m _P ■r PRINCETON, N. J. "II SCO Division tTTt., Section .OL./..£7...W Shelf Number ^mKk &z?& • '• ■•■ -V* CECIL * tARKINS 0W '/ ■ "t cC A Cc< Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/debatesongrandreOOfors THE DEBATES ON THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE, £** a i THE DEBATES ON THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE, NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1 64 1. AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY On Englijlo Freedom under Plantagenet & Tudor Sovereigns. FC BY JOHN TORSTER, LL.D. LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. i860. [The right ofTranJlation is referred.] LONDON: BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. , r~.r k - « >, I OLOGIG^I - ■'■■• CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON ENGLISH FREEDOM UNDER PLANTAGENET AND TUDOR SOVEREIGNS, pp. i — 109. PAGE § I. The Plantagenets 1 — 64 Purpofe of this EfTay. Pofition taken up by Charles the Firft's opponents. Records and Titles of Englifh freedom, 1. Burke on our hiftory. Precedents in older time. Charter of Henry the Firft (1100). Difficulty of fuppreffing a charter, 2. Henry the First. Royal conceffions not refumable. Imperfect judg- ments in hiftory. Strength and weaknefs of Norman kings, 3. Bafis of Saxon conftitution. Adopted by the Conqueror and his Ions. Origin of Feudality. Its burdens and modes of tenure, 4. Natural confequences of Feudal System. Its development. He- reditary Succeffion. Extinction of Vaftalage. The Crufades, 5. Feudal Inftitutions improved. Influences of Chriftianity. Seeds of Commerce and Literature. Henry II, 6. Firft Plantagenet King (11 54). Gains to civil freedom. Difpute of Henry II and his Primate. Becket's fcheme, 7. Henry's oppofition. What the ftruggle involved. Character of Henry. Complete victory to either not defirable, 8. What was due to the Church. What Henry II gained. Ranulf de Glanville, Traflatus de Le- gibus et Consuetudinibus Regni Anglia. Appointment of circuits for judges (1176), 9. Richard I (1189). New relations between throne and barons. Independent oppofition to Crown. Beginning of ftruggles of party, 10. Arthur's claim to the iuccefTion : fought only in French provinces. The Englifh Crown not heritable property. Sovereignty elective. Nor- mans defer to Saxon principle, 11. Coronation oi John (1 199). Trealbns the feed-plot of Liberty. Legitimacy or Election ? Why John preferred to Arthur, 12. Henry II's policy unfettled by his Ions. Monarchy and ariftocracy in conflict. People choole their fide alternately, 13. Character of John. Hisdefer- tion of both fides. Ufes of a bad king. What the triumph of the Barons involved, 14. Party fpirit and its refults. Englifh King ftripped of French conquefts. Conduct of the Barons. Contents. PAGE Growth of national feeling, 1 5. Common caufe againft foreign- ers. Alliance of lords and citizens. King's furrender to Pope (1213). Freedom's debt to John, 16. Confederacy againft King. Character of Langton. His fervices to Engliih freedom. Firft day at Runnymede (Tuefday 16th of June, 1215), 17. Faith in Langton. Fourth day : Charter figned. Its general character. Confirmation of exifting liberties. Principles latent in it, 18. Remedial provifions. Guarantees of franchifes. Re- drefs of perfonal wrongs, 19. Central courts of law. Levies of aid limited. Conftitution of Great Council. Forms of fum- mons thereto : hateful to fucceeding princes, 20. Minor pro- vifions. Securities for liberty and property. Juftice not to be denied or fold. " Nullus liber /wmo," 21. All freemen to be tried by their peers, 21, 22. Extenfion of relief to fub-vaffals. Effect of Charter in later times. Its power of expanfion, 22. Subftance fhaping Forms. Violations and reaffertions of Char- ter. Henry III (1216), 23. Earliest Council named as a Parliament. Supply conditional on redrefs. Control of money by Parliament. Appeal of Henry III to People. Similar appeal from Barons, 24. Jealoufy of French favourites. Struggle for power transformed to war of principles. Rife of merchants and tradefmen. Guilds and Charters, 25. Privileges and rights ceded to middle clafs. King's fummons for parliament not obeyed (1233). Political ballads. Attack upon the Favourite, 26. General difcontent. Grievances reported and Redrefs de- manded (February, 1234). Parliament affembled and Favourite difmiffed (April, 1234). Ministerial refponfibility and Parlia- mentary control, 27. Diftrefs, Redrefs, and Supply. Securities for public faith. Law fyftematifed (Brafion, 1250). Curia Regis, 28. Cabinet of the King. A memorable affembly (2nd of May, 1258). The Great Council under Normans: not a Houfe of Lords: not hereditary, but reprefentative, 29. Germs therein of larger fyftem. Break-up of elements of Council. Diftinctions and grades of rank. Varieties in writs of fummons, 30. Peculiarities of feudal reprefentation. Aid for Protection. Leffer tenants reprefented by larger, 31. Tranfition from feudal to real rights, 31, 32. Languageof writs of fummons. Fictions foreshadowing truths. Forms conveying Subftance, 32. Com- miffions of inquiry in fhires. Old inftitution adapted to new ufes(i223). County reprefentation begins. Collection of taxes (in 1207 and 1220), 33. Beginning of the end. Vague for- mation of authority of Commons. Gradual fteps thereto (1214). Scheme to obtain money from ihires (1254), 34. Knights to anlwer for their counties. Reprefentatives to impofe taxes. One chamber at Weftminfter : feparate fittings elfewhere, 35. Ad- miffion of third eftate, 35, 36. Knights fit with Lords. Lords pay, fitting in their own right. Knights are paid, fitting for others. County rates, 36. Wages of knights levied on entire county. Election by full County Court. All freeholders com- Contents. prifed : and reprefented by knights of (hire, 37. Refults of iuch reprefentation. Ages prepare what the hour produces. Six eventful years. Writs for First House of Commons (14th of December, 1264), 38. Rights gained once, gained always. Power of Commons ever growing. Edward I (1271). Election of Sheriffs, 39. Great Statute of Winchefter (1284), 39, 40. Edward II (1307). Creation of Royal Boroughs. Equal power claimed for Commons. Provifion for affembling of Parliaments, 40. Confirmations of Great Charter. Attempts to impofe taxes without Parliament. Money fupplies made con- ditional. Edward III (1327). Statute of Treafons. Acts againfl Confcription, 41. No forced p retting of Soldiers. Cha- racter of Edward III. Victorious in peace as well as war. Firft man in the realm. Intellectual influences of his reign, 42. Chaucer (1328). Improvement of the language. Englifh adopted in Parliament rolls. Richard II (1377). Refults of Richard's depofition, 43. People's power to alter the fucceffion: sole claim of Houfe of Lancafter. Terms of Richard's fubmif- fion. His abdication made compulfory, 44. Popular principle accepted. Adhefion of the people. Soliciting the Throne. Shakefpeare's Bolingbroke. Henry IV [(1399), 45. King Bo- lingbroke. Elevation of the people. Parliamentary aflump- tions. Precedent for Hanoverian succeffion (1406), 46. No judge to plead King's orders. Claim to make supplies condi- tional on redrefs (1401). Officers of Houfehold removed (1404). Law for regulating County Elections, 47. All Freeholders to vote. The lack-learning Parliament (1406). Accumulation of Church property. Its unequal diftribution, 48. Propofal to feize it for better appropriation. Failure of attempt. Thirty articles for regulation of King's affairs. Minifterial refponfibi- lity eftablifhed (1410), 49. Interference with Taxation by the Lords refifted. Changes fince the Conqueft. Petitions and Bills. Royal evalion of Parliamentary control, 50. Bills fubfti- tuted for Petitions. Henry V (141 3). Good out of evil. Advantage to Commons from Henry V's wars. Further re- ftraints on the prerogative, 51. Admiffion of rights of legis- lature. Law againfl; tampering with petitions. Exemptions claimed for members of the Commons, 52. Privilege of Parliament. Thorpe's cafe. Eftablifhed againfl: the courts. Right of Impeachment won. Liberal gains intercepted, 53. Freedom outraged but not loft, 53, 54. Conceffions to force. Henry VI (1422). Differences in quarter of a century, 54. Voting of all freeholders in counties: limited to forty-fhilling freeholders, 54, 55. Greater importance of the people. Feud- ality declining. Villenage paffed away. Changes in Society, 55. Higher developments of feudal principle. A contraft. Tyler's Rebellion: Popular demands (1381). Cadets Rebellion; Popular demands (1450), 56. Rapid fall of Feudal Syftem : as the People rofe. Levelling of diftinctiohs. Comforts of labour- Contents. ing clafles, 57. Refpective condition of England and of France, 57, 58. Contrails of the two Nations. Teftimony of Sir John Fortefcue : and of Philip de Comines, 58. De Laudibus Legum Anglits (1465). Reftraints on prerogative. Conftitution of Par- liament. Rights of the fubject. Refponfibility of the Crown, 59. Encroachments of Executive. Checks of Parliament. Control of the purfe. Loans and Benevolences, 60. Source of ftrength to Commons : derived from other powers. Aflifted from above and from below. The People the fupreme force. Expedients to keep it down, 61. Wars of the Rofes. Ed- ward IV: Edward V: Richard III (1461 — 1483). Le- gislation during Civil Wars. Richard Ill's ftatute againft forced loans, 62. Advances in commerce, learning, and the arts. Lofs of the French provinces. War on furface of the land, Peace beneath. Commercial guilds replacing great families, 63. Break-up of fyftem of Middle Ages. Kingcraft fucceeds. Its chief profefTors. French, Spanifli, and Englifh kings. Refults in England, 64. II. The Tudors 65 — 92 Henry VII (1485). Uneafinefs as to fuccefTion. Parliamen- tary fettlement, 65. Pope's refcript on Henry's title : tranflated for the people : and firft printed in broadfide by Caxton, 65, 66. Lord Bolingbroke's view of the reign. Lories to public liberty. Defection of parliament, 66. Maintenance of legal forms. Peculiarity of Tudor defpotifm. Indications of focial change. Power changing hands, 67. NecefTity for a Poor Law. Houfe of Lords : 29 in number. Commons weakened by weaknefs in Lords. Influences unfeen, 68. Unconfcious law-making. Star Chamber created. A keen but narrow virion. Lord Bacon's character of Henry VII, 69. Leading acts of his fovereignty. What was intended by his legislation. What was effected beyond his intention, 70. Interval between feudal and popular agencies. Firft Expedition to America (1496). Vifit of Eraf- mus to England. Sebaftian Cabot in the New World, 71. Erafmus in Oxford. Revival of ftudy of Homer. Greek Pro- feffbrfhip at Oxford (1497). Diflike of the new learning, 72. A good old Englifh complaint : againft Letters and Poverty. Part taken by Erafmus. Dilciples of Aquinas, 73. Syftem of the Schoolmen doomed. Language an enflaver as well as libe- rator. Connection of words and things. Erafmus's great weapon. " A Second Lucian," 74. Firft pure text of the Teftament. The way prepared for Luther. Complaint againft Erafmus. Harbinger of the Reformation. Titles of Erafmus to refpect, 75. His example. His achievements. His connec- tion with Oxford. Henry's Statutes. Commerce and learning indirectly aflifted, 76. Ufes of the Printing Prefs. Legiflating for the future. Disfavour to nobles. Favour to Churchmen and Lawyers, 77. Throne guarded from Treafon : and enriched Contents. by Forfeitures, 77, 78. New methods of extortion. Empfon and Dudley. Ufes to which they were put, 78. Plunder under forms of law. Henry VIII (1509). Execution of Empfon and Dudley. Tudor characleriftics, 79. Caufes of fuccefs : yielding to people, repreffing nobles. Talk of each fovereign, 80. Henry's (1509). Edward's (1547). Mary's (1553). Elizabeth's (1558), 80, 81. Tudor deipotifm exceptional. Its checks and limits, 81. Elizabeth's conceffions. Mary's weaknefs. Pofition of Houfe of Commons. A6ls of parliament edged tools. Parliamentary refiftance to Mary, 82. Three diffolutions in two years. Privileges won from Henrv VIII. Thirty members added to Commons. Safeguards of an armed people, 83. Obli- gation for martial exercife. Power beyond the Sovereign. All legiflation in name of Commons. Subftance as well as form claimed by them, 84. Elizabeth's reign. Character of the Queen : a fovereign demagogue. Advantages of the people. Remits of the Reformation. Oxford leffons complete, 85. Change impending. Rife of religious difcontent. The newly eftablifhed Church. Impulfes of Reformation reftrained. A danger overlooked, 86. Cartwright's Leclures at Cambridge (1570). Puritan Party formed. Its leaders in Houfe of Commons. Vain attempts to fubdue them, 87. Laft aft of the greateft Tudor. Elizabeth's antipathy to Puritans : Puritan fympathy with Elizabeth, 88. Champion and leader of the Reformation. Puritanifm in a new form : joined with political difcontent. A Queen's Serjeant coughed down, 89. Cecil's warning to Commons. Elizabeth's laft appearance in Parlia- ment. James I (1603). Two kingdoms united under the Stuarts, 90. Opportunity loft by Cecil. No conditions made at Acceffion. No check on overftrained prerogative. Provocation to Rebellion, 91. Penalties to be paid, 92. § III. First Stuart King 92 — 109 Character of James. His learning. His cunning and fhrewd- nefs, 92. Wifeft fool in Chriftendom. What he did with learning. Ufes of his knowledge. Too confident an affump- tion, 93. Early career in Scotland. His excufes. A fchool for king-craft. His pofition between Puritan and Papift, 94. For- mation of his character. His attachments. Family of James. Princefs Elizabeth born (1596). Prince Charles born (1600), 95. The Gowrie Confpiracy. Prince Charles's boyhood. Phyfical defecls, 96. Profpe6l of Englifh throne. Joy of laity in Scot- land. Indignation of clergy. Elizabeth's death announced, 97. Journey fouthward begun (April, 1603), 97, 98. Novelty of a King after half a century of a Queen. Perfonal charac- terises of the new monarch. Face and figure. Slobbering fpeech, 98. Shuffling gait. Abfence of felf-fupport. A fence to monarchy thrown down. Courtiers confounded. Royal pro- grefs to London, 99. Entertainments. At Hinchinbrook : Contents. PAGE Oliver Cromwell (set. 4) firft fees a king. Interview with Francis Bacon. Arrival in land of promiie, 100. Interview with Cecil: at Theobald's (3rd May), 100, 101. Unfavourable imprefiion on the minifter. Foreign policy. Death of Cecil (1612). Rife of Somerfet, 101. King's manner to favourites. Somerfet's fall. Rife of Villiers, 102. A prime minifter at a mafque. Scenes and a<5f.ors in the Court. Unreftrained indul- gences. Bribes taken by women, 103. Sports of the Cockpit. Profligate expenditure. Debts of the King. Shameful necef- fities, 104.. Buckingham's extravagance. Expedients for money. Benevolences and fines. Patents and monopolies. Knighthood exhaufted. Baronetcies invented. Peerages put up to fale, 105. Tariff of titles. James's theological difplays. Hampton Court Conference. King's conduct to Puritans, 106. Delight of the Bifhops. Chancellor Ellefmere's ideal. James's religious per- fecutions, 107. Retribution in ftore. A parallel to James's creed. Alleged darker traits : not eftablifhed. Lambeth MSS. (930,/! 