he wished, not 
 to reduce the king to the Parliament's mercy, but only to keep up a 
 balance of parties and so bring about a peace by negotiation. After 
 Edgehill, he had retreated to Warwick, leaving the road to Lon- 
 don open to the enemy — a movement several of his officers failed 
 to understand. After the action at Brentford, he had refused to 
 risk a battle, saying he dared not trust his young and raw recruits. 
 Men who wished to conquer would gladly have seen Colonel 
 Hampden command in Essex' place. Hampden's regiment of 
 green-coats, raised and trained by himself, was known as one of 
 the best in the army ; his military genius he had proved unmis- 
 takably in many minor actions ; his daring was more likely to lead 
 to victory than Essex' caution. But no one ventured to propose 
 to displace the earl. All the peace part} r , all the Presbyterians, 
 were warmly attached to him, while many noblemen and gentlemen 
 would have been averse to serving under any one his inferior m 
 rank. 
 
138 DEATH OF HAMPDEN". [war, 2nd ye, 
 
 But the first and last duty of a general is to win, and he must be 
 chosen for no other object. A half-hearted policy ruins an army, 
 and either ruins a cause or prolongs the miseries of war. Through 
 the hesitation of their aristocratic leader, a series of disasters 
 now befell the Parliament's forces. Essex' head-quarters were at 
 Thame, a few miles east of Oxford. His army, through disease 
 and desertion, had gradually dwindled down to a force of about 
 5000 men. Though long urged by Hampden to act boldly on 
 the offensive, or at least to concentrate his troops, now too scat- 
 tered to be safe, he persisted in maintaining a defensive attitude 
 on a weak and extended line. His troops, thus dotted about in 
 detachments, were hardly able to defend their own outposts, much 
 Essex at l ess the neighbouring counties, against the Cavaliers, 
 Thame. w h -weekly, almost nightly, crept out of Oxford to 
 
 burn and plunder villages and manor houses. It was on one of 
 these occasions that the Parliament experienced the loss of a 
 leader who was not to be replaced. A body of Royalists, com- 
 manded by Rupert himself, had surprised a troop at Chinnor 
 on the Chilterns, and were bearing off booty and prisoners in 
 triumph to Oxford. Colonel Hampden started in pursuit from 
 Watlington, and overtook them at Chalgrove Common on their 
 way to the bridge over the Thame at Chiselhampton. A sharp 
 . skirmish followed. At the first charge two balls 
 Hampden entered Hampden's shoulder and broke the bone. A 
 (24th June). pr i soner brought the news to Oxford. " I saw him," 
 he said, " ride off the field before the action was done, which he 
 never used to do, and with his head hanging down, and resting 
 his hands upon the neck of his horse" (18th June). Hampden 
 only lived for a week more. After receiving the sacrament, he 
 prayed with his last breath that the God of hosts would ' have 
 'these realms in His special keeping : that He would level in the 
 ' dust those who would rob the people of their liberty, and would 
 ' let the king see his error and turn the hearts of his wicked 
 1 counsellors from the malice of their designs.' "O Lord, save 
 my bleeding country," were almost the last words he spoke. 
 His body, carried from Thame to be buried at his native village 
 of Hampden, was followed as a hero's to the grave by soldiers with 
 heads uncovered, drums and ensigns muffled, arms reversed. The 
 grief of soldier and citizen was real enough. As general and as states- 
 man Hampden had the true leader's spirit, whose presence inspires. 
 
1643.] ROYALIST TRIUMPHS IN WEST. 139 
 
 followers with confidence and commands their sympathy by mere 
 contact. " The memory of the deceased colonel," says a newspaper 
 of the day, " is such that in no age to come but it will more 
 and more be had in honour and esteem ; a man so religious, 
 and of that prudence, judgment, temper, valour, and integrity, 
 that he hath left few his like behind." After two hundred and 
 thirty years we can but endorse the verdict. 
 
 It seemed as though all the forces of the Parliament were 
 dispirited by Hampden's death. In the north Fairfax, defeated 
 by Newcastle at Atherton Moor near Bradford (30th June)., 
 was shut up in Hull, so that the eastern counties lay R 0ya ii S t 
 open to the approach of the northern ' Papist ' army, successes in 
 In the west their successful general, Sir William Waller, west. 
 suffered two severe defeats ; in fact, the king's commanders there, 
 Prince Maurice and Sir Ealph Hopton, 'the soldier's darling/ 
 gained one success on another, until the Parliament lost all its 
 hold over the three counties of Devon, Somerset, and Wilts. The 
 Cornish peasants and the Cavaliers united overcame all enemies. 
 The former would ask their commander's leave to fetch off cannon 
 from hills surmounted with breastworks, and dauntlessly perform 
 what they proposed — a feat repeated by their Breton brethren at 
 La Vendue — the latter would think it play-work to storm defences, 
 on which the soldiers of the Parliament would have looked askance. 
 Stories went about amongst the terrified garrisons " that the king's 
 soldiers made nothing of running up walls twenty feet high, and 
 that no works could keep them out." One town after another 
 surrendered during the summer and autumn months ; Taunton, 
 Bridgewater, Bath (July), Dorchester, Weymouth, Portland, 
 Barnstaple, Bideford (August), Exeter (September 4). Prince 
 Eupert took Bristol by storm. The governor, Nathaniel Fiennes, 
 capitulated without disputing his entrance by a hand to hand 
 fight in the streets, though Eupert's losses had been heavy enough 
 to warrant the attempt (25th July). It was agreed that the 
 garrison should march off with arms and baggage, and B r j s t i 
 the townspeople be preserved from plunder and stormed by 
 violence. But the Cavaliers, without regard to the 
 terms they had made, plundered the waggons belonging to the 
 garrison and sacked the city ; and so mercenary, was the spirit of 
 some of the Parliament's troops, that they took service in Eu- 
 pert's army, and pointed out to their new friends the houses 
 
140 PEACE PARTY IN LONDON. [wak, 2nd tr. 
 
 where the most valuable plunder might be found. By the middle 
 of the summer, Gloucester was the only important city still held 
 for the Parliament in the west. 
 
 The news of the surrender of Bristol, the second town in the 
 Peace pro- kingdom, caused extreme depression in London. The 
 positions House of Lords drew up propositions for peace, the 
 most moderate yet brought forward. Both armies were 
 to be disbanded ; the militia question was to be settled by a 
 future Parliament, the Church by a future synod. After a 
 long and fierce debate, the propositions were carried in the 
 Commons by a majority of twenty-nine votes (5th Aug.). The 
 vote was an act of political suicide, and the war party appealed 
 from Parliament to the people, knowing that if Charles returned 
 to London on these terms, his word would be no guarantee 
 for the performance of his promises. The result was that 
 Tumults in * w0 days after the propositions were passed, the 
 London. Lord Mayor and Common Council came to the door 
 of the Commons to present a petition against peace, followed by 
 a tumultuous rabble of several thousands. The demonstration 
 succeeded, and the House agreed by a majority of seven to lay 
 aside the peace propositions (7th Aug.). 
 
 Two days after this scene had occurred, some hundreds of 
 women, wearing white silk ribands in their hats, as an emblem 
 of their mission, came to the Commons' House, bearing a counter- 
 petition for peace. Four or five members went to the door, and 
 telling them that the House was no enemy to peace, ordered them to 
 return to their homes. But dissatisfied with this answer, they 
 stayed on, and by noon there were some 5000 women, with men 
 amongst them dressed in women's clothes, pressing round about 
 the house, allowing none to pass in or out, and crying, " Peace, 
 peace," " Give us those traitors that are against peace," " Give us 
 that dog, Pym." 
 
 The Parliament's guards, after firing powder without dis- 
 persing the mob, loaded with ball and shot a ballad-singer 
 dead at the moment she was urging her companions on with 
 her songs. A troop of cavalry at the same time coming up, 
 charged in upon the crowd, slashing with their swords at hands 
 and faces, until the women fled on all sides, leaving some seven 
 or eight of their number lying wounded or dead upon the ground 
 (9th Aug.). The friends of peace, disgusted with such scenes 
 
1643.] LONDON FORTIFIED. 141 
 
 and with their own defeat, tried to persuade Essex to make 
 use of his army in forcing the Parliament to offer proposi- 
 tions to the king. But Essex, though he had himself advised the 
 Parliament to treat, was too honourable to think of betraying his 
 trust, and felt indignant that such a proposal should have been 
 made to him. In consequence of his refusal, seven lords and several 
 members of the Commons changed sides and went to Oxford.* 
 
 Extreme danger now threatened the Parliament. I] ^ uc< j? s 3 
 There was no force between Oxford and London merit. 
 to oppose the king's approach, except Essex' wretched army, 
 whose thinned ranks had not yet been refilled. The Parliament, 
 says May, its own historian, " was then in a low ebb ; and before 
 the end of that July, they had no forces at all to keep the 
 field, their main armies being quite ruined. Thus seemed the 
 Parliament to be quite sunk bej^ond any hope of recovery, and 
 was so believed by many men. The king was possessed of all the 
 western counties from the farthest part of Cornwall, and from 
 thence northward as far as the borders of Scotland. His armies 
 were full and flourishing, free to march wherever they pleased, and 
 numerous enough to be divided for several exploits." Charles 
 judged rightly that the time had come, when one bold stroke 
 might finish the war. His plan was conceived with Charles' 
 unusual force and spirit. His own and Newcastle's ^archon 
 army were to converge on the capital and form a London. 
 junction within sight of it. But his generals were jealous of one 
 another, and slow to obey even royal commands. Newcastle 
 was not inclined to give up the independent authority he had in 
 the north, merely to be domineered over by Prince Rupert ; so he 
 sent word to Charles, that he could not carry out his orders and 
 march through the associated counties upon London, because he 
 was sure the gentlemen in his army would refuse to leave York- 
 shire unless Hull were first reduced. Meanwhile, the desertion 
 of many of the peace party had united the friends of the Par- 
 liament, while the extremity of the danger itself inspired them. 
 The Londoners were hard at work raising fortifications London 
 for the protection of their threatened city. Thousands fortified. 
 were to be seen, men and women of every " profession, trade, and 
 occupation," marching out daily in a body to dig at their appointed 
 place of labour, with colours flying and drums beating before 
 * Gar., iv. 175 ; May, 214. 
 
j42 SIEGE OE GLOUCESTEK. [wae, 2nd tb. 
 
 them. The tailors went out 8000 strong, the watchmen 7000, the 
 shoemakers numbered 5000 ; the very oyster women from Billings- 
 gate 1000. It was one of those stirring moments when all feel proud 
 to labour, and knights, ladies, and gentlemen mightbe seen march- 
 in<r out with the crowd, spade and mattock in hand, so that within 
 a few weeks a breastwork was raised all round the city for a 
 circuit of twelve miles, strengthened by twenty-four forts and 
 carrying 212 pieces of cannon.* Before, however, these fortifica- 
 tions were fully completed, the citizens breathed more freely. 
 Newcastle's aversion to leave Yorkshire brought them a respite 
 when their doom seemed fixed. His dislike of the plan, falling in, 
 as it did, with the feeling of many of the officers, induced Charles 
 ^ , to try and make the conquest of the west complete by 
 
 London besieging Gloucester, before marching east. The town 
 was known to be badly provided with stores ; every- 
 body said it could not hold out long ; and Massey, the governor, 
 was suspected of an inclination to desert the side of the Parlia- 
 ment. The king summoned the town, fully expecting it would 
 surrender at once, but a stern defiance was brought from ' the 
 godly city of Gloucester' by two citizens, whose plain garb, close 
 cut hair, Scripture phrases, and quiet yet assured demeanour 
 marked them out as undoubted Puritans. " Waller is extinct, 
 and Essex cannot come," replied Charles, quietly, more surprised 
 thau disconcerted at the confidence they displayed, so sure was he 
 that the town would be compelled to surrender before the Par- 
 liament could find an army for its relief (10th Aug.).f 
 
 Much hung on the resolution of this garrison of 1500 men, who 
 possessed but forty barrels of gunpowder and a slender artillery. 
 If they yielded, Charles would turn immediately upon the dis- 
 heartened and defenceless capital ; if they resisted, the Parlia- 
 ment would obtain a breathing time in which to recruit its forces. 
 Neither soldiers nor citizens showed any lack of resolution. They 
 set on fire the suburbs of the town, in order to deprive the 
 Siege of Royalists of shelter while forming their entrenchments. 
 loth Aug 6 — They made constant sallies, and met the besiegers' 
 5th Sept. mines by counter mines. The women and children 
 daily laboured at repairing the breaches, and sallied outunder the 
 eyes of the king's horse to fetch in the turf. There was little 
 
 * Somers, Tracts, iv. ; May, 314. 
 
 f May, 218 ; Somers, Tracts, v. ; Clar. Hist., iv. 167. 
 
1643.] RELIEF OF GLOUCESTER. 143 
 
 complaining heard in the streets, and no disaffection took place 
 amongst the garrison. Though constant opportunities "were 
 offered by the sallies, only three soldiers deserted. Though the 
 country people, whose cattle the Royalists were killing by thou- 
 sands through mere wantonness, implored the town to surrender, 
 soldiers and citizens endured on, trusting that relief would come to 
 them in time. 
 
 " Waller is extinct, and Essex cannot come," Charles, in his 
 confidence, had said. But he was wrong. With wonderful speed the 
 thinned ranks of the Parliament's army were filled up ; four regi- 
 ments of the London train-bands volunteered for the service, and 
 Essex left London on the 24th of August at the head E • 
 of 14,000 men. He conducted his march with speed relieves 
 and dexterity, driving before him a body of horse sent 
 by the king to oppose him ; but the besieged had no knowledge 
 of the succour which was coming, still less of its whereabouts, 
 until, on the 4th of September, they heard the sound of guns 
 fired from the Presbury hills. The next morning they saw the 
 royal forces withdraw from their trenches, fire their huts, and 
 depart. Relief had come but just in time, for the garrison had 
 only three barrels of gunpowder left.* 
 
 Essex, after re-supplying Gloucester with provisions March to 
 and ammunition, returned eastwards for the protection Newbury, 
 of London. The Royalists at first did not know what road he had 
 taken, and he succeeded in surprising their garrison at Ciren- 
 cester and securing their supplies for himself before pursuit com- 
 menced. He had nearly crossed the Wiltshire Downs between 
 Swindon and Hungerford, when Rupert and the Cavaliers 
 attacked his rear while embarrassed in some deep lanes, near 
 Aldbourn Chase, and a sharp skirmish took place, in which the 
 Parliamentarians suffered considerable loss. Charles, while 
 Rupert delayed the enemy, had pressed on with the infantry by 
 forced marches on a more direct road to Newbury, which he 
 entered the following day, so that Essex, on approaching it from 
 the Hungerford side, found the road to London barred (19th Sept.). 
 
 South of Newbury, which lies low on the banks of the Kennet, 
 the ground gradually rises, until, at the distance of about a mile 
 from the town, it reaches the level of a long line of hill, running 
 east and west, and dividing the beds of the two rivers, the Kennet 
 and the Emborne. This high ground was then open commou ; 
 * Somcrs, Tracts, v. ; May, 222. 
 
144 
 
 MAP OF NEWBUEY. 
 
sept. 20, 1643.] FIRST BATTLE OF NEWBURY. 145 
 
 but the side of the spur sloping down to JN ewbury, as well as 
 much of the low ground lying nearer the Kennet, was under cul- 
 tivation and crossed by hedgerows. Charles stationed his left 
 wing, centre, and artillery upon the brow of the hill, facing west 
 towards Eniborne and Hungerford, his right wing only on the 
 lower ground in front of Newbury, protected by hedges and 
 resting on the Kennet. Aware of the strength of this position, 
 he determined, with the advice of his chief officers, to maintain 
 a defensive attitude there, and not advance to meet the enemy 
 as the more hot-headed subordinates would have liked. The 
 Parliamentarians, on the other hand, could have no choice but 
 to attack, as the enemy lay between them and their supplies, 
 and to attack meant forcing their way up a hillside in the face 
 of an artillery fire before they could come to close quarters. 
 
 On seeing the king's tactics, Essex drew up his army upon some 
 open ground in front of Eniborne. Two causes compelled him 
 to fight at all hazards. The first, that, for the protection of 
 London, it was necessary he should make his way through the 
 enemy ; the second, that, while delay mattered nothing to the 
 king, who could refresh his troops in Newbury, and draw pro- 
 visions, if necessary, from his garrisons at Wallingford and Ox- 
 ford, it was fatal to himself, lying in the open fields and in an un- 
 friendly country. The king, on the other hand, failed to reap the 
 advantages of his position ; for he could not secure the obedience 
 of his own followers any more than of his Parliament. His own 
 wise resolution was broken by the rashness and insubordination 
 of his officers, some of whom, despising the London militia, and 
 making sure of victory, became so excited at the sight of an enemy 
 drawn up for action that they charged impetuously and, the battle 
 soon becoming general, obliged their friends to advance for their 
 support, leaving much of the artillery behind them on the hill. 
 Many of the officers flung off their doublets in bravado, and led on 
 their men in their shirts, as if armour was a useless encumbrance 
 in dealing with the base-born apprentices, whom they came rather 
 to triumph over than to fight. 
 
 Essex' left and the king's right were so impeded by the hedges 
 that they could only engage in small parties. The Hedges 
 horse, however, on the king's left found a free passage prevent 
 down a lane by which Essex had intended to advance deciding 
 his right. Essex 5 horse, though at first thrown into the day * 
 
 10 
 
148 
 
 DEATH OF FALKLAND. [wab, 2nd ye. 
 
 some disorder, soon rallied, and returned the charge of the im- 
 petuous Cavaliers. But in an enclosed country as this was the 
 cavalry could not have much effect in deciding the day. It was 
 the daring and skill of Essex, and the valour of the troops he led 
 
 the very train-bands the Eoyalists despised — that were destined 
 
 to win the laurels of the field. The general, " being foremost in 
 person, did lead up the city regiments, and when a vast body of 
 the enemy's horse had given so violent a charge, that they had 
 broken quite through, he quickly rallied his men together, and 
 with undaunted courage did lead them up the hill. In this way 
 he did beat the infantry of the king from hedge to hedge, and 
 after six hours' long fight planted his ordnance upon the brow of 
 the hill. The train-bands of the City of London endured the 
 chiefest heat of the day, for being now upon the brow of the 
 hill, they lay not only open to the horse but to the cannon of the 
 enemy ; yet they stood undaunted and conquerors against all, 
 and like a grove of pines, in a day of wind and tempest, they only 
 moved their heads, but kept their footing sure." It was on this 
 hard-fought day that Lord Falkland met his death. In the 
 morning he seemed to have recovered a little of his old cheerful- 
 ness, and dressed himself with unusual care, saying, 
 Lord u he was weary of his country's misery, and believed he 
 
 Falkland. gh()uld fee Qut of it before nigllt » Though his duties as 
 
 the king's secretary gave him no position in the field, he fought as 
 a volunteer at the head of Lord Byron's regiment of horse. This 
 was on the right wing, where the ground was cut up by enclosures. 
 Byron found his approach to a body of the enemy's infantry im- 
 peded by a high quick hedge. A single gap offered a passage 
 through, which was so narrow that only one horse could pass at 
 a time. The enemy stationed on the other side of the hedge 
 were keeping up a hot fire, and as Byron viewed the place his 
 horse was shot under him. While he retired to remount, Lord 
 Falkland, " more gallantly than advisedly," clapped spurs into 
 his horse, and charged through the gap. In an instant horse and 
 rider fell dead together.* His end gives us a painful insight into 
 the misery the more delicate minds endured during such a time. 
 There was do doubt his life had been a burden to him for months. 
 
 * Lord Bvron's account of battle of Newbury, in a letter to Hyde, itt 
 MSS. Clar. State Papers in Bodleian, No. 1738. 
 
1643.] SUCCESS OF ESSEX. 147 
 
 A patriot at heart, lie had chosen his side from chivalry rather 
 than from insight ; and, though he followed his king, had no 
 sympathy for that policy of ' thorough ' which lay at the root of 
 the civil war. 
 
 Darkness at last caused the two armies to separate. Both 
 spent the night on the hill, the Eoyalists retiring to the further 
 side of it, towards Greenham, and leaving the ground they had 
 held in the morning in the hands of the Parliament's infantry. 
 Essex fully expected the battle to be renewed the next day, and 
 determined to force his way through the enemy or die. But the 
 Eoyalists were dispirited. Though the loss of life was not so 
 great as might have been expected, it had fallen heavily upon 
 men of rank. More than twenty officers, distinguished for birth 
 or merit, were among the dead. Such a catastrophe seemed to 
 the king's friends in no way compensated by the loss of an equal 
 number of obscure Parliamentary colonels. With these feelings 
 the Eo}%lists withdrew during the night into New- Royalists 
 bury. Essex, finding the way by Greenham open be- ^^ dr& ^ 
 fore him, continued his march to Eeading and London.* Newbury. 
 Charles, after leaving Newbury, retired to Oxford for marches to 
 
 the winter.f London. 
 
 * Byron's letter to Hyde leaves no doubt that Essex, instead of marching 
 through Newbury (as is often stated), kept south of the Kennet. " The next 
 morning early, Essex, finding the ground quitted by us, drew his army upon it, 
 and there made a bravado in sight of ours, which was then drawn into the 
 town of Newbury. Prince Rupert mai*ched with such horse as were nearest to 
 him, and fell on the enemy's rear as they marched off. But the country 
 being full of enclosures secured them so that no great execution could be 
 done upon them before thev recovered Eeading, and thus concluded the 
 battle." 
 
 + May, Long Pari. ; Clar. Hist. ; Rush, Abr., v. ; Account in Harl. Mis- 
 cellany ; Lord Byron's letter to Hyde in Clar. Papers in Bodleian, 1738. 
 
 10-2 
 
CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 EISE OF INDEPENDENTS.— BATTLE OF MAESTON MOOR.— 
 SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE.— 1 643— 1 645. 
 
 'Eichictat ttoWu Kai X aA6*rA ^ra oraoiv ralg TroXtm yiyvSjxeva 
 Viv Kai del iodpeva hog dv v airrj <picig avOpuirtov V , paMov Si koi 
 hvxaiTfoa Kai rolg tldeai dtr,\\ay^va u>q av eKaaraiat perafSoXai tu>v 
 LvTvyi&v itbiffTdvTai. lv pkv ydp ap W K ai dya0oi£ rrpayfiaaiv ai 
 re TroXae Kai ol ISiSrai dptivovgrdg yvupag l X ov<ri, 6 to. to M eg a<ov- 
 aiovc hvdyKCLQ kLittuv. 6 8k TroXepog, <%W Tr,v*i>iropiav tovkcB 
 VHipav jS/aioc SiddffKaKoQ mi Trpbg rd irapovra rag opyag tujv ttoXXuv 
 c/ioioT.— Thuc. iii. 82. 
 
 The communities of Greece suffered all the embittering results of civil strife 
 that visit men, and always will visit them, so long as human nature remains 
 the same, though with more or less intensity, and varying in form, accord- 
 ing to the specfal circumstances that arise in each case The fact is, that m 
 times of peace and prosperity, states alike and individuals form their judg- 
 ments in a better spirit from the absence of constraining necessities, while 
 war, by besetting daily life with difficulties, teaches violence, and frames men s 
 temper to suit then.' surroundings. 
 
 THOUGH the Parliament was saved, the Royalists might fairly 
 boast that the balance of success was on their side. In the west 
 they had driven their enemies out of every important town but 
 Gloucester. In the north, the reduction of Hull would leave 
 them masters of the whole of Yorkshire. It might well seem 
 that the current of their success would remain unchecked, or that if 
 there was a check, they could at any moment win a favourable 
 peace by negotiation ; but there were causes at work which made 
 either of these results impossible. 
 
 Success did not improve the character of the king's troops. 
 Character of Tne cavaliers and omcers were becoming cruel and ra- 
 king* ' ' pacious in their habits of warfare ; while the common 
 troops. so idiers, often in want of pay, and retained in little 
 
 discipline, followed the example of their leaders, and plundered 
 the country people without distinction of friend or foe. Though 
 
1C43.] "WAE EMBITTERED. 149 
 
 feelings of honour still caused generals and officers to treat pri- 
 soners, their own equals in rank, with courtesy if not with gene- 
 rosity, the common soldier was too often ruthlessly handed over 
 to the care of some inhuman gaoler. Eupert, on one Cruelty to 
 occasion, marched prisoners from Cirencester to Ox- prisoners, 
 ford, half-clad, bareheaded, barefooted, bound together by cords, 
 with gaping wounds still undressed, though there was a cut- 
 ting wind and snow on the ground : the king, the two princes, 
 and several lords, rode about a mile out of Oxford on purpose to 
 see Eupert's prisoners come in ; Charles was observed to smile : 
 no words of pity, no order for their relief, passed his lips. If a 
 tender-hearted Lord Falkland were by, what wonder he grew 
 weary of his life, when such were the acts of his party 1 For 
 the captives such marches were but the beginning of misery. 
 Prisoners were kept crowded together for months in noisome 
 dungeons, and sometimes left two days together without food. 
 " I was so hungry," said one prisoner, after making a vain at- 
 tempt to cut his throat, " the devil tempted me to cut it and be 
 out of my misery."* This cruel usage of prisoners was not con- 
 fined to the Eoyalists. The governor of Windsor Castle so 
 starved the common soldiers committed to his keeping, that three 
 men, it was said, fell down dead in the street on their release. 
 Some hypocrites went so far as to parade their brutality as a 
 proof of godliness. " My soul abhors to see this favour done to 
 the enemies of Cod," said a turn-coat captain, addressing the wife 
 of the governor of Nottingham Castle, as she bound up the 
 wounds of her Eoyalist prisoners. Tales such as these, sayings 
 ascribed to Puritans or Cavaliers, not to mention the harrowing 
 details of battles and sieges — all these were published weekly, 
 almost daily, in papers and pamphlets, and spread broadcast over 
 the kingdom. No story was too foul or false to be refused a 
 place in these publications. For instance, the Mercurius Aulicus, 
 the chief Oxford paper, selecting domestic grief as an instance of 
 God's judgments, after relating in a tone of exultation that 
 death had deprived Hampden of his two eldest children, added 
 gratuitously the lie that of his two remaining sons, the one was a 
 cripple, the other a lunatic, t Slander thus did its part with 
 violence and cruelty in embittering the feelings of men who, in 
 
 * Somers, Tracts, iv. 510, 532. f Eorster, ii. 353. 
 
150 RELIGIOUS ANIMOSITY. |wab, 2nd ye. 
 
 the outset of the war, had felt almost as friends. Religious ani- 
 mosity helped to broaden the gulf. Ministers especially suffered. 
 If they refused to read out the king's declarations, where the 
 kin** had power, or the Parliament's declarations, where it had 
 Sufferings of power, they had to fly their parishes to escape iinpri- 
 ciergy. sonment. Thus deprived of home and livelihood, 
 
 Puritans and Episcopalians had no choice but to take refuge with 
 the nearest friendly garrison or come to regiments as chaplains. 
 As they suffered most, they hated most. It was not bad usage 
 only; as wars go on, the questions which touch men's hearts most 
 deeply come more and more to the front. The church question 
 was one of these, and one on which the ministers could not but 
 feel deeply. So it was that the religious influence which should 
 have tempered the bitterness of faction, gave its sanction to acts 
 breathing more of the Old Testament than the New ; and those 
 who should have been the mediators taught that any parleying 
 with the foe was treason against God. Thus the demands of the 
 Parliamentarians increased, and there was no basis for negotia- 
 tion, unless Charles would consent not simply to lessen the 
 power of bishops, but to establish a non-Episcopal church. 
 Through Scottish influence, Parliament had already summoned 
 to London an assembly of divines to settle uniformity of 
 Assembly of worship for the two countries. This, of course, simply 
 divines. meant to discuss the means for the establishment of 
 the Presbyterian Church in England (1st July). The bishops 
 had completely lost all influence in the country, and as far as 
 that went, Episcopacy was already dead. London was quite 
 changed from the time when a gay court was held at Whitehall, 
 London a when Laud lived at Lambeth, when cavaliers daily 
 Puritan city visited the artillery gardens, when crowds frequented 
 the theatres. The grass was already growing in the courts of White- 
 hall ;* Lambeth Palace was deserted, and was soon to be used as a 
 prison. In the artillery gardens, once so gay, grave citizens now 
 learnt the use of pike and musket ; the theatres were all closed 
 by order of Parliament (September 2nd, 1642). Services, preach- 
 ings, and fasts had taken the place of the old bonfires, dances, 
 and feasts. The book of sports had been burnt by the com- 
 mon hangman by another order of Parliament (5th May, 1643). 
 
 * Scotsman's letter in Somers Tracts, v. 
 
1643.] PRESBYTERIAN INTOLERANCE. 151 
 
 Services were no more conducted with vestments and postures, 
 lighted candles, and choirs. The wearing of any vestment was 
 become a matter of indifference ; the liturgy was read or prayers 
 extemporized as minister and congregation pleased ; organs, 
 images, altars, were gone from churches. The beautiful old 
 crosses, remains of Catholic times, and still left standing in the 
 streets, were removed by order of Parliament. Presbyterians re- 
 joiced to see bonfires made of " fine pictures of Christ and the 
 saints, of relics, beads, and the like remains of Catholic supersti- 
 tion."* 
 
 The gaming houses were put down, and laws and ordinances 
 for the punishment of vicef so strictly enforced, that no swearing 
 was to be heard, no drunken man to be seen in the streets. 
 Everybody led, or affected to lead, a life of strictness ; for he 
 who failed to attend some place of worship, or in public swore or 
 drank, was looked upon as a reprobate, and could not hope to exer- 
 cise any influence amongst his fellows. Sundays were no longer 
 holidays of pleasure, but were strictly spent in religious services. 
 In the evening men might pass through the town, and hear nothing 
 but the voice of prayer and praise, from private houses as from 
 churches. J No fruiterer or herb woman dared stand about and 
 sell in the streets ; no milk- woman cry her milk on that day, but 
 at stated hours ; no one but travellers by necessity might be re- 
 ceived in taverns. Even if a child danced round a maypole, its 
 parents were fined twelvepence for the offence. Fast days were ob- 
 served after each success or failure, and, soon after the breaking out 
 of the Irish rebellion, an order of Parliament was issued, enacting 
 that the last Wednesday in every month should be kept regularly 
 as a solemn fast and day of humiliation (8th January, 1642). 
 
 The Presbyterians, who now ruled, regarding as they did 
 their own as the true church coeval with the early p resby . 
 ages of Christianity, Were unwilling to tolerate any terian in- 
 other worship, and had they possessed the power 
 would have been as despotic as the bishops. As it was, they per- 
 secuted as far as they dared. They hunted out Catholic priests, 
 and put to death on an average about three a year ;§ others they 
 -sent into banishment or left to die in prison. To keep under the 
 
 * Birch, ii. 355 ; Baillie, i. 425. f Neal. ii. 606. 
 
 X Neal, ii. 503 ; iii. 37. § Lingard, viii. 35, 323. 
 
152 NEW POLITICAL KEFORMEKS. [wab, 2nd ye; 
 
 sectarians, they tried to restrain the liberty of the press by pass- 
 in^ an ordinance for the suppression of slanderous papers and 
 pamphlets (11th June). But the sectarians were now too numer- 
 ous to be crushed, and could disobey the ordinance with impunity. 
 Ideas grow rapidly in times of revolution. The habit of private 
 judgment grows still more rapidly. The very means by which 
 the popular leaders have carried the mass to their point of view, 
 soon carry it beyond them. The pamphlets of the Presbyterians 
 and Episcopalians had made the people controversialists ; and in 
 many cases undermined the authority of the teachers who had 
 converted them. The same phenomenon occurred in the region of 
 political strife. The war of words, bandied between patriots 
 and Royalists, discussing the rights of King and Parliament, had 
 familiarized the people with the discussion of constitutional 
 questions. When such questions are left to popular discussion 
 moderation is soon lost ; violent opinions grow apace, and the 
 claims of custom and prescription evaporate, like 
 cai reform- subtler elements, in that rough crucible. Out of 
 ers- the ranks of the sectarians arose a new set of poli- 
 
 tical reformers, who no longer ascribed the divisions existing 
 between King and Parliament to evi] counsellors, but spoke of 
 Charles as personally in fault. Some went further. A pamphlet 
 was published, saying that if the king did not yield to what was 
 demanded of him, he and his race ought to be destroyed, 
 Henry Marten, one of the Independent party, defended the 
 writer in the Lower House. " I see no reason," he said, " to con- 
 demn him ; it is better one family should be destroyed than 
 many." " I move," said another member, " that Mr. Marten be 
 ordered to explain what one family he means." " The king and 
 his children," replied the Republican boldly. The use of such 
 language horrified the Presbyterians, and Marten was for some 
 time expelled the House. 
 
 It was evident that there was an advanced party with whom 
 the Presbyterians were as much at issue as they were with the 
 Royalists. But the presence of a common danger checked a schism 
 for the time. The Presbyterians still far outnumbered all other 
 sections on their side, and the misfortunes that befell the arms of 
 the Parliament in this summer of 1643, made the Independents 
 not merely rally to them, but agree to call in the aid of Scotland 
 on terms which would require the establishment of the national 
 
1643.] SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT. 153 
 
 church of the north. The interest of the Scots was really 
 identical with that of the English Presbyterians, for if Charles 
 and Episcopacy were restored together, Scotland would not long 
 be allowed to retain her own form of worship. They tried, 
 therefore, to bind their allies down by prescribing a solemn league 
 and covenant (August). Subscribers to this document 
 bound themselves : (1.) To endeavour to reform religion league and 
 in England and Ireland according to the Word of God, covenailt - 
 and practice of the best reformed churches, and to bring the 
 three churches in the three k ngdoms to uniformity in confession 
 of faith, form of church government, and directory or prayer- 
 book for worship ; (2.) To extirpate Popery, prelacy, schism ; 
 (3.) To preserve the liberties of the kingdom, the king's 
 person and authority, and to bring malignants to punishment ; 
 (4.) To assist and defend all such as should enter into the cove- 
 nant. All civil and military officers, all ministers holding livings, 
 and all members of Parliament were required to take the cove- 
 nant. Thus Episcopalian representatives were obliged to leave the 
 Assembly of Divines, and over 1500 ministers resigned their livings. 
 Union in a State must of course necessitate many sacrifices of 
 the individual. A subject must often be required to give a passive 
 submission, and sometimes an active co-operation, to acts of which 
 he does not approve. There are two limits to such interference. 
 Firstly, it should be confined, as far as possible, to political as 
 distinguished from religious duties, since it is only when religious 
 questions have taken a political form that they can lead to the dis- 
 ruption of the State ; and further, in political matters covenant a 
 the duty of bowing to the majority is more clear, and test - 
 the conscience less tender, than in cases which seem to touch the 
 intercourse of man with his Maker. Secondly, the interference 
 should be limited to overt acts as distinguished from opinions ; if 
 a man does what is required by the law, he should not be required 
 to make a declaration of his feelings. Such a requirement is 
 simply inquisitorial, and generally defeats its own ends, by en- 
 couraging either open defiance, or a disregard of the sanctity of 
 oaths. The Presbyterian system recognized no such limits to in- 
 terference. Some of the Independents, indeed, had learnt the 
 lesson of a higher duty, and strove earnestly to make the league 
 with Scotland a political league only, and not a religious covenant ; 
 in fact, Sir Henry Vane, had power been in his hands, would ha /e 
 
254 DEATH OF PYM. [wab, 2nd yb 
 
 been ready to grant toleration even to Catholics. The Scots, how- 
 ever were impracticable, and all Yane could do was to procure 
 the insertion of the ambiguous words "to endeavour the reforma- 
 tion of religion according to the Word of God and the best re- 
 formed churches." These words, though, when taken in connection 
 with their context, they obviously referred to the Presbyterian 
 Church, yet served as a loophole for the Independents in the army, 
 the Parliament, and the Assembly of Divines, who subscribed in 
 numbers to a test which was intended to eliminate them. The 
 2nd clause left the Episcopalians no such opening, yet many 
 Failure of followed the example of the Independents, putting 
 test Cove- gome forced meaning on the words to suit their own 
 
 nant sub- & . 
 
 scribed to consciences. Such laxity of conscience must not be too 
 pendente, severely censured. In these cases the real guilt lies rather 
 on those who induce hypocrisy than on those who practise it. The 
 determination of successive governments to exact oaths of fidelity 
 to themselves resulted finally in a general relaxation of the 
 moral fibre of the nation. 
 
 For the time, however, the power of the Presbyterians seemed 
 to have overwhelmed the Independents. Four Scotch ministers 
 were admitted into the Assembly of Divines ; a Scotch army was 
 engaged to enter England early in the ensuing spring ; and 
 Scotch commissioners were joined with a committee of the two 
 Houses, who sat in the capital at Derby House to direct the 
 operations of the war. 
 
 Causes of ^ n s pite, however, of Scotch support, the ascendancy 
 
 decline of f the Presbyterians was already on the decline ; for 
 rian ascen- though superior in position and in numbers, their leaders 
 dancy. were no match for the Independents in ability. Hamp- 
 
 den's death had been a blow to the moderate party. Pym, like 
 Hampden, had possessed the trust of both parties, of Indepen- 
 dents, because of the vigour with which he had prosecuted the 
 war, and of Presbyterians because he seemed to acquiesce in their 
 Death of views of church matters, and had agreed with them 
 
 Pym (Stb. ... 
 
 Dec). politically in advocating a limited monarchy. Himself 
 
 sincere, yet no bigot, he had long kept the peace between the 
 intolerant Presbyterians and Independents. His death now 
 came after a short illness, in which he preserved his usual calmness 
 of temper, telling his chaplain "that it was a most indifferent 
 thing to him to live or die ; if he lived, he would do what service 
 
1643.] ARMY OF INDEPENDENTS. 155 
 
 he could ; if he died, he would go to God whom he had served, 
 and who would carry on his work by others *' (8th Dec). 
 
 In Oxford bonfires were lighted the night the news came that 
 Pym was dead, and the Cavaliers "drank deeper healths than usual 
 to the confusion of the Soundheads." In London there was real 
 sorrow among all parties. The Commons paid off a sum of 
 .£10,000, the amount of debts their great leader had incurred in 
 his country's service, and erected a monument in his honour in 
 "Westminster Abbey. 
 
 The political reformers, who hitherto had implicitly followed 
 Pym, now drifted to the right or the left, and either became 
 absorbed in the ranks of the Presbyterians, or passed over to the 
 new men who were now rising into influence. Thus after Pym's 
 death the breach with the Independents widened rapidly, and the 
 Presbvterians were soon in a false position. Obliged F alse posi- 
 
 .,.-,, . tion of Pres- 
 
 to continue the war, because the kmg refused to grant byterians. 
 
 them the establishment of their Church, they were, at the same 
 
 time, afraid of winning a decisive victory, which they saw would 
 
 only encourage the sectarians and men of new ideas in politics. 
 
 On the other hand, the Independents desired nothing more than 
 
 to crush the king's forces, and so bring the war to a speedy end. 
 
 They were already in possession of a force fitted, if any, Eastern ( 
 
 for the accomplishment of the task. Cromwell, lieu- army. 
 
 tenant-general of the horse to the Earl of Manchester, had been 
 
 very active in forming a new army, raised by order of Parliament 
 
 in the eastern counties. He had long seen that Essex and 
 
 "Waller's half-hearted soldiers were not the men to gain great 
 
 victories. "Your troops," he said one day to Hampden, "are 
 
 most of them old decayed serving men, and tapsters, and such 
 
 kind of fellows ; their troops are gentlemen's sons, younger sons, 
 
 and persons of quality ; do you think that the spirits of such base 
 
 and mean fellows will ever be able to encounter gentlemen, that 
 
 have honour and courage and resolution in them ; you must get 
 
 men of a spirit ; and take it not ill what I say — I know you will 
 
 not — of a spirit that is likely to go as far as gentlemen will go — 
 
 or else you will be beaten still." Hampden thought the notion 
 
 good, but impracticable. Cromwell undertook to put it into 
 
 practice. He sought out soldiers amongst the more independent 
 
 classes, the sons of freeholders and artisans, sectarians, Cromwell's 
 
 who fought not for pay and plunder, but with the Ironsides. 
 
156 
 
 CHAELES' IEISH TEOOPS. [wae, 3kd te, 
 
 higher motive of winning liberty to worship God according to 
 their own fashion. From the very first, when Cromwell only 
 commanded a troop of horse in Essex' army, it was observed that 
 his men were of a different stamp to their fellow-soldiers. They 
 did not plunder or drink ; he who swore paid his twelvepence ; 
 he who drank was put in the stocks. And now Cromwell was 
 forming a whole army on the same principles, not heeding to what 
 despised sect his recruits belonged, so long as they proved good 
 soldiers. " I raised such men," he boasted long afterwards, " as 
 had the fear of God before them, as made some conscience of what 
 they did, and from that time forward, I must say, they were 
 never beaten, and wherever they were engaged against the 
 enemy, they beat continually." The valour of the troops thus 
 raised was early attested by their popular name of " The Iron- 
 sides." 
 
 The rise of the Independents created no alarm at Oxford, as 
 Charles expected to reap a new advantage from the divisions of 
 his enemies. He exulted, moreover, in having found a fresh 
 means of increasing the strength of his own armies. 
 
 Since the rebellion broke out in 1641, the war in Ireland had 
 Cessation of been carried on with great success on the part of the 
 Irish. Catholics, and a Catholic council of twenty-four persons 
 
 established at Kilkenny now ruled the larger part of the kingdom. 
 The old English settlers at the head of this party were, however, 
 now eager to make peace with the king, and caused numerous 
 petitions to be sent to Oxford, begging for the free exercise of the 
 Catholic worship, and the calling of a Parliament. Charles, 
 making no absolute promises, agreed to a cessation of arms for a 
 year, and then ordered the Duke of Ormond, his general in Ire- 
 land, a devoted and able Koyalist, to send over to England ten 
 regiments of the troops that had hitherto been engaged in fight- 
 ing Irish rebels. 
 
 This truce with the Irish Catholics excited indignation not only 
 amongst Charles' enemies, but also amongst his Protestant friends. 
 It was believed that many rebels were to be found among the regi- 
 ments sent over by Ormond. " The queen's army," it was com- 
 monly said, " of French and Walloon Papists, the king's army of 
 English Papists, together with the Irish rebels, are to settle the 
 Protestant religion, and the liberties of England."* 
 
 * May, Brev.; Whitelock. 
 
1644.] ARMIES OF KING AND PARLIAMENT. 157 
 
 Hyde suggested to the king that, in order to make his cause 
 more popular with the nation, which reverenced the very word 
 ' Parliament/ he should summon to sit at Oxford oxford 
 those members whom fear had driven from West- Parliament, 
 jninster. Charles unwillingly consented ; he feared the proposed 
 assembly would force peace on him, and so mar the success he 
 hoped from the new accession to his forces. His fears proved cor- 
 rect. This body, though it was Eoyalist, showed a strong dislike 
 to certain of the council, as Papists, and as having been the old 
 instruments of tyranny. They even showed some suspicion of 
 the king's own intentions ; and, in fact, this half Parliament was 
 evidently inclined to make peace with its other half at "West- 
 minster. All overtures, however, proved nugatory, for "the 
 Lords and Commons" of the Long Parliament refused to hold any 
 communication with the king while he spoke of the Oxford as- 
 sembly as on an equality with themselves. After a three months' 
 session, Charles gladly adjourned the Parliament of his friends 
 (16th April), which he described, in writing to his wife, as " this 
 mongrel assembly, the haunt of cowardly and seditious motions." 
 
 When hostilities re-commenced, the Parliament had Armies 
 no less than five armies afoot ; the army of Lord Fair- of the 
 fax, now moving freely in Yorkshire, as the siege of 
 Hull had been raised by the advance of the Scots ; that of Essex, 
 now being recruited in London after its successes at Gloucester 
 and Newbury ; that of Waller, now reinforced after its expulsion 
 from the west ; the eastern counties' army, under the command of 
 Cromwell and Manchester ; and, lastly, the army of the Scots, 
 21,000 strong, commanded by a Scotchman, Leslie, Earl of Leven. 
 
 Charles had two large armies — his own, at Oxford, Armies 
 of 10,000 men ; that of Newcastle, in Yorkshire, of of the 
 14,000 men ; besides several considerable forces scat- 
 tered over the country, and regiments of English and Irish 
 troops landing from time to time in Wales, and at Chester and 
 Bristol. 
 
 The Parliament had laid on the country heavy taxes Taxes, 
 for the maintenance of its armies. Custom duties were levied on 
 various articles of export and import. An ordinance had been 
 passed for a weekly assessment of ,£10,000 on London, and of 
 £24,000 on the rest of the kingdom. This tax, like the sub- 
 sidy, was levied on lands and goods, but not after the same 
 
158 SIEGE OF OXFORD. [war, 3ed tk. 
 
 fashion. The subsidies had been levied after an old rate, and 
 by commissioners appointed by the Chancellor from amongst the 
 inhabitants of the county or borough. Through the laxity of 
 these commissioners the receipts had steadily decreased. Now a 
 specific sum was laid upon each county, and raised by com- 
 missioners named by Parliament. By further ordinances, the ex- 
 cise duty, a tax hitherto unknown in England, was introduced, 
 which consisted of a tax on the manufacture of commodities as 
 distinct from the custom duties on their importation, and as 
 touching home rather than foreign produce. The ignorant always 
 prefer customs to excise, because the incidence of the former is 
 less visible ; but the objection to customs is that they take much 
 more out of the pocket of the consumer than they bring to the ex- 
 chequer. Customs, being mainly levied on raw produce, have to- 
 be paid by the merchant ; his payment has to be recouped by the 
 manufacturer and the dealers, besides other intermediaries, all of 
 whom require a profit on the money sunk in the payment of the 
 tax. Excise, being levied on the last stage before sale, is, there- 
 fore, a more economical tax. The Dutch had employed it before 
 this, but its introduction into England was due to the genius of 
 
 Pym. 
 
 Such excise was now laid upon many articles of every-day use 
 and consumption ; upon ale, cider, perry, wine, oil, sugar, pepper, 
 salt, silk, soap, and even meat (May, 1643 — July, 1644). Counties 
 under the power of the Eoyalists were no better off than those 
 under the power of the Parliament. The Oxford Parliament 
 copied that of "Westminster, and laid on an excise ; irregular contri- 
 butions were constantly levied by the king's troops, and his whole 
 army, when unpaid, as it now often was, lived at free quarters. 
 
 The committee of the two nations, sitting at Derby House, 
 directed the movements of the generals. Fairfax, Manchester, 
 and Lesley received instructions to attack Newcastle's army, and 
 lay siege to York ; Essex and Waller to invest Oxford. When 
 it was known within Oxford that a siege was impending, 
 Discontent faction and discontent broke all bonds of control., 
 in Oxford. Money was getting scarce, and . everybody was out of 
 humour. The queen took fright, and departed for Exeter, bid- 
 ding Charles her last farewell. Courtiers grumbled, and con- 
 sidered themselves neglected. The officers wanted to govern 
 everything, and quarrelled with the civilians in the council. The 
 
1644.] BATTLE OF CEOPEEDY BELDGE. 1-50 
 
 number of Papists in the town annoyed many of the king's Pro- 
 testant friends. Charles was incapable of silencing discontent and 
 making men work together. He had no faculty for putting the 
 right man into the right place. Promotion went by caprice or im- 
 portunity. His officers quarrelled with one another for command. 
 In fact it was a reign of jealousy before ; and now, to gratify his 
 nephews Rupert and Maurice, he displaced and offended some of 
 the best and most trustworthy of his servants. 
 
 Oxford was already nearly invested, when Charles, by a skilful 
 manoeuvre, saved both his army and the town. At the dead of 
 night, accompanied by his cavalry and 2500 foot, he passed un- 
 discovered between the two armies of Essex and Waller (3rd 
 June), and proceeded by quick marches to Worcester, and thence 
 across the Severn to Bewdley. Rupert, in command of his 
 Cavaliers and some of the troops which had been sent over from 
 Ireland, was now in Lancashire, engaged in reducing the fortified 
 places which were held for the Parliament. But Charles, hearing 
 that Newcastle — who was closely besieged in York — could not hold 
 out for six weeks longer unless relieved, sent orders to Rupert to 
 march straight to York and relieve it by engaging the Scots. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Parliamentary leaders, as soon as they became 
 aware of Charles' escape, agreed that Waller and his army should 
 pursue the royal forces, while Essex and his army reduced the 
 towns in the west. Waller thought the king was making for 
 Lancashire to join Rupert, and so kept ahead of him on the 
 eastern bank of the Severn. But Charles' plan was much bolder ; 
 on hearing the Parliament's forces were divided, his aim was to re- 
 gain his head-quarters immediately and attack before his enemies 
 could re-unite. With this view he crossed the river behind Waller, 
 and on the 20th June was again in Oxford. Without giving any 
 time for Essex to reappear, he marched out at once at the head 
 of his whole army, and soon fell in with Waller, who, on hearing 
 of his movements, had returned in haste to cover the road to 
 London. The two armies were in sight of one another as they 
 marched northwards from Banbury, Charles being on the eastern, 
 Waller on the western, bank of the Cherwell. 
 
 About midday, Waller, observing that the rear of Battle of 
 the king's army was some distance behind the main B^dg^ 7 
 body, forced a passage across Cropredy Bridge, and (Map, p. 127.) 
 fell upon it in front, while at the same time he sent a body of 
 
i60 MAKSTON MOOK. [wae, Sed ye. 
 
 horse to make their way over a ford about a mile lower down 
 the river. Charles, seeing his rear about to be attacked on two sides, 
 at once recalled his advanced troops, and a succession of skir- 
 mishes followed, in which the Koyalists were generally victorious, 
 takino- several pieces of cannon, and beating the enemy back both 
 over the ford and the bridge. Fighting lasted until night caused 
 the two armies to separate. The action in itself might have been 
 called indecisive, but the king gained all the advantages of a vic- 
 tory, for death and desertion soon reduced Waller's army to half 
 its numbers. 
 
 Three clays after the battle of Cropredy Bridge, the eastern 
 counties' army was brought into action in Yorkshire. It was 
 supporting the Scots in besieging York ; but the generals of the 
 Parliament, on hearing that Eupert was marching from Lanca- 
 shire with 20,000 men to raise the siege, withdrew from their 
 entrenchments to Hessay Moor in order to oppose his approach 
 (30th June). The prince, however, disappointed their expecta- 
 tions, for instead of following the high road from Knaresborough, 
 over Skip Bridge, he crossed the Ouse with his army above its 
 junction with the Nidd, and entered York the same evening 
 without opposition (1st July). 
 
 As Eupert had already effected his object in relieving the town, 
 Newcastle wished to avoid, or at least delay a battle ; urging 
 in the first place that divisions would probably break out in the 
 enemy's army, composed as it was of Scots and English, Presby- 
 terians and Independents, in the second, that he was expecting 
 a reinforcement of 3000 men, and that no battle ought to be 
 fought until after their arrival. But Eupert, confident of victory, 
 put forward the king's letter : " I have his Majesty's commands," 
 he said ; u I am bound to fight." " I am ready to obey your High- 
 ness," replied Newcastle, " as if the king himself were here." 
 The prince's army was encamped a few miles to the north of 
 York, and it was agreed that Newcastle's foot should be ready by 
 two o'clock at night to march out and unite with it. Their 
 sudden and unlooked-for deliverance seemed, however, for the 
 time to have demoralized the York forces. Some of the soldiers 
 were out seeking for booty in the deserted trenches of the enemy ; 
 others were already drawn together, when a report spread that 
 before marching they were to receive their pay; at once the men 
 broke from their ranks and dispersed, and some hours elapsed be- 
 
2ND jult, 1644.] POSITION OF FAIRFAX. 161 
 
 fore they could be gathered together again.* Eupert rode out of 
 the town at daybreak, without waiting for Newcastle,f and pro- 
 ceeded to lead his army across the Ouse at Poppelton, where the 
 Scots had left standing a bridge of boats (2nd July). 
 
 The counsels of the Parliament's generals were, like those of the 
 Eoyalists, divided. The English were for seeking out the enemy 
 and- fighting, but the Scots proposed to retreat to Cawood, where, 
 by forming a tete-de-pont to defend the bridge at the junction of 
 the branches of the Ouse, they might oppose Rupert's further ad- 
 vance south. The Scots' counsel prevailed, and the army drew off 
 from Hessay Moor southwards, in the direction of Tadcaster : 
 those in the van had already advanced some miles, when it was 
 attacked in the rear by Rupert's horse at Marston village and 
 forced hastily to turn and form in order of battle. 
 
 Both Hessay and Marston Moors form part of a low plain, 
 watered by the Ouse and the Nidd. Drainage and tillage have 
 now changed the character of a tract that was then in the main 
 really moor, open and unenclosed. Immediately south of the 
 road that joins Tockwith and Marston, the dead level ends, and 
 an easy ascent of ten minutes leads to the summit of a line 
 of higher ground, running from one village to the other. The 
 Parliamentarians on the first attack promptly faced about to the 
 north, and formed upon the brow of this hill, on Marston Field, 
 a large enclosure with crops of rye then dotted over it. Their 
 right wing, consisting of Sir Thomas Fairfax' regiments of horse 
 and foot, together with the larger part of the Scotch horse, and a 
 reserve of Scottish infantry, occupied a position immediately west 
 of Marston village, where the elevation is highest. Their main 
 battle was composed of Scotch and English infantry, commanded 
 by Lords Leven and Manchester and Sir Thomas's father, Lord 
 Fairfax. Still farther west, resting on the village of Tockwith, 
 where the hill is much lower than at Marston, was the left wing, 
 comprised of three regiments of Scottish cavalry and the eastern 
 counties' horse, under the command respectively of David Leslie 
 
 * There is a curious account of the ' battle of York ' {i.e., Marston Moor) in 
 the Clarendon State Papers at Oxford. The writing is in the same hand as a 
 paper printed in the Clar. State Papers, ii. p. 181, which is endorsed by 
 Hyde, ' Sir Hugh Cholmeley's Memorials.' The writer, whoever he is, tells 
 us" he received his account ' from a gentleman of quality of that country who 
 was a colonel and had a command there and present all the time.' The other 
 accounts of the battle given by eye-witnesses are nearly all written by Parlia- 
 mentarians. 
 
 t William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle (p. 131), now Marquis. 
 
stuu He Ssa: \» Poppleton 
 
 • -Moor V__ 
 
 lth Maraton ^^©, 
 
 0' J W^ ■" 
 
 " — - __'- H.vs.. under Fairfii: 
 
 <s> 
 
 ; ii 
 
 ?% 
 
 W/?. 
 
 m 
 
 / 
 
2nd jult, 1644.] POSITION OF ROYALISTS. 163 
 
 and Lieutenant-General Cromwell. Its outer flank was sup- 
 ported by a body of Scotch dragoons. 
 
 Rupert, who was following from the north-east, finding that his 
 enemies were facing about to accept battle, formed his army upon 
 Marston Moor, awaiting meanwhile impatiently the arrival of 
 the York forces. After some delay the marquis, " accompanied 
 with all the gentlemen of quality which were in York, came to the 
 prince, who said, ' My lord, I wish you had come sooner with 
 your forces, but I hope we shall yet have a glorious day/ The 
 marquis informed him how his foot had been a-plundering in the 
 trenches, and that it was impossible to have got together all at 
 the time fixed, but that he had left General King about the work, 
 who would bring them up with all the expedition that might be. 
 The prince, seeing the marquis' foot were not come up, would with 
 Jiis own forces have been falling upon the enemy, but the marquis 
 dissuaded him, telling him that he had 4000 good foot as were in 
 the world coming. About four o'clock in the afternoon General King 
 brought up the marquis' foot, of which yet many were wanting, 
 for there was not above 3000. The prince demanded of King 
 how he liked the marshalling of his army, who replied, he did 
 not approve of it, being drawn too nsar the enemy and in a 
 place of disadvantage. Then said the prince, ' They may be 
 drawn a farther distance. 5 'No, sire,' said King, 'it is too late.'" 
 
 The two armies were drawn up so close together that "their 
 foot," says a Parliamentarian, " was close to our noses." Rupert 
 had been beforehand in gaining possession of a deep ditch that 
 ran in a straight line between them. In this he placed four 
 bodies of musketeers opposite the eastern counties' army. His 
 right wing he led in person. Newcastle's foot fell into position 
 on the extreme left of the main body, which was placed under 
 the command of General King ; the left wing was com- 
 manded by Colonel Goring. A few fields cut up the moor on 
 this side, so that the only approach for the horse on the enemy's 
 right lay up a narrow lane with a hedge on one side and a 
 ditch on the. other, both lined with dismounted dragoons. All 
 along the line waved banners magnificent with gold and silver 
 fringes. Here a red pennon with a white cross, and motto, ' Pro 
 rege et regno ;' there a black coronet and sword reaching from the 
 clouds, ' Terribilis ut acies ordinata ;' while far on the right the 
 presence of the prince was marked by a standard nearly five yards 
 
 11—2 
 
IM MARSTON MOOR, [wab, 3ed yb. 
 
 long and broad, with a red cross in the centre. Each army was 
 nearly 23,000 strong, so that never before in the course of the 
 war had such large forces met face to face. The Parliamentarians 
 wore as their mark a white paper or handkerchief in their hats ; 
 their word for the day was • God with us.' The Royalist mark 
 was to be without bands or scarfs ; their word ' God and the king. 3 
 
 Since two o'clock the cannon had been booming, but still the 
 two armies delayed to join battle. The Parliament's generals, 
 trusting in Rupert's proverbial daring, waited for him to disorder 
 his lines by being the first to charge across the ditch. Their 
 soldiers meanwhile ' fell to singing psalms/ a sign that they at 
 least were nerved and ready for any odds. 
 
 When the forces from York had at last arrived, Rupert's im- 
 petuosity was restrained by the representations of Newcastle and 
 King, both of whom were averse to fighting because of the late- 
 ness of the hour. He declared accordingly his intention of delay- 
 ing the battle till the next day, ordered provisions to be brought 
 for his army from York, and with most culpable neglect suffered 
 many of his horsemen to dismount and lie on the ground, with 
 their horses' bridles in their hands. 
 
 But that long summer's day was not so to end. It was already 
 seven o'clock when Leven, who acted as commander-in-chief, find- 
 ing that the enemy would not charge him, determined to charge 
 them, and ordered the whole line of his army to advance. " We 
 came down the hill," says Oliver's scout-master, " in the bravest 
 order, and with the greatest resolution — I mean the left wing of 
 our horse, led by Cromwell, which was to charge their right wing, 
 led by Rupert, in which was all their gallant men." At the sound 
 of the enemy's alarums, the prince in hot haste sprung to horse 
 and galloped up to the front of the field. He found his own regi- 
 ment taken by surprise, and in some disorder. " 'Swounds !" he 
 cried, " do you run — follow me !" and fiercely led the way to 
 meet the enemy's charge. Meanwhile Manchester's foot, in the 
 face of a fierce fire, dashed down the hill at a bit of level, where 
 there was a break in the ditch, and thus taking the Royalist mus- 
 keteers in flank, drove them out of their shelter. A desperate 
 struggle ensued. The horsemen discharged their pistols, and then, 
 flinging them at one another's heads, fell to with their swords. A 
 company of Cavaliers, led by Rupert in person, charged Crom- 
 well's own division of three hundred horse in front and flank. A 
 
2nd jult, 1644.] ROUT OF FAIRFAX* WING. 1C5 
 
 shot grazed the lieutenant's-general's neck. "A miss is as good as 
 a inile," he exclaimed, and, scattering his assailants before him 
 "like a little dust," pressed onwards till he broke through the 
 lines of the enemy. " Manchester's foot, on the right hand, went 
 on by our side," says Oliver's scout-master again, " dispersing the 
 enemy's foot almost as fast as they charged them, still going by 
 our side, cutting them down that we carried the whole field be- 
 fore us, thinking the victory wholly ours, and nothing to be done 
 but to kill and take prisoners." Soon Rupert's whole wing, horse 
 and foot, was in full flight, and the Cavaliers were swept off the 
 field, flying northwards " along by Wilstrop woodside as fast and 
 thick as could be." 
 
 Meanwhile the Parliament's troops on the right wing found 
 their advance impeded by the hedge and ditch which protected 
 the enemy's left. They could only march up the lane three or 
 four abreast, and were exposed all the while to a hot fire from the 
 musketeers stationed by Rupert on either side. After forcing 
 their way to the open ground at the end of the lane, they were 
 received by large bodies of the enemy, who fell upon each party 
 as it emerged. Fairfax, indeed, in face of all difficulties, charged 
 right through Goring's squadrons, at the head of four hundred 
 horse. But finding himself left unsupported, he was fain to take 
 the white handkerchief out of his hat, and pass for a Royalist com- 
 mander while he rode hastily back to his own side. 
 
 Meantime his van, composed of newly-levied regiments, had 
 wheeled round before the enemy, and disordered his own in- 
 fantry and the Scots' reserve, so that on his return, he found his 
 whole wing broken and already in flight. Some of the Cavaliers, 
 with their usual impetuosity, pursued the flying enemy over 
 the hill which shut out their view of the field, and miles on 
 to the south in the direction of Cawood and Tadcaster ; others 
 tarried to plunder the carriages and baggage left by the Parlia- 
 mentarians on the top of the hill ; others under the command of 
 Goring joined Newcastle's regiment of "Whitecoats, and wheeled 
 round on the unprotected right flank of the enemy's centre. 
 Thus attacked in front and flank, the Scots' infantry on this side 
 gave way. In vain Leven exhorted his men to stand. " Though 
 you run from your enemies," he cried, "yet leave not your 
 general." Believing the battle to be lost, he joined the stream 
 of fugitives, and never drew rein until he came to Leeds. 
 
166 
 
 MARSTON MOOB. [war, 3ed ye. 
 
 Thepenerei Tne confusion was not confined to the Parliament side, 
 confusion - « t k ne w not for my soul," says one who was there look- 
 an°ey?- ° ing for Rupert, " whither to incline : runaways on both 
 witness. s i ( i es? s0 man y ? so breathless, so speechless, not a man 
 of them able to give me the least hope where the prince was to 
 be found, both armies being mingled, horse and foot. In this 
 terrible distraction did I scour the country, here meeting with a 
 shoal of Scots crying out, ' Wae's us, we're a' undone !' then with 
 a ragged troop, reduced to four and a cornet, by-and-by with a 
 little foot-officer, without hat, band, or anything but feet." 
 
 It is a time of confusion such as this that gives an opening for 
 the calm and collected officer who has his men well in hand. 
 Half the Royalist left wing were far away, triumphantly driving 
 the blow home, as they thought, by a hot pursuit. Goring had 
 only Newcastle's Whitecoats and a sprinkling of his own Cava- 
 liers, when the fading light revealed to him a new enemy occu- 
 pying the very ground he had himself held in the morning. 
 Cromwell -^ was tne Parliament's left wing, led by Cromwell 
 redeems and Leslie ; who, after disi^ersing the Royalist right, 
 had relinquished pursuit and crossed the battle-field 
 to support their less fortunate friends. Once again Cavaliers 
 and Ironsides fiercely charged, and once again victory re- 
 mained with the Ironsides. The Cavaliers fled the field, 
 while Newcastle's regiment of Whitecoats, a thousand brave 
 Northumbrians raised out of his own tenantry, scorning to 
 receive quarter or to fly, were all, save some thirty, cut 
 down to a man, in the same order and rank in which they 
 stood. Major-General Porter, who had forced back part of the 
 Parliament's main battle, now, in the moment of success, found 
 foes in his own rear, and had to surrender with his men. 
 
 Broken and routed, the Royalists on all sides fled, and were 
 chased with terrible slaughter to within a mile of York. By ten 
 o'clock, the battle was over, and after scarce three hours' fighting, 
 more than 3000 Royalists lay dead upon the field. The Parlia- 
 mentarians lost, it was said, only some 300 men ; they made 1500 
 prisoners, and took all the enemy's artillery, ammunition, and 
 baggage. " The Earl of Manchester," says his chaplain, " about 
 eleven o'clock that night, did ride about to the soldiers both 
 horse and foot, giving them many thanks for the exceeding good 
 service they had done for the kingdom ; and he often earnestly 
 
1644.] ESSEX m WEST. 167 
 
 entreated them to give the honour of the victory unto God alone. 
 The soldiers unanimously gave God the glory of their great de- 
 liverance and victory, and told his lordship with much cheerful- 
 ness that, though they had long fasted and were faint, yet they 
 would willingly want three days longer, rather than to give up 
 the service or leave his lordship." It was not, however, till 
 noon the next day, that the joyful news reached Leven, 
 who had fled in the belief that the battle was irrecover- wails his 
 ably lost. Upon hearing of this, he knocks upon his fllght * 
 breast, and says, " I would to God I had died upon the plain."* 
 
 Newcastle, in disgust at seeing his army destroyed and power 
 gone through Eupert's rashness, went beyond seas, accom- 
 panied by more than eighty gentlemen. The prince returned 
 to Chester, with the remnants of a broken army. York sur- 
 rendered to the Parliament, and the king lost all hold in the 
 north. Such was one result of the battle ; but there Results of 
 was a second hardly less momentous. The Inde- battle - 
 pendents had triumphed not only over the Eoyalists, but over 
 the Presbyterians. In London, it was told how " Cromwel], 
 with his unspeakable valorous regiments, had done all the service ; 
 the Presbyterians, the Scots, had fled."f As though to render 
 the triumph of the Ironsides the more complete, a terrible mis- 
 fortune befell the army in which the Presbyterians placed their 
 trust. 
 
 The Eoyalist leader, Sir Eichard Grenville, on hearing of the 
 presence of Essex in the west, raised the siege of Plymouth, and 
 marched for refuge into Cornwall. Essex had already advanced 
 as far as Exeter, when the news reached him that the king had de- 
 feated Waller, and was now following in pursuit of himself. Some 
 of his officers, who had estates in Cornwall which they wished to 
 visit, persuaded him to march after Grenville, instead of turning 
 at once to meet the royal forces. He soon found that he had 
 taken a fatal step. The country people were Eoyalists, and gave 
 him no support. The country itself is enough to embarrass a 
 general, with its bare back-bone of mountain, moor, or marsh, 
 while the southern coast, which is the least desolate, is split up 
 into a succession of deep valleys running to the sea. 
 
 * Rushworth ; Ormond Pap., i. 56 ; Fairfax' Mem. ; Cromwelliana ; Sir 
 H. Slingsby's Mem. ; Letters and Accounts of Ash, Watson, and Steward, in 
 King's Pamphlets, 164, 166; Memorials touching the battle of York, in 
 Clarendon Papers in Bodleian, f Baillie, ii. 40. 
 
16 g ESSEX IN WEST. [wae, 3rd yb. 
 
 Essex had his head- quarters at Lostwithiel, in the valley of 
 the Fowey, then spelt, as it is still pronounced, Foy, when the 
 kin<*, advancing from Liskeard, pitched his camp and stand- 
 ard on Broadoak or Braddoc Downs, near Boconnoc. Hoping 
 to profit by the enmity existing between the Presbyterian and 
 Independent commanders, he wrote Essex a letter, calling on 
 him to end the war by uniting the two armies, and promising 
 on the word of a king that he would ever prove a faithful 
 friend to both him and his army. The Eoyalist officers after- 
 wards set their names to a letter, in which they undertook to 
 see carried out all that his Majesty might promise. But Essex' 
 honesty stood the test. In answer to their overtures he de- 
 clared his inability to treat, and referred the king to the Parlia- 
 ment. His generalship, however, did not prove equal to his honesty. 
 Though he was in possession of the valley of the Foy, from the 
 haven itself to Lanhydrock, a house belonging to the Parliamenta- 
 rian Lord Eobartes, so that supplies could be brought into his 
 army, both by sea and land, from all sides, excepting the east ; 
 yet with little opposition, he suffered the king to draw the toils so 
 Surrender at closely round him, that starvation or surrender were 
 Lostwithiel. tne on }y alternatives left. Grenville, at the head of 
 1400 men, advanced from Bodmin, gained possession of Lanhy- 
 drock, and thus opened communication with Charles on Broadoak 
 Downs, and shut in the army of the enemy on the north (12th 
 August). Essex had neglected to occupy View Hall, a house on 
 the east bank of the river opposite Foy, and Pernon Fort, 
 standing on the same side and commanding the entrance of the 
 harbour. These important positions were now seized and occu- 
 pied by the Royalists, so that the Parliamentarians were pre- 
 vented any longer from bringing provisions into Fowey by sea 
 (13th August). Their position at Lostwithiel soon became still 
 more circumscribed. Sir Richard Grenville advanced from 
 Lanhydrock and drove Essex out of Lestormel Castle, which 
 commands the Fowey valley scarce a mile above Lostwithiel 
 (21st August). The same day the king, advancing from en- 
 closures which bounded the south side of Boconnoc Park, 
 forced the Parliamentarians to quit their quarters on a beacon 
 hill, which stands about a mile east of Lostwithiel. Here 
 the following night, he raised a battery, whence he shot right 
 into their camp, the west was now the only side still open to 
 
1644. 
 
 ESSEX' ARMY SURRENDERS. 
 
 169 
 
 Essex, and even from this he was shortly to be cut off. Goring 
 and the horse seized possession of St. Austell, and thus com- 
 manded all the country round Tywardreath Bay, whence pro- 
 visions had still reached Lostwithiel by sea (25th August). 
 Essex had now no choice left but to surrender. 
 
 The horse escaped by riding off about three o'clock one misty 
 morning, between the armies of the king and Prince Maurice, 
 which were encamped a small distance apart (31st August). 
 
 Essex and the foot marched from Lostwithiel for Foy, hoping 
 as a last resource to escape across the river and sail from Lante- 
 glos to Plymouth. Before leaving Lostwithiel, they tried to 
 break down the bridge over the river, but were prevented by 
 the enemy's infantry, who followed them through the town and 
 down the valley, forcing them to a hasty retreat. On the march 
 they came to some high ground and enclosures, which they 
 occupied, and succeeded for the time in making a successful stand 
 and driving the enemy back. The next day, Essex sailed from 
 
170 MONTROSE IN SCOTLAND. [wab, 3rd ye. 
 
 Foy, in company with his principal officers. As he left the 
 harbour, he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by the 
 garrison of Pernon Fort. The infantry, about 6000 in number, 
 surrendered their ammunition, artillery, and arms, on condi- 
 tion that they should be allowed their liberty and conducted 
 to the nearest quarters of their friends. The terms, however, 
 were not kept ; the men were maltreated and plundered all 
 the way on their march through the enemy's country, and so 
 many were the deaths and desertions, that only some 1000 
 arrived at Poole in safety. Thus the two Presbyterian generals 
 in the west were crushed in a single campaign. " Mr. Sheriff," 
 said Charles, on his departure from Cornwall, "I leave the 
 country entirely at peace in your hands."* 
 
 At this time the flames of civil war had spread from England 
 into Scotland. Before the cessation of arms had been concluded 
 with the Irish, and before the Scots had declared themselves for 
 Civil war in the Parliament, the Marquis of Montrose had formed 
 Scotland. with Charles a secret plan of raising the Highlanders 
 and uniting them with a body of troops to be transported from. 
 Ireland, and thus beginning a second civil war in Scotland. An 
 attempt was made to carry this plan into execution during the pre- 
 sent summer ; and Montrose, coming down from the Highlands at 
 the head of a brave, but savage and undisciplined, army of High- 
 landers and Irishmen, twice defeated such forces as the Cove- 
 nanters were able to bring together during the absence of their 
 best troops in England. t 
 
 Hostilities were carried on in a more and more brutal spirit. 
 This was especially the case after the introduction of Irish troops 
 into England. The introduction of troops of a lower order of 
 civilization is always looked upon with horror. If not savages 
 as Indians in America, or ' Turcos ' in France, both High- 
 landers and Irish were looked upon as such. They both fought 
 Irish and without regard to the ordinary rules of war. Mon- 
 Highianders trose > s Highland < hell hounds/ as they were called^ 
 were allowed to plunder and butcher at will ; while the Irish 
 came stained with the blood of massacred Protestants. An ordi- 
 
 * Letter of Sir E. Basset ; Hals' Parochial History (both apad Davies 
 Gilbert's History of Cornwall); Clar. Hist.; Sir E. Walker's Historical Dis- 
 courses. 
 
 f At Tipper Muir, 1st September, 1644. At Bridge of Dee, 14th Sep- 
 tember, 1614. 
 
27th Oct., 1644.] SECOND BATTLE OF NEWBURY. 171 
 
 nance passed by the Parliament forbidding quarter to be given to 
 any Irishmen or Papists taken in arms (Oct. 3rd), was in their 
 case literally enforced. Irish soldiers seized on their way to Eng- 
 lish ports were tied back to back and cast into the sea ; those 
 made prisoners in England were shot by hundreds. The more 
 moderate of the Eoyalists had objected to the introduction of the 
 Irish ; but the less scrupulous, not to be behind in acts of cruelty, 
 would retaliate by hanging English prisoners, taken in arms, 
 twelve at a time, on a tree, or by putting members of garrisons 
 to death on slight excuses, contrary to articles of capitulation. 
 Thus the war was more and more embittered as it went on. 
 
 Charles, on hearing of Montrose's victories, regarded the 
 disastrous day of Marston Moor as already retrieved. He ex- 
 pected either that the Scotch army would return to defend their 
 homes, or else that Montrose would march into England, fight the 
 Scots, and recover his lost ascendancy in the north. But his 
 wishes made him overlook the character of Montrose's army. 
 After a raid on the Lowlands, the Highlanders' custom was to 
 return to the mountains, and enjoy their spoil. The present ex- 
 pedition was nothing to them but a raid on a larger scale than 
 usual; and no sooner did the winter set in, than they melted 
 away from their leader, who found his Irish troops insufficient to 
 protect him, and was fain to follow his Highlanders and take 
 refuge in their mountains. 
 
 Charles, meaiitime, was marching back from Cornwall to Oxford- 
 shire. He had passed through Wiltshire, and reached Newbury, 
 when he heard that the armies of Waller, Essex, and Manchester 
 were advancing from London to meet him. The Independents, 
 content with the proved superiority of their army, had not pressed 
 their victory over the fallen Essex and Waller. Waller's army 
 had been recruited once moie ; and Essex' men had been re-fur- 
 nished with arms on returning from their catastrophe in the west. 
 Essex himself pleaded sickness, and remained absent from his 
 army, feeling that since the relief of Gloucester, the day of his 
 triumphs was over. 
 