91), 108. Innocent as to Overbury and Prince Henry. Opinions of the people. Contempt of the perfon of the fove- reign. Legacy to Charles I, 109. THE DEBATES ON THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE, NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1641. pp. no— 421. Facsimile ofT-ivo Pages of Si)- Simonds VExvess Journal of the Parliament, begun November i,rd, 1640. From the Original MS. in the Britifli Mufeum .... To face the Title-page § I. Prefatory . ....... no — 114 Moft exciting incident before the war. Moft neglected by hif- torians, no. Remonftrance printed in RuJJiuuorth. Mifleading of Clarendon. Faliification of Debates. Misftatements followed by all, in. Sir Philip Warwick's account. Extraordinary fcene. Hampden's influence, 112. Various references to Great Remonftrance. Clarendon generally followed. Purpofe of the prefent work. Written from MS. records, 113. § II. What the Great Remonstrance was . . 114 — 117 Cafe of the Parliament againll the King. Moft complete jufti- fication of Great Rebellion. Religion and Politics in union, 1 14. Hume's falfe diftinftions : refuted by the Remonftrance, 114, 115. Character of its contents. Warnings againft Court. Appeal to the country, 1x5. No difiefpe£t to King or Church. States what the war put in iffue. Occupies 15 folio pages in Rufliworth. Difficulty of reproducing it, 116. Its various and minute detail. Purpofed illuftration by MS. records. Teft for Clarendon's honefty, 117. Contents. § III. Sir Simonds D'Ewes and his Manuscript Journal of the Long Parliament .... 117 — 125 Text. Authority for new fa&s in this work, 117. Journal by D'Ewes in Harleian MSS. Writers acquainted with it, 118. Neceflity of ftudying the original MS. Account of D'Ewes. Born (1602). At Cambridge (1618), 119. Leaves Cam- bridge, 1620-1. Quits Weftminfter Hall. Delight in old records. Marriage (1626). Buys his rank, 120. Projects aHiftory. High Sheriff of Suffolk (1639). Sympathy with Puritans. Returned to Long Parliament for Sudbury, 121. Lodgings at Weihninfter. Firlt fpeech in Houfe. Affiduous attendance. Takes Notes of debates, 122. Fruit thereof: in five volumes of Journal, 122, 123. Condition ot the original MS. Pages fac-fimilied. Component Parts of MS., 123. Confufcd prefent ftate, 124. Example of im- portance of their contents. Why not earlier made ufe of, 125. Notes. Notes by D'Ewes charatterifed. Edinburgh Review (July, 1846), 118. Self-painted portrait. Jealoufy of Note-taking. Old Vane objects, and D'Ewes replies, 1 24. § IV. Attainder of the Earl of Strafford . 126 — 152 Text. The Attainder made a teft of opinions. A fallacious one. Unwife companions and contrails, 126. The " Pro- teftation" to defend Parliament and Religion, 127. Royalift fuppotters of Attainder. Falkland, Culpeper, Capel? and Hyde, 128. Danger of believing in Clarendon. Conduct of Hyde. Why he declined office. Strange felf-expofure, 129. Hyde chairman of a committee. Encounters a " tempeft- uous" perfon. Mr. Cromwell "in a fury." Sir Ralph Verney's Notes, 130. Reports debate on Strafford. Speech by Hampden: on queftion not material to the Bill, 131. Attainder not in difpute. Hampden fuppofed favourable to it, 132. Corre£ter judgment by Macaulay : EJfays (i. 467), 132, 133. Line really taken by Hampden. Evidence of D'Ewes. Doubts fet at reft. Procedure by Bill originally propofed. Pym and Hampden forlmpeachment, 133. Dii- pute of the 10th April. Diffatisfaclion with the Lords. Bill of Attainder revived. Oppofed by Pym and Hampden, 134. Elder Vane's Notes of Council, 134, 13 5. Objection to their production. Excitement thereon. Conference with Lords pro- pofed, 135. Pym and Hampden outvoted. Sittingot the 12th April, 1 641. Reported in D'Ewes's MS. Two pages in fac-iimile, 136. Pym and Hampden acling together. Why they oppofed Attainder. Pym iuggefts conference. Maynard recites points for fettlement, 137. Houfe will make facrifices to prevent delay. Others guilty with Strafford. Their guilt not to be infilled on. The Notes of Council, 138. Laud Contents. and Cottington involved. Hotham for Attainder. Pym againft. Maynard for. Rudyard doubtful. Tomkins for, 139. Culpeper for. D'Ewes againft. Urges judgment on Impeachment. Explanation afked from old Vane. Refufed, 140. Glyn explains. Marten for Attainder. Hampden againft. Vane and his Son. Subfequent courfe of fupporters of Attainder. Conduit, of Glyn and Maynard, 141. Line taken by Falkland: excufed by Clarendon. What excufe for Mr. Hyde? 142. Takes fame line as Falkland. Too much faith in fhort memories. Pym and Hampden confiftent throughout, 143. Their belief in Strafford's guilt. Quef- tion raifed whether to hear his counfel t Refifted by Falk- land and Culpeper. Supported by Hampden and Pym, 144. Speech of Maynard againft. Pym in reply. Advocates Strafford's claim to hearing. His appeal fuccefsful, 145. His fuggeftions as to Attainder. Englifti compared to French Revolution. Folly and falfehood of companion, 146. Obfolete views. Opinions of the better informed. Agree- ment up to Arreft of Five Members. Parliament's juftifica- tion, 147. General character of the ftruggle. More wealth with the Commons than with the King. No terrorifm, 148. Origin of the intereft ftill infpired by the war, 148, 149. A war without an enemy. D'Ewes as to acts and motives, 149. Strafford. Greateft man on the King's fide, 149, 150. Where his ftatefmanfhip fucceeded. Where it failed. His fyftem in Ireland, 151. The good implied in it. The danger that proved fatal. Bad faith of the King, 151^. Moral of Strafford's government, 152. Notes. "Story of Corfe Caftle," 126. D'Ewes to Lady D'Ewes. King's ill-fated ftep. Agitation in the Houfe and in the City, 127. "Proteftation"drawn up. Takenby all, 128. Verney's Notes, 130. As to fac-fimile, 140. Strafford's contempt for old Falkland, 142. Hyde and Falk- land's agreement. Sitting as well as voting together, 143. § V. Reaction after Strafford's Death . . 152 — 163 Text. Parties altered after Strafford's death. Remonftrance a freih ftarting-point, 152. What Cromwell faid to Falkland, 152, 153. Alleged narrow efcape for Charles. Hyde's new policy. Reaction for the King, 153. Chances of fuccefs. Old pofitions reverfed. Daily defections from Popular ranks, 154. Character of the King. His view as to invalidity of ftatutes. Affenting with purpofe to revoke. Hyde's com- plaint. Sources of danger to Parliament, 155. Signs of wavering. Abatement of Popular enthufiaim, 156. Charles's advantages. A warning needed. Threatenings of force, 157. Freedom or Defpotifm ? Refolution to appeal to the People. Origin of the " Remonftrance." Firft moved by Lord Digby, 158. The King receives Warning: on Eve of Contents. x;n PAGE journey to Scotland, 158, 159. Bifhop Williams advifes conciliation. King confents. Scheme baffled. Intended diftribution of offices, 159. 'Friday, 30th July, 1641. : New Miniftry expected. Saturday, 7th Auguft : Remonftrance formally brought forward, 160. Bifhop Williams's labour loft. Remonftrance openly difcufled. King quits London : 9th Auguft. Hyde's previous interview, 161. Why Charles was grateful to him. His fervice againft Epifcopacy Bill. Engagement to defeat it, 162. Hopes from the Scottifh journey. Hyde's promife, 163. Notes. Miftake of Richard Baxter, 153. Only lawyers fe- ceded on the Attainder, 154. The Clergy and Univer- fities. Ficklenefs of the people, 156. Impatience of waiting. Cure more painful than difeafe, 157. Excite- ment as to Scotch journey, 160. <§ VI. Reassembling of Parliament, October, 1641 . 163 — 168 Text. 20th of October, 1641. Houfes meet. Defaulters from the Commons, 163. Strode' s proposition againft the abfent with- out leave, 163, 164. Liberal party weakened. Forebodings coming true. Report from the Recefs Committee, 164. Another plot. Letters produced from Hampden. The " Incident," 165. Hyde and Falkland outvoted. Pym's refolutions carried, 166. Alarm of Secretary Nicholas. 'King's friends difheartened. Arrival of Hampden, 167. Bifhops' Bill under difcuffion. Speakers for and againft. Hampden's furprife. Falkland's avowal, 168. Notes. Charge againft Montrofe. 30th October. Pym's fpeech on Army defigns, 165. Confpiracy tracked out, 166. Character of Edward Nicholas, 166, 167. In- direct ways of the Court, 167. § VII. Lord Falkland 169 — 181 Text. Beliefs as to Falkland's character. Suppofed type of moderation. Errors and misjudgment, 169. Never zealous for the King, 170. Clarendon's delcription, 171, Opinions held by Falkland : as to Court and Parliament. Influ- ence of Hyde. Faith of the old Cavalier, 172. Sentiment not judgment. Eafy prey to Hyde's perluaiion. Falk- land's ftronghold, 173. View taken by Macaulay, 174. Objections thereto. Excitability of temper. Anecdote by Clarendon. Emphafis overdone, 175. Similar trait of Danton. Strange reiemblances. Stranger contrafts, 176. Diflike of the war. Laft appearance in Houfe of Com- mons. More like delinquent than Minifter. Regret or felf- reproach ? 177. Falkland's nobler qualities. Services to men of wit, 178. Open houfe at Oxford : to men of all opinions, 179. A college in purer air, 180. Three fpecial xiv Contents. PAGE characteriftics : love of truth ; hatred offpies ; reverence for private letters, 180, 181. Notes. Tribute by Hyde. Gratitude of the Poets to Falk- land. His Eclogue on Jonfon's death, 170. On Jon- fon's learning. His vogue in theatres. His felf-raifed fortune, 171. As to lawfulnefs of refiftance, 172. Mac- aulay's EJfays (i. 160). A public man unfit for public life. What if he had lived to Revolution, 174. Hyde's happy eulogy, 178. Exquifite delicacy. Picture of Falk- land's houfe. Intolerant only of intolerance. Difcourfes againft Popery, 179. § VIII. The Secession and its Dangers . . 181 — 190 Text. Falkland's new leader: not Hampden but Hyde, 181. Liberal phalanx broken up. Its achievements, 182. Defer- tion by ieceders : never accounted for, 182, 183. The King unaltered. Old caufe ftill hateful to him. Danger of lofing all, 183. Reappearance of plague, 183, 184. King's defire for adjournment of Houfes. Pym's refinance. Attempt on Pym's life, 184. Letter delivered by the Serjeant, 184, 185. Handed to Mr. Rufhworth. Its contents. Mr. Ruftiworth's alarm. Further attempts againft Pym, 185. His afiailants in the Houfe, 186. Refolution moved: againft King's appointments to office, 186, 187. Strode's violence, 189. Hyde's opportunity. Irifti Rebellion. Pym's opportunity, 190. Notes. A Judge arrefted on the bench, 182. Allufions to Pym in Queen's letters. Attempts to bring him into fuf- picion. Caules of his popularity. Tribute by Covenanter Baillie, 186. Clarendon's attack on Strode: not applic- able to Strode of James's reign, 187. Probable confu- fion between two Strodes, 187, 188. The later Strode a young man. Evidence of D'Ewes's Journal. Scene at Arreft of Five Members, 188. Counter teftimony in favour of identity, 188, 189. The other view ftrength- ened : in letter to Lady D'Ewes. Another Hyde: more decidedly royalift than Edward, 189. § IX. The New Party and the Old . . . 190 — 200 Text. 5th November, I641. Pym's fpeech on Evil Counfellors, 190. Excitement in Houfe. Edmund Waller's reply. Compares Pym to Strafford, 191. Pym rifes to order. Cries for Waller. Reparation made, 192. Dramatic changes: reported to the King : Royal thanks to managers. Hyde fent for by Nicholas, 193. Is ftiown a letter from the King. Old leaders unmoved. Majority ftill fufficient, 194. Mea- fures againft Biftiops : propofal to make five new ones, 194, 195. Cromwell's counter motion. Bifliops' demurrer. Contents. xv PAGE Holborne fupports Bifhops, 195. D'Evves replies to Hol- borne : raifing laugh againft him. Beginning of the end, 196. Moves and counter moves. Prudence and fagacity of Pym. Gives effect to fuggeftion of St. John, 197. Pofi- tion of Houfe as to Irifh Rebellion, 197, 198. Hope of the King thereon. Baffled by Pym. Speech to the Lords againft Evil Counfels, 198. Refolution parted. A Motion by Oliver Cromwell. Germ of the Parliamentary Army. Ominous claim put forth, 199. Ordinances minus the King. Alarm thereat. Preparations for conflict, 200. Notes. Value of preparation in Oratory, 191. Commons' Journals, 5th November. Waller's apology, 192. § X. Confljj£t Begun 200—202 Text. 8th November (164.1). Rough Draught of Remon- ftrance fubmitted, 200, 201. Nicholas writes to the King. Mr. Secretary's trouble, 201. Urges King's inftant return, 201,202. King's anfwer : Stop the Remonftrance ! Forces organized for the ftruggle, 202. § XI. The Opening Debates: 9TH, ioth, 12TH, 15TH, and i6th November .... 202 — 210 Text. Firft Debate : Tuefday, 9th November, 202. Pro- cedure fettled. Movers of amendments. Report of Nicholas to King. King's order thereon, 203. Second Debate : ioth November. No copies to be given out. nth November, Speech by Strode. Deftination of Remonftrance avowed: to go to the people, 204. To be printed and circulated. Third Debate: 12th November, Motion for Candles, 205. D'Ewes in favour of Candles. Private reports to the King, 206. Tenacity of his Majefty's oppofition. Fourth Debate : 15th November. As to Bifhops favouring idolatry. Speech by Dering, 207. Falkland's former attack on Bifhops. Prefent vehement defence. Fifth Debate: 16th November, 208. Claufe againft Bifhops carried. Compromife as to Liturgy. Concefhons to Oppofition. Unauthorifed reports. SupprefTion of printed and MS. diurnals, 209. Refolutions to Second Army Plot, 210. Notes. Strode's manner of fpeech. Avowal as to Scotch Army, 205. Shilling fines. Orders as to bufinefs : as to reading of Bills, 206. Dering fneered at by Clarendon, 207. § XII. Preparations for the Final Vote, 19TH Novem- ber and 20TH November . . . 210 — 215 Text. Nicholas's fear for the King. Progrefs of Remon- ftrance reported, 210. Nicholas as to printing: the defign avowed. Sixth Debate: 19th November, 211. Amend- Contents. PAGE merits and verbal changes, 211, 212. Hyde's urgent appeal. Pym's reply : and vindication. A home thruft, 212. Order for engroflment. Complaint of Mr. Speaker. Lenthal relieved. Seventh Debate : 20th November. Final Debate fixed. Cromwell and Falkland, 213. Preparations for laft Debate. Remonftrance lying on table, 214.. Propofed hil- torical illuftrations. Dering on the Remonftrance, 215. Notes. A bold Mechanick, 211. Statement by Clarendon : charge againft Pym : a mifreprefentation, 214. ABSTRACT OF THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE . 215 273 1 . The Preamble : Purpofe aimed at . . . A. 2 1 5 — 2 1 8 Text. Struggle of paft twelve months, 215. Why Remon- ftrance introduced. NecelTary to completion of Reforms, 216. Court Confpiracy : to iubvert laws; to degrade Pro- teftantifm ; to difcredit Parliament, 216, 217. Upholders of right nick-named Puritans, 217. Popery the chief Con- fpirator, 218. Notes. Falkland againft Laud. Propofed Pope at Lambeth, 217. Englifh livings and Romifh opinions, 218. 2. Firft, Second, and Third Parliaments of Charles . 218 — 223 Text. Claufes 1 — 6. Incidents of Firft Parliament, 218. Claufes 7 — 10. Incidents of Second Parliament, 219. Claufes 11 — 16. Incidents of Third Parliament, 220. Violation of Petition of Right. Imprifonment of Members, 222. Heavy Fines. Sufferings and death of Eliot. His blood crying for vengeance, 223. Notes. Billeting grievances. Lifts of recufants. Yonge's Diary, 219. Proceedings to get money. How fpent. Amendments by J. C, 220. Addition by Strode. Moundiford MSS. Billeting foldiers. Sheriffs and fhip- money. Projects for plunder of fubjecl, 221. Atro- cities of the Court. Authors of Amendments, 222. Eliot's ufage in Tower, 223. 3 . Go i thus conducted between equals, as it were, in ftation, between forces to a great degree inde- pendent of each other — the Crown ftriving to maintain itfelf on the one hand, but no longer with the preftige of power it had received from the ftronger kings ; the Ariftocracy advancing claims on the other, no longer overborne or overawed by the prefent prefTure of the throne Beginning — jecj t0 what, in modern phrafe, might be °les'of called a fyftem of unfcrupulous party ftruggle, party. in which royalty loft the exclufive pofition it had been the great aim of the Conqueror's family to fecure to it, and became an unguarded § i. The Plantagenets : Arthur. 1 1 object of attack, thereafter, to whatever hoftile confederacy might be formed againft it. What there was of evil as well as of good in the conteft became ftrongly manifeft in the two fucceeding reigns. In the ftri£t order of hereditary fucceffion Arthur's the crown, which on Richard's death was con- ^^cto ferred on John, would have fallen to Arthur, cefllon : the orphan of John's elder brother. But though the fubfequent misfortunes and forrow- ful death of this young prince largely excited fympathy in England, there was never any formidable ftand attempted, here, on the ground of his right to the throne. The battle was fought fought in the foreign provinces. In England, p"e„^ while fome might have thought his hereditary provinces. claim fuperior to his uncle's, there was hardly a man of influence who would at this period have drawn the fword for him, on any fuch prin- ciple as that the crown of England was heritable property. The genius of the country had been The repugnant to any fuch notion. The Anglo- Qrownnot Saxon fovereignty was elective ; that people heritable never fanctioning a cuftom by which the then P1'°Perty- perfonal and moft arduous dutiesof fovereignty, both in peace and war, might pafs of right to an infant or imbecile prince; and to the ftrength Sove- of this feeling in the country of their conqueft, r?,f£ty the Normans heretofore had been obliged to yield. At each fucceffive coronation following the defeat of Harold, including that of the Conqueror, the form of deferring to the peo- Normans pie's choice had been religioufly adhered to ; defer to nay, of the five Norman kings on whom the principle. Englifh crown had now defcended, four had 1 2 Introductory EJfay. been constrained to reft their ftrongeft title on that popular choice or recognition : but its mod decifive confirmation was referved for the coronation of John. Till after the cere- mony, his right was in no particular admitted. Corona- He was earl, until he afTumed the ducal coro- tion of net; and he was duke, until the Great Council, 1 199. fpeaking through the primate, invefted him at Weftminfler with the Englifh crown, accom- panying it with the emphatic declaration that it was the nation's gift, and not the property of any particular perfon. Speed, with his patient induftry and narrow virion, calls this latter condition, cc a fecond feed-plot of trea- Parlia- out, upon the demand for a iubfidy, frelh viola- ment- tions of the Charter were made broadly the ground for refufing to give ; and it was only at length conceded, in the fhape of a fifteenth of Supply all movables, upon receipt of guarantees for alodnti0n" a more ftri61 obfervance of the Charter, and redrefs. "with the condition that the money fo raifed mould be placed in the treafury, and none of it taken out before the King was of age, unlefs for the defence of the realm, and in the pre- Control fence 0f flx bifhops and fix earls. As far as I or money .r by parlia- am aware, this is the nrit example of parlia- ment, mentary control brought face to face with the royal prerogative, and the tranfaction contained in the germ whatever has been worthieft of a free people in our hiftory. Appeal of Indirectly may be traced to it, among other to people." incidents very notable, that proclamation from Henry the Third, fummoning his people to take part with him againft the barons and great lords, which was one of the moil; memorable of the precedents unrolled by Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Edward Coke when the ftruggle with the Stuarts began. It was then late in the reign ; but Henry was only feeking to better the inftruction received in his nonage Similar from appeals exactly iimilar addrefTed to the frorrT people by the Barons, while their conflict ftill Barons, continued with Peter des Roches. The wily Poitevin, galled by the conditions attached to the fubfidy, precipitated the young King into further difputes ; in the courfe of which, offices of truft were gradually taken from the Englifh § i. The Plant agenets : Henry III. 25 barons and filled by foreigners brought over Jealoufy into England. The men of old family, wedded °f Fre?ch now to the land of their fathers as jealoufly as the Saxon had been, faw themfelves difplaced for the French jefter, tool, or pander; and thefe fo-called Norman chiefs turned for fym- pathy and help to a people no longer exclusively either Norman or Saxon, but united infeparably on their Englifh foil. Hiftorians have been very reluctant to admit fo early an intrufion of the popular element into the government of the Plantagenets ; and it is {till the cuftom to treat of this particular reign as a mere ftruggle for the predominance Struggle of ariftocracy or monarchy. But beneath the |°an^°wei furface, the other and more momentous power formed to is vifible enough, as it heaves and ftirs the w^r °f outward agencies and figns of authority ; and what might elfe have been a paltry ftruggle, eafily terminable, for court favour or military predominance, was by this converted into a war of principles, awful and irreconcilable, which ran its courfe with varying fortune through all fubfequent time. The merchants Rife of and tradefmen of the towns are now firft recog- ^ c^el nifable as an independent and important clafs. men. They have been enriched by that very inter- courfe with foreigners which was fo hateful to the clafs above them. They are invefted with privileges wrung from the poverty of their lords. They are no longer liable to individual fervices, but in place of them are paying com- mon rents. They have guilds and charters Guilds inviolable as the fees of the great proprietors ; cnhdarters and, incident to thefe, the right, as little now Introduclory EJfay. Privileges and rights ceded to middle clafs. King's fummons for parlia- ment not obeyed, 1233. Political ballads. Attack upon the Favourite. to be difputed as that of the feudal fuperior had been, to hold fairs and demand tolls, to choofe their own magiftrates and enact their own laws. On the hearing of fuch men, the provifions of the Great Charter, read aloud from time to time in their County Courts, could not have fallen as a mere empty found. What was fo proclaimed might be but half- enfranchifement ; it could indeed be little more, while ferfdom remained in the clafTes directly beneath them ; but it pointed to where freedom was, accuftomed them to its claims and forms, and helped them onward in the direction where it lay. They joined the Barons againft the foreign favourite. The conflict had continued fome time, and Henry was twenty-fix years old, when his neceflities again compelled him to call together a parliament ; but twice his bidding was re- fused, and the mefTengers who bore the refufal might have added the unwonted tidings, that fongs fung againft the favourite, and filled with warnings to the fovereign, might daily be heard in the ftreets. Amid other figns and portents of focial change had now arifen the political ballad. In it fhone forth the firft vera effigies of the Poitevin bifhop of Win- chefter ; nimble at the counting of money as he was flow in expounding the gofpel ; fitting paramount, not in Winchefter, but in Ex- chequer ; pondering on pounds, and not upon his holy book; postponing Luke to lucre; and fetting more {lore by a handful of marks than by all the doctrines of their namefake faint. Would the King avoid the fhipwreck § i. The Plant agenets: Henry 111. 27 of his kingdom ? afked the finger. Then let him fhun for ever the ftones and rocks (Roches) in his way. Quickly, too, were thefe warn- ings followed up. By no lefs a perfon than Pembroke's fon, the flandard of rebellion was let loofe in the Welfh diftridts ; the clergy, General opprefled by tax and tallage from Rome, began dlicon- to take part in the general difcontent ; and in midft of a feaft at the palace, Edmund of Canterbury (Langton's fuccefTor) prefented himfelf with a ftatement of national grievances and a demand for immediate redrefs. He Griev- reminded the King that his father had well- p"rtedand nigh forfeited his crown ; he told him that Redrefs the Englifh people would never fubmit to be ?™ltf', trampled upon by foreigners in England ; and 1234. for himfelf he added that he mould excom- municate all who any longer refufed, in that criiis of danger, to fupport the reform of the government and the welfare of the nation. That was in February, 1234. In April, a Parlia- parliament had alTembled, Peter and his Poi- ^e"tlbled tevins were on their way home acrofs the fea, andFavou- the minifters who had made themfelves hateful »t« : dif- were difmiiTed, and the oppofition barons were April,' in power. "34. This will read like the language of a modern day ; but if fuch events have any hiftoric fig- nificance, they eftablifh what in the modern phrafe can only properly be defcribed as minif- terial refponfibility and parliamentary control. Minifteri- Nor were they the folitary or ifolated events ^mtyand of their clafs which marked the feeling of the Parlia- time. Again and again, during this prolonged ™ennt^ reign, the fame incidents recur, in precifely -8 IntroduBory EJfay. the fame circle of refiftance and fubmiflion. There is an urgent requeft for money, which is contemptuoufly refufed ; but on a promife to redrefs grievances, the fubfidy is given. Then, Court coffers being full, Court pledges Diflxefs are violated ; until again diftrefs brings round Redrefs, the old piteous petition, and, with new condi- and Sup- tjons Qf refl-ra;nt ancj conftitutional fafeguards before undemanded, afTiftance is rendered again. In five years from the incident I have named, the money fo granted by Parliament was paid into the hands of felected Barons, with as ftricT: provifo for account as modern parliaments have claimed over public expenditure ; and in Securities two years more, on the payment of certain faith? 1C monies to the Exchequer, the City of London exacted a ftipulation that the Judiciary, Chan- cellor, and Treafurer might thereafter be ap- pointed with the confent of Parliament, and hold their offices only during good behaviour. And, at the very time when public faith was thus beginning to be exacted and recognifed, Law fyf- iaw was taking; the form of a fyftem. It was Braaon, ' now that Bracton produced that treatife which 1250. went far in itfelf to eftablifh uniformity of legal practice, and fo create our common law ; nor had the reign for which this might have fufficed as the fole diftinction, reached its clofe, before the fame great lawyer found himfelf able to reckon as fuperior to the King " not onty the King's immediate vaffals ; Council, but as time wore on they could not fo be reftricted. Many of the greater baronies fplit up and became divided ; while the name of baron, no matter what number of fees it repre- fented, or for the feudal fervice of how few or how many knights it may have been refponfible, was ftill retained. Diftinc- But this led to a natural iealoufy on the part tions and r ,i j • • grades of °* tne greater proprietors ; and in time to a rank. broad diftinction, in name' at leaft, between the more important of thofe barons who held by their honours or baronies, and the leffer proprietors whom grants of efcheated honours might newly have created, or whofe ancient rights had been reduced by efcheat or decay. A tenant in chief was now not necefTarily a baron ; or he might be a baron of inferior Varieties grade. It is more difficult to determine what fummons regu^ateci tne iffuz of writs of fummons ; but it feems probable that the fame jealoufy to which allufion has been made, brought about § i. The Plantagenets: Firft Houfe of Commons. 