 As the united armies of the enemy were 16,000 strong, and his 
 own forces not above 8000, Charles, not venturing to risk a 
 battle in the open field, took up a strong defensive position in 
 Newbury, between the rivers Kennet and Lamborne. On the 
 south the town was protected by the Kennet. On the north- 
 
172 SECOND BATTLE OF NEWBUKY. [war, 3ed ye. 
 
 east troops were quartered in Shaw village, which was strength- 
 ened with a breastwork, and in a large house, called Doleman's, 
 still standing, as the map shows (p. 144), a little in advance of the 
 village on the northern bank of the Lamborne. Bodies of horse 
 occupied a gentle eminence rising immediately east of Doleman's 
 House, and a few neighbouring hedges were lined with musketeers. 
 On the west Prince Maurice's infantry was quartered in the village 
 of Speen; and in two large fields, lying north of Newbury, between 
 the rivers Kennet and Lamborne, was stationed a large body of 
 horse together with a train of artillery. Approach to this quarter 
 was rendered the more difficult by the neighbourhood of Don- 
 nington Castle, which was held by a strong garrison for the king. 
 The Parliament's generals took possession of Clay Hill, lying 
 to the north-east of Newbury, and agreed to make a combined 
 attack upon Shaw and Speen. For this purpose, the greater 
 part of Manchester's horse, all Essex' horse and foot, and almost all 
 the forces under Waller, separated from Manchester, and making 
 a detour beyond Donnington Castle, surprised the Royalists in 
 their quarters on the north-west. Many of the king's guards being 
 absent from their posts, the Lamborne was crossed without opposi- 
 tion, and Prince Maurice's infantry quickly dislodged from Speen. 
 A fierce three-hours' contest followed in the fields lying between 
 Donnington and Newbury. The king, who was present in person, 
 could not prevent some of his troops from flying under the walls of 
 the castle for protection. Essex' men, crying out "that they would 
 be revenged for the business of Cornwall," carried off in triumph the 
 very cannon they had before surrendered. The Royalists, however, 
 succeeded in retaining possession of the field, and when night caused 
 the battle to end, Waller retired into Speen. Meanwhile, on the 
 other side of the town, a still fiercer struggle had been maintained. 
 Manchester had agreed with Waller that as soon as the sound 
 of cannon should be heard from Speen, he would advance with 
 his forces upon the Royalist quarters at Shaw. During the morn- 
 ing he " rode about from regiment to regiment to encourage the 
 soldiers, and to keep them in due order fit for that service which 
 every hour almost was expected." It was about four o'clock in the 
 afternoon when, says an eye-witness, "we saw the firing of the mus- 
 kets in Speen, which discovered the service to be very hot, and 
 with joy and thankfulness beheld the hasty disorderly retreat of 
 the enemy towards Newbury." On this encouraging sight 3000 
 
27th Oct., 1644.] CKOMWELL VERSUS MANCHESTER 173 
 
 of Manchester's foot burst down Clay Hill singing a psalm 
 as they came, intending to storm the defences of the Royal- 
 ists, and meet their friends in the fields lying between New- 
 bury and Donnington. Charging furiously, the Parliamenta- 
 rians forced the king's horse back into the garden of Dole- 
 man's House, and made their way right up to the breastworks. 
 Here, however, they were exposed to a murderous fire, and 
 fell in numbers, while they were able to do little execution 
 upon enemies sheltered by walls and earthworks. As was 
 not seldom the case in this war, with the approach of night, 
 friends were mistaken for foes ; so that after one company of 
 Manchester's foot had possessed themselves of one of the enemy's 
 outworks, a second beat them out again with great loss of life 
 to both. After four hours' hard fighting, the Parliamentarians 
 gave up the attack and drew off, while sheltered from pursuit by 
 their own horse, which had stayed all the time barely beyond 
 range of the enemy's pistols. It was now ten o'clock, and a clear, 
 moonlight night. Charles, seeing that he had lost ground upon 
 the western side of the town, forsook his quarters, and, without 
 meeting any opposition, withdrew by Donnington Castle to Wal- 
 lingford, passing between Waller's and Manchester's armies.* 
 
 It was a victory, but not a victory to break the king's 
 power in the south, as Marston Moor had broken it in the north. 
 When the generals returned to London, Cromwell Dissensions 
 laid a heavy charge against the Presbyterian earl 1U -London. 
 in the House of Commons ; how Manchester had always been 
 for such a peace as a victory would be a disadvantage to ; how 
 he had often acted as if he thought the king too low and 
 the Parliament too high, but especially at Donnington Castle : 
 " Though," said Cromwell, " I showed him evidently 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 to the earl's choice, if he thought rroper to remain 
 neutral with the rest of his forces. But 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." 
 
 * Ludlow Mem.; Clar. Hist.; E. Walker's Hist. Discourses; A true re- 
 lation of the most chief occurrences at and since the Battle at Newbury, 
 (by Simeon Ash, chaplain to Manchester) in King's Tracts. 
 
274, SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE. [war, 3rd tr. 
 
 Manchester, in turn, retorted on his lieutenant-general charges 
 of insubordination, and of deep dark designs ; of having said, 
 *' that it would never be well in England till I were plain Mr. 
 Montague, and there was never a peer nor a lord in the land." 
 Indeed, it was reported that Cromwell said to his soldiers, " if he 
 met the king in battle, he would fire his pistol at the king as at 
 another." The charges were not pressed on either side, and no 
 judgment was passed. But the Presbyterians from this time 
 feared Cromwell as the ablest and most determined of their 
 opponents. Pyni was dead nearly a year now, and there had 
 risen up in his place a man they owned to be " of a very wise and 
 active head, universally well-beloved as religious and stout, being 
 a known Independent, and loved by the soldiers." Their fears 
 made them the more eager to effect a peace, which would secure 
 their own ascendancy, and crush the hated Independents. Peace 
 propositions were accordingly brought forward, and passed both 
 Houses of Parliament after meeting much opposition from the 
 Independent party (9th Nov.). Charles agreed to send seventeen 
 commissioners to Uxbridge, to discuss the terms proposed, with 
 thirty-five members of Parliament and the Scottish commissioners. 
 
 But while the Presbyterians were intending peace, the Inde- 
 pendents were preparing to re-model the army, and place it in 
 the hands of men who knew how to conquer ; for it was evident 
 that the war would never be brought to a successful close while 
 the command of the forces of the Parliament was divided between 
 rival generals of different principles, some of whom did not wish 
 to push matters to an extreme. To effect their purpose, they 
 Proposed to deprive of office, civil and military, all 
 denying members of Parliament. The House was considering 
 ordinance. ^ e sac i condition of the kingdom, when Cromwell 
 rose and spoke to the following effect : " It is now time to speak, 
 or for ever hold the tongue. The important occasion now is no 
 less than to save a nation out of a bleeding, nay almost out of a 
 dying condition. . . . For what do the enemy say 1 Nay, 
 what do men say that were friends at the beginning of the Parlia- 
 ment ? Even this, that the members of both Houses have got 
 great places, and commands, and the sword into their hands, and 
 will not permit the war speedily to end, lest their own power 
 should determine with it." " Whatever is the matter," continued 
 another member ; " two summers are passed over, and we are not 
 
1644.] UXBRIDGE NEGOTIATIONS. 175 
 
 saved. A Bummer's victory has proved but a winter's story ; the 
 game has shut up with autumn, to be new played again next 
 spring, as if the blood that has been shed were ouly to manure 
 the field of war I determine nothing, but it is apparent that 
 the forces being under several great commanders has oftentimes 
 hindered the public service." " There is but one way of ending 
 so many evils," said a third member. " I move that no member 
 of either house shall, during this war, execute any office or com- 
 mand, civil or military " (9th Dec). 
 
 The motion was acted upon, and a ' self-denying ordinance ' to 
 the effect proposed was ordered to be brought into the House. 
 Since the Presbyterians fully understood that this measure 
 was intended to place the army under the sole control of the 
 Independents, they were not inclined to relax in their opposition. 
 But they had now been three years at the head of affairs and 
 not yet brought the war to an end. Public opinion was strong 
 against them and turned the waverers, so that the ordinance was 
 carried by a small majority of seven votes (19th Dec). 
 
 In the Upper House, the opposition was even stronger than in 
 the Commons. The peers of England had always held the 
 highest command in the state, and were now unwilling to make 
 way for the rise of their inferiors in rank, by yielding up honours 
 that they regarded as their hereditary right. They accordingly 
 rejected the ordinance, saying, that they did not know what 
 ■shape the army would take (15th Jan., 1645). The Independents 
 answered the objection by introducing into the Commons a 
 second ordinance for the re-modelling of the army. Ordinance 
 There was only to be one army, to consist of 21,000 Jj™*^ 
 men. Sir Thomas Fairfax was named commander-in- army, 
 chief ; Skippon, major-general ; and a blank was left for the 
 name of the new lieutenant-general. This ordinance also passed 
 the Commons, and was sent up to the Lords (28th Jan.). 
 
 Meanwhile, commissioners from king and Parliament met, as 
 agreed, at Uxbridge. The question of religion was first dis- 
 cussed. The Parliament demanded that Episcopacy should b3 
 abolished, the Presbyterian Church established, and the king 
 
 himself take the covenant. The king's commissioners TT , . , 
 
 Ux bridge 
 offered so far to reduce the power of bishops that, in negotia- 
 
 most points, they should be incapable of acting with- tlons - 
 
 out the consent of the ministers of their respective dioceses. 
 
176 TJXBKIDOE NEGOTIATIONS. [tab, 4th ie. 
 
 This concession might have been accepted at the beginning of 
 the war, before the hopes of the Presbyterians had soared so 
 hio-h. But the two nations were now bound together by their 
 solemn league and covenant, and nothing would satisfy Scotch 
 or English Presbyterians but the entire abolition of the order of 
 bishops. Next came the question of the militia. The king 
 offered to resign the command to Parliament for seven years, on 
 condition it should then revert to the crown. Two years ago, 
 this concession also might have given satisfaction, but the strength 
 of the Independent party was now far too great to allow of its 
 acceptance by the Commons. Thirdly it was required that the ces- 
 sation of arms, made by Charles with the Irish, should be declared 
 void, and, hardest of all, that all his friends, even his very nephews, 
 should be excepted from receiving the benefit of the royal preroga- 
 tive of pardon. It was through the Independents that the strin- 
 gency of the terms had been increased. The offer of peace was 
 genuine on the part of the Presbyterians, who were most anxious 
 that the king should accept terms before the army passed out of 
 their hands. It was certainly a time for Charles to consider the 
 question seriously. If he accepted, the Presbyterians would re- 
 store him — at least, in a manner — to his throne ; the army of the 
 Scots, the armies of Essex and Waller, united with the Cavaliers, 
 would present a force more than enough to meet any opposition 
 the Independents might offer. On the other hand, if he refused, 
 the Independents would gain the sole control of the forces of the 
 Parliament, and the result was sure to be some crushing defeat 
 to himself. 
 
 This was the sober truth ; but Charles' eyes were dazzled by a 
 far more brilliant prospect, as he sat over letters and despatches 
 in his rooms at Oxford. The queen, who had fled from Exeter to 
 Prance, when Essex marched into the west, constantly sent her 
 
 husband advice, much in the shape of command, bid- 
 Charles 
 
 opposed ding him be careful of making any peace that should 
 to peace. nQ ^ res t ore ^^ i n i s f ^ rights, and ensure her own 
 safety. Montrose, who had gained a third victory in Scotland, at 
 Inverlochy (2nd Feb.), wrote to implore him not to make himself 'a 
 king of straw,' promising, before the end of the next summer, to be 
 in England at the head of a gallant army. Charles, however, did 
 not need to be dissuaded from accepting the terms offered by the 
 Parliament, for he still believed in the final success of his arms.. 
 
1645.] SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE. 1W 
 
 He was soliciting both France and Denmark for assistance, and, 
 through, the queen, was carrying on a negotiation with the Duke 
 of Lorraine for the transportation of 10,000 soldiers into England. 
 He was writing to Ormond that if the Irish Catholics should 
 assist him, and he be restored to his throne by their means, he 
 would consent to repeal all the penal statutes made against them.* 
 He was trusting for success to the divisions of his enemies, and 
 believed that, if he failed in the field, he could still play off one 
 against the other, and that either section must be glad to bid 
 high for his support against the other. Buoyed up by such 
 hopes, Charles wrote to the queen, that he would never quit 
 Episcopacy, nor the sword which God had put into his hands, 
 and that she need not doubt the issue of the negotiations, for 
 there was " no probability of a peace." He forbade the commis- 
 sioners to make any further concessions, and the negotiations at 
 Oxbridge were accordingly broken off (21st Feb.). 
 
 The king's rejection of the propositions was a terrible blow to 
 the Presbyterians. The Lords, of whom only five or six had any 
 sympathy with the Independents, had now to pass the Lords 
 ordinance for the re-modelling of the army (15th Feb.), self-denying 
 
 , i ic i • t t • • ordinance. 
 
 and a second self-denying ordinance, depriving mem- 
 bers of any office conferred on them since the election of the Par- 
 liament (3rd April). Any further opposition on their part would 
 onJy have accelerated the speed of the revolution, by causing the 
 Commons to declare their ordinance good at law without the con- 
 sent of the House of Lords. For, in times of revolution, when the 
 real powers in the State are the sword and the people, an upper 
 chamber is useless and weak. The Commons, now acting as the 
 executive, commanded the sword, the people supported the Com- 
 mons, and the Lords were powerless to guide or stay the march 
 of events. 
 
 The self-denying ordinance, which now passed the Upper House,, 
 differed in an important point from the one before rejected. By 
 this, members were not precluded from taking office on any fu- 
 ture occasion. Its only effect was, in fact, to make, as it were, a 
 fresh start. The existing Presbyterian generals were practically 
 cashiered, but new nominees could be generals as well as mem- 
 bers. But the Presbyterians, though foiled in these matters 
 through their political half-heartedness, could still console them- 
 
 * Ludlow, iii. 232, Letter to Ormond. 
 
173 EXECUTION OF LAUD. [war, 4th yk. 
 
 selves with their ecclesiastical supremacy. In that sphere they 
 never pretended to be tolerant. Their victim now was Laud. He 
 had been impeached of high treason at the same time as Strafford, 
 "but the charge in his case was not pressed to an issue, and Pym 
 and his party had contented themselves with leaving him to die a 
 natural death in the Tower. Now, however, through 
 iJentof " the bigotry of Scotch and English Presbyterians, these 
 Laud. proceedings were revived against the old man, already 
 
 a four years' prisoner. His innovations in religion, the cruel 
 sentences of the Star Chamber, and his interference with the 
 judges, were charged against him, as an endeavour to subvert 
 the laws and overthrow the Protestant religion. The judges, 
 on being asked their opinion by the Lords, replied that the 
 charges did not fall within the legal definition of high treason. 
 The Lords would doubtless have followed the opinions of the 
 judges. The Presbyterians, however, being determined on his 
 Laud con- death, voted him guilty by an ordinance of Parliament, 
 OTdurulc^'of w ^^ cn * ne House of Lords wanted spirit to reject. 
 Parliament. The verdict of the judges marked this as far more 
 unjustifiable than Strafford's case. The fact that the chief pro- 
 secutor was Prynne, whose body showed the marks of the cruel 
 judgments of the Star Chamber, roused, no doubt, a strong 
 feeling against the archbishop. But a Parliament cannot plead 
 the excuses of a mob, and cruelty did not constitute high trea- 
 son. The conviction shows how little the securities that fence 
 justice round are likely to be regarded when a popular assembly 
 usurps the functions of the judicature. It shows, also, the evil 
 of the precedent which was set when Strafford's conviction was 
 secured by a Bill of Attainder instead of the legal process of an 
 impeachment. The ordinance was simply a Bill of Attainder 
 without the king's consent. The Presbyterians desired the blood 
 of their former persecutor ; and the Independents, in return for 
 the passing of the self-denying ordinance, refrained from offering 
 opposition to the gratification of their rivals' vengeance. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 NASEBY. — END OF WAR (1645 — 1646). 
 
 .Fellows in arms, and my most loving; friends, 
 Bruised underneath the yoke of tyranny, 
 
 * * v * 
 
 In God's name cheer ly on, courageous friends, 
 To reap the harvest of perpetual peace 
 By this one bloody trial of sharp war.— Rich. III., v. 2, 1 — 16. 
 
 The army, re-modelled at Windsor, was reduced, according to the 
 ordinance, to a body of 21,000 men— 14,000 foot, 6000 horse, 1000 
 dragoons. Though a smaller, it was a far more formidable force 
 than it had ever been before, its ranks beiDg now almost entirely 
 composed of sectarians, and these either freeholders' sons or arti- 
 sans. A clause introduced into the self-denying ordinance al- 
 lowed religious men to serve without first taking the covenant, so 
 that the new army was in no way bound, to the Presbyterians. 
 
 These men had taken up arms, not to earn pay, but to win the 
 victory of liberty of conscience. They proved no ordi- Re-modelled 
 nary soldiers. A severe but popular discipline banished arm y- 
 profane language and drunkenness from their camp. They would 
 pass hours with their officers reading and expounding the Bible, 
 and were able and ready to win converts for their doctrine by 
 argument. A Presbyterian, appointed chaplain to one of these 
 regiments, found his life a ' daily misery,' from abhorrence of the 
 new views of these zealots. One soldier would argue against set 
 forms of prayer ; another against the baptism of infants ; a third 
 would maintain the thesis that there was no need of ordained 
 ministers at all, since any man might be moved by the Spirit of 
 God to preach and pray — a doctrine as horrible to the Presbyte- 
 rian as making priests of the lowest of the people to the Levite ; 
 while all alike would contend for liberty of conscience, including 
 the right of every sect to worship with its own forms, and pro- 
 mulgate its own doctrines, 
 
 12—2 
 
180 FAIKFAX' REMODELLED ARMY, [wab, 4th yb. 
 
 In Oxford the new army was rather despised than feared. The 
 Cavaliers scoffed at "Noll Cromwell" going forth "in the might 
 of his spirit, with his swords and his Bibles, and all the train of 
 his disciples, every one of whom is as David, a man of war and a 
 prophet." Yet such confidence was singularly ill founded. It was 
 Cromwell's men who had overthrown the Cavaliers on Marston 
 Moor, and now a whole army was coming against them, fired 
 by the same fierce enthusiasm as the Ironsides. Fanatical as 
 these might be in their zeal, their courage was undoubtedly steeled 
 by the conviction that, like the Israelites of old, they were fight- 
 ing in God's cause, and that in such a cause victory must come, 
 and death was better than delaying it.* 
 
 Obedience— the first step to victory — was rigidly enforced. 
 Soon after the army left Windsor, a council of war was held upon 
 several soldiers for disobeying regulations, and the body of one 
 was left hanging upon a tree, as a warning to his comrades. The 
 following day a proclamation was made that it was ' death for any 
 to plunder.' The man whom Charles described as the " rebels' 
 new brutish general," was Fairfax. He had been the chief 
 framer of the new model army. He was no self-seeker, but a 
 simple and straightforward patriot. Too refined to be a fanatic, 
 he was deeply religious. His family had fought for the Protestant 
 cause in the Low Countries, and he had himself seen service there as 
 a lad. Fearless as a lion, fire and daring were his chief charac- 
 teristics at first, but he soon showed power as an organizer, and 
 was as vigilant as he was collected in the field. His wife was a 
 general's daughter, and cheered his soldiers by her presence in 
 the camp. Though of delicate health, he was as ready to face 
 discomfort and hardships as peril. Once, when his own regiment 
 grumbled at being ordered to bring up the rear instead of 
 leading the column, he dismounted from his horse, and himself 
 marched on foot that whole day at its head. Lessons like these 
 have not to be read twice. By the self-denying ordinance Crom- 
 
 * The spirit of the Ironsides is not wholly extinct. In 1856 the question 
 ■whether Kansas was to be a free or slave state gave rise to a border waiv 
 John Brown, a descendant of one of the English pilgrims who sailed to 
 America in the " Mayflower" in 1620, formed a camp of God-fearing Puritans, 
 who were " earnestness incarnate." Sis of them were bis own sons. Twenty- 
 eight of these defeated fifty-six pro-slave borderers, and once 2000 Missou- 
 rians retreated before 250 of his men. John Brown was taken and hanged 
 in 1859, but his story became the marching-song in the great war of aboli- 
 tion (1861—1865). 
 
1645.] RUPERT STORMS LEICESTER. 181 
 
 well had been displaced. But Cromwell's name had become a 
 
 talisman of victory, and instructions were soon sent him by the 
 
 committee of the two nations to take command of a body of 
 
 horse in the west (23rd April). Fairfax and his officers not long 
 
 afterwards petitioned the Lower House for Crom- Cromwell 
 
 well's appointment as lieutenant-general of the horse glnerafot^" 
 
 (6th June) ; and though the appointment was nomi- new army. 
 
 nally temporary, it was always renewed, and his position, both 
 
 as officer and member, soon became unassailable. 
 
 On the other hand some of the best of the king's officers had 
 
 been killed, others displaced to make way for worse men than 
 
 themselves. Goring and Grenville, two unprincipled adventurers. 
 
 commanded in the west, and were ruining the king's cause by 
 
 their conduct towards one another and the people. 
 
 tt i i /-h i • i t V* • Royalist 
 
 Hyde and Colepepper were sent with the Prince decline in 
 
 of Wales, now a boy of fourteen, to bring them to west " 
 obedience ; but the prince's presence only added new fuel to 
 the fire, and between the jealousy of the generals, the insubordi- 
 nation of the officers, and the marauding habits of the soldiers, 
 the king's interest declined rapidly in those parts. 
 
 Early in May the king himself left Oxford for the north, and 
 joined Rupert near Chester, intending to take the enemy in de- 
 tail, and attack the Scots before he met the re-modelled army 
 of Fairfax. This plan was changed on the news that the re- 
 modelled army was itself investing Oxford. He now determined 
 to march east towards the associated counties, expecting that 
 Fairfax would draw off his forces from Oxford for their 
 protection. The line of march led the army by Leicester, which 
 was held for the Parliament. Bupert erected a battery, and 
 sent a summons to the garrison to surrender. Not receiving 
 an answer at once, he opened fire. For some, hours "both 
 sides plied each other with cannon and musket-shot as fast 
 as they could charge and discharge, and so continued all 
 day" till midnight, when a great breach was made, and on 
 the morning of the fourth day a general assault was storming of 
 ordered on six or seven different points, and, after a Leicester - 
 terrible struggle, the Cavaliers forced their way into the town, 
 falling three to one, according to their own calculation. The gar- 
 rison, about 1000 in number, threw down their arms and became 
 prisoners of war ; but the townspeople suffered dreadfully, the 
 Royalists at their first entrance putting many to the sword, and 
 
282 FAIKFAX ATTACKS NASEBY. [war, 4th tr. 
 
 plundering churches, hospitals, Royalists and Roundheads indis- 
 criminately.* Charles was so much elated by this success that, 9 
 ievr days after the storming of Leicester, he wrote to the queen : 
 "I may, without being too much sanguine, affirm that since the 
 rebellion my affairs were never in so fair and hopeful a way." 
 
 Rupert was still in favour of one of the bolder courses, of 
 marching either east against the associated counties, or northwards 
 on the Scots ; but Charles was persuaded to turn south and relieve 
 Oxford, which he believed was still closely invested. He was 
 grievously misinformed. On hearing of the fate of Leicester, 
 Fairfax had raised the siege, and was now marching north to offer 
 the king battle. On reaching Kislingbury, within five miles of 
 the Royalist quarters, which were on Borough Hill, outside 
 Daventry (12th June), he learnt from some stragglers that the 
 enemy were in complete ignorance of his movements, the king- 
 out hunting, the soldiers in no order, the horses at grass. Yet all 
 that night the careful general rode round his outposts in the rain, 
 half expecting the Royalists would attempt a surprise on hearing 
 of his presence. But at three in the morning he saw a blaze on 
 Borough Hill ; the Royalists had fired the huts they had made 
 of the furze then covering the hill, and could be seen riding- 
 fast away to the north. The unexpected arrival of the enemy 
 had, in fact, determined Charles to return to Leicester, and 
 there recruit his army before risking a battle. Fairfax was 
 holding a council of war at six in the morning, when Cromwell, 
 just made lieutenant-general of the horse, came in from the 
 associated counties, bringing with him a troop of six hundred 
 horse and dragoons. The soldiers greeted Cromwell's arrival with 
 huzzas ; the generals soon settled their plans ; the king was pur- 
 sued ; and that same evening (13th June) a body of horse under 
 Ireton beat up the Royalist rear at Naseby, taking several pri- 
 soners. The fugitives carried the news that night to the main 
 body, who had advanced some seven miles to Harborough. The 
 Charles king himself was lodged at Lubenham Hall, a mile or 
 council of * w0 wes t °^ Harborough, to which town he rode at once> 
 war - and summoned a council of war, 'resting in a chair in a 
 
 low room,' till his officers were roused from their beds, and col- 
 lected from their various quarters. Of the council, some proposed 
 
 * Sprigge (but see p. 392) ; King's Tracts, 213. 
 
1645.] NASEBY FIELD. 183 
 
 to wait for reinforcements expected from the west, but the majo- 
 rity agreed with Rupert that the insult was too much to be en- 
 dured ; that, as the Roundheads pleased to follow, they would 
 turn and fight, not doubting they would defeat the psalm-singing 
 saints, who had cast off their natural leaders. 
 
 Between Sibbertoft and Naseby the country rises and falls in a 
 succession of rounded undulating hills. Both villages stand high; 
 the lowest depression between the two is a piece of marshy 
 land, now called Broad Moor. From Broad Moor the ground 
 rises rapidly at first to the south ; it is then broken by smaller 
 hollows, and then continues to rise more gradually to the village 
 of Naseby. This country, now covered with trees, hedges, corn- 
 fields, and meadows, on that morning of the 14th of June lay 
 still in nature's keeping, for the most part an open pasture- 
 ground, scattered over with furze-bushes. Patches of corn-land 
 were discernible here and there, but the ground was mainly un- 
 enclosed, as in fact it remained till within the last half-century. 
 
 Fairfax, who early in the morning saw large bodies of horse 
 moving on a hill a little south of Harborough, drew up his army 
 on the brow of Mill Hill, which immediately slopes down into 
 Broad Moor. Cromwell and the Ironsides occupied the ground 
 on the right, flanked by Naseby rabbit-warren. Fairfax himself 
 commanded the main body. The left wing, led by Ireton, was 
 composed of horse, with some dragoons on foot, who were set to 
 line the one hedge on the field which then, as now, marked the 
 boundary line of the parishes of Naseby and Sulby. The baggage 
 was left behind at Naseby, nearly two miles in the rear. The 
 word for the day was passed along the ranks as "God is our 
 strength." 
 
 About ten o'clock the Royalists were seen advancing over the 
 Sibbertoft Hills in order of battle. The two armies Battle of 
 were both between 10,000 and 11,000 strong, there not f 4 a t h5une 
 being "five hundred odds in number." The king's force 1645. 
 consisted of about 5520 horse and 5300 foot. The Parliamenta- 
 rians were stronger in infantry than in horse. Fairfax, wishing 
 to conceal from the advancing enemy the exact form of his battle, 
 ordered his soldiers to fall back a hundred paces in a hollow be- 
 hind the brow of Mill Hill. Rupert, who, as usual, commanded 
 the Royalist right wing, gathered from this movement that the 
 enemy was in full retreat, and' thought the day already his OAvn. 
 
• LEICESTER 
 
1645.] BATTLE OF NASEBY. 185 
 
 It was the work of a moment to send word back and bid Charles 
 come on with all speed, and then he and his Cavaliers, shouting 
 their word, " Queen Mary!" dashed down Dust Hill, over Broad 
 Moor, and up Mill Hill. The dragoons who lined Sulby hedges 
 on his right fired hotly on him as be passed, but he charge of 
 charged till he drove into Ireton's horse, sent them fly- & u pert. 
 ing before him, and in headlong course galloped away hard up to 
 Naseby hamlet. There he spied the baggage-train, and made for 
 it ; the commander, hardly thinking the Cavaliers could be there 
 already, seeing, as he thought, his own general officer approach- 
 ing, asked, hat in hand, " How goes the day ?" " Will you have 
 quarter V was Eupert's curt rejoinder, for it was he. The com- 
 mander declined, and Rupert, still nothing doubting his friends 
 were as successful as himself, wasted much precious time in an 
 attack on the baggage, which the guard successfully repelled. 
 
 The other divisions of the king's army hurried on after the 
 right wing, in slight disorder and too quickly to bring up all their 
 artillery with them. Their left wing was ordered to charge up 
 the hill against Cromwell, who commanded the Parliament's right 
 wing. But before they had time to charge home, the Ironsides 
 came on over rabbit-burrows and furze-bushes, swinging ironsides 
 down upon Broad Moor with all the impetus of the Royalist 
 hill, broke the Royalist horse, and sent them flying fast left - 
 and far behind their foot. Leaving some horse to prevent their 
 rallying again, Cromwell turned round with the remaining 
 troops to assist his friends. The infantry in the Parliament's 
 centre was in difficulties ; on the first charge of the king's foot all, 
 except Fairfax' own regiment, "gave back in disorder," but their 
 officers snatched the colours, and, with the help of the reserve, 
 soon rallied and brought them on again. Fairfax, with animation 
 in voice and eye, looking even taller than his wont, rode about in 
 the thick of the danger, cheering on his troops. His helmet was 
 beaten off by a sword, and the colonel of his guards, seeing him 
 riding bareheaded amid showering bullets, begged him to take his 
 own in its place. " ; Tis well enough," shortly replied the general. 
 Skippon behaved as bravely ; though dangerously shot in the side, 
 he refused to leave the field — " As long as one man will stand, I 
 will not stir." It was at this critical moment, when the Royalist 
 left wing was broken, Rupert and the right wing nowhere to be 
 seen, that Cromwell's horse rode up and charged the king's main 
 
186 BATTLE OF JSA.SEBY. [wae, 4th ye. 
 
 body in flank. This decided the day. The Eoyalist lines turned 
 and fled. One regiment of Bluecoats, indeed, rivalled the gallantry 
 of Newcastle's Whiteeoats on Marston Moor in resisting the efforts 
 of the enemy to break them. Leavirig their greater number 
 lying wounded or dead upon the ground, they too at last were scat- 
 tered before the combined charge of Cromwell and Fairfax. The 
 Eoyalist reserves of horse and foot now alone remained undis- 
 ordered. Rupert, as usual, brought back some of his Cavaliers to 
 the field in time to see the battle lost. His return awoke a gleam 
 of hope in Charles' breast, who, placing himself at the head of his 
 horse-guards, prepared for a last desperate charge upon the Iron- 
 sides. " Face about once!" he cried, "give one charge more, and 
 recover the day !" But a Scotchman, the Earl of Carnwath, seized 
 his bridle and turned his horse's head, swearing and saying, "Will 
 you go upon your death ?" Some one at the same moment cried 
 out, " March to the right I" an order which caused the whole 
 troop to turn their backs on the enemy, thinking they were in- 
 tended to shift for themselves. In an instant all were in full 
 flight, and had ridden a quarter of a mile before they could be 
 rallied again. And then, indeed, the day was lost, for the Eoyalist 
 foot were flying, hopelessly broken by the final charge of Crom- 
 well and Fairfax. " They ran away," says a Parliamentarian, 
 "both fronts and reserves, without standing one stroke more." 
 Off went the beaten Cavaliers after the foot, leaving for the enemy 
 King's let- their cannon, carriages, arms, jewels, clothes, and a 
 ters taken. ca bi ne t of letters belonging to the king, " supposed to 
 be of great consequence." The battle had lasted only three hours 
 wdien the day was won. The chase was carried for twenty miles, 
 through Harborough, to within sight of Leicester ; 5000 prisoners 
 were taken ; 2000 Eoyalists said to be left dead on the ground.* 
 The victory was complete, but it was not the Eoyalists only 
 who were depressed by it. The Presbyterians felt their sun had 
 set to the Independents, and became more desirous than ever to 
 conclude a peace with the king. This was the king's chance, but 
 the cabinet of letters foiled it. The Independents agreed tho 
 Presbyterians should have their way if this prize proved the 
 king was not the deceiver they had painted him. A trial of the 
 
 * Rusliworth ; Whitelock ; Clar.Hist. v., 175 ; Sprigge, Anglia Kediviva ; 
 King's Tracts, 212 ; Markkam, Life of Lord Fairfax ; Carljle, Letters aud 
 Speeches of Cromwell. 
 
1645.] KING'S CABINET OPENED. UT 
 
 king's capacity for keeping treaties was then held before a crowd 
 of citizens at Guildhall. The letters were read, and amongst 
 other passages the following, addressed to the queen : — " I give- 
 thee power to promise in my name, to whom thou thinkest most 
 fit, that I will take away all the Penal Laws against Eoman Ca- 
 tholics in England, as soon as God shall make me able to do it ; 
 so as by their means I have so powerful assistance as may deserve 
 so great a favour, and enable me to do it" (5th March, 1645). — 
 " I must again tell thee that most assuredly France will be the 
 best way for transporting the Duke of Lorraine's army, there 
 being divers fit and safe places of landing for them upon the 
 western coasts" (Oxford, 30th March, 1645). These letters were 
 then published by order of Parliament, who were bound to make 
 known to the nation the dangers that menaced it. A cry of in- 
 dignation rose on all sides against the king. Men said there 
 could be no doubt of his bad faith. Though he had so often 
 declared his intention of maintaining the Protestant religion, 
 he was allowing his wife to make promises to the Catholics in his 
 name ; and then, while his commissioners were negotiating peace 
 at Uxbridge, he had been intriguing to bring over foreign soldiers 
 into England. The questions of peace, war, and religion were all 
 to be settled by the Catholic queen ; she was to have the disposal 
 of the destinies of England, and the concessions at Uxbridge had 
 been only a blind — no peace was ever intended. To offer the' 
 repeal of the law as a price for the aid of the English Papists 
 was either a mockery, or a proof of the intention to rule without 
 Parliaments. 
 
 The war now entered on its last stage. Charles' army was. 
 gone ; all that was left were small forces, scattered Last stage 
 about in the west, or engaged in garrison duty. The of war - 
 Scots, who had been besieging the towns near the Border, now 
 marched right down through the country and laid siege to Here- 
 ford, while Fairfax and Cromwell marched west, driving before 
 them Goring and Grenville's beggarly troops, with their knavish 
 leaders — as Clarendon himself described them — and forcing the 
 garrison of one town to surrender after another. The king, 
 meanwhile, with a body of 1000 horse, was in Wales and the 
 western counties, flitting about from place to place in a purpose- 
 less way, and sometimes hardly knowing where to betake himself 
 for safety. " Whatever you do," writes Colepepper, still with the 
 
188 KEBTTCTION OF WEST. [wae, 4th te. 
 
 Prince of Wales, to Lord Digby, "take care of the king's person. 
 I assure you these skipping jaunts make my heart ache." 
 
 Though the war had now reached its lowest ebb, the country 
 .suffered more than ever. The adherents of the Parliament, whose 
 estates lay in districts hitherto Royalist, now came down upon 
 their tenants for rents already paid to the king's friends. 
 Excisemen, sent by the Parliament into the country, compelled 
 the people to pay taxes for sheep, money, or provisions of which 
 they had been robbed by the plundering Royalists. In some 
 cases so much suffering ensued, that the very soldiers said " they 
 would starve before they would be employed in forcing the tax, 
 or take any of it for their pay." In the north the Scots lived at 
 free quarters, and their conduct made the people look on them 
 as freebooters rather than as friends. In the west the king's sol- 
 diers became mere marauders ; men were captured with as much 
 as £20 in their pockets ; while their leaders cast innocent men 
 into prison, merely to exact a ransom. 
 
 When Fairfax and Cromwell marched into the west, they found 
 
 €lubmen in ^at m these counties the country-people had begun to 
 
 west - assemble in bodies, sometimes 5000 strong, to resist 
 
 their oppressors, whether they fought in the name of King or 
 
 Parliament. They were called clubmen from their arms, and 
 
 carried banners, with the motto — 
 
 " If you offer to plunder our cattle, 
 Be assured we will give you battle.' 
 
 The clubmen, however, could not hope to control the movements 
 of the disciplined troops who now appeared against them. After 
 a few fruitless attempts at resistance they dispersed, leaving the 
 new army to do their work more effectually by completely sup- 
 pressing the Royalists. 
 
 Charles himself, in the midst of his wanderings and reverses, 
 was too proud to think of leaving England or deserting his throne, 
 or even as yet of humbling himself to purchase peace from Pres- 
 byterians or Independents. But his friends began to despair. 
 Rupert himself wrote to counsel peace, and soon after- 
 surrenders wards surrendered Bristol, the most important town in 
 Bristol. t k e wes k The defences had been stormed and par- 
 tially carried by Cromwell and Fairfax ; and though Rupert was 
 severely criticized by men who believed the town might still have 
 held out, there seems no just ground for attributing the capture 
 
1645.] DEFEAT OF MONTKOSE. 189 
 
 to any pusillanimity in the prince. Charles, however, who had 
 understood from Rupert that, if no mutiny happened in the gar« 
 rison, he would keep the place for four months, felt deeply 
 wounded at this apparent desertion of his cause. He sent the 
 prince an indignant letter, with a pass to take him beyond seas. 
 The surrender of Bristol was soon followed by a second blow. 
 Montrose had come down from the Highlands for another sum- 
 mer's raid, in which he gained three victories over the Covenanters 
 (Aulderne, 4th May; Alford, 2nd July ; Kilsyth, 15th August); 
 gentlemen of the Lowlands had been induced by his success to de- 
 clare for the king ; Edinburgh had opened its gates : and the army 
 of the Covenanters in England had been obliged to raise the siege 
 of Hereford, and march back northwards to meet this new enemy. 
 Charles, on hearing of the surrender of Bristol, started to join Mon- 
 trose, now, as he believed, about to fulfil his promises, and enter 
 England at the head of a Royalist army. But at Chester his own 
 troops were defeated and dispersed by Poyntz, a commander of 
 the Parliament, and, after he had escaped himself to Wales, he 
 heard the disastrous news that the army he sought to Montrose 
 "join no longer existed. Montrose, surprised by Leslie defeated at 
 
 Philiphauo-h 
 
 at Philiphaugh, on the border, not far north of Car- (13th Sept., 
 lisle, had been entirely routed, and had again become 1645 ^ 
 a fugitive in the Highlands. The king with difficulty now made 
 his way first to Newark, and afterwards to Oxford, where he was 
 thankful to find himself once again in safety for a time (6th Nov.). 
 But it was evident that Oxford would not be safe for long. Pair- 
 fax was completing his victorious career in the west ; that over, 
 the siege of Oxford would follow at once, and then it would not 
 be long before the king was a prisoner of war. Overtures of peace 
 were the only hope, and Charles sent one message upon the heels 
 of another, offering to come to London and treat in person with 
 the Parliament (Dec. and Jan., 1645-6). But his messages met 
 with no friendly reception at Westminster. The Presbyterians,. 
 no doubt, would before have been glad to treat, preferring 
 even the Royalists to the Independents ; but they p res i 3y t e . 
 had now lost alike the power and the will to treat, "an decline. 
 Two causes had weakened their power. During the i. New 
 autumn months 130 new members were elected to fill eleotlons ' 
 the vacancies five years had caused by death, desertion, or expul- 
 sion. Though Presbyterians were returned in larger numbers. 
 
ig DECLINE OF PRESBYTERIANS. [war, 5th ye. 
 
 yet through want of experience, or want of ability, they did not 
 carry half so much weight with them as the new Independent 
 members, many of whom had already won distinction in politics 
 or in war. Such were Hutchinson, Ludlow, Blake the admiral of 
 the future, Fleetwood, Ireton who soon afterwards became 
 Cromwell's son-in-law,* and Algernon Sidney son of the Earl of 
 Leicester. The officers who got their seats by these new elections 
 did not come under the provisions of the self-denying ordinance, 
 so that, while the Presbyterians had lost their commissions, the 
 newer party won their seats and kept their commissions as well. 
 
 The second cause that weakened the influence of the Presbyte- 
 ir. Conduct rians was the oppressive conduct of their friends the 
 of Scots. Scots while quartered in the northern counties. But, 
 supposing the Presbyterian party had had the power to make 
 peace of themselves, at this time they had no longer the will. 
 This was in consequence of a new disclosure. A year before this 
 Charles had authorized Ormond to make promises to the Irish 
 Catholics in his name.f The Catholics, however, were wary, and 
 refused to hear of a peace, or of rendering the king any assistance, 
 without first obtaining his consent to the establishment of their 
 own religion in Ireland. If Charles granted these conditions, he 
 knew the affection of his own party in England would be cooled, 
 while the hate of the Puritans would be increased ten-thousand- 
 fold against him. The problem that had been occupying his mind 
 for the last twelve months was how to obtain aid from the Irish, 
 and yet keep concealed from the English the terms on which it 
 was granted, until victory should enable him to set public opinion 
 at defiance. He had solved it by entrusting to Lord Herbert, 
 Earl of Glamorgan, the most loyal of Catholics, a secret warrant, 
 signed by his own hand, and sealed with his private seal, giving 
 him power to make terms with the Council of Kilkenny, without 
 III. Glamor- the piivity of the Earl of Ormond. Accordingly Gla- 
 treatywltii mor g an concluded a secret treaty, in which it was 
 Irish. agreed that, all penal laws being repealed, the Eoman 
 
 Catholics were to be allowed the public exercise of their religion, 
 and to hold the revenues of all churches of which they had gained 
 possession since the war first broke out. As they held far more 
 than half the churches, this amounted to the establishment of 
 their religion. They, on their side, were to send 20,000 men to 
 assist his Majesty in England (12th Aug., 1645). After the defeat 
 
 * Married Bridget Cromwell, 15th June, 1648. f See p. 176. 
 
1646.] TREATY OF GLAMORGAN. 191 
 
 at Naseby, Charles also wrote to the pope, engaging his royal word 
 to fulfil whatever conditions should be agreed upon by Glamorgan. 
 .'But this treaty came to light, like Charles' other secret plots. In 
 a skirmish fought in Ireland, duplicates of the whole transaction 
 were taken in the carriage of a Catholic archbishop, and sent to 
 London to the committee of the two nations (Oct., 1645). After 
 having reserved this secret for three months, the Independents 
 caused the papers to be read in Parliament and published, at the 
 very time when Charles was sending one message after another 
 for a treaty of peace (Jan.). The country was in a ferment of in- 
 dignation. The establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in 
 a Catholic country seems an innocent proposition, if not a just 
 concession. To understand the ferment it raised, it is necessary 
 to recall the circumstances of the time. The Thirty Years' 
 War was still in progress. The fire of the Reformation was 
 still burning in men's hearts. They had come out of a great 
 struggle, in which Europe had been*' split into two camps. 
 Protestant nations had preserved their religious independence 
 only by resisting the armed assaults of Catholicism. The gain 
 was worth the struggle, but there is no struggle without some 
 bitterness remaining, and the Catholics were the victims of this 
 bitterness. The hate felt by Protestants towards Catholics was, 
 in fact, one of the characteristics of the age. The Protestants re- 
 garded the Catholic religion as at once idolatrous and subversive 
 of all good government. The gorgeous and imposing ceremonies, 
 standing in such striking contrast to the simplicity of Puritan 
 worship ; the blind obedience to the pope ; the doctrine that the 
 end justifies the means, illustrated as this had been by the mas- 
 sacre of St. Bartholomew, the Gunpowder Plot, and the late 
 butchery in Ireland — all this had raised up in the nation's mind 
 such a wall of prejudice that the Catholics, regarded as a class, 
 were shut out of all sympathy whatsoever. For a people with 
 these feelings to see, as it seemed, the fruits of the victory over 
 Spain bartered away by the king in return for the loan of savage 
 and Popish troops, to be used against the liberty of Protestant 
 subjects, was more than could be borne. The Royalist Hyde, 
 in the history he wrote of the rebellion, omitted all mention of 
 this business with Glamorgan, which he could not palliate. In 
 his private correspondence he calls it "inexcusable to justice, 
 piety, and prudence." 
 
192 TEEATY OF GLAMOKGAtf. [war, 5th yb. 
 
 While Charles' friends were disgusted with the ti'eaty, his enemiea 
 looked upon it as another proof of the unfathomable deceitf ulness 
 of his nature : for, " while he was protesting before God to the 
 Parliament, sa)ing, i I will never abrogate the laws against the 
 Papists/ he was underhand dealing with the Irish rebels, and 
 indignation P rom i sm g to repeal the laws against them ; and while 
 felt in the he said, ' I abhor to think of bringing foreign soldiers 
 into the kingdom/ he was soliciting the Duke of Lor- 
 raine, the French, the Danes, the very Irish, for assistaDce." The 
 newspapers had their scathing criticisms. " We are experienced," 
 wrote a weekly Intelligencer, " that kings often deal like water- 
 men : look one way and row another. What else mean those 
 overtures of a treaty with us, when those bloodthirsty rebels are 
 proffered the enjoyment of Popery ! Now judge whether the 
 king hath any real intention of peace, when he labours to bring 
 over 10,000 of the Irish rebels to cut our throats here, as they 
 have done to divers of our brethren there !" Meantime, to save 
 the king's character, the Earl of Ormond put Glamorgan at once 
 into prison, as though he had acted without authority. Charles 
 again offered to come to London for a personal treaty, declaring 
 to the Parliament that, until Glamorgan's arrest, he had never 
 heard of the negotiations (January 29th). His words, however, 
 found no credit at Westminster, and his warrant to Glamorgan 
 still remains to give the lie to his statement. Glamorgan, who 
 had been devoted enough not to reveal his secret instructions, 
 was released after a month's imprisonment (February 1st), and 
 continued the negotiation. The landing of a body of Irish 
 troops was, it seems, only prevented by the war coming to an end 
 before they were ready to sail. 
 
 Whether or no such a treaty would have been politic at any 
 time in the war, it was certainly impolitic now. The one chance 
 now was to divide the two parties ; the arrival of Irish soldiers 
 on such terms would have thrown Presbyterians and Indepen- 
 dents into one another's arms as brothers, while the troops 
 themselves would have been taken at sea, or crushed on landiug, 
 where there would have been no force to join them. 
 
 By the end of March, the royal forces, scattered over the west, 
 were all defeated and dispersed, or forced to take refuge in 
 garrison towns. Hyde and the Prince of Wales were driven 
 down to the very extremity of Cornwall, and had to sail from the 
 
1646.] CHARLES' FLIGHT TO SCOTS. 193 
 
 coast (March 1st). Sir Jacob Astley, an old gray-headed Cavalier, 
 was the last to resist in the open field. " Now, gentlemen," he 
 said, to the officers of the Parliament, on surrendering, " yon have 
 done your work, and may go play, unless you choose to fall out 
 amongst yourselves " (March 22nd). 
 
 It was on the belief that his enemies would still fall out among 
 themselves, that Charles uoav grounded his hopes of restoration to 
 his throne. At the same time that he was courting the Presby- 
 terians, and proposing to come to London and treat with them in 
 person, he was making secret offers to the Independents to root 
 out the Presbyterians, offering them freedom of conscience, if they 
 would ensure the same to the Eoyalists. " I am not without hope," 
 he wrote about this time, " that I shall be able to draw either 
 the Presbyterians or Independents to side with me for extirpat- 
 ing the other — that I shall be really king again.''' But the dis- 
 trust he had engendered was too deep : his advances were not 
 met, and he soon found that, unless he made haste to get out of 
 Oxford before it was invested, he should fall into his enemies' 
 hands, without having bound them to any conditions at all. 
 
 Af ter much consultation, it was agreed that his best plan would 
 be to seek a refuge in the Scottish army. M. de Montreuil, the 
 French ambassador, had been authorized by Cardinal Mazarin, 
 the chief minister of Louis XIV., to negotiate an agreement be- 
 tween Charles and the Scots, and engage the faith of France for 
 the performance of whatever promises either side should make. 
 Though Charles refused to agree to take the covenant, Montreuil 
 at first obtained some civil speeches from the Scots' commis- 
 sioners in London, to the effect that if the king came to them, 
 they would receive him as their natural king, offer no violence to 
 his person or conscience, and endeavour to procure a happy and 
 well-grounded peace. But the London commissioners soon drew 
 back, thinking they had gone too far ; while the commissioners 
 at the Scottish camp refused to make any such agreement, only 
 promising to receive the king, and demanding that he should 
 give them satisfaction in the question of religion, by which they 
 meant, take the covenant, as soon as possible. Upon this poor 
 security, Charles, accompanied by two companions, left Charles with 
 Oxford in the guise of a servant (27th April), and after Scots - 
 nine days' wanderings, arrived in safety at Kelham, near Newark, 
 the head-quarters of the Scots. Montreuil brought him some 
 
 13 
 
19 4 ANGER OF INDEPENDENTS. f war, 5th tr, 
 
 verbal promise of safety and introduced him into the camp 
 (5th May). The chief officers affected extreme surprise at his ap- 
 pearance, but at the same time great gratitude for the trust he 
 had placed in them. " I shall be well satisfied," replied the king, 
 " if you perform the conditions upon which I have come to you." 
 But they corrected him when he used the word " conditions," 
 saying, 'they had never been privy to anything of that nature; 
 and if the king had made any treaty, it must be with the Scottish 
 commissioners in London, which was no concern of theirs.' 
 Charles' spirits fell, and he already wished himself out of their 
 power. 
 
 When the news reached London, the Independents w r ere 
 furious. They thought the king would never have taken the step 
 without having made up his mind to consent to the covenant, es- 
 tablish the Presbyterian Church, and in return be allowed to rule 
 subject to Presbyterian guidance ; while they, the true conquer- 
 ors, would be persecuted by Presbyterians and Royalists, their 
 noble army be disbanded, their noble cause — freedom of con- 
 science — be stifled at its birth. To stave off such an end as 
 this, they might, no doubt, have used their army, and appealed 
 to force. But the Independents still aimed at a victory within 
 the lines of the constitution. Parliament, and not the army, was 
 the supreme authority ; it was in the sacred name of Parliament 
 that they had won their victories, and they still wished to lead 
 the Parliament, and not to fight it. Although, therefore, inclined 
 in the first flush of anger to have followed the Scots and taken 
 possession of the king's person by force, they contented themselves 
 with doing all in their power to produce a rupture between the 
 two nations, in order that the Commons might vote war, and 
 they, in obedience to the supreme authority of the nation, might 
 lead the Ironsides to fight the hated allies. In the newspapers, 
 in' pamphlets, in Parliament, at all times, in all places, the Inde- 
 pendents attacked the Scots as traitors, the cruel oppressors of the 
 northern counties, w 7 ho designed to betray and ruin England. 
 The national hatred was readily excited, and, after many debates, 
 the Commons voted that the Scotch army was no longer re- 
 quired, that it should be asked what was owing to it, and be 
 requested to withdraw (11th June). 
 
 But the Scots, who had already retreated in fear as far as 
 Newcastle, were willing to bear any amount of reproach rather 
 
1646.] NEWCASTLE PEC-POSITIONS. 195 
 
 than draw clown upon themselves the Independent army. On 
 their side, the English Presbyterians, still the majority in the 
 Commons, were far more anxious to disband the dangerous sec- 
 tarian army, than to batten it on the blood of their own northern 
 allies. The Independents could not bring about a war, when so 
 many were determined not to quarrel. Charles outwardly did 
 what he could to effect an agreement. He sent messages to the 
 two Houses, urging them to draw up peace propositions ; ordered 
 the commanders of all towns and castles still held for him to 
 surrender (10th June); bade Montrose, who was then a wan- 
 derer in the Highlands, to lay down his arms ; and made a 
 parade of sending orders to Ormond to make no peace with the 
 Irish rebels — orders which Ormond had secret instructions to dis- 
 obey (11th June). 
 
 Charles' outward submission aided the efforts of the Presby 
 terians, and he finally received peace propositions from Newcastle 
 Parliament (23rd July). By these, he was required propositions. 
 to take the covenant, to establish the Presbyterian Church, to 
 surrender to Parliament, for twenty years, the command of the 
 army, navy, and militia ; to consent that seventy-seven of his 
 friends should be excluded from amnesty, and that all his party 
 should be shut out from public employment' during the pleasure 
 of Parliament. Anxiously was Charles' answer looked for on 
 both sides. If he consented, the Independents would either be 
 obliged to submit to Presbyterian tyranny, or begin a second 
 civil war against Scots, English Presbyterians, and Royalists 
 united. If he refused, the Presbyterians were checkmated ; they 
 could make no concession on the Church question ; on the 
 militia question they could not get easier terms for him against 
 the opposition of the Independents, and dared not offer easier 
 terms if they got them, because they had no confidence in his' 
 word. The possible prospect of his refusal revealed darkly 
 looming before them a thousand difficulties in retaining their own 
 supremacy over the sectarians. " The great God," was their 
 prayer, " soften that man's heart, or else he will fall in tragic 
 miseries, and bring ruin upon himself and us together." 
 
 The king endured a bitter trial for the next six months. He 
 would have made some concessions about the militia, had not his 
 wife forbidden him ; but he could not bring himself to establish 
 a new Presbyterian Church in England. Some trace his reluc- 
 
 13—2 
 
198 CHARLES REJECTS PROPOSITIONS. [war, 5th tr. 
 
 tance on this point to a belief that the support of the Church 
 was even more essential to monarchical power than the com- 
 mand of the militia ; but this view seems to do injustice both to 
 his sense and his sincerity. He had too much ability to believe 
 the pen of the bishop could guard his throne as well as the sword 
 of the army. The ' command of the militia ' had been the stake 
 of the war, and there was now not a militia, but an army, to 
 command. Secondly, a careful study of his letters induces the 
 belief that his religious convictions were deeper and stronger 
 than his political views. His political views may have been 
 taught to him by his father and his ministers ; his religious 
 views were taught by his father, his ministers, and his heart. 
 Yet it was on this very point that his friends, both at home 
 and abroad, most urgently pressed him to yield. They thought 
 that if this concession by itself did not win over the Parliament, 
 it would certainly win over, the Scots. To keep the militia, to 
 yield the Church, was the command, rather than the advice, of 
 his wife. " By granting the militia," she wrote, " you cut your 
 own throat, for then there is nothing you can refuse, no not my 
 life even, if they ask it ; but I will take care not to fall into 
 their hands/"* Her letters were always written in the same 
 heartless tone. She was far less tender of her husband's happiness, 
 conscience, or life, than she was of his power. If he regained his 
 old authority, she was ready to return and share it with him ; 
 if he lost it, she would sooner he stayed a prisoner in England 
 than trouble her with the presence of a crownless fugitive. 
 Charles, however, wrote doleful letters, pointing out that if he 
 did not quit the kingdom now, he might lose his last chance of 
 escape. These she only answered by forbidding him to think of 
 escape, until the Scots should have declared in plain language 
 they would not protect him. Poor Charles ! there were two acts 
 for which lie felt real regret, and to both of which he had been 
 urged by his queen ; the first was, in his own words, " that base, 
 unworthy concession about Strafford f the second, " that great 
 wrong and injustice to the Church, of taking away bishops' votes 
 in Parliament." Though he sacrificed his personal safety to her 
 wishes, he refused to load his conscience a third time for her 
 
 * " Vous vous etes coupe la gorge; car vous ne leur pouvez rien refuser, 
 pas meme ma vie, s'ils vous la demandent. Mais je ne me inettrai pas entre 
 leurs mains." 
 
164G.J HIS SCRUPLES. 197 
 
 satisfaction. He did, indeed, endeavour to meet her wishes by a 
 compromise. He proposed to her that he should let the Presby- 
 terian Church remain as the established Church of England for 
 three years, on condition that the question should then be re- 
 ferred to Parliament for an ultimate decision after previous dis- 
 cussion by an Assembly of Divines. This compromise was 
 approved by Juxon, to whom Charles submitted it as at once 
 the keeper of his conscience and the maintainer of the Church. 
 But the queen treated the compromise with scorn ; she taunted 
 him with the folly of having a conscience which would give up a 
 point for three years, when nothing was to be got by it, and yet 
 scrupled to give up the point for life to save his kingdom. " Per- 
 mettez moi de vous dire, que je crois, si je me pouvais dispenser 
 <Tune chose que je croyais contre ma conscience pour trois ans et 
 pour rien, j'irais plus loin pour sauver mon royaume. Mais pour 
 toutes autres choses n'accordez plus rien." Thus brow-beaten 
 out of all concession on the militia question, and heartlessly 
 ridiculed out of his attempt to meet his wife's wishes on the 
 Church question, Charles in despair returned to his original 
 intention, and sent messages to Parliament, making no conces- 
 sions, but only proposing to come to London and treat in person 
 (Aug., Dec). 
 
 Though the Presbyterians were disappointed with his answer, 
 which, was tantamount to a refusal, they still believed that, once 
 in their hands, they could wring the concessions from him, and 
 then disband the Independent army. After some haggling, the 
 Scots secured a written promise for £400,000, as the charge to 
 which they had been put by the war. A treaty was signed ac- 
 cordingly (Dec). Though no mention was made of the king, it 
 was fully understood that the Scots were to deliver him up, when 
 their army evacuated Newcastle. As Charles had come to his 
 enemies' camp, uninvited, after refusing the covenant, scots sur- 
 the only terms on which they offered to protect him, they render kill £- 
 were not bound to let him go, still less to fight for him ; though 
 they would have done even that, if he would now have agreed to 
 their offer. It was understood that if he was given up, the Eng- 
 lish Presbyterians would restore him to the throne, on their own 
 terms, and disband the ' evil army ' * of the Independents. It 
 would have been perfectly justifiable in the Scots to give him up 
 * Baillie. 
 
193 SCOTS SURRENDER CHARLES. [was, 5th te. 
 
 on these terms. Not content with this they made a canny bar- 
 gain. No doubt, had they given him up without a money treaty, 
 they would never have been paid their arrears, and this was 
 much to poor men. As it was, they got their money, but more 
 than their money's worth of abuse. They earned the abuse by 
 making the terms of surrender mercenary, and not political. 
 The distinction may seem fine, and the judgment hard. But 
 there are cases where a high sense of honour can alone save 
 men from deep dishonour. They were now called 'the traitor 
 Scots/ ' the Jews who sold their king,' and as they marched 
 out of Newcastle, which was always Eoyalist in feeling, the 
 very women were all but stoning them (30th Jan.). Mean- 
 time, the Presbyterian commissioners escorted the king from 
 Newcastle to the residence assigned him at Holmby House in 
 Northamptonshire. On the road crowds flocked to see him. The 
 country people everywhere hoped that their troubles were over, 
 that an agreement would be made on which, the army would be 
 disbanded, and the king return to London with honour and 
 safety.* Near Nottingham Charles met Sir Thomas Fairfax, 
 who dismounted to kiss his hand, and afterwards rode through 
 the town by his side. At Holmby he received a hearty welcome 
 from a large concourse of gentlemen, ladies, and yeomen (Feb. 
 13th). Well content with his reception, his spirits rose, and he 
 made no doubt he should yet get either Presbyterians or Inde- 
 pendents to unite with him, " to extirpate the other and make 
 him really a king again !" 
 
 * Ludlow, i. 162. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PRESBYTERIANS,, INDEPENDENTS, ERASTIANS, AND THEIR 
 THEORIES. 
 
 O wad some pow'r the giftie gie us 
 To see oursei's as others see us ! 
 It wad frae monie a blunder free us 
 
 An' foolish notion ; 
 What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us, 
 
 An' e'en devotion. — Burns. 
 
 For the last three years the Assembly of Divines had been 
 sitting almost daily in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster 
 Abbey. The assembly consisted of a hundred and twenty 
 ministers, all Presbyterians but ten or twelve Inde- p res byte- 
 pendents ; twenty members of the Commons and ten rians - 
 peers ; besides four ministers and three laymen from Scotland. 
 They were preparing a new Prayer-book, a form of Church Go- 
 vernment, a Confession of Faith, and a Catechism ; but the real 
 questions at issue were the establishment of the Presbyterian 
 Church and the toleration of sectarians. 
 
 The Presbyterians, as we know, desired to establish their own 
 form of Church government by assemblies and synods, without 
 any toleration for nonconformists, whether Catholics, Episcopa- 
 lians, or sectarians. But though they formed a large majority 
 in the assembly, there was a well-organized opposition of Inde- 
 pendents and Erastians, whose union made it no easy matter for 
 the Presbyterians to cany every vote their own way. 
 
 The Independents agreed with the Presbyterians in freeing the 
 Church from the control of the State, but the essential require- 
 ments of their theory of Church government were — 1st, the inde- 
 pendence of each separate congregation, including the Church 
 election of its own ministers ; 2nd, that penalties for Jin^epen- 1 
 spiritual offences should be spiritual and not temporal ; dents, 
 inflicted, not by the civil magistrate, nor by assemblies, but by the 
 congregation. Their theory on this second point was expressed 
 
200 
 
 ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES. [parties. 
 
 by Milton in a pamphlet in which he wrote, " It is not to be ex- 
 pected all in a church to be gold and silver and precious stones ; 
 it is not possible for man to sever the wheat from the tares, the 
 o-ood fish from the other fry ; that must be the angels' ministry, 
 at the end of mortal things. Yet, if all cannot be of one mind, 
 as who looks they should be ? this, doubtless, is more wholesome, 
 more prudent, and more Christian, that many be tolerated rather 
 than all compelled." This noble theory of toleration naturally, 
 but illogically, they confined to all sects who taught the funda- 
 mental doctrines of Christianity. 
 
 The name of the Erastian party was derived from a German of 
 the sixteenth century, called Erastus. These were at the opposite 
 pole to their allies. The Independents made each congregation 
 independent of both Church and State ; the Presbyterians made 
 the congregation dependent on an independent Church ; while 
 the Erastians made the Church itself dependent on the State. 
 Their wish being to reduce the power of the Church, they were 
 as strongly opposed as the Independents to the strong Church, 
 government of the Presbyterians, and were quite willing to 
 agree with them in making the congregation independent of any 
 Erastians. such central authority as the Scotch assembly. They 
 also agreed with the Independents in their objection to civil 
 penalties for spiritual offences. In fact they went further, and 
 objected to spiritual offences being punished by the spiritual 
 weapon of excommunication. Their party mainly consisted of 
 lay members from the Parliament, who had the intuitive dislike 
 of lawyers to courts administered by ecclesiastics. Episcopacy 
 many of them would have been willing to restore, if shorn of 
 the moral and social jurisdiction it enforced under civil penalties. 
 The English Church, as administered at the present day, would 
 have nearly come up to their ideal. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church could be seen in full work in Scot- 
 land. There toleration was unknown. Those who conformed 
 held their goods and chattels at the mercy of ministers and elders 
 sitting in kirk session ; while those who did not conform were 
 imprisoned till they did ; neighbours and servants acted as in- 
 formers, and the edifice was crowned by a great Church Assembly, 
 in power more than a match for the Scotch Parliament. Bad 
 as it is to have Church, and State acting in antagonism to one 
 another, in Scotland the establishment of the Presbyterian 
 
1643—9.] PRESBYTERIAN- INTOLERANCE. 201 
 
 system kept political liberty alive among the people. The 
 Scotch Parliament was corrupt, and did not represent the 
 country. The Church assemblies, on the contrary, Avere really 
 popular in constitution ; conscious that their power was based on 
 the affections of the people, the ministers and elders who sat in 
 them dared to uphold the cause of liberty, when their Parlia- 
 ment was suffering itself to be made a tool in the hands of the 
 •executive. Thus, however contentious they showed themselves, 
 however unreasonable the claims they put forward, the assem- 
 blies none the less played the same part as the English House of 
 Commons in preventing the establishment of an arbitrary mo- 
 narchy. Further, the excessive influence which the Presbyterian 
 Church exercised in Scotland was itself due to the fact that a 
 very large proportion of the nation was Presbyterian, so that 
 even where tyranny was exercised the sufferers as a rule them- 
 selves approved of the discipline. In England neither of these 
 conditions existed ; the Parliament was far better fitted than 
 an assembly of churchmen to defend the nation's liberties, while 
 the Presbyterians themselves were in a minority. It was im- 
 possible, however, that in the warmth of their zeal the Presby- 
 terian party should be brought to lecognize the force of the dif- 
 ferent conditions prevailing in the two countries. In fact, the 
 arguments used in the assembly did not regard these points. 
 The question was debated from the theological point of view, 
 whether the Presbyterian Church had been originally established 
 by the will of God. When the Presbyterians were opposed by 
 Erastians and Independents, the ignorance which accompanied 
 their dogmatism was often exposed. When they quoted a tell- 
 ing text, Selden, the Erastian lawyer, would say, " Perhaps in 
 your little pocket Bibles with gilt leaves" (which they would often 
 pull out and read) " the translation may be thus or thus, but in 
 the Greek or Hebrew it signifies the other." His opponents had 
 to bow to his superior knowledge. Thus the Opposition 
 went on for months, battling every point ; and " besides all this/' 
 says a Presbyterian, plaintively, " we have to answer the pam- 
 phlets of our many opponents, often very plausibly written, de- 
 manding liberty for all religions." The Commons, moreover, in 
 summoning the divines, meant to hear their advice, not to abide 
 by their votes. As soon as a debate ended in the assembly it 
 began again in the House. There the Presbyterians found it 
 
2C2 ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES. [pasties, 
 
 more difficult to command a majority, for the ranks of their 
 opponents were swelled by a new contingent, the " worldly pro- 
 fane men," who, though impartial as Gallio as to creeds, evinced 
 a desperate antagonism to any ' kirk-sessional' discipline. 
 
 At last, however, after the assembly had sat a year and a half, 
 the Parliament passed an ordinance for putting a directory, pre- 
 New Prayer- pared by the divines, into force, and taking away the 
 book. Common Prayer-book (3rd Jan., 1645). The sign of the 
 
 cross in baptism, the ring in marriage, the wearing of vestments, 
 the keeping of saints' days, were discontinued. The communion 
 table was ordered to be set in the body of the church, about 
 which the people were to stand or sit ; the passages of Scripture 
 to be read were left to the minister's choice ; no forms of prayer 
 were prescribed. The same year a new directory for ordination 
 of ministers was passed into an ordinance. The Presbyterian 
 assemblies, called presbyteries, were empowered to ordain, and 
 none were allowed to entei the ministry without first taking the 
 Ordinance covenant (8th Nov. , 1 645) . This was followed by a third 
 for esta- ordinance for establishing the Presbyterian system of 
 Prcsbyte- Church government in England by way of trial for 
 nan Church, three years. As originally introduced into the House, 
 this ordinance met with great opposition, because it gave power 
 to ministers of refusing the sacrament and turning men out of 
 the Church for scandalous offences. Now, in what, argued the 
 Erastians, did scandalous offences consist ? Were 10,000 little 
 courts of justice to be set up over the kingdom, searching into 
 men's lives, and punishing any fault they pleased to call a scan- 
 dalous offence ? A modified ordinance accordingly was passed ; 
 scandalous offences, for which ministers might refuse the sacra- 
 ment and excommunicate, were specified ; assemblies were de- 
 clared subject to Parliament, and leave w^as granted to those who 
 thought themselves unjustly sentenced, to appeal right up from 
 one Church assembly after another to the civil power — the Par- 
 liament (16th March, 1646). 
 
 Presbyterians, both in England and Scotland, felt deeply 
 mortified. After all these years' contending, then, just when they 
 thought they were entering on the fruits of their labours, to 
 see the Church still left under the power of the State — the dis- 
 appointment was intense to a degree we cannot estimate. They 
 looked on the Independents as the enemies of God ; this { lamo 
 Erastian Presbytery ' as hardly worth the having. 
 
1643—9.] PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ESTABLISHED. 203 
 
 Through Presbyterian influence, a severe ordinance passed the 
 Parliament for the suppression of blasphemies and here- 
 sies (2nd May, 1648). Those who denied the doctrines for the sup- 
 of the Trinity, the Atonement, or the inspiration of Ephemtes 
 the Scriptures, were to be punished with death as an d 
 felons. Anabaptists and those who denied the lawful- 
 ness of the Presbyterian government to be imprisoned until they 
 should recant. But, happily, these terrible persecutors failed in 
 power. It seemed, indeed, as if all their force was spent in the 
 process of getting their ordinances through Parliament. Thus, to 
 the very last, their Church government was only set up in Lon- 
 don and Lancashire, while their ordinance to suppress heresies en- 
 tirely failed in its object. To get the ordinance passed the assembly 
 had sent petition after petition to the Commons, showing the daily 
 growth of heresies and schisms ; the city of London had com- 
 plained that private meetings multiplied, that eleven were held 
 in one parish alone, that women and ignorant persons preached.* 
 But, after all, the passing of the ordinance did not abate the evih 
 The Presbyterian party in Parliament dared not attempt strong 
 measures for the suppression of sectarians, while the fatal Inde- 
 pendent army remained undisband°d, while the king obstinately 
 rejected the terms offered him, and the Eoyalists stood by 
 mocking and exulting over the feuds and heart-burnings of their 
 opponents. Milton with bold bitterness appealed to Parliament 
 against these new forcers of conscience : 
 
 *' Men whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent, 
 Would Lave been held in high esteem with Paul, 
 
 Must now be named and printed Heretics, 
 
 By shallow Edwards and Scotch what-d'ye-call ; 
 
 But we do hope to find out all your tricks, 
 
 Your plots and packing, worse than those of Trent, 
 That so the Parliament 
 May with their wholesome and preventive shears 
 Clip your phylacteries, though balk your ears 3 f 
 
 And succour our just fears, 
 When they shall read this clearly in your charge 
 New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ large." 
 
 Colonel Hutchinson, governor of Nottingham Castle, and 
 Cromwell's friend, was not a man who could be imprisoned 
 because he refused to have his child baptized, nor yet one likely 
 to fail in protecting poorer brethren of his own persuasion. Per- 
 secution to any extent was only possible against Catholics ?nd 
 * Weekly Account, Jan., 1646. f I.e., leave untouched. 
 
204 SECTARIANS. [parties 
 
 Episcopalians, who were regarded as Eoyalists by Independents 
 and Presbyterians alike. An ordinance was passed, forbidding 
 the Prayer-book to be publicly or privately read, on payment of a 
 fine of £5 for the first offence, £10 for the second, a year's impri- 
 sonment for the third. Catholic priests taken in the country were 
 remorselessly imprisoned, banished, or executed. Meanwhile new 
 sects sprung up on all sides, and obtained safe shelter under the 
 shadow of the army and its leaders. Any man, however ignorant 
 and untaught, might obtain his little band of followers, for the 
 people's minds were restless and willing to give ear to every new 
 doctrine. A book written at this time asserted that there were 
 176 heresies which found believers in the nation. Amongst 
 many other sects, appeared the Brownists, who would have had 
 the laws of England modelled upon those of the Old Testament, 
 and even blasphemers and Sabbath-breakers punished by the 
 Leading magistrates with death ; the Anabaptists, who re- 
 sects, jected the baptism of infants, and went about re- 
 baptizing their converts in the rivers by a hundred at a 
 time : the Quakers, who lived lives of extreme austerity, re- 
 fusing to take oaths, declaring all war sinful, and teaching that the 
 light within man is his sufficient rule of conduct:* and lastly the 
 Fifth Monarchists, who held that the world's history was com- 
 prised under four monarchies, — the Assyrian, the Persian, the 
 Greek, and the Roman ; that the Pom an was soon, like its pre- 
 decessors, to pass away, and the Fifth Monarchy — the reign of 
 Christ upon earth — to begin. In every country town and village, 
 an Anabaptist, or some other sectarian, would appear, and it was 
 well for the Presbyterian minister, if, by holding a public dispu- 
 tation in his church,+ he could convince his parishioners of the 
 stranger's error, and drive schism from their doors. J 
 
 The mental excitement, the questioning, revolving, doubting, 
 was not confined to one side or to one question. Not only did 
 sectarians increase in numbers, but also men of new iDolitical 
 ideas, demanding reforms in the law, the Church, the constitu- 
 tion of the State ; some called for a reform of the law, observing 
 
 * Baxter's Life ; Real ; Baillie. f Baxter's Life, 30, 76. 
 
 J The Assembly of Divines practically came to an end in 1649, when it 
 was changed into a committee for examining candidates for the Presbyterian 
 ministry. It finally broke up without any formal dismissal on the dispersion 
 of the ltump Parliament in March, 1653. 
 
1643—9.] REPUBLICANS. 20S 
 
 that lawyers pocketed enormous fees, and that suitors were often 
 kept waiting years before they could get a cause decided in 
 Westminster Hall ; others, with feeling for poor debtors, shut 
 up for life within a prison's walls, demanded the abolition of im- 
 prisonment for debt; Eepublicans, disgusted with Charles' perfidy, 
 openly avowed their opinion, that a republic, in which a House 
 of Commons, or some other representative assembly, exercised 
 supreme authority by itself, was a far superior form of govern- 
 ment to a monarchy, and the only one under which liberty 
 could be secured ; whilst boldest of all, sectarian soldiers, who 
 had read in the Old Testament that blood defiles a land, and 
 that a land cannot be cleaused of the blood that is shed therein, 
 but by the blood of him that shed it, talked of the duty of bring- 
 ing the king to justice, as guilty of the blood of the thousands 
 who had lost their lives in the war. Amid the general confusion, 
 the Presbyterians made their voices heard plainly enough. 
 Though they could not produce a Milton to write, or a Cromwell 
 to act, they at least endeavoured to make up for quality by 
 quantity, and gave to the world thousands of pamphlets extolling 
 their own form of Church government. Yet all their efforts to 
 keep down their opponents were unavailing. Sectarians, Eepub- 
 licans, law reformers, though they did not necessarily share one 
 another's special views, all agreed in opposing the Presbyterians, 
 whose ideas of reform were rapidly narrowing to the establish- 
 ment of their own Church in place of the Episcopal. The Pres- 
 byterians gazed in dismay upon the increasing numbers of their 
 enemies, the birth of the war they had themselves begun. Nor 
 was their fear groundless ; for, either on the side of Independents 
 or of Royalists, the greater part of the intellect of England was 
 engaged against them. 
 