31 the diftinction firft obfervable in John's reign, between the greater baron fummoned by his fpecial writ, and the inferior tenants in chief called together by a fummons directed to their fheriff. It is clear alfo, that, though all were entitled to fummons, the mere right of tenure could not difpenfe with its forms ; and an unfummoned tenant, without reforting to fuch remedies as might compel the iffue of the writ, could not take his place in the Council. Up to this point, it will be obferved, the Pecullari- principle is diftinctly that of feudal reprefenta- !-ies,°[ tion. The immediate vaffals of the Crown, reprefen- reprefenting certain land, poffefs the perfonal tat'on. right to be prefent in parliament. They are the liegemen of the Sovereign ; and by the univerfal feudal compact, though aid could be afked of the liegeman, the man's confent was Aid for necefTary to legalife the aid ; while the fame Cor- relation, implying protection from the lord, conveyed a further right to infift upon corre- fponding guarantees. In this view, the prefence of both larger and leffer tenants was required, and was even exacted by the Crown as needful to the authority and execution of a law. But, Leffer as the inferior tenants increafed in number, the reprefent- tax for parliamentary attendance on men ofed by fmaller fortunes became intolerable ; and their larSer- confent and attendance came to be implied in that of the greater barons. Still, they were fuppofed to be in the Council ; and it feems to me that to the mere form and legal fiction thus reforted to, may be traced the gradual tranfition from a feudal to a real representation. The fure though iilent power, with which a Tranfition 32 Introductory EJJay. from feu- growing fociety of men will modify and adapt dal to real 0]j inftitutions to new neceflities, at once widening and ftrengthening their foundations, is for the moft part happily unknown to thofe who might otherwife not unfuccefsfully ftrive to control it. As the inferior tenants in chief withdrew gradually from the Council, its component members became reftricted to the bifhops and abbots, the earls and barons, the minifters and judges, and neighbouring knights holding of Language the Crown. But the language of the writs iummons continued to imply a much larger attendance. When, for example, the Great Charter was con- firmed in the ninth year of Henry's reign, the roll informs us that at the fame time a fifteenth had been granted in return by the bifhops, Fictions ear^sj barons, knights, free tenants and all of forefha- the kingdom {et omnes de regno noftro Anglice) ; truths2 anc^ wnen a fortieth was granted feven years later, there is put forth, as having concurred in the grant, the ftrange and ominous combina- tion of bifhops, earls, barons, knights, freemen and villeins. This was indeed a fiction, but with an expanding germ of truth. The con- fent of particular clafTes was to be underftood, as a matter of courfe, to have been included in Forms that of others. But the very emptieft acknow- conveymg ]e^gment; 0f a right is precious. The right itfelf waits only its due occafion to aflume the fubftance and importance of reality. Nor had the Englifh freeman, even under his earlieft Norman kings, been wholly with- out the means of knowing what reprefentation meant. When the Conqueror or his fons had § i. The Plantagenets: Firjl Houfe of Commons. 33 any fpecial reafon to make inquiry into their own rights ; when particular wrongs of the people reached them, or when peculations were charged againft their barons or officers ; no- Commif- thing was more common than a commiffion i°™-°, ;n of knights in each mire, not limply named by (hires, the Sovereign (as when the Conqueror iffiied an inquiry into the details of the Saxon law), but quite as frequently elected in the County Court, whofe bufinefs it was to proceed from hundred to hundred, to make the investigation upon oath, and to lay its refult before the King in council. The Great Charter contained a provifion for the election of twelve knights in the next court of each county to inquire into foreft abufes. In the feventh year of the ?.ld '.n~ J . ititution reign now under notice, every lhenff was adapted to ordered to inquire, by means of twelve lawful nevv ufes- and difcreet knights, what fpecial privileges exifted in his fhire on the day of the firrt out- break between John and his barons. And in the year of the affembling of the Great Council to which thefe remarks apply, a commiffion of four knights in each county received it in charge to inquire into certain exceffies com- mitted by men in authority. In relation to County the levy of fublidies alfo, the fame rule came ^eP.refen" j j t-h n • tation to be adopted. The molt ancient example on begins. record of a fublidy (that of 1207) is found to have been collected by the itinerant judges ; but only thirteen years later, the office of col- Collection lection is feen to be deputed to the meriff, in IZ0? e*n™ conjunction with two knights to be chofen in 122°. a full court of the county, with the confent of all the fuitors. ~: 34 Introductory EJay. Begin- ning of the end. Vague formation of autho- rity of Commons, Gradual fteps thereto. 1214. Scheme to obtain money from (hires. 1254. Was it not obvious that fuch ufage as this muff grow as the people grew ? Were not the collection of taxes, and reports of grievances, manifeft fteps to a power over the money collected, and to a right of petition againft the grievances expofed ? Is it difficult to difcern, throughout thefe efforts of Norman royalty to check the excefs of its ministers, and obtain the co-operation of its people, the vague formation of that authority and houfe of the Commons, which was to prove more formidable than either of the powers it was called into exiftence to control ? Soon what was vague became more diftinct. It wanted yet two years of the date of the Great Charter, when a writ was iffued marking the firft undoubted transition towards the change fo vaft and (o memorable. This contained a fummons for military fervice, with an order that four difcreet knights of the county mould be fent to Oxford without arms to treat with the King concerning the affairs of the kingdom. In other words, it was a fummons to Par- liament, in terms the fame as thofe of a later period ; and it was followed, after an interval of forty years, by another and more decifive inftance. While Henry the Third was on the continent in 1254, his Oueen and Regents fummoned the tenants in chief to fail to his affiftance ; and gave order, in the fummons, that "befides thefe, two lawful and difcreet " knights mould be chofen by the men of " every county, in the place of all and each cc of them, to affemble at Weft.minft.er, and " to determine with the knights of the other § i. The Plantagenets : Firfi Houfe of Commons. 2S " counties what aid they would grant to their cc Sovereign in his prefent neceffity, To that cc the fame knights might be able to anfwer, " in the matter of the faid aid, for their cc refpective counties." Of the meaning of fuch a writ and its return, Knights there cannot furely be a queftion ; nor is it eafy f°ra^«kr to underftand the difcuffion it has provoked, counties. Call it lingular, anomalous, or by what name may raoft fuitably exprefs its irregular character; except it from ordinary parliaments, and call it a convention ; ftill the undeniable fact remains, that it was a fcheme to obtain money from the Commons of the various counties, and that to this end it prefcribed the election of Reprefen- reprefentatives whofe deliberation and afTent -J^fe ° mould control thofe of their constituents. The taxes, language of the writ connects itfelf undoubt- edly with that of its predecefTor in the fifteenth of John ; and it is quite immaterial whether or not the barons, and higher tenants in chief, were fummoned to lit with thefe knights. Enough that the Commons of the {hires were thus admitted to a co-ordinate fhare in the impofition and voting of taxes ; for, whatever One antiquarians may urge as to Parliament's ufe ![t ^eft. of one chamber at Weftminfter up to the minfter : middle of the third Edward's reign (abundant j.eP.arate o \ fittings proof exifts of feparate fittings in other parts dfewhere. of England), it is fufficiently clear that the voting muft always have been by each order feparately, and without interference from each other. The mere circumftance of the different proportions of taxation would eftablifh this. In the thirty-eighth of Henry the Third, Admiffion D 2 36 Introductory EJfay. of third then, the principle of a real reprefentation had eftate. become part of the conflitution of England, and the third eftate of the realm took a direct fhare in its government. Yet, momentous as the conceflion was, it had been obtained by no violent effort, but {imply as the unavoidable refult of the increafing importance of the people. From leffer they had rifen quietly to Knights higher duties. The knight, whofe bufinefs ionLlth '* ^ keen to afTefs fubfidies, had found gradual admiftion by the fide of the earls and barons, to help in thedifpofition and diftribution of the money obtained ; and that he and his fellows were fo received diftinctly as the deputies of others, appeared even in the remuneration Lords pay, fet apart for them. Great men, fuch as earls fitting m an^ Darons who attended in their own right, tneir own o ^ right. paid their own charges ; but men of fmaller fubftance, who had undertaken merely to tranfacl bufinefs for others, were held to have a title to compenfation from thofe in whofe behalf they acted. As they were paid for their labour in afTefiment, fo for their facrifice of time and labour in reprefentation they were Knights paid. Wherefore a rate levied on the county are paid, d;fcharpred their expenfes for fo many fpecified fitting for . .& . X • j • }i others. days, in " going, itaying, and returning. On another branch of this inquiry, too, which has been fadly encumbered with needlefs learn- ing and mifplaced vehemence of difcuflion, the County countv rate would feem to have an important bearing. It has been affumed, by thofe anti- quarians who would narrow as much as poffible the bafis on which our freedom is built, that the reprefentative knights, as reprefenting § i. The Plant agenets : Firji Houfe of Commons. 37 fimply the inferior tenants in chief from whofe reluctance to attend in Parliament they fir ft derived importance, are not to be taken to have had relation to the county at large. But this afTumption is negatived by every reafon- able fuppofition. The wages of the knights Wages of were levied on the whole county (de communi- knights tate comitates) ; and the mefne tenant could entire hardly have been denied a right, to the fupport county. of which he was obliged to contribute. That what concerned all lhould be approved by all, was a maxim not unufed by even Norman kings. The language of the writs of election, alfo, cited with pardonable exultation by Prynne in the early fittings of the Long Parlia- ment, is clear and fpecific. The tenants in chief are never mentioned in them ; while tenants of the Crown implied tenants both by free and by military fervice. The condition Election required of the candidate, was to be difcreet by ful1 and lawful; of the electors, to be fuitors of court/ the county ; and of the election, to be made in a full court. A full County Court was always the leait feudal of the modified feudality that lingered in England. It comprifed all All free- freeholders ; whether of the King, of a mefne holder.s , j , ... r Dr j compnled: lord, or by military or any tree lervice ; and in the reign of Henry the Third therefore, not lefs certainly than in that of Victoria the Firft, the knights of the fhire reprefented, without And rc- regard to the quality of tenure, the whole body panted r -r 1 1 1 by knights or freeholders, of fhire. Still, they were knights. Their ftation affociated them with the earls and barons. They were part of what in feudal institution was 38 Introductory EJfay. held to be a lower nobility. They ranked Refults above the ordinary burgefs or citizen. They offuch reprefented the power of the Commons, but tation!"" ^ey were not commoners ; even when the commoners fat apart, they continued to fit with the barons ; and as yet no man feems to have dreamt that the clafs even lower than theirs could ever be raifed to the national councils, whether in feparate, co-ordinate, or fubordi- nate rank. Though the principle which by eafieft preflure expanded to admit them, had been winning its gradual way for centuries to the acknowledgment it had at laft obtained, Ages pre- yet that lower clafs were ftill fhut out. But, theehourat w^iat ages and generations are needed to pre- produces. pare, the man and the hour accomplifh ; and both were at hand when the Great Council, having met at Weftminfter on the 2nd of May, 1258, yielded to the demand of Simon de Montfort that a parliament mould meet at Six event- Oxford in June. The ftruggle which then began, filled more than fix eventful years ; but at laft the day arrived, never to be forgotten in Englifh. ftory, and on the 14th December, 1264, writs went forth calling together re- prefentatives from the counties, cities, and boroughs, to meet the prelates and great lords : and the firft enactment of that moft Writs for memorable afTemblage, giving folemn confir- firft Houfe mation to charters and ordinances, ran as by °12?m~ common confent c That, from the pofition thus gained, the com- monalty never again were diflodged, is the fuffi- § i. The Plant agenets : Edward I. 39 cient anfwer to thofe who would afcribe the victory lefs to the caufes I have retraced than to the fudden needs of a faction of the barons. As of right the commonalty took, and they Rights kept, the place to which they were called ; and Sained we may difmifs as of the leaft poffible import- gained ance the queftion whether the power was always, ufurped that called them. Their exiftence once recognifed, no man was found to gain- fay it ; their pofition and place once difcovered, everything helped to make it more decifively plain. In the reigns of the firft and fecond Power of Edwards, and their fuccefTors, we find them in evergrow- actual efficiency as a branch of the State ; and im in fpite of the weaker princes, as with the help of the wifer and ftronger, their power was ftill to grow. Edward the Firft had not occupied his Edward 1. father's throne three years, when a ftatute was 12?I' paffed that forafmuch as election ought to be free, no man by force of arms, nor by malice or menacing, mould difturb any to make free election. It was in this reign alfo (when fo many great improvements in the laws were effected that to Edward has been afcribed the too lofty title of the Englifh. Juftinian) that Ele&ion the refidents of the various counties, in which of sheriffs, the Jury Syftem had been finally confolidated, obtained the power, afterwards furrendered and loft, of electing their own fheriffs. In the thirteenth of the fame prince, what proved to be one of the heavieft blows to the fyftem it was meant to guard was ftruck by the arm- ing of all clafles : for then was paffed the Great Great Statute of Winchefter, by which every man in Statute of 4-0 Introductory EJfay. Winehef- the kingdom, according to the quantity of his ter, 1*84. ]ancjs and goods, was afTefTed and fworn to carry weapons. The leflbn had now been taught to two eftates of the realm, that in the third, as yet unknown to itfelf, the fupreme force Jay ; and the ability or power mod effec- tively to make common caufe with the third, was hereafter to be the meafure of gain or lofs to either of the other two. A curious example Edward prefents itfelf in the fucceeding reign. Under Edward the Second, when beyond all queftion the Commons fat, as well as voted, apart from the temporal and fpiritual Barons, numerous Creation boroughs were expreffly created with the defign of Royal 0f ftrengthening the regal as oppofed to the ' ariftocratic influences ; and it was alfo then that, in a very remarkable ftatute, equal legis- lative power with the other eftates was claimed for the commonalty, not as a new pretention, Equal but as a fundamental ufage of the realm. power « The matters," they faid, " to be eftablifhed for Com- 42 Introductory EJJay. the Firft, which faved to every man, except upon i( the fudden coming of ftrange enemies No forced cc into the realm," the obligation to arm him- Snl!T:prgof felf onlY withIn hIs own mIre- Without a ooidieis. J rtruggle or which our records have kept the trace, thefe popular gains were won. What weaker fovereigns would have perilled life to Character hold, the third Edward conceded freely. He ward ill. was to° clear-lighted to grafp at a fhadow when already he held the fubftance, and he was too powerful to fear concefTions that had a tendency without danger to the throne to con- ciliate the other authorities of the realm, victorious Peace had her victories for him, therefore, not weiieaCe 3S ^s renowned than thofe which he obtained in war. war. He could compofe or amufe his reftless Lords by a politic foundation of the order of the Garter, as he propitiated his difcontented Commons by a frank redrefs of the complaint or grievance. No manlier prince, and none more prudent or fuccefsful, ever occupied the Englifh throne. No influence from the throne having plainer tendencies to popular cultiva- tion, was ever left to a fucceeding age. He had played with confummate genius the part of Firft man ^e firft man in the realm. He had interefted in the i r i r n realm. men in himfelf for no apparently iemlh reafons, had juftified his own ambition by the ambition of a common country, and had aggrandifed his own glory as the fummit of the nation's greater Intel- glorv' Even his palaces gave the feeling of leftual in- elevation to his people. The magnificent fluencesofftrucTures of Weftminfter Hall and Windfor Ins reign. rank juftly with the intellectual influences that were then difTufed ; and, as though an era of § I. The Plantagenets: Depofition of Richard II. 43 fo much that was great mould not pafs with- out a mark to diftinguifh it among even the greateft of all future time, the poet Chaucer Chaucer : arofe to charm and inftruct his countrymen, 132 and, by the purification of their native tongue, to complete the national fame. Nor was this improve- (perhaps the higheft distinction of Edward the ment of Third's reign) to pafs without leaving traces ngl in his ftatute-book. With much appropriate- nefs it was enacted, in the thirty-fixth year of his government, that the Englifh language Adopted which had been thus ennobled, mould in future in Parllf- . . , . , r 1 • n ■ ment ro'Is- be uied as the language or legillation. The greateft of the Edwards governed Eng- land for fifty years, and called together feventy parliaments. He was fucceeded by a prince of qualities in all refpects the reverfe of his, and whom Parliament depofed. Yet not more Richard certainly in the enforced refignation of the IJ- J377- crown which clofed the reign, than in the rebellion of the ferf-clafs which fignalifed its commencement, did Richard the Second's rule bear teftimony to the ftrength and efficacy of principles promoted equally by the rule of Edward. Placed even on the inferior ground Refults of of a conflict between the higher powers of the ^lchar.d s o ii- • • & f rr- 1 depofition. state ; calling it mere gain to the King when he broke down the exclufive pretentions of the great lords by forcing their Houfe to recognife his writs of fummons, and counting it but as a new privilege to the Barons when they led Henry of Lancafter to the throne ; the confe- quences of this reign were momentous. With at leaft the nominal co-operation of the con- ftituted authorities of his empire, a legitimate 44. Introduftory EJfay. People's King had been depofed ; and never was it power to afterwards difputed, that the folid and fingle fuccef- claim of the dynafty which took his place, fion: refted upon the ability of Parliament, or of the power which thofe Lords and Barons with Sole claim all England armed behind them reprefented, of Houfe fo to ajter the fuccemon. By the wording of or Lan- rr . J . ° caiter. the acts or fettlement connected with tne change, that molt efTential principle of popular right was fully admitted ; and from them were derived the hiftorical and legal precedents which, down to our own time, have proved moft: advantageous to the people. The people's political importance was in fact eftablifhed by it. It ftruck out from the dic- tionary of the State the terms of c divine right,' Terms of and ' indefeafible power.' CCI confefs," faid the Richard s humbled prince to the men who had withdrawn iubmil- . . it • t t j r fion. their allegiance, cc 1 recognile, and, from cer- ' c tain knowledge, confcientioully declare, that ci I confider myfelf to have been, and to be, cc infufficient for the government of this king- ommons wrought out of evil by an all-wife and over- from ruling Providence, that the very mifchiefs inci - HenryV.'s dent to thefe wars, the neceflity for unufual fupplies, and the unavoidable burdens thrown upon the people, led to fuch legiflative con- ceflions of a popular kind as till then had not been obtained. The neceffities of the fovereign were fupplied, but the full equivalent was demanded and received in a maintenance of the reftraints upon his prerogative. The dif- Further tinction of Henry's reign in conflitutional reftraints hiftory will always be, that from it dates a prero^a_ power, indifpenfable to a free and limited tive. monarchy, of which not only were the leading E 2 52 Introduftory EJfay. fafeguards now obtained, but at once fo firmly eftablifhed, that againft the mock of inceflant refiftance in later years they flood perfectly unmoved. Admiflion They had followed, as a kind of inevitable ofielifla- con^ecluenceJ from that formal admiflion of mre. legislative rights in the Commons, juft adverted to, which led to the change from Petitions to Bills. An Act had been parted, providing that "from this time forward, by complaint puj. popular wrath demanded them as victims ; ley. and, it being more convenient that death mould wipe out their debt, than that by any worfe accident the royal exchequer mould be called to make reftitution, the new King gave them up to the executioner. Strong-willed as the Tudor Tudors were, they were generally able to put j^ics. a prefent rein upon their paffions, when by fuch means they could make more fure of their ultimate fafe indulgence. They reigned in 80 Introductory EJfay. Caufesof England, without a fuccefsful rifing againft them, for upwards of a hundred years : but not more by a ftudied avoidance of what might fo provoke the country, than by the moft refolute repreffion of every effort, on the part of what remained of the peerage and great families, to make head againft the Throne. yielding They gave free indulgence to their tyranny to peopie, only within the circle of the court, while they nobles. & unceafingly watched and conciliated the temper of the people. The work they had to do, and which by more fcrupulous means was not pof- fible to be done, was one of paramount necef- fity ; the dynafty uninterruptedly endured for only fo long as was requifite to its thorough Talk of completion ; and to each individual fovereign Sovereign. t^ie particular tafk might feem to have been fpecially affigned. It was Henry's to fpurn, renounce, and utterly caft off, the Pope's authority, without too fuddenly revolting the people's ufages and habits ; to arrive at bleffed Henry's, refults, by ways that abetter man might have I5°9- held to be accurfed; during the momentous change in progrefs, to keep in neceffary check both the parties it affected ; to perfecute with an equal hand the Romanift and the Lutheran ; to fend the Proteftant to the ftake for refilling Popery, and the Roman Catholic to the fcaffold for not admitting himfelf to be Pope ; while he meantime plundered the monafteries, rooted out and hunted down the priefts, alienated the abbey lands, and glutted his creatures and his Edward's, own coffers with that enormous fpoil. It was IS47- Edward's to become the ready and undoubting inftrument of Cranmer's defign ; to accept the §ii. The Tudor s : Henry VIII. 8 1 Reformation as it was fo prefented to him; in his brief reign, really to efiablifh Proteftantifm on our Englifh foil ; but, with all the inexperience and more than the obftinacy of youth, fo harfhly, unfparingly, and precipitately to force upon the people Cranmer's compromife of doctrine and obfervance, as to render poflible, even perhaps unavoidable, his elder fitter's reign. It was Mary's to undo the effect of Mary's. fuch precipitate eagernefs of the Reformers, I553" by lighting the fires of Smithfield; and oppor- tunely to arreft the waverers from Protertant- ifm, by exhibiting in their excefs the very word vices, the cruel bigotry, the hateful intolerance, the fpiritual flavery, of Rome. It was Elizabeth's finally and for ever to uproot Eliza- that flavery from amongft us, to champion all "g6' over the world a new and nobler faith, and immovably to eftablifh in England the Pro- tectant religion. But though the talks thus appointed to this Tudor imperious and felf-willed family, had the effect ^cva- '" of imparting an exceptional character to their tional. ftyle and courfe of government, it is not to be inferred that even they dared openly to violate thofe old fundamental Englifh laws of which it has ever been the nature, in all cafes, adopting the fine expreffion of Fortefcue, Cf to declare " in favour of liberty." Henry fent to the its checks fcaffold whomever he pleafed, from within the andlimits- precincts of the Court; but when, without the intervention of parliament, he would have taken the money of the people, he had to retreat before the refinance offered, and publicly to difavow the intention of breaking the laws 82 Introductory EJfay. Eliza- beth's con ceffions. Mary's weaknefs. Houfe of Com- mons. of the realm. Elizabeth's rule had been not lefs imperious than her father's, yet one of her lateft a6ls was freely to furrender to the Houfe of Commons her demand for certain mono- polies, which had raifed a fierce refiftance in that houfe. Mary was able to burn, at her pleafure, the alienators of the abbey lands ; but over the lands themfelves, inverted by forms of law in their new proprietors, fhe difcovered that fhe was powerlefs. Unworthy as the pofition was, indeed, in which the Houfe of Commons confented to place itfelf in thefe reigns, what furvived of independence and courage ftill was able to find exprefTion there ; Pofition of and the meaneft-fpirited of its affembl ages had yet gleams of popular daring, which mow how little might have ferved, even then, to put fubftance into the forms of liberty, and how ready was even a Tudor King, mowed that ihe had not remained un- confcious or unmoved by the vehemence and fharpnefs of that cry. Greater!: of the Tudors as fhe unqueftionably was, it was when her authority might feem to have been moft weakened, that me bequeathed to the race which fucceeded hers, by her laft ac~t of fove- reignty, an example which might have faved them the throne, if they could have profited by it. Unhappily they could only imitate her in the qualities which provoked, and not in thofe which fubdued or turned afide, refiftance. Ehza- Jt js a finking fact in the career of this great beth s " ami- Queen, that me could put afide her hatred and pathy to contempt even of Puritanifm itfelf, when fhe n ans. £lw ^ j^ j-,ecc)rne f0 traasfufed with the defires and wants of the people as to reprefent no longer a religious difcontent alone. While fhe believed it to be confined within that limit, the prifon and the rack were the only replies Puritan fhe made to it : becaufe fhe knew that from fympathy an ferious attacks to maintain it, the caufe fhe Eliza. championed then protected her moft effect- beth. ually ; and that from the very dungeons into which fhe might throw the Puritan leaders, they would yet be ready to offer up, as they did, their prayers for the fafety of herfelf and § ii. The Tudor s : Elizabeth. 89 the {lability of her government. For to all the world it had become notorious, that the deftinies and fate of the Reformation had for the time fallen exclufively into her hands ; and that not in England only did fhe animate Champion every effort connected with the new faith, but qJ^3^ that, in her, centred not lefs the hopes of all Reforma- who were carrying on the ftruggle, againft tlon- overwhelming numbers, in other lands. Of the movement, however, of which fhe was thus the heroine, fhe unhappily never recog- nifed the entire meaning and tendency ; and inftead of difarming Puritanifm by conceffton, fhe had ftrengthened and cherifhed it by perfecution. But, towards the clofe of her reign, when, Puritan- after that fubduement of the Roman Catholic llm m a . . 