 Ever since Pym's death, the young Sir Henry Vane had stood 
 at the head of civil leaders. This English stoic at the gj r Henry 
 age of twenty sacrificed his brilliant prospects at court ^ allc - 
 and emigrated to America for conscience' sake. Chosen governor 
 of the little colony of Massachusetts at twenty-three, after exciting- 
 enthusiastic admiration for a time, he soon displeased the 
 colonists by his advocacy of toleration. He thus returned to 
 England in time to take an active part in the discussions pre- 
 ceding the meeting of the Long Parliament, of which he was 
 elected a member. Though he was hated by the Presbyterians, 
 
206 
 
 SIR HENRY VANE. [tahties. 
 
 the troublous war times necessarily brought to the helm 
 of the State the men, whatever their opinions, whose judgment 
 and skill were greatest in directing immediate operations. 
 Vane's sagacity in practical matters even his enemies did not 
 dispute. Clarendon describes him as a man of extraordinary 
 parts, with a wonderful insight into character, and in fact as 
 " all in any business where others were joined with him." It 
 had chiefly been through his exertions that the Parliament se- 
 cured the aid of the Scots in 1643, at the critical juncture when 
 the triumph of the king's arms made many regard the cause of 
 the Parliament as lost. Milton recognized his greatness, and thus 
 at a later date described his administration in the perilous times 
 of the Dutch war : 
 
 " Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old, 
 
 Than whom a "better senator ne'er held 
 
 The helm of Rome, when gowns not arms repelled 
 
 The fierce Epirot and the African bold, 
 "Whether to settle peace, or to unfold 
 
 The drift of hollow States, hard to be spelled, 
 
 Then to advise how war may, best upheld, 
 
 Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold, 
 In all her equipage; besides to know 
 
 Both spiritual power and civil, what each means, 
 
 What severs each, thou hast learn'd, which few have done : 
 The bounds of either sword to thee we owe : 
 
 Therefore, on thy firm hand Religion leans 
 
 In peace, and reckons thee her eldest son." 
 
 His abstract theories of government, however, for Church 
 and State, were generally ill understood, and laid him open 
 to much misrepresentation. Though called an Independent, 
 he in fact belonged to no particular sect, being, as some 
 said, ' above ordinances ;' for he held that there was no true 
 church established by Divine Eight — neither Episcopalian, Pres- 
 byterian, nor Independent ; but that they, whatever their creed, 
 who acted in the spirit of Christ, best deserved to be called mem- 
 bers of the true Church of Christ. Thus he lost caste with each sect 
 by his enthusiastic advocacy of toleration of all ; he braved the 
 denunciations of Baxter in supporting Catholics, and stood by 
 the Unitarian on trial ; and, while himself spending much of 
 most days in prayer, he claimed to be at one with Paul in ac- 
 counting the Sabbath as now a mere " magisterial institution." 
 With an infinite belief in the perfectibility of human nature he 
 
1643—9.] JOHN MILTON. 207 
 
 aimed at attaining this object, not through weakening the will 
 by repression, but through strengthening it by freedom. 
 In the government of the State, as in that of the Church, he de- 
 sired that, as far as possible, men should be left free to think and 
 act for themselves. While at one with his age in earnestness, his 
 ideas were tinged with mysticism, and his theories were too far in 
 advance of his age to be understood. By his friends he was re- 
 garded as an impracticable enthusiast ; by the Presbyterians 
 as a dreamer of dreams, a man of obscure doctrines ; by the 
 Royalists as a fanatic who was expecting the saints to govern the 
 earth, and himself to reign as their king. 
 
 Milton's name had already emerged among the Independents. 
 In 1644 he published a tract, maintaining that non- 
 suitability of temper between man and wife is a suffi- 
 cient ground for divorce ; a doctrine so objectionable to the Presby- 
 terians, that they caused the author to be called to account before 
 the House of Lords. But Milton's pen was soon engaged in a nobler 
 cause, the freedom of the press (1644). Since the Reformation, 
 the crown had assumed the power before exercised by the Church, 
 of maintaining a censorship over the publication of books ; and 
 authors, printers, and importers of prohibited works had 
 been prosecuted in the Star Chamber, and often barbarously 
 punished. The Presbyterians, copying the example of the 
 tyranny they had overthrown, framed an ordinance, forbidding 
 the publication of books, that had not been first perused and 
 licensed by officers appointed by Parliament (June, 1643). 
 The ordinance was evaded by all parties, but Milton wrote to 
 show the falseness of the principles on which it rested. Areopao .itica 
 He addressed his tract to the Lords and Commons, or liberty of 
 and told them that their ordinance could do no good, printing 
 because evil manners are learnt in a thousand other ( 1644 )- 
 ways than by books ; that if it answered its purpose it must do 
 harm, because it would stop the search for truth and expel as 
 much of virtue as of sin. " Truth, indeed," he wrote, " came 
 once into the world with her Divine Master, and was a perfect 
 shape, most glorious to look on ; but when He ascended, and His 
 apostles after Him were laid asleep, there straight arose a wicked 
 race of deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian 
 Typhon, with his conspirators took the virgin Truth, hewed her 
 lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the four 
 
208 LUDLOW— HUTCHINSON. [parties. 
 
 winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of truth, such 
 as durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis made for 
 the mangled body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up 
 limb by limb still as they could find them. We have not yet 
 found them all, Lords and Commons, nor ever shall do, till her 
 Master's second coming ; He shall bring together every joint and 
 member, and shall mould them into an immortal feature of love- 
 liness and perfection. Suffer not these licensing prohibitions to 
 stand at every place of opportunity forbidding and disturbing 
 them that continue seeking, that continue to do our obsequies to 
 the torn body of our martyred saint." " Opinion in good men/' 
 he said, " is but knowledge in the making." That the greater 
 part of the people should be taken up with the study of the 
 highest and most important matters ; that there should be a dis- 
 puting, reasoning, reading, inventing, discoursing, he told them, 
 betokened, not that the nation was degenerated or " drooping to a 
 fatal decay, but casting off the old and wrinkled skin of corrup- 
 tion, to outlive these pangs and wax young again, entering the 
 glorious ways of truth and prosperous virtue, destined to become 
 great and honourable in these later ages. Methinks I see in my 
 mind," he continued, " a noble and puissant nation rousing herself 
 like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks ; 
 methinks I see her as an eagle, muing* her mighty youth, and 
 kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam ; purging 
 and unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of 
 heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous and flock- 
 ing birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, 
 amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would 
 prognosticate a year of sects and schisms. "t The Parliament, 
 however, far from being influenced by Milton's noble appeal, 
 passed several further ordinances for restraining unlicensed print- 
 ingt (Ord. 1647—1649-1652). 
 
 On the military side there were Ludlow and Hutchinson, both 
 
 * The mew was the dark cage where falcons were mewed up while they 
 mewed or moulted their feathers. See Spenser's ' darksome mew' and Hast- 
 ings' exclamation on Clarence's imprisonment : 
 
 'More pity that the eagle should be meto'd', 
 While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.' — Richard III., i. 132. 
 + Areopagitica, or speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing. Pub- 
 lished 1641. 
 
 X The press was set free in 1695, when the Commons refused to renew the 
 Licensing Act passed soon after the Restoration (1662). 
 
1643—9.] IKETON— OLIVER CKOMWELL. 20<V 
 
 of them officers in the army and members of the Ludlow and 
 Commons, open-hearted men, who made no conceal- Hutchinson, 
 ment of their desire to effect a revolution in the government of 
 the State. Distrust of the king had gradually ripened into dis- 
 trust of monarchy, and a belief that England could never enjoy 
 true liberty or freedom of conscience under any but a republican 
 form of government. Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law, was abler 
 and more reserved than these brother-officers of his. Though 
 devoted to the cause of freedom, he had not, as they, attached 
 himself blindly to republicanism as the only security for Eng- 
 land's liberties. 
 
 It was Cromwell, however, whom all adherents of the party 
 that now found itself standing in such fierce opposition to 
 the Presbyterians, regarded as their chief ; whom the enthu- 
 siastic Vane, the cautious Ireton, the generous Hutchinson, the 
 sincere Ludlow, as well as the sectarian, whatever his denomi- 
 nation, Independent, Brownist,, or Anabaptist, all alike looked 
 upon as the one man able to understand their wants, and 
 to lead them to the accomplishment of their aims. For above 
 others he possessed a power of sympathy, talking to each in 
 the language of the hearer's heart, until one and all found 
 it impossible to doubt that his obv ; ous sympathy with their 
 feelings must spring from a sympathy with their views ; with 
 Ludlow and Hutchinson he would discuss republican govern- 
 ment ; with Vane he could look forward to the time when men, 
 instead of being governed by self-interest, should strive to act 
 as Christ would act did He reign upon earth ; with his soldiers 
 he could pray and humble himself before the Lord, feeling that 
 he and they were but as weak worms, and that it was God in His 
 mercy who bestowed victory upon His saints ; with the more 
 worldly-minded he could unbend and be a pleasant companion, 
 using the language of the ordinary English gentleman, while in 
 debate he could either attest his sincerity with the fervid words 
 and tears of a more demonstrative age, or rein in his feelings 
 and battle with the calm arguments of reason. Freedom with 
 the various forms of vigorous life that spring from freedom — this 
 was his ideal, and it was one that had room within itself for all 
 the others. A man whose nature is based on a principle so wide 
 and deep, when dealing with those whose aims converge in dif- 
 ferent lines on the same point as his own, is not to be considered. 
 
 14 
 
210 OLIVEE CEOMWELL. [parties. 
 
 false-hearted because his conversation seems to accord with his 
 companion's character ; it is rather that his mind is more capacious, 
 able to entertain more ideas and feelings than those of his fellows ; 
 he sees the many sides to a question, they but one. Sympathy 
 is in fact, the first quality of a leader. To move men he must 
 be moved by them ; thus alone will they follow while he leads. 
 It was thus through his being able to obtain the confidence of all 
 that Cromwell took his natural position as chief of a coalition, 
 united by common hatred of Presbyterian ascendancy, and in- 
 cluding fanatical Anabaptists and Fifth-Monarchists, aristocratical 
 Eepublicans and Independents, democratical law reformers and 
 Church reformers, with lawyers and Erastians who were Mo- 
 narchists at heart. 
 
 The features of this man who, having begun life as a farmer, 
 was rapidly rising to become the director of a great nation, rough 
 as they were to look upon, could not fail to bear upon them the 
 expression of his true worth. A big head, which was covered 
 w T ith light brown hair curling down upon his neck ; a forehead 
 broad and high ; shaggy eyebrows, with stern, deep-set eyes 
 looking out from beneath them ; a nose that stood well out 
 from the face, rather broad and red ; a chin and mouth ex- 
 pressive of firmness ; a skin tanned brown with exposure to 
 wind and weather ; a rough-looking face, with a big wart 
 over the right eyebrow ; the whole, bearing the expression of 
 dignity though not of grace, showing a man of strong feelings 
 with stronger self-control, of spirit stern and just. One of his 
 household, writing to a friend in America, thus describes him : 
 " His body was well compact and strong, his stature under six 
 foot about two inches ; his head so shaped, as you might see it 
 a store-house and shop both of a vast treasury of natural parts ; 
 his temper exceeding fiery (as I have known), but the flame 
 of it kept down for the most part, or soon allayed with those 
 moral endowments he had. He was naturally compassionate to- 
 wards objects in distress, even to an effeminate measure. Though 
 God had made him a heart wherein was little room for any fear, 
 but w T hat was due to Himself, of which there was a large pro- 
 portion, yet he did exceed in tenderness towards sufferers. A 
 larger soul, I think, hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than 
 his was."* 
 
 * Thurloe, i. 766. 
 
1643—9.] JEEEMY TAYLOE— CHILLINGWOETH. 211 
 
 The thorough Presbyterians boasted no great names, but there 
 were those among the king's friends who have won fame for 
 their theories on Church and State. The philosopher Hobbes 
 published the 'Leviathan' in 1651 : in this he proposed to give 
 the sovereign absolute power, both in Church and State, with the 
 right to make laws, impose taxes, and decide what creeds should 
 be tolerated in his kingdom, arguing that whatever dangers at- 
 tended this form of government were none of them so bad as 
 that anarchy which attends civil war. In short, Hobbes' ideal 
 was a wise and just despotism, a form of government almost im- 
 possible to get, and quite impossible to keep. 
 
 There were others among the Royalists who could plead for 
 religious toleration in words as noble as those of the Independents 
 themselves. Jeremy Taylor, an Episcopalian minister, driven 
 from his living during the war, but drawing a noble lesson from 
 his own and others' sufferings, was teaching in his ' Liberty of 
 Prophesying, (1647), that no matters of mere opinion, no 
 errors that are not sins, ought to be persecuted or punished. 
 Chillingworth, also, who fought in the royal armies, had written 
 before the war broke out a book called the " Eeligion of Protes- 
 tants," in which he maintains that th^ Bible is the sole religion 
 of Protestants, and each man's reason its interpreter. Protestants, 
 he says, are inexcusable, if they offer violence to other men's 
 consciences, and if faulty in the matter of claiming authority, 
 " it is for doing it too much and not too little. This presumptuous 
 imposing of the senses of men upon the words of God, the 
 special senses of men upon the general words of God, ai]d laying 
 them upon men's conscience together, under the equal penalty of 
 death and damnation .... this restraining of the word of God 
 from that latitude and generality, and the understandings of men 
 from that liberty wherein Christ and the apostles left them, is 
 and hath been the only fountain of all the schisms of the Church, 
 and that which makes them immortal. . . . Take away these 
 walls of separation, and all will quickly be one. Take away this 
 persecuting, burning, cursing, damning of men for not subscribing 
 the words of men as the words of God ; require of Christians 
 only to believe Christ and to call no man master but Him only ; 
 let those leave claiming infallibility that have no title to it, and 
 let them that in their words disclaim it, disclaim it also in their 
 actions." 
 
 14— 2 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 TRIUMPH OF THE ARMY OVER PARLIAMENT. 
 
 DEATH OF THE KING. 
 
 1647—1649. 
 
 Men must reap the things they sow; 
 Force from force must ever flow. 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 The ablest men that ever were, have had all an openness and frankness of 
 dealing, and a name of certainty and veracity. Dissimulation is but a faint 
 kind of policy or wisdom ; it commonly carries with it a show of fearfulness 
 which in any business doth spoil the feathers of sound flying up to the mark; 
 it depriveth a man of one of the most principal instruments for action, which 
 is trust and belief. — Bacon, Essay, vi. 
 
 The war was now at an end. Harlech Castle, in "Wales, the last 
 place to hold out for the king, surrendered in April (1647). A 
 committee of Parliament sat daily at Goldsmith's Hall, whither 
 came Royalists in numbers to compound for their estates ; com- 
 pounding being the resignation of a part to avert the confiscation 
 of the whole. Yet the Presbyterians could have little pleasure 
 in the submission of the Eoyalists ; what they yearned for was a 
 triumph over the Independents. In the Commons the Presby- 
 terian majority was but small ; and the hopes they had built 012 
 the king had fallen through. The Earl of Essex, their most 
 respected leader, had been some months in the grave (ob. 14th 
 Sept., 1646). The Scotch army had left the kingdom, and it was 
 hazardous for unarmed politicians to irritate an armed body of 
 some thirty thousand men. They had to rely on themselves, 
 and they had no genius for policy. The pay of the army was 
 ten months in arrear. The Presbyterians proposed to pay a 
 sixth of this sum and disband these dangerous allies. Their 
 Presbvte- P r0 P 0S ^l was carried by a bare majority of ten. Of 
 rians pass the few regiments who were excepted, some were to 
 banding " De despatched to Ireland, others employed upon gar- 
 army, rison duty at home (Feb. 19th). They then passed a 
 
1647.] VOTES AGAINST ARMY. 213 
 
 new self-denying ordinance to eliminate from the army the Inde- 
 pendent officers who were in the Commons, while they required 
 subscription of the covenant to eliminate those who were not (8th 
 March). A bare majority saved Fairfax from being cashiered (5th 
 March). In passing these votes, the Presbyterians had at once at- 
 tacked the soldier by an attempt to deprive him of his arrears ; 
 the officer, by threatening to remove him from command ; the sec- 
 tarian, by the imposition of the covenant, the first step to persecu- 
 tion. A petition was drawn up by officers and soldiers, to be pre- 
 sented to Fairfax, demanding that all arrears should be paid ; that 
 none should be required to go to Ireland against their will ; that 
 provision should be made for orphans and wounded ; that an Act 
 of Indemnity should be passed to protect the soldiers from being 
 called to account for any past acts — crimes, perhaps, in the eye 
 of the common law, but justified by the necessities of war. The 
 Presbyterians, still thinking themselves masters of the situation, 
 sent orders to Fairfax to suppress the petition, and published 
 a declaration, that whoever joined in it " was an enemy to the 
 State, and a disturber of the public peace" (20th March). 
 The army was in a ferment. " Have we," said the soldiers, 
 ■" who have been the instruments to recover the lost liberties of 
 the nation, fought ourselves into slavery \ Hard it is that we 
 should be denied the subject's liberty to petition."* Two 
 councils were formed, in communication with one 
 another ; the first of officers, the second of ' adjuta- tions Parlia- 
 tors ' or representatives of the regiments. The officers ment - 
 addressed to Parliament a vindication of their conduct, com- 
 plaining of the treatment they had received, and asserting 
 that, by being soldiers, they had not lost the subject's 
 capacity of petitioning (30th -April). No sooner had the Com- 
 mons heard this paper read, than Skippon produced a second, 
 given him by three troopers, which declared the service in 
 Ireland "a perfidious design to separate the soldiers from the 
 officers they loved, and to conceal the ambition of a few men, who 
 had long been servants, but having lately tasted of sovereign 
 power, were degenerating into tyrants." The Presbyterians fully 
 understood at whom these bold expressions were aimed. The 
 three troopers were called in and questioned. "Were your 
 
 * Eushwortb, Abr., vi. 99, 100. 
 
2ii 2IUTIXY OF AKMY. [long parl. 
 
 officers engaged in this letter, or not V " No ; it was drawn up 
 by the agents of eight regiments, aud few of the officers knew of 
 it." "Were you ever Cavaliers; for none but Cavaliers would 
 have been concerned in such a letter V " No ; we have been en- 
 gaged in the Parliament's cause ever since Edgehill fight, and 
 have been wounded in several battles." " What does that expres- 
 sion mean — ' certain men aiming at sovereignty ' V " The letter 
 being a joint act, we cannot answer ; but if you will put your 
 question in writing, we will bring \ou back the replies of the 
 regiments/"'* The Presbyterians were at first inclined to pass 
 some violent votes, but fear soon got the better of anger, and 
 they agreed to send down to head-quarters four of the Indepen- 
 dent officers, Cromwell, Ireton, Fleetwood, and Skippon, with in- 
 structions to pacify the soldiers before disbanding, inquire into 
 grievances, and promise redress (7 th May). They afterwards in- 
 creased their offer of pay by a miserable pittance (14th May), 
 drew up an ordinance for an amnesty (21st May), voted funds 
 for widows and orphans, and then, thinking they had granted 
 enough to carry their point, sent down Presbyterian commis- 
 Army refuses sioners to see the army disbanded (22nd May). The 
 to disband. soldiers, however, mutinied instead of disbanding, 
 seized money intended for their pay, expelled officers they mis- 
 trusted, and then demanded of Fairfax a general meeting of the 
 army. 
 
 A dangerous crisis had now arrived, when it was natural that 
 both army and Parliament should turn their thoughts upon the 
 king as a possible makeweight to one side or the other. At two 
 _ , o'clock in the morning of the 3rd of June, a body of horse 
 
 (Jtiirlcs oil*- 
 
 ried off from was discovered before the gates of Holmby Castle. 
 Hoimby. a y^ho commands V anxiously inquired the Presby- 
 terian commissioners, entrusted by Parliament with the care of 
 Charles. " All command," replied the strange troops ; " we come 
 from the army to secure the king's person, there being a plot to 
 steal him away and raise another army to suppress this, which is 
 under Sir Thomas Fairfax." No attempt was made at resistance, 
 for the soldiers of the garrison were at one with the troopers. 
 
 The following evening, about ten o'clock, Cornet Joyce, the 
 leader of the party, holding a cocked pistol in his hand, went to 
 
 * Rusk-worth, Abr.. vi 113. 
 
1647.J AEMY SEIZES CHARLES. 215 
 
 the door of the king's chamber. " I am sorry," he said, " to dis- 
 quiet the king, but cannot help it, for speak with him I will." 
 The gentlemen of the bedchamber, not liking the look of the 
 pistol, disputed his entrance, until Charles, awakened by the noise, 
 bade them let the intruder in. After a long conversation, the 
 king half promised to leave the castle in his company. " Come, 
 Mr. Joyce," he said, the next morning, standing on the castle 
 steps. " deal ingenuously with me, and tell me what commission 
 you have." " Here," said the cornet, pointing with his hand be- 
 hind him to his mounted soldiers drawn up in the court below. 
 " As fair a commission," replied the king, smiling, " as I ever saw 
 in my life ; such a company of proper handsome men as I have 
 not seen a great while." The king made a pretence of unwilling- 
 ness to blind the Presbyterian commissioners, but soon rode off 
 with his new escort to Cambridge, the merriest of the party.* It 
 was clear that the value of his support was rising ; he might yet 
 get his terms. Fairfax, who was perfectly sincere, wishing neither 
 to disband the army, nor to quarrel with the Parliament, was dis- 
 pleased when he heard the news.t " I don't like it," he said ; 
 " who gave the orders V But none of the officers owned to them. 
 Ireton said he had ordered that the king should be secured at 
 Holmby, but not that he should be carried away. Cromwell, 
 who was much suspected by his Presbyterian fellow-members, left 
 London quietly one day, and joined the army in the eastern 
 counties. The Presbyterians, thoroughly depressed at the loss 
 of their prize, now passed a Bill of Indemnity, voted that some 
 instalments of the arrears should be paid down on disband- 
 ing, and once again sent down commissioners to see the 
 army disbanded. At a rendezvous, held at Triploe Heath, 
 near Cambridge, the votes of the Parliament were Rendezvous 
 
 read to the assembled regiments. It was not likely at Triploe 
 
 " . , Heath, 
 
 they would disband now. The commissioners received 
 
 their answer in loud shouts of ' Justice, justice !' and that 
 
 same afternoon Cromwell and Fairfax set the army in motion 
 
 for London (10th June). Both Parliament and city had for some 
 
 time past been taking measures to oppose force by force. The 
 
 command of the city militia was taken from the Independents 
 
 and given to a committee of Presbyterians (4th May). Strong 
 
 * Herb. Mem. ; Kush. Abr., vi. 140, 144. 
 + Huntingdon in Maseres Tracts, 398. 
 
■216 COMMONS AGAINST ARMY. [long pael. 
 
 guards were set, the shops were shut, and Presbyterian officers of 
 Waller's and Essex' old armies crowded to serve in the train- 
 bands, which were largely recruited. But no one really believed 
 the city forces could stand an attack for a day. The army mean- 
 while was approaching, and sent in its demands. The House was 
 required to give a month's pay to the troops, without conditions, 
 to raise no new forces, and to suspend eleven of the leading Pres- 
 byterian members, against whom an impeachment of treason was 
 preferred, for having caused a misunderstanding between the Par- 
 liament and the army (16th, 17th June). The Commons granted 
 a month's pay, and reversed an ordinance passed for raising new 
 forces, but could not bring themselves to turn out their own mem- 
 bers. The army, however, still advanced. It was at Uxbridge 
 and Kingston-upon-Thames, within twenty miles of the city, 
 when the eleven members saved the pride of their friends by ask- 
 ing leave to absent themselves for six months from the House 
 (26th June). The army, so far satisfied, withdrew from the im- 
 mediate neighbourhood of the city. 
 
 At this time, ' settlement of the kingdom ' were the only words 
 in men's mouths, the only hope in their hearts. No one per- 
 eei\ ed more clearly than Cromwell how much a settlement was 
 needed, nor how difficult it would be to effect. Eoyalists, Be- 
 publicans, Presbyterians, sectarians, soldiers, reformers — what 
 possible form of government was to harmonize all these ? The 
 Eoyalists beaten, but numerous ; the Republicans speaking with 
 calm contempt of the rule of kings ; the Presbyterians regarding 
 the sectarians " as the most wicked men that breathed ;" the army 
 filled with fanatics and revolutionists, demanding reform in the 
 law, the Church, and society. On one point alone was Crom- 
 well's mind at this time fixed, that, as far as in his power lay, he 
 would prevent any settlement that did not provide for civil 
 liberty and freedom of conscience. And now the clouds seemed 
 to break, and the sun again to shine upon Charles ; for the officers 
 decided that the best way of making a settlement, satisfactory to 
 at least the larger part of the nation, would be by restoring the 
 king to some shadow of his former power. At Holmby under 
 the care of the Presbyterians, Charles, though always civilly 
 treated, had been deprived of the attendance of his chaplains, 
 forced to dismiss his favourite servants, and not allowed to see 
 his friends and children, or to correspond with his wife. But, 
 
1647.] ARMY PROPOSITIONS. 217 
 
 from the time of his arrival in the army's quarters, he met with 
 far more liberal treatment. Four chaplains were permitted to 
 attend him, and perform the old Church of England service ; the 
 officers were his frequent and respectful visitors ; and his friends 
 found ready access to his presence. At the request of Fairfax, 
 the Parliament allowed the Duke of York, the Lady Eliza- 
 beth, and the Duke of Gloucester to visit their father for two 
 days. The meeting took place at Maidenhead ; people strewed 
 flowers on the road, and the Kepublicans remembered afterwards 
 with horror that Cromwell, their hoped-for leader, came away 
 shedding tears, and saying that the interview between the king 
 and his children was one of the tenderest sights that ever his eyes 
 beheld. 
 
 The propositions now drawn up for the king's acceptance by 
 commissioners from the Parliament and the army demanded 
 that a period should be put to the present Parliament with- 
 in a year at most ; that new Parliaments should be elected 
 every two years, and should appoint standing committees 
 to continue during the intervals ; that the command of the 
 militia by sea and land should reside in Parliament for ten years, 
 and shoidd not even then return tc the crown, without the con- 
 sent of both Houses ; that Parliament and its committees should 
 dispose of all great offices of State, and that peace and war 
 should not be made without their consent. Thus far these 
 demands aimed at transferring the executive power from king to 
 Parliament in much the same way as previous propositions, with 
 the one exception of the dissolution of the existing assembly, a 
 measure specially dreaded by the Presbyterians, because they had 
 lost the confidence of the country. But the propositions on re- 
 ligion and reform, which now emanated from the Independents, 
 were conceived in a very different spirit from those which had 
 been proposed by the Presbyterians. Instead of requiring the 
 king to abolish Episcopacy, establish the Presbyterian Church, 
 and take the covenant, they asked that an Act of Parliament 
 should be passed, repealing all laws which inflicted civil penalties 
 for spiritual offences. There was to be no privilege for covenant 
 any more than for Prayer-book ; the sword of the persecutor was 
 to be changed into the harmless crook of the pastor. To the king's 
 friends they were as merciful as they were to his conscience : with 
 the exception of seven persons, Royalists were to be allowed to 
 
218 AEMY PEOPOSITIONS— KING'S CHANCE, [long paei* 
 
 compound for their estates at easier rates, and their incapacity for 
 office was to be limited to five years. " There must," said Ireton 
 " be some distinction made between the conquerors and the con- 
 quered." Lastly, there were additional reforms proposed, in 
 which the popular instinct of the army showed to advantage be- 
 side Presbyterians and Republicans, who cared more to gratify 
 their theories than to relieve the wants of the people. No man's 
 life was to be taken away by less than two witnesses. The course 
 of law was to be reformed, so that suits might be more certain in 
 their issues, and costs not so great. Poor debtors were not to be 
 kept in perpetual imprisonment. The excise was to be taken off 
 the necessaries of life. Lastly, there was to be a redistribution of 
 seats, giving more weight in the Commons to the chief centres of 
 population. 
 
 These propositions, with which Ireton was chiefly credited, were 
 by far the most liberal towards all parties that had yet been 
 brought forward. But we must not suppose that the officers in- 
 tended to trust themselves or their friends to the generosity of 
 Presbyterians and Royalists. Not a word was said about dis- 
 banding the army. Had these offers been accepted, Cromwell, as 
 privy councillor, member of Parliament, and general of a devoted 
 army, would have stood by the side of the throne, the controller 
 of the king's actions, and with a sword to repel attacks on religious 
 toleration or civil liberty. Such a position was not what Charles 
 held before the war ; but it was a tolerable position. The loss of 
 the power of the sword was a great loss ; but Charles had put 
 this question to the arbitrament of war, and had been beaten. 
 He could not hope to be trusted with the sword by either Pres- 
 byterians or Independents. But the Independents offered him 
 great advantages. His religious convictions would be resjjected, 
 and if he could not resuscitate the glories of the Laudian hier- 
 archy, he at least escaped the establishment of the Presbyterian 
 Church and the subscription of the covenant. The treatment 
 of himself and his friends was liberal. Further, the Independents 
 had the power to perform what they promised, which the Pres- 
 byterians had not. They had not only the army with them,, 
 but the country. Moreover, had Charles understood the country 
 which he ruled, he would have seen that two or three years of 
 real constitutional government, enforced or not, would have, 
 cleared off the remains of his unpopularity, so that when the inevi- 
 
1647.] PARLIAMENT MOBBED BY PRESBYTERIANS. 219 
 
 table reaction set in, the current would have carried him on the 
 flood of popular favour into much of his former dignity and 
 power. But this was not to be. Charles was, unfortunately, too 
 astute to be wise. While outwardly treating with the officers, he 
 was secretly dealing with their enemies, and as he wrote to his 
 friends, "he was engaged either to Presbyterians or Indepen- 
 dents, and whichever bid most for him should have him."* He 
 was, in fact, hoping for a new civil war, which might end in his 
 own restoration to absolute power. 
 
 The impeachment of the eleven members not only cowed 
 the Presbyterians, but put them in an actual minority. But 
 though they lost command of the House, the city was still at their 
 back, and when the Commons passed an ordinance, giving the 
 command of the train-bands to Independents, London rose in 
 tumult, and the citizens, flocking in crowds to Skinners' Hall, 
 put their hands to an engagement to 'endeavour the king's 
 return to his Parliament with safety, honour, and freedom.' 
 Parliament passed a vote that all who joined in the engage- 
 ment were traitors. On this, a mob of apprentices, watermen, 
 and officers invaded the House with petitions for the restoration 
 of the city militia to its Presbyterian officers, and for the return 
 of the eleven members to their seats. Though the terrified Parlia- 
 ment yielded to both these demands, their petitioners still barred 
 the doors. " What question," said Lenthall, the speaker, " do 
 you further desire to be put?" "That the king be invited to 
 come to London with safety, honour, and freedom," shouted the 
 rabble. " No !" cried the Eepublican Ludlow, at the top of his 
 voice. The question, however, being put to the vote, was carried, 
 in the midst of general noise and confusion, and Lenthall, at last 
 released from his chair and hustled downstairs by the mob, was 
 thankful to escape into the first coach he could find (26th July). 
 On hearing of this adverse vote, the indignation of both officers 
 and soldiers turned upon the king. They knew, or believed, that 
 he had been at the bottom of the rising. " Sire," said Ireton, " you 
 intend to be arbitrator between the Parliament and us, and we 
 intend to be so between your Majesty and the Parliament." 
 The Army Propositions were presented to him not- 
 withstanding. To these Charles' refusal was so defiant, army propo- 
 that it made his own friends stand aghast when they sltl011s * 
 * Clar. State Papers, ii. appendix. 
 
220 ARMY MARCHES ON LONDON. [long pabl. 
 
 heard it. First alluding to the exclusion of seven Eoyalists from 
 the amnesty, " I will have no man suffer for my sake," he said. " I 
 repent of nothing so much as that I passed the bill against the 
 Earl of Strafford." He then added, that he wished Episcopacy to 
 be established by law ; and repeated several times over, " You can- 
 not be without me ; you will fall to ruin if I do not sustain you." 
 Enraged with king and Presbyterians alike, the officers and soldiers 
 marched on the capital, to teach the citizens to recognize their 
 masters ; on the way, at Hounslow Heath, they met the speaker, 
 accompanied by a hundred members of the Lower House and 
 fourteen of the Upper, who in disgust at the violence offered them, 
 sought refuge with the army (30th July). Meanwhile in London 
 the shops were again shut, the drums beat, and new troops en- 
 listed in the train-bands. But the hearts of the citizens began 
 to fail them when they heard the army had already reached 
 Hounslow Heath, and was still continuing its advance, after re- 
 ceiving the fugitive members with shouts of joy (3rd Aug.). If a 
 scout reported a halt of the army, the word in London was, "One 
 and all ; live and die f if an advance, the cry was, " Treat, treat, 
 treat." The Borough of Southwark refused to fight, and the 
 Lord Mayor and City Council finally wrote to Fairfax that they 
 quite concurred with him in wishing to restore the fugitive 
 members. Thus the king's hopes were disappointed : all passed 
 over without a blow ; the eleven Presbyterian members fled a 
 second time ; the fugitive Kepublicans and Independents retook 
 their seats (6th Aug.), and the whole army marched in triumph 
 through London (8th Aug.). 
 
 Cromwell, however, was aware that at least two-thirds of the 
 nation still desired the king's restoration. He, therefore, con- 
 tinued to treat with Charles. It was doubtful, however, whether 
 it was any longer in his power to conclude a treaty, even if 
 Charles would have made the required concessions. The distrust 
 that had always prevailed of the king's good faith, had deepened 
 into an absolute certainty. Kepublicans and sectarians had from 
 the first disliked holding dealings with a man they regarded 
 as the " chief delinquent, guilty of all the blood shed in the 
 war," and now finding themselves absolute masters of city, 
 Parliament, and king, they were far from thinking of allow- 
 ing Charles any shadow of power. On seeing that Cromwell 
 continued to treat, they openly talked of the " baseness of those 
 
1647. 1 THE LEVELLEES. 221 
 
 who would for the sake of honours and office desert a Republicans . 
 noble cause, and a second time enslave the people." sectarians, 
 A report was soon credited in the army that Crom- refuse to ' 
 well had been promised the command-in-chief of fongeVwth 
 the king's armies with the title of Earl of Essex, king. 
 and Ireton the government of Ireland, as the price of betraying 
 their cause and their friends. The army had, in fact, been 
 leavened by a new class of reformers, who had won over to 
 their opinions a majority of both soldiers and officers. These 
 reformers were nicknamed Levellers, being rather pure Democrats 
 than Republicans. They disliked the House of Lords as much 
 as the king, and their aim was equality of ranks and abolition 
 of all class privileges before the law. Their leader, John Lil- 
 burne, who began life by defying the Court of Star Chamber,* 
 tried to stir the soldiers to mutiny against the generals. Crom- 
 well knew that divisions in the army would only pave the way 
 for the triumph of Presbyterians and Royalists. In that event 
 his cherished cause, ' Liberty of conscience/ would be lost. He 
 therefore determined on making his peace with his old friends, 
 and giving up the attempt to effect a settlement by restoring 
 Charles to the throne. In this he was perfectly justified, for 
 there was no doubt that the king was acting insincerely towards 
 the officers. " I shall play my game as well as I can," Charles 
 said, in one of his sanguine moments. " If your Majesty have 
 a game to play," replied Ireton, " you must give us also liberty 
 to play ours." All this time Charles was placing his faith in 
 the Scots, who, finding that the Independent army was not r 
 after all, disbanded, nor the king restored to his throne, began to 
 use menacing language, and to threaten an invasion of England. 
 So well was Cromwell aware of the whole thread of the king's 
 policy, that he told the royalist, Berkley, " he had in his own 
 possession letters which showed that the king had commanded 
 all his party to serve under the Parliament and the city, and 
 that he had at that instant, when he made greatest profession 
 to close with the army, a treaty with the Scots, which did very 
 much justify the general misfortune he lived under of having 
 the reputation of little faith in his dealings."t 
 
 Charles, who was residing at Hampton Court, found his posi- 
 tion altered ; his movements were more restrained ; his friends 
 * See p. 73. t Ashburnharn's Narrative, 94. 
 
222 FLIGHT OF CHAELES. [loxg pabl. 
 
 were shut out from his presence, and anonymous letters reached 
 his hands, warning him that his life was in danger. Accompanied 
 only by a servant and two friends, Berkley and Ashburnham, he 
 fled from Hampton Court one dark stormy evening, and after 
 riding hard all night arrived early the next morning at the 
 eoast opposite the Isle of Wight (12th Nov.). Here, taking 
 refuge the while in a neighbouring house, he sent Berkley and 
 Ashburnham over to the island with instructions to extract 
 from the governor, Hammond, a promise to grant his Majesty 
 means of conduct to a place of safety. Hammond turned pale, 
 and at first, in terror at the news, begged that the king 
 might not be brought to the island, for "what between his 
 duty to the king and his trust to the army, he should be con- 
 founded." But he soon changed his mind, and became anxious 
 to know where the king was to be found. " I will promise to 
 perform," he said, " whatever can be expected of a person of 
 honour and honesty." Though little confidence could be placed 
 in such a vague expression of good-will, Ashburnham and Berk- 
 ley, not knowing how to rid themselves of the governor's com- 
 pany, undertook to conduct him and one other man, Captain 
 Basket, to the royal presence. " Oh, you have undone me !" ex- 
 claimed Charles, when he heard that they had brought Hammond 
 with them, " for I am by this means mQde fast from stirring." 
 tl Since what has been done does not please your Majesty," re- 
 plied Ashburnham in tears, " I will kill the governor and the 
 captain with my own hands." Charles took two or three turns 
 up and down the room. " No," he replied ; " it would be said 
 that he ventured his life for me, and I took it away from him. 
 "We must go through with it now." Arrived at Carisbrooke, 
 Charles felt in better spirits. Hammond treated him cour- 
 teously ; gentlemen came to visit him, and being left at liberty 
 to ride over the island he did not doubt of being able at any 
 time to escape across the Channel. 
 
 Cromwell has been accused of having purposely frightened 
 Charles away from Hampton Court, with the intention of getting 
 him more completely into the power of the army. He certainly 
 wrote a note to Colonel Whalley, bidding him have a care of his 
 guards, for " if any attempt should be made upon his Majesty's 
 person, it would be accounted a most horrid act." He was also 
 the first to hear from Whalley of the king's escape, and reported 
 
1647.] MUTINY OF LEVELLERS. 223 
 
 the news to Parliament. But this evidence does not seem 
 strong enough to support the conclusion drawn from it. Many 
 of the Levellers were so unscrupulous that the rumours of an in- 
 tended assassination were not likely to be without foundation. 
 Cromwell's note, therefore, may have been intended simply as a 
 caution to Whalley. Further, Cromwell could not have foreseen 
 that the fugitives would seek refuge in the Isle of Wight ; in 
 factj when there the king was not more but less in the power 
 of the army than before. At Hampton Court, his keeper 
 was Whalley, who was throughout on the side of the army, 
 and was afterwards one of his judges ; whereas in the Isle of 
 Wight he was under Hammond, who disapproved of the dealings 
 of the army with the Parliament, and was afterwards removed 
 from his post to make place for a surer man. Had he, on the 
 other hand, escaped into Scotland, he would undoubtedly have 
 soon been again in England at the head of an army, and 
 Royalists by thousands been flocking to his standard. The 
 obvious conclusion is that if Cromwell connived at the flight from 
 Hampton Court, his desire can only have been to save Charles' 
 life from the assassin's dagger, and to give him a chance of 
 escape across the Channel. 
 
 Cromwell had incurred unpopularity with the army by being 
 too favourable to the king, and now had to turn his mind to the sup- 
 pression of the mutinous spirit that had appeared amongst the sol- 
 di era, Different regiments of the army were ordered to attend him 
 at three several meetings. To the first meeting, held between Hert- 
 ford and Ware, only three regiments were summoned. But when 
 Fairfax and Cromwell arrived on the ground, they found that 
 Robert Lilburne's regiment of infantry and Colonel Harrison's 
 regiment of cavalry had come without orders. The soldiers, most 
 of whom were Levellers, were in a state of great excitement, and 
 had fixed to their hats copies of one of Lilburne's pamphlets, en- 
 titled 'The Agreement of the People.' Fairfax read a remon- 
 strance to the quieter regiments, reminding them of the good faith 
 their chiefs had always shown them, and promising that he would 
 support the demands of the soldiers, if they would obey the orders 
 of their officers. This appeal to the soldiers' feelings was answered 
 by shouts of approval. Even Harrison's troopers, on hearing the 
 address, tore the copies of the ' Agreement ' from their hats, de- 
 claring that they had been deceived, and would live and die wi + h 
 
224 CEOMWELL SUPPEESSES MUTINY. [long paul. 
 
 their general. But Lilburne's regiment showed no signs of sub- 
 mission. "Take that paper from your hats!" cried Cromwell; 
 and when none obeyed, riding with drawn sword into the ranks, 
 he ordered fourteen of the leading mutineers to be arrested. Old 
 habits of discipline in the soldier, the commanding voice and 
 gesture of the officer, produced obedience. A court-martial was 
 held on the spot, and, out of three condemned, one soldier was 
 shot to death in front of the regiment (Nov. 15th). The two 
 following meetings went off quietly. 
 
 Yet, though he had overawed them for the moment, Cromwell 
 knew that these soldiers held the destinies of England in their 
 hands, and that, if he would be their master and stay their hands 
 from havoc, he must first regain their confidence. Several meet- 
 ings were held between officers and adjutators, at which he and 
 the officers admitted that the treaty with the king, entered into 
 1 through the fear of man and want of a spirit of faith, had be- 
 come a cause of division, to the danger of the blessed cause in 
 which the army was engaged.' In thus speaking it is not to be 
 supposed that Cromwell and his officers were acting the parts 
 of knaves and hypocrites. It was an undeniable fact that, in 
 treating with Charles, they had taken a wrong road to effect a 
 settlement which would secure religious toleration and civil 
 liberty. Charles had deceived them ; he had not only stirred up 
 the city against them, but now at his summons a Scotch army 
 was about to invade the country, while Royalists were preparing 
 to rise.' In the divisions that had ensued amongst themselves, 
 in the dangers that bow threatened them, they recognized a 
 judgment of God on their own backslidings. The conferences 
 concluded with "a very clear and joint resolution, on many 
 grounds at large there debated amongst us, that it was our 
 duty, if ever the Lord brought us back again in peace, to call 
 Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for that blood 
 he had shed and mischief he had done to his utmost against the 
 Lord's cause and people in these poor nations." * 
 
 While this was the final resolution of the army, the Presby- 
 terians in Parliament carried a vote that,, if the king gave his 
 consent to four bills, granting the command of the militia to the 
 Parliament, and revoking his declarations of treason against the 
 two Houses, he should be allowed to come to London and treat 
 * Somers, Tracts, vi. 
 
1647.] CHARLES' TEEATT WITH SCOTS. 225 
 
 in person (Dec. 14th). Charles, however, rejected the bills ; for 
 about the same time that they were presented, commissioners 
 came from Scotland to Carisbrooke, and concluded a . . . 
 
 C 1 113,1*1 GS* 
 
 treaty with him on easier terms then had ever yet secret treaty 
 been proposed. It was agreed that a Scotch army wlthScots - 
 should enter the kingdom in the ensuing spring ; that the Cava- 
 liers should rise at the same time ; that the Presbyterian Church 
 should be established in England for three years ; and that 
 the king should not be required to take the covenant or con- 
 form to the public worship (26th Dec). The papers containing 
 the terms were carefully closed up in lead, and concealed in a 
 private house, for it would have been fatal to the king's character 
 had their contents become known to the English Parliament. 
 Charles, however, had, unfortunately, bat little character for 
 honesty left with either party. Both Parliament and army knew 
 he had made a secret agreement with the Scots, and ascribed his 
 rejection of the- four bills to its true cause (27th Dec). Having 
 delayed to escape until he had concluded the treaty with the 
 Scots, Charles found that the opportunity was gone ; his guards 
 were doubled, his friends dismissed, and his walks confined to a 
 small garden. 
 
 The Republicans seized the advantage offered them by the rejec- 
 tion of the bills to venture on the boldest step they had yet taken ; 
 they openly proposed, in Parliament, to exclude the king from 
 the throne. " Mr. Speaker," said Sir Thomas Wroth, " Bedlam 
 was appointed for madmen, and Tophet for kings ; but our kings 
 of late have carried themselves as if they were fit for 
 no place but Bedlam. I propose we lay the king by, propose de- 
 and settle the kingdom without him. I care not what thronement - 
 form of government you set up, so it be not by kings or devils." 
 
 After a warm debate, the Presbyterians were beaten, and a 
 resolution was carried by 141 votes against 92, that no more 
 addresses should be made to the king by any person what- 
 soever, without consent of both Houses, under penalties of high 
 treason (3rd Jan., 1648). Yet, in spite of this success within Parlia- 
 ment House, outside there were many signs of disaffection, which 
 boded but a stormy birth for the young Republic An invasion 
 from Scotland was expected ; the city was slow to lend money to 
 pay the army, and hated the Parliament ever since the exclusion 
 of the eleven Presbyterian members ; the country people were 
 
 15 
 
226 CKOMWELL FOEESEES REACTION. [long pakl 
 
 clamouring against the taxes and calling for the restoration of the 
 king. Cromwell, hoping at least to effect cordial co-operation be- 
 tween the friends of a common cause, brought together the ' Par- 
 liament grandees' and the ' army grandees ' at a dinner at his own 
 house. He there stated, as his own opinion, that either a mo- 
 narchical, aristocratical, or democratical government might be 
 good in themselves, or good for England, according to the direc- 
 tions of Providence. The Eepublicans disputed both points. 
 God, they said, had charged upon the Israelites their choice of 
 Saul as a rejection of Himself ; therefore, monarchy could not be 
 good in itself, any more than it could be good for England, to 
 which it had been the main source of oppression. " It is our duty," 
 they said, " to call the king to account for the blood that has been 
 shed, and then to establish a commonwealth, founded upon the 
 consent of the people, so that it may have their hearts and hands 
 in its support." Cromwell, being pressed by Ludlow to declare 
 himself plainly for or against a republic, flung a cushion at his 
 questioner's head, and ran downstairs, to give some vent to the irri- 
 tation he was obliged to suppress. Fools to talk of founding a re- 
 public, with the consent of the nation ! when against it were not 
 Eoyalists only, but Presbyterians and thousands of honest men 
 who had taken arms against the king, not to abolish kingship, but 
 to ensure their own liberties. " I see-," he said to Ludlow the next 
 day, " that it is desirable, but not that it is possible ;" whereupon 
 Ludlow angrily left him, suspicious of his intentions. For these 
 Eepublicans had now become so deeply imbued with the idea that 
 the only way to ensure England's liberties was by founding a 
 commonwealth without king or House of Lords, that they disbe- 
 lieved in the honesty of every one who doubted the efficacy of 
 the nostrum. 
 
 But the storm, which Cromwell had foreseen, now burst, and 
 the presence of a common foe made Levellers, Eepublicans, and 
 «irmy officers unite again. Great excitement had prevailed 
 throughout the country since the vote passed against making 
 further addresses to the king. Eeverence for their country's past 
 combined with pity for their fallen monarch. Bands of the City 
 militia would patrol the streets, stop coaches, and force their occu- 
 pants to drink the king's health. Some apprentices, playing at 
 bowls in Moorfields one Sunday, drove off a body of soldiers who 
 would have stopped their game, and then marched to the City, 
 
1648.] SCOTCH PARTIES— HAMILTON'S INVASION. 227 
 
 raising the cry of ' God and King Charles !' Joined on their way 
 by thousands of sympathizers, they broke open an arsenal, placed 
 chains across the streets, and remained masters of the City till 
 the following morning (April 13th). 
 
 In the country similar scenes were witnessed. In defiance of 
 the soldiers, tumultuous crowds of country people assembled 
 to raise the forbidden maypole, and were seldom dispersed 
 without bloodshed, Rebellion followed tumult. The know- 
 ledge that the Scots were coming to deliver the king from 
 prison raised the drooping spirits of the Cavaliers. In "Wales, in 
 Kent, in Essex, in Hertfordshire, in Nottinghamshire, in Corn- 
 wall, in the western counties, the royal standard was unfurled. 
 The same reaction extended to the navy. Seventeen ships of war 
 sailed to Holland and offered their services to the PriDce of Wales. 
 But the army had generals who were not slow to act, and troops 
 such as the raw levies of the Cavaliers could not long resist. 
 Cromwell soon triumphed in the west, and forced the Royalists 
 to take refuge in Pembroke Castle (May). In the counties round 
 London, after a fortnight's fighting, little remained of the royal 
 forces, and this little was besieged by Fairfax in Colchester (June). 
 
 There was serious danger, however, yet to come. Scotland, at 
 this time, was a country divided against itself. The Covenanters 
 had split into two parties. The first, headed by the Duke of 
 Argyle, and supported by the Church Assembly, were indignant 
 at the terms of the treaty their commissioners had made in the 
 Isle of W ight. A war to replace a king who refused the Covenant 
 seemed at once treason to their religion and a breach of their 
 treaty with the English Parliament. The second, or moderate 
 party, under the Duke of Hamilton, were ready to forgive any 
 shortcomings of the king sooner than see Independents triumph 
 over Presbyterians. In defence of the war they could argue, not 
 without truth, that the purpose of their solemn league and cove- 
 nant had been to establish the Presbyterian Church in England, 
 .and secure constitutional rule, and not to enable Republicans 
 ■and sectarians to overthrow monarchy and secure liberty of con- 
 science. The moderate party was strongest in the Scottish Par- 
 liament, and, in spite of the opposition of the Church As- 
 sembly, a vote had been passed to raise an army of 40,000 men 
 to fight in defence of the Covenant and of the king. The service, 
 •however, was not popular. Under Hamilton's commard some 
 
 15—2 
 
228 
 
 BATTLE OF PRESTON 
 
 [LONG PAUL. 
 
 20,000 came straggling into England, followed by the curses of 
 the extreme Covenanters. Fairfax being before Colchester, Crom- 
 well before Pembroke, the invaders marched loosely and confi- 
 dently. On the 16th of August, Hamilton, with the main bodv of 
 
 MAP OF LANCASHIRE. 
 
 his army, was at Preston ; his horse at Wigan, more than ten 
 miles in advance ; his rear straggling another ten miles behind, 
 At Langridge, about four miles to the east, up the northern bank 
 
17th AUG., 1648.] BATTLE OF PEESTON. 229 
 
 of the Eibble, was Sir Marmaduke Langdale and a body of 3000 
 English Cavaliers. But security is not safety. Further east, 
 another four or five miles up the same stream, at Stonyhurst and 
 Clitheroe, was Cromwell, with an army of nearly 9000 men, a fact 
 of which Duke Hamilton lay in complete ignorance. Pembroke 
 had, in fact, surrendered just in time to allow the Ironsides to 
 hasten north by forced marches, and meet the new enemy before 
 tae had advanced far into Lancashire. In the morning Crom- 
 well descended the stream of the Eibble on the northern bank, 
 and attacked the Cavaliers at Langridge. Hamilton, believing 
 the enemy to be merely some small body of Yorkshiremen, sent 
 no reinforcements to Langdale, who, after a gallant resistance and 
 four hours' hard fighting, was driven back from hedge to hedge 
 into Preston town, the enemy following close at his heels, and 
 charging through the streets. While the Cavaliers were fighting, 
 the main body <af the Scots had been making their way in happy 
 ignorance to the south side of the Eibble, intending to follow 
 their horse. While in this plight, Cromwell fell upon them and 
 -drove them off Eibble bridge before their rear had crossed. The 
 troops thus left on the north bank of the river were cut to pieces, 
 and chased to Lancaster with terrible loss (Aug. 17th). 
 
 South of the Eibble, Hamilton held a council of war. Most of 
 his officers were for pushing on the same night to Wigan, where 
 they expected to find their horse. "But what," said others, "will 
 become of our unfortunate ammunition, since forward with us we 
 cannot get it?" "It shall be blown up by a train." said the duke. 
 But, in the hurry and confusion of a retreat by night, it was not 
 blown up, and the whole fell into the hands of Cromwell. The 
 next moruing (Aug. 18th), after this "drumless march," the Scots 
 found themselves at Wigan Moor, weary in body and depressed 
 in spirit, for weather was wet and ways were bad, and the twenty 
 thousand had dwindled to ten. The officers agreed to push the 
 retreat on to Warrington, another ten miles south, where they 
 hoped to take up a strong defensive position, and dispute the 
 passage of the enemy at the bridge over the Mersey. But before 
 their rear, which did not begin its march until the evening, was 
 through Wigan, Cromwell was upon them. In the market-place 
 the moon cast dim light upon a scene of inextricable confusion. 
 The Ironsides charged the Scots' rear ; the Scots' horse dashed 
 lieadlong onwards, and were received on the pikes of their own 
 
230 CROMWELL IN SCOTLAND. [long pabe. 
 
 infantry, who cried out, " These are Cromwell's men I" They 
 charged, however, so fiercely that the pikemen threw down their 
 weapons and fled for refuge to the nearest houses. The same 
 mistakes were repeated. "After this," says one who was present,. 
 " all the horse galloped away, and, as I was told afterwards, rode 
 not through, but over our whole foot." Such were the scenes of 
 the night. In the morning (Aug. 19th), at a place called Ked- 
 bank, two miles outside Warrington, a body of pikemen took ad- 
 vantage of a favourable position to face about and dispute the 
 ground with the enemy. After several hours' hard fighting, 
 driven back at push of pike, they entered Warrington in company 
 with their pursuers, and pressed on to the bridge over the Mer- 
 sey, which was already held by their friends, and strongly barri- 
 caded. Here, however, the three days' battle ended. Hamilton 
 and the horse had made off some time before, sending word to the 
 lieutenant-general of the foot to make as good conditions for him- 
 self as he could. Officers and soldiers yielded themselves prisoners 
 of war, being promised their lives and civil usage. Hamilton and 
 his horse were caught in Staffordshire. Thus, as Cromwell wrote 
 to the Parliament, did an army of 8600 men shatter and dissipate 
 another of at least 21,000. Two thousand Scots were slain, and 
 eight or nine thousand more made prisoners, without counting 
 those destroyed or brought in by the country people * (August 
 17, 18, 19). 
 
 Cromwell, after his victory, marched with his army into Scot- 
 land, where the extreme Covenanters had risen in arms against 
 the friends of Hamilton's invasion. A peace was effected by his 
 influence (Sept. 28th). The Engagers, the name given to those 
 who served under Hamilton, were disqualified from serving in 
 any public employment, but were left in possession of their pro- 
 perty, on condition of disbanding their forces and renewing their 
 allegiance to the Covenant. The government was thus left en- 
 tirely in the hands of Argyle and other opponents of the late war. 
 A few days after Cromwell's victory over the Scots in Lanca- 
 shire, Fairfax brought the war to a close in the south. Subdued 
 by famine, the gentlemen and officers shut up in Colchester sur- 
 rendered at discretion, the soldiers upon promise of quarter (Aug. 
 27th). Three of the garrison were condemned by a council of war 
 to be shot. " It is necessary," Ireton is reported to have said,. 
 * Carl., i. 279—295 ; Hodgson and Slingsby, Mem. 
 
1G4S.1 PAKLIAMENT ITNPOPULAK. 231 
 
 "for the example of others, and to prevent the peace of the king 
 dora from "being disturbed in this way again, that some should 
 suffer.'' Fairfax, though always inclined to the side of mercy, 
 agreed with Ireton. One, a foreigner, he reprieved ; the other 
 two, who had both broken their word of honour not to bear arms 
 against the Parliament, were executed. 
 
 While the generals were engaged in fighting Royalists and 
 Scots, the Presbyterians in London, taking advantage of the 
 absence of many Independent members with the army, were 
 doing their utmost to ruin the cause of civil and religious liberty. 
 There were, without doubt, many members of the Parliament who 
 would sooner have seen victory on the side of the Scots than of 
 the Independents. In the Upper House this party was in a ma- 
 jority, so that when the Commons voted that all Englishmen who 
 should abet the invaders were traitors, the Lords actually refused 
 to concur in the vote (July 18th). A persecuting ordinance was 
 fulminated against sectarians (p. 203). The eleven Presbyterian 
 members were recalled to their seats (June). The Presbyterian 
 major-general, Huntingdon, presented to Parliament a paper, 
 modestly entitled, ' Sundry Reasons inducing him to lay clown his 
 Commission/ but really containing charges against his com- 
 mander, which, in the event of the Scots' success, might have 
 served to cost Cromwell his head. Even those Presbyterians 
 whose feelings of nationality were too strong to suffer them to 
 wish success to the invaders, were yet most eager to conclude a 
 treaty with the king, and thereby sacrifice the cause for which 
 the English armies were fighting. The vote of the 3rd of Jan- 
 uary, forbidding any addresses to be made to the king, under 
 penalties of treason, was now rescinded (June 30th), and, after 
 some time had passed in preliminaries, fifteen commissioners were 
 sent to negotiate the terms of a treaty with Charles at Newport 
 (Sept. 13th). 
 
 The Parliament had now exercised supreme power since the 
 breaking out of the war in the year '41. Once looked upon as the 
 saviour of the nation's liberties, it was now hated and despised. 
 The causes of this were manifold. In the first place, however 
 able and honest were some of its members, it had, as a body, been 
 subjected to violence, and had sacrificed all consistency, voting 
 one day to please the soldiers, another to please a City mob. A 
 former Royalist member justly reproaches them with "voting 
 
232 TRIAL OF LILBURNE. [long pael. 
 
 of members in and out so often ; voting there shall be no 
 more addresses to the king, and then voting that there shall— a 
 temper something like that of Henry VIII., who advanced men in 
 a good humour he knew not why, and ruined them again in another 
 he knew not why."* 
 
 A second cause that brought the Parliament into disfavour 
 with the people, was that both Houses of Parliament constantly 
 trespassed on the liberties of the people by fining and imprisoning 
 political offenders, under the pretence of breach of privilege, 
 without showing legal cause or bringing the victims to trial. Yet 
 the House of Lords, except in cases of impeachment or appeals 
 from inferior courts, possessed an undisputed jurisdiction only 
 over peers ; while the House of Commons possessed no judicial 
 power at all, except in disputed elections and in cases of inter- 
 ference with the free action of members. Lilburne had already 
 signalized himself by attacking the encroachments thus made 
 upon the liberties of the people. He had been committed to 
 prison by order of the Lords (July, 1646), and it was two years 
 before he succeeded in obtaining from the judges of the King's 
 Bench his writ of ' habeas corpus.' It was not to be expected that 
 in time of war a troublesome agitator should meet with other than 
 summary treatment. Lilburne had attacked one of the two Houses 
 under which he served, and, when imprisoned for this, had been 
 writing pamphlets exciting the soldiers to mutiny. In such a case, a 
 temporary suspension of the subject's right to a 'habeas corpus' was 
 necessary and justifiable. It probably, however, did the Parlia- 
 ment quite as much injury as if the man had been left at liberty. 
 A revolutionary government, though surrounded by enemies, 
 and with none of the prestige of an old-established regime to 
 protect it, is none the less expected to show a far greater regard 
 to the liberties of the subject than the government it has dis- 
 placed. So now crowds of sympathizing spectators thronged the 
 court when Lilburne demanded his liberty on the ground that 
 the Lords acted illegally in calling any but peers to the bar of their 
 House. The judges, however, supported .the jurisdiction of the 
 Lords, and refused to grant Lilburne his release, on the ground 
 that he had been committed by a superior court. Notwith- 
 standing the decision of the judges, abuse of privilege was a real 
 
 * " Letter of an Ejected Member " (printed 1648). 
 
£648.] FINANCIAL OPPKESSION. 233 
 
 'blot on the administration : so was also the subservience the 
 Parliament had shown. 
 
 There can be no doubt, however, that what ruined the govern- 
 ment in the opinion of the country at large was the bad financial 
 administration. The other causes touched the men who thought 
 and the men who felt ; but this weighed with the average men 
 who did not either think much or feel much. Such men are four 
 out of five in any community. As a rule they follow their 
 leaders, but in England, if their pockets are once touched, they 
 take a course of their own. These men the Parliament had 
 alienated by bad finance. Properly administered, the revenue 
 would have been more than sufficient to meet the expenditure. 
 Its sources were numerous — the excise, the customs, the monthly 
 assessment on land and goods, the compositions made by Royalists, 
 and the seizure and sale of bishops' lands, crown lands, and the 
 estates of those who preferred poverty and exile to having any 
 dealiugs with rebels. Eut the machinery for collection was both 
 oppressive and expensive. There was a bureaucracy of the worst 
 kind, for the counties were put in the hands of committees, 
 who levied the taxes, looked after Royalists' estates, and secured 
 obedience to the government. It was said, indeed, that one half of 
 the revenue was devoured by these committees and their officials. 
 Large sums of money were lavishly granted by the Parliament to 
 its adherents, sometimes as rewards for services, sometimes as 
 payments of loans, borrowed at a high interest during the war. 
 Adventurers who had joined the side of the Parliament as a 
 paying speculation, succeeded in their object, making large fortunes 
 either as members of Parliament or as members of county com- 
 mittees. Colonel Birch, a merchant of Bristol, who had abandoned 
 his business as unprofitable, and enlisted in the Parliament's 
 army, was granted at different times the sums of .£1500, £800, 
 and £4900, and in the year 1650 had so much spare capital that 
 he bought bishops' lands to the value of £2000. While these liberal 
 gifts were made, the pay of the soldiers was left in arrear. To 
 meet the deficit, heavy extra impositions were laid on the country. 
 Thus, in 1647, the people in many parts of Radnor, though they 
 had already paid their six months' contribution, were required 
 to raise an additional rate of three shillings for each foot soldier 
 quartered amongst them. During the war Fairfax exacted from 
 the city of Bath £90.000 in six months, in addition to twdve 
 
234 PARTIES IN COMMONS. [long pabl, 
 
 months' pay, which had been previously granted. Thus, while 
 men connected with the government grew rich, the tradespeople 
 in garrison towns were being gradually reduced to beggary, and 
 the country people in some places were almost starving. 
 "Amazing," says Lilburnc in one of his pamphlets, "that so 
 many men in Parliament, and their associates elsewhere, who 
 pride themselves as the only saints and godly men upon earth, 
 and have large possessions of their own, can take } T early salaries 
 of ^1000, £3000. £6000."* 
 
 From these various causes the House of Commons was unpopular., 
 It war also divided against itself. It contained three chief political 
 parties. First, the Presbyterians, eager to recover their former as- 
 cendancy by making a treaty with the king ; secondly, the Repub- 
 licans, whc aimed at getting rid of king and House of Lords ; 
 thjj dly, Independents, still true to the cause of liberty of conscience : 
 besides these were the lawyers and the waverers, who voted with 
 the Republicans, either through dread of Presbyterian ascendancy,. 
 or because, after long enjoying the sweets of power, they were 
 loath to see the present Parliament dissolved. Outside the 
 Commons' House was an army of between 20,000 and 30,000 men, 
 at this time the real power in the land. The officers' views of 
 sett'ement differed from those of the Republicans principally in 
 *he following point, that while the Republicans wished the army 
 ic act as an obedient servant in establishing their Republican 
 ideal, the officers cared little about the form of the civil power 
 as long as it carried out their own views of reform. The two 
 parties, however, were closely allied, and, in fact, intermingled. 
 A standing army had never before been known in England, and 
 was as little loved by the people as the perpetual Parliament 
 itself. Thus the officers, unable to rule in their own names, 
 hoped to rule by coalescing with the Republicans. The Republi- 
 cans, in their anxiety to found their own form of government, 
 mistook the character and aims of their only and necessary sup- 
 porters. The ranks of the army were really filled with sectarians 
 and Levellers. The reforms these demanded were not theoreti- 
 cal, but practical and popular — the abolition of imprisonment for 
 debt, the lessening of lawyers' fees, an adjustment of seats to po- 
 pulation, the meeting of new parliaments every year, and the re- 
 form of the Church. 
 
 * Memoirs of Col. Birch, 68, 96, 152, 236 ; Whitelock, Mem ; Hollis, Me- 
 moirs; ' Fundamental Liberties of England vindicated,' in King's Tracts. 
 
1648.] NEGOTIATIONS AT NEWPOET. 235 
 
 A Leveller has given us a picture of a meeting of officers, Kepub- 
 iicans, Independents, and some of his own party, held during the 
 autumn months, while the Presbyterians were treating with the 
 king. " We intend," said the officers, " to cut off the king's head, 
 and purge, if not dissolve, the Parliament." " We know," replied 
 Lilburne, as the spokesman of the Levellers, " that the king is a 
 bad man, but the army deceived us last year, and is not to be 
 trusted. It is our interest to keep up one tyrant against the 
 other, until we can know which tyrant will give more freedom. 
 For we do not wish the government to develop into the wills and 
 swords of the army, and we [be] dealt with as the slavish peasants 
 of France, who can call nothing their own. An agreement must be 
 drawn up before anything else is done." " There is no time," ob- 
 jected an officer ; "the treaty between the king and the Parlia- 
 ment will be concluded, and then you will be destroyed as well 
 as we." " We must dissolve the Parliament," said Ireton for the 
 officers, " for how else are we to get rid of it 1 It will never dis- 
 solve itself." On the other hand, Eepublican and Independent 
 members of the House opposed a dissolution, thinking a purge of 
 their Presbyterian companions a far more desirable remedy, and 
 by no means objecting to concentrating all civil power in their 
 own hands. 
 
 When such were the counsels of the men in power, the 
 negotiations begun at Newport in September appear little better 
 than a farce. There Charles was himself receiving, disputing, 
 and. answering the propositions of the Parliament, which were 
 the same as those offered at Newcastle. Two of the commissioners 
 on their knees implored him to waste no time, but to grant on 
 the first day all that he could on the last. It probably mattered 
 less than they thought whether he yielded on the first or last day,, 
 for where in either case was to be found the means to resist the 
 will of the army, which was opposed to all compromise 1 At 
 last, after protracting the negotiations over six weeks, Charles 
 agreed to grant to Parliament the command of the militia and the 
 government of Ireland for twenty years ; to suspend the power of 
 bishops for three years, until a form of Church government should 
 be agreed upon by himself and the two Houses ; and to allow 
 seven of his friends to be excepted from pardon. How far, how- 
 ever, he was sincere in making these concessions may be judged 
 from his own letters. " Be not startled," he wrote to OrmoLd, 
 
«36 CHARLES AT HURST CASTLE. [ioso pasi. 
 
 to nothing ° 0IlCeSSi0nS ab0ut Ire,ancl > f °r that they will come 
 
 thonshta of * ime *"£ C1 ' ai y miU<i had beea «»»P«i witl, 
 
 thoughts of escape He was beginning at last to real Le that it 
 
 was possible orsubjects to take the life of an anointed kin. 
 
 thee h : rd X dared kaVe the co « Qt 'T without first obtain^ 
 the consent of his wife. The Prince of Wales might have sailed 
 from Ho land with the revolted ships to attempts fathertre 
 lease, but he made no effort. One day Char! s told Sir John 
 
 cevTd?ieTte° f eq ", ently r SSed ^ '° ^ pe, that he had t- 
 
 Sand il: l ir x its? seas> advisiug him uot to «° ° ut ° f «• 
 
 ht head 9 « > m . the P ,° Wer ° f the ""V *» fuch a hah- of 
 the r™t' t, ? J" C ,° Utmued > "«• I kwe made concessions, and 
 
 ^ advt r " < 6nd ' a " d eSpedaUy Si " Ce l W rec iTOj 
 tins advice (you guess from whence it comes), I am resolved to 
 
 stay here, and God's will be done." It was n fact Ms wife's 
 
 wdl which was still to be done, till her fatalTnflue, h d finl 
 
 ruined hm, The will of the army was soon shown. EegS 
 
 a e reg.ment presented petitions to Fairfax demanding* 'that 
 
 the same fault may have the same punishment in a king°or lord 
 
 "ad in pIT ?""' A UUit6d Arm ^ P ~ tiance was 
 -^ndZZfr ^eut, requirmg the House to set aside the treaty 
 and pioceed aga.nst the king in a way of justice.' By a majority 
 of nmety the Commons decided not to tike the A^vZ! 
 strauce into consideration. 
 
 On the 2nd of December they were debating whether the king's 
 commons were sufficient to serve as a bask of peace. Mel! 
 
 Faiiav T iTT- tekinS UP their < J Uarters ^ the City, and 
 
 Fan fax was estabhshmg himself at Whitehall. "The debate 
 
 mlt Our nt f de '" Said , Prynne ' " UUtil We » e a *Z Parlt 
 bv the , » ^TrT* be withlibe ''tynowwe are environed 
 
 ad beeTf ■ ? « , 7 (DCC - 40l) tbe "— Came that Cba ^ 
 Hm-st Casir f hy ?^° l -»iers from Carisbrooke to 
 Jiu.st Castle, a gloomy fortress on the Hampshire coast. The 
 Presbyterians more indignant than alarmed, declared the honour 
 of Parliament at stake, for it had voted that the king should 
 t eat in honour, safety, and freedom. Prynne appeared as the 
 
 Veal "MrT Vft imd i imeS ChaUged WitMQ the last ei gbt 
 years. Mr. Speaker," he said, "all the royal favour I ever vet 
 
 received from Ins Majesty was the slitting off my ears in a most 
 
dec. 6th, 1648.] PEIDE'S PUEGE. 237 
 
 barbarous manner ; the setting me upon three several pillories 
 for two hours at a time ; the burning of my books by the hand 
 of the hangman ; the imposing two fines upon me of ,£5000 a 
 piece ; expulsion from the University of Oxford ; above eight 
 years' imprisonment without pens, ink, paper, or books except 
 my Bible. If any member envy me for such royal favour, I only 
 wish him the same badges of favour, and then he will no more 
 asperse me for a royal favourite or apostate from the public 
 cause." For hours he continued speaking, showing that there 
 was no danger to liberty in accepting the king's concessions, and 
 calling on the House not to sacrifice its freedom to fear of the 
 army. " If the king and we shall happily close upon this treaty, 
 I hope we shall have not such great need of their future service ; 
 however, fiat justitia, mat coelum — let us do our duty and leave 
 the issue to God." 
 
 It was five o'clock on Tuesday morning before the House di- 
 vided, when a resolution was carried by 140 to 104, that the 
 answers of the king were a sufficient ground to proceed upon for 
 a settlement of the kingdom. The next day (6th Dec.) was 
 memorable as that of Pride's Purge A party of officers, headed 
 by Ireton, had determined to put an end to what they considered 
 Presbyterian dictation. Cromwell was on his way from Scot- 
 land, and did not reach London till the next day ; and Fairfax 
 was in ignorance of the designs of his officers. But by seven 
 o'clock in the morning every approach to the Commons' House 
 was barred by soldiers. At the door stood their officer, Colonel 
 Pride, with a list of the proscribed in his hand. When a leading 
 Presbyterian came up the staircase, Lord Grey of Groby pointed 
 him out to Pride, and if the member refused to go away of his own 
 accord, the soldiers forced him down the staircase. Forty Presby- 
 terians were thus excluded, while several others were frightened 
 and kept away of themselves. As the House refused to proceed 
 to business until its absent members should be restored, the next 
 morning the same scene was repeated, and forty more members 
 were excluded (Dec. 7). A minority of twenty-six withdrew of 
 their own accord ; the remainder, nicknamed the Pump, formed 
 a House of fifty-three members, all bound to work in accordance 
 with their friends in the army. 
 
 First, in order to have a law by which to convict Charles of 
 treason, the Commons voted that it was treason in the King of 
 
238 TRIAL OF THE KING. [rump pael 
 
 England to levy war against the Parliament and kingdom ; next, 
 in order to have a court by which to try him, they framed an 
 Ordinance ordinance for making a special or High Court of 
 Court of Justice, composed of men of their own party. As the 
 Justice. House of Lords, though it had now dwindled down to 
 twelve members, still had spirit enough to reject the ordinance 
 unanimously, the Commons resolved, that whatever is enacted 
 by the Commons has the force of law without the consent of 
 king or House of Peers, and then passed the ordinance in their 
 own name alone (Jan. 6th). 
 
 The court first met in private in order to make preparations 
 for the trial. 135 judges were named on the ordinance, but 
 many refused to attend the sittings. Algernon Sidney came 
 once, and interrupted the debate by saying, "The king can 
 be tried by no court, and no man by this court." " I tell you," 
 said Cromwell, " we will cut off his head with the crown upon 
 it." " You may take your course, I cannot stop you," replied 
 Algernon ; " but I will keep myself clean from having any hand 
 in the business."* He then left the room and never returned. 
 Sir Henry Vane retired into the country ; Fairfax attended the 
 first meeting only. 
 
 Charles had already been removed from Hurst Castle to 
 Windsor, and after a few days was taken on to London. The 
 trial was held in Westminster Hall. The judges, about eighty 
 in number, sat upon benches, which rose one above another at 
 the upper end of the hall. Bradshaw, Cromwell's cousin, sat on 
 a chair of state as Lord President of the Court. Below the 
 President's chair was a table, on which lay the sword and mace 
 of the House of Commons. Twenty-one gentlemen, bearing 
 'partisans/ were ranged on either side in front of the judges. At 
 the other end of the table, opposite the President's seat, was 
 placed a red velvet chair for the prisoner ; within a bar on the 
 right-hand side of the prisoner's chair stood the three solicitors 
 for the Commonwealth. Ladies and others were seated in 
 galleries. The body of the hall was filled with a tearful, expectant 
 crowd, separated from the soldiers by scaffoldings. The king was 
 •conducted up the centre of the hall by a guard of soldiers. He 
 did not raise his hat or show any sign of respect to the court, but 
 after regarding his judges severely for some moments, turned round 
 * Blencowe, Sidney Papers, i. 237. 
 
1649.] TEIAL OF THE KING. 239 
 
 and inspected the crowds behind. Cook, the solicitor of the Com- 
 monwealth, read the charge, in which Charles Stuart was accused 
 of having endeavoured to overturn the liberties of the people, and 
 of being guilty of all the murders and spoils under which the nation 
 had suffered, "wherefore the people of England impeached Charles 
 Stuart as a tyrant, traitor, and murderer." The king smiled visibly 
 when he heard the words, " tyrant, traitor, murderer.'' He persist- 
 ently refused to answer to the charge, asserting that the court had 
 no lawful authority derived from the people of England by which 
 to try him, and that therefore in refusing to plead " he stood 
 more for the liberties of the people than did his pretended judges." 
 Cook accordingly demanded that sentence might be pronounced 
 against the prisoner, in accordance with the rule of law, that 
 if the accused refuses to plead guilty or not guilty, his silence 
 be taken as a confession of guilt. The king was brought before 
 the court for the fourth and last time to hear his sentence read. 
 The President had changed his black for a scarlet -gown. He 
 spoke as follows : ' Gentlemen, it is well known to all, or most of 
 you here present, that the prisoner at the bar hath been several 
 times brought before the court to make answer to a charge of 
 high treason, exhibited against him in the name of the people of 
 England ' 
 
 ' It's a lie ! not one half of them. Oliver Cromwell is a 
 traitor !' shouted a voice from one of the galleries. 
 