1 • 1 n 1 J new form : power on the continent to which lhe had devoted fo many glorious years, fhe found leifure to investigate patiently the domeftic concerns of her kingdom, the old Puritan remonftrance prefented itfelf to her under a new form, and in ominous conjunction with very wide-fpread political difTatisfaction. Every- joined where voices had become loud againft royal W1*h r i- 3,i 1 political patents or monopolies ; ana not only was her difcontent. firft minifter's coach mobbed in the ftreets when he went to open her parliament of 1601, but, when Mr. Serjeant Heyle rofe in that parlia- ment to exprefs his amazement that a fubfidy fhould be refufed to the Queen, feeing that fhe had no lefs a right to the lands and goods of the Subject than to any revenue of her A Queen's crown, the Houfe univerfally " hemmed and SelJeant * coughed "laughed and talked" down the learned down. 90 Introductory EJfay. Serjeant. Nor was the afpect of affairs become lefs grave or ftrange, when, a little later in that Cecil's fame affembly, Cecil thought it right to warn warning to ^ ]ower Houfe of dangers which had par- Commons. . £> i • ■ j ticularly declared themfelves to his ripe and experienced judgment. cc I muft needs give f< you this for a future caution, that whatfo- " ever is fubject to public expectation cannot ic be good, while the parliament matters are iC ordinary talk in the ftreet. I have heard cc myfelf, being in my coach, thefe words u fpoken aloud : God prof per thofe that further Eliza- "the overthrow of thefe monopolies!" It had not beth's laft tjien feemecj poffible to the Secretary's experi- appear- , ^ i r \r • i i • i • ance in ence, that the Oueen herielr might think it Parlia- fafer (-0 attract this prayer to her own profperity than to let any one elfe reap the benefit of it ; but a very few days undeceived him. Eliza- beth in perfon went to the Houfe, withdrew all claim to the monopolies which had excited refiftance, redreffed other grievances complained of, and quitted Weftminfter amid the iliouts and prayers of the people that God might profper their Queen. Within two more years fhe died, bequeathing the Crown to her coufin of Scotland. James I. To this point, then, the Tudor fyftem had l6°3* been brought, when Scotland and England became united under one fovereignty, and the noble inheritance fell to a race, who, compre- hending not one of the conditions by which Two alone it was poffible to be retained, profligately kingdoms mifufed until they completely loft it. The deTthe"11" calamity was in no refpect forefeen by the Stuarts, ftatefman, Cecil, to whofe exertion it was mainly §n. The Sudors : Elizabeth's Succejfor. 91 due that James was feated on the throne ; yet in regard to it he cannot be held blamelefs. Right he undoubtedly was, in fo far as the courfe he took fatisfied a national defire, and brought under one crown two kingdoms that Opportu- could not feparately exift with advantage to I"1^10 ^ either ; but it remains a reproach to his name that he let flip the occafion of obtaining for the people fome fettled guarantees which could not then have been refufed, and which might have faved half a century of bloodfhed. None No condi- fuch were propofed to tames. He was allowed tionsmade f • • • T.t Accef- to feize a prerogative, which for upwards of f10n> fifty years had been {trained to a higher pitch than at any previous period of the Englifh hiftory ; and his clumfy grafp clofed on it without a fign of remonftrance from the lead- ing ftatefmen of England. tc Do I mak the Cf judges ? Do I mak the bifhops ? " he exclaimed, as the powers of his new dominion dawned on his delighted fenfe : tc then, God's -i throne troubled fovereignty. As his fucceffion to the Englifh throne drew nearer, his authority in his hereditary kingdom grew more ftrong. Many of his enemies had periihed, others had Joy of become impoverished ; and all began to think s^dtiand it more profitable game to join their king in a foray on the incalculable wealth of England, than to continue a ftruggle with him for the doubtful prizes of his barren and intractable Scotland. But his difputes with his fubjects furvived his dangers from them. What Indigna- tamed the laity, had made more furious thetl1onot clergy ; who already, in no diftant virion, faw their fovereign feated on the Englifh throne furrounded by the pomps of prelacy, and armed newly with engines of oppreffion againft themfelves. Never was Kirk fo re- bellious, in flaming up, fynod after fynod, againft the fovereign's unprincelinefs and un- godlinefs ; and never was King fo abufive, in protefting before the great God that highland caterans and border thieves were not fuch liars and perjurers as thefe "puritan pefts in " the church." He was in the thickeft fury Eliza- of the contention, when the fycophants who ^eth's had bribed Elizabeth's waiting-woman for nounced. earlieft tidings of her laft breath, hurried head- long into Scotland to falute him as Englifh King. Quieting, then, fome ill-temper of his wife's by fhrewdly bidding her think of nothing but thanking God for the peaceable pofTeflion they had got, James fet out upon his journey Journey fouthward on the 5th of April, 1603. fouthward 98 Introductory EJfay. begun : April, 1603. Novelty of a King after half a century of a Queen. Perfonal charafter- iftics of the new monarch. Face and figure. Slobber- ing fpeech. It was indeed fomething to be thankful for, that peaceable poiTeffion of the land to which his very progrefs was a fort of popular triumph. Doubly wonderful had Kings grown to us, fays old Stowe, fo long had we, fifty years or more, been under Queens. Racing againft each other as for life or death, ruined flatefmen and courtiers, lawyers, doctors, and clergy, civic corporations, mayoralties, officialities of every defcription and kind, all claries and conditions of public men, — eager to be fhone upon by the new-rifen fun. And furely never from ftranger luminary darted beams of hope or promife upon expectant courtiers. The fon of a moil: unhappy mother, by a miferable marriage, and even before birth ftruck by the terror of the murder of Rizzio, James was born a coward, and through life could never bear even the fight of a drawn fword. He was of middle ftature, and had a tendency to corpulence, which the faihion of his drefs greatly exaggerated. He had a red complexion and fandy hair, and a fkin fofter, it was faid, than taffeta farfenet, becaufe he never tho- roughly wafhed himfelf, but was always rubbed flightly with the wet end of a napkin. His fanguine face had only the fcantieft growth of beard ; and his large eye rolled about unceaf- ingly with fuch fufpicious vigilance, that it put fairly out of countenance all but the moil experienced courtiers. He had a big head, but a mouth too fmall for his tongue, fo that he not only ilobbered his words when he talked, but drank as if he were eating his drink, which leaked out on either fide again § in. Fir ft Stuart King. 99 into the cup. His clothes formed a woollen rampart around him, his breeches being in large plaits and full fluffed, and his doublets quilted for fliletto proof; and fo weak and Shuffling ricketty were his legs that his fteps became §ait- circles, and he was well-nigh helplefs when he would walk alone. cc He likes," fays the aftonifhed chaplain of the Venetian embaffy, cc in walking, to be fupported under the arms Abfence " by his chief favourites." It was in truth a of felf- neceffity, as the favourites were. His body had upp01 as little in itfelf to fuftain it, as his mind. Both muffled on by circular movements, and both had need of fupports from without. But, if the time has now come in England A fence to for any ferious conflict between the Subject monarchy j j thrown and the Crown, where any longer is that fence down. or barrier to the monarchy which the perfonal qualities and bearing of Englim fovereigns have heretofore thrown up ; and which in part years, even when its privileges were mofr. onerous, has been no inconfiderable protection to it ? This clumfy, uncouth, fhambling Courtiers figure, with its goggle eyes, muffling legs, and coniound- flobbering tongue, confounded even an eager congregation of courtiers ; and by the time it reached London, a witnefs not prejudiced takes upon himfelf to avouch, cc the admiration of (c the intelligent world was turned into con- " tempt." Up to the clofe of the journey, neverthelefs, Royal the contempt had been decently difguifed. At {JJ°£jj|! Newcaftle and York, magnificent civic enter- don. tainments awaited his Majefty. With fplen- dour not lefs profufe, Sir Robert Cary received ioo Introdufiory EJJay. Entertain- him at Widdrington, the Bifhop of Durham at Durham, Sir Edward Stanhope at Grimflon, Lord Shrewfbury at Workfop, Lord Cumber- land at Belvoir Cattle, Sir John Harrington at Exton, the Lord Burghley at Burghley, and Sir Thomas Sadler at Standen. With princely AtHinch. hofpitality, Sir Oliver Cromwell regaled him mbrook : at Hinchinbrook ; and, there, the fturdy little nephew and namefake of Sir Oliver received Oliver probably his firft imprefTion of a king, and of (Jt?A)Ve t'ie Something lefs than divinity that hedged firft lees a him round. At Broxbourne, too, where Sir King. Henry Cox had provided noble entertainment, greeting as memorable was in ftore for him ; for here the greateft man then living in this univerfe, fave only one, waited to offer him interview homage. acc°rding to Lord Thomas Howard, the King was to be feen leaning upon him, pinching his cheek, fmoothing his ruffled gar- ment, and, while directing his difcourfe to others, looking ftill at him. He attended him at his rooms in illnefs, taught him Latin, beg- gared the beft to enrich him ; and, when the wife of Raleigh knelt at his feet to implore him not to make deftitute the hero he had imprifoned, fpurned her from him with the words, cc I mun ha' the land ! I mun ha' it for Somerfet's - fore his death, had fattened upon his name, and were the inheritance of his race. Let an intelligent foreigner defcribe for opinion;-. us the opinion of their ruler, which had be-°fthe come generally prevalent among the Englifh peop e people. fC Confider for pity's fake," fays M. de Beaumont, in one of his defpatches, u that the proceeding by Bill was unnecefTary, " and that it would be a better courfe to 6b- li tain judgment on the Impeachment." This, I mall proceed to mow, was exactly the opinion Line which Hampden had formed ; and it is yet x^rJn b more ftartling to add that in adopting it he Hampden, was only following Pym's lead. Not to Macaulay, or to any one, had it occurred as within reafonable probability, that Pym him- felf, upon the mere ground of policy, might alfo have oppofed the Attainder. Such never- thelefs was the fact. The evidence of D'Ewes Evi- ls decifive. It fets at reft, at once and for d"£e ot ever, fuch perfonal ftatements and charges connected with this great fact in hiftory as have been variouftv difputed and long con- tested by hiftorians ; and it apportions at laft, Doubts with fome degree of correctnefs, the refpon- let at reft- fibilities of blame and praife incurred by the men who abandoned the way of Impeachment they had themfelves originated, in order to proceed by Bill."+~ That mode of procedure, it feems, had Procedure been canvaffed at the opening of the feflion ; JjJ Anally and having been itrongly advocated by St. propofcd. John, Glyn, and Maynard, a Bill of Attainder was actually prepared. But Pym and Hamp- den were fo bent the other way, and fo con- vinced that their proofs would eftablifh the charge of treafon under the ftatute of Edward, p and that the Impeachment went on. Nor in this Hampden belief did they ever waver for an inftant. Up for Im> to the clofe of the proceedings on the trial, ment> 1 3 4 The Grand Remonftrance. they had an invincible perfuafion that in the feveral hearings before the upper Houfe both the fa&s and the law had been eftablifhed ; and when the fitting of the thirteenth day, Satur- Difpute day the ioth of April, had clofed abruptly April, m violent diflatisfaclion at a decifion of the peers which allowed Strafford to reopen the evidence on other articles provided the demand of the Commons to give additional proofs of the twenty-third article were conceded, they returned to their houfe, not to throw up the Impeachment, but to prepare the heads of a Diflktif- conference with the Lords for fettlement of with°n ^uc'1 matters or* difference as had arifen. But Lords. with them returned a more difcontented fection, numbering among its members not only fuch men as Hafelrig and Henry Marten, Oliver St. John and Glyn, but alfo a group com- prifed of Falkland, Culpeper, the Hothams, Tomkins (member for Weobly), and others, all of whom afterwards either openly embraced the caufe of the King, or fecretly confpired to further it. And by thefe men it was that the project of proceeding by Bill, formerly laid afide, was now fuddenly revived and prefTed. " Divers," fays D'Ewes, " fpake ived. cc whether we fhould proceed by way of Bill " of Attainder, or as we had begun ; but " moll inclined that we mould go by Bill." Oppofed The principal opponents were Pym and byPym Hampden. Hampden. The additional evidence fought to be given before theLords, upon the twenty-third article, was that copy of the Notes taken at the Elder Council Board by the elder Vane on the day Vane's ' J Bill of Attainder rev § iv. Attainder of the Earl of Strafford. 135 of the diflblution of the Short Parliament, Notes of which had been abstracted from his cabinet by Counci1- the younger Vane, and by him given to Pym, who had founded the twenty-third article upon them. They were publicly read for the firft time, after the tumultuous return of the Com- mons to their own houfe on that Saturday afternoon ; and from them it appeared, not Objection only that Strafford had given the King fuch Zofac- traitorous advice as the article in queftion tion. charged him with (that, having been denied fupply by his Parliament, the Sovereign was abfolved and loofe from all rule of govern- ment, and that he had an army in Ireland which he might employ to reduce " this king- " dom" to obedience), but that Laud and Lord Cottington alfo had taken part in the dan- gerous counfel. Amid the excitement con- Exdte- lequent thereon, the Bill of Attainder was nient produced ; and the propofal by which it was met on the part of thofe who objected to its introduction, was, that a narrative of the cir- cumstances attending the difcovery and pro- duction of Vane's important Notes of Council mould be drawn up and fubmitted to the Lords at a conference ; and that if, upon delibera- Confer- tion, the Lords decided not to receive it except "ice with ,. . c • • , r i Lords upon condition or permitting the acculed to pr0p0fed. reopen the evidence upon other articles, then that it mould be waived, and immediate fteps taken to fum up the cafe on both fides, and demand judgment. Any other courfe, they argued, would involve not only the certainty of delay, but a ftrong probability of difagree- ment with the Houfe of Lords. So decided J 6 The Grand Remonjlrance. was the feeling for the Bill, however, that for once thefe great leaders were outvoted, and it was introduced and read a firft time ; a fug- Pym and geftion of Hampden's, for refuming at Mon- Hampden day's fitting the preparation of heads for a conference with the upper Houfe, being at the fame time afTented to. Sitting of What occurred in the latter part of this the 12th Monday's fitting (the early part was occupied 1 641.' by tne fpeeches of Pym and young Vane in reference to the Minutes of Council, and by the examination of the elder Vane's fecretary as to their abstraction from his cabinet), the reader who turns to the facfimile given at the open- ing of this volume may Study from D'Ewes's Reported blotted record, taken down while yet the fitting %v , went on, and while the men named in it were D Ewes s / . MS. bufy talking and writing around him. He will probably, however, elect to avail himfelf of the labour I have already given to the talk of decyphering it, and prefer to read it in the plain print fubjoined. Nor, having fo enabled him to understand the existing condition of D'Ewes's manufcript, and the caufes which will continue to keep it a fealed book from all but the moft determined Student, Shall I think it necefTary to recur to the Subject in the frequent further references I am about to make, and in which everything required to render my extracts intelligible will be Silently fupplied. Two The report now to be quoted is of the pages in rounrheSt kind, as will be obferved : paSTing tac-lmnle. . D . r ' . K & abruptly from one point to another without explanation, and leaving upon record things fubfequently laid afide. But its evidence is § iv. Attainder of the Earl of Strafford. 137 decifive as to the perfonal matters for which alone Pym and it is here introduced ; and never more can be ^™p,ien raifed the queftion, fo long and eagerly debated, together. of whether or not Hampden quitted Pym's fide during the difcuffion of the Bill of Attainder, and temporarily joined with the party whom he afterwards very determinedly oppofed. Upon this, as upon every other great incident of the time, the two friends held, their courfe together, from firft to laft. It muft be kept ever in view, however, that they why they did not oppofe the introduction of the Bill of ^tpt°;^_ Attainder as having any doubt either of Straf- der. ford's guilt, or of the fufficiency of the proofs againft him. They oppofed it for the exprefs reafon that they held the proofs already placed before the Lords to be fufficient ; and their fubfequent affent to it, when the majority finally determined on that courfe, involved no inconfiftency. iv. Attainder of the Earl of Strafford. 145 own Houfe, and afterwards fpeak again at the Lords' bar if neceffary ? To which Maynard Speech ot fomewhat hotly replied, that he fhould hold Maynard r 1 1 j r 1 againit. Juch a running up and down rrom one place to another to be nothing lefs than a difhonour to the Commons. The word called up Pym, Pym in who appears to have made one of his raoft reS^' effective appeals. He fubmitted to the Houfe that the queftion before it, of hearing and replying to Strafford's counfel before the Lords, did not bind them either to continue, or to abandon, the proceeding by bill. That might hereafter be fettled, according to the wifdom and pleafure of the Houfe ; but what they Advo- had now to confider was the queftion, really catesStraf- involving honour, whether the pledge was to claim to be kept or to be broken, which, at the time hearing. when their counfel firft rofe before the Lords to fpeak againft Strafford, they then undoubtedly gave that Strafford's counfel fhould be heard in his behalf before the fame tribunal. cc If," continued Pym, according to the report in D'Ewes's manufcript of this remarkable fpeech, " if we did not go this way to have it heard " publickly in matter of law as well as it had " been heard for matter of fact, we fhould " much difhonour ourfelves, and hazard our " own fafeguards." To this appeal the Houfe yielded, and the His ap- fame fpirit which fuggefted it prevailed in the j?eal f,f , fubfequent proceedings. It was upon Pym's motion, when the Impeachment was finally abandoned, that all its raoft material articles were imported into the Bill ; that the facts, under each article, were voted feparately ; and 146 The Grand Remonjlrance. His fug- that, before the third reading paffed to a quef- §efti°ns as tion, the Houfe firft heard the " Gentlemen tainder. " °f the l0ng r°be " argue at great length the feveral points of law, and then proceeded judicially to vote upon them. It would tax a greater ingenuity, I think, than that of the privy councillor and county member to whom reference has been made, to difcover in all this anything of Barrere or Fouquier Tinville. It is a fchool of comparifon, how- ever, to which recourfe is ever readily found by unreafoning afTailants of the parliamentary Englifh leaders ; and Mr. Bankes has not fcrupled to compared declare that " while the Englifh are thought to r rcncli /* • . Revolu- " to be lefs fanguinary in their days of political tion. « frenzy than the French, undoubtedly the cc hiftory of London in 1641 bears very many 0 . 1641. powers to conduct bufinefs in the interval, Houfes lafted from the 9th of September, when the meet- Houfe had not rifen until nine o'clock at night, to the morning of the 2.0th of October. On that day the members reaffembled ; but great gaps were feen in their ranks, and it Defaulters became obvious, as week followed week with- c°™ * nS out fupplying thefe deficiencies, that the average of attendance had confiderably dimin- ifhed. Lord Clarendon, though he hefitates expreflly to fay fo, would have us afTume that the King's party fuffered moft by this falling off ; but the afTumption is hardly reconcileable with the ftrenuous exertions of the patriots to compel a more full attendance. It appears from the D'Ewes manufcript that Strode went Strode's even fo far, fome two months after the recefs, ProPofi- as to propofe to fine a member £50, or expel againft the him, if he perfifted in abfence without leave ; abrent M 2 164 The Grand Remonfirance. without leave. Liberal party- weakened, Forebod- ings com- ing true. Report from the Recels Com- mittee. and when fuggeftion was made on the King's behalf from Edinburgh, for the ifTue of a proclamation requiring full attendance of all the members of the Houfe, the Lord Keeper and Chief Juftice Bankes were againft it^as unfeafonable. The truth feems to have been, that the defection comprifed generally the clafs of not very fettled opinions which had hitherto fided moftly with the ftrongeft ; and that its manifestation at this critical time, bringing new proof of influences at work as well within as without the Houfe, to weaken the power of its leaders, furnifhed alfo a more complete juftification, if that were needed, of the courfe on which they had refolved. Nor had they affembled many hours before darker warnings gathered in upon them. The Scottifh journey had borne its fruits. The entire diibanding of the Northern army at the time appointed had been intercepted by the King's order, under the hand of Vane ; there had been communications with it, during the King's progrefs to Edinburgh ; and the in- trigues in Edinburgh itfelf had been fo far partially fuccefTful, that a fchifm had been effected among the leaders of the Covenant of a character precifely fimilar to that which Hyde had undertaken for England. It was Pym's duty now, as chairman of the com- mittee appointed to fit during the recefs, after narrating the difcovery of Goring's plot, to place before the Commons certain evidences exifting of another widely fpread army confpi- racy in England, of the weight or importance to be attached to which, and of its poflible § vi. Reajfembling of Parliament ; Oft. 1641. 165 connection with matters then tranfpiring in Another Scotland, the Houfe would judge. Falkland Plot- and Hyde attempted to turn the debate into another direction, and the refult was flill dqubtful when Pym, in the midft of the fitting, produced letters which the committee had received from Hampden. Hampden was Letters flill in Edinburgh, nominally (with Fiennes Produced and Stapleton) as acommiffioner on the Scotch Hampden, debt, but really to watch the King's proceed- ings there ; and the letters now handed in from the member for Bucks, and which had reached the committee by an exprefs, detailed the fcheme jufl difcovered at Edinburgh for the afTaflination of the leaders of the Cove- The "In- nant.* The entire contents of thefe letters cident," # Clarendon fays explicitly that Montrofe, while profeffing Charge to be able to fatiffy the King of the treaibn of Argyle and againlt the Hamiltons, advifed the more certain and expeditious mode Montrofe. of difpoling of them by affafTination, which he " frankly "undertook to do" (Hi/l. ii. 17). The noble hiftorian adds that the King " abhorred that expedient," but unhappily even he is not able to deny that the King continued his regard and confidence to the man who (as at any rate he appears himfelf to have believed, at the clofe of his life, when the beft opportunities had meanwhile prefented them- felves for maturing his knowledge and judgment of the facts) had aclually fuggefted aflaffination. The fubject is fur- ther purfued in my Arreft of the Five Members, § xxviii. From the manufcript records of thefe proceedings of the Long Parliament which are before me as I write, I find that Pym, 30th Oc- as early as ten days after the prefent date, namely, on the 30th tober. October, appears to have been thoroughly conicious of what Pym's had been going on in Edinburgh. In the courfe of the more ipeech on elaborate itatementhe then gave of the circumftances (adverted Army to in his fpeech ten days before) of " a new defign now lately, defigns. " again to make ufe of the army againft us," he has occafion to advert alio to the fact that "fecret forces were ready in " fome places, and fecret meetings had been in Hamplhire by " fundry great recufants;" and with this he couples a warn- ing "that the Prince" (afterwards Charles II.) "who was " appointed to be at Richmond, was often at Oatlands with 1 66 7 'he Grand Remonjlrance. were not divulged : but, on the further ftate- ment then made by Pym, a propofition by Hyde (which Falkland fupported) for leaving the bufinefs of Scotland to the Parliament Hyde and there, and paffing to confideration of the Falkland pay Qf t^Q £ve undifbanded troops of the outvoted. *■ J Northern army, was ftrenuoufly refilled, and at laft fuccefTfully. Then, upon the motion of Sir Benjamin Rudyard fupported by Sir Walter Earle and others, among whom Sir Simonds D'Ewes diftinguifhed himfelf by a highly metaphorical and ingenious addrefs in which he enlarged upon a wholefome bar- barous cuftom prevailing in Africa of hanging up one Lion to fcare the reft, refolutions were paffed for immediate conference with the Lords on the fafety of the parliament and kingdom ; Pym's re- instructions were given for occupation, with a carried, ftrong force, of all the military ports of the city; the trained-bands of London were ordered up to guard the two Houfes by night as well as by day ; and thefe troops, with the fimilar force enrolled in Weftminfter, were fubfe- quently turned into a regular parliamentary guard acting under direction of the Earl of Effex. All this had paffed during the day of the 20th of October ; and in the evening, Edward Nicholas,* already named as fo foon " the Qjaeen, and away from the Marquis of Hertford his " Governor, for whom there were no convenient lodgings at £ " Oatlands." Then, after a certain break, thefe remarkable f ' a" words follow : "That he feared the con/piracy ivent round, tracked " anc* 'was *n ^cot^a?1^ as 'we^ as England."'' * An able and a moderate man, who ferved his mailer faithfully, and (rareft of qualities in a King's fervant then) not urvwifely. Clarendon defcribes him, in one of the iup- Charaaer puffed paffages of his Hiftory, as " one of the Clerks of the § vi. Reajfembling of Parliament : 0£l. 1641. 167 to be knighted and made Secretary of State in place of Windebank, and who now fat for Newton in Hants, keeping the fignet during Charles's abfence in Edinburgh, wrote to Alarm of the King that fome well-affected parliament ^hola! men had been with him that day in great trouble, in confequence of news from Scotland, and that he had not been able to calm their anxiety.* As the days pafTed on, and new light was thrown on the equivocal polition of the King with the promoters of the league againft Argyle and the Hamiltons, this caufe for trouble to the " well-affected " did not diminifh. In a fecond letter, his Majefty is King's told how much his fervants in the Houfe are difheart- difheartened to be kept fo long in darknefs. ened. In a third, he has further notification of the great pain which is caufed by his filence. Nevertheless, that mofl: fignifkant filence continued. Hampden followed foon after his letters, Arrival of leaving his fellow-commiffioners f in Edin- HamPden- burgh, and arrived in London while the newly introduced bill to take away the bifhops' votes in the other Houfe was under difcuffion. " Council, who had been Secretary to the Duke of Bucking- of Edward " ham for the Maritime Affairs, a man of good experience, Nicholas. " and of a very good reputation" (ii. 600). The King made him Secretary of State as foon as he returned from Scotland. See Clarendon's Life, i. 94. * " The next day after the receipt of the letters," fays Indirect Clarendon (ii. 579), " the Earls of Effex and Holland fadly ways of " told me, that I might clearly difcern the indirect way of the Court. " the Court, and how odious all honeft men grew to them." f The Hon. Nathaniel Fiennes, Lord Say and Seale's fecond fon, member for Banbury ; and Sir Philip Stapleton, member for Boroughbridge. 