 A violent commotion arose in the hall ; murmurs of indigna- 
 tion amongst the soldiers, of applause amongst the crowd. The 
 speaker was found to be no less a person than Lady Fairfax, and 
 order with some difficulty having been restored, Bradshaw offered 
 the prisoner for the last time leave to answer to his charge, before 
 sentence was pronounced. " I desire," said the king, " to make 
 a proposal to the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber, 
 touching the peace of the kingdom and the liberty of the subject." 
 The judges withdrew for half an hour, and on their return 
 Bradshaw first informed the king that his proposal was rejected, 
 and then made a long speech to justify the conduct of the 
 Parliament, charging the king with having ruled as a tyrant, and 
 thereby rendered resistance both a duty and necessity. "A 
 great necessity," he said, " occasioned the calling of the Parlia- 
 ment, and what your designs and plots and endeavours all along 
 have been for the crushing and confounding of this Parliament 
 
24.0 TEIAL OF THE KING. [rump pare. 
 
 hath been very notorious to the whole kingdom ; it makes mc 
 call to mind that that we read of a great Konian emperor — by- 
 the-way, let us call him a great Eoman tyrant — Caligula, that 
 wished that the people of Borne had had but one neck, that at 
 one blow he might cut it off. And your proceedings have been 
 somewhat like to this, for the body of the people of England hatb 
 been represented but in the Parliament, and could you but have 
 confounded that, you had at one blow cut off the neck of Eng- 
 land. But God hath reserved better things for us, and hath 
 pleased for to confound your designs and to break your forces, 
 and to bring your person into custody that you might be respon- 
 sible to justice." 
 
 The whole court stood up in sign of assent, while the clerk 
 read the sentence, that Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, and 
 murderer, should be put to death by the severance of the head 
 from the body. 
 
 The king appeared deeply agitated and now tried to speak, but 
 as he had refused to plead before the sentence was given, he was 
 not allowed to speak after, and the judges rose and retired. The 
 king, in the midst of vain endeavours to make himself heard, 
 was forced down the hall by the soldiers, who shouted in his 
 ears, ' Justice ! justice !' ' Execution !' As he passed in his 
 chair from Westminster to Whitehall, the windows, the shops, 
 the streets, were crowded with people weeping and praying 
 1 God to bless the king'* (Jan. 27th). 
 
 On taking leave of his two youngest children, who were still 
 in England, Charles bade the Lady Elizabeth, a girl of twelve 
 years old, tell her brother James it was his father's last desire 
 that he should no longer look on Charles as his eldest brother 
 only, but be obedient to him as his sovereign. Then taking the 
 little Duke of Gloucester on his knee, he said to him, " Sweet 
 heart, now they'll cut off thy father's head ; mark, child, what I 
 say, they'll cut off my head, and perhaps make thee a king ; but 
 mark wha.t I say, you must not be king so long as your brothers 
 Charles and James live ; for they'll cut off your brothers' heads- 
 when they can catch them, and cut off thy head too at last ; and, 
 therefore, I charge you not to be made a king by them.' ' I wili' 
 be torn in pieces first/ said the child weeping.t Charles kissed^ 
 
 * Herb., Mem., 168. 
 
 + Eusbwortb, vi. 604 ; Herbert, 180. 
 
jan. 30, 1649.] EXECUTION OF THE KING. 241 
 
 them both, and bade Bishop Juxon have them taken away, while he 
 turned to the window to hide his own emotion. The next morn- 
 ing the king walked from St. James's to Whitehall amidst a 
 guard of soldiers, with Juxon on one side and Col. Tomlinson 
 on the other, talking to them on the way calmly and cheerfully. 
 About noon he was conducted through a passage, made in the ■ 
 wall of the Banqueting House at Whitehall, on to the scaffold, 
 which had been erected in the open street. Men and women 
 who had forced their way into tho hall uttered prayers in his 
 behalf as he passed by. The soldiers throughout the whole occa- 
 sion kept a deep silence, awed by the solemnity of their own act- 
 On the scaffold, which was hung with black, stood two execu- 
 tioners disguised in masks. Soldiers filled the space immediately 
 below, so that the crowded spectators beyond could hear no word 
 the king uttered. Charles died in the firm belief in which he 
 ii)id lived, that in the quarrel between himself and his subjects 
 lie had been always in the right, they always in the wrong. He 
 addressed a short, cold speech to the few assembled on the scaffold, 
 in which he asserted this belief, and then prepared calmly to die. 
 " Hurt not the axe," he said to a gentlemen who touched its 
 edge while he was speaking ; " that may hurt me." In the words 
 of Marvell : 
 
 " He nothing common did or mean 
 Upon that memorable scene, 
 
 But with his keener eye 
 
 The axe's edge did try ; 
 Nor call'd the gods with vulgar spite 
 To vindicate his helpless right ; 
 
 But bow'd his comely head 
 
 Down, as upon a bed." 
 
 " I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown," he said to 
 the bishop, " where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the 
 world." Then putting his head upon the block, he said to the 
 executioner, " When I put out my hands this way, then — ; 
 stay for the sign." Within a few moments the sign was 
 given, and the executioner, holding the head up in his hand, 
 cried to the people, " Behold the head of a traitor." 
 
 By Charles' trial two issues were decided, the king's depo- 
 sition and his execution. The two issues are distinct. That 
 a king holds office for the good of his people, and, if he 
 perverts his power to their injury, may justly be deprived of it 
 
 16 
 
242 INSTANCES OF DEPOSITION. [rump parl. 
 
 by their representatives, is a constitutional principle, which has 
 "been acted on in the later as well as in the earlier years of our 
 history. Forty years after the trial and execution of Charles I., 
 Parliament resolved that his son, King James II., having en- 
 deavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom by break- 
 ing the original contract between king and people, and having 
 violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself 
 out of the kingdom, had abdicated the government, and that the 
 throne had thereby become vacant. The crown which the House 
 of Stuart thus for a second time forfeited, they proceeded to 
 bestow upon William and Mary of Orange. For a hundred 
 years, in fact till the death of Charles Edward in 1788, that the 
 kings ruled by a Parliamentary title was not merely a theoretical 
 principle, but the actual basis of the settlement of the crown. It 
 was also one of the original principles of the nation. The Saxon 
 kings were, in fact, elected, and the principle was partly recognized 
 that what the nation gave, it could take away ; Sigeberht, 
 iEthelred, Harthacnut were all deposed by the Witenagemot, or 
 great council of the nation. Hereditary succession was not 
 established as the rule in practice till the accession of Edward I. 
 The sanction of the nation was added in doubtful cases. Nor 
 did the Great Council, when transformed into the two Houses 
 of Parliament, forget the use of its ultimate power of depo- 
 sition. In 1327 the moral sense of the nation revolted at the 
 conduct of its king. A bill, charging him with immorality, 
 incapacity, cruelty, and oppression was read and admitted as a 
 sufficient ground of deposition. By this, Parliament declared 
 that Edward II. had ceased to reign, and bestowed the crown on 
 his son. In 1399 thirty -three charges were read in Parliament 
 against Richard II. The king was declared guilty on every charge, 
 and his deposition pronounced. The scene was one which the 
 great dramatist had made familiar to the nation. When, therefore, 
 the court told Charles that he was responsible to the Commons of 
 England, and was tried in the name of the people of England, 
 they were introducing no new principle into the constitution. 
 In such cases, the fictions of lawyers, which in ordinary times 
 may often be useful as preventives against revolutions, are cast 
 aside like gossamer threads, and the king, " who can do no 
 wrong," stands arraigned as a common criminal. 
 
 If Charles then had been merely deposed by Parliament, he 
 
1649.] EXECUTION OF THE KING. 243 
 
 would never ha.ve gained the reputation he has had as a martyr. 
 The justice and legality of the course taken to compass his death 
 is, however, a distinct question. His trial and execution was the 
 work, not of a full Parliament, but of a small minority which could 
 make no pretence of representing the people of England. To carry 
 out their end, this minority proceeded to violent measures which 
 only circumstances of extreme necessity could justify. They 
 excluded members by violence from the House of Commons ;* 
 they virtually abolished the House of Lords ; they passed a 
 .retrospective ordinance ; and, instead of exercising their function 
 in Parliament according to precedent, they erected a new and 
 arbitrary court of justice. 
 
 It must, indeed, be said that a great advance had been made 
 in the treatment of deposed kings since the fourteenth century. 
 An arbitrary court and an ex post facto law are better than the 
 secret murder which was the lot of Edward and Kichard. The 
 light of day and the presence of the chief men of the nation gave 
 the semblance of a fair trial. Even this semblance is less de- 
 basing to the morality of the community than the sanction of 
 murder by government. Compared with this, informalities were 
 but a slight evil ; indeed it could scarcely be expected that a 
 ^constitution could provide special legal forms for the trial of the 
 
 * This great blot on the proceedings was well hit by a remonstrance 
 ruldressed to Ireton. " The godly and moral jealousy, I have over 
 you and others related to the lieutenant-general, makes me present 
 these few lines Surely of all others the change of laws and govern- 
 ment had need to be done in full Parliament. But that it may be as 
 near as possible the act of the whole people, as many as may be should 
 be present, lest it fails of the esse of magmim consilium, or that the absence 
 of many by a forced or legal impediment be not judged a just impediment 
 to proceedings. And whether this Parliament be either a free or impartial 
 one will abide disputed at least, and if ever time shall come in which ex- 
 amination may be of things and present transactions in reference to this 
 Parliament, who can tell if it may not be judged beyond the Earl of Straf- 
 ford's fault, which was but arbitrary government, which is but a slighting of 
 
 laws — much of this a total abolition of them? It may, perhaps, come to 
 
 be said of your many dangerous ends and extraordinary actings, as the 
 .Romans of Pompey the Great, his daughter, it was a fair and happy 
 daughter, brought forth of an ugly and odious mother ; I wish it may be 
 ■so — only thus much, if you save the people of this land in the way } r ou are 
 in, it must be both against their wills and prayers." "This I delivered to 
 Ireton about a fortnight before the king's trial. Signed, John Clayton." 
 See an unpublished pamphlet among Clarendon Papers in Bodleian, entitled, 
 * : State Colours and Compactions, in which »*e reasons against the proceed- 
 ings to try the king." 
 
 1(3 — 2 
 
244 EXECUTION OF THE KINO. [rump pabi* 
 
 chief of the State, who could never be tried except after a revo- 
 lution. 
 
 On the one hand it has been said that the people had been rent 
 asunder into two great bodies, one engaged for the king, the other 
 for the Parliament, and that, therefore, if Charles was to be put on 
 trial for his life at all, he ought to have been tried, not by the- 
 rules of common or statute law, but by those of international 
 law, which obtain between foreign nations. These forbid that 
 the victors should take the lives of the vanquished. It was, in 
 fact, on these principles that the struggle had been maintained. 
 Prisoners on either side had rarely been put to death as traitors, the 
 fellow-feeling of the combatants, as well as the fear of retaliation, 
 having prevented such cruelty. The rules of international law ap- 
 plied as much to the leaders as to their followers. On the other 
 hand, it was undoubtedly true that Charles was guilty in a sense 
 in which no other leader was guilty, and no mere general could 
 have been. For it was his deceptions, followed as they were by 
 the refusal of the necessary Militia Bill, that caused the war. 
 Had he read aright the history of the past, he would have seen 
 that the great Edward's " pactum serva " contained the whole law 
 for a constitutional king. Charles was not punished as a com- 
 batant, but as the cause of the combat, in other words, for his- 
 previous actions as a king. As for the rights of war, the Inde- 
 pendent leaders could scarcely have doubted that, had the cases 
 been reversed, he would have meted the same measure to them. 
 The voice of the nation, however, was for clemency in the 
 hour of their king's fall ; they did not think he had com- 
 mitted such sanguinary crimes as justified the violation of law 
 to accomplish his death. Thousands had fought on his side ; 
 thousands who had fought against him wished to spare his 
 life. His enemies might plead that they were acting in self- 
 defence ; but if they counted on the king's death stopping the 
 reaction, they greatly miscalculated. When Charles was dead, 
 they had his son to deal with, who had not, as his father, lost 
 the confidence of the nation. 
 
 These objections were so strongly felt at the time, that several 
 officers, and several Bepublicans, stood aloof from the whole pro- 
 ceeding. Fairfax, Skippon, Vane, Algernon Sidney, exerted all 
 their influence to prevent a trial for life, wishing to see the king 
 merely deposed. On the other hand, the mass of sectarians, 
 
1649.] THE FEELINGS OF THE ACTORS. 245 
 
 republicans, and Levellers pressed fox Charles' execution as 
 a grand and signal display of justice ; one that had not its 
 •record in history, and might serve as a warning to all crowned 
 heads for the future. Charles, according to them, had broken 
 his coronation oath, in which he swore to govern by the laws 
 of the land, and had thereby been the author of the civil 
 war, and the bloodshed attendant upon it. Any accommoda- 
 tion was alike unsafe and wicked ; unsafe, because his dupli- 
 city had been proved over and over again ; wicked, because of 
 the express words to be found in God's law, that " blood defiletli 
 the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is 
 shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it."* " As for 
 Mr. Hutchinson," s&ys his wife, " although he was very much 
 confirmed in his judgment concerning the cause, yet being here 
 called to an extraordinary action, whereof many were of several 
 minds, he addressed himself to God by prayer, desiring the Lord, 
 that, if through any human frailty he were led into any error, He 
 would open his eyes and not suffer him to proceed — and finding 
 no check, he proceeded to sign the sentence against the king. 
 Although he did not then believe but it might one day come to 
 be again disputed among men, yet both he and others thought 
 they could not refuse it without giving up the people of God 
 (whom they had led forth and engaged themselves unto by oath) 
 into the hands of God and their enemies." 
 
 Cromwell and Ireton placed themselves at the head of the move- 
 ment they were powerless to prevent. There is no doubt that they 
 sympathized in it. Only once does Cromwell allude to the execution, 
 at least in the letters and speeches that still remain. " They," he 
 says, " that acted this great business have given a reason of their 
 faith in the action, and some here are ready, further, to do it against 
 all gainsayers."t Such a decision as the Independent leaders had 
 to make in regard to the execution of Charles I., shows what is 
 •really terrible in revolutions. It is not that men carry their lives in 
 'their hands, the soldier thinks nothing of that. It is that crises 
 come then, when men cannot choose the good, cannot stand aside, 
 but must choose between two evils, and see the evil of what 
 they choose. At such a time many a man would gladly oppose 
 both and fall ; but a leader is bound to the helm, though 
 he may see no course but to run his ship on the rocks, and drown 
 * Numbers xxxv. 33. t Clirl - u - 21 °- 
 
246 EXECUTION OF THE KING. [rump PAist. 
 
 some to save many. This is what is most terrible in revolutions \ 
 after the fact it is terrible to all ; it is terrible at the time only 
 to the weaker or more delicate spirits. These birds of calm are 
 caught by the storm and drowned while doubting. Not so the 
 real leaders of revolutions. They ride upon the storm. They 
 see but as the lightning flashes. To them the lesser evil seems 
 a transcendent good. Charles had hoped by his intrigues to 
 crush Cromwell ; he failed ; and Cromwell thenceforth looked 
 upon him as hopelessly false ; as one who was destitute of that 
 sense of truth between man and man, which was a necessity of 
 political life. Such a man, if a ruler, he held, must be dealt with 
 by banishment or by death, as an incurable evil of the common- 
 wealth. His was a stern mind, and a mind into which an idea 
 of privilege did not enter. There was with him no respect of 
 persons. If he had no mercy on Lilburne's misguided Leveller, 
 who endangered the fidelity of a regiment, he was as severe to 
 the prince, who endangered the liberty of the country. Such a 
 mind, intensely confident of its own sense of justice, never recoiled 
 from its conclusion. If it could not draw back, still less could 
 it conceal its purpose. As it abhorred secret murder, so it abhorred 
 that lingering murder, which, while it shrinks from taking away 
 life, shrinks not from taking away the means of life. If Charles 
 was to die, it could not be by the lingering death Charles himself 
 had assigned to Eliot. There was no secrecy in Cromwell's 
 dealing with prince or private ; the one was given over to martial 
 law before the eyes of his comrades ; the other was given as 
 openly to no less stern inquisitors of blood. 
 
 The world, however, has not judged as Cromwell did. And, 
 though on grounds of abstract justice, it is hard to say why a 
 king deserves a mercy which he has denied to his subjects, yet 
 many faults will be forgiven to those who have had the diffi- 
 cult task of governing others. Among the causes which have 
 won an excess of sympathy for Charles, we observe the natural 
 pity for the greatness of the fall, a disinclination to judge hardly 
 of the fallen, but, above all, the deep-rooted sentiment of loyalty, 
 which the restriction of prerogative has itself attached to the king, 
 by making his throne the ideal element of the constitution, and 
 thus so raising him above parties, that when his ministers do 
 well, he receives the. honour, when ill, he can restore, or even 
 increase, his own popularity by ridding himself of his advisers^ 
 
1649.] CAUSES OF SYMPATHY. 247 
 
 Besides these general considerations, it will be remembered that 
 the interpreter of his times for all the generations before our 
 own, has been one who wrote in the full tide of the reaction, 
 and who, as is now known, has not shrunk on occasion from 
 suppressing truth, in his endeavour to palliate the faults of one 
 side or blacken those of the other. The historian has been 
 seconded so ably by the painter and novelist, that a Cavalier has 
 been held the type of all that is noble, and a patriot of all that is 
 mean. It will be noticed that the two classes by whom Charles 
 has been most admired, have been the clergy, who may have 
 been unconsciously biassed by a not unnatural antipathy to 
 the religious theories of his opponents ; and those whose lives 
 have brought them least in contact with public interests : these 
 have judged him as one of their own society, and have been 
 carried away by the many virtues of his private life, his courage 
 in the field, his tender nature and his piety, as well as by the 
 noble attitude in which these qualities sustained him at his death. 
 Those, on the other hand, who have interested themselves 
 deeply in the cause of the people, must perforce judge public men 
 by what they have done for the nation. In their roll of martyrs 
 will come not Charles, who died from reluctance to abandon boldly 
 a prerogative which had been proved to be untenable and perni- 
 cious, but Eliot, who died in defence of the necessary rights of 
 the Commons' house, and the ransacking of whose most secret 
 papers has only proved more clearly what was clear before, that the 
 only ends he aimed at were his country's, his God's, and truth's. 
 Those who look to national interests will hold that the first in- 
 tellectual virtue of a ruler is an insight into the spirit of his time 
 and the first moral virtue, a sympathy with his people's hopes and 
 fears. As men may be too good fathers, if they use patronage as 
 a vehicle of nepotism, so kings are too good husbands, when they 
 give or withhold their consent to the nation's wishes according to 
 the tempers or caprices of their wives, and too good churchmen, 
 when they put one half of their subjects without the pale of 
 toleration. This is not the sense in which, with kings, as with 
 others, " England expects every man to do his duty." 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 SOCIAL STATE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 OIgQ' ovv on Kal dvQpoj-wv tidr) roaavra dvdyKrj Tporrcjv eivca, 
 Zaatrsp Kal 7ro\miwv ; rj o"a.t tic Sovoq TroQtv ?/ Ik Trtrpag rag 7ro\iTiiag 
 yiyveaQai, aW ou%l tic tiov 7)QCjv tCjv tv tcJq iroXtaiv, a dv loGTrep 
 pexpai'Ta rdWa t<pt\icv<7r]-ai. 
 
 You are doubtless aware that the varieties of human character must in- 
 volve a corresponding number of constitutions. Or do you think that the 
 constitutions we see are foundlings from the woods and rocks, and not the 
 legitimate offspring of the moral dispositions of the members of each State 
 which, so to speak, turn the scale, carrying the whole balance with them? — 
 Plato, Rep., vii. 2. 
 
 The population of England, now over three and twenty mil- 
 lions, and increasing two more every decade, numbered, in the 
 middle of the seventeenth century, but about five and a half 
 millions. Commerce was too insufficiently extended, too little 
 of the soil had been brought under cultivation, too little science 
 introduced into the processes of manufacture and agriculture, for 
 the country to provide food or employment for a large number of 
 inhabitants. 
 
 The largest and most important trading towns were in the ■ 
 southern half of the kingdom. London contained about 500,000 
 inhabitants, a sixth of its present population. The population of 
 Bristol, the next place to London in size, was not 30,000. The 
 large manufacturing towns in the north were just beginning to 
 rise into importance. Sheffield, where knives were made, con- 
 tained between 2000 and 3000 inhabitants ; Leeds, a great seat 
 of the woollen manufacture, between 3000 and 4000 ; 5000 or 
 6000 formed the population of Manchester, where cotton, im- 
 ported from Cyprus and Smyrna, had been manufactured for the 
 last thirty or forty years. 
 
 It is now acknowledged that the result of granting to persons 
 or classes special privileges for the conduct of any trade or manu- 
 facture can only be to destroy competition and so raise prices to 
 the injury of the consumers, for the supposed or real advantage 
 
SOCIAL STATE ] MONOPOLIES. 243 
 
 of a few. Nor is this the whole of the evil. "Wages can only 
 come out of capital, and when capital lies idle and is checked in 
 its natural growth by a narrowing of the market and an arti- 
 ficial enhancement of price, then wages are checked as well. In the 
 seventeenth century, however, these principles were Trade and 
 not understood, and trade was shackled by restrictions, commerce, 
 imposed sometimes by the Executive, sometimes by the Legisla- 
 ture. The monopolies granted by Elizabeth, James I., and 
 Charles I. were especially injurious, because the owners of each 
 patent were so few, that they were enabled, by combining to- 
 gether, to force upon the consumer a bad article, and at the 
 same time to raise its price and tax the public for their own 
 benefit. Though the granting of monopolies was forbidden by 
 statute law in James' last Parliament (1623), the practice was 
 continued until the Scotch war, when Charles recalled all patents, 
 in the hope of regaining some of the popularity he had lost. 
 Though, in this case, the evils of interference were very clearly 
 felt and seen, yet there was no perception of the principle that 
 trade flourishes most when left alone ; and the interference of 
 Parliament was often invoked to protect both producers and 
 traders against their own countryman and against foreigners. 
 For instance, indigo was brought from the Indies to Europe, and 
 was soon largely employed in the place of woad for dyeing cloth, 
 as the dye was richer, and the process cheaper ; but when 
 farmers, merchants, and carriers, engaged in the woad trade, 
 found their employment decreasing, they raised a loud outcry 
 against the new dye, saying that it injured the material of the 
 cloth : on this the governments in England, Germany, and 
 France forbade the use of indigo, branding it with the name of 
 the ' Devil's dye.' An act, passed in England to this effect, under 
 Elizabeth, remained in force until the reign of Charles II., so 
 that the price of cloth was artificially raised, for nearly a century, 
 through the interference of the government. 
 
 Nations, like individuals, gain by being allowed to interchange 
 their goods freely. Each can then expend its labour and capital 
 upon those branches of industry for which it possesses special ad- 
 vantages, while it has its own wants supplied at the least possible 
 cost, by taking from other nations those products which they can 
 supply more cheaply than itself. For these imports the nation pays 
 by exporting, in exchange, the superfluity of its own special pro- 
 
250 MEECANTILE SYSTEM. [sociax 
 
 ducts. Legislators of the seventeenth century believed, however 
 in the mercantile system, which assumed that money was wealth, 
 and that the more money a country contained, the more prosper- 
 ous it would be. Money, however, is, of course, only one form of 
 wealth, although the medium of exchange for all other wealth. 
 If the amount of coin in a country was doubled, and none of it 
 allowed to quit the country, its true wealth, its corn, stock, its 
 mineral produce, and the like, would not be doubled also. A rise 
 of prices would result. Where one shilling had been paid before, 
 two shillings would now have to be paid. Everybody's pocket 
 would be heavier, but nobody would be any the richer. Govern- 
 ments, however, from a belief in the mercantile system, tried to 
 prevent the importation of goods, in order to stop money from 
 going out of the country, and encouraged their exportation, in 
 order to bring money into the country ; and the more exports 
 and fewer imports of a people, the more prosperous they were 
 supposed to be. Hence it followed that nations were jealous of 
 one another's trade, and it was thought a happy thing for Eng- 
 land, that while she was at peace, the Continent was devastated 
 by "war, because she was likely to find fewer rivals to compete 
 with in foreign markets. Heavy duties were laid on articles of 
 importation, in order that the country, instead of buying them 
 of foreigners, might, if possible, produce them at home. Such 
 duties could only be pernicious. They compelled consumers to 
 pay high prices ; they did not provide extra employment for 
 Englishmen, because the same amount of labour and capital, 
 given to industries more suited to the climate, the soil, or the 
 character of the people, would have served to buy the protected 
 articles from foreigners, and left a surplus over, to be employed 
 upon further production. 
 
 During the sixteenth century, merchants trading to foreign 
 parts had generally obtained charters from the crown, incor- 
 porating them. into companies with special privileges. Tims the 
 Foreign trade with Russia was monopolized by a 'Russian 
 bands of Company/ incorporated in 1554 ; that with the Low 
 companies. Countries and Germany by the ' Merchant Adven- 
 turers,' who were incorporated as early as 1407. One company 
 traded with Norway, Sweden, and Denmark ; while the ' Turkey 
 Company ' engrossed the trade with the Levant. The fact that the 
 members of these companies were generally Londoners, helps 
 
state.] TKADING COMPANIES— EAST INDIES. 251 
 
 to explain the great size and wealth of the capital compared 
 with other ports. In the year 1604, the sum received in the 
 port of London for customs and imposts amounted to ,£110,000, 
 while that collected from the same sources in all the rest of the 
 kingdom only to £17,000. At the accession of James I., the 
 French trade alone was open to merchants not members of the 
 companies. This monopoly of the foreign trade excited great 
 discontent among the excluded, and, in 1604, a bill to throw open 
 foreign commerce passed the Commons, but was rejected by the 
 Lords. An act, however, was passed in 1606, granting liberty of 
 trade with France, Spain, and Portugal ; and the Turkey Com- 
 pany was formed on a new footing, so that all who paid a certain 
 subscription were allowed to become members. Commerce grew, 
 aud the long peace that lasted from the beginning of the century 
 until the breaking out of the civil war, was so favourable to its 
 extension, that, if the accounts of writers of the time may be be- 
 lieved, the progress of the present century has hardly been in a 
 greater ratio than that which prevailed in all but the war decade.* 
 In the year 1600, three years before James' accession, the 
 first charter was granted to an East India Company, ' freely and 
 solely to trade into countries and parts of Asia, Africa, and 
 America, beyond the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of 
 Magellan/ Without the licence of this company, no merchant 
 might trade in all this sea, upon pain of forfeiting ships and 
 cargoes. The first trading stations or factories on the coasts of 
 India, and in the West India islands, had been established by the 
 Portuguese. Jealous of the appearance of strangers, the Portu- 
 guese starved and imprisoned Englishmen unfortunate enough to 
 fall into their power, and, by blocking up the river mouths, pre- 
 vented English vessels from approaching the trading town of Surat, 
 which was then the emporium of the western coast of India (1606). 
 English captains, however, by defeating the Portuguese with a 
 smaller number of ships, greatly impressed the natives with an 
 idea of English courage and seamanship. The enterprise of 
 English merchants soon made its way inland to Agra, then the 
 seat of government of the Great Mogul, and obtained from him a 
 charter, granting their countrymen liberty to trade. English 
 trading stations were established in Sumatra and Java, and 
 
 * Hallam, Lit. of Europe, iii. 457. 
 
252 JEALOUSY OF DUTCH. [social 
 
 at last, in spite of the opposition of the Portuguese, an Eng- 
 lish factory was founded at Surat (1612). In 1616, there 
 were nine factories in India alone, one in Japan, besides 
 many in Celebes, Borneo, and other of the East India islands. 
 About the same time as the English, the Dutch also opened 
 a trade with the East. The Portuguese had made themselves 
 so detested through their cruelties, that the natives willingly 
 joined with the newcomers in driving them from their sta- 
 tions. But by the time that they had quitted the field, com- 
 mercial jealousy arose between the English and the Dutch. The 
 seven united provinces of Holland, ever since they had won their 
 Commercial independence of Spain, had prospered to such an 
 prosperity extent, that the number and activity of their inhabi- 
 tants was the marvel of every traveller. The English 
 merchant service could not cope in number with the vessels the 
 Dutch sent annually to France, Spain, Norway, Russia, Germany, 
 and the East. The herring fisheries off the English coasts were 
 mostly carried on by Dutch fishing-boats, called busses. The 
 most valuable export of England was wool in the raw or manu- 
 factured state ; but the Dutch were so much the better workmen, 
 that they imported large quantities of wool from England, and 
 having worked it up into cloth, made their money by selling 
 it again to foreigners, including the English themselves. They 
 possessed further a large carrying trade ; for, having the true in- 
 stinct for business, and being content with a low rate of interest, 
 when combined with security of payment and quickness of re- 
 turns, they became the carriers of Europe, buying the produce of 
 one country and selling it to another, requiring such a small 
 profit in addition to the original cost of the goods, that merchants 
 of other nations did not care to compete with them.* 
 
 As the English showed a more enterprising spirit, and an in- 
 tention of extending their trade, they awoke the jealousy of 
 their neighbours in Holland. The seamen of the two nations 
 had already come into unfriendly contact off the coast of Spits- 
 bergen, where whale fisheries were carried on. The English, the 
 Dutch, and the Danes, each making a preposterous claim to the 
 
 * " It cometh many times to pass," says Bacon, ' that ' materiam superabit 
 opus' — that the work and carriage is more worth than the material, and en- 
 rieheth a State more-; as is notably seen in the Low Countries, who- have the 
 best mines above ground in the world." — Bacon's Essays, xv. 
 
state.] DUTCH IN EAST INDIES. 253 
 
 dominion of this island and the surrounding waters, used to de- 
 mand toll of all foreign vessels in return for licence to fish. It 
 was rare, however, for the demand to be enforced, as the mer- 
 chants of each nation took the precaution of sending out a fleet 
 sufficiently strong to resist the claims of all opponents. In the 
 East Indies, the Dutch, relying on James' well-known dislike to 
 war, made outrageous aggressions on English merchants and 
 traders. They drove the English out of the Molucca islands, 
 and would have massacred them in Japan but for the interference 
 of the natives (1619). At Amboyna, one of the Moluccas, they 
 murdered ten Englishmen on a groundless charge of conspiracy 
 (1623). Erom this time, though the two countries continued 
 nominally at peace, constant fighting took place upon these 
 Eastern waters between the sailors of the Dutch and English 
 East India Companies. Little lav/ prevailed at sea, and a 
 merchant vessel, if a safe opportunity occurred, felt no shame 
 in taking up the calling of a pirate. The English were 
 finally driven from several of their settlements, and the affairs 
 of the East India Company languished in consequence. 
 
 The principal imports from the East were silk, indigo, and spices. 
 From Turkey, besides gems, came silk, cotton, and yarn. 
 Coffee was first brought to England by a merchant be- 
 longing to the Turkey Company, who set up a coffee-house in 
 Cornhill (1652). From that time coffee-houses multiplied in 
 London, and became favourite places of resort. Tea, though 
 commonly drunk by Europeans in Surat, was not imported to 
 England in any quantity before the end of the century. The 
 principal exports which England exchanged for her Expor t s . 
 imports were her wool and cloth, with tin and lead. 
 
 In 1606 James I. had incorporated by charter two companies 
 for the colonization of America. The one called the South Vir- 
 ginian Company, or London Adventurers, was autho- colonization 
 rized to colonize the territory which now forms the of North 
 States of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia ; the coast. 
 second, or Plymouth Company, the territory which forms the 
 modern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England 
 States. Neither company was to form any settlement within a 
 hundred miles of land previously colonized by the other. The 
 first, or London Adventurers, indeed, set to work at once, and 
 colonized Virginia (1G07). Maryland, however, was not colonized 
 
254 AMEEICA COLONIZED. [social 
 
 by them, but through the exertions of Lord Baltimore, who 
 obtained from Charles I. a charter, granting him the country to 
 hold of the crown for himself and his heirs (1634). The 
 Plymouth Company was simply obstructive. The earliest 
 colonists in New England were the Pilgrim Fathers, a body of 
 persecuted sectarians. Having obtained leave from the London 
 Adventurers, on hard terms, to settle in Virginia, they were 
 carried by a treacherous captain in the bleak months of winter 
 to the coast of Massachusetts, where, fighting hard with cold, 
 hunger, and disease, they founded Plymouth (1620). But though 
 their endurance had conquered nature, it had still to struggle 
 with the ' laws in defence of trade.' The fact that the original 
 Plymouth Company had never succeeded in founding a single 
 colony did not impair its exclusive rights ; and, without the con- 
 sent of that company, " not a ship might sail into a harbour from 
 Newfoundland to the latitude of Philadelphia; not a skin might 
 be purchased in the interior ; not a fish caught on the coast ; not 
 an emigrant tread the soil."* In 1624, the company was fiercely 
 assailed in the House of Commons. " Your patent," said Coke, 
 to one of its members, " is a monopoly ; and the ends of private 
 gain are concealed under colour of planting a colony. . . . Shall 
 none visit the sea-coast for fishing 1 This is to make a monopoly 
 upon the seas, which wont to be free. If you alone are to 
 pack and dry fish, you attempt a monopoly of wind and sun." 
 On the coast of Maine private adventurers were soon emboldened 
 to plant fishing stations, which gradually ripened into colonies. 
 The company, howevel^so far maintained its exclusive privileges, 
 that it used to sell patemSTo individuals aud companies, autho- 
 rizing them to colonize vast tracts of country. Thus Charles- 
 town was founded in 1628. A company bought Massachusetts 
 and founded Salem (1629). Connecticut was colonized from 
 Massachusetts (1636). By the middle of the century, the whole 
 line of coast reaching from Newfoundland to Florida, and many 
 of the West India islands, were studded with settlements. The 
 principal imports from these colonies were tobacco, grain, and 
 fish. 
 
 The influx of wealth from these extensions of trade was enor- 
 mous ; but though wealth, where it falls on worthy shoulders, 
 
 * Bancroft, Hist, Am. i. 
 
state.] EXTRAVAGANCE IN DRESS. 255 
 
 brings refinement, in many it breeds mere luxury and ostenta- 
 tion. There was immense extravagance in dress and style of 
 living ; this was especially displayed in London, before the as- 
 cendancy of the Presbyterians. Ladies, while they followed the 
 fashions in wearing paint and patches upon their faces, vied with 
 one another in the amount of gold they could show broidered on 
 their silks and satins. Gentlemen would 
 
 ' Wear a farm in shoe-strings edged with gold, 
 And spangled garters worth a copyhold ; 
 A hose and doublet which a lordship cost ; 
 A gaudy cloak, three manors' price almost ; 
 A beaver band and feather for the head, 
 Prized at the Church's tithe — the poor man's bread.'* 
 
 The costume was picturesque enough. A broad-brimmed 
 beaver hat, adorned with feathers ; the long and curling hair 
 shown off by a lace collar ; a doublet of silk or satin, with 
 slashed sleeves ; a short cloak hanging over one shoulder ; 
 breeches reaching to the knee, and finished off with ribands ; 
 silk stockings and shoes adorned with rosettes ; a sword-belt, 
 with weapon attached ; and the whole set off with jewels and 
 gold lace. 
 
 In many the leisure which wealth gave was well employed. 
 Intellectual activity, a love of music and of art, a spirit of 
 enterprise and research, distinguished the upper and Tjp pe r 
 educated classes of society. Sir John Eliot's previous classes culti- 
 studies enabled him to employ his years of captivity 
 in writing a philosophical treatise. At that 'college situated 
 in purer air,' as Hyde called Lord Falkland's house near Oxford, 
 men, who afterwards took different sides in the war, used to meet 
 and discuss their different opinions, whether scientific or social, 
 political or religious, with the happy freedom of friendly inter- 
 course. Sir Robert Cotton formed an antiquarian and historical 
 library, whence the popular leaders drew stores of precedents 
 on which to base their defence of their country's liberties, in 
 their struggle with the prerogative. On a trivial excuse, Sir 
 Robert was imprisoned by order of the Council, and his library 
 put under lock and key. "I went several times to visit and 
 comfort him," wrote one of his friends in the year 1630. "He 
 would tell me they had broken his heart that had locked up his 
 
 * The Water Poet (temp. Charles I.) 
 
256 ART AND KNOWLEDGE. [SOOIAI 
 
 library from him." He remained in prison for several months, 
 and died in the spring of the following year (1631). Though men 
 such as Falkland, Eliot, and Cotton were the elite of their class, 
 they were also its representatives. Noblemen and gentlemen com- 
 monlv made collections of pictures, antiquities, ancient armour, 
 bronzes, and medals ; and took interest in scientific discoveries. 
 The barometer, the microscope, the telescope, were all instru- 
 ments newly invented. Glamorgan, Charles' agent in Ireland, was 
 renowned for his mechanical skill. In love of art, Charles was at one 
 with some of the first of his enemies. He made a fine collection of 
 pictures, medals, and curiosities of all kinds, and treated English 
 and foreign artists liberally. Eubens, who was sent to Charles 
 as the Spanish king's envoy, painted for him the ceiling of the 
 Banqueting House at Whitehall, built by Inigo Jones for 
 James I. Vandyke passed the best years of his life in England ; 
 and though Charles' weakness may be read in eyes and mouth 
 on his canvas, yet the painter has done much to foster the ideal 
 conception of the cavalier-king. Walker, an English painter, has 
 left several portraits of Cromwell. But love of knowledge, of 
 art, of antiquities, would never have created the greatness which 
 shone out in the English character during the great rebellion. 
 The enterprise and patriotism of the Elizabethan age remained 
 unimpaired, and was spiritualized by religion. Except the 
 courtiers, all classes, lettered and unlettered, seemed inspired by 
 fidness of belief and earnestness of purpose. Men were unselfish 
 and faithful, ready to risk fortune and life in their cause. Hence 
 the first New England colonies struggled into existence through 
 a terrible ordeal of cold and want. Hence the appearance of 
 men with the heroic qualities of Eliot* Hampden, Pym, Vane, 
 and Cromwell, rising up one after another, to lead the way in 
 defence of liberty. Hence the devotion with which the perilous 
 cause of the Parliament was embraced by thousands, while the 
 result of the war was yet doubtful ; and the unquenched hope 
 with which Cavaliers met the ruin of themselves and their 
 families, clinging to the cause of their master after all was lost. 
 
 Puritan tradesmen and yeomen had played a leading part in 
 accomplishing the overthrow of the government of Church and 
 State. These denounced the pursuit of pleasure as vanity, if not 
 actual sin. Discarding jewels, lace, silks, and satins, they dressed 
 themselves in plain black suits, long black cloaks, and high 
 
btate.J THE STAGE AND COUET. 257 
 
 steeple-crowned hats. Many went so far as to exclaim against 
 music, art, and profane learning, as temptations of the devil, that 
 divert the thoughts from God. Yet their fanaticism, however 
 exaggerated, had its apology in the exaggeration of the opposite 
 principles, as well as in the grandeur of the religious movement 
 from which their feelings sprang. The character of the stage had 
 been deteriorating ever since the death of Elizabeth. The plays of 
 Beaumont, Fletcher, and Massinger, were far coarser in language 
 and spirit than those of the earlier dramatists, and, from their 
 low moral tone and the character of their plots, were but too often 
 calculated to make the theatre a school of vice. The courtiers 
 ©f James I. and Charles I., amongst the most constant of play- 
 goers, were not only absurdly extravagant in their dress, but 
 often outrageously profligate in their lives. The latest historian 
 of English literature observes how at this period of the stage, ' the 
 noble chivalric paganism' of the sixteenth century had degenerated 
 into 'a base and coarse sensuality.' Elizabeth's old courtiers, 
 though by no means straitlaced, were astounded at the licence of 
 James' court. Sir John Harrington thus describes an entertain- 
 ment given by James in honour of the King of Denmark. " The 
 ladies abandon their sobriety, and are seen to roll about in intoxi- 
 cation. . . . The lady who did play the queen's part (in the 
 masque of the Queen of Sheba) did carry most precious gifts to 
 both their majesties ; but, forgetting the steps arising to the 
 canopy, overset her caskets into his Danish Majesty's lap and fell 
 at his feet, though I rather think it was in his face. Much was 
 the hurry and confusion ; cloths and napkins were at hand to 
 make all clean. His Majesty then got up and would dance 
 with the Queen of Sheba ; but he fell down and humbled himself 
 before her, and was carried to an inner chamber and laid on a 
 bed of state, which was not a little defiled with the presents of 
 the Queen, which had been bestowed on his garments ; such as 
 wine, cream, jelly, beverage, cakes, spices, and other good matters. 
 .... Now did appear in rich dress Hope, Faith, and Charity ; 
 Hope did essay to speak, but wine rendered her endeavours so 
 feeble that she withdrew and hoped the king would excuse her 
 brevity ; Faith left the court in a staggering condition. Next came 
 Victory, who after much lamentable utterance, was led away 
 like a silly captive, and laid to sleep on the outer steps of the 
 ante-chamber. As for Peace, she most rudely made war with 
 
 17 
 
PURITAN AUSTERITY. [social 
 
 her olive touch, and laid on the pates of those who did oppose 
 
 er cVmL I ne'er did see snch lack of good order, discretion, 
 
 her «m, Mi ^^ ^ ^ ^^ days _„, Thotlgh char l es 
 
 Immorality Wmself was not addicted to the coarser vices, and re- 
 SnSf ouired the forms of propriety to be observed in his 
 
 £Sted court, be bad no such bated of vice as to cause him 
 SSiSt to select his friends or companions from amongst men 
 ff o£ p U1 -e lives. Neither Buckingham, the kings 
 
 favourite, nor Lord Jermyn, the queen's favourite made the 
 tot pre ence to purity of morals.t The example of courtiers 
 Ltd its weigbt in influencing the conduct of the classes ; beneath 
 
 Liora oevinyn, wc i uw " u ~ 7 
 
 to purity of morals.t The example of courtiers 
 lt in influencing the conduct of the classes beneath 
 *hem Gentlemen from the country came up to London and 
 ruled themselves in trying to keep pace with a fashionable hf e 
 Idlers of all ranks spent their days drinking, smoking, and 
 Ambling in tavern, When such was the order of the day 
 LongsTthe pleasure-seeking classes of society, it was no matter 
 Jwonder that, by a revulsion of feeling, the more earnest 
 amongst the uneducated should seek refuge from vice m austerity 
 of life° and that amusements, constantly abused, should come to 
 be regarded as wicked and demoralizing in themselves. It was 
 a noble di^ust at whatever was really lowering to human nature, 
 that led the Puritans into the error of trying to suppress vice by 
 ^ te nancing games and sports that had delighted many 
 generations of Englishmen. Thus it was that theatrical exhibi- 
 tions of all kinds were put down by ordinance of Parliament; 
 spectators were ordered to be fined ; actors to be whipped at the 
 cart's tail The dance round the maypole, the wrestling match 
 on the village green, were proscribed. Christmas-day, kept from 
 time immemorial as a feast, was turned into a solemn fast. Music 
 and art had been taken into the service both of Lauds Church 
 and of levity ; they were therefore regarded as accessories to 
 the spread of Popish superstitions and laxity of life, and against 
 them a like war was waged. Paintings and sculptures were 
 removed from churches, and organs were forbidden. Though, in 
 
 wiiu 3, as it first led Hyde, a connection of the lady into acorre- 
 7ZZ .1 with the king, whom Hyde tried to get to act firmly in the 
 Ser Such misconduct, however, in no way impaired Jermyn s influence 
 S the queen, who not only supported him against the king at home, but 
 afterwards kepi him by her as her constant companion abroad.-LisxBR S 
 
 LlSfc OF CliA-ttENDOff. 
 
state.] THE PUEITAN GENTLEMAN. 259 
 
 many cases, the ravages done by time, war, spoliation, and neglect 
 have been unfairly put down to the Puritans, yet in others there 
 is little doubt that works of art which had been spared for their 
 beauty and antiquity at the Eeformation, were now wantonly 
 defaced and destroyed by the ignorant and fanatical soldiers who 
 fought in the armies of the Commonwealth. It would be unfair, 
 however, to class all Puritans together as holding upon these points 
 the same opinions. Like other great religious movements, Puri- 
 tanism, beginning with the people, spread upwards, and in its 
 course became subject to the influences of education and class 
 feeling. Hence there were numbers of Puritan gentlemen, whose 
 minds knowledge had rendered too liberal, or in whom the pride 
 of birth was too strong to allow them to adopt the habits, lan- 
 guage, and ideas of their more ignorant and fanatical companions. 
 Rembrandt's etching of the Dutch Anabaptist minister shows 
 a face by no means wanting in intelligence, refinement, and 
 capacity for enjoyment of life. Mrs. Hutchinson's description 
 of her husband, an Anabaptist officer, presents us with a 
 picture of the Puritan English gentleman, as he appeared at 
 the time when Puritanism was most in repute : — " He could 
 dance admirably well, but neither in youth nor riper years made 
 any practice of it ; he had skill in fencing, such as became a 
 gentleman ; he had a great love of music, and often diverted him- 
 self with a viol, on which he played masterly ; he shot excellently 
 in bows and guns, and much used them for his exercise ; he had 
 great judgment in paintings, gravings, sculpture, and all liberal 
 arts, and had many curiosities of value in all kinds ; he took much 
 pleasure in planting groves and walks and fruit-trees ; he left off 
 very early the wearing of anything that was costly, yet in his 
 plainest negligent habit appeared very much a gentleman : upon 
 occasions, though never without just ones, he would be very 
 angry, yet he was never outrageous in passion. He hated per- 
 secution for religion, and detested all scoffs at any practice of 
 worship, though such a one as he was not persuaded of it. 
 Wherever he saw wisdom, learning, or other virtues in men, he 
 honoured them highly. His conversation was very pleasant, for 
 he was naturally cheerful. Scurrilous discourse even among 
 men he abhorred. His whole life was the rule of temperance in 
 meat, drink, apparel, pleasure." Milton, the poet of the Puritans, 
 was a Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Italian scholar. Fairfax 
 
 17—2 
 
WANT OF HUMANITY. L^iai. 
 
 and Cromwell both gave manuscripts and books to the newly- 
 folded Bodleian Library at Oxford. The Presbyterians, in- 
 Zd during their ascendancy, passed an order in Parliament, 
 that all superstitious pictures in the king's coUections should be 
 bult the'remainder sold. For the sale the Parliament has 
 received more censure than it perhaps deserves. Charles himself 
 would no doubt have denied that his valuable collection was in 
 any sense the nation's property ; but, in the year 1643, when the 
 exigencies of the war were very great, it was hardly to be ex- 
 acted that the Parliament should hesitate to confiscate and sell 
 the kino's movables, more than those of any minor delinquent. 
 It is said that Cromwell, on becoming Protector, tried to keep 
 the remainder of the collection together, and put a stop to the 
 sales* Nor was this the only point in which his largeness of 
 mind made him tread in opposite footsteps to the Presbyterians. 
 Though unable to obtain the repeal of persecuting laws, yet when 
 the executive came to lie in his own hand he often suffered them 
 to be broken with impunity. Himself a lover of music h e placed 
 an organ in the palace at Hampton Court, where he often retired 
 for Sunday. Plays, written by Sir William Davenant were 
 Worked at the cockpit in Drury Lane (1658), while strolling 
 players again acted at country places, and in the houses of the no- 
 
 bl Much of the savage violence of the middle ages still remained 
 in the midst of the increased refinements of life that wealth and 
 knowledge were bringing in their train The custom of society 
 did not require that the smallest effort should be made to control 
 mssion Every gentleman wore his sword by his side, and was 
 ready to draw it on provocation, and it was no uncommon occur- 
 rence for a man to be wounded in the presence of ladies in conse- 
 quence of some drunken brawl. Amusements were cruel ; bull- 
 baiting, bear-baitiug, and cock-fighting delighted all classes m 
 town and country, till they were suppressed by Cromwell. The 
 greatest subsequent advance of morality and refinement has been 
 m this question of cruelty. There was then a general callousness to 
 the sight of pain. The humanity of those who have signalized 
 our own age by carrying laws to check the ill-treatment of 
 animals, would . then have had first to check the brutalizing 
 
 * Harris, Life of Cromwell. 
 
 f Evelyn, 196, 261 ; Chambers, 5b9, 599. 
 
state.] STATE OF PEISONS. 261 
 
 punishments which the law itself inflicted on men. The sight 
 of human beings in torment failed to awaken feelings of in- 
 dignation or of pain sufficiently strong to cause a reform of the 
 criminal law. Women who had murdered their husbands were 
 burned alive in Smithfield. Men were yearly hung by hundreds 
 for paltry thefts. Prisoners were so neglected that they often died 
 of disease and starvation before the time of their trial came on. 
 Town and county gaols were miserable and filthy dens unfit for 
 the habitation of man or beast. In the following century, 
 Howard thus describes the gaol for the county of Cornwall at 
 Launceston : " The prison is a room or passage 23 1 feet by 7^ 
 feet, with only one window 2 feet by 1^ ; and three dungeons or 
 cages on the side opposite the window ; these are about 6| feet 
 deep, one 9 feet long, one about 8 feet, one not five feet ; the last 
 for women. They are all very offensive ; no chimney, no water, 
 no sewers, damp earth floors, no infirmary. The court not secure, 
 and prisoners seldom permitted to go out into it. Indeed, the 
 whole prison is out of repair, and yet the gaoler lives distant. 
 I once found the prisoners chained two or three together. Their 
 provisions were put down to them through a hole (9 inches by 8) 
 in the floor of the room above, and those who served them often 
 caught the fatal fever. I found the keeper, his assistant, and one 
 prisoner all sick of it, and heard that a few years before many 
 prisoners had died of it, and the keeper and his wife in one night." 
 Though dungeons and fetters were, as a rule, reserved for felons, 
 debtors were in some respects worse off than the highwayman, 
 the housebreaker, and the murderer. To these last it was usual 
 to allow a pennyworth or two-pennyworth of bread a day, but 
 debtors and other offenders guilty of no criminal, often of no 
 moral, offence were left to provide entirely for their own susten- 
 ance. In the London prisons a wealthy man, such as Sir John 
 Eliot by paying high fees could provide himself with the luxury 
 of a bed and a separate room, but the ordinary prisoner slept on the 
 floor in the common apartment, thankful if he could obtain of his 
 keeper a little straw at a reasonable rate. As a rule, keepers and 
 coolers received no salaries, but made fortunes on the fees they 
 extorted from prisoners. Men might be confined in prison for 
 months, and then acquitted at the assizes, and, after acquittal, were 
 still liable to be dragged back again and locked up because unable 
 
262 SUPERSTITIONS. [social 
 
 or unwilling to pay the exorbitant fees demanded. It was not 
 seldom that the sufferings of the prison inmates were avenged in 
 a fearful way. "The most pernicious infection," says Bacon, 
 " next the plague, is the smell of the gaol where the prisoners 
 have been long and close and nastily kept, whereof we have had 
 in our time experience twice or thrice, when both the judges that 
 sat upon the gaol and numbers of those who attended the busi- 
 ness, sickened upon it and died." Between the years 1573 and 
 1579, 100 prisoners died in the King's Bench of ' a certain con- 
 tagion called the sickness of the house.' Without knowledge of 
 what the prison was, it is not possible fully to appreciate the 
 cruelty of the sentences of the Star Chamber, nor yet the 
 heroism of those who accepted an imprisonment of indefinite 
 length, rather than pay an illegal fine. When this Court ordered 
 Lilburne to be ' laid alone, with irons on his hands and legs, in 
 the wards of the Fleet, where the meanest sort of the prisoners 
 are put/ and forbade any to resort to him or give him money, 
 the sentence was nothing short of a lingering death by disease 
 and starvation. If it had been literally carried out for many 
 months, the prisoner must have died.* 
 
 Credulity and ignorance walking, as they do, hand in hand, 
 added to the cruelty of the age. Knowledge had not spread 
 far enough to free the minds of men of a load of superstitious 
 beliefs, handed down to them by their forefathers. The cavalier, 
 afraid of no enemy in the field, would forebode evil to himself 
 when a hare crossed his path, or the salt was overset. The clergy- 
 man of every parish was ready to exorcise the possessed. Ladies 
 hung round the necks of the sick a charm, such as ' a spider in a 
 nutshell lapped in silk,' with full belief in its efficacy to effect a 
 cure. A belief in such amulets inspired hope, and probably 
 saved many from falling by the hands of the country doctors of 
 the time. An eclipse of the sun was so dreaded that hardly any 
 would work or turn out of their doors for the day. During the 
 war, astrologers on both sides published almanacs, foretelling 
 events. King James prided himself on his learning in this subject, 
 
 * Though a committee of Parliament was appointed to investigate the 
 state of prisons in 1729, no reforms were made for another half century. In 
 1773 John Howard began his tour of inspection. He lived to see many 
 reforms introduced, both in the condition of prisons and the treatment of 
 prisoners, the results of his own noble efforts. 
 
state.] BELIEF m WITCHCRAFT. 263 
 
 and had an old woman tortured and put to death, in Scotland, 
 for raising a storm as he came from Denmark. He after- 
 wards wrote a book on purpose to support the common be- 
 lief in witchcraft ; and in the second year of his reign a law 
 was passed, making it felony to consult or employ any evil spirit. 
 On one occasion at the Lancashire assizes nineteen witches 
 were arraigned, and ten executed. The history of the witchcraft 
 laws is the strongest homily on the necessity of diffusing such an 
 education as will stimulate the intellect to independent thought. 
 The vagaries of independent thought may be corrected by the 
 conflict of minds, but bigotry with its narrow zeal cramps the 
 development of all, while it deals murder or terror broadcast. 
 Any withered decrepit old woman was liable to be at once 
 feared and abused by her neighbours as a witch. Perhaps 
 in her irritation she might curse " sometimes one, sometimes 
 another, and that from the master of the house, his wife and 
 children, to the little pig that lyeth in the sty ;" then, did a 
 sick cow die, she had bewitched it ; did a child languish, she was 
 causing its death, for she had been seen by one of her neighbours 
 with a clay or waxen image of the child in her hands. Such 
 proofs of witchcraft were quite sufficient to convince a jury that 
 the accused was guilty. Men conceived that because an object 
 was disagreeable and revolting to the eye, it must therefore have 
 a sinister influence on their fortunes, just as conversely the beau- 
 tiful wise women of the Norsemen were held to have a beneficial 
 power. It was the common fallacy of inferring facts from feel- 
 ings- -of judging that there was necessarily some reality in 
 nature corresponding to a feeling in the mind. Special de- 
 lusions arise, when men shut themselves up in some little world 
 of their own, and the conceptions of the Puritans made them pe- 
 culiarly liable to this error. During their ascendancy, hundreds 
 suffered death for witchcraft, for just as they believed in special 
 providences for good, that is in God's continual interference with 
 the ordinary course of the world for the support of His servants, so 
 they believed in the immediate interposition of Satan with horn 
 and hoof, and would as soon have denied the power of one man 
 to make an agreement with another, as that of man or woman to 
 form a compact with the devil. A common ordeal was to prick 
 the witch with pins and needles, to find out if the devil had 
 
231 THE NOBLEMAN. [social 
 
 rendered any spot insensible : another was to throw her into a 
 pond, and if she did not sink, it was held a clear proof that she was 
 rejected by the baptismal element. In one year of the Presbyterian 
 domination fourteen witches were found in a village of fourteen 
 families, and twenty more were selected for burning in a place near.* 
 About the same time, a man, by name Hopkins, travelled through 
 the eastern counties in the character of a witch-finder, and caused 
 sixty psrsons to be hung in Suffolk alone. His career at last was 
 stopped short by some magistrate, who, wiser than his fellows, set 
 the villain himself to the swimming ordeal. The belief in witch- 
 craft was universal in Europe at the time. If a judge had no 
 belief in witchcraft, he was obliged to conceal his opinion on the 
 Bench, as otherwise the jury would have set him down as a man of 
 no religion, and declared the accused guilty forthwith.f 
 
 Though the social system of the country showed a painful 
 contrast between boundless wealth and hopeless poverty, and 
 though the laws of debt and of trade caused a needless amount 
 of misery, yet as compared with previous times, the barriers of 
 privilege were not so unrelaxing, the lines between classes were 
 not so hardly drawn. The Procrustean arrangement of the feudal 
 system had long been gradually modified. The revolutionary 
 spirit now tried to eliminate it from the law. The gentry were, 
 in fact, eager themselves to change an honourable but irksome 
 tenure into one that they had once looked upon as inferior, but 
 the freedom of which they had now long coveted. The Long Parlia- 
 ment passed a resolution for the removal of feudal tenure (24th 
 Feb.). Cromwell, when Protector, passed an Act of Parliament 
 to the same effect. After the restoration, Cromwell's acts were 
 held invalid, but Charles II. gave his consent to a similar act, 
 converting feudal tenure into common socage. The king was then, 
 indeed, not merely a nominal landlord. Feudal tenants had to 
 pay him fines before entering upon their estates. If the heirs 
 were minors he appropriated their rents until they came of age. 
 A female ward was required to marry any person of suitable 
 rank, proposed by the sovereign, under penalty of paying a heavy 
 fine ; in fact this was one of the perquisites of favourites. Pines 
 
 * Whitelock, Mem., 450. 
 
 f Soger North, Life of Lord Guildford ■ Somers, iii. ; Trial of Lancashire 
 Witches. 
 
btate.] THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. 26S 
 
 were exacted when the sovereign's eldest son was knighted or 
 his eldest daughter married. 
 
 The chief sources of the wealth of the nobles and richer 
 gentry were the rents received from their tenantry and the 
 wool of their sheep, which browsed by thousands on heaths 
 and pasture lands. Their houses were large and commo- 
 dious. Stag heads, muskets, swords, and coats of armour 
 decorated the sides of their halls. The walls of their sitting- 
 rooms were often painted with figures, hunting landscapes, or 
 curious designs ; tables, chairs, and cabinets, were richly carved. 
 In the dining-room, the substitution of forks for fingers in eating 
 was a notable advance in refinement. There were displays of plate 
 for ornament, as well as for use. The households of some of the 
 chief nobility consisted of as many as two hundred persons. At the 
 Duke of Beaufort's house at Badminton, soap, candles, beer, and 
 beds were all home-made. Outside their mansions the owners 
 formed terraces, bowling-alleys, and tennis-courts, planted groves 
 of elms, oaks, and walnuts, and enclosed large parks, which they 
 stocked with deer. They laid out gardens adorned with statues, 
 fountains, and aviaries, and cultivated what were then rare flowers 
 and fruits — lilies, roses, cherries, pomegranates, and grapes. The 
 eldest son inherited his father's dignities and estates. The younger 
 passed into other employments, became barristers or merchants, 
 held office at court, or sought their fortunes in foreign service. The 
 girls were educated at home, and learnt, besides their letters, 
 music, dancing, and painting.* 
 
 The ordinary country gentleman held land by knights' ser- 
 vice of some superior lord, or of the crown. He lived the life of 
 a farmer, looking after his corn and pigs and sheep. He seldom 
 left his county, and a journey to London would be a leading event 
 in his life. Besides cock-fighting and bull-baiting, hunting was 
 his chief amusement. His talkie was plentifully supplied, and he 
 was generally hospitable to his poorer neighbours. Sheep and cat- 
 tle could not be fattened, as clover and turnips were not grown until 
 the beginning of the next century, so that in winter time his fare 
 consisted mainly of salted meat, fish, wild fowl, and rabbits. If he 
 was justice of the peace, he had half the business of the parish 
 upon his hands ; to see that the peace was kept ; to set children 
 
 * Life of Lord North; Beesley, Hist, of Banbury; Cullum, Hist, ci 
 Hawsted ; Evelyn, Diary. 
 
266 THE YEOMAN. [sociae 
 
 found growing up idle to work ; to receive the accounts of the 
 overseers of paupers ; to punish rogues and vagabonds. But as 
 in the army and the Parliament, so in the country parish, new 
 men had risen into importance ; and now, perhaps, some yeoman 
 or Eoundhead tradesman, a buyer of bishops' lands, was justice 
 of the peace, in place of the Eoyalist knight or squire, who, 
 having fought for King Charles, had been obliged to compound 
 for his estate, and returned to his home to find himself a com- 
 paratively poor and uninfluential man. This was felt bitterly, 
 for the Cavaliers who swelled Charles' armies, though not refined 
 over their cups or in their amusements, were as proud of their 
 descent as the greatest noble in the land. The children learnt 
 their letters at home, or at the village school, some " little house 
 by the churchyard side." The eldest son inherited his father's 
 land ; the younger became merchants, lawyers, sailors, and clergy- 
 men. The daughters, though getting a share of what education 
 there was, for all that, often could barely read and write, but 
 were brought up to be good housewives, to manage a dairy, to 
 bake, to brew, to distil water from flowers and plants. 
 
 Small farmers, or freeholders, were numerous and independent. 
 It was common for yeomen holding land by free socage* tenure to 
 possess £40 or £50 a year. Of these petty proprietors, who farmed 
 their few acres with their own hands, there were reported to be 
 180,000, a large proportion out of a population of 5,500,000. 
 Their sons became tradesmen and lawyers, or entered the 
 church. Sometimes very distinguished men rose out of their 
 ranks. Thus the father of Seidell, the lawyer and great Hebrew 
 scholar, is said to have been a yeoman worth about £40 a year.. 
 The sectarian army, which conquered the Cavaliers, was mainly re- 
 cruited from freeholders and their sons. Small farmers, proprietors 
 of the soil, who once played this important part in English history, 
 can no longer be said to exist as a class, large farms and hired 
 labour having taken their place in the economy of the country. For 
 more than a century preceding the time of the civil war, their 
 Decrease in numbers had been slowly decreasing. The demand for 
 small erS English wool in foreign parts was constantly rising, so 
 farmers. that to keep sheep became a more profitable occupa- 
 tion than to grow corn. To convert arable into pasture land, 
 landed proprietors would sometimes employ fraud, menace, or 
 * See p. 2. 
 
state.] THE LABOURER. 267 
 
 actual violence, in order to dispossess the small farmers of 
 their Naboth's vineyards. Whether these small farmers were 
 tenants holding land for life or a stated number of years, or were 
 copyholders, or even freeholders, it was no easy matter for the 
 owner of a few acres to withstand the ' little tyrant of the fields/ 
 who might possibly be justice of the peace, or even lord lieu- 
 tenant of his county. 
 
 The following is an instance of landlord oppression in the 
 reign of Charles I. : — Sir Edward Bullock, wishing to enclose 
 land in Norfolk, informed his tenant, Blackhall, that unless he 
 would consent to sell his lands and yield up his leases, he should 
 be made to ' run the country.' Blackhall, in consequence of his 
 refusal to part with his property, found his hedges broken down, 
 his gates opened, and himself sued at law for trespass, because his 
 cattle had strayed out upon the common. The verdict was given 
 against Sir Edward, who vowed to be revenged upon Blackhall's 
 witnesses. He caused the house of one to be pulled down, so that 
 the owner's wife and children passed two nights in the streets, for 
 nobody dared take them in ; and they " being afterwards by a 
 justice's direction received into a house, Sir Edward so threatened 
 the owner, that he turned them out of doors, and all the winter 
 they lay in an outhouse, without fire, so that the witness himself, 
 his wife, and one child died." He caused a second witness, a 
 woman, to be so beaten, that she could not put on her clothes for 
 a month afterwards. The Star Chamber fined Sir Edward ,£1000 
 damages to the king, and £100 damages to Blackhall, ' out of 
 which something was to be given to the children of the man 
 whose house was pulled down.'* After such a tale of wrong, it is 
 cheering to find that substantial justice was done, even by the 
 Star Chamber, though it may be said that now the offences would 
 receive a much severer punishment than a fine, and that the 
 records of the court show it was only too glad to fine any rich 
 man, as a means of recouping the exchequer, when the king had 
 dispensed with Parliaments. 
 
 Although villeinage had long died out in England, and had 
 been suppressed even in the western counties before the latter 
 part of Elizabeth's reign (1574), the condition of the hired labourei 
 was such, that, from a modern point of view, he could not fairly 
 be called a free man. His employers, the landowners, passed 
 * Rusliworth, Abr., ii., 191. 
 
268 POOE LAWS. [sociAl 
 
 laws which kept him in a state of half -bondage to themselves. 
 His wao-es were fixed by the justices of the peace, according to 
 the price of food. If he refused to work at the wages offered, or 
 went out of his county in search of higher wages, he became in 
 the eye of the law a rogue and vagabond. The laws against such 
 were exceedingly severe. Any person for the first time found 
 < wandering or roguing about/ was to be whipped on his naked 
 back until his body was bloody, and then sent from parish 
 to parish straightway to the place of his birth; or, if this was 
 not known, then to 'the parish where he last dwelt for the 
 space of a year (49th Eliz., 1597). " Poor Tom," says Edgar, 
 in King Lear, when he pkys the madman, a who is whipped 
 from tything to tything, and stocked and punished and impri- 
 soned." In order that the vagrant might be recognized, he was 
 to be branded on the left shoulder with the letter R, and if a 
 second time found begging or wandering about was to be adjudged 
 a felon and hanged (2nd James I., 1604). This barbarous law, 
 though probably not often enforced to its whole extent, was quite 
 in keeping with the criminal legislation of the time, which con- 
 demned the thief, who stole any article above ten shillings in 
 value, to die as a felon on the gallows. 
 
 Before the sixteenth century lords had naturally been expected 
 to provide for the old age of their villeins, whose lives had 
 been spent for their profit. But after villeinage became ex- 
 tinct, private charity was not openhanded enough to maintain the 
 impotent poor, and the Government found it necessary to legislate 
 in their favour. During the sixteenth century, the earliest of 
 the poor-laws were passed. Statutes of Heniy VIII. empower 
 the justices of the peace to give licenses to impotent persons to beg 
 within certain limits, and also order collections for the relief of the 
 poor to be made in church on Sundays and holidays (22nd, 27th 
 Henry VIII.). In the reign of Elizabeth, laws were passed, ren- 
 dering these alms compulsory, and appointing in every parish 
 overseers of the poor. These overseers Were to consist of the 
 churchwardens, together with three or four householders, to be 
 appointed by the justices of the peace. The justices of the peace 
 were further ordered to build houses of correction in waste places, 
 where the impotent might be maintained, and the strong found 
 idling or out of employ be set to work (5th, 43rd, 49th Eliz.), No 
 means, however, were taken to see that these statutes were put 
 
state.] LAW OF SETTLEMENT. 269 
 
 into force ; wanderers were branded, but workhouses were not 
 built. "I have heard rogues and vagabonds," sa}'s a pamphlet 
 writer, " curse the magistrates to their faces, for providing such 
 a law to whip and brand them, when no place is provided to set 
 them to work." These complaints were not ill-founded ; and, in 
 1610, a statute was passed, that justices of the peace who neg- 
 lected to build houses of correction should be fined £5 each. James 
 I., in alarm at the beggars in London, usurped the legislative power, 
 and issued a proclamation to the effect, that as rogues grew to be 
 dangerous to himself and his court, they were to be banished to 
 Newfoundland, the East and West Indies, Spain, or the Low 
 Countries. Though the poor laws of Elizabeth and James do not 
 forbid the labourer to remove from the place of his birth, they 
 practically prevent migration by classing the man who is without a 
 master, or refuses to work at the wages offered, under the same 
 category as rogues and vagabonds. The Law of Settlement, 
 passed immediately after the .Restoration, actually bound the 
 labourers to the soil (1662). It enacted that if any person came 
 to settle in a parish and occupied a tenement under the yearly 
 value of ,£10, the justices of the peace should have power to re- 
 move him back to the parish where Le was last settled for the 
 space of forty days. Eoger North, writing in 1688, thus described 
 the fatal effects of this pernicious law. " Surely, it is a great im- 
 prisonment, if not slavery, to a poor family to be under restraint 
 by law, that they must always live in one place, whether they 
 have friends, kindred, employment, or not. Such persons, if they 
 had spirits, have no encouragement to aspire to a better condi- 
 tion, since being born poor and in a place which gives no means 
 to be otherwise, they are not allowed to go and search it else- 
 where ; and if they find it, they are not permitted to entertain 
 it. Then their spirits sink, and they fall into a sottish way of 
 living, depend on the parish, who must however wretchedly 
 maintain them." Two motives prevented the repeal of a law 
 which was thus early allowed by intelligent men to be in- 
 jurious — the one, the selfish desire of employers of labour to 
 force the labourers to take work at the wages offered ; the other, 
 the selfish desire of ratepayers to limit as far as possible the num- 
 ber of poor in their own parish.* In the reigns of James and 
 
 * The law, having thus forbidden the labourer to move from his parish t~> 
 seek work for himself, was compelled to provide for him. P the over- 
 
270 THE LABOUEER. [social 
 
 Charles I. a labourer generally received from eightpence to one 
 shilling a day, or from four shillings to six shillings a week, with- 
 out board. As, however, four shillings then would buy as much 
 as fourteen now, his living was not inferior to that of many agri- 
 cultural labourers at the present time. So much land, moreover, still 
 remained unenclosed, that he probably possessed a bit of garden- 
 ground attached to his cottage, and fed his cow, or pig, or flock of 
 geese, on the neighbouring common. His ordinary fare was rye- 
 bread, barley-meal, onions, carrots, bacon, and beer. Vegetables 
 common now, were then rarities. Potatoes, first brought from Ame- 
 rica by Hawkins, Drake, and Raleigh, sold at two shillings a pound. 
 Articles of clothing, candles, salt, sugar, and wheaten bread, were 
 all much dearer than they now are, though meat and beer were much 
 cheaper. The wages of artificers and those engaged in manu- 
 factures were also fixed by the justices of the peace ; and gene- 
 rally ranged at about one shilling a day. At Kidderminster there 
 were few beggars, the common trade of stuff- weaving providing 
 work for men, women, and children. 'But none were very 
 wealthy, as the wages only served to provide food and raiment.'* 
 
 seers could not find him full employment, they were required to make up 
 any deficiency in wages out of rates. In consequence of this system, farmers 
 purposely underpaid their labourers, knowing the parish could not refuse re- 
 lief, while the labourers themselves were deprived of any motive for self- 
 exertion. As the overseers were not appointed by the ratepayers, there was 
 no check upon the expenditure, and the poor-rates rose with extraordinary 
 rapidity. In 1760, the population was 7.000,000; the rates were £1,250,000. 
 In 1834, the population had rather more than doubled, being 14,372,000, the 
 poor-rates had increased by more than five times, £6.317,235. In 1834, the 
 Reformed Parliament passed the Poor Law Amendment Act. A central 
 authority was created — a board of three commissioners, with power to regu- 
 late the administration of relief throughout England and "Wales. Parishes 
 were united into unions, directed by boards of guardians, of whom the ma- 
 jority were elected by the ratepayers. The commissioners put an end to the 
 allowance system, only granting outdoor relief to the able-bodied poor in ex- 
 ceptional cases. This Act made no alteration in the Law of Settlement. The 
 35th George III. had already prohibited the removal from a parish of any 
 newcomer, until he should have become actually chargeable (1795). The 9th 
 and 10th Victoria prohibits the removal of any person who shall have resided 
 five years in a parish without being chargeable. The 11th and 12th Vict, re- 
 lieves the parish of the cost of maintaining persons who have so become 
 chargeable, and lays it on the common fund of the union. The continuance 
 of the Laws of Settlement to the present time is consequent upon the principle, 
 that every parish, however poor itself, is bound to relieve its own poor. The 
 entire abolition of these is still required, as well as the universal substitution 
 of union instead of parochial chargeability ; and, where necessary, an equa- 
 lization of the poor-rates over wider areas than a single union presents. — 
 
 NlCHOLLS ON THE POOR LAWS. ChITTY'S STATUTES. 
 
 * Baxter's Life, 33. 
 
•state.] TRAVELLING. 271 
 
 Some of the master workmen got one shilling and eightpence a 
 day. There were no large factories, as little machinery had 
 been introduced, but weaving and other manufacturing processes 
 were carried on in the poor people's homes by hand labour. 
 Though the table of wages of the seventeenth century may not 
 compare unfavourably with that of the nineteenth, in other re- 
 spects a great improvement has taken place in the material con- 
 dition of the working classes. In the seventeenth century the 
 ravages of fire, disease, and famine often inflicted a greater 
 amount of suffering than a war would now bring upon the 
 country. Destructive fires took place periodically in most towns, 
 for the houses were all of wood, and there were no appliances at 
 hand with which to quench the flames. Whether the town were 
 wholly or partially destroyed depended principally upon the direc- 
 tion of the wind at the time of the breaking out of the fire. Owing 
 to an utter neglect of the laws of health, villages and towns were 
 subject to the visitation of frightful plagues and diseases, for which 
 no remedies were known. At such times the deaths in London 
 would increase by several thousands a week.* Famines were com- 
 mon in England then, for the same reasons as they are now in India. 
 The badness of the roads prevented ary rapid communication from 
 one part of the country to another, so that the people in York- 
 shire might be near starving from lack of bread, while those 
 in Kent possessed a superfluity of corn. It was customary to 
 travel with a coach and four horses, not from ideas of grandeur 
 or speed, but because otherwise there was no chance of getting 
 through the bogs. Often a coach would be six or eight hours in 
 going a distance of twelve miles. An overset was not the 
 worst danger e that might befall the traveller. He sometimes 
 had to pass through gloomy forests and over far-stretching heaths 
 without seeing a single enclosed field for a distance of forty or 
 even fifty miles, and under these circumstances, it was a lucky 
 chance if he came to his journey's end without being „. , 
 stopped by a band of highwaymen and robbed of money men. 
 and goods. At the close of the civil war, many Cavaliers, finding 
 they had ruined themselves in the service of the king, took to 
 
 * The deaths from plague in London were : — 
 
 11,503 in 1592 35,428 in 1625 12,102 in 1636 
 
 30,583 in 1603 1,317 in 1630 2,876 in 1637 
 
 State Papers, 16C7. 
 
272 LONDON. [social 
 
 the road, and ended their lives on the gallows. Thus, in ] 656, a 
 
 notable highwayman was secured, the chief of a company which 
 
 had robbed the carrier of York of ,£1500. " And it is reported," 
 
 says the newspaper, " that he and his companions have, in little 
 
 more than a twelvemonth's time, robbed to the value of ,£11,000 ; 
 
 [and have taken] so great sums of money at a time, that, instead of 
 
 telling it, they shared it by the quart pot. >; * 
 
 Charles was the first to establish a post-office, to carry letters 
 
 between London, Edinburgh, Chester, Holyhead, and 
 Post-office. * & ' i 
 
 other towns. The charge was twopence a letter on any 
 
 distance under eighty miles. During the war, the post fell into 
 disuse, but was re-established on the return of peace. 
 