168 The Grand Remonjirance. Bjfhop's Hyde had kept faithfully his promife to the difcuffio" King. Upon this bill being reproduced, Falk- land rofe, and, to the general amazement, retracted the views he had formerly been fo deeply pledged to, and declared his determina- tion to vote againft it. D'Ewes, and other ftaunch holders of Puritan opinions, appear to have been completely unprepared for this demonstration ; but very fpeedily others joined in it, among whom Sir Edward Dering, the member for Kent, notably diftinguifhed him- felf. Thus Hyde's fcheme was thriving ; and Speakers the well-affected Parliament-men, as Secretary for and Nicholas calls them, were now acting as a com- pact body, and not fcrupling to avow the new tactics that governed them. "1 am forry," faid Hampden, that flowing and obliging humanity and goodnefs to mankind, that primitive fim- plicity and integrity of life. But it is doubtlefs the wifer courfe to feparate from all mere party alTociations fuch qualities as thefe, and rather to think of them as vouchfafed to fuftain and fweeten our common nature under all its con- Services ditions of conteft and trial. He afked no )f man's opinion, fays Clarendon, whom he de- fired to ferve ; it was enough that he found a man of wit, family, or good parts, clouded with poverty or want ; and fuch was his gene- rality and bounty for all worthy perfons of that kind needing fupplies and encouragement (whofe fortunes required, and whofe fpirits made them fuperior to, ordinary obligations),! * HiJI. iv. 245. Hyde's t " As," Clarendon takes occafion to fay (Life, i. 46), happy "Ben Jonfon, and many others of that time." "Which " yet," he adds, " they were contented to receive from him, " becaufe his bounties were fo generoufly distributed, and lb " much without vanity and orientation, that, except from " thofe few perfons from whom he lbmetimes received the " character of fit objeft for his benefits, or whom he intruded " for the more fecret deriving them to them, he did all he wit happy eulogy § vii. Lord Falkland. 179 that he feemed to have his eftate in truft for fuch alone. To that generous home which he Open kept open to his friends near Oxford, no man oxford* had to pay toll or tax of opinion at entering.* There, without queftion afked, men of all opinions in Church and State alTembled ; find- ing in their hoft fuch an immenfenefs of wit and fuch a folidity of judgment, fo infinite. a to men fancy bound in by a mod logical ratiocination, o{ . . r \ ni 11 11 • opinions. iuch a vait knowledge that he was not ignorant in anything, with fuch an exceffive humility as if he had known nothing, that the place was " could that the perfons themfelves who received them mould " not know from what fountain they flowed; and when that Exquifite " could not be concealed, he fuftained any acknowledgment deljcacv " from the perfons obliged with fo much trouble and baftiful- " nefs, that they might well perceive, that he was even " afhamed of the little he had given, and to receive fo large " a recompenfe for it." * " Who all found their lodgings there," fays Clarendon, Picture of " as ready as in the colleges ; nor did the lord of the houfe Falk- " know of their coming or going, nor who were in his houfe, land's " till he came to dinner, or fupper, where all ftill met : other- houfe. " wife there was no troublefome ceremony or conftraint, to " forbid men to come to the houfe, or to make them weary of " flaying there ; fo that many came thither to ftudy in a better " air, finding all the books they could defire in his library, " and all the perfons together whole company they could " wifh, and not find in any other fociety." Life, i. 48. In his hiflory Clarendon adds that upon one fubjeft only was Falkland intolerant in refpeft of thofe whom he received, and Intolerant he attributes it to the fail that the Papifls had corrupted his only of two younger brothers (his mother was a Catholic) " being intole- " both children, and ftolen them from his houfe, and tranfported ranee, "beyond leas;" and that they had alio "perverted his " fillers :" upon which occaiion, Clarendon mentions, " he " writ two large difcourfes againft the principal pofitions of " that religion, with that fharpnefs and flyle, and full weight " of reafon, that the Church is deprived of great jewels in the " concealment of them, and that they are not publifhed to the " world." Hift. iv. 244. Some curious letters having Difcourfes reference to thefe incidents in Falkland's family will be found againft in the Clarendon State Papers, ii. 535 — 538. Popery. n 2 180 The Grand Remonfirance. A college to them as a college fituated in a purer in purer o|j- * Were it poflible that a time might come when all recollection mould have pafled away of the momentous quarrel in which Falkland threw down his life, thofe things might yet continue his name and memory with profit and advantage to all men. And even above Three them we would place the three particular cha- fpecial racteriftics which the affection of his friend iftics: " cannot help recording, while he qualifies them as niceties with which he was reproached during life as unfuited to f(the neceffity and {< iniquity of the time." Holding, on the other hand, that were it only pofTible to find men pure enough to practife them, they would abate the neceffity and iniquity of every time, I mail clofe the feet ion by placing them on record here as the higheft human eulogy to be pronounced on Falkland. The firft was, love of that fo feverely did he adore truth that he truth 5 could as eafily have given himfelf leave to fteal as to dilTemble. In other words, to fuffer any man to think that he would do anything which he was refolved not to do, he thought a far more mifchievous kind of lying than any pofitive averring of what could eafily be con- tradicted. The fecond was, that he would hatred of never give the remoteft countenance or enter- fpiesj tainment to the employing of fpies. Such inftruments, he held, muft be fo void of all ingenuoufnefs and common honefty before they could be of ufe, that afterwards they * Clarendon, Hi/}, iv. 243. § viii. The SeceJJion and its Dangers. 1 8 1 could never be fit to be credited ; and he could account no fingle prefervation to be worth fo general a wound and corruption of human fociety as the cherifhing fuch perfons would carry with it. The third was, that he de- reVerence nounced ever with vehement indignation the f°r p"- liberty of opening private letters, upon fufpi- J^^ cion that they might contain matter of dan- gerous confequence ; thinking it fuch a violation of the law of nature that no qualification by office could juftify a fingle perfon in the trefpafs. Such and fo great that lafl particular tref- pafs, indeed, that it may in fome cafes be a moot queftion whether any lapfe of time abfolves the refponfibility of keeping private letters, which the writers of them never meant to be laid open, ever ftrictly and facredly clofed. § viii. The Secession and its Dangers. There was certainly no kind of conceal- Falk- ment or referve, and no diffembling, in what lanci's Falkland told the Houfe upon Hampden's "eea^er . return from Scotland. So far he fhowed the ftrength of his character even in a confeffion of the weaknefs of his conduct. He was no longer difpofed to accept or act upon the counfels of the member for Buckinghamfhire, and he avowed at once that, upon the queftion where they molt widely diverged, he meant to follow Hyde's counfels. He had changed his r>ot opinion in many particulars, as well as to d^but things as perfons, and he chofe frankly to fay Hyde, fo. This was at leaft fair warning. On which- 182 The Grand Remonftrance. Liberal ever fide might be found to lie ultimately the broker^ ri&nt or tne wrong> here was at any rate an end up. to that phalanx which had brought Strafford to the fcaffold, lodged Laud in the Tower, and driven Finch and Windebank into exile ; which had condemned fhip-money, impeached the judges who gave it their fanction, and dragged one of them in open court from the feat his injustice had polluted ; * which had paffed the triennial bill, and voted as un- lawful every tax upon the fubject impofed without confent of the Houfe of Com- mons ; which had abolifhed all j'urifdiclions that reared themfelves above the law ; and before whofe unfhrinking, compact array, alike the petty and the mighty instrument of wrong had fallen, the Stannary Courts and the Court of York, the Star Chamber and the High CommilTion. In not one of thefe retri- butive or reformatory acts, had the party of Hyde and Falkland wavered in the leaft : in Defertion many, they had outstripped even Denzil Hollis, Cromwell, Hampden, and Pym. But they now did not hefitate to give out, as in Falkland's reproach to Hampden, that un- founded inducements had been addreffed to them ; and that this juftified their inftant Its achieve merits. by fe ceders A Judge arretted on the Bench. * I quote from Whitelocke's Memorials (p. 40, Ed. 1732). " February 13, 1640. Sir Robert Berkley, one of the Judges " of the King's Bench, who gave his opinion for Ship money, " was impeached by the Commons of High Treafon, in the " Lords' Houfe, and, by their command, Maxwell, the Ufher " of the Black Rod, came to the King's Bench when the " Judges were fitting, took Judge Berkley from off the Bench, " and carried him away to prifon, which ttruck a great terrour " in the reft of his brethren then fitting in Weftmintter Hall, " and in all his profefTion." § viii. The Seceffion and its Dangers. 183 defertion, as well of the principles they had acted on, as of the men they fo long had acted with. What the alleged mifreprefentations never were, has never been explained. But it is for certain that not an attempt was made by them, before they paffed into opposition againft their old afTociates, to obtain a fingle fecurity for the King's better faith as to any one tranfaction of the year during which they had ranked as his opponents. Still in all refpects unaltered, n^t j8 fave that Strafford flood no longer by his fide, at leaft Charles the Firft cannot be accufed of having tempted thefe men. Their names, and their exertions in debate, are fubmitted by Secretary Nicholas to his matter, with a re- queft for due encouragement to fuch fervice, in the very letters which bear evidence of Charles's continued hatred of the Caufe of Oldcaufe which they had been the defenders, and were f^i to him. now the betrayers. There is hardly an inter- change of confidence at this date between Edinburgh and Whitehall, in which there is not either news of fome frefh fuppofed danger to the parliamentary leaders, received with unconcealed fatisfaction ; or the fuggeftion of fome plot or intrigue againit them, thrown out with eager hope. If they had flinched or wavered for a moment, all that they had gained Danger 01 rauft at once have paffed from their keeping. ° ing a Happily for their own fame, more happily for our peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of their defperate druggie, they ftood quiet and un- difmayed under every danger and every form of temptation. Some days before the realTembling of the Reappear- i84 The Grand Remonfirance. ance of plague. King's defire for adjourn- ment of Houfes. Pym's refiilance. Attempt on Pym's life. Letter delivered Houfe, great ficknefs had broken out in London ; the plague had reappeared in fome quarters ; and the occafion had been feized for an intrigue to ftay the reaflembling, or to pro- cure at Jeaft an adjournment of place if not of time. It is a leading topic in feveral letters from Secretary Nicholas to the King. At firft he is full of hope, defcribing the fpread of the plague and the fhutting up of infected houfes around Weftminfter, and confidently anticipating that adjournment in fome form muft be reforted to, fo rife and dangerous the ficknefs grows. But after three days he has to change his tone, and to tell the King that 11 Mr. Pym " and thofe of his party will not hear that parliament fhall not be held, or fhalJ meet anywhere but in London or Weftminfter. It met, as we have feen ; and Mr. Pym, five days after the meeting, received very decifive intimation of the temper with which the King's partizans out of doors now regarded him. He was fitting in his ufual place, on the right hand beyond the members' gallery, near the bar, on the 25th of October, when, in the midft of debate on a proposition he had fub- mitted for allowance of " powder and bullet " to the City Guard, a letter was brought to him. The Serjeant of the Houfe had received it from a meftenger at the door, to whom a gentleman on horfeback in a grey coat had given it that morning on Fifh-ftreet-hill ; with a gift of a milling, and injunction to deliver it with great care and fpeed. As Pym opened the letter, fomething dropped out of it on the § viii. The SeceJJlon and its Dangers. 185 floor ; but without giving heed to this he read hY *he . do m Serieant to himfelf a few words, and then, holding up the paper, called out that it was a fcandalous libel. Hereupon it was carried up to the lately- Handed appointed Clerk's Affiftant, Mr. John Rufh- £ J^- worth, who, in his unmoved way, read aloud its worth, abufe of the great leader of the Houfe, and its affeveration that if he mould efcape the pre- fent attempt, the writer had a dagger .prepared for him. At this point, however, young Mr. Rufhworth would feem to have loft his coolnefs, for he read the next few lines in an agitated way. They explained what had dropped from the letter. It was a rag that had covered a plague- its con- wound, fent in the hope that infection might by tents' fuch means be borne to him who opened it. " Whereupon," fays the eye-witnefs, from whofe report the incident is now flrft related as it really happened, "the faid clerk's affiftant Mr. Rufh- ** having read fo far, threw down the letter ^°^ s " into the houfe ; and fo it was fpurned away