 London itself was the centre of trade, wealth, and inte'ligence. It 
 was, as it still is, a chartered or self -governed town. The city was 
 Corporation divided into twenty-six wards. The householders or 
 of London. f re emen of every ward elected the members of a 
 common council, which formed the legislative body of the corpo- 
 ration, making bye-laws and police regulations to be of force within 
 the city boundaries. The aldermen were also elected by the house- 
 holders, and these with the lord mayor were the principal magis- 
 trates. In the Old Bailey they had an independent criminal court 
 for the trial of treasons, murders, and felonies, committed within the 
 city of London and the County of Middlesex. The independence 
 and power of the city have been shown in the previous history. The 
 Guildhall was the asylum of the five members of the Parliament. 
 "Without the support of the corporation, that is to say, of free- 
 men, common council, and city aldermen, the Parliament could 
 never have commenced the war with the king ; at a later hour, 
 when the corporation went with the Presbyterians for the king, the 
 Independent leaders, though backed by a veteran army, were 
 greatly weakened by the defection. The city had supplied the 
 sinews of war; indeed, from no other town in Englard could 
 enough money have been borrowed to pay the troops of the Par- 
 liament. Had the king had the city at his back, he need never 
 have been bankrupt, and might have checked the marauding- 
 habits of his army. It was in fact in London that the richest 
 merchants of the kingdom were collected. The nobles them- 
 selves had not houses more magnificent, furniture more costly 
 and collections of pictures and rarities more valuable. The 
 * Cromwelliana. 
 
STATE.] THE STEEETS. 273 
 
 Thames served as a highway between the city and "Westminster. 
 There were numbers of public landing-places, where boatmen 
 waited to ferry passengers to any part up and down the river, or 
 over to Southwark. Old London Bridge was the one bridge that 
 had then been built ; the highway across, passing under gateways 
 and flanked by houses, gave it the appearance of a castellated 
 street. Some noblemen still lived in the Strand, and had 
 gardens attached to their dwellings, sloping down to the river's 
 edge, with private landing-places; but the more fashionable quar- 
 ter was now further west, about Covent Garden and Drury Lane. 
 Though London was then considered of enormous size, on the east it 
 hardly extended beyond the Tower; on the west it touched the city 
 of Westminster. In the north, around the old Convent or Covent 
 Garden, Inigo Jones had lately designed new streets, connecting 
 the City with St. Giles', then really a hamlet in-the-Fields. The 
 old houses were all of timber, with high-gabled roofs, and stories 
 jutting out one above the other. As few could read, not only 
 every tavern, but every shop, possessed its signboard, and the 
 streets presented a succession of Cross Keys, Three Pigeons, 
 Golden Lambs, Ships, and Black Swans. The principal streets 
 alone were paved, and these merely with little round jolting 
 stones. The dirt was frightful. Into the kennel, or open gutter- 
 like sewer, refuse was thrown out of houses and shops, and there 
 rotted and reeked until it was carried away by the rain to Fleet 
 Ditch and the Thames. Eain, in fact, did yeoman's service, 
 though the pipes on the house-roofs first conducted their contents 
 to the heads of passers-by. Kites and ravens were kept to act as 
 scavengers, and the bonfires lighted on every occasion of rejoicing- 
 served a good purpose in occasionally consuming the rubbish. 
 The streets, before the great fire, were rather to be called alleys ; 
 in some, friends could shake hands across from the projecting 
 upper stories. Coaches had been introduced into England from 
 Germany about 1580. Some enterprising man, a few years later, 
 set up hackney-coaches in London, and in 1634 there were said to 
 be 1900 such vehicles ready for hire in the streets. Sedan chairs 
 followed. The first was brought by Buckingham from Spain. 
 The street mob hooted at the hated favourite, regarding it as a 
 'mastering pride' in him to be borne upon men's shoulders ; but 
 the convenience of the conveyance overcame prejudice, and, like 
 coaches, sedan chairs were soon in common use. 
 
 18 
 
274 APPRENTICES. [social 
 
 Hyde Park was a fashionable drive, where coach-races were 
 sometimes held. Spring Gardens, opening into St. James' Park, 
 was a favourite resort of ladies and gentlemen. There was drink- 
 in tr going on always under the trees, and quarrels took place two 
 or three times a week. Cromwell, much to the discontent of 
 Royalists, caused both gardens and park to be closed for some 
 .months.* Before the breaking out of the Civil War, St. Paul's 
 Cathedral had been lised as a daily lounging and meeting-place 
 by people of every rank and profession. Its uses were, perhaps, 
 less worldly when it became the stable of the sectarian horse during 
 the war. The streets were always a Babel of sounds. Masters or 
 their apprentices stood at the shop doors, touting for customers 
 with cries of 'What d'ye lack, sir — what d'ye please to lackl' 
 Pish- wives, orange-women, broom-men, chimney-sweepers, with 
 the original costard-applemongers, passed up and down, crying 
 their wares or services. Over this motley crowd hung the warn- 
 ing gallows, occupying a prominent position outside the Old 
 Bailey on Ludgate Hill. Felons and others were hung there every 
 Monday morning. Riots and scuffles often took place. We 
 have seen how ready the populace of London was to rise, and how 
 rival parties in Parliament raised mobs to intimidate their oppo- 
 nents. On all such occasions the apprentices took a leading part. 
 There was a strong class feeling and close union amongst them. 
 The apprentice was bound to his master for seven years, after 
 which he might set up in business for himself, and rise if he could 
 to be a member of the Common Council, a City Alderman, and 
 even sworn Lord Mayor of London. If an apprentice were 
 assaulted, he raised the cry of "Prentices, clubs!' and out of every 
 shop in the street rushed friends to the rescue. The students of 
 the Inns of Court, mostly gentlemen by birth and Royalist at 
 heart, felt themselves natural enemies of Presbyterian shop- 
 keepers, and a standing feud produced frequent fights between 
 Templars and apprentices. Like the athletic sports of the time — 
 boating, bowling, shooting, football, cudgelling — the London street 
 fights helped to form the raw material of a soldiery. Formerly 
 the London train-bands had been famous for their archers. The 
 Artillery Company had been originally formed in 1585 by volun- 
 teer citizens and officers, when the country was threatened with 
 invasion ; and from this small beginning had developed the new 
 
 Evelvn, Diary ; Kn ; gat ; i. 191; Character of England, Somers Tracts, vii. 
 
state.] THIEVES AND WATCHMEN. 275 
 
 •set of train-bands raised upon the breaking out of the Civil 
 War. These, however, were not used as police, and the 
 citizen of London had to trust in the strength of his own 
 arm to defend his property and life from the assaults of thieves 
 and robbers. There were no street lamps, though, indeed, an 
 order existed for every householder to hang out a lanthorn 
 over his door at night ; and at stated times bellmen walked 
 the streets, ringing their bells, and crying, ' Hang out your lant- 
 horns !' The order, however, seems to have been but little 
 observed, so that the city remained practically unlighted. Stand- 
 ing watchmen, who remained at their posts only till one or 
 two o'clock in the morning, formed but an inefficient police, and, 
 when it grew dark, even the chief streets grew dangerous for all 
 but the well-armed. London was, indeed, the head-quarters of 
 thieves and rogues of all descriptions, and the exercise of their 
 profession required but little ingenuity or caution. The country 
 gentleman was known to them at once by his manners, his accent, 
 and the cut of his clothes. While he, a stranger in the great city, 
 was gazing upon the new sights round him, thieves cut the string 
 of his purse, which he wore, as was the custom, attached to his 
 girdle. Sharpers prevailed upon him to enter taverns in their 
 company, where his pockets were soon emptied of his cash. 
 In the intervals of business, all rogues could find an asylum in 
 Whitefriars, which took its name from a house of white-hooded 
 friars ; before the Eeformation it had been a sanctuary for 
 criminals, and still remained one for debtors. Accordingly, not 
 only bankrupts and debtors, but highwaymen, false witnesses, 
 robbers, and murderers herded together in Whitefriars and other 
 congenial haunts, where the officers of justice dared not enter 
 unattended by a guard of musketeers * 
 
 A very slight comparison of the England of to-day with the 
 England of the seventeenth century is sufficient to show what a 
 vast advance has been made in the material condition of the 
 country. Yet, because an efficient police system now renders 
 roads and streets nearly as safe by night as by clay ; because the 
 population has more than quadrupled ; because towns have sprung 
 up where once were villages ; because trade has increased to an 
 
 * In 1697 an Act of Parliament was passed, abolishing the privileges of 
 Whitefriars and of the Savoy, another haunt of the same kind. See Macau- 
 lay, chap. xxii. ig _ 2 
 
276 SOCIAL STATE OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 extent far beyond the vision of the statesmen of the Long Parlia- 
 ment ; because science has done much to prolong life and alleviate 
 suffering — it would be a great mistake to suppose that, because of 
 these things merely, future generations will regard the nineteenth 
 century as superior to those before it. The men of the time of 
 James I. and Charles I. are not now allowed any special credit, 
 because in travelling they used coaches instead of riding on horse- 
 back ; because they built better houses than their great-grand- 
 fathers, and slept on softer beds ; because they had more wealth, 
 more knowledge, and more refinement ; all this was the result of 
 work done before they were born. Material well-being must, in 
 the first instance, spring from certain qualities of mind, and the 
 people who, while they have inherited the well-being, have lost 
 the qualities of mind which enabled their ancestors to bequeath it 
 them, are far less likely to be at the highest than at the lowest 
 stage of their career. The claim of any age to the respect and 
 gratitude of posterity rests on the manner in which it dealt with 
 its own special problems. Judged by this test, the patriots of the 
 seventeenth century can never be found wanting. It has taken a 
 course of two hundred years but to polish off the work that they 
 rough-hewed. The material advantages now enjoyed spring in great 
 part from the principles then so boldly maintained. Science can- 
 not flourish in a land where men are imprisoned for speaking and 
 writing what they believe ; trade cannot flourish amid the shackles 
 of monopolies and restrictive laws ; abuses will rarely be reformed, 
 or bad laws abolished, where the light of free discussion never 
 j^enetrates. On the other hand, the mistakes of their age may be 
 warnings for other generations : to take a single instance, the 
 history of the witchcraft laws shows that education is vital to 
 the morality of a state, and that the association of false theories 
 with cherished beliefs is a means by which cruel and heartless 
 oppression may win the support of religion and piety. The 
 problems of the present century are distinct from those of the 
 seventeenth, but, perhaps, no less important. Two or three 
 hundred years hence it may be possible to form a fair judgment 
 of the manner in which those problems have been treated. It 
 may well be doubted whether future generations will allow that 
 they owe us as great a debt of gratitude as we and they owe the 
 men whose judgment, fortitude, and self-sacrifice alone prevented 
 the establishment, of arbitrary government in England. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TRIUMPHS OF THE COMMONWEALTH BY LAND AND SEA. — 
 (1649—1652.) 
 
 True dispatch is a rich thing; for time is the measure of business, as 
 money is of' wares. — Bacon. 
 
 The Commons now formally abolished the House of Lords (19th 
 March), and settled the government as a ' commonwealth or free 
 state' (19th May, 1649). A Republican government is more or 
 less democratical according to the number of those that are privi- 
 leged to take part in it, either directly as rulers, or indirectly as 
 electors. The government now established under the name of a 
 republic was, in fact, a close oligarchy, and not so popular in con- 
 stitution as the monarchy which it had overthrown. The body 
 that exercised both the legislative and executive functions num- 
 bered about 120, and of these there were rarely more than fifty 
 present at a debate. Though these members had been elected 
 moi-e than eight years ago, and represented but a small fraction 
 of the nation, they had the power of refusing all share in the 
 government to any but their own partisans, while they could 
 not themselves be legally removed without their own consent. 
 Yet, if the Republican ideal was to be carried into act, it had 
 to be done by this remnant of a Parliament. The dissolu- 
 tion of the House involved too great a risk. If all the electors 
 were allowed to take part in choosing a new representative, the 
 majority of members would be Presbyterians and Royalists ; if, on 
 the other hand, Presbyterian and Royalist electors were dis- 
 franchised, the army officers would get an assembly which only 
 represented themselves. Under these circumstances, both the 
 honest men in the House and the self-interested were agreed in 
 wishing to avoid a dissolution — the former, such as Vane, Mar- 
 tin, Ludlow, Hutchinson, and Bradshaw, because they thought 
 that, in founding a republic, they were rendering their country 
 
278 THE EEPUBLIC— ITS ENEMIES. [rump pari* 
 
 an incalculable benefit; the latter, either through desire of power 
 in the future, or fear of consequences for the past. " We slipped 
 into circumstances by degrees," says the lawyer Whitelock, one of 
 these followers with the stream, "by little and little plunging 
 further in, until we knew not how to get out again."* To carry 
 on the executive for the present a council of state was appointed, 
 containing forty-one of the most influential men in the army and 
 the House. 
 
 The Commonwealth had so many enemies that, but for the sup- 
 port of Cromwell and the army, it could not have stood for a day. 
 At home it was threatened with danger alike from the country 
 people and the Levellers : abroad it was threatened from Scot- 
 land, where the Prince of Wales had been proclaimed king of the 
 three countries (Feb. 12th) ; from Ireland, where Ormond was 
 still supreme ; from the Channel, which Rupert held with the re- 
 volted ships ; and from Europe at large, whose princes refused to 
 recognize the rule of Republican rebels. The Emperor of Russia 
 drove English merchants out of his dominions. The foreign re- 
 presentatives of the Commonwealth were assassinated. Dr. Doris- 
 laus, the agent of the Republic to the States of Holland, was 
 murdered by six Scotch followers of Montrose the very evening 
 of his arrival at the Hague (May 3rd). A like fate befell Ascham, 
 the agent of the Commonwealth to Spain. Two days after his 
 arrival at Madrid, six men entered his chamber while he was at 
 dinner, and, taking off their hats, saluted the company with the 
 words, " Welcome, gallants, welcome !" Ascham rose, thinking 
 them to be friends, and in another moment lay dead on the floor 
 along with one of his companions. Out of the six criminals the 
 Spanish government brought but one to justice. These disgrace- 
 ful murders of "the things called ambassadors" were open sub- 
 jects of rejoicing with Royalist exiles. 
 
 The Commonwealth, while thus attacked by its open enemies 
 abroad, found no support among the masses at home. The im- 
 mediate result of Charles' execution was to produce a revulsion 
 of feeling in his favour. His faults were buried in his grave ; 
 his private virtues lived after him. A book was published, 
 entitled Eikon Basilike, or the Royal Image, which professed 
 to be written by Charles himself during his captivity at 
 Carisbrooke Castle. In it the theory of Divine Right was pic- 
 tured in its softest colours. Without abating one jot or tittle of 
 * Whitelock, Mem. 417. 
 
164-9.] 
 
 EIKON BASILIKE. 279 
 
 the king's high pretensions as ruling by the will of God, Charle* 
 was portrayed as the father of his people, the lover ot the 
 established laws and of Parliaments, yielding in all points to the 
 desires of his subjects, save where conscience and honour forbade. 
 Against such a prince the people had taken up arms, mislea by a 
 few bold, bad men acting from love of power, blind party passions 
 and greed to satisfy their own necessities out of the lands and 
 revenues of the Church. By these men the king's acts had been 
 misrepresented, his good faith unreasonably questioned, but he 
 remained frank and generously forgiving as ever In his instruc- 
 tions to his son he is represented as bidding him entertain no 
 dislike of Parliaments, but remember that the rebels had acted 
 from misapprehension of their own good. In the prayers with 
 which each chapter of the book closes, he is found beseeching 
 God to bestow upon his enemies repentance and pardon, in place 
 of punishment for the sin of fighting against Gods anointed. 
 For himself, let what would happen, he could still patiently sub- 
 mit to God's chastening hand, in the full assurance that Ins 
 Saviour's crown of thorns was more precious than any crown 
 of -old. Though in fact a forgery of Doctor Gauclen, the book 
 Educed as great an effect as if it had proceeded tao . Chare, 
 own hand. 48,000 copies of this Image of the Martyr-King 
 were sold in a year.* 
 
 To increase the reaction in the king's favour, famine ap- 
 peared in many parts of the country. The present Common- 
 wealth and the !ate government of the two Houses were associated 
 in the mind of the people with a standing army and heavy taxes T 
 Charles' rule with the happy memories of unbroken peace, tales 
 of distress often came before the House-of a town reduced 
 almost to penury, because the commander of the garrison left un- 
 p™vided by the government, was forced to allow the soldiers to 
 Uve at free quarters ; of tumults against the tax-gatherer^ m 
 wMch the string people declared " that they wouh Heave tte* 
 Wives and children to be maintained by the gentry, for the biead 
 was eaten out of their mouths by the taxes.''! 
 
 From all this discontent the Republicans had little to feai, so 
 Ion- as the army remained faithful. Discontent, however, was 
 widespread there. A successful revolution, however much it 
 
 ; ?JBfc EiSt - 'V ^et^l! «, «3 ; Carlyle, i. 345. 
 
280 MUTINY OF LEVELLEES. [hump pari., 
 
 offends moderates, must disappoint extremes. Fifth Monarchists, 
 Levellers, Anabaptists, found that neither the equality of men nor 
 the millennium had come with the Republic. Petitions came that 
 the House should dissolve in August ; that new parliaments should 
 be held every year; that excise and customs should be abolished; 
 that the law and the church should be reformed ; and, lastly, that 
 none should pay rent or homage to fellow-creatures. Aroused by 
 hunger or belief in natural right, bands of men began to dig and 
 plant unenclosed lands. Pamphlets and papers were published 
 supporting the principles of the Levellers. " The gentry," it was 
 said, " held all authority and command, and drove on designs for 
 their own interest and the people's slavery. The nobles, who had 
 come in with William the Conqueror, had seized the lands of the 
 people and forced the king to consent to laws necessary to preserve 
 themselves, but had never acted from any love to the poor Com- 
 mons." The impracticable Liiburne, the leader and mouthpiece 
 of all the discontented, published tract after tract to stir up the 
 soldiers to mutiny by attacking the ambition of the officers and 
 the tyranny of the House. "The officers," he wrote, "are inferior 
 to the essential part of the army, the soldiery, and ought to be 
 controlled and overthrown when they try to overthrow and con- 
 trol the soldiery. We were before ruled by a King, Lords, and 
 Commons ; now by a General, a Court-Martial, and a House of 
 Commons. We are but under an old cheat, the transmutation of 
 names, but with the addition of new tyrannies to the old ; and 
 the last state of this Commonwealth is worse than the first." 
 
 The moment was critical. Prince Charles was invited to Ire- 
 land, and, should he land the Irish army in England in the midst 
 of all this surging discontent, Presbyterians and Royalists might 
 rise and defeat an army and party divided against itself. To meet 
 the danger at its source, the Council of State appointed Cromwell 
 commander-in-chief, with orders to make an expedition against 
 Ireland. The soldiers, however, now refused to obey the orders 
 of their officers, and broke out into open mutiny. In Oxfordshire, 
 in Gloucestershire, in Wiltshire, bodies of men marched off from 
 their head -quarters in arms. Fairfax, however, and his officers 
 followed closely on the insurgents, who w r ithin a fortnight were 
 all either taken prisoners or defeated and dispersed. The last 
 body of mutineers had marched north from Salisbury, forded the 
 Thames, and reached Burford, in Oxfordshire. Fairfax was at 
 
1649.] STORMING OF DROGHEDA. 281 
 
 Andover, but, by a march of fifty miles in the day, he surprised 
 them the same evening in their quarters. The larger part of the 
 army had, in fact, remained faithful to their generals, who could 
 be tender, without being weak, stern, without being cruel, so 
 that their soldiers loved and respected them accordingly. " Those," 
 said Cromwell, " that thought martial law a burden should have 
 liberty to lay down their arms, and be paid their arrears the same 
 as those that stayed ; for the rest, the Parliament would in time 
 do all that they desired." Of the Burford mutineers, out of 400 
 prisoners, every tenth man was condemned by court-martial to be 
 shot. The sentence was only executed upon three ; the others 
 felt grateful for the mercy extended to them : Cromwell's words 
 brought them to their reason ; the men repented, and their 
 leader confessed that many of his party "were so enraged 
 against the Parliament that he did think (in his conscience) there 
 would have been great cruelty exercised by these men, and that 
 it was a happy hour they were surprised and prevented." 
 
 Meantime the Duke of Ormond had effected a peace with the 
 Catholics in Ireland by promising them, in the name of Charles 
 Stuart, the free exercise of their religion (Jan., 1649). He had 
 further succeeded in uniting in the Prmce's favour all four parties 
 in the island — the Irish Catholics ; the Catholic descendants of 
 the old English settlers ; English Episcopalians, whether fugitive 
 Royalists or men whose fathers had been planted by Elizabeth 
 and James on the lands of Irish rebels ; and, lastly, the Scotch 
 Presbyterians of the Ulster settlement. Accordingly, when Crom- 
 well arrived in Ireland at the head of 12,000 men, he found almost 
 the whole country under the power of the Royalists (Aug. 15th). 
 A Parliamentary garrison in Dublin itself had only escaped a 
 siege by surprising the enemy on the banks of the Liffey (Aug. 
 2nd). The general first marched against Drogheda, then called 
 Droghdagh or Tredah, and summoned the garrison to surrender. 
 Sir Arthur Ashton, the governor, refused ; he had 3000 of the 
 choicest troops of the confederates and enough provisions to en- 
 able him to hold out till winter should compel the enemy to raise 
 the siege. But within twenty-four hours the English batteries 
 had made a breach in the wall. Oliver, after twice seeing his 
 soldiers beaten off, led the in on in person and carried the breach. 
 A terrible massacre followed. " Being in the heat of action I 
 forbade them," Cromwell wrote in his despatch to the Parlia- 
 
282 STORMING OF DEOGHEDA. [rump pari* 
 
 merit, " to spare any that were in arms in the town ; and I think 
 that night they put to the sword about 2000 men." Of these, 
 one-half probably fell in the streets ; the other half Cromwell 
 describes as having been slain at early dawn in St. Peter's 
 Church. This he looks upon as a judgment for their previous 
 proceedings there. "It is remarkable/' he writes, "that these 
 people at first set up the mass in some places of the town that had 
 been monasteries ; but afterwards grew so insolent that, the last 
 Lord's day before the storm, the Protestants were thrust out of 
 the great church called St. Peter's, and they had public mass 
 there ; and in this very place near 1000 of them were put to the 
 sword, fleeing thither for safety. I believe all the friars were 
 knocked on the head promiscuously but two." Of the original 
 garrison of 3000, many must have fallen in the defence ; and of 
 the remainder who escaped for that night, the officers were 
 ' knocked on the head,' and the soldiers mostly shipped for Bar- 
 badoes. "I am persuaded," he further writes, "that this is a 
 righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches, who 
 have imbrued their hands in so much innocent blood ; and that it 
 will tend to prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which are 
 the satisfactory grounds to such actions, which otherwise cannot 
 but work remorse and regret. The officers and soldiers of this 
 garrison were the flower of their army. . . . That which caused 
 your men to storm so courageously, it was the Spirit of God, who 
 gave your men courage, and took it away again ; and gave the 
 enemy courage, and took it away again ; and gave your men 
 courage again, and therewith this happy success. And, therefore, 
 it is good that God alone have all the glory." 
 
 Royalist accounts assert that many hundreds of women and 
 children were slain in St. Peter's Church. It is, of course, pos- 
 sible that some of the townspeople, fleeing thither for safety, lost 
 their lives in the general massacre of the garrison. There is, how- 
 ever, no trustworthy witness* for any lives being taken except 
 
 * Dr. Lingard gives credit to the story of Cromwell's massacre of towns- 
 people — men, women, and children — but the only direct testimony is a story 
 told by Thomas Wood (the brother of Anthony Wood, the historiographer of 
 Oxford). This Thomas Wood had fought on the king's side, and alter the 
 king's death, "being deeply engaged in a Cavaliering plot in 1648, he, to 
 avoid being taken and hanged, fled to Ireland," where, according to his 
 brother's account, he got a command in the regiment of Ingoldsby, an old 
 schoolfellow, and then a Parliamentary officer ; and thus, having changed* 
 eides, " was engaged in the storming and assaulting" of Drogheda. He tells 
 
1649.] IRISH CAMPAIGN. 283 
 
 those of soldiers and friars. Cromwell did not sanction the killing 
 of any but those with arms in their hands, though he seems to have 
 approved of the fate of the friars. The fanatical zeal of his letter, 
 and the fact that he takes the full credit or discredit for the slaugh- 
 ter of the garrison, makes it improbable that he concealed anything ; 
 and this is substantiated by his subsequent declaration, in which 
 he gives this challenge : — " Give us an instance of one man, since 
 my coming into Ireland, not in arms, massacred, destroyed, or 
 banished, concerning the massacre or the destruction of whom 
 justice hath not been done, or endeavoured to be done." 
 
 With the enemy's troops Cromwell carried out the determined 
 mode of warfare which he began at Drogheda. They were mostly 
 scattered over the country, occupied in garrison duty. Before 
 whatever town he came he demanded immediate surrender, or 
 threatened to refuse quarter. Town after town opened its gates 
 to this grim summons. Wexford, which refused to surrender, was 
 stormed, and the whole garrison, 2000 in number, put to the 
 sword (Oct. 11th). 
 
 While condemning these massacres we must remember, not only 
 that there had been a terrible massacre of Protestants eight years 
 before,* but that the Celts, whether Irish or Highlanders, failed 
 themselves to observe towards others the rules of war obtaining 
 among more civilized nations ; and further that, even according 
 to the rules of war of that time, the garrisons of places taken by 
 storm were presumed to have lost their right to quarter ; the Ca- 
 tholic generals on the Continent had, in fact, put to the sword, not 
 only the garrisons, but the inhabitants of Protestant towns. Yet 
 Cromwell was probably not so much influenced by precedents 
 of his own day as by those drawn from "the wars of the Lord" 
 
 a tale, in Spenser's manner, of a "most handsome virgin, arrayed in costly 
 and gorgeous apparel," whom a soldier treated as though he were Phineas 
 and she a Midianitish woman; whereupon Wood, "seeing her gasping, took 
 away her money, jewels, &c., and flung her clean over the works." His 
 hrother says " he had an art of merriment called buffooning," and he seems 
 to have practised this on "his mother and brethren," to whom he often told 
 this story. Ormond, writing from the neighbourhood, and speaking gene- 
 rally of great cruelty having been exercised for five days after the town was 
 taken, makes no mention of a massacre of townspeople. The Catholic 
 Council of Kilkenny, in the manifesto they published at Clonmacnoise at 
 this time, make no mention of a massacre of townspeople at Drogheda, and 
 even think it necessary to warn the Irish against being deceived by a show 
 of clemency. It is ir his answer to this manifesto that Cromwell makes the 
 statement quoted in the text. Ormond Papers, ii. 412 ; Lingard, viii. 
 Appendix. * See p. 101. 
 
284 DEDUCTION OF IRELAND. [rump pari.. 
 
 in his Bible. It is not the only time that religion has been made 
 to seem at war with humanity through the mistaken idea, that 
 usages tolerated among uncivilized nations 3000 years ago are a 
 model for the observance of Christians. The history of the 
 Indian mutiny, in our own time, shows that the danger of an 
 uncritical interpretation of the sacred records is not past for us. 
 It was only in the case of these two garrisons that Cromwell 
 was merciless, but this blot on his character increased his diffi- 
 culties in the next Scottish campaign by inspiring groundless 
 fears in the civil population. 
 
 In other respects, while Cromwell's rigour and determination 
 saved bloodshed in the end by the rapidity and completeness of 
 his conquests, his conduct in Ireland contrasted favourably on many 
 points with that of the Royalists there. His own soldiers, for ill- 
 using the people contrary to regulations, were sometimes cashiered 
 the army, sometimes hanged. When a treaty was made, he kept 
 faithfully to its terms. Garrisons that yielded on summons were 
 allowed either to march away with arms and baggage, or else to 
 go abroad and enter the service of any government at peace with 
 England. Before the war was over he had rid the country, on 
 these terms, of some 45,000 soldiers. Taking advantage of the 
 divisions of his enemies, he persuaded several garrisons of English 
 soldiers to desert the cause of Charles Stuart for the Common- 
 wealth. His conduct of the war was so successful that, during 
 the nine months of his stay in Ireland, the forces of the Royalists 
 were shattered, and the provinces of Leinster and Munster reco- 
 vered for the Parliament. Cromwell returned to England in May 
 1650, leaving his son-in-law Ireton to complete the conquest of 
 the country. The last garrisons in Ulster and Munster surren- 
 dered during the course of the ensuing summer and autumn. 
 Ireton crosse 1 the Shannon and drove the Irish back into the 
 bogs and mountain fastnesses of Connaught, their last refuge, 
 where fighting still continued for two years after all the rest of 
 the country had been reduced (1651-2). 
 
 Cromwell had hastened from Ireland because a pressing danger 
 now threatened England from Scotland. The Scots were divided 
 into three parties — first, the Strict Covenanters, followers of 
 Argyle, who had been placed in power by Cromwell after the de- 
 feat of Hamilton in Lancashire (1648) ; secondly, the Lax Cove- 
 nanters, or Engagers, who had taken part in Hamilton's invasion; 
 
1650.] PARTIES IN SCOTLAND. 285 
 
 thirdly, the old Royalists, headed by the Marquis ot Montrose. 
 Though the Strict Covenanters declined to fight for a king who 
 refused the Covenant, they grew indignant at seeing Republicans 
 and Sectarians triumph over Presbyterians in England ; and, 
 having hopes that the son would be less recalcitrant than the 
 father, sent deputies to the Hague to offer Charles the crown of 
 Scotland, on condition of his taking the Covenant, and promising 
 to rule by the advice of Parliament and Kirk. At the time 
 this treaty was being negotiated, Montrose was defeated and 
 taken prisoner by the Covenanters. Charles, though he had given 
 him a full commission, yet, not wishing to break off the treaty, 
 basely disowned the earl, and caused word to be sent to Argyle 
 that he felt no sorrow for the defeat of the man who had drawn 
 the sword " contrary to the royal command." The outrages of 
 Montrose's savage levies were long remembered in the Lowlands, 
 and the Covenanters, in revenge, now determined to execute him 
 with all the circumstances of shame they could devise. He was 
 sentenced to be hung on a gibbet, thirty feet high, in the Grass- 
 market in Edinburgh, the place of execution for the lowest felons, 
 his body quartered, and his limbs fixed on the gates of four 
 towns in Scotland. Montrose, by the calmness and dignity of his 
 bearing, cast back the scorn and the ohame into the faces of his 
 enemies. He had always loved to play the hero, and never had 
 such a scene been offered him before. He walked calmly to the 
 place of execution with a "grand air," magnificently dressed, as if 
 he had been going to wait upon the king. His country honoured 
 him in his death more than in his life (May 21st). 
 
 The Republican statesmen were aware that, if Charles Stuart 
 reigned in Scotland, English and Scotch Presbyterians would 
 unite in an attempt to place him upon the throne of England. 
 They determined, therefore, to ward off the danger by being the 
 first in the field. Fairfax, however, refused to command. The 
 Republicans knew that the only man able to take his place was 
 Cromwell. Cromwell's power they feared already, but it was in 
 vain they begged and implored Fairfax to go ; in vain Cromwell 
 himself entreated him, which he did so earnestly that none could 
 doubt his sincerity ; in vain it was urged upon him that the Scots 
 had already broken the Covenant by one invasion under Hamil- 
 ton, and were now, without doubt, intending a second. Fairfax, 
 however, refusing to march against the Scots unless they first 
 
286 SCOTCH CAMPAIGN. [bump parl. 
 
 actually entered England, resigned his command to the Commons, 
 who appointed Cromwell commander-in-chief of the whole army 
 in his stead (June 26th). 
 
 When Cromwell, at the head of 16,000 men, crossed the border 
 (July 22nd), he found silence and desolation around him. The 
 country people, frightened at horrible tales spread about of cruel- 
 ties practised by the Sectarian soldiers, had obeyed the orders of 
 the Scotch Parliament and fled for refuge to the towns, leaving 
 behind them only a few women, who baked and brewed for the 
 invaders. When Cromwell arrived at Musselburgh he found the 
 Scotch army of 24,000 men occupying a long line of entrench- 
 ments, running from Leith to the hills called Salisbury Crags 
 and Arthur's Seat, which lie to the east of Edinburgh Old 
 Town. David Leslie, the Scotch general, had taken up this un- 
 
 & ^V,lCHj 
 
 up 
 
 assailable position with the intention of starving the English out 
 of the country. His own army was amply supplied with provi- 
 sions from all the north of Scotland lying at his back ; while, 
 the eastern Lowlands having been purposely laid waste, his 
 enemies were entirely dependent for their supplies upon a fleet 
 which had followed them from England. 
 
 Cromwell marched and countermarched, in hopes of drawing 
 Leslie out of his fastness and bringing on a general engagement. 
 But his efforts were in vain. As autumn approached the difficul- 
 ties of the situation increased. The weather was wet and stormy, 
 the soldiers fell sick, and the ocean was so rough that provisions 
 were landed with difficulty. A council of war agreed to retreat 
 to Dunbar, a town on the sea-coast, lying between Edinburgh and 
 Berwick, which might, at the worst, be fortified, and afford some 
 quarters for the winter (Aug. 31st). Accordingly the "poor, 
 shattered, hungry, discouraged army" first shipped 500 sick men 
 for Berwick, and then marched from Musselburgh through Had- 
 dingtonshire to Dunbar (Aug. 31st). Leslie, who mistakenly 
 supposed that his enemies had put on board their great guns and 
 a large number of troops, followed closely in pursuit, with the in- 
 tention of putting himself between them and their communica- 
 tions with England. Having succeeded in passing them, he 
 thus made it impossible for them to continue their retreat with- 
 out cutting their way through his army, which now faced about 
 to front them. They were cooped up between Belhaven Bay 
 and the mouth of the Broxburn, on a strip of coast not above 
 
Sed Sept., 1650.] DUNBAR FIELD. 287 
 
 two miles long. Behind there was no shelter but the little fish- 
 
 ino- town of Dunbar. Immediately in front of this, "barely a 
 
 mUe off, was Doon Hill, rising like a hog's back to a height of 
 
 more than 500 feet, and forming the northern extremity ol the 
 
 dreary and boggy Lammermoor range. Upon the long level 
 
 summit of this hill was stationed the Scots' army, commanding 
 
 from its vantage ground the surrounding lowland country, and 
 
 ready to seize any opportune moment to descend and annihilate 
 
 the smaller force beneath it. In order the more completely to 
 
 close the road to Berwick, Leslie's right wing of horse descended 
 
 and occupied the undulating but comparatively level ground 
 
 spreading between the foot of Doon Hill and the sea-coast. 
 
 South of Doon Hill, the Lammermoors gradually approach closer 
 
 and closer to the sea, until, at Copperspath, some eight or nine 
 
 miles south of Dunbar, the road to Berwick runs through a 
 
 narrow pass, "where ten men to hinder are better than forty to 
 
 make their way," which was itself already held by the enemy. 
 
 To return westwards to Musselburgh was worse than useless. 
 An attempt to escape in their ships was full of danger, as they 
 would be open to attack from the Scots in their rear while em- 
 barking. To advance was destruction, as long as Leslie com- 
 manded the road to Berwick. To fight was impossible, so long 
 as he remained upon the top of Doon Hill. Oliver prepared for 
 the worst, but did not despair. He wrote to Hasleng, then 
 o-overnor of Newcastle, telling him to collect what forces he could, 
 for the army was so blocked up he could not get out without 
 "almost a miracle," and his soldiers were falling sick beyond 
 imagination." Neither did Oliver's men despair, to judge from 
 the °spmt of a musketeer with a wooden arm, who was taken 
 prisoner in a skirmish. When asked by Leslie « if the army in- 
 tended to fight," he replied, "What else do you think we came 
 here for V « Soldier, how will you fight when you have shipped 
 half your men and all your great guns?" « Sir, if ywi . please to 
 draw down your men to the foot of the hill, you will find both 
 men and great guns also." Leslie sent him back again free 
 
 The Broxburn is a small stream which divides the foot of Doon 
 Hill from the base of the little promontory upon which stands 
 Dunbar It flows in a glen with steep grassy banks between 
 forty and fifty feet high, and as many apart. The easiest passage 
 across is at a point about a mile from the sea-coast, near the 
 
3*d Sew., 1650.1 BATTLE OF DTTNBAlt. 289 
 
 Duke of Roxburgh's seat, Broxmouth House, where the sides of 
 the glen slope gently down to the water, and the high road to 
 Berwick now crosses by a bridge. Oliver, about four o'clock on 
 Monday afternoon (Sept. 2nd), was walking in the garden of 
 Broxmouth House and watching the movements of the enemy 
 upon Doon Hill, when he perceived that Leslie was actually 
 bringing his whole army down below the steep part of the hill-side, 
 strengthening his right wing, opposite the duke's house, with 
 two-thirds of the cavalry from his left, and posting his infantry 
 in the cornfields which sloped gently down to the Broxburn. 
 What did this movement mean 1 Cromwell divined at once. 
 Leslie's purpose was to seize the easy passage over the brook 
 near Broxmouth House by a surprise, and then bring his forces 
 over and light at pleasure. Cromwell saw that, by attacking first, 
 he might seize the passage, outflank Leslie's right wing, and drive 
 it back upon the main body, and thus rout the whole army while 
 hemmed up in that narrow space between the steep of Doon Hill 
 and Broxburn glen. He suggested the plan to Lambert, who said 
 he had meant to say the same thing, and the action was agreed 
 upon for the morrow. 
 
 It was the Presbyterian Committee who had persuaded Leslie 
 to abandon his masterly inactivity on the hill-top. They 
 thought it a mistake to adopt a policy which would let the Sec- 
 tarians surrender, and thus escape utter destruction. Moreover, 
 while the English were provided with tents, Leslie's own men 
 were absolutely without shelter, exposed to all the furies of wind 
 and weather. Leslie himself, as his forces numbered 22,000 
 men while those of Cromwell, supposing all the men had been 
 in fighting condition, were not above 12,000, had no doubt of the 
 event, and gave out in his camp that, by seven o'clock on the 
 Tuesday, " they would have the army of the enemy dead or alive." 
 A misty morning followed a wet and tempestuous night. By 
 four o'clock Cromwell had already set his troops in motion. Large 
 bodies of horse and foot were massed opposite the Scots' right 
 wincr while, for a mile along the bank of the Broxburn, great 
 guns'were stationed, and regiments of foot drawn up, in readiness 
 to assault Leslie's main battle, now lying in the stubble of the 
 reaped cornfields opposite. At six o'clock the trumpets sounded, 
 the cannon fired all up the line, and the soldiers charged, shouting 
 their word of battle, "The Lord of hosts-the Lord of hosts! 
 
 19 
 
290 BATTLE OF DUNBAR, [eump tajil. 
 
 The Scots' foot were hardly well awake, and had let their matches, 
 then ropes of tow, nearly all out, so that they could not so much 
 as return the fire that assailed them from the opposite side of the 
 o-len. Only at the passage, where the road to Berwick then went 
 through the Broxburn, was the struggle fierce. For here the 
 Scotch horse, themselves preparing f<5r ,a surprise, returned the 
 charge with spirit, and forced their enemies back over brook and 
 hollow. Few, however, were their moments of triumph. Crom- 
 well's own regiment of foot, coming up to battle, drove them back 
 in turn at push of pike ; two foot regiments, which had crossed 
 the glen below Broxmouth House, took their wing in flank ; the 
 English horse, charging a second time, broke through horse and 
 foot. Leslie's whole wing then turned and fled right back upon 
 his own main battle, disordering the whole line, and trampling 
 their friends to death beneath their horses' feet. For nearly an 
 hour the whole scene was enveloped in mist ; when at last the 
 fog broke and the sun shone out upon the sea. Oliver shouted 
 aloud the battle cry of Israel, "Now let God arise and scatter 
 His enemies !" and, as the fog was more and more dispersed, and 
 the battle-field more clearly revealed, he cried again, " I profess 
 they run!" and there "was the Scots' army all in confusion and 
 running, both right wing and left and main battle." In all direc- 
 tions they fled — some back towards Copperspath, some in mad panic 
 northwards across the Broxburn to Dunbar itself, but the mass of 
 the fugitives, horse and foot, along the skirts of Doon Hill west- 
 wards towards Haddington. Thus within one short hour the situ- 
 ation of the two armies was more than reversed. The English 
 were victorious; destruction surrounded the Scotch. Before joining 
 the chase, the general and those about him halted and sang Psalm 
 cxvii. : — "O praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise him, all ye 
 people. For His merciful kindness is great towards us, and the 
 truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord." 
 Such was the battle, or rather the rout of Dunbar. Upon the 
 place, or near about it, 3000 men were killed or trampled to 
 death; the chase was pursued for nearly eight miles; 10,000 pri- 
 soners were taken ; the whole of the Scottish baggage and artillery 
 fell into the hands of the conquerors (Sept. 3rd, 1650). Cromwell 
 in his turn advanced ; the town of Edinburgh opened its gates, 
 and he laid siege to the castle. 
 
 Alter the defeat of the army of Strict Covenanters at Dunbar, 
 
1651.] CHAELES INVADES ENGLAND. 291 
 
 the middle party obtained greater influence in the State. The 
 members of this party were called Engagers, from their having 
 entered into that ' Engagement ' to free the king, which led to 
 Hamilton's invasion in 1648. The Parliament met at Perth, and 
 voted that not only Engagers, but Royalists, who submitted to 
 public penance, should be allowed to serve in the army. Charles 
 himself was crowned king at Scone (Jan. 1st), and made com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army, which by the spring was again 
 raised to a force of 20,000 men. Many Covenanters, however, 
 could not hide from themselves the truth of reproaches cast upon 
 them by Cromwell, that Charles hated the Covenant and sacri- 
 ficed his conscience for love of a crown. The officers of a new 
 army, raised during the autumn in the western Lowland counties, 
 had presented a remonstrance, refused to fight for the king, and 
 finally joined the invaders. The governor of Edinburgh Castle 
 had shared the views of the remonstrants, and opened its gates to 
 Cromwell (Dec. 19th, 1650). 
 
 Leslie and Charles, adopting the strategy of the former year, 
 took up a strong position near Stirling, where they could not 
 readily be attacked. Cromwell determined to starve them out. 
 He crossed his army over the Firth of Forth at Queensferry, dis- 
 persed the force sent to oppose his landing, and thus gained pos- 
 session of Fife, and shut Charles off from all the north of 
 Scotland. Perth, the seat of the Scottish government, itself 
 surrendered. Charles, finding his supplies cut off, and the road 
 to England open, played the desperate game which Cromwell 
 seems almost to have designed for him. Suddenly breaking up 
 his camp (July 31st), and getting three days' start of the 
 enemy, he marched straight into England, becoming in his 
 turn the invader. He bent his course towards Gloucester- 
 shire, hoping that the people in the west would rise in his favour, 
 and increase the size of his army before he turned upon London. 
 But his friends were unprepared. Only a few partial risings took 
 place, and, when the royal standard was raised at Worcester, his 
 army barely numbered 16,000 men (Aug. 22nd). The Republi- 
 cans despatched the militia, and every force that could be raised, 
 to check his progress. Cromwell himself, having left 5000 men 
 under General Monk, to complete the con quest of Scotland, fol- 
 lowed fast in pursuit, and having effected a junction with the other 
 
 19—2 
 
292 BATTLE OF WORCESTEK. [rump pari,. 
 
 Republican forces, found himself by the time he reached "Wor- 
 cester, in command of a force of 30,000 men (Aug. 28th). 
 
 The city of "Worcester, which stands on the eastern bank of the 
 Severn, was then, as now, connected by a bridge with its western 
 suburb of St. John's. The surrounding country, on either side of 
 the Severn, was cultivated, and the numerous fields, lanes, and 
 ditches rendered it all unsuited for cavalry fighting. "West of the 
 Severn a fruitful plain stretches away uninterruptedly as far as 
 the Malvern Hills ; but on the eastern side of the river the 
 country is broken, and, at the distance of about a mile from the 
 city, Red Hill, crowned by the Perry Woods, bounds the view. 
 Around and within city and suburb Charles entrenched his army. 
 On a small but abruptly rising eminence, which looks down on 
 "Worcester from the south-east, the Scots planted guns and raised 
 an entrenchment, which they called Tort Royal. A bridge 
 at Upton, some miles below "Worcester, was broken down, to 
 secure the suburb of St. John's from attack, by preventing the 
 enemy from crossing to the Severn's western bank. The work, 
 however, was not thoroughly done. Some of Lambert's soldiers 
 straddled across a parapet left standing, and, after a fierce struggle, 
 drove the Royalists out of Upton, and repaired and maintained the 
 bridge. The next day, the 29th of August, Cromwell, advancing 
 from Pershore and "Whiteladies Ashton, occupied Red Hill and the 
 Perry "Woods with the main body of his army. On the 2nd of 
 September, Fleetwood took over the repaired bridge at Upton a 
 formidable force of 10,000 men. Several difficulties, however, re- 
 mained to be overcome before he could approach St. John's,, 
 for the Royalists held the only bridge over the Teme at Powick, 
 and had placed a strong detachment of troops in the village before 
 it. To ensure a close communication with the other forces, from 
 which he was now separated by the Severn, Fleetwood brought 
 boats up from Upton and Gloucester, and made a bridge of them 
 over the Severn. He then made a second bridge, within pistol- 
 shot of the other, over the Teme, to be ready for use in case his 
 troops could not force the Powick Bridge. Fleetwood began his 
 march from Upton at five o'clock in- the morning, but the 
 bridges were not completed until about three in the afternoon. 
 A furious assault was then made upon the Royalists' advanced 
 guard at Powick, and, after a hard struggle, Fleetwood's soldiers 
 succeeded in driving them from their position, and forcing a pas- 
 
<294 BATTLE OF WOKCESTEB. [eump pari. 
 
 sage over the Terue. This success, however, was but momentary. 
 On seeing the confusion of their friends, large bodies of horse 
 and foot poured out from St. John's, and, charging furiously, 
 forced the Parliamentarians back again upon the Teme. At this 
 critical moment Cromwell brought several regiments of horse and 
 foot across by the bridge of boats over the Severn. A body of 
 Highlanders gallantly but vainly threw themselves in the way of 
 their advance. Cromwell "led the van in person, being the first 
 man that set foot on the enemy's ground." He effected a junction 
 with Fleetwood's forces, and once for all turned the tide of battle 
 on this side the river. "We beat the enemy," he says, "from 
 hedge to hedge till we beat him into Worcester." 
 
 Charles, with his principal officers, was watching the operations 
 from the tower of Worcester Cathedral. On seeing regiment after 
 regiment of Parliamentarians stream across the bridge of boats to 
 the western side of the Severn, he determined to assail the posi- 
 tion of the forces still remaining on Eed Hill. From the number 
 of the enclosures which cut up the ground, the action was mainly 
 confined to the infantry. The Royalists charged out of Sudbury 
 Gate with even more than their usual gallantry, but could not 
 succeed in breaking two of Cromwell's foot regiments, who bore 
 the brunt of the shock. Before they had found time for a second 
 charge, Oliver, with several regiments, had re-crossed the bridge 
 of boats. He now charged himself, at the head of his veterans, 
 and the fiercest struggle of all came on. The Highlanders, 
 when their powder was spent, rather than retreat, fought with 
 the butt-ends of their muskets ; the artillery from Fort Royal 
 played upon the ranks of the Parliamentarians ; the king led his 
 troops on in person again and again. Cromwell saw the position 
 of the Royalists was really untenable ; he " did exceedingly 
 hazard himself, riding up and down in the midst of the fire; 
 riding himself in person to the enemy's foot to offer them 
 quarter, whereto they returned no answer but shot." In spite of 
 the courage displayed by Charles and his troops, the battle ne- 
 cessarily ended in their complete discomfiture. Closely pur- 
 sued by Cromwell, they were forced back into the city, where 
 the bloody struggle was continued in the streets. About seven 
 o'clock Fort Royal itself was stormed, and the guns turned upon 
 Worcester. On the south-east side of the city, by Sudbury Gate, 
 and on the west side, over Severn Bridge, the Parliamentarians 
 pressed in at the same time. Charles, in despair, rode up and 
 
3ed Sept, 1651.] ESCAPE OF CHARLES. 295 
 
 down the streets, now calling on the foot soldiers, who were throw- 
 iug away their arms, to stand again ; now imploring the horse to 
 charge once more, crying that he would rather they should shoot 
 him than let him outlive that fatal day. But his words were spent 
 in vain ; his troops were being pressed back to the north end of the 
 town ; the streets were becoming strewn with the dead bodies of 
 men and horses ; at last, to avoid falling into the hands of his ene- 
 mies, he was obliged to fly hard out of the city's northern gate.* 
 Leslie himself was taken prisoner, but while prisoners of note, 
 both Scotch and English noblemen, were captured daily, the 
 Commonwealth's troops, though they scoured the country up 
 and down, failed to light upon the greatest prize of all. Riding 
 north from Worcester the night after the battle, Charles, early 
 the next morning, reached Whiteladies, a house belonging to 
 a Eoyalist gentleman. Here he changed his clothes for a 
 peasant's dress ; a coarse linen shirt, a pair of old green 
 breeches, a coat of green, his own stockings with their em- 
 broidered tops cut off, and a pair of clumsy shoes, formed his 
 apparel. His face and hands were dyed brown with walnuts. 
 Richard Penderell, one of five brothers, tenants on the 
 estate, clipped off the fugitive's long locks, and took him to a 
 neighbouring wood for concealment. They had only left White- 
 ladies half an hour, when soldiers in pursuit came and searched 
 the house. It was wet and cold in the wood, and Penderell sent 
 his sister, Joan Yates, to the king with a blanket and a mess of 
 milk, butter, and eggs. Charles started when she came. "Good 
 woman," he said, " can you be faithful to a distressed Cavalier V 
 "Yes, sir," she replied; "I would rather die thau betray you." 
 At nightfall Charles left his retreat, hoping to get across the 
 Severn and escape into Wales ; but the bridges being all guarded, 
 and no boat obtainable, he was obliged to retrace his steps to 
 Whiteladies, where he spent a day, in company with a Cavalier, 
 Captain Careless, in an oak, the thick foliage of which concealed 
 the two fugitives from the sight of passers by. William Penderell 
 and his wife gathered sticks near at hand, ready to give warning 
 of danger, for occasionally soldiers came along the path near the 
 tree, and looked about the surrounding woods and meadows. 
 
 * Cromwelliana ; Carl vie; Boscobel Tracts ; Personal Expenses of Chavlea 
 II. in City of Worcester, communicated to the Transactions of the Historical 
 Society by E. Woof. 
 
296 FOREIGN AFFAIRS. [bump pabl. 
 
 After running many risks of discovery, Charles made his way 
 through the country to the south coast, and, sailing from Brighton, 
 was landed in safety at Fecamp, in Normandy (Oct. 16th). His 
 escape spoke much for the good faith and loyalty of the English 
 people. He had been a wanderer for forty-four days, and at the 
 mercy of forty-five persons at least whose names are known — 
 peasants, servants, gentlemen, women, Protestants, Catholics— of 
 whom none were prevailed upon to betray him either by fear or 
 greed ; and this though the House of Commons had declared all 
 his harbourers traitors, and offered a reward of £1000 for his dis- 
 covery. 
 
 During the two troubled years in which Cromwell was re- 
 ducing Ireland and Scotland, the Council of State had not 
 neglected foreign affairs. Milton had been appointed their Sec- 
 retary for Foreign Tongues (March 13th, 1649), and with Blake, 
 Popham, and Dean for their admirals, they were engaged in 
 strengthening the navy and raising England's power by sea. 
 Prince Rupert, driven from the Channel and from Ireland, fled 
 for refuge to the Tagus. Blake pursued him with eighteen ships 
 of war, blocked up the mouth of the river, and inflicted so much 
 damage on Portuguese merchants by seizing vessels coming home 
 from the Indies, that the King of Portugal gave the prince 
 orders to quit the coast (1650). Rupert sailed first to the Medi- 
 terranean, but when most of his vessels were destroyed by Blake 
 he made with the remaining three for the West Indies, where 
 being still pursued, wherever he went, by the Commonwealth's 
 fleets, he at last gave over his pirate's calling, and sold his vessels 
 to the King of France (March, 1652). His brother Maurice, who 
 accompanied him, had been lost in a storm. By the end of the 
 year 1652 there was hardly a corner of the British dominions that 
 dared any longer openly support the cause of Charles. Guern- 
 sey was the last to give in, but Jersey, the Scilly Isles, and the 
 colonies planted on the North American coast and in the West 
 India Islands had all been visited by the Republican admirals, 
 and had consented to recognize the authority of the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 After the victory of Worcester, foreign princes hastened to 
 make friends of men w r ho might prove formidable enemies, and 
 no longer hesitated to recognize the Republic as the lawful govern- 
 ment of England. Tuscany, Venice, Geneva, the Swiss cantons, 
 
1651.] PORTUGAL— FKANCE. 297 
 
 the Hanseatic towns, German princes, sent and received agents ; 
 Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal sent extraordinary ambassadors. 
 A Spanish ambassador, as early as December, 1650, received 
 audience of the Commons. The aspirations of the Republican 
 statesmen, Vane, Bradshaw, Martin, and their companions, rose 
 with success. To foreigners they seemed "filled with pride," and 
 vast schemes of advancing England's power and commerce were 
 believed to float before their minds. ''They intend," writes a 
 foreigner, " to destroy the trade of Holland and usurp it to them- 
 selves. The Dutch must serve on board their fleet, and all the 
 shipwrights, sailmakers, and ropemakers will be obliged to go and 
 earn their living in England. Then they will turn their arms 
 against Denmark, and will oblige Norway to sell their wood to no 
 other nation than England. They will send their fleets against 
 Spain and Lisbon to destroy their trade with the East Indies, and 
 usurp the trade of all the European nations. All the earth must 
 submit to them, work for nobody but them, and they will, from 
 time to time, come into their ports and sweep away all their trea- 
 sure. All commodities will be worked up in England, so that the 
 best artificers will flock thither ; and, if they will have any fine 
 linen or good cloth to wear in another country, the flax and wool 
 must be sent to be manufactured in England."* 
 
 When the King of Portugal sought a treaty, the Republicans 
 demanded a very large sum as indemnity for the expenses Eng- 
 land had incurred in fitting out the fleet against Rupert. The 
 ambassador, on hesitating to agree to such terms, was peremptorily 
 ordered to quit the country (May, 1651). Louis XIV. had 
 allowed French vessels to join with those of Rupert in seizing- 
 English merchantmen. The Republicans were now in posses- 
 sion of the more powerful navy, and retaliated severely on 
 the French for their former ill-will. There was no means by 
 which Louis could come to more friendly relations but by sending 
 an ambassador to England and making a treaty. But, though 
 eager for England's support or, at least, neutrality in the war in 
 which he was now engaged with Spain, his pride forbade him to 
 recognize as lawful rulers the men who had driven his young- 
 cousin into exile, and put his uncle to death on the scaffold. The 
 French merchants, in despair at the injuries inflicted on their 
 
 * Sorbiere to M. fie Courcelles at Amsterdam, 1st July, 1652, in Harris, 
 Life of Cromwell, 270- 
 
298 
 
 FOREIGN RELATIONS. bump pari. 
 
 commerce, asked permission of the English Parliament to 
 send an agent to London to treat privately. " I cannot/'' 
 replied the Secretary of the Council of State, " procure for you a 
 safe conduct to come in the capacity you propose. But, if the 
 Trench Government will consider the wrongs by it committed, 
 and will save us the necessity of seeking justice for ourselves, and 
 treat with the Eepublic in the forms usual between sovereign 
 states, I have no doubt that this State will be willing to entertain 
 any honest and just propositions for the settlement of differences"* 
 (Dec, 1650). Meantime Louis' delay not only affected the inte- 
 rest of merchants, but threatened the success of his own military 
 expeditions. Agents from the revolted city of Bordeaux appeared 
 in London, soliciting aid of the Eepublicans, and offering in return 
 to place England in possession of a port it could secure for 
 them on the west coast of France. The English fleet did not 
 hesitate to seize some French vessels carrying provisions for the 
 relief of Dunkirk, at the time besieged by the Netherlanders. 
 The town, in consequence, was forced to surrender (Sept.) ; and, 
 when the French government complained of the conduct of the 
 English fleet, the Eepublicans replied that the act was merely a 
 reprisal for damages inflicted on English merchants by French 
 vessels in the Mediterranean. Thus pressed, Louis at last con- 
 sented to send an ambassador to England, and formally recognized 
 the Eepublican government (Dec.) 
 
 Though the Eepublicans, by the energy of their government, 
 caused England to be feared and respected, yet their foreign policy 
 was not marked by any true insight into the relations of states at 
 the time. France, though a Catholic country, was no deadly 
 enemy of Protestantism or of progress ; the governments of Spain 
 and Austria were distinguished for their fanatical and reactionary 
 spirit. The Eepublicans, however, showed themselves inclined to 
 support Spain against France, and now entered into a disastrous 
 war with Holland, the enemy of Spain, a Protestant country, and 
 their own natural ally. This war was, partly, the result of com- 
 mercial jealousy. The aspiring spirit of the Eepublicans caused 
 them to make unjust and unreasonable demands as the price of 
 their friendship with the sister republic. We have before had 
 occasion to notice the commercial rivalries existing between the 
 
 * Guizot, i. 448. 
 
1652.] HOLLAND. 299 
 
 English and the Dutch, the cruel murders perpetrated in the 
 East Indies, and the consequent depression of English trade.* 
 The unfriendly feeling thus produced became still more pro- 
 nounced after the execution of the king and the establishment 
 of the Eepublic. The Dutch were afraid that England, now 
 that it had a government like their own, would also turn its atten- 
 tion to commerce, and, by the superior size and resources of the 
 country, eclipse the smaller luminary at its side. 
 
 On the other hand the Republicans had been so successful in 
 founding and maintaining their new form of government, that 
 now no designs seemed too bold for accomplishment. At first, try- 
 ing fair means to prevent the Dutch from acting as their rivals 
 on the sea and the destroyers of their commerce, they had 
 sent two extraordinary ambassadors, Strickland and St. John, 
 to Holland, offering the renewal of a former treaty of 1495, 
 and proposing further that the two countries should unite in a 
 kind of confederacy and have the same friends and enemies (Jan., 
 1651). The States of Holland, in place of a confederacy, pro- 
 posed terms of their own for an alliance. Dutch statesmen fore- 
 saw that if England and Holland were confederated together, 
 their country being the smaller and less powerful, would prac- 
 tically lose its independence, and in its foreign relations be 
 forced to act in the interest of England. The negotiations were 
 broken off, and the English ambassadors recalled (June, 1651). 
 " My lords," said St. John to the States commissioners upon 
 taking his leave, " you have your eye upon the issue of the affairs 
 of the King of Scotland, and therefore have despised the friend- 
 ship we proffered you ; I will assure you that many in the Par- 
 liament were of opinion that we ought not to have come hither, 
 or to have sent ambassadors till we had first overcome our diffi- 
 culties, and seen an ambassador from you. I now see my fault, 
 and perceive very well that those members of Parliament judged 
 right. You will in a little time see our affairs against the King 
 of Scotland despatched, and then you will by your ambassadors 
 come and desire what we now so cordially come to proffer. But 
 assure yourselves, you will then repent you have rejected our 
 kinduess."t 
 
 After the battle of Worcester (3rd Sept., 1651), the victorious 
 
 * See p. 253. f De Witt, Interest of Holland, 393. 
 
500 FOREIGN RELATIONS. |r™ p *^- 
 
 Republicans passed the Navigation Act, the heading of which 
 briefly expressed its contents : " Goods from foreign parts ; by 
 •whom to be imported. 1 ' First, with a few exceptions named, 
 it forbade any goods to be imported into England from Asia, 
 Africa, or America, excepting in English ships, or in ships 
 belonging to the English colonies ; secondly, it forbade the pro- 
 duce or manufacture of any country in Europe, to be imported 
 into England, except in English ships, or in ships of the country 
 in which the goods were produced (9th Oct., 1651). The framers of 
 this law had two ends in view. The first, to transfer part of the 
 carrying trade* of the Dutch to Englishmen ; the second, to 
 increase the strength of the English navy. The first end was 
 contrary to the principles of free trade. If the Dutch could im- 
 port foreign goods into England cheaper than English merchants, 
 the English consumer was benefited by the trade being in their 
 hands, and a saving of labour was made. The second end, how- 
 ever, that of national defence, may, perhaps, then have partly 
 justified the law. English merchants were practically compelled 
 to build vessels in order to import the goods formerly imported 
 by the Dutch ; and from the merchant marine came the sailors, 
 and often the ships, that guarded the coasts and caused 
 foreigners to hesitate before insulting the English government. 
 The usage English traders had experienced in the East Indies 
 from the Dutch, in the West Indies from the Spaniards, had 
 proved the necessity of England's possessing a powerful navy, if 
 she was either to extend her trade or protect her colonies. 
 
 The Dutch sent ambassadors to resume the negotiations, and 
 obtain the repeal of the new law, but so unfriendly was the feeling 
 existing between the two nations, that while the ambassadors 
 were still in the country, the English and Dutch admirals, Blake 
 and Van Tromp, engaged with their fleets in the Downs (19th 
 May). Each admiral accused the other of having been the 
 aggressor, and war with Holland was now declared (19th July.) 
 Blake sailed to the eastern coast of Scotland, where he surprised 
 600 Dutch fishing vessels, and exacted from them the tribute of 
 the tenth herring. Meanwhile Van Tromp was prevented by a 
 contrary wind from approaching a small fleet of fifteen vessels, 
 left in the channel under the command of Ayscue to guard the 
 
 * See p. 252. 
 
165 2.] WAR WITH THE DUTCH. 301 
 
 English coasts. He sailed north in search of Blake, but while in 
 the German Ocean a violent storm so damaged his fleet, that he 
 returned to Holland with his vessels reduced to a third of their 
 former number. The Dutch, who thought themselves better 
 sailors than the English, were deeply mortified at their misfor- 
 tunes, which they ascribed to the " witch-wind" that prevented 
 their admiral from attacking Ayscue. Nor were the English 
 satisfied with such fortuitous successes. They remarked that the 
 country had run great hazards during the summer, from which 
 it had escaped rather by fortune of wind and weather than by the 
 providence of committee or admiral. The committee of council 
 which was at the head of the Admiralty, was, in the opinion of 
 many, too large a body to conduct the affairs of the navy with 
 the skill and expedition required in time of war. The council 
 was now informed that "they were letting slip many fair 
 opportunities, and were like to play a very dangerous after-game, 
 for the Dutch were preparing a great fleet, and would pass 
 through the channel to convoy their merchantmen, when the best 
 of the English ships would be called in for want of victuals. * 
 These fears proved not unfounded. Some of Blake's ships were 
 under repair, while twenty others had been despatched to the 
 Mediterranean, when Van Tromp, with 95 vessels, passed down 
 the channel. Though Blake had only 37, he preferred fighting to 
 retreating down the channel, and thus leaving the coast towns 
 nnguarded. An engagement took place off Dover, which lasted 
 from eleven in the morning until dark. Although the fleets 
 were so unequal in numbers, Blake under cover of the night, suc- 
 ceeded in reaching the Thames in safety with the larger part of 
 his damaged fleet. Two vessels fell into the hands of the Dutch 
 the " Garland " and one other merchantman, which, when the rest 
 made off, were left fighting 'board and board' with Van Tromp s 
 own flagship (29th Nov.). 
 
 On news of this defeat great discouragement prevailed amongst 
 the seamen, great fear amongst the people. General Monk wasasso- 
 ciated with Blake and Dean in commandof the fleet,andfour or five 
 special commissioners of the Admiralty were appointed, with Vane 
 at their head. Vane'sname itself was sufficient to serve as a guaran- 
 tee for an honest administration. The commissioners made every 
 effort to repair the fleet and place it in a flourishing condition. 
 * Colonel Thompson's Notes upon the Dutch War in Bodleian MSS. 
 
$02 FOREIGN RELATIONS. [eump pam*. 
 
 " They sent letters to all vice-admirals and mayors of sea towns 
 to stir up seamen to engage in the service. The best and ablest 
 commanders that could be heard of were invited to the service 
 and entertained, if they were men of courage and civil conversa- 
 tion, and keeping good order in their ships. No fee or gratuity 
 was suffered to be given or taken by any man for their places. 
 The seamen were well paid ; the wives and children of the slain 
 were provided for ; pensions were given to the wounded. Inquiry 
 was made after misdemeanours in officers, and of embezzlements 
 of stores and prize goods, and such officers were removed whose 
 actions appeared to be ill. The commissioners sat daily at White- 
 hall, both early and late, and were private in their debates."* 
 Early in the spring Yan Tromp, convoying on their return voyage 
 up the channel more than 200 laden merchantmen, fell in with 
 the English admirals off Portland Isle. On three successive days 
 the two fleets, each of 80 or 90 sail, were engaged. The battle, 
 begun off Portland Isle, extended to the coast of Holland. The 
 Dutch were entirely defeated, and compelled to seek refuge in the 
 shallow waters of the Texel, whither the English vessels, which 
 drew more water than theirs, were unable to pursue. In this 
 defeat the Dutch lost eleven men-of-war and thirty merchant- 
 men (18, 19, 20 Feb., 1653). 
 
 * Colonel Thompson's Notes. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FALL OF REPUBLICANS, AND BAREBONES' PARLIAMENT 
 (1651—1653). 
 
 "Nothing is good for a nation but that which arises from its own core and 
 its own general wants, without apish imitation of another ; since what to one 
 race of people, of a certain age, is a wholesome nutriment, may, perhaps, 
 prove a poison for another. — Goethe's Conversations with Ecker- 
 
 MANN. 
 
 Cromwell, in his despatch to the Parliament, called his victory at 
 "Worcester a crowning mercy, words which the Republicans under- 
 stood in a double sense. Conscious that he adhered to their party 
 rather by sufferance than on principle, they dreaded to what use 
 he might turn his influence with the army, now that his sword 
 was sheathed. There was certainly cause for fear. The size of 
 the army had been gradually increased during the late wars, so 
 that the forces in England, Ireland, and Scotland numbered up- 
 wards of 50,000 men. The character of the army, moreover, was 
 to some extent altered from what it was in the year ; 48, when 
 the soldiers nearly mutinied against their officers for treating with 
 the king. Since Fairfax' resignation, Cromwell had used his posi- 
 tion as commander-in-chief to weed out of the ranks violent agi- 
 tators, supplying their places by any who were willing to enter 
 the service, even old Royalists, so long as these proved themselves 
 orderly and good soldiers. Thus the men, no longer accustomed 
 to hold meetings, pass resolutions, and form plans of their own, 
 had, as a rule, become more ready to obey the commands of their 
 general without questioning his purposes; while the fanatical ele- 
 ment which still remained, the Anabaptists and Fifth Monarchists, 
 at this time placed a blind confidence in Cromwell, because they 
 knew that he shared their desire of reforming the law and the 
 Church. 
 
 A change was not only discernible in the character of the ranks, 
 but also in that of the council of officers. Here also it was due to 
 
304 DEATH OF IRETON. [ruaip pari, 
 
 Cromwell, who, unwilling that the government of the country 
 should rest upon a small Eepublican faction, was always ready to 
 advance merit wherever he met it, and constantly succeeded in 
 attaching to his service men of contrary principles to his own. 
 Lord Broghill, to whom the Commons had just voted £2000, had 
 been a Royalist. He was a son of the Earl of Cork, and 
 his Irish influence made him an important acquisition. He 
 was passing through London, on his way to join Charles Stuart 
 on the continent, when Oliver, about to proceed to Ireland, 
 paid him an unexpected visit, and told him he must either 
 go to the Tower, or accept a command in the Irish army. Brog- 
 hill asked for a little time in which to make up his mind. " Im- 
 possible," replied Cromwell ; " if I leave you, my offer rejected, 
 you will be at once a State prisoner." The offer was accepted. 
 General Monk, now commander-in-chief in Scotland, was also an 
 old Royalist, who had once fought in the king's armies in Ireland. 
 Men such as these, unlike the heroes of Marston Moor and Naseby, 
 allowed their principles to be identical with their interests. Ac- 
 cepting facts as they stood, it seemed to them unreasonable to follow 
 any other line of action than that of supporting whatever govern- 
 ment was best able to support itself. Meantime, the one link that 
 remained between the Republicans and Cromwell was gone, when 
 Ireton died at the age of forty-one, with a burning fever upon him, 
 while still acting as commander-in-chief in Ireland (Nov. 26th), 
 Ireton had great influence with the army ; he used to say to his 
 soldiers and f ellow-ofncers, ' You may not want to do a thing, but 
 you must do it, because the good of the State requires it of you ;' 
 sternly just, and though fond of his own way, yet ready to yield to 
 those that first yielded to him, as hard to himself as to others, he 
 won obedience by the confidence he inspired in his men. The 
 Republicans he inspired with an equal confidence, and when they 
 distrusted Cromwell they still trusted Ireton. But now aware of 
 the change produced in the army, the Republicans were indignant 
 with Cromwell for having, as they said, turned out "godly 
 men, and put in rascally turncoat Cavaliers, pitiful sottish 
 beasts of his own alliance." Yet there could be no matter of doubt 
 that Cromwell was right alike in rendering the army more sub- 
 missive in temper, and in conciliating men of all parties, whatever 
 their principles or views. An army that refuses obedience to its 
 commanders necessarily becomes demoralized, and can only bring 
 
1651.] DOCTRINAIRE REPUBLICANISM. 305 
 
 mischief upon the country it professes to serve. The Eepublicans, 
 dreading the increased power of the general, forgot the danger 
 with which their government had been threatened by the muti- 
 nies of the Levellers. The second point, that touched the neces- 
 sity of conciliating political opponents, was more important still. 
 No government, whatever its inherent merits, however honest and 
 upright the men who conduct it, can hope to be lasting unless it 
 conciliates a general support sufficient to make it rest on a 
 national as distinct from a party basis. In this the Republicans 
 had entirely failed. The dream of Vane, Bradshaw, Martin, 
 Ludlow, and Hutchinson, of establishing a " free commonwealth, 
 with the hearts and affections of the people to support it," was 
 still as far from fact as on the day when Colonel Pride stood at the 
 door of the Commons and turned Presbyterian members back 
 from the threshold. The Republicans had, in fact, made a capital 
 error in abolishing the two established institutions of monarchy 
 and an Upper House in obedience to a theory. No single 
 form of government can be said to be good for all nations 
 without regard to circumstances of climate, race, progress, and 
 the history of the past. To alter a form of government, to 
 change the relations which the executive, judicial, and legisla- 
 tive powers hold to one another, is a most delicate operation. 
 Governments grow with the growth ot nations, and shape them- 
 selves according to the circumstances of the national history. Hence 
 a government rooted in the past is strong in the affections of a 
 people, while a constitution transplanted or written on paper 
 rarely lasts beyond the particular exigency which called it 
 forth. Reforms, therefore, which, in an advancing state of 
 civilization must always be needful, ought never to be introduced 
 by means of violent changes, but, as far as possible, under the dis- 
 guise of those old forms to which a people is already accustomed. 
 A. despotism, it is true, can rarely be changed into a free govern- 
 ment without, as it were, setting the axe at the root of the tree, 
 and planting a new constitution in the place of one man's will. 
 This was the case in France at the time of the Revolution. Put her 
 history ever since has been a warning of the danger of snapping 
 the chain that connects the past with the present. It has been 
 well said that those who do so must prove that their work pro- 
 duces more good than evil. The men who established a republic 
 
 20 
 
306 BACON ON EEFORMS. [bump parl. 
 
 in England in the seventeenth century failed to prove the good 
 they did was greater than the good they undid. The English con- 
 stitution they upset was distinctly free, though certain reforms 
 were needed to shear the crown of prerogatives which in bad hands 
 were fatal to liberty. Part of the work had been done by the 
 laws passed by the Long Parliament ; there remained the second, 
 and possibly more difficult part of finding a king who would con- 
 sent to allow his ministers to be responsible to Parliament. The 
 foresight of Pym had provided for the emergency. There is 
 little doubt that when he invited to London Charles Louis, the 
 elector palatine, and elder brother of Rupert, he thought he had 
 found such a king, and contemplated a change of succession. But 
 Pym was long dead and gone, and there had now risen a race of 
 politicians who drew their statesmanship from Biblical or 
 classical models, and not from the study of English constitutional 
 history. The scheme of the Republicans happened unfor- 
 tunately to be utterly incapable of fitting on to old institu- 
 tions. They would not hear of a government consisting of two 
 Houses of Parliament, with a president bearing the name of 
 king, though such a government might have been made practi- 
 cally Republican. What they proposed to establish was govern- 
 ment by a standing assembly, re-elected or recruited at stated in- 
 tervals ; and to this it was impossible that the nation should give 
 a willing adherence. They might have accomplished more for 
 their country, had they laid to heart the weighty sentences of the 
 great philosopher of their youth. "It is true," says Bacon, "that 
 what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet, at least, it is 
 fit ; and those things which have gone long together are, as it 
 were, confederate within themselves, whereas new things piece 
 not so well ; but, though they help by their utility, yet they 
 trouble by their inconformity ; besides, they are like strangers, 
 more admired and less favoured. It were good, therefore, that 
 men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself, 
 which, indeed, innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees 
 scarce to be perceived, for otherwise whatsoever is new is unlooked 
 for ; and ever it mends some and iwipairs other ; and he that 
 is holpen takes it for a fortune, and thanks the time ; and he 
 that is hurt for a wrong, and imputeth it to the author. It is good 
 . also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be 
 urgent, or the utility evident ; and well to beware that it be the 
 
1651.] HIGH COURTS OF JUSTICE. 307 
 
 reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of 
 change that pretendeth the reformation."* 
 
 The dislike of nobles, gentry, lawyers, the Presbyterians,, the 
 masses, to the new government was mainly one of sentiment, 
 arising from the abolition of monarchy and the House of Lords. 
 With those who were moved by these constitutional feelings, any 
 attempt at conciliation would probably have been useless. The 
 Republicans, however, despite their numerical weakness, made a 
 second error, and did not try to conciliate even the democratic 
 party beneath them by granting the reforms desired in the law 
 and the church. In fact, the character of their government to- 
 wards all parties alike was harsh and revolutionary. Nor was 
 this a matter of surprise, for the form of that government was in- 
 trinsically bad. The Commons were sole legislators ; they ap- 
 pointed executive officers out of their own number ; they often 
 took upon themselves to act as judges ; they were not held in 
 check by fear of a dissolution ; they were, in fact, in possession 
 of absolute power. It is hardly possible for a body of men, thus 
 emancipated from the control of constituents, to act the part 
 either of just or moderate rulers. The selfish, cruel, and avaricious 
 will number as many as the generous and upright. Tempta- 
 tions will be great, and the indifferent, sheltering themselves 
 behind numbers, will consent to deeds which they would blush to 
 own, were they acting on their sole responsibility. The 
 treatment Royalists experienced from this body was of Royalists. 
 .not such as to allay enmity, or heal wounds yet green. 
 
 Following the bad precedent set at the trial of the king, High 
 Courts of Justice were constantly instituted to try those suspected 
 of treason against the Commonwealth. The Duke of Hamilton 
 and two other leaders engaged in the Royalist risings and the 
 Scottish invasion of the year 1648, were put to death by the 
 sentence of one of these revolutionary tribunals. During the 
 second war with the Scots there were in England four Royalist 
 and Presbyterian plots, and twenty-seven persons engaged in 
 them were executed in thirteen months. f Lilburne hit the weak 
 points of the government in one of his seditious pamphlets. 
 ' When/' he wrote, " I came to hear Capel make his defence be- 
 fore the High Court of Justice, and cite statutes to prove all 
 treasons should be tried by the rules of the common law, looking 
 * Bacon's Essays, xxiv., of Innovations. t Guizot, i. 152. 
 
 •20—2 
 
308 TKIALS AND CONFISCATIONS. [bttmp paei*, 
 
 round about him and saying, ' I am an Englishman, and the law 
 my inheritance, and the benefit of the Petition of Eight my birth- 
 right ;' — and looking upon the president, ' where is my jury ? I 
 see none of my jury ; I demand the right of my jury, without 
 verdict of whom I cannot in law be condemned ;' — bringing for- 
 ward their own declarations to maintain the fundamental laws of 
 the nation ; — but when all was to no purpose, I confess my heart 
 was ready to sink within me, and I had much ado in the open 
 court to contain myself from an avowed detestation of their 
 abominable wickedness."* 
 
 In order to provide funds for the war, Cavaliers who had 
 hitherto escaped were hunted out and forced to compound. In 
 1651 seventy Cavaliers had all their lands and goods confiscated ; 
 in 1652, the year after the battle of Worcester, twenty-nine suffered 
 in the same manner, while 682 had to pay to the republic one 
 third part of the value of their lands and goods. Where the 
 sufferers had really fought against the government, no exception 
 could be taken to the severity used, though it was not likely to. 
 conciliate; but too often estates were confiscated and fines imposed 
 with gross injustice, and the ' Commonwealth men' grew rich on 
 spoils unfairly wrung from their prostrate enemies. + Cromwell's, 
 indignation rose as he saw " poor men driven like flocks of sheep 
 by forty in a morning to the confiscation of goods and estates, 
 without any man being able to give a reason why two of them 
 had deserved to forfeit a shilling."! 
 
 Levellers, like Royalists, received harsh measure. Lilburne,. 
 Lilburne as concerned in the mutinies of the soldiers, was tried 
 banished. \yj j ur y for high treason, and, much to the discontent 
 of his accusers, acquitted (Oct., 1649). It was not long, how- 
 ever, before he was again in trouble. His uncJe, George Lilburne,. 
 was deprived of some coal mines in Durham by sentence of the 
 county committee for sequestering delinquents' estates. An ap- 
 peal was made to ' the Committee of Parliament for the composi- 
 tion of delinquents' estates/ and a second time the cause was 
 ( lecided against George Lilburne. Hereupon ' Freeborn John * 
 presented the House with a petition containing a fierce attack 
 upon Haslerig, as the chairman of the county committee. The 
 House, upon the report of a committee appointed to investigate 
 
 f Fund. Liberties of England vindicated (1649). 
 
 f Hutob.., 353, 355 ; see also Hallam, i. 657. £ Carlyle, iii. 44. 
 
4651—2.] BANISHMENT OF LILBCJKNE. 309 
 
 •the case, negatived the charges stated in the petition, and voted 
 that Lilburne should pay ,£3000 to the republic, £2000 to Has- 
 lerig, be banished for life, and in case of return suffer death as 
 a felon. As he refused to kneel at the bar of the House and hear 
 his sentence read, an Act of Parliament, embodying its contents, 
 was drawn up and passed against him. The irregularities of 
 this course are obvious enough. In the first place county com- 
 mittees are found still sitting and taking the place of proper 
 courts of justice, as in the confessed revolutionary times pre- 
 ceding the king's execution ; in the second, the Legislature is 
 seen acting as a court of justice, and passing a sentence out of all 
 proportion to the offence committed. Had Lilburne been tried 
 for defamation, and found guilty by jury in a court of common 
 law, the heaviest punishment that the judges could by law 
 have inflicted upon him, would have been a fine and corporal 
 punishment.* Those who condemned him to banishment for 
 life were not unbiassed judges, but political enemies, who 
 acted as jury by declaring him guilty of crime, as judges by 
 passing sentence upon him, as legislature by embodying 
 their sentence in a law. Nor was Lilburne's a solitary case.f 
 " The House," says Whitelock, " took upon them and exercised 
 
 * Godwin, iii. 337- 
 
 f The discoverer of unsequestered property belonging to 'delinquents' 
 received Is. in the £. By the warrant of county committees, the property 
 of any who had rendered the slightest service to the royal cause was liable 
 to be sequestered. For instance, John Browne, a gentleman owning estates 
 in Herefordshire, being a minor and left destitute of the means of subsistence, 
 was "forced to seek out his guardian and go into the king's quarters, where- 
 by he became a delinquent." He did, indeed, bear arms as a Royalist, but. 
 atoned for this by serving afterwards for three years in the Parliament's 
 army. Petitioning on that account to be admitted to compound for his 
 estate, he was still fined a-tenth of his property. A Lancashire husbandman, 
 for simply supplying a cheese to the soldiers at a Royalist rendezvous, (where 
 he was summoned on pain of death by Lord Derby's officers), had his pro- 
 perty sequestered, though he ever after lived in the Parliament's quarters, 
 submitted to their committees, and took the covenant. Members of these 
 committees were often paid the debts owing to them by Parliament out or" 
 delinquents' estates. " God of His mercy grant," says a journal of the 
 time, " that for the future, it may never see a perpetuity added to the two 
 Houses of Parliament ; nor committees to manage the justice of the kingdom 
 and sit judges of men's liberties, estates, and fortunes, admitting not the law 
 for their rule, but their own arbitrary, revocable, disputable orders and ordi- 
 nances." It was said, indeed, that if a man had a single enemy on a com- 
 mittee, it was impossible to obtain justice, for 'against malice there was no 
 , fence. '—Military Mem. of Col. Birch, 63, 96, 219, 236 ; Sir Roger Twys 
 den's Journal, quoted in Bisset, Omitted Chapter of English History. 
 
310 SHOKTCOMINGS OF EEPUBLICANS. [eump par£. 
 
 all manner of jurisdiction, and sentenced persons at discretion, 
 which was disliked by many lawyers of the House (of which I 
 was one) ; and we showed them the illegality and breach of 
 liberty in those arbitrary proceedings." 
 
 While the House treated Royalists and Levellers harshly, ift 
 passed over lightly the offences of friends. For instance, a certain 
 Lord Howard of Esrick, was proved to have been bribed by 
 Eoyalists to give them easy terms in compounding. Though 
 sentenced to be fined and imprisoned, he was kept in confine- 
 ment but a very short time, and his fine remitted. Many of the- 
 members themselves took advantage of their position to secure 
 salaries or grants of land from their party. Even in the matter of 
 religious toleration, the House fell far short of the principles of 
 the best men in it ; Catholic priests taken in the country w T ere 
 banished, and the Long Parliament's laws enforced, which for- 
 bade Episcopalians the exercise of their own forms of worship. 
 It must not, however, be supposed that unjust sentences and 
 harsh votes were passed without opposition ; Martin would seek 
 to save the life of a Royalist, urging what was, perhaps, the 
 only argument that could have weight in such a House, the old 
 adage that ' the blood of the martyr would be the seed of the 
 church :' and there were others beside him who still remained 
 faithful to the great principle of liberty of conscience. Vane 
 showed the pecuniary incorruptibility which is the boast but not 
 always the practice of republican virtue : he was the first to break 
 through the iniquitous usage by which the commissioners of the 
 navy received a percentage on the money expended ; after re- 
 funding vast sums and securing a fixed salary for his agent, he 
 worked himself for nothing. Yet members such as Vane, 
 Martin, Bradshaw, and Ludlow, in spite of their integrity, noble 
 intentions, and high principles, were unable to drag along the 
 dead weight behind them. The House was judged by the votes 
 and acts of the majority, and the government of this absolute 
 Parliament was as much detested as that of any single tyrant. 
 
 Cromwell took a line of his own. The Republicans had always 
 complained he was not hand and glove with them ; they now 
 doubted whether he would give them even a passive support. His 
 aim as well as theirs had been the establishment of a free govern- 
 ment, which should win the nation's trust and regard. Their means 
 to this end had been tried and had failed. Their failure Cromwell 
 
1652.] POSITION OF CROMWELL. 311 
 
 had foreseen from the first, but at the time of the establishment 
 of the republic he had not been strong enough to oppose their 
 wishes without endangering the common cause. Now he might 
 hope, not only to head, but to some extent to guide, his party. 
 The army was a far more obedient instrument to his hand than 
 it had ever been before, while the feeling of the levelling and 
 reforming party towards him was entirely changed. "When he 
 treated with Charles, they had joined with the Republican}* 
 against him ; now they looked upon him as their own leader in 
 the cause of popular reform. 
 
 Misgovernment, disorder, injustice, Cromwell detested as 
 only a man can who is himself possessed of the genius to govern 
 well. There may, therefore, be truth in the assertion that after 
 the ' crowning mercy ' at Worcester, he did determine in his own 
 mind to bring the present government to an end. Yet he was 
 no self-seeking intriguer, such as his enemies supposed him. 
 Ambitious he was in the true sense of seeking a vantage-ground 
 for good. Conscious of ability, he hears the voice of his suffering 
 nation calling aloud for a physician. Unhasting, he can wait 
 till more eager hands have tried and failed. If he desires power, 
 it is to accomplish a task that none other can. Had Cromwell 
 fallen short of this amount of ambition, he would have fallen 
 short also of being the greatest man of his time. More, how- 
 ever, than his country's needs, more than the knowledge of his 
 own capacity in some measure to relieve them, urged him on to 
 the destruction of the republic. For in the long course of events 
 that had raised him, who once lived as a country gentleman on 
 his farm, to be now the most powerful man in the state, he saw 
 the directing hand of God. When he would have treated with 
 Charles and allowed him to retain the title of king, Republicans 
 and Levellers had been given the power to force him from his path. 
 Fairfax' resignation of the chief command, victory following upon 
 victory, had invested him with extraordinary power. To use this 
 power for, what he now believed, the good of his country, seemed 
 a duty imposed upon him by God. If it was necessary to convert 
 old friends into enemies, he must not sacrifice duty to friendship. 
 " I need pity," he wrote in a private letter to the father of his 
 daughter-in-law ; " I know what I feel. Great place and busi- 
 ness in this world is not worth the looking after ; I should have 
 no comfort in mine, but that my hope is in the Lord's presence. 
 
312 POSITION OF PARLIAMENT. [rump parl. 
 
 I have not sought these things ; truly I have been called untc 
 them by the Lord, and therefore am not without some assurance 
 that He will enable His poor worm and weak servant to do His 
 will, and to fulfil my generation. In this I desire your prayers."* 
 Standing in the midst of the universal discontent, Cromwell 
 seemed to feel himself the friend and protector of all the oppressed. 
 When the Catholics petitioned the House for relief, Vane spoke 
 in their favour and was beaten : Cromwell, without heeding the 
 votes, gave protection from persecution by his own hand and 
 seal.f In the distribution of livings between Presbyterians and 
 Independents, the Republicans unduly favoured the Indepen- 
 dents ; it was Cromwell, the Independent, who sent a guard to 
 a church to prevent an Independent from taking violent pos- 
 session of a pulpit belonging to a Presbyterian : he tolerated 
 even the Presbyterian preachers who told his soldiers that 
 they broke the covenant in making war upon the Scots. It was 
 Cromwell who, when Royalists were being deprived in large 
 numbers of their estates, persisted in making the House pass an 
 Act of Oblivion for the pardon of offences committed before Wor- 
 cester (24th Feb., 1652) : the Republicans had looked to the 
 confiscations as a support for the Dutch war, but Cromwell 
 thought funds for a foreign war were ill bought by stirring the 
 embers of civil strife at home. And, lastly, it was Cromwell 
 who could be trusted to attack the abuses which made the Ana- 
 baptists cry out for reform in the church, and who could sympa- 
 thize with plain-dealing soldiers like Colonel Pride who " wished 
 to see the lawyers' gowns hanging up in Westminster Hall by 
 the side of the colours and trophies taken at Dunbar." 
 
 It was certain that the present relation of parties could not 
 last. Since the Commonwealth was first established, the House 
 had been repeatedly called upon by the officers to do two 
 acts, to reform the law, and to fix a time for a dissolution. 
 Though committees upon both questions were appointed, they 
 did not advance quickly in their work. . Through the opposition 
 of the lawyers, a strong and influential body in the House, little 
 reform was effected in the law beyond the passing of an act that 
 all law-books should be translated out of Latin into English, and 
 that all law proceedings should be conducted in the English 
 
 * Carl., ii. 161. f Harris, Life of Cromwell. 
 
1652.] DISSOLUTION OR PERPETUATION? 31.3 
 
 language. Members again were by no means anxious to divest 
 themselves of the supreme power they possessed, and up to the 
 date of the battle of Worcester (3rd Sept., 1651), the House had 
 come to no decision whatever on the question of its own dissolu- 
 tion. When, however, the general and his officers entered 
 London, as the victors of Dunbar and Worcester, and demanded 
 with voices not to be gainsaid, that they should know for how 
 long the present government was to continue, the House, by 
 a very small majority, passed a vote that it would dissolve on 
 the 3rd Nov., 1654, thus giving itself three more years of life 
 (17th Nov., 1651). The date proposed was so distant that the 
 vote gave no satisfaction. The eager reformers of law and 
 church looked to Cromwell to bring matters to a speedier conclu- 
 sion. The officers, generally, had no intention of allowing a 
 clique of some fifty politicians to remain sovereigns for three 
 years longer. Before the time of Pride's Purge, they had peti- 
 tioned in favour of elective monarchy, by * which they meant the 
 kind of government afterwards represented by the Protectorate. 
 They now simply petitioned for a Dissolution Bill providing for 
 the calling of a new Parliament. Themselves preferring a Re- 
 public, they were, nevertheless, too practical in their aims to care 
 more for the form than the substance, and were likely to be 
 content with any government that assured influence to them- 
 selves, and a safe existence to the army. Thus pressed, the 
 Republicans consented to introduce a bill for a new representa- 
 tive (13th Aug.), but at the same time were careful so to frame it 
 that they themselves should still remain in exclusive possession 
 of sovereign power. The next House of Commons was to consist 
 of 400 members ; all members, however, of the present House 
 were to keep their seats, and be able at pleasure to reject newly- 
 elected members. The officers held repeated conferences with 
 members of Parliament about the bill that was now being has- 
 tened through the House. "This is no dissolution," they said, 
 " nothing but a perpetuating of yourselves ; we want men who 
 will reform the law, and you were three months settling what a 
 single word, ' incumbrance/ meant ; reform will never get on at 
 that rate." " You must go," said Oliver ; " the nation loathes 
 your sitting." The members, however, far from being wrought 
 upon to alter their bill, replied obstinately that in the House they 
 had the right of their yeas and their noes. 
 
314 EXPULSION OF LONG PARLIAMENT. [bump pakl. 
 
 On the 19th of April, a conference held at "Whitehall ended with 
 an agreement that the objectionable bill should be laid aside 
 until a second meeting had been held the following afternoon at 
 the same place. The members, however, who made this agree- 
 ment had no real power to bind the House. The next day, while 
 about forty officers and members were discussing the question of 
 dissolution, messages were brought to the general that the objec- 
 tionable 'Perpetuation Bill' was being hurried through the House, 
 and would shortly be made law. Cromwell left the conference, 
 and ordering a company of his own regiment of musketeers to 
 follow him, led the way to "Westminster. Leaving the soldiers 
 at the Commons' door, he entered the House, not in uniform, but 
 " clad in plain black clothes and gray worsted stockings, and sat 
 down, as he used to do, in an ordinary place." He listened for 
 some time with interest to the debate, but when the question was 
 about to be put ' That this bill do now pass,' he whispered to 
 Major-General Harrison, " This is the time ; I must do it," " rose 
 up, put off his hat, and spoke, at first in commendation for their 
 pains and care of the public good, but afterwards he changed his 
 style, told them of their injustice, self-interest, and other faults." 
 "Perhaps you think," he said, "this is not Parliamentary lan- 
 guage ! I confess it is not, neither are you to expect any such from 
 me." " The first time," said Sir Peter Wentworth, rising, " I ever 
 heard such unbecoming language given to Parliament ; it is the 
 more horrid in that it comes from our servant, and that servant 
 whom we have so highly trusted and obliged." But as he was 
 going on, the general stepped into the midst of the House, " Come, 
 come, I will put an end to your prating," and " clapping on his 
 hat," walked up and down the floor and chid them roundly, saying, 
 " You are no Parliament ; I say you are no Parliament ;" and 
 looking and pointing at one member, said, " There sits a drunk- 
 ard," and then pointing at a second gave him a bad word, though 
 without mentioning names, while to Harrison he called out, 
 '•'Bring them in." And then entered some thirty musketeers, 
 ready to obey their general, whatever his orders might be. 
 "This is not honest," cried Vane from his seat; "yea, it is 
 against morality and common honesty." ""What shall we do 
 with this bauble ? Here, take it away," said Oliver, picking up 
 the mace, and handing it to a musketeer. " Take him down," 
 he then said, addressing Harrison, and pointing at the Speaker. 
 
20tk Apbil, 1653.1 EXPULSION OF LONG PARLIAMENT. 315 
 
 " Come down," said Harrison. " I will not come down, anless 1 
 am forced," replied Lenthall, frowning, and trying to rise to the 
 occasion, as he had done when Charles in that same House had 
 demanded the five members of him. " Take him down," repeated 
 Oliver ; whereupon Harrison pulled Lenthall by the gown, who 
 descended from his chair, and the rest of the members, fifty-three 
 in all, after a little pretence of resistance, followed their Speaker 
 out of the House. When all were gone, the Lord General locked 
 the door, and put the key in his pocket. By break of day the 
 next morning some Royalist wit had stuck a placard on the 
 Commons' door : " This house is to be let, now unfurnished."* 
 
 Thus the law that this Parliament should not be dissolved 
 without its own consent was broken by one of those who had 
 given his vote to its making. f The original justification of 
 the law was that it secured the just rights of the nation against 
 the violence of the king. That this was the original purpose was 
 shown by the fact that it was passed within three months of a 
 triennial bill, which it was intended to supplement rather than 
 supersede. When it was diverted from this purpose, and was 
 used to secure the selfish aims of the members against the just 
 rights of the nation, it became at orce unconstitutional. The 
 Commons had received a definite commission, and had no right 
 to enlarge this commission without a fresh reference to the people 
 who had appointed them. Temporary trustees have no right to 
 make their tenure perpetual. The Commons were temporary re- 
 presentatives, and had no right to make themselves life peers, still 
 less to intrigue for a power of co-optation by demanding a veto on 
 new elections. The temporary justification was gone. The king 
 was no more ; the House of Lords was no more ; the House of 
 Commons was no longer a representative body. Danger resulted 
 to the nation from the continuation of the House, not from its 
 dissolution. In conquering Charles it had saved England from 
 the establishment of a despotism, but it had not shown itself 
 capable of the necessary afterwork of reconstruction. The country 
 was drifting into anarchy ; the people submitted to the govern- 
 ment solely through fear of the army ; the army and the House 
 were in collision. The so-called bill for a ' new representative' 
 being really a perpetuation bill, was practically a coup d'etat. 
 
 ' * Sydney Pnpers, 141 j "Whitelock, 554 ; Ludlow, li. IS, 21,. 
 f See p.'lOO. 
 
316 END OF LONG PARLIAMENT. [babebone's. 
 
 Powers of State must have either right or might; this Par- 
 liament had neither. Still, to resort to armed force is a blot 
 on the origin of any new power. The establishment of a go- 
 vernment that should unite in itself the elements of order 
 and of reform, and thus save the nation from a third civil war, 
 could alone justify Cromwell's employment of military force 
 against the civil power. The responsibility of the act does not 
 rest specially on Cromwell. The officers were determined on a 
 dissolution, and for some weeks past had only been restrained 
 from effecting their purpose by the opposition of Cromwell him- 
 self, who to the last clung to the hope that the House would yet 
 be persuaded to dissolve itself. " I speak here," he said, a few 
 months later, " in the presence of some that were at the closure of 
 the consultations, and, as before the Lord, the thinking of an act 
 of violence was to us worse than any battle that ever we were in, 
 or that could be, to the utmost hazard of our lives ; so willing 
 were we, even very tender and desirous, if possible, that these 
 men might quit their places with honour," 
 
 A temporary executive was constituted at once. The council of 
 officers, and a new council of State, composed of nine army men 
 and four civilians, now conducted the government between them. 
 Cromwell, all-powerful as he was, did not attempt to assume the 
 position which at this time he, perhaps, felt must ultimately be 
 his. He was pledged to the Fifth Monarchists and the Anabap- 
 tists for the reform of the law and the church, and it was accord- 
 ingly in the hands of men really determined on reform that he 
 now placed the government. Orders were sent out by the 
 council of officers to Independents and other sectarian ministers 
 in every county to consult with their congregations, and return 
 the names of ' godly men,' fitted to sit in a new Parliament of 
 saints. Out of the returns thus made certain persons were 
 selected, to whom Cromwell sent, in his own name, writs of sum- 
 mons, bidding them attend him at Whitehall, as representatives 
 of different towns and counties. Five members were chosen for 
 Scotland, six for Ireland, six for Wales, 139 for England. 
 
 The new assembly is sometimes called the Little Parliament, 
 Barebone's sometimes by the nickname of Barebone's Parliament, 
 Parliament. f rom ^he name of one of its members, Praise-God Bare- 
 bone, a leather-seller in Fleet Street. It has been represented by 
 its enemies as composed of a set of ignorant fanatics. This, how- 
 
1653.] LAW REFORM. 317 
 
 ever, was not the case. Many members were gentlemen, most were 
 men of some mark, if not able to boast of great fortunes or high 
 birth. In it were General Monk and other distinguished officers; 
 Admiral Blake ; Lockhart, afterwards ambassador in France ; 
 Viscount Lisle, son of the Earl of Leicester ; and Alderman Ire- 
 ton, brother of the late Lord-Deputy of Ireland. 
 
 The first grand reform which the Parliament undertook was that 
 of the law. The general administration of English law was then, 
 as it still is, divided into two distinct branches, that of common 
 law, administered by the three Courts of King's Bench, Com- 
 mon Pleas, and Exchequer, and that of equity, administered by 
 the Court of Chancery. 
 
 English common law originated in the unwritten rules or 
 customs, derived in part from Saxon times, in part from the feudal 
 system as introduced by the Normans. These unwritten rules 
 or customs were in the course of time embodied in the decisions 
 of the judges, who were guided, not only by the customs already 
 spontaneously observed by the people, and the analogy of previous 
 decisions, but also, though not professedly, by their own studies 
 in Eoman law and their own ideas of right and expediency. The 
 ideal of early times is a fixed law unaltered by those in power. 
 There is little demand for an adjusting legislation and less supply. 
 But as circumstances change, the justice of one generation be- 
 comes injustice to another. The present source of adjustment is 
 mainly in statutes made by Parliament, but for a long time there 
 was little adjustment at all, and what there was came mainly out 
 of the breasts of the judges, who used legal fictions as their means 
 of quietly modifying the law. Such fictions have been justly de- 
 scribed as t invaluable expedients for overcoming the rigidity of 
 law/ but they do not adjust the law either rapidly or completely 
 enough, and their use gradually loads a system with technicali- 
 ties. It necessarily followed that English common law became a 
 complicated system, not easily reducible to general rules, and not 
 easily understood except by those who had received a special 
 education. Complaints were raised by the reformers that the 
 client was left at the mercy of his advocate, for none could under- 
 stand the law but lawyers trained ; that law-books were so many 
 and so costly that few could buy them ; that decisions of former 
 judges were often contradictory ; that the fees demanded by law- 
 yers were excessive, the delays of justice intolerable, and costs so 
 
318 LAW KEFORM. [BAEEBONKb. 
 
 great that the poor were shut out from redress at law ; while the 
 punishments enacted were unnecessarily severe, and were often 
 arranged so as to press heavily on the offences of the poor, and let 
 •the rich off easily. Bentham, as late as the beginning of the 
 present century, repeats the complaints of the reformers of the 
 seventeenth: — "It is the people's interest that delay, vexa- 
 tion, and expense of procedure should be as small as possible ; 
 it is the advocate's interest that they should be as great as 
 possible. As to uncertainty in the law, it is the people's inte- 
 rest that each man's security against wrong should be as complete 
 as possible ; that all his rights should be known to him ; that all 
 acts which, in case of his doing them, will be treated as offences, 
 may be known to him as such, together with their eventual pun- 
 ishment, that he may avoid committing them. ... It is the law- 
 yer's interest that people should continually suffer for the non- 
 observance of laws, which, so far from having received efficient 
 promulgation, have never yet found any authoritative expression 
 in words. This is the perfection of oppression ; yet propose that 
 access to knowledge of the laws be afforded by means of a code, 
 lawyers, one and all, will join in declaring it impossible. To any 
 effect, as occasion occurs, a judge will forge a rule of law ; to that 
 game effect, in any determinate form of words, propose to make a 
 law, that same judge will declare it impossible. It is the judge's 
 interest that, on every occasion, his declared opinion be taken for 
 the standard of right and wrong."* 
 
 The institution of Chancery arose from an attempt to make 
 law advance of itself with the increasing complexity of civilization. 
 It became the chancellor's duty to interfere when, through the 
 rigidity with which the common law was administered, some 
 wrong was done for which law gave no remedy. Thus, in the 
 now common case of property being vested in a third person as 
 trustee, the common law acknowledged only the title of the 
 trustee, ignoring altogether the moral rights of the parties for 
 whose benefit the property was held. In these and similar cases 
 the Court of Chancery intervened, on this ground — that although 
 not legally bound, yet in foro conscieniice the trustee could not 
 violate the trust or confidence reposed in him. Another example 
 may serve to illustrate the adjusting power of the two kinds of 
 law. By the rules of common law, a married woman received at 
 * Bentham. on Fallacies. 
 
1653.] LAW AND EQUITY. 319 
 
 her husband's death, by inalienable right, a dower of one-third 
 of all the lands which had ever formed part of his estate. As 
 society advanced, and the inalienable right was found to hamper 
 the transfer of property, the common law courts adjusted the diffi- 
 culty somewhat at the expense of the woman's security, by tole- 
 rating a palpable evasion of the law of dower through a fictitious 
 suit and a conveyancer's quibble. When Chancery stepped in, by 
 a piece of judge-made law, it avoided the inconvenience without 
 entirely losing the object in view, securing women's property by 
 settlement, and yet making it transferable by trustees. As time 
 progressed, the Court of Chancery became itself as much bound 
 by technical rules as the courts of common law. From the 
 fact that the chancellor was originally an ecclesiastic, the proce- 
 dure of the Roman or civil law was adopted in his court. This 
 procedure was in itself more complicated than that of the common 
 law. A complicated procedure in itself causes delay, and in 
 Chancery the issues themselves are complex ; for suite may not 
 merely require sentences with the simple 'Yes' or 'No' of 
 common law, but involve administering large estates and assign- 
 ing various rights to different interests. In this system there 
 was little check on the abuses of judges and officials. Much was 
 delegated to the masters in Chancery, and Coke says these 
 bought their appointments and recouped themselves by extor- 
 tions from suitors. Moreover, the court was peculiarly open to 
 the charge of corrupt motives, as before a body of precedents 
 was formed the decision of each case was supposed to rest largely 
 on the discretion of the chancellor. Complaints were made 
 " that there were 23,000 causes depending upon the court, some 
 of which had been depending five, twenty, thirty years and 
 more J that there had been spent therein thousands of pounds, 
 to the ruin of many families ! in one word, that the Court of 
 Chancery was nothing but a mystery of wickedness and standing 
 cheat I" Thus, while common law was felt to be harsh and 
 technical, Chancery was still more disliked as both dilatory and 
 corrupt. Many of the complaints raised were only too well 
 founded, especially those that referred to the brutality of the 
 criminal law,* and the delay and expense involved in the proceed- 
 ings of all the courts. The reformers went boldly to work to 
 remedy the evils of both systems. A committee without a single 
 * See p. 261. 
 
320 A REFORMING PARLIAMENT. [babebone's* 
 
 lawyer upon it, was appointed to consider the reform of the- 
 law, and boldly undertook to reduce ' the great volumes of the 
 law to the bigness of a pocket volume ;' while a bill for the 
 abolition of Chancery was ordered to be brought into the House. 
 
 A simple and uniform code is an invaluable boon to a nation. 
 In attempting, however, in that early time, to limit the judge's 
 discretion, and also to secure simplicity for civil and criminal 
 code alike, the English reformers overlooked the necessities of 
 a complex and changing state of society. In times of little 
 legislation, it has been owing mainly to the allowance of discre- 
 tion in the judges that English law has had the merit of advan- 
 cing hand in hand with the needs of society. There is no 
 reason, in the nature of things, why equitable principles should 
 not have been recognized in the common law courts, so as to 
 avoid the inconvenience of two different and conflicting systems. 
 But the common law courts, having always had equity courts, 
 by their side to correct the shortcomings of their branch of the 
 law, retained theories based on a totally different state of things, 
 which would have caused monstrous injustice, had not the appro- 
 priate remedies been provided by Chancery. In the bill for the 
 abolition of Chancery which was finally brought in and read 
 twice, some provision was made for this need, at least for the 
 time, by the appointment of commissioners to settle causes 
 already before the courts, and, apparently, to deal with future 
 cases of an equitable nature. What was wanted was a fusion of 
 the two systems, not the abolition of equity. 
 
 After the law followed church reform, both tithes and the 
 right of patronage being brought into question. Tithes were 
 then, as at the present day, the legal endowment of all parishes 
 in England and Wales, and were paid in kind, the farmer giving 
 the tenth pig, tenth corn-sheaf, tenth gallon of milk, and the 
 like. Abuses had arisen in early times. The monasteries had 
 been treated as spiritual corporations, and as such had received 
 the whole tithes, of which they paid only some small portion to 
 the vicar or substitute who did the duty for them. When the 
 monasteries were suppressed, the great tithes which had been 
 kept by the spiritual corporations often fell into the hands of 
 laymen, while the vicar still received only what were called the 
 small tithes. The abuses were obvious, and the mode in which 
 tithes were raised was itself burdensome, and a frequent source 
 
1653.J ABOLITION OF PATRONAGE. 321 
 
 of quarrels in parishes. The reformers did not propose to 
 remedy the abuses of this system, but to sweep it away. The 
 spiritual life of the age had come from ministers whose support 
 had been the free gifts of their congregations, while the tithe- 
 supported clergy had opposed the political and spiritual interests 
 of the people. The popular notion, therefore, was to abolish 
 tithes, and substitute a voluntary system which would render 
 the minister dependent on the parishioner. 
 
 The first point which the reformers dealt with was patronage, or 
 the right of presenting ministers to livings ; this right had often 
 passed with the great tithes into the hands of laymen, which 
 had proved a natural and fruitful source of nepotism, and had 
 also caused the scandal of next presentations being offered for 
 sale. These usages, anomalous enough at all times, were then 
 especially liable to abuse. Lay patronage had been long allowed, 
 but it had always been supposed that the Church in some way se- 
 cured that none but duly qualified ministers should be presented 
 to livings. The patron nominated, the Church, at least in form, 
 approved. But now in most parishes the endowments remained 
 while the check of an Establishment was gone. The Presbyterian 
 Church, though established by ordinance of Parliament, had 
 been only set up in Lancashire and Middlesex. Hence patrons, 
 being unchecked by either bishop or presbytery, were at liberty 
 to impose upon congregations any ignorant or drunken kinsman 
 on whom they pleased to confer a living. The reformers in Par- 
 liament held, as did sectarians generally, that congregations ought 
 to elect their own ministers, as the only security against abuse of 
 patronage. The propensity of lawyers to treat public offices as 
 private rights, has left a door open for abuse even now ; how 
 much more opening was there then? And though, in later 
 times, the interests of laymen in church property, anomalous 
 though they are, have, no doubt, often saved the Establishment 
 when threatened, yet in that time of enthusiasm the existence of 
 such anomalies only increased the desire of the reformers to 
 uproot the whole system. "Some young artist from Oxford/ 
 they complained, "enters and takes possession of the tithes, 
 of the care and cure of souls, for this his father hath bought 
 for him, and who shall say him nay? What a sad account 
 have the most of these proprietors for the many thousand souls 
 
 21 
 
322 ABOLITION OF TITHES. [barebone',-3. 
 
 that have perished by their means !"* Accordingly they passed 
 a vote that patrons should be deprived of their right of present- 
 ing to livings, and that the choice of the minister should be vested 
 in the parishioners, and a bill was ordered to be brought in to 
 that effect (Nov. 17th). The next question was that of the sup- 
 port of the minister, when chosen. A committee reported in 
 favour of the continuance of tithes ; it had, no doubt, seen that 
 the interests involved were too complicated to be dealt with in the 
 off-hand fashion which was in favour with the enthusiasts, who 
 formed a majority of the House. Simply to sweep away tithes 
 would have been to make a free gift to landowners, while there 
 would have been many difficulties in diverting them to other 
 uses. But the House, bent on a voluntary system, rejected the 
 committee's report by a majority of two (Dec. 10th). 
 
 Besides these violent changes many useful reforms were pro- 
 posed, which do honour to Barebone's Parliament, and show that, 
 though rash in execution, its legislators were in most points nearly 
 two centuries in advance of their age. Chief amongst these was 
 an act for the relief of debtors. The laws of debt were such that 
 they gave the creditor unlimited power over the person of his 
 debtor, but little or none over his property. Hence bankrupts, 
 guilty of no criminal, often of no moral offence, were liable, 
 through the cruelty of their creditors, to be imprisoned for life ; 
 while fraudulent debtors, by not applying for release, could 
 keep possession of property in defiance of their creditors. A 
 ' humble petition of all the prisoners for debt within the several 
 tyrannical dens of cruelty, prisons, gaols, and dungeons in this 
 land/ says truly enough that "restraint of men and women's per 
 sons in gaol pays no debts, but defrauds the creditors, feeds the 
 lawyers and gaolers, and murders the debtors ; witness the many 
 thousands that have thus perished miserably, as the gaolers' books 
 and coroners' records do testify. Your poor enslaved brethren, 
 therefore, humbly pray that there may be no more arresting nor 
 imprisonment for debt." In every county in England and Wales 
 commissioners were appointed by the Parliament to investigate 
 the cases of those confined for debt. Debtors who were genuinely 
 bankrupt, and perishing in prison only' through the cruelty and 
 obduracy of creditors, were to be granted their liberty, either un- 
 
 * Somers, Tracts, ii. 
 
1653.] EEFORMS— WISE AND FOOLISH. G23 
 
 conditionally, or for a limited space of time, at the discretion of 
 the commissioners ; on the other hand, the commissioners were 
 empowered to order to close imprisonment those well able., but 
 unwilling to pay. To protect prisoners from extortion, the act 
 enjoined that wholesome provisions should be sold them at a rea- 
 sonable price ; that a table of moderate fees should be hung up in 
 every prison ; and that gaolers transgressing such tables in any 
 particular should forfeit fourfold to the party injured, and be set 
 in the pillory. This act was at once carried into execution, and 
 •300 persons were let out of London prisons alone. Another im- 
 piortant euactment which this Parliament made was one for the 
 registration of births, marriages, and deaths : this occurred as a 
 clause in an act making civil marriage before a magistrate com- 
 pulsory, the religious ceremony apparently being added or not 
 at the discretion of the parties ; some change was no doubt neces- 
 sary after the disestablishment of the Episcopal Church, but so 
 violent a change can hardly have been otherwise than unpopular. 
 Bills were also prepared for a new system of workhouses and pro- 
 vision for the poor, for fixing the fees of lawyers and clerks, for 
 the prevention of bribery and the delay of justice, for checking 
 the greediness of the courts by paying judges by salary and not 
 by fees, for establishing a registry for deeds affecting land, and 
 county judicatures to make justice accessible to the poor. 
 
 Excellent as many of these reforms were, they failed of their 
 accomplishment. By voting the destruction of the Court of 
 Chancery, and by proposing the abolition of tithes, which would 
 have deprived the clergy of regular stipends, the reformers had 
 shown they were not fit to be rulers, for they went much faster 
 than the nation would follow. They had cut the knots instead of 
 untying them. Abolishing equity was a violent mode of reform- 
 ing the Court of Chancery ; making all ministers dependent upon 
 their parishioners, a needlessly radical means of providing that 
 livings should only be bestowed upon men of good character. 
 Such measures especially enraged the lawyers, whose feelings 
 could not be disregarded, for their support had always been one 
 of the chief pillars of the Commonwealth. Besides lawyers — 
 Boyalists, Presbyterians, patrons, ministers — all whose interests 
 were attacked, or who felt, as most men do, attachment to old 
 customs, regarded the innovators with hate and scorn, and looked 
 up to Cromwell as the man who alone could stop the rash course 
 
 21 2 
 
324 FINAL VICTORIES OVER DUTCH. [barebone's. 
 
 of the Parliament, and act in time to prevent its votes from being 
 turned into laws. 
 
 In fact, even now supreme power belonged rather to Cromwell 
 than to the Parliament. Ambassadors from Sweden, from Hol- 
 land, and from France, were ordered to present themselves to 
 Cromwell, their governments already recognizing the future 
 monarch in the victorious general. The course which the Dutch 
 war took in this summer served incidentally to increase his 
 renown as commander-in-chief of the English forces. In the 
 first engagement, the Dutch admirals, Yan Tromp, De Ruyter, 
 and De Witt, met Blake, Dean, and Monk off the North Foreland. 
 The battle raged for two days. Admiral Dean was killed by a 
 shot, and fell at Monk's feet, who flung a cloak over the body 
 in order that the sailors might not be disheartened by knowledge 
 of their loss. In the end, the Dutch were entirely defeated ; 
 nineteen of their vessels were destroyed, and 1300 of their sailors 
 taken prisoners (2nd June). 
 
 Again, before the end of July, Yan Tromp, who was once more 
 on the water in joint command with De Witt of a fleet of nearly 
 120 sail, met Monk off the coast of Holland. Though Monk 
 had only ninety vessels, yet after a desperate fight of nine hours, 
 the struggle ended in the complete defeat of the Dutch, whose 
 brave admiral, Yan Tromp, was killed by a shot as he walked the 
 deck, sword in hand. The Dutch vessels were pursued right up to 
 their own coasts, 26 men-of-war were destroyed, and 1200 sailors 
 were picked up as prisoners from the wrecks. The English only 
 lost two ships, but 500 sailors, besides several captains, were 
 killed in the action (31st July). After this second defeat the 
 Dutch no longer thought of continuing the war. They had in 
 the spring sent ambassadors to Cromwell to open negotiations, 
 and now only endeavoured to obtain fair terms of peace. 
 
 While the nation had reason to be proud of its generals and 
 admirals, it had no sympathy with its Parliament. There had 
 always been a considerable minority in that body itself, that 
 opposed the violent votes carried by the reformers. On the 
 morning of the 12th of December, members of this party took 
 their seats early in large numbers, and proposed that the House 
 should repair in a body to the Lord General, and deliver back 
 into his hands the power they had received from him. The 
 speaker, without venturing to put the question to the vote, left 
 
1653.] END OF BAREBONE'S PARLIAMENT. 32S 
 
 Ids chair, and attended by about forty members, went to White- 
 hall, where he and his companions signed a resignation of their 
 power to Cromwell. Within two or three days, above eighty 
 members — a majority of the whole Parliament — had consented 
 to sign their names to the same instrument (12th Dec.) There 
 was ' a drinking of sack, and a making of bonfires' at the 
 Tnns of Court, when the news was told that Barebone's Parlia 
 ment had come to an end. Yet the despised fanatics were in 
 many points wiser than the lawyers. Of the reforms proposed 
 by them, the larger number have been adopted, while others 
 •have been held advisable, if not practicable, in the present century. 
 That delays of justice should be prevented in Chancery as else- 
 where, that the costs of transferring land should be diminished 
 by the establishment of an effective registry for titles, are reforms 
 still called for in England as they were in the time of Barebone's 
 Parliament.* 
 
 A council, composed of the leading officers and some civilians, 
 now brought forward an ' Instrument of Government/ in which 
 Cromwell was given the title of Lord Protector of England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland. The executive government was vested 
 in the protector and a council of state. The councillors were 
 named in the instrument, and were not removable at the pleasure 
 of the chief magistrate, but were to sit for life. A Parliament 
 was to be summoned to meet in nine months, the date fixed 
 being the 3rd of September (1654). Until the meeting of this 
 Parliament, the protector and his council were.granted the power 
 
 * Injustice to Barebone's Parliament, its reforms should be compared 
 •with the course of subsequent legislation, (i.) Parliament passed Acts foi* the 
 relief of debtors in 1813 and 1843: by the Act of 1861, fraudulent debt 
 was dealt with as a criminal offence, and imprisonment of common debtors 
 abolished for the rich, though practically retained for the poor : Acts were also 
 passed for the reform of prisons in 1774, 1823, and 1835 ; (ii.) After the 
 Restoration, criminal legislation was retrograde, and between that time and 
 the death of George III., a period of 160 years, the punishment for 187 
 more offences was made capital : by successive Acts between 1824 and 1861, 
 the punishment of death was limited to murder and treason ; (iii.) Since 
 1828, several reforms have been introduced, which diminish the delays, and 
 to some extent the costs, of the courts of common law and the Court of 
 Chancery: the establishment of county courts for the recovery of small 
 debts has rendered justice obtainable by the poor (1846) ; (iv.) An Act 
 for the registration of births, marriages, and deaths was passed in 1836 ; 
 (v.) By Acts passed under William IV. and Victoria tithes were commuted 
 into a rent charge upon land, payable in money, varying with the price ot 
 *.corn. 
 
S2C CROMWELL INAUGURATED LORD PROTECTOR. 
 
 of making ordinances to have the force of laws. After this date- 
 the power of legislation was vested entirely in the Parliament, 
 the protector having only a suspensory veto on bills for twenty 
 days after their passing, at the expiration of which time they 
 were to become law of themselves. Parliaments were to be dis- 
 solved every three years, according to the provisions of the Trien- 
 nial Bill. On the occurrence of any vacancy in the council, the 
 protector was to choose a new member out of six candidates 
 nominated by Parliament. The protector was to have command 
 of all forces by sea and land, but in questions of peace or war 
 was only to act with the consent of his council of state, and 
 Parliament was to be immediately summoned in case of war. 
 On the death of the protector a successor was to be appointed by 
 the council. 
 
 Cromwell was inaugurated Lord Protector in the Court of 
 Chancery at Westminster Hall. He there took the oath tendered 
 him to observe the articles of the New Instrument, and received 
 from Lambert a sheathed sword to replace his own, as a sign that 
 his rule was no longer military (16th Dec, 1653). 
 
 The great scheme of a parliamentary republic had failed both 
 in its original form and in that of the provisional government 
 which followed the fail of the pure Republicans. That of a 
 presidential republic had now to be tried, when the republican 
 ideal was already discredited by a double failure. It will be 
 seen in the sequel how this had again to be modified till it ap- 
 proximated so closely to the old government that it became a 
 monarchy in all but the name. We can see clearly enough the 
 folly of the persistency with which the Republicans adhered to 
 an experiment of which the failure was inevitable. Yet their 
 errors were natural to their age. In judging them, men are too 
 apt to forget that the history of the last two hundred years, 
 which has revealed so much to us, was a sealed book to them. 
 No instance of a government like that which now exists in 
 England was then to be found. Greek and Roman history told the 
 tale of tyrants overthrown, liberty and prosperity assured by the 
 rule of republican assemblies. In Europe could be seen absolute 
 monarchies, as in France and Spain on the one hand, or pure 
 republics, as in Venice and Switzerland, on the other. The 
 virtues of republican governments and the happiness of their 
 citizens had formed the common talk of scholars since the re- 
 
1653.] BREACH WITH REPUBLICANS. 327 
 
 vival of classical literature in the beginning of the previous cen- 
 tury ; while almost within living memory a republic had been 
 actually founded in Holland. With no alternative before them, 
 the most forward minds in an age of revolution naturally de- 
 veloped into the most uncompromising Eepublicans. Two men, 
 however, the most remarkable of all, were not in the strict sense 
 Eepublicans. At the beginning of the war, Pym had guided his 
 followers towards the true land of promise, where kings should 
 reign and not govern. Yet had Pym lived, it is doubtful whether 
 even he, with all his vast Parliamentary influence and experience, 
 could have stemmed the current of the prevailing fanaticism 
 without being overwhelmed by those who had been his own sup- 
 porters. Views which Pym might have set aside with a smile 
 as impracticable dreams, had become the declared policy of 
 men versed in public affairs, of great incorruptibility and ot 
 deepest conviction. These were the men whom Cromwell had to 
 face They were his friends, and had been his political chiefs, 
 yet he had to prefer the safety of the State to private friendship 
 and the ties of party. Had he been less than he was, he too 
 might have been a Kepublican, and his name, like that of Vane, 
 have passed as a model of integrity. Being what he was, it was 
 inevitable that he should take a different path, but it augured ill 
 for his o-overnment that its very foundations should have to 
 rest upon the irreconcilable enmity of the noblest of his feLow- 
 workers in the cause of freedom. 
 
CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 THE FIRST THEEE YEARS OF THE PROTECTORATE (1654 — 1656). 
 
 Heaven knows, I had no such intent. 
 But that necessity so bowed the state 
 That I and greatness were compelled to kiss. 
 
 Henry IV., pt. ii., hi. 1. 
 
 I will discover to you a political secret, which must ere long be made 
 public. Capo d'Istria cannot long continue to administer the affairs of 
 Greece ; he wants one requisite indispensable in that position — he is no sol- 
 dier. There is no instance on record in which a mere statesman has been 
 able to organize a revolutionary state, and keep under his control the mili- 
 tary and their leaders. With the sabre in his hand, at the head of an army, 
 a man may command and make laws, secure of being obeyed, otherwise the 
 attempt is hazardous. Napoleon, if he had not been a soldier, could never 
 have attained the highest power ; and Capo d'Istria will soon be forced to 
 play a secondary part. — Conversations with Goethe, translated 
 prom the German oe Eckerhann. 
 
 Cromwell held bis power by will of the army. Though Ana- 
 baptists and Eepublicans were hostile to the new government, 
 the larger number of the common soldiers, and all the principal 
 officers — Monk and Lambert, the protector's son-in-law Fleet- 
 wood, and his brother-in-law Desborough — were well content to 
 effect a final settlement of the kingdom by raising their general to 
 be the head of the State. Milton, who, though a Kepublican, con- 
 sented to continue in office as Secretary for Foreign Tongues to 
 the Council of State, thus exhorted his "chief of men:" — ' Recol- 
 lect that thou thyself canst not be free, unless we are so ; for it is 
 fitly so provided, in the nature of things, that he who conquers 
 another's liberty, in the very act loses his own ; he becomes, and 
 
 justly, the foremost slave Thou hast taken on thyself a 
 
 task which will probe thee to the very vitals, and disclose to the 
 eyes of all how much is thy courage, thy firmness, and thy forti- 
 tude ; whether that piety, perseverance, moderation, and justice 
 really exist in thee, in consideration of which we have believed that 
 God hath given thee the supreme dignity over thy fellows. To 
 
1651] THE PKOTECTOR'S IDEAL. 329 
 
 govern three mighty States by thy counsels, to recall the people 
 from their corrupt institutions to a purer and nobler discipline, to 
 extend thy thoughts and send out thy mind to our remotest shores, 
 to foresee all and provide for all, to shrink from no labour, to 
 trample under foot and tear to pieces all the snares of pleasure 
 and all the entangling seducements of wealth and power— these 
 are matters so arduous that, in comparison of them, the perils of 
 war are but the sports of children. These will winnow thy facul- 
 ties, and search thee to the very soul ; they require a man sus- 
 tained by a strength that is more than human, and whose medi- 
 tations and whose thoughts shall be in perpetual commerce with 
 his Maker.'* 
 
 Cromwell, who from the first had fought in defence of liberty 
 in Church and State, and who came of the same breed of men as 
 Eliot, Pym, Vane, and Milton himself, would have scorned to rule 
 a race of slaves. " Of the two greatest concernments," he says, 
 " that God hath in this world, the one is that of religion, and of 
 the just preservation of the professors of it, to give them all due 
 and just liberty ; the other is the civil liberty and interest of the 
 nation, which though it is, and, indeed, I think ought to be, sub- 
 ordinate to the more peculiar interest of God, yet it is the next 
 best God hath given men in this world, and, if well cared for, it 
 is better than any rock to fence men in their other interests. 
 Besides, if any whosoever think the interest of Christians and the 
 interest of the nation inconsistent, I wish my soul may never 
 enter into their secrets."f Such was Cromwell's ideal of govern- 
 ment — one which, while leaving a people free, was to work at 
 once for their material and moral improvement. In Cromwell's 
 mouth, the words 'interest of religion' did not mean the interests 
 of any sect : in his use of the term, he comprehended the whole 
 moral life of the nation; a good education, the suppression of cruel 
 sports, a reform of the criminal law — all that could tend to ele- 
 vate the minds of men, he classed under the category of the in- 
 terest of God. 
 
 The protector certainly could not fairly be accused of having 
 overthrown the free institutions of his country. Except during 
 the dictatorship of the first few months, the powers he pos- 
 sessed were rather those belonging to the chief magistrate of 
 
 * Defensio Secunda (Godwin, iv. 20). + Carlyle, iii. 222. 
 
330 ENEMIES OF PliOTECTOEATE. [peotect, 
 
 a republican state, than those exercised by former Kings of Eng- 
 land. The executive was placed under the control of the legisla- 
 ture ; the chief magistrate was denied a veto on laws ; his office 
 was rendered elective. " For myself," he said to his first Parlia- 
 ment, " I desire not to keep my place in this government an hour 
 longer than I may preserve England in its just rights, and may 
 protect the people of God in a just liberty of their consciences."* 
 Yet there was much to hinder Cromwell in achieving his 
 cherished object of establishing a free and constitutional go- 
 vernment. Too much hung on a single life, and that one past its 
 prime. Time, the great conciliator, could not do much for one 
 who was already fifty-five. The mass of the people were sure 
 to be long prejudiced in favour of their old line of princes. Ex- 
 cepting his own immediate supporters, no political party favoured 
 his government. Old Royalists and Presbyterians denounced him 
 as guilty of treason and rebellion. The Ee publicans, Vane, Brad- 
 shaw, Hutchinson, Ludlow, did not scruple to avow their hostility, 
 and their intention of rising whenever a good opportunity should 
 offer for the restoration of the Commonwealth. Fanatical Levellers 
 and Fifth-Monarchists joined with Eoyalists in plotting against 
 the new government, deluded enough to think that, after they had 
 overthrown it, they should be able to crush their allies and setup 
 a Parliament of their own. There was, however, a surer and 
 readier means than insurrection by which the protector's enemies 
 might attempt the accomplishment of their wishes — assassination. 
 " There remains nothing for him to do," said the Swedish Chan- 
 cellor Oxenstiern, when he heard of the establishment of the Pro- 
 tectorate, " but to get him a back and breast-plate of steel." A 
 proclamation was drawn in the name of Charles Stuart, and 
 secretly dispersed amongst malcontent Eoyalists, Fifth-Monarch- 
 ists, and Anabaptists, to the effect that, a certain base mechanic 
 fellow, by name Oliver Cromwell, having usurped the throne, 
 whosoever killed him by sword, pistol, or poison should receive a 
 reward of ,£500 a year (1654). The life and government of the 
 protector were constantly endangered by the plots of Eoyalists 
 and Levellers, or of both parties united. Cromwell, however, 
 proved himself more than a match for his enemies. He made 
 use of his insight into character to find the right men to serve as 
 spies, and was generally in full possession of the plans of his 
 * Carljle, iii. 8i. 
 
1651] TEMPOEAEY DICTATOESHIR 331 
 
 enemies. Conspirators, after having advanced with their pre- 
 parations until within a few hours for the moment of action, 
 found themselves suddenly swooped upon by the officers of justice, 
 and lodged securely in prison. 
 
 When the protector met his first Parliament, at the appointed 
 date (3rd Sept.), he was prepared with a good account of his nine 
 months of rule. Much to the indignation of Republicans and Ana- 
 baptists, who still clung to the ambitious project of reducing the 
 States and incorporating the two Republics, Cromwell had ended 
 the ruinous war with Holland by granting peace on fairly moderate 
 terms. The Dutch agreed to lower their flag to the English navy ; 
 to banish from their territories enemies of England ; to restore to 
 England the island of Poleron, in the East Indies, seized by them 
 during James' reign ; to pay ,£170,000 damages to the East India 
 Company ; and to give to the heirs of those massacred at Amboyna 
 (p. 253) during the same reign a sum amounting to near £4000, to- 
 gether with a compensation of nearly £100,000 to English traders 
 to the Baltic. With the Danes (July, 1654) and with the Swedes 
 (April, 1654) the protector had also concluded treaties favourable 
 to the interests of English merchants. Portugal, long in disgrace 
 for harbouring Rupert's fleet of privateers, had only obtained a 
 treaty by consenting both to refund the expenses incurred by the 
 English government in consequence of this unfriendly act, and 
 also to allow English merchants liberty of conscience to worship 
 in chapels of their own, and to have free use of Bibles and other 
 Protestant books throughout the Portuguese dominions. 
 
 So much for foreign affairs ; at home the protector had made 
 active use of the powers granted him by the Instrument of 
 Government. He had had the right to make ordinances 
 and impose taxes, with the assistance of his council, until 
 the meeting of Parliament. No less than eighty-two ordi- 
 nances had been passed. Amongst others were two for the 
 reform of the Church. The first empowered thirty-eight com- 
 missioners, a body of laymen and ministers, commonly called 
 ' triers,' to examine and approve every person, whether presented 
 by a patron, or in any other way introduced to a living, before 
 allowing him to take possession (March 20th, 1654). The second 
 appointed from fifteen to thirty commissioners in every county to 
 expel from their offices any ministers or schoolmasters who set 
 the people a bad example by neglecting their duties, and passing 
 
332 REFORM IN REPRESENTATION. [protect. 
 
 their time in taverns, playing at cards and dice (28th Aug). 
 Cromwell's principles of toleration, made him desirous of 
 uniting Protestant sects, and he named, as commissioners 
 upon these ordinances, Presbyterians, Independents, and Ana- 
 baptists. To their political opinions he was indifferent, so long 
 as he thought them the right men to do the work required. 
 Amongst them sat, not only Fairfax, though now at heart almost 
 a Koyalist, but Republicans who were bitter enemies of the pro- 
 tector. The great Presbyterian, Baxter, was a ' trier' himself, 
 and, though he could never forgive Cromwell's usurpation, he ad- 
 mitted that good resulted from this reform. " And with all their 
 faults," he says, " thus much must be said of these triers, that 
 they saved many a congregation from ignorant, ungodly, drunken 
 teachers, that sort of men who intend no more in the ministry 
 than to patch a few good words together to talk the people asleep 
 on Sunday, and all the rest of the week go with them to the 
 alehouse and harden them in sin; so that, though many of them 
 were somewhat partial to the Independents, Fifth-Monarchy 
 men, and Anabaptists, many thousands of souls blessed God for 
 the faithful ministers whom they let in."* By another of his 
 ordinances Cromwell reduced the costs of suits in Chancer}" by 
 simplif} ing the procedure and cutting down the fees of counsel 
 and solicitors, one of those acts which few subsequent govern- 
 ments have been found strong enough to repeat. 
 
 A reform was carried out in the system of representation. 
 This reform had been proposed by the Republicans, and was laid 
 down in the Instrument of Government. In early times, when 
 the Lower House was summoned solely for the purpose of grant- 
 ing the king subsidies, attention had naturally been paid to 
 allotting members to places in proportion to population anc* 
 wealth. But, in the course of years, inequalities appeared. 
 Towns which returned members lost their trade, and decreased in 
 the number of their inhabitants, while unrepresented villages 1 >e- 
 came large and thriving cities. This evil was increased by the 
 practice of the princes of the Houses of Tudor and Stuart, who, 
 in order to maintain their authority in the Commons, created new 
 boroughs out of mere villages, which returned members according 
 to the directions of servants of the crown. Thus Elizabeth added 
 •sixty members to the House of Commons, the loyalty of petty 
 * Baxter, Life, 69. 
 
1654. J CROMWELL'S FIRST PARLIAMENT. 333 
 
 Cornish hamlets being especially favoured in the distribution of 
 these seats. An inequality had from the first existed in the county 
 representation, since counties, however unequal in size, as York- 
 shire and Eutland, had always returned two members each. Ac- 
 cording to the reform now made, the number of members returned 
 for England and Wales was reduced from 500 to 400. The county 
 members, or knights of shires, were increased to 261, Yorkshire 
 returning twelve members, Essex thirteen, Warwickshire four, 
 and other counties in like proportion. A large number of 
 rotten boroughs, some of which contained only a few houses, 
 were disfranchised, while members were given to a few rising 
 places, such as Leeds, Manchester, and Halifax ; 149 members 
 were returned in all for the towns and boroughs.* The county 
 franchise, formerly confined to freeholders possessed of lands or 
 tenements to the annual value of 40s., was extended to any resi- 
 dent in the county, the capital value of whose property, real or 
 personal, amounted to £200. t As the value of money now is 
 one-fourth of what it was then, the constituency was not as de- 
 mocratic as the present; when owners of freeholds of the annual 
 value of 40s., and occupiers of property of the rateable value of 
 £12, are qualified as county electors. J 
 
 The reformed Parliament was imperial, representative of the 
 three nations, thirty members being summoned to sit for Scotland, 
 and thirty for Ireland. Those who had borne arms against the 
 Parliament since 1641 were rendered, by the Instrument of Go- 
 vernment, incapable of voting at elections for the present Parlia- 
 ment or the three following triennial Parliaments. This disfran- 
 chised not only the Royalists, but some of the Presbyterians, who 
 had joined in Hamilton's invasion, or in that led by Prince 
 Charles. The House, however, contained many Presbyterians, 
 besides Republicans and others opposed to the government. 
 These proceeded to debate the question whether they should 
 approve the government by a single person and a Parliament ; 
 in other words, to attack the Instrument of Government 
 
 * There had been 400 members for towns, 100 for counties (p. 2). 
 
 f After the Restoration (1660) the old system of representation was re- 
 stored, and no reform was made until 1832. 
 
 X Reform Act, 1867, by which county votes were also given to owners of 
 property other than freehold of the annual value of £o ; and borough votes 
 to all ratepaying householders, and even to lodgers who have occupied for a 
 year rooms of the annual value of ±110. 
 
•g34 FIE ST PAELIAMENT DISSOLVED. [peotect. 
 
 by authority of which they, as well as the protector, ruled. More 
 than a week had been spent upon this subject of debate, when 
 Cromwell summoned the members to the Painted Chamber, and 
 there informed them that he was in possession of the government 
 by a good right from God and man ; by Divine right, because it 
 was by his hand that God had saved the nation ; by human right, 
 because they had come to sit there in virtue of his writ, and, 
 therefore, could not call in question the authority by which the 
 Parliament itself existed. They would now, before again entering 
 the House, be required to sign their names to an engagement to 
 be true and faithful to the lord protector and Commonwealth, 
 and not to propose or consent to any alteration of the govern- 
 ment as it was settled in one person and a Parliament 
 (Sept. 12th, 1654). Though this engagement eliminated a 
 hundred members who refused to sign it and so lost their 
 seats, the enemies of the government still maintained a ma- 
 jority in the House, which did not offer the protector either 
 the nioney bills necessary for the support of the arm3 r , or any 
 others for his consent. Accordingly, as soon as five months were 
 spent, the length of session required by the Instrument of Govern- 
 ment, Cromwell did not delay a day in dissolving the Parliament. 
 " Divisions and discontent," he told the members, " which, like 
 briars and thorns, had nourished themselves under their shadow, 
 had been more multiplied during the five months they had sat 
 than in some years before. ... I bless God I have been inured 
 to difficulties, and I never found God failing when I trusted in 
 Him. I can laugh and sing in my heart when I speak of these 
 things to you or elsewhere. And though some may think it is an 
 hard thing to raise money without Parliamentary authority upon 
 this nation, yet I have another argument to the good people of this 
 nation, if they would be safe, and yet have no better principle — 
 whether they prefer the having of their will, though it be their 
 destruction, rather than comply with things of necessity ? That 
 will excuse me. But I should wrong my native country to sup- 
 pose this" (Jan. 22nd, 1655). 
 
 The divisions existing between the Parliament and the protector 
 gave courage to his enemies to plot murder and insurrection, whe- 
 ther these were Eoyalists on the one hand, or Levellers and Fifth- 
 Monarchists on the other. The best of the Republicans— men such 
 as Vane, Ludlow, and Hutchinson— refused to join in conspira- 
 
1654. J KOYALIST EISINGS. 335 
 
 cies of which the success was doubtful, while they scorned the 
 thought of resorting to assassination as a means to overthrow the 
 government. Several conspiracies, however, were formed in Eng- 
 land and Scotland, but were nipped in the bud by the timely 
 seizure and imprisonment of the ringleaders. "Wildman, a Level- 
 ler, and member of the late Parliament, was seized sitting at his 
 table, and dictating a declaration against 'The tyrant, Oliver 
 Cromwell, Esq.' Several plots were laid against the protector's 
 life, ' little fiddling things,' as he once called them. In March 
 partial risings of the Royalists took place in several counties. 
 A body of 200 Cavaliers rode into Salisbury in the middle 
 of the night, and seized the persons of the judges who had come 
 to hold the assizes (10th March, 1655). The townspeople, how- 
 ever, refused to compromise themselves by offering the insurgents 
 any support. The town crier, being ordered by Penruddock, 
 their leader, to proclaim Charles Stuart at the Market Cross, 
 " made ' O Yes ' (Oyez) four times, but still, when Penruddock 
 said, ' Charles the Second, king,' he stopped, though much 
 beaten by them, and said he could not say that word, though 
 they should call for faggots and burn him presently." Within 
 twenty-four hours of their arrival, the Cavaliers were obliged 
 to ride hastily out of the town, in c^der to avoid meeting the 
 protector's troops. The insurgents were overtaken and dispersed, 
 and above fifty taken prisoners, among whom were their 
 leaders, Penruddock and Grove. The prisoners were regularly 
 tried by jury for treason. Of those condemned, seventeen were 
 executed ; others transported to the Barbadoes, and their ser- 
 vices as slaves sold to the English planters there for a period of 
 five years.* No Republicans or Levellers were brought to trial. 
 Cromwell, who had intimated not obscurely to his Parliament 
 that rather than suffer his government to be overturned he would 
 resort to arbitrary measures, now carried his threat into execution, 
 with the determination to keep up the army and with it maintain 
 order at any cost. He continued to enforce ordinances made in 
 council, which the Instrument of Government had only granted 
 
 * This early form of transportation or penal servitude was first introduced 
 by the Long Parliament, who applied it to some of the Scotch prisoners 
 taken after the defeat of Hamilton at Warrington in 1648. Such treatment 
 seems quite indefensible when applied to prisoners of war: insurgents are 
 even now liable to the treatment of convicts, but the substitution of private 
 masters instead of the State is an outrage to sentiment. 
 
336 AEBITEAEY GOVERNMENT. Lmoteox 
 
 him power of making until the meeting of his first Parliament, 
 Thus he passed an ordinance for the continuance of the monthly 
 assessment of £60,000 for the support of the army. Of his sole 
 authority he imposed on Eoyalists, whose estates exceeded the 
 worth of £100 per annum, an income tax of ten per cent., and 
 this whether they had been engaged in the late risings or not. 
 He divided England into eleven districts, over each of which he 
 placed in command a major-general, with power to call out the 
 county militia for the enforcement of his orders (Aug., 1655). 
 Major- These major-generals were, in fact, military governors, 
 
 Generals. w ] 10 encroached on the duties of the ordinary justices 
 of the peace and other civil authorities, and acted at once as 
 judges and police officers. There was no appeal from their de- 
 cisions, except to the protector and his council. They received 
 instructions to suppress tumults and rebellion, to see that 
 Papists and Eoyalists had no arms in their possession, to collect 
 the income-tax imposed upon Eoyalists, to arrest and imprison 
 suspected persons, to aid in ejecting scandalous ministers, to 
 suppress horse races, cock-fightings, bear-baitings, and other 
 sports at which the disaffected collected. 
 
 Some of the chief men in the army, as Fleetwood, Skippon, 
 and Desborough, held office as major-generals. They do not 
 seem to have abused the power entrusted to them, though no 
 doubt they carried out Cromwell's instructions to the full, 
 exacted the last penny of the income tax from Eoyalists, and 
 required Eoyalist justices of the peace, mayors, and sheriffs, to 
 make way for men friendly to the government. A severe ordi- 
 nance was issued, forbidding any to take into their families 
 ejected Episcopalian ministers as chaplains or school-masters 
 (Jan., 1656). Many Eoyalists and Republicans, known malcon- 
 tents, were imprisoned, or forced to confine themselves to one 
 place of abode. The movements of both Vane and Ludlow were 
 at one time or another thus placed under restraint. An order of 
 council was issued that no paper should be published without 
 permission from the Secretary of State ; and all but two, out of 
 <-ight, weekly papers were suppressed (Sept., 1655). 
 
 Whether we admit, or not, the ' tyrant's plea, necessity/ we 
 must not fail to mark the difference of motive that caused Charles 
 and Cromwell to exercise arbitrary government. Charles im- 
 posed taxes without consent of Parliament, and committed men 
 
1655-6.] TREATMENT OF CONSPIRATORS. 337 
 
 illegally to prison, in order to break the spirit of the people, and 
 convert a constitutional into an absolute monarchy. Cromwell 
 really taxed the country for the country's good, because his own 
 government was all he saw able to stand between anarchy on the 
 one side and the loss of freedom of conscience on the other. 
 History will always judge by very different standards the arbi- 
 trary acts that break up an existing order and those which 
 restore order out of disorder. The king who tries to make slaves- 
 of a free people has none of the excuses of one on whose shoulders 
 has fallen the herculean task of remaking a nation out of the 
 chaos of a revolution. Cromwell was marked out as the pilot 
 to steer the storm-tossed State into port, and nothing would 
 induce him to quit the helm. " I can sooner be willing," he 
 said, " to be rolled into my grave and buried in infamy than I 
 can give my consent unto [it]." 
 
 Hence, unlike Charles, Cromwell never resorted to arbitrary 
 measures, until either his government or his life were in real 
 danger, and then he was never cruel ; the imprisonments he 
 inflicted were generally short ; he never sought the ruin of his 
 adversary. He counselled his son. Henry, when command- 
 ing in Ireland, not to let the discontent of some make too 
 much impression upon him. " Time and patience may work 
 them to a better frame of spirit, and bring them to see that 
 which for the present seems to be hid from them ; especially if 
 they shall see your moderation and love towards them, if the}' 
 are found in other ways towards you." 
 
 Tyrants who have been raised by an army to a throne have 
 often proved themselves the most suspicious of mankind. But 
 the protector's nature remained as generous and trustful as it 
 had been in his earlier years, when none grudged the quiet 
 country gentleman his life. He only took a few necessary pre- 
 cautions for his safety by looking closely after his guards, and 
 letting a report spread that he wore a mail coat under his clothes. 
 So far, indeed, did he seem removed from personal feelings of fear 
 and revenge, that he would pass over insulting words and even 
 outbursts of deadly hatred, as though they concerned him not, so 
 long as he preserved his power intact. When he imprisoned men 
 without showing legal cause, he had good reason to suspect their 
 intentions. Republicans, Levellers, Anabaptists, even those of 
 them who sought his life, he always looked upon as friends 
 
 22 
 
338 COMPARATIVE CLEMENCY. [protect. 
 
 estranged rather than as enemies. A lesser man might have 
 freed himself from the charge of tyranny, and at the same time 
 made his own life more secure, by bringing traitors to the gallows, 
 for there is little doubt Cromwell had evidence enough if 
 he had chosen to use it. A true tyrant, still more one who 
 was conscious he had deserted the cause to which he was first 
 engaged, would have been slow to deal leniently with old Eepub- 
 lican friends, whose conduct might have seemed as a perpetual 
 reproach to his own. But of all the Levellers, Fifth-Monarch- 
 ists, or Anabaptists, who conspired against the protector's life 
 or government, only one suffered by the hand of the execu- 
 tioner.* Sexby, a Leveller, died in prison, but he was a 
 fanatic who plotted with Eoyalists to take the protector's life, 
 and sent to England some "strange engines to that pur- 
 pose."! Though towards Eoyalists less mercy was shown, they 
 admitted themselves that their condition was greatly improved 
 from the time of the dissolution of the Long Parliament. A 
 committee of officers restored to their Eoyalist owners, estates 
 unjustly sequestered, and inflicted condign punishment on false 
 informers. J In matters of life and death too, Eoyalists re- 
 ceived far more lenient treatment. Not nearly so many Eoyalist 
 
 * The contrast of Bonaparte's conduct may enable us to appreciate more 
 fully Cromwell's magnanimity. Bonaparte bad also for enemies two im- 
 placable parties, Jacobins and Eoyalists. As be was driving to the opera an 
 attempt was made to kill bim by blowing up a barrel of gunpowder close 
 to his_ carriage. The plot bad been laid by tbe Eoyalists, and two of tbe 
 assassins were brought before a court of justice, condemned, and executed. 
 Bonaparte, however, though he knew the contrary, affected to believe that 
 the Jacobins were guilty, five of whom lost their lives by sentence of a 
 military commission, while 300 others were transported. Cromwell's govern- 
 ment by major-generals for a year and a half, may again be contrasted 
 favourably with the present French government, which keeps half France 
 under martial law for more than three years because of a revolt of the 
 capital. 
 
 *t* Clarendon State Papers, iii. 311. 
 
 £ " On Saturday last, Faulkener, one of the Lord Craven's accusers, was 
 condemned to the pillory for perjury ; it is believed his lordship will have 
 his estates cleared and the purchaser to be satisfied with other lands ; here 
 be many others that hope for right in the like case ; some interpret this 
 favour (for here it is a great one to have justice) as an inclination to oblige 
 the royal party, but such plausible things could never be more seasonable" 
 (27th May, 1653). " The committee of officers have restored several parties 
 to their estates with reparation for what is past. Sir John Stowel is out of 
 prison upon bail, and many such plausible things are done to stroke the poor 
 easy Cavalier" (3rd June, 1653).— Eoyalist letters of intelligence anion <* 
 MS. Clar. Papers in Bodleian. 
 
1655—6.] IMPARTIAL JUSTICE. 339 
 
 conspirators were put to death by Cromwell as by the Republi- 
 cans, and a High Court of Justice, which he occasionally erected, 
 never convicted any but undoubted traitors.* 
 
 Cromwell's government, even whilst arbitrary, was in many 
 respects conciliatory. No oaths of allegiance were required to be 
 taken to it, and none but those who conspired against it were 
 shut out from holding office in the State. The protector, in fact, 
 endeavoured to obtain for the service of his country the most 
 able of her sons without inquiring too closely into their political 
 -antecedents. The Kepublican, Admiral Blake, still remained in 
 command of the fleet. Milton continued in the post of foreign 
 secretary. Lockhart, the English ambassador in France, was a 
 Eoyalist and a Scotchman. The judges appointed by Cromwell 
 were not partisans of his own, who might be ready to wrest 
 the law to serve his will, but incorruptible men, of all parties, 
 who dared administer the laws impartially, not only between 
 subject and subject, but between the subject and the govern- 
 ment. Sir Matthew Hale, the chief justice, refused obedience 
 to the Lord Protector himself, when he would once have inter- 
 fered in the trial of a criminal case ; and there is no doubt that 
 the men appointed to office by Cromwell and the Republicans 
 introduced many beneficial reforms into the administration of the 
 law.f 
 
 It was possible for the judges gradually to modify the proce- 
 dure of the courts, where it was dependent only upon custom 
 and precedent ; but for a thorough reform of the law itself, the 
 interference of the legislature was necessary. Cromwell was 
 desirous of reforming the anomalies and harshness of the criminal 
 code, as well as the dilatoriness and expense of the civil code. 
 The object of punishment is the protection cf society, the 
 primary object being to deter men from committing criminal acts, 
 
 * Godwin, iv. 34, 91, 357. 
 
 f " The practice of questioning juries for their verdicts, the exclusion of 
 oral testimony" [as was the case in Raleigh's trial, see p. 88], £> and the use of 
 torture, were wholly swept away during the ten years which succeeded the 
 death of Charles I., and were never afterwards revived. Just and rational 
 principles of evidence, sound views of the object of penal laws, and of the 
 proper means of enforcing them, first sprang up during the early years of 
 the Commonwealth. Under the wise and moderate superintendence of 
 such minds as Hale, Whitelock, and Rolle, our judicial institutions under- 
 went a total revision and reform." — Jardine's Heading on the Use cf 
 Torture. 
 
 90 Q 
 
3&) CEIMINAL CODE. [protect, 
 
 the secondary object to act beneficially on opinion, and so 
 remove the motives to criminal acts. To deter criminals, the 
 main requirement is not that the penalty should be terrible, but 
 that it should be inevitable. To act beneficially on opinion, it is 
 necessary that the punishment should be approved as just by the 
 general judgment of the community. A criminal code that lags 
 behind the humanity of the age to which it belongs not only fails in 
 acting on opinion, but often defeats its primary end as a deterrent. 
 The criminal either escapes unpunished, because his jury, con- 
 trary to evidence, refuses to find a verdict of guilty ; or if he 
 does go to the gallows, he dies an object of sympathy rather than 
 of abhorrence. "There are wicked and abominable laws," 
 Cromwell said to his first Parliament, "which it will be in 
 your power to alter. To hang a man for six-and-eightpence, 
 and I know not what ; to hang for a trifle, and acquit murder 
 — is in the ministration of the law, through the ill-framing 
 of it. I have known in my experience abominable murders 
 acquitted. And to see men lose their lives for petty matters, 
 this is a thing God will reckon for. And I wish it may not 
 lie upon this nation a day longer than you have an oppor- 
 tunity to give a remedy, and I hope I shall cheerfully join 
 with you in it." To effect a reform of the law, it was necessary 
 to secure the co-operation of the lawyers. Lawyers, however, were 
 averse to changes which were often hurtful to their pecuniary 
 interests, or contrary to the prejudices of their profession. It 
 was not without difficulty that they were brought to submit to 
 the protector's Ordinance for the Eeform of Chancery. A rule 
 of but five years was too short to carry out reforms in the face 
 of a most influential profession, which was strongly represented 
 in Parliament. " The sons of Zeruiah," as Cromwell once said, 
 " were too strong for him." Had his life lasted twenty years in- 
 stead of five, he might have done as great wonders as a social 
 reformer and legislator as he did as a ruler and administrator. 
 
 Nor were his interests merely practical. Though not learned 
 himself, Cromwell both honoured and rewarded learning in 
 others. He asked one Eoyalist, a celebrated scholar, Meric 
 Casaubon, to write an impartial history of the civil war ; to 
 the Eoyalist philosopher, Hobbes, was offered the post of secre- 
 tary in his household ; he put men of ability at the head of the 
 universities, and founded a new university at Durham. 
 
1655—6.] RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 341 
 
 Though the protector always kept up fitting state as ruler of 
 England, his court at Whitehall was neither luxurious nor extra- 
 vagant. His very enemies confessed "he had much natural 
 greatness, and well became the place he had usurped." Nor did 
 foreign ambassadors ever find him less than the peer of kings in 
 the dignity of his bearing or the manner of their entertainment. 
 Equal, however, to every occasion, the protector could unbend 
 at times. " He would sometimes," says one of his councillors, 
 " be very cheerful with us, and laying aside his greatness, he 
 would be exceeding familiar with us, and by way of diversion, 
 would make verses with us, and every one must try his fancy ; 
 he commonly called for tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and would 
 now and then take tobacco himself ; then he would fall again to 
 his serious business." 
 
 Cromwell treated religious opponents in the same liberal spirit 
 as political. But for the intolerance of the people, he would 
 have allowed Catholics the public exercise of their worship. 
 At one time he even formed a project of allowing a Catholic 
 bishop to reside in England, and preside over the English Catho- 
 lics. The severe ordinance he framed at one time against Epis- 
 copalians was only enforced as long as they were engaged in 
 fomenting insurrection. Episcopalians preached publicly in 
 London and in the country, and both Catholics and Epis- 
 copalians were left unmolested in their private worship.* No 
 oath of fidelity to the government was imposed upon ministers ; 
 and the church was made wide enough to admit to her livings 
 Presbyterians, Independents, and Anabaptists. " If a man of 
 one form," said Cromwell, addressing one of his Parliaments, 
 " will be trampling upon the heels of another form, I will not 
 suffer it in him. But God give us hearts and spirits to keep 
 things equal. Which truly I must profess to you hath been my 
 temper. I have had some boxes and rebukes on the one hand 
 and on the other ; some censuring me for Presbytery, others as 
 an inletter to all the sects and heresies of the nation. I have 
 borne my reproach, but I have, through God's mercy, not been 
 unhappy in hindering any one religion to impose upon another. + 
 „ . . Here is a great deal of truth among professors, but very 
 
 * Guizot, Hist, de Rep., 643 ; Weal, 74, 124 ; Evelyn's Diary, passim, 
 f Carl., iii. 182. 
 
342 TREATMENT OF QUAKERS. [protect. 
 
 little mercy. When we are brought into the right way, we shall 
 be merciful as well as orthodox, arid we know who it is that saith, 
 ' If a man could speak with the tongues of men and angels, and 
 yet want that, he is but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.' " 
 The Eepublicans had passed a law for the punishment of blas- 
 phemous opinions ; any person who said he was God, who taught 
 that swearing, drunkenness, and murder are as holy and righteous 
 as prayer, preaching, aud thanksgiving, was for the first offence 
 to suffer six months' imprisonment : for the second, to abjure the 
 dominions of the Commonwealth, and in case of return to suffer 
 death as a felon (Aug., 1650). If the enumeration of such opinions 
 shows the prevalence of strange fancies in that revolutionary time, 
 their prohibition shows how little the framers had learnt of the 
 distinctions between the spheres of law and of public opinion. 
 Though a merciful law as compared with that passed by the 
 Presbyterians,* it was not in accordance with the professed prin- 
 ciples of its framers. "With a large Presbyterian element in it,. 
 Cromwell's Parliament was not likely to be more tolerant than 
 the Rump. The plain-spoken protector exhorted them to mode- 
 ration. " What greater hypocrisy," he says, " than for those 
 who were oppressed by the bishops to become the greatest 
 oppressors themselves, as soon as their yoke was removed?" 
 There were several sects whose doctrines gave offence, and whom 
 Cromwell could with difficulty save from suffering under the 
 intolerance of men whose watchword had once been ' liberty of 
 The conscience.' The Quakers, for instance, were at this 
 
 Quakers. ti me special objects of persecution. Lord Say-and-Sele, 
 a suppo ter of the Independents, turned some of his tenants, 
 who held Quaker opinions, out into the streets. Their peculiar 
 doctrines, that it is wrong under any circumstances to go to war 
 or to take an oath, excited much indignation, and they often 
 brought suffering upon themselves by pressing their views out 
 of season. George Fox, the founder of the sect, went into 
 churches and contradicted the teaching of the ministers, into 
 markets and exhorted traders to sell fairly, into inns and bade 
 drunkards reform their lives. Vain enthusiasts, men half de- 
 ceivers, half deceived, copied the example of Pox, and went 
 about the country preaching, pretending to work miracles, and; 
 
 * See p. 203. 
 
1055-6.] TREATMENT OF FANATICS. 343 
 
 calling themselves inspired by the Spirit of God. Some dozen 
 men and women believed that the Spirit of Christ dwelt 
 in an old soldier called James Naylor, as it had never 
 dwelt in any other man before. These walked by his side 
 as he rode into Bristol, strewing garments in his path, and 
 shouting, ' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Israel.' One woman 
 declared that she had been restored to life by him, after having 
 been two days dead. The protector merely confined the wilder 
 fanatics until they promised to keep quiet and give up working- 
 miracles. But his Parliament was far less merciful, and 
 but for its timely dissolution, would have passed an act shutting 
 out Quakers and several other sects from toleration.* Cromwell 
 wished to allow even the Jews a legal residence in the country, 
 though they had been banished from England for four hundred 
 years ; and a conference was held in London between some citizens, 
 lawyers, and clergymen, and some Jews of Amsterdam. The 
 divines, however, objected to admitting the unbelievers ; the 
 citizens were divided in their opinions ; and the conference closed 
 without coming to any decision on the point, t The protector 
 afterwards of his own authority permitted several Jews to reside 
 in London, where they built a synagogue and worshipped with- 
 out molestation. In regard to toleration, indeed, Oliver's views 
 were so far in advance of those generally held in his time, that 
 they were treated as a subject for apology rather than for praise, 
 even by friends and admirers. " It is true, his heart being tender 
 to all," writes one, " especially such as were peaceable, he did 
 not use that severity ordinarily towards the Quakers, or others 
 of that mind, as was by some expected. But what other con- 
 siderations did therein sway him to so much lenity, I cannot tell, 
 neither is it fit for every one to know, much less to judge ; but 
 this we know, that he was merciful to all. "J 
 
 In Scotland, as in England, order was established under the 
 protector's government ; justice fairly administered ; liberty of 
 conscience ensured. Both the Eepublicans and Cromwell desired 
 to incorporate the two countries under the same go- Union of 
 vernment, and thus prevent a recurrence of the Scotch a ^f gcot- 
 invasions of England, which had occurred twice within land - 
 five years. The Eepublicans were deprived of power before they 
 had carried out their purpose ; but Cromwell passed an ordinance, 
 * Meal, iv. 91. + Godwin, iv. 249—300. % King's Tracts. 
 
344 UNION WITH SCOTLAND. [peotect. 
 
 which was confirmed by his second Parliament, establishing the 
 union of England and Scotland (April 12, 1654). This union lasted 
 till the Eestoration, when there was again a separation till 
 the union was finally effected in the reign of Anne when it was 
 sanctioned by the consent of both nations (1707). At the time 
 of the Commonwealth, the national antipathy was so strong 
 that, whatever the advantages of union, the Scots would not volun- 
 tarily have consented to abandon their independent government. 
 Being, however, a conquered people, they were forced to submit 
 to the will of their masters ; and thirty members for Scotland 
 were summoned to sit in each of the protector's Parliaments. 
 The executive was administered in Scotland by General Monk, 
 assisted by a Council of State, of which, out of nine members' 
 only two were Scotchmen. The army was gradually raised to a 
 force of 20,000 men, and the country heavily taxed for its main- 
 tenance. 
 
 The union, though so much disliked by the Scots, conferred 
 upon them several undoubted benefits : freedom of trade with 
 England, a boon unprecedented at that time ; the abolition of 
 feudal tenures, which had kept the Scotch people in a state of 
 almost servile dependence upon their lords ; a pure administra- 
 tion of justice ; security not only from the plundering raids of 
 the Highlanders, but also from the still more destructive strife 
 of factions. For under it the two hostile camps of Presbyterians 
 —those that owned and those that disowned Charles' right to the 
 throne— were forced to live in peace together. Pour English- 
 men, assisted by three Scotchmen, were appointed to go on circuits 
 and administer justice in place of the Scotch Court of Session, 
 which was exceedingly corrupt. Their fairness was long remem- 
 bered : " Deil thank them, a wheen (pack of) kinless loons," said 
 a Scotch judge of the next century, when reminded of then- im- 
 partiality. " During this period," says Burnet, himself a Scotch- 
 man, " Scotland was kept in great order ; there was good justice 
 done, and vice was suppressed and punished ; so that we always 
 reckon on those eight years of usurpation as a time of great peace 
 and prosperity/ 
 
 The Eepublicans in the Kunip, while still in office, had passed 
 
 Ireland. a severe law for the settlement of Ireland. They 
 
 Settlement. ha ^ not entertained the idea of reconciling the 
 
 Irish to English rule, regarding it as impossible that 
 
1653—6.] SETTLEMENT OF IKELAND. 345 
 
 men who were Catholics and Royalists should ever give willing 
 submission to a government carried on by Sectarians and Re- 
 publicans. The Irish were accordingly treated as a conquered 
 people. In the course of the Irish war, two and a half millions 
 of acres in Ireland had been pledged to the " adventurers," who 
 lent the Long Parliament money on the assurance that, when 
 Ireland was subdued, they should be repaid with interest out of 
 the lands forfeited by the rebels. In order to satisfy these State 
 creditors, the act of settlement had dealt hard measure to Irish 
 landholders. A free pardon was granted to the mass of the people, 
 to husbandmen, ploughmen, labourers, artificers, and others of in- 
 ferior sort, not possessed of lands or goods above the value of £10. 
 All engaged in the massacre of 1641 were exempted from pardon of 
 life or estate. So many, however, of the original rebels were 
 either dead or undetected, that sufferers under this clause num- 
 bered only about two hundred.* Those who, though not en- 
 gaged in the massacre, had fought against the Parliament in the 
 war that followed, were to forfeit two thirds of their estates, and 
 to receive lands to the value of the remaining third in such other 
 parts of the country as the government should think fit to ap- 
 point. Those who had not favoured the cause of the Parliament 
 were to forfeit one third of their estates, and to be assigned lands 
 elsewhere to the value of the remaining two-thirds (Aug., 1652). 
 The barren and boggy province of Connaught, laid desolate by 
 the late war, was reserved for division amongst these ejected Irish 
 landowners. In this province, they would have the Shannon 
 as a barrier to prevent their attacking the newcomers, and 
 settled there it was not likely that they could ever succeed 
 again in overpowering the Protestant population. The lands 
 thus taken from the Irish were granted to the 'adventurers,' 
 and to soldiers who had fought in Ireland, and whose pay was 
 in arrears (1653). A strong Protestant army, maintained in 
 the country, compelled submission. Fleetwood, commander-in- 
 chief of the forces in Ireland, Ludlow, lieutenant-general of 
 the horse, and three other officers were appointed by the Re- 
 publicans as commissioners to conduct the government. Their 
 government was distinguished by its severity ; they refused 
 to allow Catholics the exercise of their worship in public or 
 in private, and forbade them to live in a garrison town, to possess 
 * Godwin, iv. 433. 
 
346 CEOM WELL'S IEISH POLICY. [r E0TECT 
 
 arms, or to travel without a licence. Priests and Jesuits found 
 in the country were declared traitors, and the celebration of the 
 mass was made a capital offence. This persecution is said to 
 have been maintained for two years (1653-4). 
 
 The jDrotector summoned thirty members for Ireland, to sit 
 in each of his Parliaments. Fleetwood returned to England in 
 1655, and the government was entrusted by Cromwell to his 
 second son, Henry, first as commander-in-chief of the army, and 
 afterwards as Lord Deputy. The young man inherited some of 
 his father's capacity for government, and Ireland prospered under 
 Lis administration. He treated the Irish more mercifully than 
 the Eepublican commissioners, and even saved some families from 
 the terrible transportation into Connaught. He treated all re- 
 ligious parties with moderation, and refrained from persecuting 
 Catholics. Absolute freedom of trade was granted, and all 
 manufactures were encouraged, so that the country soon assumed 
 a flourishing aspect, in spite of the desolation caused by the late 
 war. " There were many buildings," says the Royalist Hyde, 
 " raised for beauty as well as use, orderly and regular plantations 
 of trees and fences, and enclosures raised throughout the king- 
 dom, purchases made by one from another at very valuable rates, 
 and jointures made upon marriages, and all other conveyances 
 and settlements, executed as in a kingdom at peace within itself, 
 and where no doubt could be made of the validity of titles." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 TIIE LAST TWO YEARS OP THE PROTECTORATE. — 1656 1658. 
 
 Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud 
 Not of war only, but detractions rude, 
 Guided by faith and matchless fortitude, 
 
 To peace and truth thy glorious way bast plough'd; 
 
 And on the neck of crowned fortune proud 
 
 Hast reared God's trophies, and his work pursued, 
 While Darwin* stream, with blood of Scots imbrued, 
 
 And Dunbar's field, resounds thy praises loud, 
 
 And "Worcester's laureate wreath. Yet much remains 
 To conquer still ; peace hath her victories 
 No less renowned than war ; new foes arise, 
 
 Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains : 
 Help us to save free conscience from the paw 
 Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw. 
 
 MlLTOJT. 
 
 During- the year and a half that Cromwell ruled arbitrarily, 
 his government took root, for whatever its faults, it at least 
 assured to the country the blessings of order and peace. Royal- 
 ists and Presbyterians either sullenly acquiesced in the 
 change of dynasty, or at least deferred their hopes of restoring 
 Charles Stuart, till after the death of the present protector. 
 As soon as the need of arbitrary government was past, Cromwell 
 wished his use of it to pass too. " When matters of necessity 
 come," he had said to his Parliament, " then without guilt ex- 
 traordinary remedies may be applied, but if necessity be pre- 
 tended there is so much the more sin." He determined to meet 
 a Parliament that should restore the government to a nearer 
 approach to its old form, and confer upon himself the title of 
 king. To secure this result he would have to stretch his prero- 
 gative once more to oust the Republican opposition, but after this 
 the legitimate career he longed for might be open to him. The 
 Instrument of Government, which had been drawn up merely by 
 
 * Joining the Kibble just south of Preston, the scene of battle of 17th August, 1648 
 
348 CEOMWELL'S SECOND PARLIAMENT. [protect 
 
 a council of. officers, an unconstitutional authority, wanted a legal 
 sanction, and in place of lasting settlement, only opened to the 
 view of the nation a dreary vista of military rulers, elected by 
 the will of the army. The title of protector was strange and 
 unacceptable to the people generally, nor did it conciliate the 
 Republicans, who called a protector 
 
 ' A stately tiling, 
 That confesseth itself but the ape of a king.'* 
 
 Timid and time-serving supporters of Cromwell's government 
 remembered that by a statute of Henry VII., all persons adhering 
 to the king de facto were pronounced guiltless of treason. The pro- 
 tector, therefore, by receiving from a Parliament the title of king, 
 might hope to calm the fears of many of his friends, to gratify the 
 monarchical prejudices of the people, and even to establish a con- 
 stitutional monarchy in England under kings of his own house. 
 To ensure meeting an assembly favourable to his interests, he 
 did not hesitate to resort to an arbitrary stretch of power. The 
 Instrument of Government authorized the protector and council 
 to make a scrutiny of the returns of elections, and examine 
 whether persons returned were qualified to sit. This clause was 
 intended as a precaution against the admission of any that had 
 borne arms against the Parliament since 1641, and all members 
 of Cromwell's first Parliament had according^ received tickets 
 from the council, certifying that they were duly returned. Par- 
 liament met on the 17th of December ; without any legal 
 ground of exclusion, a hundred members, Republicans or other 
 opponents of the government, were for the time refused tickets 
 by the council. "When they complained to the Parliament, Crom- 
 well's friends carried a vote by 125 to 29, that they must apply 
 to the council for redress. The residue did not employ them- 
 selves very profitably at first. For the first three months of its 
 sitting, the Parliament was almost solely engaged in debating 
 .upon the punishment due to James Naylor, the man who had 
 ridden into Bristol, and was worshipped by his followers as 
 divine. According to statute law, this fanatic could only have 
 been imprisoned for six months, and in case of a second offence, 
 banished from the dominions of the Commonwealth. But the 
 Commons, imitating the refinements of the Star Chamber, sen- 
 
 * See the lines found among Col. Overton s papers, quoted in G-ui^ot, ii. vi. 
 
1656—7.] PETITION AND ADVICE. 349 
 
 tenced him to be six times whipped, put twice in the pillory, 
 have his tongue bored, his forehead branded, and then to be 
 kept in solitary confinement on short rations. This was 
 dealing hard measure to one at the worst half fool, half 
 knave, and gave all liberally or mercifully minded men cause 
 to regret the time when the House of Commons did not resolve 
 itself into a court of justice and inflict arbitrary punishment at 
 pleasure. The protector sent a letter to the House, desiring to be 
 informed of the grounds of its proceedings. The question raised 
 long debates, which resulted in the drawing up of a new instru- 
 ment of government, called the Petition and Advice. Petition and 
 Cromwell was to bear the title of king and to appoint Advice. 
 his successor to the throne. New Parliaments were to be sum- 
 moned once every three years, and were to be composed as 
 formerly of two Houses. The Upper House was to consist of 
 not more than 70 or less than 40 persons, who were to be named 
 by the king. Members of council and officers of State were to 
 be approved by Parliament. The chief magistrate was presum- 
 ably allowed a negative voice on bills, as no clause was introduced 
 to deprive him of a power hitherto always exercised by English 
 monarchs. The command of the Army and Navy was to rest with 
 the chief magistrate, with consent of Parliament. Thus this 
 :iew instrument restored the ancient monarchy with some of those 
 checks which the Long Parliament had sought to impose upon 
 Charles I. The protector, who intended to govern in accordance 
 with the articles of the Petition and Advice, encouraged his friends 
 in the Parliament, to abolish both the office of major-general and 
 the income tax of ten per cent, upon Eoyalists. The major-generals, 
 however, to whom arbitrary government was not so distasteful 
 as to their chief, took offence at their removal from office, and 
 displayed their ill-will and jealousy by opposing the Petition 
 and Advice in the Commons' House, and especially the first 
 clause, which conferred on the chief magistrate the title of king. 
 Their motives may have been selfish ; they may have disliked to 
 see their fellow-soldier raised so far above themselves, when 
 before any might have entertained a hope of succeeding, Oliver 
 in the office of Lord Protector. But the ground they publicly 
 put forward was their attachment to the Eepublican ideal. Their 
 feeling was shared by the army, and a deputation of a hundred 
 officers waited upon the general, to pray him not to accept the 
 
3 50 TITLE OF KING REFUSED. [protect. 
 
 title of king. The protector replied in words to the following 
 effect : ' that the title king, a feather in a hat, is as little valu- 
 able to him as to them. But the fact is, they and he have not 
 .succeeded in settling the nation hitherto, by the schemes they 
 clamoured for. That the nation is tired of major-generalcies, of 
 uncertain arbitrary ways. That the original instrument of 
 government does need mending in some points. That a House 
 of Lords, or other check upon the arbitrary tendencies of a single 
 House of Parliament, may be of real use ; see what they, by 
 their own mere vote and will, I having no power to check them, 
 have done with James Naylor : may it not be any one's case, 
 some other day ?'* The officers agreed to withdraw their oppo- 
 sition to the Petition and Advice with the exception of the first 
 clause. But in the House, councillors, lawyers, and other civi- 
 lians, outnumbered the army men, and the insertion of the title 
 was carried by 123 against 62 votes (29th March). Cromwell, 
 however, dared not accept a crown at the risk of offending the 
 army. After six weeks' delay, during which he vainly sought to 
 overcome the prejudices of officers and soldiers, he informed the 
 Parliament, that though he approved of all the other articles of 
 the new instrument, he could not undertake the government 
 with the title of king. Accordingly it was agreed that while 
 retaining the title of protector, he should exercise the powers 
 vested in the chief magistrate by the Petition and Advice ; and 
 thus virtually become King of England in all but name (25th May). 
 Though the union now existing between Cromwell and his 
 Parliament was a great discouragement to insurrection, still 
 Royalist exiles, and fanatical Levellers, continued to conspire 
 against the government. Their hopes were cheered by a promise 
 of aid from a new quarter. As soon as the protector's foreign 
 policy was declared, and there was no doubt that he would unite 
 with Prance against Spain, the Spaniards promised to assist 
 Charles Stuart with a body of 6000 men, as soon as any English 
 port declared in his favour (April). An invasion had been planned 
 for the preceding winter (1G56-7). But the Royalists and Presby- 
 terians refused to rise, before Charles had actually landed in the 
 country ; the Spaniards were found readier at promises than at 
 performance, while Royalist exiles and Levellers, in spite of 
 their common desire to overthrow the government, were suspicious 
 * Abridged from Burton in Carl., iii, 217. 
 
1657.] SYKDERCOMB'S PLOT. 351 
 
 of one another's final intentions. Thus this grand political com- 
 bination resulted merely in another attempt at assassination. 
 Syndercomb, an old quarter-master, was supplied with J1600 
 from Spain, with which he engaged the services first of another 
 old soldier, and then of one of Cromwell's life-guardsmen. These 
 agreed to fire Whitehall, and kill his highness in the tumult 
 that would follow. One evening after a public service, there 
 was left upon the floor of the chapel at "Whitehall, a basket, filled 
 with combustible matter, to which were attached two pieces of 
 lighted match, intended to serve as a train, which should fire it 
 about midnight. The sentinel, however, smelling fire, discovered 
 basket and train, and the guardsman confessed the whole plot 
 (March, 1657). Syndercomb, who was tried by jury and convicted 
 of treason, poisoned himself in prison to escape the execution of 
 his sentence. On this the Leveller, Sexby, wrote a pamphlet en- 
 titled 'Killing no Murder,' which compared Synder- 'Killing no 
 comb to Brutus, and justified all attempts to 'cut off' Murder.* 
 the protector (May). The Eoyalist exiles approved of the 
 treatise. " It is only," wrote Hyde, " to show the lawfulness 
 and conveniency that he be presently killed."* 
 
 There was, indeed, no hope for the Eoyalists except in Crom- 
 well's death. His government was now believed at home and 
 abroad to be securely established for his life. His authority had 
 been bestowed upon him by a Parliament in place of a council of 
 officers. Though he still bore the title of Lord Protector, he pos- 
 sessed regal power, and was addressed in the same language and 
 style as those employed to sovereign princes. He had parted on 
 good terms with his Parliament, which, before its prorogation on 
 the 26th of June, had granted him supplies of money, besides the 
 confirmation of the ordinances he had made in council. Eoyalists 
 dared not rise. His worst enemies could only shame their own 
 cause by making vain attempts at assassination. Nor were his 
 triumphs confined to his home government ; abroad, as well, his 
 policy had been crowned with success, and he had already taught 
 foreigners to court the friendship and dread the enmity of 
 England. " Your general," said Christina, Queen of Sweden, to 
 the English ambassador, " hath done the greatest things of any 
 man in the world. I have as great a respect and honour for him 
 
 * Clarendon State Papers, iii. 313. 
 
352 FOKEIGN POLICY. [protect. 
 
 as for any man alive, and I pray let hini know as muck from 
 me." Though Cromwell was not regarded by most princes with 
 as much favour as he was by the daughter of the great Gustavus, 
 they held the same opinion of his abilities, and dreaded the con- 
 sequences of his ambition. Even before the expulsion of the 
 Long Parliament, Louis XIV. was frightened by a report that 
 the General of the English Commonwealth intended to land in 
 France at the head of his renowned troops, and assist the French 
 nobles, then in arms against his government. But Cromwell, 
 unlike Napoleon, had no aspirations for the glory a mere soldier 
 might earn by leading on his countrymen to foreign conquest. 
 In him was nothing of the adventurer. The object of his am- 
 bition at home, was to establish in England a free government in 
 Church and State ; abroad, his single aim was to support the 
 cause of freedom in Europe, by a coalition of progressive and 
 Protestant States against the reactionary kingdoms of Spain and' 
 Austria. He would have scorned to rule a people reduced to a 
 slavish condition ; he would have scorned to conquer without 
 some deeper motive than the mere aggrandizement of himself or 
 his country. Somewhat haughtily he bade the French ambas- 
 sador set his master's fears at rest. " Looking at his hair, 
 which is white, General Cromwell said, that if he were ten years 
 younger, there was not a king in Europe whom he could not 
 make to tremble ; and that, as he had a better motive than the 
 late King of Sweden, he believed himself still capable of doing 
 more for the good of nations than the other ever did for his own 
 ambition.''* 
 
 Europe, no doubt, at this time opened a field for new com- 
 binations. The Thirty Years' War had been long brought to a 
 close by the Treaty of Westphalia (Sept., 1648). During the latter 
 years of the war the religious object of the struggle had dropped 
 out of sight, and the belligerents were chiefly influenced by poli- 
 tical motives. The Swedes fought to gain a footing on the south- 
 ern shores of the Baltic. The French from the first had assisted 
 Protestants against the emperor, in order to extend their own ter- 
 ritories at the expense of Germany. The Catholic princes of the 
 German empire had become more eager to maintain their poli- 
 tical rights against the increased power of the emperor, than to 
 eradicate Protestant heresy. By the conditions of the Treaty. 
 * Guizot, i 418 ; Forster, Biog. Essays 
 
1654—7.] FRANCE AND SPAIN. 353 
 
 of Westphalia, Protestant princes of the empire were to be put 
 on an equality with Catholic; Protestant subjects of Catholic 
 princes, Catholic subjects of Protestant princes, were to enjoy 
 any religious immunities they possessed before the war began ; 
 part of the Lower Palatinate was to be restored to Charles Louis, 
 the brother of Rupert and Maurice, and eldest son of the unfor- 
 tunate Elector Palatine, who married the sister of Charles 1. 
 Though the German war was over, the struggle between France 
 and Spain was continued with great animosity, each country 
 striving to crush her rival, and become the first power in Europe. 
 Both Louis XIV. and Philip IV. of Spain were bidding for 
 the protector's support. Spain offered the possession of Calais, 
 when taken from France ; France, the possession of Dunkirk 
 when taken from Spain (1655). Cromwell determined to 
 ally himself with France against Spain. France, though a 
 Catholic country, did not adopt a Catholic policy abroad, while 
 at home she tolerated Huguenots, and did not suffer her progress 
 to be impeded by a blind submission to the Papacy. With Spain, 
 on the other hand, collision was almost inevitable. For while 
 she aspired to the leadership of Europe, her principles were in 
 direct antagonism to all the new ideas, religious or political, that 
 after a century of strife had at last forced their way into the 
 hearts and minds of men. With the exclusion of Protes- 
 tantism she shut ail free life out of her dominions ; and the 
 Spaniards were recognized as the most fanatical nation in Europe, 
 burners of heretics, supporters of the pope and the Inquisition, 
 the declared enemies of freedom of conscience. It was in the 
 West Indies that the obstructive policy of Spain came most into 
 collision with the interests of England. Her kings based their 
 claims to the possession of two continents on the bull of Pope 
 Alexander VL, who in 1493 had granted them all lands they should 
 discover from pole to pole, at the distance of a hundred leagues 
 west from the Azores and Cape Verd Islands. On the strength of 
 this bull they held that the discovery of an island gave them the 
 right to the group, the discovery of a headland the right to a 
 continent. Though this monstrous claim had quite broken down 
 as far as the North American continent was concerned, the 
 Spaniards, still recognizing "no peace beyond the line," en- 
 deavoured to shut all Europeans but themselves out of any share 
 in the trade or colonization of at least the southern half of 
 
 23 
 
354 BLAKE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. [protect 
 
 the New World. They had imprisoned and murdered English 
 traders, and had already exterminated one French and English 
 colony at St. Kitts (1629), and two English settlements, one at 
 Tortuga (1637), another at Santa Cruz (1650). Accordingly, when 
 Spain sought an alliance, the protector required satisfaction for the 
 blood of both the Eepublican envoy, Ascham,* and other murdered 
 Englishmen ; and demanded liberty of trade to the "West Indies, 
 and permission for English merchants and sailors to use their 
 Bibles in any part of the Spanish dominions, unmolested by the 
 Inquisition. "But/' said Cromwell, addressing his second Par- 
 liament, " there is not liberty of conscience to be had ; neither is 
 there satisfaction for injuries, nor for blood. When these two 
 things were desired, the ambassador told us, e It was to ask his 
 master's two eyes ;' to ask both his eyes, asking these things of 
 him !"f Nor was Cromwell's disdain expressed in words only. 
 Two large fleets were fitted out by his orders, without any special 
 purpose being assigned for them. The one sailed under Blake to 
 the Mediterranean, with instructions to obtain redress from any 
 nation bordering on that sea, that had committed injuries upon 
 the English (Oct., 1654). This fleet touched other offenders but 
 left Spain alone, for the present, as war had not yet been de- 
 clared. The Duke of Tuscany paid ,£60,000 damages. The Dey 
 of Algiers agreed to allow English captives to be ransomed. 
 "The Algiers men-of-war," says a paper of the time,$ "are 
 become associates with the English ; they take Sallee ships 
 and others that have any English in them, and bring them to 
 General Blake, who at this very instant rides triumphant in the 
 Levant." The Governor of Tunis refused satisfaction. " Here are 
 our castles," he said, " do what you can : do you think we fear the 
 show of your fleet ?" Blake replied by shattering the castles with 
 two hours' bombardment, and then burning nine ships of war in the 
 harbour. This example had its effect, and at Tripoli his demands 
 obtained immediate compliance. § The second fleet, consisting of 
 thirty vessels, with 4000 troops on board, was despatched to the 
 West Indies. On opening their instructions at Barbadoes, the 
 commanders, Admiral Penn and General Venables, found they 
 were to surprise the two important islands of St. Domingo and 
 Cuba. Though war with Spain had not yet been declared, there 
 
 * See p. 278. + Carl., iii. 164. J E11 iS; Orig. Letters, 2nd series iii. 378. 
 § Heath, 692 ; Thurloe, iii. 413. 
 
1654—7.] CONQUEST OF JAMAICA. 355 
 
 was no breach of faith, as whatever the relations of the two 
 governments at home, no peace was recognized beyond the line. 
 Penn and Venables sailed first, as directed by the instructions, to 
 the former island. But instead of boldly entering the harbour 
 of the capital, St. Domingo, they landed the troops at a point 
 forty miles distant, thus giving the Spaniards time to prepare for 
 defence (April 14, 1655). It was a fatal error, and a period of 
 terrible disaster followed. Two regiments of Oliver's old soldiers 
 were engaged upon the expedition, but the troops mainly con- 
 sisted of an undisciplined medley of Cavaliers, Levellers, and 
 other unruly spirits from England, together with transported 
 English, Scotch, and Irish Eoyalists from Barbadoes. The 
 general and the admiral, the land and the sea forces, disagreed. 
 There was a long march of forty miles under a burning sun. 
 There was want of water and want of food. The soldiers nearly 
 mutinied when forbidden to plunder, and from eating unripe 
 fruits dropped down by hundreds sick and dead on their march. 
 Two unsuccessful attempts were made to gain possession of the 
 town. In the second the army fell into an ambuscade, when 
 coming up a narrow path, flanked on either side by woods, where 
 not above six could march abreast. The guns from a battery, 
 aised by the Spaniards, fired right down the path ; the foot fell 
 back on the horse, and the whole army was thrown into con- 
 fusion ; the enemy fired from the woods on either side. " Never 
 was anything so wedged as we, which made the enemy weary of 
 killing."* A body of seamen at length drove the Spaniards out 
 of the woods, and night ended the slaughter ; 1000 men had 
 fallen. As Penn and Yenables dared not return home while they 
 had only this disastrous tale to bring to the protector's ear, they 
 agreed to sail for Jamaica, then in the possession of the Spaniards. 
 Here their success was greater, for the colonists, about conquest of 
 five hundred in number, taken by surprise, fled upon Jamaica^ 
 their approach, and the island was reduced without opposition 
 (May 10, 1655). In face of many obstacles offered by the climate, 
 and the reckless and improvident habits of the English troops, now 
 turned into colonists, Cromwell set to work to render Jamaica a 
 flourishing settlement. He sent out able men as governors, 
 shipped arms, provisions, and soldiers, directed the building of 
 fortifications, and the planting of plantations, and, in short, laid 
 
 * From collection of Thurloe, iii. 510. 
 
 23—2 
 
356 BLAKE AT TENERIFFE. [peotect. 
 
 the foundations of the future power of England in the West 
 Indies.* 
 
 While war was now proclaimed with Spain, a treaty of peace 
 was signed between France and England, Louis XIV. agreeing 
 to banish Charles Stuart and his brothers from French terri- 
 tory (Oct. 24, 1655). This treaty was afterwards changed into 
 League with a league, offensive and defensive (March 23, 1657), 
 France. Cromwell undertaking to assist Louis with 6000 men 
 in besieging Gravelines, Mardyke, and Dunkirk, on condition of 
 receiving the two latter towns when reduced by the allied armies. 
 By the occupation of these towns Cromwell intended to control the 
 trade of the Channel, to hold the Dutch in check, who were then 
 but unwilling friends, and to lessen the danger of invasion from 
 any union of Royalists and Spaniards. The war opened in the 
 year 1657 with another triumph by sea. During the summer 
 of 1656, Blake had made a second expedition to the Mediter- 
 ranean ; he was now engaged in blockading Cadiz, when he 
 learnt that a fleet with bullion, from Mexico, had taken refuge in 
 the bay of Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe. The horse-shoe 
 bay was defended by castles at the two points, and by seven forts 
 round the shore, connected by lines, bristling with guns and 
 manned by musketeers. Ten small vessels were moored close to 
 the shore ; six large galleons farther out in the bay, their broad- 
 sides towards the sea. This position the Spaniards believed un- 
 assailable : they still thought that ships had no chance against 
 forts. The master of a Dutch merchantman asked leave to sail 
 out of the bay. "lam very sure," he said, " Blake will presently 
 be amongst you." " Get you gone, if you will, and let Blake come, 
 if he dares," replied the Spaniards.t The English fleet numbered 
 five-and-twenty sail. A favourable wind carried them into the 
 bay. They attacked forts, ships, and galleons at once. After 
 four hours' fighting the forts were silenced, and all the Spanish 
 vessels burnt with the exception of two, which were sunk. The 
 English fleet started homewards the same day. Blake was worn 
 out with hard service, and before he could receive from, his 
 countrymen the thanks and honours that were his due, he " who 
 would never strike to any other enemy, struck his topmast to 
 death," within sight of Plymouth (Aug. 7). It was said of this 
 gallant seaman, that with him valour never missed its reward, 
 Thurloe, v. 130; Carl., iii. 129, t Heath, 721. 
 
1654-8.] SUEEENDEE OF DUNKIEK. 357 
 
 nor cowardice its punishment. Ever loyal to his country, all he 
 said to his sailors when he announced a change m the govern- 
 ment was " Tis not our duty to mind State affairs, but to keep 
 foreigners' from fooling us." The chief of the State, indeed, was 
 not the man to let foreigners "fool" us. In accordance with 
 the terms of the French League, Cromwell had sent 6000 ot 
 his best troops to the Netherlands. But Mazarin, instead of 
 besiege* Mardyke and Dunkirk, commenced operations in the 
 interior of the country, and tried to put his ally off with promises. 
 "Tell him," Cromwell wrote to Lockhart, his ambassador in 
 France "that to talk of what will be done next campaign are 
 but parcels of words for children." " If the French," he wrote 
 aeain " are going to be so false as to give us no footing on that 
 side the water, we must ask for satisfaction for our expense, and 
 draw off our men."* The story went that Cardinal Mazarin 
 changed countenance whenever he heard the protector named, 
 and was not so much afraid of the devil as he was of Oliver 
 Cromwell He dared not trifle with him any longer. Mardyke 
 was besieged, taken in ten days, and delivered over to the Eng- 
 lish (Sept, 1657). In the spring of the following year the siege 
 of Dunkirk was commenced (May, 1658). The Spaniards trie, 
 to relieve the town, but were completely defeated in an engage- 
 ment called the Battle of the Dunes from the sand hills among 
 which it was fought ; the defeat was mainly owing to the courage 
 ^d disc^Hne of Oliver's troops, who won for themselves the 
 name of " the Immortal Six Thousand." James Stuart 
 tnT future king, commanded the left wing of the Spanish 
 army, and narrowly escaped with his life. Ten jgng^ 
 days after the battle Dunkirk surrendered, and the d Dun . 
 French had no choice but to give over to the ^l 
 EnSn ambassador the keys of a town they thought un » Ion 
 vXeau (June 25).t At this time no honour was considered 
 I Zl to be paid to the protector's envoys. During the 
 "i o ^ D^k hk! Lord Fauconberg, lately become Cromwell's 
 SO nl-la- arrived from England to meet Louis at Calais. 
 The governor of the town, accompanied by many persons 
 of duality came to receive him on his landing ; the kings own 
 sXr Warded his door ; the king and queen's own officers 
 2S nun at meal, Louis held a private interview with him 
 *CarL,iii.311,313. t Thurloe, vii. 174. 
 
358 THE VAUDOIS PROTECTED. I protect, 
 
 and remained uncovered the whole time. Cardinal Mazarin after 
 a conference accompanied him downstairs, and saw him into his- 
 coach, a courtesy he seldom paid to his own sovereign.* Catholic 
 governments dared not molest the protector's subjects. An 
 Englishman in Portugal was imprisoned by the Inquisition. 
 Cromwell's resident at Lisbon expostulated. The king replied 
 that he had no authority over the Inquisition. At their next 
 interview the resident intimated, that since his majesty had no 
 power over the Inquisition, the protector declared war upon it. 
 The Englishman was released, t 
 
 Cromwell had not been content with protecting his own sub- 
 jects 01 lly from persecution. While his friendship was still 
 being courted by both France and Spain, the Duke of Savoy had 
 ordered the Vaudois living in the valleys of the Savoy Alps to 
 embrace the Catholic faith, or to quit their homes within three 
 days (Jan. 25, 1655). It was the depth of winter, the people were 
 slow to obey, and appealed for aid and advice to the Protestant 
 cantons of Switzerland. The duke, to suppress discontent, quar- 
 tered soldiers in the valleys. Quarrels naturally ensued, and 
 horrible barbarities were committed by the troops upon the 
 inhabitants of the valley of Lucerna, whose sufferings stand com- 
 memorated in Milton's noble sonnet. Cromwell appeared as^ 
 then champion. For their immediate needs he started a sub- 
 scription list with a donation of ,£2000. The heart of England 
 was moved with sympathy : a regular canvass was made ; the' 
 soldiers gave freely, and for love or shame almost everybody sub- 
 scribed. An agent was sent at once, by Cromwell's orders, to 
 intercede with the Duke of Savoy in their favour. Milton, by 
 his directions, wrote letters to the Kings of France, Sweden, and 
 Denmark, to the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, and to the 
 States of Holland, appealing to their feelings of humanity to take 
 measures to put an end to these cruelties. The pope's inter- 
 ference was prevented by a hint that he might hear the thunder 
 of English cannon off Civita Vecchia. The duke himself was an 
 ally of Louis XIV., and no treaty would Cromwell sign with 
 France unless the Vaudois were first protected from persecution. 
 In vain Louis objected that he had no right to interfere with an 
 independent prince, such as the Duke of Savoy. Finding Crom- 
 well was not to be put off, he consented to mediate, and by his- 
 * Thurloe, \i. 157. f Burton's Diary, Introduction. 
 
1655-8.] SPANISH WAK JUSTIFIABLE. 359 
 
 [dvice the duke forgave his rebellious subjects, and confirmed 
 their ancient privileges* The disgraces of Buckingham s ad- 
 ministration were wiped out by this vigorous policy, and the 
 position of England abroad was even higher than it was m the 
 memorable days of Elizabeth. The remembrance of these suc- 
 cesses made the nation smart the more when the Eestoration 
 reduced her to the position of a dependent upon France. 
 
 Foreign policv, iudeed, must be judged on other considerations 
 than mere national glorification. No war can be approved that is 
 undertaken merely for the sake of conquest, increased revenue, or 
 personal aggrandizement. A nation, however, is often justified, 
 not only in defending itself against insult and wrong, but 
 entering on an aggressive war, when made either to preserve the 
 liberty of other nations from foreign attack, or to wrest an ad- 
 vantage which belongs by right to all mankind from the grasp of 
 some single power. Cromwell's policy was, in the main, con- 
 fild to these ends. It was an act of self-defence , to punish 
 Spain for the wrongs she had committed upon English subjects 
 it was an act of public right in the widest sense of he : term to 
 deprive Spain of her unjust monopoly of trade with the West 
 Ind es. On the other hand, if it is said that England gamed oo 
 much by the war for her motives in carrying it on to be regarded 
 7 rfectly pure, in the first place, it is natural that the most 
 injured party should be chief prosecutor of wrong ; and secondly, 
 Z best interests of the world were served by the protectors 
 p Ucy of making England the head of Protestant ^ata , and 
 upholding the cause of liberty of conscience. At least one ha 
 o Western Europe was governed by tyrants, who were bent on 
 lint free institutions and the free expression of opinion by 
 mprisoninent, banishment, torture, and the stake Cromwell 
 Z"n. all that was best and highest in the nation, declared 
 eternal hostility to these powers of obstruction and reaction, and 
 St the weight of England into the cause of freedom and 
 fZel, r^sld her, as much by moral as by material force, to the 
 foremost place amongst European nations 
 
 ^judging the policy of wars defended on public 01 mter 
 
 nationa "rounds, three criteria may be applied ; first, has he 
 
 S invoked been sanctioned by history as one really 
 
 CdTngtothe highest good of mankind 1 secondly, has the 
 
 ' Guizot, ii. 629; Cavlylc, iii. 108 ; Lizard, vim. 233. 
 
360 NEW HOUSE FO LORDS. [protect. 
 
 attempt a fair chance of success ? and, thirdly, is the war likely 
 to entail a more than compensating weight of misery on the 
 poor and struggling classes of the nation ? Cromwell's policy 
 has passed two of these tests, it will be seen that it passes the 
 third too. The government which effected such great results 
 was carried on at comparatively a small cost. No waste, no 
 corruption, was allowed, and the protector offered to lay' the 
 accounts of the expenditure open to inspection. The tax for the 
 support of the army and navy was reduced from .£120 000 to 
 £90,000, and afterwards to £60,000 a month. 
 
 The success of Cromwell's foreign policy, however glorious it 
 rendered their country, yet failed to conciliate the Eepublicans, 
 who seized the opportunity of the re-assembling of Parliament 
 to display their enmity (20th Jan.). According to the terms of 
 the Petition and Advice, this Parliament consisted of two 
 Houses, with the second House composed, not of the old 
 peers, of whom the majority were Royalists, but of lords 
 newly created for the purpose by the writs of the pro- 
 tector. To create lords whose title to the peerage, like that 
 of Oliver's to the throne, rested not on hereditary descent but 
 on superior capacity, was an overbold attempt to return by a 
 short cut to the old forms of the constitution. For the unques- 
 tioning, unreasoning respect given to the possessors of titles is 
 of slow growth, and new creations can only pass muster, if 
 few enough to be undistinguishable among the mass of the old. 
 These new lords were regarded by high and low as impostors.' 
 Out of sixty-three persons summoned to the protector's Upper 
 House some twenty declined. Even the Earl of Warwick refused 
 to attend, though a personal friend, and the grandfather of 
 Cromwell's son-in-law, Mr. Rich. The old earl said that he 
 could not bring himself to sit in the same assembly with Col. 
 Pride, once a drayman, and Col. Hewson, once a shoemaker. 
 Members of the Commons no longer had to be approved by the 
 council before taking their seats, for an article of the Petition 
 and Advice required that, as in former times, persons chosen to 
 serve in Parliament should not be excluded from sitting, except 
 by the judgment of the House of which they were mem- 
 bers. Thus, any of the opponents of the government, who 
 were excluded before,* were now suffered to take their seats 
 * See p. 348, 
 
1658.] SECOND PARLIAMENT. 361 
 
 without opposition, on swearing the requisite oath of allegiance 
 to the protector. The violent Republicans, Scot, Haslerig, 
 Bradshaw, and others took the oath without scruple, and then at 
 once set to work to attack the government. Aided by the 
 absence of many of Cromwell's ablest friends, who had been 
 removed to the Upper House, they readily obtained a ma- 
 jority to follow their lead. First they debated what rights 
 belonged to the ' other House/ and tried to prove that the 
 Petition and Advice gave it no co-ordinate power with the 
 Commons in making laws and imposing taxes. They then 
 proceeded to dispute with the protector's party as to the 
 name they should call the ' other House,' refusing to allow 
 it that of ' House of Lords.' For three weeks, while they occu- 
 pied their time in these useless debates, dangers multiplied around 
 the government. Charles Stuart, to whom the Dutch had sold 
 twenty vessels, came to Ostend, intending, if only the Royalists 
 would first attempt a rising in his behalf, to cross the Channel at 
 the head of several regiments of transported Irishmen. At 
 home, all the disaffected began to engage in conspiracy, or 
 in trying to get up petitions hostile to the government. There 
 was one petition being prepared for the restoration of the Stuarts; 
 a second for the reduction of Cromwell's authority ; while the 
 Republicans were secretly publishing seditious papers, and tam- 
 pering with the army, in which they still possessed considerable 
 influence. The protector's passion rose. The Parliament, he 
 said, represented all the bad humours of the nation, and had 
 become the Parliament of the Republican, Haslerig.* Though 
 it had sat but fifteen days, he determined to dissolve it ; its con- 
 tinuance would soon have led to anarchy and another civil war. 
 
 "That," he said, addressing the members of the two Houses, "which 
 brought me into the capacity I now stand in, was the Petition and Advice given 
 me by you ; who, in reference to the ancient constitution, did draw me to ac- 
 cept the place of protector. There is not a man living can say I sought it ; 
 310, not a man nor woman treading upon English ground. But contemplating 
 the sad condition of these nations, relieved from an intestine war into a six or 
 
 seven years' peace, I did think the nation happy therein ! I can say in 
 
 the presence of God — in comparison with whom we are but like poor creep- 
 ing ants upon the earth — I would have been glad to have lived under my 
 woodside, to have kept a flock of sheep, rather than undertaken such a 
 government as this. But undertaking it by the Advice and Petition of your 
 
 * Whitelock, 672 ; Documents in App. to Guizot, ii. 629. 
 
362 SECOND SESSION— DISSOLUTION. [pbotecx 
 
 I did look that you who had offered it unto me should make it good I do 
 
 not speak to these gentlemen" (pointing to his right band), " or lords, or what- 
 soever you will call them. I speak not this to them, but to you" (gentlemen 
 of the House of Commons). " You have not only disjointed yourselves, but 
 the whole nation, which is in likelihood of running into more confusion in 
 these fifteen or sixteen days that you have sat, than it hath been from the 
 rising of the last session to this day, through the intention of devising a 
 Commonwealth again, that some people might be the men that might rule 
 all ! And they are endeavouring to engage the army to carry that thing. 
 ...These things tend to nothing else but the playing of the King o 
 Scots' game, if I may so call him ; and I think myself bound before God to 
 do what I can to prevent it. It hath been not only your endeavour to per- 
 vert the army while you have been sitting, and to draw them to state the 
 question" [i.e., to petition] " about a Commonwealth ; but some of you have 
 been listing of persons, by commission of Charles Stuart, to join with any insur- 
 rection that may be made. And what is like to come upon this, the enemy 
 being ready to invade us, but even present blood and confusion ? And if 
 this be so, I do assign it to this cause — your not consenting to what you did 
 invite me by your Petition and Advice, as that which might prove the settle- 
 ment of the nation. And if this be the end of your sitting, and this be 
 your carriage, I think it high time that an end be put to your sitting. And 
 I do dissolve this Parliament. And let God be judge between you and me" 
 (4th Feb.). 
 
 Cromwell, in his noble zeal for liberty, had really attempted an 
 impossibility. Parliamentary government is perfectly feasible after 
 a mere change of dynasty, but after revolutionary forces have been 
 allowed to rim their course, time must solidify existing rule before 
 it can be exposed to the rude dissolvents of discussion and debate. 
 A real revolution decomposes a nation into numberless parties, 
 each of which cannot be content with anything less than all it 
 aims at, and in a free Parliament any two of these parties, how- 
 ever opposite in policy, may combine for the sole purpose of de- 
 stroying any intermediate party which seems to be more repre- 
 sented by the ruler of the time. It was natural for intolerant 
 Presbyterians to wish for the overthrow of the Puritan apostle 
 of toleration, and natural for Eepublicans to hate the man who 
 ruled where their oligarchy had failed ; but both showed an in- 
 capacity for discerning the possibilities of the time, and for re- 
 cognizing facts under forms. The alliance of these two parties 
 against the protectorate could only promote the Episcopacy 
 which was fatal to the one, and that absolute monarchy which 
 was the true enemy of the other. 
 
 The Parliament dissolved. Cromwell set his hand to crush ign 
 
1658.] CONSPIRACIES CRUSHED. 363 
 
 the conspiracies that had sprung up around. " An old friend of 
 .yours is in town," he said to Lord Broghill,* now a councillor, 
 " the Marquis of Ormond ; he lodges in Drury Lane, at the Papist 
 Burgeon's ; if you have a mind to save your old acquaintance, 
 let him know that I am informed where he is and what he is 
 doing." On this hint, Ormond, who had ventured across the Chan- 
 nel in order, if possible, to concert a rising, hastened back to Hol- 
 land, and told his young master that his friends were far more 
 ready to promise than to perform. The Eoyalists were, in fact, 
 disconcerted at the dissolution of the Parliament, on which they 
 had relied as the cat's paw to wrest the protector's power from 
 him. They now refused to venture property and life on what 
 seemed a hopeless cast. Several conspirators were already ap- 
 prehended and in prison. Five Eoyalists, engaged in various 
 plots, were tried by a high court of justice, and executed as 
 traitors. Officers implicated in Eepublican plots were cashiered. 
 Disaffection, however, had not spread far, and the larger part of 
 the army remained devoted to their general. Summoning the 
 officers to Whitehall, Cromwell explained to them the cause of 
 the sudden dissolution of the Parliament, and the plots and con- 
 spiracies to which its sitting had given rise, and expressed a hope 
 that if he should be forced to take money by arbitrary means, 
 they would give him their support. " We will live and die with 
 you," they shouted in reply, t 
 
 In spite of the prejudice of the nation in favour of its old line of 
 princes, the peaceful and order-loving classes were beginning to 
 dread any change of government. Englishmen, even if they dis- 
 liked the usurper, could hardly fail to be proud of their great 
 countryman, who had humiliated the Spaniards, and raised 
 England to the first place among European powers. National 
 pride could not fail to be gratified by the surrender of Dunkirk, 
 and the unprecedented honours paid to England's ambassadors. 
 The very energy and success with which plots were suppressed 
 and political enemies disconcerted, itself awoke admiration. The 
 protector's dignity, his lenity, the uprightness of his administra- 
 tion, forced respect even from unwilling subjects. He was now 
 intending, within the course of a few montns, to summon another 
 Parliament, in order to avoid resorting to arbitrary means for the 
 
 * See p. 301. f Thuvloe, vi. 786; Guizot (Documents), ii. 610. 
 
S64 CEOMWELL'S LAST ILLNESS. [protect. 
 
 raising of money. By taking means to exclude the Republicans, 
 he might have obtained one friendly to his government, and 
 would perhaps again have been offered the title of king. There 
 was a wide-spread feeling that the 'fall of the present govern- 
 ment would be the occasion of great disasters to the nation.' 
 The protector's popularity had been much increased by the pos- 
 session of Dunkirk ; petitions were even sent in by some coun- 
 ties, desiring him to take the title of king ; and whether men 
 feared or hoped, the expectation that he would be crowned was 
 general throughout the country.* 
 
 But this expectation was never to be realized. Sorrows 
 fell upon Cromwell iu his own family, and these to him 
 were harder to bear than the plots and machinations of his 
 enemies. Death had already deprived him of two relatives — 
 Eobert Bich, lately married to his youngest daughter (16th 
 Feb.), and the Earl of Warwick, a firm friend to himself, 
 the young man's grandfather (19th April). And now his fa- 
 vourite daughter, Lady Claypole, " of excellent parts, civil to all 
 persons, courteous, friendly ,"f lay ill at Hampton Court, " under 
 great extremity of bodily pain," dying in fact by some terrible 
 internal disease. The protector was constantly by her bedside, 
 and so overpowered with grief for his dying child, that he had 
 but little attention to bestow on public business. The groom of 
 his bedchamber relates how " his sense of her outward misery, 
 in the pains she endured, took deep impression upon him, who 
 indeed was ever a most indulgent and tender father. "£ He also 
 relates how the text, ' I can do all things through Christ which 
 strengtheneth me,' was what restored him from despair. For 
 •' this scripture," as Cromwell himself said, " did once save my 
 life when my eldest son died, which went as a dagger to my 
 heart, indeed it did.'§ Lady Claypole died (6th Aug.), and a fort- 
 night after her death his own health, which had for some time 
 past been failing, quite broke down. He was seized with a dan- 
 gerous ague, and by advice of his physicians removed from 
 Hampton Court to Whitehall (21st Aug.). 
 
 Men prayed for his recovery, looking into the dark future 
 
 * Thurloe, vii. 144; Guizot (Documents), ii. 631, 643. 
 f Whitelock, 674. J King's Tracts.* 792 ; Carl., in. 368. 
 
 § Robert, who was buried at Felsted, in Essex, set. 19, in 1639 (Forster's 
 Essays, p. 54). 
 
3ED Sept., 1658.] DEATH OE CROMWELL. 
 
 with dismay at the anarchy that might ensue, when the 
 
 SX":^ on": su W people, 
 
 Meed for »™ who had added no little sorrow to mm, hat at 
 
 St tim he seemed to forget hi, own family 'f.'^fj^, 
 
 ions -' " He would frequently say, < God > good mdeed He «, 
 
 i • ja™ v P t God will be with His people, lie was very 
 S^tS P-of °the [Thursday] -££*&££ 
 
 "f- ^o^rth^e^dtXtn^^toTnich 
 
 wasdes^edtotakett^ame „na ^ _ ^ my 
 
 he answered, 'It is not my oesi „u _. np >» + The next 
 
 afternoon of that day Oliver Cromwell lay dead. 
 
 Born the year before the eentury began, ^J^^ 8 ^ 
 his sixtieth "year, when he was ^^f «\^X-5>tTell 
 he bad done, the perils and pr ™ Ums ^t^Aottli term, 
 have taken even more than ten years "-^ to his 
 It was nearly two centuries bef o e usti ce 
 memory. Strange ^.S^- could have 
 deluded into believing that * e »° b1 ^ d bitter partisaus 
 
 been the 'great wicked man that blind ami P ^ 
 
 , • i. i w •> mere revolutionary demagogue, wuu 
 depicted ; he a mere le j abroad . he a 
 
 restorer of order at home 2 ^ ,^~es quailed at last, not at 
 hard and selfish usiirpei^dmsestcartneve q ^ ^ 
 
 theattemptsof assassins, but at the a = o j .thickest 
 
 in£3 ; he a prince of hypocrites, who, »J*^ t0 shield the 
 pi r ess of domestic anarchies,' fo-*- , half . consci ous 
 poor Protestants of Piedmont,! and whose e 
 
 Umrings w«e 0^— «-* » I ^ 
 
 with His people ! The <*aii e e f the letters a nd 
 
 5ST rcXir- ff* of Mr. Carlyle, 
 .. .. + King's Tracts., 7M. 
 
 J^,W; C.,1., iii. 303. § 1st ed, pub. Dec, 1845. 
 
366 CHARACTER OF CROMWELL. 
 
 labours has been thus .admirably stated by the closest student of 
 those times, whose testimony is the more valuable, as that of 
 one who had himself held a different view of the character and 
 aims of the greatest of the statesmen of the Commonwealth. 
 "To collect and arrange in chronological succession, and with 
 elucidatory comment, every authentic letter and speech left 
 by Cromwell, was to subject him to a test from which false- 
 hood could hardly escape ; and the result has been to show, we 
 think, conclusively and beyond further dispute, that through all 
 these speeches and letters one mind runs consistently. Whatever 
 a man's former prepossessions may have been, he cannot accom- 
 pany the utterer of these speeches, the writer of these letters, 
 from their first page to their last, travelling with him from his 
 grazing lands at St. Ives up to his protector's throne ; watching 
 him in the tenderest intercourse with those dearest to him ; ob- 
 serving him in affairs of State or in the ordinary business of the 
 world, in offices of friendship or in conference with sovereigns 
 and senates ; listening to him as he comforts a persecuted 
 preacher, or threatens a persecuting prince ; and remain at last 
 with any other conviction than that in all conditions and on every 
 occasion Cromwell's tone is substantially the same, and that in 
 the passionate fervour of his religious feeling, under its different 
 and varying modifications, the true secret of his life must be 
 sought, and will be found. Everywhere recognizable is the sense, 
 deeply inter-penetrated with his nature and life, of spiritual 
 dangers, of temporal vicissitudes, and of never-ceasing respon- 
 sibility to the Eternal. ' Ever in his Great Taskmaster's , eye.' 
 Unless you can believe that you have an actor continually before 
 you, you must believe that this man did unquestionably recognize 
 in his Bible the authentic voice of God ; and had an irremovable 
 persuasion that according as, from that sacred source, he learned 
 the divine law here and did it, or neglected to learn and to do 
 it, infinite blessedness or infinite misery hereafter awaited him 
 •for evermore."* 
 
 * Forster, Essays, p. 33. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 RICHARD CROMWELL. — ANARCHY. — THE RESTORATION. — 
 1658—1660. 
 
 Quand on se trompe dans quelque projet pour sa fortune, ce n'est qu'un. 
 <3oup d'epee dans l'eau; mais dans les entreprises de l'Etat, il n'y a pas de 
 v-oup d'epee dans l'eau. — Montesquieu. 
 
 CROMWELL, by uniting in his own person the offices of general 
 and protector, had curbed the ambition of his military subordi- 
 nates, while he established a government capable of winning the 
 respect if not the affection of civilians. The standing army was 
 a fact and a necessity against which it would have been vain for 
 him to contend, but none the less was it a worm in the bud of 
 the Protectorate. The retention of such an army in the hands 
 of the executive must in time have proved fatal to liberty. 
 It was indeed just possible that the new protector might possess 
 both the ability and moderation of his great predecessor, be 
 willing to rule as a constitutional king, and be able to bridle the 
 army till he could dispense with it. But if these qualities were 
 not found combined in the same man, the nation must expect 
 shipwreck on one rock or the other. Should the new protector 
 be capable without being moderate, he would use the army 
 as an instrument of arbitrary power ; should he on the contrary 
 be moderate without being capable, his officers might depose 
 him and inaugurate a vicious succession of ephemeral military 
 governments. 
 
 The Petition and Advice gave the protector power to appoint 
 his successor, and Pichard Cromwell, Oliver's eldest son, now 
 took office in right of his father's deathbed nomination. The 
 young man was by nature not ill fitted to play the part of a con- 
 
368 RICHARD CROMWELL'S PARLIAMENT. { EICHAEn ^ PA »^ 
 
 I BUMP PABL. 
 
 stitutional king in quiet times ; lie was unprejudiced and not 
 fanatical ; his temper was mild ; he was always ready to give- 
 ear to counsel. On the other hand he was deficient in those 
 qualities which are most essential for a ruler in troubled times ; 
 he had not the qualities which ensure obedience and respect ; he 
 had no insight into character ; no firmness, no power of com- 
 mand. Hence the ambition of the officers, combined with his 
 own weakness, produced a period of anarchy and misgovernment 
 which caused the Eestoration of our English Bourbons to be re- 
 garded for a time as a blessing to the country. 
 
 At first, indeed, the shadow of Oliver's greatness shielded his 
 son ; at home no faction dared raise its head ; abroad foreign 
 governments recognized the new protector, and refused to hold any 
 communication with Charles Stuart. This tranquillity, however, 
 lasted but a few months. The Republicans scoffed at the 
 idea of a man of third-rate capacity maintaining a throne they 
 had been at such pains to overthrow ; the soldiers despised a 
 general who had never led them to battle. The leading officers 
 M-ere no admirers of privilege, and were unwilling to allow that 
 the weak and vacillating Richard gained any right to stand above 
 themselves from the mere accident of birth. Fleetwood wished 
 to divide the offices of protector and general and to govern as 
 general in Richard's name. Lambert was believed to aspire to 
 the protectorship itself. " I wish Lambert was dead," writes a 
 Royalist, " there is no small danger his reputation with the army 
 may thrust Dick Cromwell (who sits like an ape on horseback) 
 out of the saddle, and yet not help the king into it."* The meet- 
 ing of Parliament was the signal for action to both. Republicans 
 and officers (Jan. 27). Vane opposed Richard's right to the 
 protectorship in words winged to reach the hearts of both Re- 
 publicans and soldiers. " The people of England," he said, " are 
 now renowned all over the world for their great virtue and disci- 
 pline ; and yet suffer an idiot without courage, without sense, 
 nay, without ambition, to have dominion in a country of liberty ! 
 One could bear a little with. Oliver Cromwell, though, contrary 
 to his oath of fidelity to the Parliament, contrary to his duty to 
 the public, contrary to the respect he owed that venerable body 
 from which he received his authority, he usurped the govern- 
 
 * Clar. State Papers, iii. 408. 
 
1659.J FALL OF RICHARD CROMWELL. 369 
 
 ment. His merit was so extraordinary, that our judgments, our 
 passions, might be blinded by it. He made his way to empire by 
 the most illustrious actions : he had under his command an 
 army that had made him a conqueror, and a people that had 
 made him their general. But as for Richard Cromwell, his son, 
 who is he ? what are his titles 1 We have seen that he had a 
 sword by his side, but did he ever draw it 1 And, what is of 
 more importance in this case, is he fit to get obedience from a 
 mighty nation, who could never make a footman obey him ? yet 
 we must recognize this man as our king, under the style of pro- 
 tector ! — a man without birth, without courage, without conduct. 
 Tor my part, I declare, sir, it shall never be said that I made such 
 a man my master."* Richard, however, had many able friends in 
 the House, such as the lawyers St. John and Whitelock, Thurloe 
 his secretary, and other civilians and councillors, who hoped to 
 establish an hereditary and constitutional monarchy under the- 
 house of Cromwell. These succeeded in obtaining a majority to 
 follow them. Richard's ' right ' to govern, though not his ' un- 
 doubted right J was recognized, and a vote was carried to transact 
 business with Oliver's lords, the ' Other House.' The officers, 
 however, desiring themselves to govern the country, and jealous 
 of the influence which civilians exercised in Richard's counsels, 
 determined on the dissolution of the Parliament. Desborough,. 
 acting as their spokesman, told the protector that if he would do 
 as they proposed, the officers would take care of him, but if he- 
 refused, they would do without him and leave him to shift for 
 himself. Richard yielded, and thus virtually surrendered his 
 authority into their hands (April 22nd). 
 
 The struggle between the army and the civil power, which 
 Oliver had closed by the establishment of the protectorate, was 
 now renewed. Conscious of their own unpopularity with the 
 country, instead of summoning a new Parliament, the officers re- 
 stored the Rump (May 7th). At the request of this body, Richard 
 retired from Whitehall and thus formally resigned his ten-months 1 
 dignity (July). The officers intended to govern in the name of 
 their allies ; the Rump on its part meant to rule the soldiery. But. 
 in revolutionary times might is right, and the people fully under- 
 standing the terms on which this extinct Parliament was revived,. 
 
 * Guizot, Richard Cromwell, i. 54, 293. 
 
 24 
 
370 THE RUMP COMES AND GOES,. [rump pari,. 
 
 only derided its assumption of power. " Do the men in the 
 Parliament House signify any more," says a pamphlet, " than 
 the man that stands upon the clock in Westminster Abbey with 
 the hammer in his hand, and when the iron wheel bids him 
 strike, he strikes : hath it not been so between the army and 
 the Parliament, as it is called ?"* During Oliver's protectorate 
 the Presbyterians with all their dislike to his rule would never 
 unite with " malignants " for the restoration of Charles Stuart. 
 But now the dread of military tyrants overcame fears and pre- 
 judices. The union of Royalists and Presbyterians, however, 
 itself restored in turn a forced accord between the House and 
 the officers, which for the time crushed the hopes of the rival 
 coalition. The same spies whom Oliver had once employed now 
 revealed to the new government the conspiracies of its opponents. 
 Only in Cheshire did any considerable rising take place. Sir 
 George Booth, who appeared at the head of 4000 men, was de- 
 feated by Lambert and brought a prisoner to London. After this 
 success the old quarrel was renewed. The officers asked that a 
 standing senate should carry on the government in conjun Lion 
 with a House of Commons ; and further that no commissions 
 should be revoked without the consent of a court-martial. By 
 the first demand they thought to place the government virtually 
 in their own hands ; by the second to secure for the military a com- 
 plete independence of the civil power. The House in its turn tried 
 to keep the army dependent upon themselves for pay by voting 
 it treason to levy money without consent of Parliament. Having 
 thus as they hoped defended themselves against a sudden disso- 
 lution, they proceeded to cashier Lambert, Desborough, and six 
 other colonels ; and to put the command of the army in com- 
 mission, by reducing Fleetwood, whom they had appointed com- 
 mander-in-chief to check Booth's rising, to the position of a mere 
 president of a board of seven (Oct. 12th). These votes were 
 equal to a declaration of war, and the next day Lambert marched 
 to Westminster at the head of 3000 soldiers. He found a guard 
 of several regiments, friendly to the Republicans, already sta- 
 tioned round Parliament House. These regiments refused to 
 light their old comrades in arms, and fraternized with Lambert's 
 men. Lenthall, the Speaker, tried in vain to recall the troops 
 
 * King's Tracts, 
 
1659.] ANARCHY.— THE RUMP AGAIN. 371 
 
 to allegiance to the House. As the nominal head of the new 
 government he had lately renewed the officers' commissions. " I 
 am your general," he said, " I expect your obedience." " If you 
 had marched before us over Warrington Bridge" (p. 229) " we 
 should have known you," was the curt reply. The will of the 
 army had been expressed, and the Rump discontinued its sittings. 
 The officers now conducted the government by a Committee of 
 Safety, consisting of a few Republicans and a majority of their 
 own party. These military rulers, however, were foiled in their 
 turn. There was in Scotland another army and another com- 
 mander-in-chief, whose consent had not been given to this pro- 
 nunciamento. General Monk owed no allegiance to Desborouo-h 
 or Fleetwood ; locked in his breast he had his scheme of a settle- 
 ment for the kingdom. Setting his army in motion to march 
 south, he astutely proclaimed his intention 'to stand to, and 
 assert the liberty and authority of Parliament.' The Monk 
 Republicans understood that he came to restore the fronfscot- 
 Rurap ; the Cavaliers and Presbyterians that he came land. 
 to summon a free Parliament, and thus prepare the way for the 
 restoration of the Stuarts. Republicans, Presbyterians, and 
 Cavaliers all took courage and refused obedience to the Com- 
 mittee of Safety, and the country was practically without any 
 government at all. A part of the fleet declared for the Republi- 
 cans, and took custom duties of all ships passing up and down 
 the Thames. The governor of Portsmouth admitted into the 
 town some regiments of Republican troops. Taxes could only be 
 levied by force, for all over the country the people refused to pay 
 ' without consent of Parliament.' The support of Presbyterian 
 London at the opening of the war had enabled the Parliament to 
 make war upon the king. But Presbyterian London was now 
 become strongly Royalist, and its hostility threatened to be fatal 
 to the ascendancy of a divided army. Fleetwood and Desborough 
 tried in vain to cajole the Common Council into advancing a 
 loan of £30,000. Soldiers had to be quartered in the city to 
 prevent the apprentices from rising ; quarrels ensued, and lives 
 were lost on both sides. The goldsmiths in Cheapside and Lom- 
 bard Street closed their shops and concealed their money and 
 goods. The courts in Westminster Hall ceased to sit, for the 
 commissions of the judges had expired, and there was no autho- 
 rity competent to renew them. After having thus brought all 
 
 24— <3 
 
372 MONK MARCHES TO LONDON. j JSmraSrar 
 
 government to a standstill, the officers saw only two courses open 
 to them — the one to join with the Presbyterians and restore the 
 House of Stuart ; the other to reinstate the Republicans. The 
 latter was preferred, and the members of the Eump resumed 
 their sittings (26th Dec). 
 
 Monk, meanwhile, was advancing from Scotland at the head of 
 7000 men. Lambert some weeks previously had marched north 
 to oppose his approach with a force of 10,000 men (Nov.). But 
 when his force had reached Marston Moor, the great Yorkshire- 
 man, Lord Fairfax, emerged from his retirement in Wharfedale 
 to decide the fate of England. Like other sincere patriots, he re- 
 garded the restoration of the Stuarts as the only means of saving 
 his country from utter anarchy. He had already promised Monk to 
 effect a rising and attack Lambert in the rear as soon as the Scotch 
 army had engaged him in front. But his victory was bloodless. A 
 message came that a whole brigade in the rear of Lambert's army 
 was ready to join him the next day on Marston Moor. Upon his 
 arrival the troops presented their old general with a petition in 
 favour of a free Commonwealth and against a government by a 
 single person. Fairfax in reply tore the paper in pieces, and 
 placed himself at the head of his raw Yorkshire levies, as though 
 with them alone he were ready to fight a veteran army. His de- 
 cision produced a strange effect. Troop after troop, regiment 
 after regiment, came over to his side. Lambert, almost entirely 
 deserted, slunk away to a country house* (3rd Jan.). Monk was 
 now able to march to London unopposed. When his troops were 
 once securely quartered in the capital, he declared himself plainly 
 Monk de- f or a ' free Parliament/ This meant the return of 
 free C parUa- Charles Stuart, for which every four men out of five 
 ment. now longed (10th Feb.). The city went wild with 
 
 delight. Bells were rung ; loyal healths were drunk in every 
 street ; the whole heaven was made aglow with the light of 
 hundreds of bonfires ; hardly one without a rump roasting be- 
 fore it, ' for the celebration of the funeral of the Parliament.' 
 That funeral was near at hand. The Republicans were still 
 sitting when the old Presbyterian members, who were expelled 
 by Colonel Pride eleven years before, were escorted by a guard 
 to retake their seats at Westminster (21st Feb.). According 
 
 . * Markham, Fairfax, 381 
 
1659—60.] THE RESTORATION. 373 
 
 to promises made to Monk, these members carried the voluntary 
 dissolution of the House, and named the 25th of LongPariia. 
 April for the meeting of a new and free Parliament JSSnJj'its 
 (16th March). This new Parliament is commonly own act. 
 described as a convention, being summoned without the royal 
 writ. Conventions are, in fact, national assemblies held, when 
 the constitution is in abeyance, for the specific purpose of esta- 
 blishing some form of government. The Lower House was 
 tilled with Cavaliers and Presbyterians so Eoyalist in feeling 
 that the few Republicans who were returned hardly dared 
 show their faces among their fellow-members. The House 
 of Lords was represented at its opening by only ten peers, Pres- 
 byterians, who resumed their seats after an absence of eleven 
 years. This Convention at once invited Charles Stuart to return 
 to his kingdom. There was reason, however, to fear that his 
 return might not be accomplished without bloodshed, for, though 
 the nation was united, the national will was opposed by a body of 
 50,000 fighting men. Every precaution was taken by Monk to 
 divide the army and raise a force that might be able to cope with 
 it. The fleet had now declared itself on the side of the nation ; 
 the London trainbands alone numbered 20,000 men ; the militia 
 was being trained and organized in every county ; the citizens 
 spared neither wine nor money to secure the favour, or at least 
 the neutrality, of Monk's troops, who were quartered amongst 
 them. Yet men and officers would sooner have fought their new 
 friends than feasted with them. ' They were like beasts,' the}^ 
 would say, when feasting in the city halls, ' set up a-f atting for 
 the slaughter.' But the army, though numerous, was not cap- 
 able of combined and decisive action. Numbers, even though 
 backed by bravery and skill, can avail little without a leader. 
 The position of Monk commanded the obedience of the soldiers, 
 while the support of Fairfax conciliated their feelings. On the other 
 hand, neither Lambert, Desborough, nor Fleetwood could inspire 
 the confidence that where they led victory must follow Charles 
 Stuart returned from his exile in peace and triumph. Yet on the 
 day when the new king made his entry into the capital, and on 
 his way passed through the army which was drawn up on Black- 
 heath to meet him, the officers kissed the royal hand with evident 
 reluctance, while the men, as they stood sullenly amidst rejoicing 
 thousands, looked like some black thunder-cloud that might end 
 
374 KEACTIOXAKY GOYEKXHENT. [conclusion-. 
 
 the sunny day of triumph by dispersing the crowds of wel- 
 comers in terror to their homes (29th May).* The dangerous 
 day of entry over, the standing army was within a few months 
 disbanded. The enemies of the royal prerogative feared it 
 might be remodelled into an instrument of tyranny ; while 
 zealous Royalists still dreaded the terrible troopers who had 
 raised a Cromwell to the throne. The return of the Stuarts, 
 therefore, benefited the country by saving it from the rule of 
 military governors who might have tried to play the role of the 
 great protector without his incomparable genius for statesman- 
 ship. The longer the struggle lasted, the fiercer and more san- 
 guinary it must have become, and all peace-loving men 
 dreaded the day when the Fifth-Monarchists, Anabaptists, and 
 Republicans who filled the army should each in succession sig- 
 nalize a short-lived triumph by a proscription of political and 
 religious opponents. The Stuarts or anarchy — that was the only 
 choice. The Restoration may therefore justly be regarded as a 
 necessity, but nevertheless the day that brought back the exiled 
 race to our shores, was the beginning of a brief but dark period 
 of decay. The reaction which follows a revolution is always a 
 heavy drawback on the advantages which may ultimately spring 
 from the triumph of the people in a struggle. With the return 
 of Charles Stuart came a great reaction. An heroic age had gone 
 by, and with it all noble aspirations. The government of Charles 
 II. was the most shameless England ever endured. The leaders 
 of the State and the leaders of society were alike venal and im- 
 moral. As in the worst days of the Roman empire, virtue and 
 self-respect vanished together, f Avowedly governed by self- 
 interest, cupidity, and mere sensual desires, they refused to be- 
 lieve in the existence of higher motives of action. The king and 
 his courtiers alike lived profligate lives ; the king and his mini- 
 sters alike received pensions from France. The Episcopal Church 
 again set herself to work to teach the divine right of kings and 
 the duty of passive obedience, and repaid the Presbyterians for 
 the active help they had given in the Restoration, by rejecting 
 all proposals for accommodation and inaugurating an universal 
 persecution of nonconformists. The House of Commons, in an. 
 excess of loyal zeal, undid much of 'the best work of the first 
 years of the Long Parliament ; it passed persecuting laws, which. 
 * Hacaulny, I. cb. i. f Contemptu famae contemni virtutes. — Tac. 
 
CAUSES OF KEACTION. 
 
 continued for nearly two centuries to inflame f* K ^ 
 
 passions of the strong, and corrupt the morals of «»*"*; 
 Lke up theunionwhielUhe united efforts ofVaneandCromw 
 
 ennial Bill destroyed the only security then existing for the con 
 tiuuity of Parliamentary life ; and, by returning « *« °M 
 svstem of representation, placed in power a »m(*«l«2 
 re—tin" hut a mere minority of the Baton, which tried 
 to mess own the most active forces of opinion, causing upheaval 
 a tribal, till the buried giants were rtb* -^harm- 
 less bv the outlet given through the Eeform Bill of 1832. 
 
 The lotion which set in in favour of the Stuarts was a neces- 
 
 popular revolution is successiui . j ^ 
 
 ment, not having prescription on its side cauno p 
 sanie'mild treatment of political <g*?££2 to harsh or 
 foundation of centuries. Hence rt has lecomse 
 arbitrary acts and brings mto< *£*£« fenced. A 
 in the name of which the stiu so ^ nothing of the 
 
 generation ^XEZZS*^ High Commis- 
 scntences o th Couits rf fe ^ ^^ hcy 
 
 sion, or of the ai bitrai) aces c tte ^ 
 
 of "thorough^ whffeeven ■^^'^ chane3 a nd 
 membrance of all tins nau ue action of high courts 
 
 troubles of the past sixteen 7-»J*e «*«« * | 
 of justice, the sale and t-^^^^ 
 government by major-generals, not to men ic ]d . 
 
 Tmce of Sundays and fast ^^ ^ f t he outcome 
 established games, these seemed after all to ^b 
 of Eepublican liberty and just ce If the apos ^ 
 only declaimed against tyranny . d ne £1 tlmn no ^ ^ ^ 
 iudeed " all men were hais It s by B o£ ^ 
 
 disbelief in the goodness of the best of ^a ^ ^^ 
 
 lution produce immoral P« „ , M ^^ ^ 
 
 S« — y tnT ^wL^ held sacred on one day con- 
 
376 UNPRINCIPLED POLITICIANS. [conclusion, 
 
 temned on another ; oaths required to which neither heart 
 nor intellect assents. At last the pressure of the times makes 
 self-mterest the rule of action ; personal security a point of 
 greater moment than fidelity to friends or country. The career 
 of General Monk, who shared in the government both before 
 and after the Restoration, bears the stamp of his political train- 
 ing. His family was Royalist, and he originally served in the 
 kings armies in Ireland. On being taken prisoner he changed 
 his side, and received a commission in the Parliament's army 
 Cromwell, who noticed his military genius, advanced him to be 
 commander-in-chief in Scotland, and he afterwards served as 
 admiral on board the fleet, and shared with Blake the triumphs 
 of the Dutch war. His fidelity Cromwell had never cause to 
 suspect, and if Richard had had the strength to maintain his own 
 power, and so guard the interests of his friends, Monk would not 
 have withdrawn his support from the protectorate. But no 
 principle bound him to any special form of government, or to the 
 House of Cromwell more than to the House of Stuart. Foresee- 
 ing the issue of events, he determined to be the first to act for the 
 king, and thus to gain the credit of the Restoration. His reward 
 was a seat in the council, and the title of Duke of Albemarle. 
 Together with many others, who had taken a leading part in 
 the late government, he did not shrink from sitting as judge in 
 a court of justice which condemned his late friends to death 
 as traitors. Very different to this was the school in which 
 the statesmen of the Long Parliament had been trained. During 
 the first quarter of the century the nation, braced by its triumph 
 over Catholicism and Spain, was nerved for a struggle to make 
 its political liberties more secure, and 'reform reformation' in 
 religion. The only weapons it possessed were those offered by a 
 free constitution. A single deviation from principle, a single 
 sacrifice of the cause of the nation for that of the man, a single 
 violent and illegal action, might throw back the work for years 
 if not for centuries. The triumphs of the past, the great future 
 before them, the necessity of courage and self-sacrifice, bred a 
 race of heroes, fired by a strong spirit of patriotism, and by a yet 
 stronger sense of duty, till they were ready to lay down their 
 lives for their country and their conscience. The 'men who pro- 
 duce revolutions' are, indeed, of a different stamp from the 
 men ' whom revolutions produce.' 
 
1660.] THE PURITANS AND EDUCATION. 37? 
 
 The general fall in the moral tone of the nation may be also 
 in part ascribed to errors into which the Puritans were led 
 through their intense earnestness. The Puritans held that it 
 is one of the first duties of a government to attend to the sub- 
 ject's welfare as a spiritual and intellectual being. This truth 
 was capable of a right and wise application, as well as a fanatical 
 perversion. Protection of person and property touches the lower 
 man only ; to instruct his mind and soul concerns the ordering of 
 his higher existence. Thus Milton's noble longing was that every 
 faculty of a man's whole being should be educated, so that he might 
 have liberty, and know how to use it. "Make it a shame," 
 said Cromwell in the same spirit to one of his Parliaments, " to 
 see men bold in sin and profaneness, and God will bless you. 
 You will be a blessing to the nation ; and by this, will be more 
 repairers of breaches than by anything in the world. Truly these- 
 things do respect the souls of men, and the spirits — which are 
 the men — the mind is the man. If that be kept pure, a man 
 signifies somewhat ; if not, I would very fain see what difference 
 there is betwixt him and a beast. He hath only some activity 
 to do some more mischief."* With these feelings, Cromwell 
 was specially careful of educational institutions ; he fostered 
 the old universities of the south, and founded a new one at 
 Durham for the north ; he reformed the character of the 
 ministry — then the only educators — by exacting a strict inquiry 
 before admission, so that the benefices of the Church might no 
 longer be the refuge of the idle and the ignorant. The Long Parlia- 
 ment, when confiscating the property of bishops and 'delinquents/ 
 spared any revenues that were devoted to educational uses. In the 
 New England States, where Puritans held absolute sway, while 
 the popular voice required the adoption of the foolish policy of 
 punishing sins as crimes, yet the legislators really raised the level 
 of society by enacting a law of compulsory education. But 
 though the chief leaders of the Puritan movement were advanced 
 enough to perceive the slow but sure effect of education in 
 bringing about a real improvement in the morals of a people, 
 the large majority of their followers were allured by the deluding 
 appearances of immediate reform produced by a policy of coer- 
 cion. Influenced by Hebrew precedents, these sanguine spirits 
 hoped by their legislation to compel the nation to live up to a 
 * Carl., iii. 189. 
 
378 PUEITAN BEASOX AND UNEEASON. [coxclusiokl 
 
 higher and sterner ideal. Kepublicans, Independents, and Pres- 
 byterians alike took delight in fencing virtue about with penal 
 laws, which often related to acts indifferent in themselves In 
 this they defeated their own end. Outward conduct was influ- 
 enced, but the heart and intellect revolted at the interference 
 Had the Puritans wished to excite a desire of raisino- Maypoles' 
 dancing on Sundays, and attending play-houses, they could not 
 have done better than forbid any to take part in such amuse- 
 ments under pain of a fine or a whipping. To enact for 
 swearing, drinking, and gambling, punishments out of all pro 
 portion to the offence, was the most efficacious means to create 
 sympathy for offenders. Many, after figuring awkwardly as 
 unwilling saints, as soon as the unnatural bonds were loosed 
 wallowed more than ever in vice, and scoffed at virtue as mere 
 cant and hypocrisy. The mass of the nation, however, was not so 
 much affected by this reaction as might be supposed from the 
 profligacy of the court. The Puritan spirit had too much that 
 was noble in it to be easily extinguished. It still lives as one of 
 the great moral forces of the nation, and is still to be seen in its 
 two aspects-in the consuming zeal of the far-sighted reformer on 
 the one hand, m the narrow but elevating austerity of the unin 
 telligent and uneducated on the other. It still helps men to 
 prefer the higher to the lower, the future to the present. Eng- 
 land would not have been what it is had the salt of the nation 
 been transported elsewhere by a succession of 'Mayflowers' or 
 exterminated by St. Bartholomew massacres. 
 
 In the political sphere, again, although much failed of imme- 
 diate accomplishment, the work of Cromwell and his compeer 
 was never really undone. To use the words of Burke, "a great 
 deal of the furniture of ancient tyranny was torn to rags » Taxa- 
 tion without consent of Parliament was never attempted after the 
 Eestoration. Torture was never employed in England after the 
 meeting of the Long Parliament * The temper of the nation 
 
 v.! ^^t Ur ^ t ? ou S h always illegal, was used to a great extent durino- the 
 rule of the Tudors and the two first Stuarts. In the § single Tear 158 there 
 are no less than six warrants entered in the Council Book. It was Possible 
 
 or persons to obtain as a favour, warrants from the king or the cCnci 
 to sanction, even m ordinary criminal cases, the illegal employment of tor 
 
 ure, so that murder, embezzlement, and horse-stealmg around amonSt 
 ElizaS-1. ° ffeneeS f f Wki f t01 t Ure is t0 be used ' Sine™ .the enTof 
 than St 1 gU n ° ™ tf T*f haVe bGen f0Und of its ^plication to other 
 than State crimes. The last warrant issued was in 1640, the year of the 
 
1660.] THE REBELLION— THE REVOLUTION. 379, 
 
 never again could bear the jurisdiction of arbitrary courts of 
 justice. Above all there remained in the recollection of the 
 nation the precedent of the Great Kebellion. The signal successes 
 of that rebellion were convincing proofs of the power of the 
 people. In great crises the consciousness, that power lies in 
 the last resort with the people, can remove aristocratic prejudices 
 that seem to lie like lead on the minds of legislators. The glories 
 of Louis Quatorze blinded the eyes of the French court till the 
 lessons of the Eevolution revealed the secret ; but to English 
 legislators the secret was open, that beneath them lay an invisible 
 force, which they might be allowed to trifle with, but never to 
 trample on. Twenty-eight years after Charles II. was restored,. 
 James II. fled to France. A coward, a bigot, and a fool, un- 
 able to read aright his father's history, he endeavoured to establish 
 in England at once arbitrary government, and the ascendancy of 
 the Catholic religion. Even the natural supporters of the prero- 
 gative went against him. Ministers, courtiers, and nobles, while 
 loudly avowing their detestation of treason and rebellion, turned 
 against the tyrant who excluded from his council all but Papist 
 converts and Jesuits. The clergy, though regardless of their coun- 
 try's liberties, turned against the spoiler of their Church. The 
 people, detesting the tyrant and the bigot alike, were glad enough to 
 see the upper classes do the work of resistance for them. The crown 
 was declared vacant, and offered by Parliament to William and 
 Mary of Orange, By the change of succession a fatal blow was 
 given to the pernicious doctrine of divine right, and the law was, 
 once for all, declared superior to the prerogative. William, by 
 accepting the crown as a gift of Parliament, virtually admitted 
 that he would reign as a constitutional king, holding sacred the 
 authority of the law, and carrying out whatever reforms Parlia- 
 ment should consider essential for the welfare of the people. Thus 
 
 meeting of the Long Parliament. " In the days of the prerogative," says 
 Jardine, " Magna Charta was an empty name," and trial by jury a mockery 
 and a farce, when, upon the authority of a royal warrant, a man could be 
 carried away to the prisons of the Tower, and after his body had been duly 
 attenuated, and his spirit broken and subdued by the horrors of 'Little 
 Ease' and the 'Dungeon among the rats,' be brought into court to make 
 a formal answer to evidence extracted by the cruelties of the rack, or the 
 manacles, or the ' scavenger's daughter.' " The use of torture was not abolished 
 in Scotland till 1708; in France till 1789; in Russia till 1801; in Hanover 
 till 1822 ; in Baden till 1831.— Jardine on the Use of Torture. 
 
380 THE KEBELLION-ITS MODERATION, [conclusion 
 
 was the Revolution terminated, after a struggle which had lasted 
 for nearly all the ninety years of the Stuart regime The exe- 
 cutive was brought into dependence upon the legislature, and 
 the government of the country fixed as a constitutional monarchy 
 Laws granting toleration to Catholics and to Puritans, laws 
 securing the liberty of the press, laws securing the independence 
 of the judges, are all fruits, that time has ripened, of the armed 
 resistance offered by the Long Parliament to Charles I 
 1 JT ^f'^S the deU «* g™tit,.de that England owes to the 
 eaders of the Great Rebellion, the moderation with which they 
 
 Ml strifoT mUS * ?? r ^ f ° rg0tten - E ™ * tte b «« <* 
 civi stirfe they respected constitutional forms. That they fought 
 
 for the king and not against him, was not a mere quibble but 
 
 ^fafaZ J mStanC6 the rebels were not those who 
 
 tT2t fl- su ~y of bw, but the supporters of the new 
 heory of divine right and the usurpations they called preroga- 
 o F,J J? , ^ remarkable how, throughout the whole course 
 vLlT ^ ry ' the CaUSe ° f }ib ^y^ kss often been ad- 
 o7oM T), + r n r SS '° n of newri S h tethan by the ratification 
 of old. Thus the Petition of Eights and the Bill of Rights far 
 from introducing any great change into the constitution,' are 
 mainly the reassertion of rights already recognized at law. Such 
 a. course of conservative progress was impossible in France, where 
 the monarchy destroyed its own foundations by its excess" 
 The permanence of kingship in England is due to its assoc.C 
 tTJtt ?.P°P uai - .constitution. The French monarchy had 
 its constitutional bmits, till a centralized absolutism took the 
 place ot free institutions. Then when the crash came there was 
 nothing known of the constitution except what was detested. 
 Hence constitutional monarchs in France, instead of being looked 
 on as representatives of an honoured past, are simply judged 
 upon then- own merits. The fir* storm of unpopularity drfves 
 
 anEnghsh ministry. Tims, since the fart break in continuity 
 no form of government in France has lasted for more than twenty 
 
 gumary than the French, because its causes were not, as in 
 Irance, social. In France an aristocracy, answering both to no- 
 bihtyand gentry in England, possessed many privileges, which 
 
1660—88.] FKANCE AND ENGLAND. 381 
 
 appeared the more odious, because exercised by men who took 
 no part in the government. In England the people were not 
 oround down ; taxes did not fall heaviest upon those who had 
 feast ; a large portion of the nobles and gentry made common 
 cause with the people ; the watchwords of an absolute and envious 
 " equality " never assumed any prominence in the struggle. There 
 was no Vising of a famine- stricken peasantry ; no burning of 
 chateaux; no flight of a whole aristocracy, to be avenged by 
 foreign invasion. Had Strafford succeeded in establishing an 
 arbitrary throne, supported by a standing army ; had the Eng lish 
 nobles and gentry, in compensation for the loss of political rights, 
 obtained exemption from taxation and other exclusive privileges, 
 the revolution might have been deferred indeed, but its character, 
 when it came, might have been as violent and sanguinary as the 
 French. Equality before the law, a free press, every poitica 
 and social reform that our constitution has been found capable ot 
 adopting without any violent change of form might then have 
 been onlv obtainable by rooting up the old order o things, and 
 severing aU the links that now bind the present to the past. The 
 nation, & divided into factions, hating and fearing one another too 
 much for conciliation or even for the preservation of political 
 morality, might have fallen a prey tc the ambition of military 
 usuli^and found itself incapable of constructing a ree and 
 3g government. De Tocqueville justly remarks that the 
 effS of two centuries of absolute government on the French 
 wl to make the nation so little prepared to act for itself that it 
 Ionia Z reform all without destroying all : and hence the same 
 revolution, which destroyed so many institutions, ideas, and 
 c —opposed to liberty, destroyed, at the same time, sc .many 
 others which are the necessary conditions of liberty that, like 
 Se monarchy, it destroyed its own foundations by its excesses 
 ^nffimB may be said, like Saturn of old, to devour all 
 thet own children except the one who is bom the new tyrant to 
 
 "Cot^of the leaders of the Rebellion was remarkable 
 h h t Their faith was even more remarkable ; they did not 
 
382 THE REBELLION-FAITH. [conclusion 
 
 cause for which they fought, was shared by these Puritan leaders 
 with their less gifted followers, but the faith which engendered 
 this pride inspired them also with a rare humility. ^Though 
 they gave proof enough of remarkable abilities, they never re- 
 garded their own personal success and the success of their cause 
 as bound up together. " It was a most indifferent thing to him 
 to live or die," said Pym ; "God could carry on His work bv 
 others." « Truly," said the Lord Protector, " I have, as before 
 God, often thought that I could not tell what my business was, 
 nor what I was in the place I stood in, save comparing myself to 
 a good constable, to keep the peace of the parish." ^Cromwell's 
 pre-eminent ability sufficed to ward off the Eestoration, while 
 he lived. But the same spirit of faith that in seasons of 
 greatest peril 'shone in him like a pillar of fire/ did not fail 
 m evil days to sustain and animate those who had been his 
 companions in the camp and the senate-house. Evil days 
 indeed there were to come, for though the transition itself 
 was accomplished without bloodshed, the old leaders were not 
 suffered to escape. The new king, before he left Holland, pub- 
 lished a proclamation, commanding his father's judges to surrender 
 themselves up within fourteen days, on pain of being excepted 
 from any pardon or indemnity either as to their lives or estates 
 Ludlow, putting no faith in royal promises, escaped in time to 
 the continent ; his gravestone stands in the churchyard at Vevay 
 overlooking the Lake of Geneva, near which he lived on W 
 enough to hear that the Revolution was consummated by the ac- 
 cession of William and Mary, though even then he found his 
 presence was not tolerated in his country. Hutchinson who 
 surrendered upon the proclamation, died in prison in the course 
 of a few months from the effects of confinement and bad air 
 Marten, after twenty years' imprisonment, died an old man of 
 seventy-eight at Chepstow Castle, in Monmouthshire (1681) 
 Through all his sufferings he never regretted what he had done' 
 We are told that towards the end of his life, he was allowed to 
 take walks with his guard beyond the castle walls. An inhabi- 
 tant of a neighbouring village used to ask him to rest in his 
 house, and one day put the critical question, whether, supposing the 
 deed were to be done over again, he would again sign the king's 
 death-warrant. The stern old regicide lost his entry to the 
 house by his indomitable "Yes." The buna Milton suffered 
 
1660—2.] FATE OF REGICIDES. 383 
 
 with the friends whose cause his pen had so ably defended. 
 His losses he regretted no more than he had regretted the loss of 
 the eyes he sacrificed in writing his defence of the king's exe- 
 cution against the attack of Salmasius — 
 
 Cjriac, this three years' day these eyes, though clear 
 To outward view, of blemish or of spot, 
 Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot ; 
 Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear) 
 Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, 
 Or man or woman. Yet I argue not 
 Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot 
 Of heart or hope ; but still bear up and steer 
 Eight onward. What supports me, dost thou ask ? 
 
 The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied 
 In liberty's defence, my noble task, 
 
 Of which all Europe rings from side to side. 
 This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask 
 Content, though blind, had I no better guide. * 
 
 Nine of the king's judges were executed as traitors, besides 
 Cook, the solicitor at the High Court of Justice, Hacker and 
 Axtell, the commanders of the guard on the day of the execu- 
 tion, and Hugh Peters, the Independent minister, through 
 whose good offices Juxon had been allowed to attend the king 
 during his last hours. They all died bravely, expressing con- 
 fidence in the justice of their cause. Amongst their judges 
 sat the Presbyterians, Denzil Hollis and the Earl of Man- 
 chester ; the Independent, Lord Say-and-Sele ; and even 
 Monk himself, now Marquis of Albemarle, and Sir Antony 
 Ashley Cooper, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, both of whom 
 had been leading members of the government under the 
 protectorate, but were now trying to efface the memories of their 
 own acts by the severity of the measures they dealt to their old 
 friends and accomplices. Well might Lord Fairfax indignantly 
 exclaim, that ' if any man must be excepted, he knew no man 
 
 * Taine, Hist, of English Literature, i. 419, attributes the sonnet to 
 this time, but it manifestly belongs to an earlier date. The great French 
 scholar, Claude Saumaise, or, as he is more commonly called, Salmasius, 
 wrote a Latin treatise in defence of the divine right of kings, and in vindica- 
 tion of t be memory of Charles I. (164.9.) Milton wrote an answer to the 
 Defensio Regia, also in Latin (1651). He had lost the sight of one eye in 
 1651, and became totally blind not long afterwards. His enemies taunted 
 him with his blindness as being a judgment for having written in defence of 
 the kind's death. He lived on for fourteen years after the Kestoration. 
 
384 THE EESTOEATION-EEYEXGE. [conclusioit 
 
 that deserved it more than himself, who was the general of the 
 army at the time/ Not satisfied with wreaking their vengeance 
 upon the living, the Royalists insulted the remains of the°dead. 
 The remains of the historian May, the two victorious admirals, 
 Blake and Popham, the great constitutional statesman, John 
 Pym, and even those of the protector's mother, and his daugh- 
 ter, Lady Claypole, were torn out of their graves in West- 
 minster Abbey, and flung together into a pit near the back-door 
 of one of the prebendaries' houses at Westminster ; while the 
 bodies of Bradshaw, of Ireton, and of Cromwell himself, the 
 greatest ruler that England ever produced, were dragged to Ty- 
 buro and there hanged on gibbets. 
 
 But of all the enormities of the Eestoration, the most iniqui- 
 tous was the trial and execution of Sir Henry Vane. Charles 
 and Hyde, now Lord Chancellor Clarendon, had obtained the 
 exception of Yane's name out of the Act of Indemnity, as 
 passed by the Convention Parliament, by promising that if 
 he were attainted, his sentence should be remitted. In 1662, 
 that Parliament had given place to one more reactionary and 
 more sanguinary ; the ruse had served its turn ; and while 
 renegades obtained life and pardon by giving false witness 
 against the living and defaming the dead, the noble Repub- 
 lican statesman was accused of high treason against Charles 
 II. for having exercised civil and military functions- under the 
 usurping government. A law of Henry VII., drawing a distinc- 
 tion between the king de facto and the king de jure, had assured 
 indemnity to all persons who obeyed the king for the time being 
 on the throne. Vane, therefore, could fairly defend himself by 
 arguing that the Parliament being the government for the 
 time being, there was no treason in acting under it, since this 
 law limited the word 'king' in the statute of treasons to a 
 king actually on the throne, and declared, in fact, there could 
 be no treason in acting against one who was merely king dejure. 
 He also pleaded the undoubted fact that he had opposed the act 
 of the regicides at the time, and refused approbation after- 
 wards. He was not, however, suffered to escape because law 
 and justice were on his side. The chief justice was reported 
 to have said, "Though we know not what to say to him, we 
 know what to do with him." The court decided that Charles IT. 
 had been king de facto as well as de jure from the moment of 
 
1663 1 EXECUTION OE VANE. 385 
 
 las father's death, though "kept out of the exercise of his royal 
 authority by traitors and rebels." Vane -- ^composure 
 that the Restoration was to be consummated by his death. This 
 dark night and black shade," he wrote to his wife, "which God 
 hath drawn over His work in the midst of us, may be, for aught we 
 know the ground-colour to some beautiful piece that He is now ex 
 nosing to the light." True to his principles, he ascribed his ^coun- 
 try's calamities to the imperfections of himself and her ministers, 
 and gloried in his trial as a means of showing how death may 
 be contemned by him who suffers in a good cause. Ten thou- 
 sand deaths," he said to his friends, ' ra ther than denle my con- 
 science, the chastity and purity of which I value beyond all the 
 world I T would not for ten thousand lives part with this peace 
 and satisfaction I have in my own heart both in holding to the 
 purity of my principles and to the righteousness of tin ^good 
 cause and to the assurance I have that God is now fulfilling all 
 the e great and precious promises, in order to what He .sbrmg- 
 5ofth. Although I see it not, yet I die -the faith and 
 assured expectation of it." On the day of execution, TowHl 
 and the roofs of the neighbouring houses were crowded with 
 spectators. When Vane attempted to address then, the trumpets 
 Tere ordered to blow, in fear of the impression Ins last words 
 St make. " It is a bad cause," he said, " which cannot bear 
 Tbe words of a dying man." His last words at the bloek^e : 
 « Father glorify Thy servant in the sight of men, that he ma, 
 Jriiv Thee in the discharge of his duty to Thee and to his 
 country" The crowd dispelled awe-struck, regarding his con- 
 stat as a " miracle." " He was great in all his ac ions but to 
 me he seemed greatest in his sufferings," wrote a friend of to 
 Wv while a Royalist present at the scene remarked that 
 < tie klnl lost more oy that man's death than he will get again 
 foI a good while." Such was the death of the great English, 
 stoic, a fitting close to the history of an heroic age 
 
 25 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Page 48. — The story of the meeting of Pym and Strafford is 
 told by Dr. James Welwood in his " Histoiy of the Last Hundred 
 Years preceding the Revolution in 1688." More authentic illus- 
 trations of the close connection of Wentworth with the popular 
 leaders before his acceptance of office are to be found in the 
 Strafford Letters and Despatches. While Eliot was confined 
 in the Tower, Lord Cottingdon wrote to "Wentworth in Ire- 
 land that his ' old dear friend, Sir John Eliot, is very like to 
 die.' Again, Laud, in one of his letters to Wentworth, commu- 
 nicates the following piece of intelligence : " When we came to 
 this passage in your despatch, ' Again, I did beseech them to 
 look well about, and to be wise by others' harms, they were not 
 ignorant of the misfortunes these meetings' [i.e., Parliaments] 
 had run in England of late years,' here a good friend of yours 
 interposed, ' Quorum £>ars magna fui. J " " It pierces my heart," 
 says Strafford himself on his trial, " though not with guilt, yet 
 with sorrow, that in my gray hairs I should be so much mis- 
 understood by the companions of my youth, with whom I have 
 formerly spent so much time." Wentworth's contemporaries cer- 
 tainly considered him as an apostate. An attempt has recently 
 been made (Quarterly Review, April, 1874), to defend him from 
 the charge. The article bears evidence of most careful research* 
 and the writer certainly shows that in the Parliament of 1628 $ 
 Wentworth differed from Eliot on details as to the best means to 
 be employed in securing the liberty of the subject, but does not 
 
APPENDIX. 3S7 
 
 prove that he differed about the end in view. The main facts 
 remain that Wentworth was imprisoned in 1627 for resisting a 
 forced loan, that he was returned to the Parliament of 1628 as 
 an extreme advocate of popular rights in the teeth of an opposi- 
 tion from the court, which made his supporters afraid to disclose 
 their names. Wentworth's speeches in this Parliament, as 
 quoted in the article itself, seem to tell their own tale. " I can- 
 not forget the duty I owe to my country, and unless we be 
 secured in our liberties, we cannot give (any supplies);" 
 ao-ain he wished the committee " to draw into a law what may 
 assure us of our liberty of our persons and propriety of our 
 croods before we report the resolution of our gift f and further, 
 "some character must be put upon it (this law), and the 
 council must not on every occasion leap out of it. Therefore, let 
 some penalty be set on the violators thereof." When the king 
 promised to observe Magna Charta, and to govern according to 
 the laws and statutes of the realm, and wished Parliament to 
 crive up the proposed bill and trust to this declaration, Went- 
 worth persevered against the king's express wish, and proposed 
 to "confirm Magna Charta and those other laws, together with, 
 the Hug's declarations," by the objectionable bill This was the 
 man who became the king's minister without conditions, the chief 
 enemy of popular rights, and the advocate of the policy of 
 Thorough. 
 
 Paqe 6 9._Out of the twelve judges, two only, Hutton and 
 Croke, decided in favour of Hampden on the ground of prin- 
 ciple, viz., the illegality of the tax. Denham, who ym very dl, 
 Ze a short written judgment, expressing no opmmn on the 
 ferity of the tax, but deciding in favour of Hampden on tech- 
 nical founds, viz., that the action was brought m the wrong 
 
 om. Bramston and Davenport both agreed that in .me of 
 danger the king had the power of levying the tax, and that he 
 tXle judge of the danger. Like Denham, however, they gave 
 
 lutmen in favour of Hampden on technical grounds, vi, that 
 
CSS APPENDIX. 
 
 The judgment of the majority, as that of the court, was delivered 
 agaiust Hampden, 12th June, 1638. 
 
 lb. Cadmean [or suicidal] victory, see Hdt. i. 116. 
 
 Page 70. — 12th December, 1638. Address of Anthony Cham- 
 peney, dean of the secular Catholic clergy in England, exhorting 
 them to pray for the king's success against the Scots. (From 
 Clar. MSS. in Bodleian, No. 1158. Copy by Windebank.) 
 
 " Dearly beloved Brethren, — Though I doubt not but that you 
 daily present your humble and earnest prayers unto Almighty 
 God for his Majesty, according to St. Paul his exhortation in 
 these words : Obsecro fieri orationes pro Regibus et omnibus qui 
 m sublimitate sunt, ut quietam et tranquillam vitam agamus in 
 omni pietate et castitate, hoc enim bonum est, et acceptum coram 
 Salvatore nostro Deo ; yet, considering these broken times, I 
 could not admit at this present to stir you up now earnestly to 
 the performance of this your duty towards your sovereign, 
 wishing you all and every one of you to exhort the Catholics 
 with whom you converse, and you also yourselves, to have more 
 frequent recourse to Almighty God by prayer, for the peace and 
 quietude of his Majesty's dominions in these general troubles of 
 all Europe, and for the prosperity of his Majesty, the Queen, and 
 all the royal issue, begging of Almighty God in their behalfs that 
 which the prophet Baruch did for the king and prince under 
 whom he lived, ' ut sint dies eorum sicut dies caeli super terrain, 
 et ut det Dominus virtutem nobis, ut illuminet oculos nostros et 
 vivamus sub umbra eorum et serviamus eis multis diebus.' And 
 also that their subjects may be indued with the spirit of dutiful 
 submission and obedience, for as St. Paul teacheth us, l Non est 
 potestas nisi a Deo, itaque qui resistit potestati, Dei ordinationi 
 resistit. Qui autem resistunt, ipsi sibi damnationem acquirunt.' 
 
 " Considering the reports which are spread abroad concerning 
 the discontented humours of some of his Majesty's subjects in 
 Scotland, although I hope they are not so bad as the general 
 voice doth make them, yet in regard that good subjects cannot 
 be too zealous in that which concerneth his Majesty's service, I 
 do earnestly entreat you all to exhort, move, and insist seriously 
 with the Catholics that as the religion which they profess doth 
 teach them next after God to honour and serve their Prince, and 
 as they themselves have always professed to be ready to lay their 
 
APPENDIX. 339 
 
 lands and goods at his Majesty's feet, in witness of their allegi- 
 ance and loyalty towards him, so they would at this present, of 
 their own accord, without expecting to be called on, endeavour 
 and think of some means, every one according to his liability, to 
 make an efficacious and real expression of the same, to the end 
 that his Majesty may understand that if he should have use of 
 them, they are ready in all occurrences that may fall out to serve 
 to the utmost, both with their fortunes and persons, according as 
 his Majesty shall please to command or accept of their service in 
 that kind." 
 
 Page 83.— Cromwell was already known to the government as 
 a supporter of popular rights. The municipal government of the 
 town of Huntingdon, Cromwell's birthplace, had been vested in 
 a body of bailifi's and burgesses elected annually by the residents. 
 By a new charter this body was changed to a mayor, alderman, 
 and recorder, all elected for life. The people opposed the change, 
 and were supported by Oliver Cromwell, who used some strong 
 language against the new mayor and new recorder. The council 
 was appealed to, and a messenger was despatched to Huntingdon 
 with a warrant for the apprehension of Oliver Cromwell, who. 
 on the 26th Nov., 1630, was brought before the lords of the 
 council. After five days' detention, the case was gone into, and 
 < both sides had a long hearing,' but it was finally referred to the 
 Lord Privy Seal, the Earl of Manchester, who owned Hinchin- 
 brook in the neighbourhood of Huntingdon, until lately the resi- 
 dence of Sir Oliver Cromwell, the uncle of the future protector. 
 Manchester's report is as follows : 
 
 " Whereas it pleased your lordships to refer unto me the dif- 
 ferences in the town of Huntingdon about the renovation of their 
 charter and some wrongs done to Mr. Mayor of Huntingdon, 
 and Mr. Barnard, a counsellor-at-law [the recorder] by disgraceful 
 and unseemly speeches used of them by Mr. Cromwell of Hunt- 
 ingdon . . I have heard the said differences, and do find those 
 supposed fears of prejudice that might be to the said town by 
 their late altered charter, are causeless and ill-grounded, and the 
 •endeavour used to gain many of the burgesses against this new 
 corporation was very indirect and unfit, and such as I could not 
 but much blame them that stirred in it. For Mr. Barnard s car- 
 riage of the business in advising and obtaining the charter, it 
 
530 APPENDIX. 
 
 was fair and orderly done, being authorised by common consent 
 
 n„eh t 7 , 7 ame ' anU the thin S effected ^ him tend* 
 
 much to the good and grace of the town For the words 
 
 spoken of Mr. Mayor and Mr. Barnard by Mr. CromweTl as 
 they were ill, so they are acknowledged to be spoken in heat 
 and ,_' and desired to be forgotten; and I found Mr 
 Cromwell my willing to hold friendship with Mr. Barnard, who 
 with a good-will remitted the unkind passages past and enter- 
 tamed the same. So I left all parties reconciled, and wished 
 
 XStttot r . inthmgSthatmaybef - h; — °« 
 " December 6th, 1630." « H Manchester 
 
 A few months after the earl's award, Cromwell sold his pro- 
 per y at Huntingdon, and removed to St. Ives.-Calendar of 
 btate Papers, 1629—1631. 
 
 Page 84.-Browning's Strafford I., i. The words are put in 
 the younger Vane's mouth. p 
 
 Page 9£ l.-Wentworth obtained from Charles enlarged powers 
 or himself, as Pres.dent of the Court of the North. 1 jud^cf 
 assize acted in opposition to them, whereupon Wentworth wrote 
 from Ireland to Lord Cottingdon as follows • 
 
 tl,rp d0 Tt hU f bly heSee ° h tMs J ud S e ma y be opened at 
 
 meanoT \T ^^ ** *»» * W0 ^ ^ 
 
 ZT£2 ', ' ', ', I am a m ° St earnest suitor t0 ^ Majesty 
 
 and their lordships, that he be not admitted to go that circuit 
 hereafter; and indeed I do most earnestly beseec! his Ma est 
 by you, that we may be troubled no more with such a peevish 
 nd^crcet piece of flesh. I confess I disdain to see the gownmeu 
 in this sort hang their noses over the flowers of the crown, blow 
 and snuffle upon them till they take both scent and beauty off 
 them • or to have them put such a prejudice upon all other sorts 
 
 L? ' ", I" "' W6re aWe OT WOrth y t0 be ^trusted with 
 honour and administration of justice but themseW-Strafford 
 -Letters and Despatches, i. 129 
 
 the^orfn .^ e T nt T th ' s ad ™ e > Charles agreed to bestow upon 
 theLmd Chief Justice and Lord Chief Baron of Ireland four 
 
 com^?-' ."A ° Ut ° £ fte &St yearf y rent ™ sed "P™ «>e 
 doTten, t f eCtlVe tUleS - " N ° V " wrote Wentworth; << they 
 do intend ,t with a care and diligence such as if it were theb 
 
APPENDIX. 3 gi 
 
 own private. And most certain the gaining themselves every 
 four shillings once paid will better your revenue for ever after at 
 least five pounds." — lb., ii. 41. 
 
 " It is plain, indeed, that the opinion delivered by the judges, 
 declaring the lawfulness of the assignment for the shipping is 
 the greatest service that profession have done the crown in my 
 time. But unless his majesty hath the like power declared to 
 raise a land army upon the same exigent of State, the crown 
 seems to me to stand upon one leg at home, to be considerable 
 but by halves to foreign princes abroad. Yet sure this me. 
 thinks convinces a powder for the sovereign to raise payments for 
 land forces, .... and if by degrees Scotland and Ireland be 
 drawn to contribute their proportions to these levies for the 
 public, omne tulit punctum . . . this piece well fortified for 
 ever vindicates the royalty at home from under the restraints of 
 subjects . . . settles an authority and right in the crown to 
 levies of that nature, which thread draws after it many huge and 
 great advantages more proper to be thought on at some other 
 seasons than now." — lb., ii. 62. 
 A description of Wentworth, written by Sir Thomas Eoe to 
 
 Elizabeth, wife of the Elector Palatine. 
 
 *' My Lord Deputy of Ireland doth great wonders and governs 
 like a king, and hath taught that kingdom to show an example of 
 envy by having Parliaments and knowing wisely how to use 
 them ; for they have given the king six subsidies, which will 
 arise to £24,000, and they are like to have the liberty we con- 
 tended for, and grace from his Majesty worth their gift double ; 
 and which is worth more, the honour of good intelligence and 
 love between the king and his people, which I would to God 
 our great wits had had eyes to see. This is a great service, and 
 to give your Majesty a character of the man — he is severe abroad 
 and in business, and sweet in private conversation ; retired in 
 his friendships, but very firm ; a terrible judge, and a strong 
 enemy ; a servant violently zealous in his master's ends, and not 
 negligent of his own ; one that will have what he will, and though 
 of great reason, he can make his will greater, when it may serve 
 him ; affecting glory by a seeming contempt ; one that cannot 
 stay long in the middle region of fortune, but entrejirenant : but 
 will either be the greatest man in England, or much less than he 
 is ; lastly, one that may and his nature lies fit for it, for ho 
 
302 APPENDIX. 
 
 i« ambitious to do what others will not — do your Majesty very 
 great service, if you can make him." 
 
 Page 107.— The decision of the question was deferred by a 
 vote, which was carried, 'that this declaration shall not be 
 printed without a particular order of the House.' 
 
 Page 139.— « A feat repeated by their Breton brethren at La 
 Vendee."— See Alison's History of Europe, iii. 326, 342, 365. 
 
 Page 181.— Richard Symonds, a Royalist officer, and Sir Edward 
 A\ alker, Garter-king at arms, both of whom were with the royal 
 army, give the following account of the storming of Leicester : 
 
 On Thursday (29th May), the royal army sat down before 
 the city. On Friday (30th May), Rupert raised a battery and 
 sent a trumpeter to demand surrender. No satisfactory answer 
 being returned, he caused the battery to play, which by six o'clock 
 made a great breach in the watt Between twelve and two 
 o'clock at night the town was stormed and taken. Symonds says 
 the garrison was 600 men; Walker, that officers, soldiers, and 
 townsmen in arms together amounted to 1200. Walker says the 
 town was 'miserably sacked,' as do Symonds and Sprigge ; but 
 bpngge's account of the siege lasting four days seems wrong. 
 
 Page 203. -Milton's sonnet-Edwards wrote " Reason against 
 Independence and Toleration" (1641). 
 
 Page 221.-Morrice, chaplain to Lord Broghill, tells the 
 well-known story how Cromwell and Ireton, in the disguise of 
 troopers, found a letter of the king's to the queen, concealed in a 
 saddle. He heard the story from Lord Broghill, who had heard 
 it from Cromwell. Morrice says that in the letter "the W 
 acquainted the queen that he was courted by both factions, the 
 fccoteh Presbyterians and the army, and which bid fairest for 
 him should have him ; but he thought he should close with the 
 bcots sooner than the other" (Morrices Life of Broghill pre- 
 fixed to Orrery State Letters, 1743). The contents of the leLr 
 are usually take n from Richardson's account of a conversation 
 
 e Ron" A"'! B f n fr ke - " L ° rd Bo ^roke told us" 
 [ie 1 ope a«d Richardson] (12th June, 1742), "that Lord Oxford 
 had often told him that he had seen and had in his hand an 
 original letter that Charles I. wrote to the queen, 'that she 
 
APPENDIX. 893 
 
 might be entirely easy as to whatever concessions he should 
 make, for that he should know in due time how to deal with the 
 rocmes' » [i.e., Cromwell and the others], "'who, instead of a silken 
 ^rter should be fitted with an hempen cord.'" Richardson 
 merely says that those concerned awaited and intercepted the 
 letter, without specifying persons or place. (Richardsomana, by 
 the late Jonathan Richardson, jun., 1776). 
 
 Page 242. Sigebehrt, King of Wessex, deposed (755) by his 
 successor, Cenwulf, and the West Saxon Witan; jhthtlnd the 
 Second (the Unready), deposed in favour of the invader Swegen, 
 (1013), and restored (1014). Harthacnut deposed from his 
 West Saxon kingdom, while still uncrowned because ^insisted 
 on remaining in Denmark (1037) : afterwards re-elected to the 
 whole kingdom of England (1040). See Freeman's Norman 
 
 C °Set S^JZF*. Witan had the power to depose 
 thfkfcg, if bis government was not conducted for the good of 
 
 ^Xftubbs, however, limits the cases of real deposit! on to , A. 
 TTer,tarchic period, a time of unexampled civil anarchy. The in- 
 
 are amon" the Northumbrian kings. Alcred or Ealhied (7 74) 
 denosT' by the counsel and consent of his own people/ i.e by 
 
 than w^ his depositiom-Stubbs' Const. History, i. p. 138. 
 
 7, 974 275 -For an excellent account of the times, see 
 Pages 274, 275. -coi a Alsatia, lb. 
 
 Sir W. Scott's Fortunes of Nigel, chap, l, ana 
 
 xvi., xvii. 
 
 r* • ~* t o+tprq of Intelligence, from MSS. in 
 Page 338.— Copies of Letteis oi j.nw»ufe , 
 
 Bodleian. « 4th April, 1653, N.S. 
 
 -B was debatedin the House a fortnight ago whether we should 
 
394 APPENDIX. 
 
 send an ambassador for Holland or no ; they seemed much di- 
 vided about it. . . . The same day the House debated this, the 
 council of officers at St. James' had resolved to turn them out, 
 and to have shut up the House doors, had not the general and 
 Col. Desborough interceded, who asked them if they destroyed 
 that Parliament, what they should call themselves, a State they 
 could not be. They answered that they would call a new Par- 
 lament. Then says the general, the Parliament is not the su- 
 preme power, but that is the supreme power that calls it, and 
 besides the House is now endeavouring a treaty with Holland 
 (which is the only way that we have left for the destroying of 
 the combination of our enemies, both at home and beyond sea), 
 and if we destroy them, neither Holland nor any other State will 
 «nter into a treaty with us. This seemed to satisfy them at 
 present, but they have met since, and are framing a petition." 
 
 "May, 1653. 
 " I will not trouble you with the names of our new Council of 
 State, nor with the proclamation subscribed by the general, 
 because they are in print. The people generally entertain and 
 acquiesce in it, yet in the army are some divisions about it, and 
 there is a party which menace a second purgation because some 
 persons have been refused to sit at the helm whom they pro- 
 pounded. Our general is very sedulous to give satisfaction to all 
 parties, and after he hath made a peace with Holland (which, if 
 once they treat we doubt not of), he will cement all other differ- 
 ences. He is very kind to the old malignant party, and some 
 have found much mora favour since the late dissolution than in 
 seven years' solicitation before. This hath been effected by the 
 Court of Articles, where the honour of the army is much con- 
 cerned. Mr. Bradshaw is president, who checked a councillor at 
 that bar for saying the Parliament was dissolved, which many of 
 the members will not acknowledge, terming it only a disturb- 
 ance." 
 
 Page 290. — "Copperspath" (i.e. Cobburn's-path) is Cromwell's 
 version of the Scotch Cockburn's-path. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Act of Settlement, 6 ; of Settlement for 
 Ireland, 342 ; of Supremacy, 9 ; of 
 Uniformity, 10 ; for triennial Parlia- 
 ments, 99, 375 ; rendering Long Par- 
 liament indissoluble but by its own 
 consent, 100, 315 ; abolishing illegal 
 courts, 101 ; excluding ecclesiastics 
 from civil office, 102, 10S, 115 ; Navi- 
 gation, 300 ; for conducting law pro- 
 ceedings in English, 312 
 
 Amboyna, 253, 331 
 
 America, 75, 253, 254 
 
 Anabaptists, 204, 303, 330 
 
 Areopagitica, 207 
 
 Argyle, Duke of, 227, 230 
 
 Armada, Spanish, 13 
 
 Armour, 125, 126 
 
 Army, remodelled, 178, 214, 217, 220, 
 224, 236, 371, 373 
 
 Ascham, 278 
 
 Ashburnhani, John, 222 
 
 Assembly, of Divines, 150, 154, 195, 203 ; 
 of Peers, 81 
 
 Astley, Sir Jacob, 193 
 
 Austria, 22, 65 
 
 Bacon, Sir Francis, 252, 262, 30G 
 
 Balfour, 108 
 
 Barbadoes, 335 
 
 Bastwick, 73, 86 ' 
 
 Batten, Admiral, 134 
 
 Baxter, 32 
 
 Berkeley, Judge, 85 
 
 Berkley, 222 
 
 Berwick, Pacification of, 78 
 
 Bill, Dissolution, 313 ; for command of 
 
 militia, 114 ; bisbops' exclusion, 114 
 Bills of Attainder, 91, 96, 98 
 Birch, Colonel, 233 
 Bishops, 11, 108, 109, 114 
 
 Blake, Admiral, 190, 296, 300—302, 317, 
 
 322, 339, 354, 356, 384 
 Booth, Sir George, 370 
 Bradshaw, 238, 239, 384 
 Brentford, 132 
 Bristol, 139, 24S 
 Broghill, Lord, 304, 363 
 Brook, Robert Greville, Lord, 132 
 Brownists, 204 
 Buckingham, George Yilliers, Duke of, 
 
 27—34, 40, 43, 45 
 Burton, 73, 86 
 Byron, Lord, 146 
 
 Cadiz, 33, 356 
 
 Calais, 353, 359 
 
 Calvert, Sir John, 19 
 
 Casaubon, Meric, 340 
 
 Catholics, 69, 70, 151, 312, 341. See Ap- 
 pendix 
 
 Cecil, Sir Edward, 33 
 
 Chambers, 59, S6 
 
 Charles I. visits Spain, 27; marriage 
 treaty broken off, 28; refuses assem. 
 to Tonnage and Poundage Bill, 31 ; 
 lends ships to Louis XIII. , 32 ; im- 
 prisons managers of Buckingham's 
 impeachment, 36; war with Prance, 
 37 ; demands general loan, 38, 39 : 
 answers to Petition of Bight, 42, 43, 
 47 ; proclamation of, against Parlia- 
 ment, 50 ; education and character, 
 51 ; love of art, 256 ; court of, 29, 53 ; 
 arbitrary government of, 54 59 ; at- 
 tempts to establish Episcopacy in 
 Scotland, 76, 7S ; foreign policy of, 78; 
 summons Assembly of Peers, 80 ; 
 conduct towards Strafford, 84, 96, 97 ; 
 assents to Ariny Plot, 94 ; concessions 
 in Scotland, 103 ; suspected of com- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 plicity in Irish rebellion, 104, 105 ; re- 
 action in favour of, 106, 107 ; guard at 
 Whitehall, 10S ; attempts to seize five 
 members, 110, 111 ; visits Guildhall, 
 112 ; prepares for war, 114 ; consents 
 to Bishops' Exclusion Bill, 115 ; refuses 
 Militia Bill, 11G ; refused admittance 
 into Hull, 116 ; rejects York proposi- 
 tions, 118 ; raises standard, 119 ; de- 
 ceit, cause of war, 120 ; at Edgehill, 
 124-131 ; attacks Brentford, 132 ; 
 classes on side of, 134 ; answer to Ox- 
 ford propositions, 136 ; success of 
 forces, 139, 141 ; besieges Gloucester, 
 142 ; at Newbury, 145 ; habits of 
 troops, 148, 158 ; cessation of arms 
 with Irish, 15S ; Oxford Parliament, 
 157 ; defeats Waller, 160 ; forces Essex 
 to surrender, 167 — 169 ; at Newbury, 
 172 ; breaks off Uxbridge negotiations, 
 177 ; at Naseby, 186 ; letters published, 
 187; treaty with Irish Catholics, 191, 
 192 : goes to Scotch camp, 193 ; rejects 
 Newcastle propositions, 197 ; removed 
 from Holmby by Joyce, 215, 217 ; re- 
 jects army propositions, 219 ; flies to 
 Isle of Wight, 222 ; treaty with Scots, 
 225 ; concessions at Newport, 235 ; hesi- 
 tates to escape, 236 ; trial and execu- 
 tion, 238—247. See Appendix. 
 
 Charles Louis, elector palatine, 306, 353 
 
 Chillingworth, 211 
 
 Church, Episcopalian, 9—13, 20, 40, 69— 
 75, 102, 150 ; Presbyterian, 10, 75, 202 ; 
 Independent, 12, 195 
 
 Christina, Queen of Sweden, 35 
 
 Claypole, Lady Elizabeth, 364, 3S4 
 
 Clubmen, 1S8 
 
 Colchester, 227. 330 
 
 Colepepper, 106, 109, 181, 187 
 
 Colonies, 75, 251—254, 296 
 
 Companies, 250, 253 
 
 Confirmatio Char tar am, 1 
 
 Confiscations, 212, 233, 309 
 
 Cooper, Sir Antony Ashley, 3S8 
 
 Copyholders, 3, 267 
 
 Cotton, Sir Robert, 255 
 
 Council, King's, 7, 17, 101 
 
 Court, of Admiralty, 19 ; of Chancery, 
 6, 318—320, 332 ; of Exchequer, 6, 68, 
 74 ; of King's Bench, 16, 39, 57 ; of the 
 North, 58 ; of High Commission, 7, 16, 
 
 72, 101 ; of Star Chamber, 7, 15, 59, 
 
 73, 74, 101, 267 
 
 Courts of Common Law, 6, 317—320 ; 
 High Courts of Justice, 23S, 307 
 
 Covenant, Scotch, 77 ; Solemn League 
 and, 153 
 
 Covenanters, Scotch, 77— SO, 227, 285, 
 291 
 
 Cromwell, Hemy, 337, 346 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, member for Hunting- 
 don, 41 ; for Cambridge, 83 ; leader of 
 Independents, 102 ; lieutenant-general 
 of eastern counties' army, 155 ; cha- 
 racter of troops, 156 ; at Marston 
 
 Moor, 163—166 ; quarrels with Man- 
 chester, 173 ; supports Self-denying 
 Ordinance, 174 ; lieutenant-general of 
 remodelled army, 182 ; at Naseby, 1S5 : 
 in west, 18S ; character and appear- 
 ance, 209, 210, 341, 366 ; views of set- 
 tlement, 216, 218, 221, 224, 226 ; sup- 
 presses mutinies in army, 224, 281 ; 
 defeats Scots at Preston, 22S— 230; 
 supports execution of king, 23S, 240 ; 
 in Ireland, 281 — 2S4 ; commander-in- 
 chief of army, 2S5 ; in Scotland, 287 ; 
 at Dunbar, 2SS— 290 ; at Worcester, 292 
 —295 ; political views of, 303—313 ; 
 expels Long Parliament, 314 ; sum- 
 mons Barebone's Parliament, 316; 
 protector, 227 ; ideal of government, 
 229 ; plots against, 330, 351, 363 ; 
 reform of Church, 331 ; of Chancery, 
 332, 340 ; quarrels with Parliaments, 
 334, 348, 361 ; rules arbitrarily, 336 ; 
 moderation of, 337 — 339 ; urges re- 
 forms of law, 340 ; encourages learn- 
 ing, 260, 840, 377 ; toleration of, 341— 
 343 ; refuses title of king, 350 ; 
 foreign policy of, 331, 352—359 ; pro- 
 tects Vaudois, 35S ; economy of go- 
 vernment, 360 ; friends of govern- 
 ment, 363 ; illness and death, 364 — 
 366. See Appendix 
 
 Cromwell, Richard, 367— 3G9 
 
 Cropredy Bridge, 159 
 
 Customs, 15, 31, 157, 251 
 
 Davenant, Sir William, 260 
 Dean, Admiral, 296, 325 
 Debtors, 323 
 Denmark, 331 
 De Ruvter, 325 
 Desborough, 32S, 336, SCO, 370 
 Digby, Lord, 1SS 
 Dorislaus, Dr., 27S 
 Dragoons, 125 
 Drogheda, 282 
 Dunbar, 2SS— 290 
 Dunkirk, 353, 356, 357, 363 
 
 Edgehill, 126-131 
 Eikun Basilike, 278 
 Eliot, Sir John, IS, 19, 35, 50, 56, 57, 
 
 255 
 Elizabeth, Queen, government of, 8—14 
 Elizabeth of Bohemia, 14, 22 
 Engagers, 230, 291 
 Erastians, 200 
 Essex, Robert Devcreux, Earl of, 94, 
 
 118, 12S, 130, 133. 137, 141, 143, 145— 
 
 147, 159, 107, 168, 212 
 Excise, 158 
 Exports, 253 
 
 Fairfax, Lord Ferdinando, 161 
 
 Fairfax, Lady, 239 
 
 Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 117, 161, 165, ISC, 
 
 213, 215, 223, 227, 231, 233, 23S. 244. 
 
 259, 2S0, 332, 372, 3S3 
 
INDEX. 
 
 337 
 
 Falkland, Sir Lucius Gary, Lord, 82, 83, 
 103, 106, 110, 117, 136, 146, 255 
 
 Fauconberg, Lord, 357 
 
 Felton, 44 
 
 Fiennes, Nathaniel, 119, 139 
 
 Fifth-Monarchists, 204, 303, 330 
 
 Finch, Sir John, 49, 66, 85 
 
 Fleetwood, 190, 292, 32S, 336, 344, 369 
 
 Fox, George, 343 
 
 France, 3, 38, 298. 353, 356, 359, 330, 381 
 
 Frederic, Prince of the Palatinate, 14, 
 21, 23, 25 
 
 Freeholders, 2, 121, 134, 264, 266 
 
 Glamorgan, Lord Herbert, Earl of, 190, 
 
 255 
 Gloucester, 143 
 
 Goring, Colonel, 163, 165, 1S1, 1ST, 
 Government, three functions of, 1—6. 
 
 See Appendix 
 Grenville, Sir Richard, 167, 1S1, 187 
 Gustavus Adolphus, 66 
 
 Habeas Corpus, writ of, 15, 16, 101 
 
 Hale, Sir Matthew, 339 
 
 Hamilton, James, Duke of, 227, 229, 307 
 
 Hammond, 222 
 
 Hampden, John, 68, 91, 107, 110, 113, 
 
 114, 119, 128, 130, 137, 13S, 149 
 Harlech Castle, 212 
 
 Haslerig, Sir Arthur, 110, 119, 2SS, 30S, 
 
 361 
 Henrietta Maria, 53, 64, 93, 97, 105, 111, 
 
 115, 158, 176, 196, 236 
 Heyworth Moor, 117 
 Highlanders, 170 
 Hobbes, 211, 340 
 
 Holland, 252, 253, 299, 300 ; war with, 
 
 301, 302, 325, 331, 361. 
 Hollis, Denzil, 49, 106, 119, 383 
 Hopton, Sir Ralph, 122, 139 
 Hotham, Sir John, 135 
 Howard, Lord, of Esrick, 310 
 Huguenots, 37, 40, 44—46 
 Huntingdon, Major-General, 231 
 Hutchinson, Colonel, 190, 203, 208, 245, 
 
 259, 382 
 Hyde, Edward, 82, 103, 106. 109, 113, 
 
 117, 181, 191, 258, 346, 351, 3S4 
 
 Impeachment, 34, 35, 37, S4, So, 110 
 
 Imports, 253 
 
 Independents, 102, 154, 167, 195, 201, 
 
 234 
 India, 251, 253 
 
 Instrument of Government, 326 
 Ireland, 61, 63, 64, 104, 156, 278, 2S1-- 
 
 284, 316, 333, 345, 375 
 Irish troops, 157, 170 
 Ireton, Henry, 183, 185, 190, 209, 217, 
 
 219, 221, 230, 235, 237, 243, 245, 284, 
 
 304, 384 
 Ironsides, 156, 164, 166 
 
 Jamaica, 355 
 
 James I., government of, 14—28, 25* , 262 
 
 Jermyn, Lord, 258 
 
 Jews, 343 
 
 Jones, Inigc, 256 
 
 Joyce, Cornet, 215 
 
 Judges, 6, 44, 68, 83, 323, 339 
 
 'Killing no murder,' 351 
 King, General, 163 
 
 Labourers, 270 
 
 Lamb, Dr., 41 
 
 Lambert, 289, 292, 36», 370, 372 
 
 Laud, William, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 59, 72—75, 85, 178 
 
 Law, English common, 317 — 320, 339 ; 
 martial, 40 ; see Act, Ordinance 
 
 Leeds, 248 
 
 Leicester, 181. See Appendix 
 I Lenthall, William, 112, 219, 370 
 
 Leslie, Alexander, Earl of Lcven, 157, 
 
 161, 164, 165, 167 
 Leslie, David, 161, 2S7— 290, 291—295 
 Levellers, 221, 223, 235. 245, 2S0, 335, 
 
 337, 350 
 Lilburne, John, 73, 86, 221, 234, 307 
 Lindsey, Earl of, 128, 130 
 Loans, 5, 38, 39 
 Lockhart, 339, 357 
 London, 113, 117, 131—133, 135, 140, 151, 
 
 216, 220, 226, 248, 251, 272—275, s71 
 Lords, House of, 2, 117, 177, 23S, 277, 
 
 349, 360, 373 
 Louis XIII., 33, 37, 7S 
 Louis XIV., 298, 356, 357 
 Lunsford, Colonel, 107 
 L-dlow, Edmund, 190, 20S, 219, 220, 336, 
 
 346, 382 
 
 Magna Charta, 2 
 
 Major-generals, 336, 349 
 
 Manchester, Edward Montague, Earl of, 
 110, 129, 155, 172, 174, 383 
 
 Manchester, 247 
 
 Mardyke, 356, 348 
 
 Marston Moor, 161—167 
 
 Marten, Sir Henry, Judge of Admi- 
 ralty, 6 
 
 Marten, Henry, son of Judge, 152, 313, 
 382 
 
 Massev, 142 
 
 Maurice, Prince, 14, 119, 135, 139, 296 
 
 Mazarin, Cardinal, 193, 357 
 
 Mercantile system, 350 
 
 Mercurius Aulicus, 149 
 
 Militia, 114, 116, 118 
 
 Milton, John, 75, 132, 200, 203, 206—208, 
 259, 296, 328, 339, 346, 358, 377, 383 
 
 Monopolies, 55, 67, 249 
 
 Monk, General, 291, 301, 304, 317, 325 
 371—373, 376, 383 
 
 Montreuil, M. de, 193 
 
 Montrose, Marquis of, 170, 176, 189 195. 
 
 2S5 
 MountnorvLs, Lord, 64 
 
398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Naseby, 182— ISO 
 
 Naylor, 343, 34S, 350 
 
 Newcastle, Marquis of, 134, 141, 15S, ICO, 
 
 163, 165, 167 
 Newbury, 143-147, 173 
 Newspapers, 100, 149, 20S, 336 
 Noy, 06 
 Nutt, Captain, 19 
 
 Ordinance, Self-Denying, 175, 177 ; for 
 remodelling army, 175 ; for new 
 Prayer-book, 202 ; for establishment of 
 Presbyterian Church, 202 ; for sup- 
 pression of blasphemies and heresies, 
 203 ; forbidding use of Prayer-book, 
 204 ; for High Court of Justice, 23S ; 
 forbidding t Episcopalian ministers to 
 act as chaplains or schoolmasters, 336 ; 
 for reform of Chancery, 332, 340 ; for 
 union of England and Scotland, 344 
 
 Ordinances or proclamations made in 
 council, 5 ; for suppression of vice 
 and observance of Sundays, 151 ; for 
 reform of Church, 331 ; for restraining 
 unlicensed printing, 152, 207, 208 
 
 Ormond, Duke of, 156, 190, 192, 195, 235, 
 2S1, 363 
 
 Oxenstiern, 330 
 
 Oxford, 133, 135, 157, 15S 
 
 Palatinate, 22, 353 
 
 Parliament, privileges of, 25, 232 ; classes 
 represented in, 2, 3, 333 ; character of, 
 in seventeenth century, 100 ; of 1621, 
 24 ; o/1625, 30—32 ; o/1626, Bucking- 
 ham impeached, 35 ; of 1628, Petition 
 of Right, 41—43 ; session of 1629, 48, 
 49 ; Short Parliament of 1640, 79 ; Long 
 Parliament, meeting of, 83 ; proceed- 
 ings against Strafford, 84, 87 — 93, 97 ; 
 against delinquents, S3, 85 ; votes 
 Scots £300,000, 94 ; reforms of, 99, 101 ; 
 religious parties in, 102 ; debates on 
 Grand Remonstrance, 106 ; five mem- 
 bers impeached, 110 ; sits in Guildhall, 
 113 ; a war council, 117 ; constitu- 
 tional attitude of, 122 ; classes on side 
 of, 121, 133 ; peace party in, 135 ; 
 peace propositions of Lords, 140 ; 
 petitioned by mobs, 140 ; parties in, 
 152 ; armies of, 157 ; quarrels with 
 army, 212 —214 ; yields to army, 216 ; 
 intimidated by Presbyterian mob, 
 219 ; fugitive members restored, 220 ; 
 votes no more addresses to king, 225 ; 
 reverses votes, and negotiates with 
 Charles, 231 ; causes of unpopularity, 
 231—234 ; financial administration of, 
 233 ; accepts king's concessions, 237 ; 
 purged by Pride, 237 ; Bump erects 
 high court for trial of king, 238 ; 
 establishes Republic, 277 ; raises a 
 powerful navy, 296 ; government re- 
 cognized abroad, 297 ; foreign policv, 
 297—299; war with Holland, 299— 
 £02 ; severity of government, 307—310 ; 
 
 eform of raw, 312 ; bill for new re 
 presentative, 313 ; expelled by Crom- 
 well, 314 ; restored by officers, 370, 
 371 ; Presbyterian members restored 
 by Monk, 372 ; votes own dissolution, 
 373. Barebone's, reforms of, 317—325 ; 
 First of Protector, 333, 334 ; reformed 
 representation, 333 ; Second of Protector, 
 sentence on Naylor, 34S ; Petition and 
 Advice, 349 ; Second Session, new House 
 of Lords, 360 ; dissolved, 362 ; o> 
 Bichard Gromviell, 368 ; Convention 373 
 Oxford Parliament, 157. 
 
 Patronage, 323 
 
 Pembroke Castle, 227 
 
 Penderells, 295 
 
 Penn, Admiral, 354, 356 
 
 Pennington, Captain, 32 
 
 Penruddock, 334 
 I Peters, Hugh, 3S3 
 | Petition and Advice, 349, 360, 367 
 
 Petition of Right, 42 
 
 Pilgrim Fathers, 75, 254 
 
 Pirates, 32, 66 
 
 Poor Laws, 26S— 270 
 
 Popham, 296 
 
 Population, 24S 
 
 Portugal, 296, 331, 358 
 
 Post Office, 272 
 
 Prerogative, royal, 5, 29, 42, 51, 6S 
 
 Presbyterians, in England, 10, 102, 150, 
 151, 155, 17S, 189, 192, 195, 202, 214, 
 231, 237, 307, 330, 302 ; in Scotland, 11, 
 76, 153, 201 
 
 Preston, 227—230 
 
 Pride, Colonel, 237, 312, 300 
 
 Prisoners, 149, 3:35 
 
 Prisons, 261, 323, 325 
 
 Proclamations, 55 
 
 Propositions, of York, US ; of Oxford, 
 136; of Uxbridge, 176; of Newcastle, 
 195 ; of army, 217 ; of Newport, 235 
 
 Prvnne, 73, 236 
 
 Puritans, 9, 12, 20, 22, 70—74, 256, 25S, 
 377, 37S 
 
 Pvm, John, 42, 4S, 84, 91, 95, 102, 103, 
 106, 109, 160, 116, 123, 154, 306, 382, 
 384 
 
 Quakers, 342 
 
 Raleigh, Sir "Walter, 23 
 Regicides, fate of, 382, 3S3 
 Remonstrance, Grand, 116, 120 
 Republicans, 152, 205, 225, 299, 234, 244, 
 
 304—307, 327, 330, 334—337, 348, 361, 
 
 368, 370 
 Rich, Robert, 360, 364 
 Rochelle, 32, 40, 44, 46 
 Royalists, 121, 134, 136, 139, 149, 157, 
 
 167, 227, 273, 307, 335, 33S, 350 
 Royal Revenue, 53 
 Rubens, Peter Paul, 256 
 Rupert, Prince, 14, 119, 126, 128— 13:. 
 
 135, 138, 139, 142, 149, 159, 161-167. 
 
 181. 185 1S8, 296 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Salmasius, 383 
 
 Santa Cruz, 354 
 
 Savoy, Duke of, 358 
 
 Say-and-Sele, Lord, 342 
 
 ■Scots, 77, 80, 94, 154, 190, 193, 198, 225, 
 227, 229, 284, 285-291, 316, 333, 344, 
 375 
 
 .Sectarians, 12, 135, 152, 204 
 
 Selden, 201 
 
 Sexby, 33S, 351 
 
 Seymour, William, 17 
 
 Sheffield, 247 
 
 Ship-money, 66, 6S, S3. See Appendix 
 
 Shrewsbury, Countess of, 17 
 
 Sidney, Algernon, 190, 23S, 244 
 
 Skippon, US, 133, 185, 213, 244, 336 
 
 Socage tenure, 2 
 
 Spain, 22, 28, 33, 37, 350, 353, 355—357 
 
 Statute of Winchester, 114 
 
 St. Domingo, 355 
 
 St. John, 119, 299, 303, 369 
 
 St. Kitts, 354 
 
 Strafford, Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl 
 of. 42, 47, 52, 60-65, 78, S5, S7— 92, 95, 
 97. See Appendix 
 
 Strickland, 299 
 
 Strode, 110 
 
 Stuart, Lady Arabella, 17 ; Lady Eliza- 
 beth, 217, 240 ; Charles, Prince of 
 Wales, 130, 181, 192, 227, 236, 278, 2S5, 
 291—296, 350, 361, 363, 370 ; James, 
 357, 379 
 
 Subsidies, 15, 30, 15S 
 
 Superstitions, 262 
 
 Sweden, 331 
 
 Syndercomb, 351 
 
 Taylor, Jeremy, 211 
 
 Teneriffe, 356 
 
 Thirty Years' War, 22, 65, 352 
 
 Tithes, 320, 321, 325 
 Tom Tell-Truth, 20 
 Tortuga, 354 
 Torture, 5, 44, 378 
 Trade, 249—254 
 Travelling, 271 
 Treason, law of high, 87 
 Tunis, 354 
 
 Uxbridge, 174-177 
 
 Valentine, 49, 56 
 
 Vandyke, 256 
 
 Vane, Sir Henry, the elder, 79, 89 
 
 Vane, Sir Henry, the younger, 91, 153, 
 
 205, 207, 244, 277, 301, 310, 312, 314, 
 
 336, 369, 3S4, 386 
 Van Tromp, 300—302, 322 
 Vaudois, 355 
 
 Venables, General. 354, 355 
 Verney, Sir Edmund, 122 
 
 Waller, Sir William, 122, 139, 157, 159, 
 
 167, 172 
 Waller, the poet, 137 
 Warwick, Robert Rich, Earl of, 300, 364 
 Westphalia, Treaty of, 353 
 Wexford, 283 
 Whalley, Colonel, 223 
 Whitelock, Bulstrode, 27S, 369 
 Wildman, 335 
 William III., 242, 379 
 WRlianis, Archbishop of York, 103 
 Wilmot, Colonel, 12S 
 W'tchcraft, 263 
 Worcester, 291—295 
 Wroth, Sir Thomas, 225 
 
 Yeomen, 2, 206 
 
 York, 116, US, 15S, 160, 167 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, UUILDFOR1J, SURREY. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. 
 
 THE COMTB DE P A R I S. 
 
 Translated with the approval of the author, by Louis 
 F. Tasistro. Edited by Henry Coppee, LL.D. Each 
 volume embracing, without abridgment, two volumes of 
 the French edition. With Maps faithfully engraved 
 from the originals, and printed in three colors. 8vo, 
 per volume, Cloth, $3.50; Sheep, Library Style, $4.50; 
 Half Turkey Morocco, $6.00. 
 
 Vols. I and II now ready. To be complete in Four 
 volumes. 
 
 " We advise all Americans to read it carefully, and judge for 
 themselves if ' the future historian of our war,' of whom we have 
 heard so much, he not already arrived in the Comte de Paris. The 
 translation is very good." — The Nation, New Fork. 
 
 " It is so superior to all those preceding it that there is not one 
 in America or Europe worthy to be placed in the same class."— 
 Saturday Eeview, London, England. 
 
 " Cannot but prove most valuable and interesting to the Amer- 
 ican reader. I find it very good, indeed." — W. T. Sherman, 
 General. [OVER.] 
 
THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA, 
 
 "It is by far the best work which has yet been given to the 
 world in connection with the subject of which it treats. . . . 
 The Oomte do Paris challenges the admiration of even the South- 
 erners, by the fair and philosophical spirit in which he describes 
 events, and sets forth their relations to each other. . . . He has 
 done for the military institutions and aptitudes of the American 
 people what De Tocqueville has done for their political institu- 
 tions; and he has written in a more liberal and hopeful spirit. 
 ... In all cases his criticisms are moderate and apparently 
 unprejudiced." — Maj.-Qen. J. H. Wilson, in the International 
 Review. 
 
 " We may accredit it with a truthfulness that will entitle it to 
 a place amongst the most valuable books of the present day.'' — 
 The Times, New York. 
 
 " It becomes continually clearer that this is destined to be the 
 generally received history of the war. It will be deservedly so, 
 for the author, by virtue of being a foreigner, has an impartiality 
 which it would be hard for one of us to acquire; he has a satis- 
 factory knowledge of both the great principles and the minutice 
 of the great struggle, and he spares no pains in search of thor- 
 oughness and accuracy. More than this, he is so completely 
 master of his subject that he makes clear the most complieated 
 campaigns, and he tells his story in the most lucid way. His 
 position throughout is that of a judge and not that of an advo- 
 cate, which is all the more commendable in view of the-recentness 
 of the events he describes; compared in this respect with King- 
 lake's Histor}' of the Crimean War, for instance, the superiority 
 of this history is very plain. . . . The work of translation has 
 been well done."— The Atlantic Monthly, Boston. 
 
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 ing was different from that common on European soil, and that a 
 foreign army would have to learn war anew before it could hope 
 to ' whip us.' From this book they can learn just what the differ- 
 ence was, and will find that the notion they hold so vaguely has 
 its basis of truth. . . . We would like to see this history have a 
 wide circulation among Americans. It gives a succinct account 
 of the more important conflicts in which we have been engaged, 
 and is in reality a history of the United States Army, the Civil 
 
BY THE COMTE DE PARIS. 
 
 War being its most extended detail. . . . The presentation of 
 political events is fair in spirit and moderate in expression.- . . . 
 The work shows great care, and the errors of statement are re- 
 markably few and unimportant. The translation is well made." 
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 result. . . . Our present impression is that it will form by far the 
 best history of the American War. The translation reads well." 
 — The Athenaeum, London, England. 
 
 " The fact that I have been engaged for several years in gather- 
 ing material and making other preparation for the writing of a 
 history of our civil war has led me to read the Comte de Paris's 
 work with greater care and much more critically than I should 
 otherwise have done, and I regard it as the only one yet written 
 which is, in a proper sense, a history of the Civil War in America. 
 It is a thoroughly good history of the War, very much better, 
 indeed, than I had thought it possible for any one to write at 
 present. 
 
 " The Comte de Paris had two especial dangers to encounter in 
 his effort to write impartially of our war. His personal impres- 
 sions of the quarrel and of the men who were engaged in it were 
 received while he was an officer upon one side, actively engaged 
 in military service, and there was every reason to apprehend 
 prejudice upon his part against the people whom he was bound to 
 regard as enemies. He was a member of the staff of a general 
 officer who was afterward a candidate for political preferment, 
 and it would have been natural enough for him to espouse the 
 personal cause of this chief in all matters pertaining to his cam- 
 paigns. Both of these dangers the Comte de Paris seems to me to 
 have escaped, and his perfect fairness is not less remarkable than 
 his singular accuracy of perception in matters of character and 
 motive. His candor and impartiality must add largely to the 
 acceptability of his work, both at the North and at the South, and 
 it is these qualifications, more than any others, which distinguish 
 his history from the many treatises we have from American 
 writers on the subject."— Geo. Cary Eggleston, late of Gen. J. 
 E. B. Stuart's Cavalry, Confederate Army, author of "A Rebel's 
 Recollections," etc. 
 
LECTURES 
 
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 LATE CANON OF WESTMINSTER, ETC. 
 
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 DISCOVERY OF AMERICA— THE SERVANT OF THE 
 
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