iiHWL UFORMIA 
 .iDE
 
 m 
 
 '$.
 
 HISTOEICAL 
 
 BIOGEAPHICAL ESSAYS.
 
 HISTOEICAL 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS, 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN FORSTEE. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. 
 
 HISTORICAL. 
 
 THE DEBATES ON THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE , 16-11. 
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1858.
 
 V.I 
 
 LONDON : 
 BRADB0EY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Of the Historical Essays contained in these volumes, 
 the first and the second have not before been printed ; and 
 the third, published two years ago in the Edinbiivgh 
 Revieic, appears with some important additions rendering 
 it so far a new illustration of the period to which it 
 relates, that I have ventured to think I might here 
 reproduce it with Essays having more exclusively the 
 pretension and purpose of making original contribution 
 to history. 
 
 Of the Biographical Essays, two have been published 
 in the Edinburgh Iievietv,nnd two in the Quarterly Review ; 
 but all, as they are now printed, have received large 
 additions and careful revision. Not for this should I 
 have presumed, however, to give them a form less 
 dependant and more accessible than that of the dis- 
 tinguished periodicals in which they appeared originally. 
 A more numerous issue of volumes from the press is 
 not among the wants of the time. But from the first
 
 n PREFACE, 
 
 these Essays were independent biographical studies, and 
 not reviews in the ordinary sense. Such information 
 and opinions as they embodied were their own ; and their 
 design was to supply, in a compact original form, what it 
 seemed very desirable to possess, but impossible else- 
 where to obtain, iipon the particular subjects treated. 
 
 The many additions in the present publication are 
 meant to give to that design greater scope and fullness. 
 They are most considerable in the memoirs of Steele 
 and FooTE ; and in the latter more especially an attempt 
 by means of them has been made to render more complete 
 the picture of a series of comic writings, which are not 
 more remarkable for character and wit than for their 
 vivid and humorous presentment of English vices and 
 foibles in the later half of the eighteenth century, but 
 which accidental causes may probably for ever shut out 
 from the place they might have claimed to occupy in the 
 literature of England. 
 
 Montagu Square, 
 April 1858.
 
 ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 A reference to the notes is intended by (n), and by (MS) the new matter now first 
 drawn from unpublished sources is meant to be indicated. 
 
 I. THE DEBATES ON THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 November and December, 1641. 
 (Now first published.) 1 — 175. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Greatest Party Conflict of the Time — Most neglected by Historians . 1 
 
 Clarendon's studied Misrepresentation of it — Philip Warwick's Anec- 
 dotes — Preparation of Remonstrance during King's absence in 
 Scotland — Remarkable incidents connected with it ... 2 
 
 Treatment of Remonstrance by modern writers — All follow Clarendon — 
 
 What its real intention was ........ 3 
 
 Case of the Parliament against Ministers of the King — Justification of 
 
 the Great Rebellion — Summary of contents — Nature of its appeal . 4 
 
 Difficulty of reproducing it — Proposal to illustrate it from unpublished 
 
 records of debates ......... 5 
 
 Sir Simonds D'Ewes's journal of the Long Parliament — Principal autho- 
 rity for new facts in this Essay — Most interesting of all manu- 
 scripts (n) .......... 6 
 
 Present condition of D'Ewes's unpublished Notes— Their illegibility — 
 Practice of Note-taking in the House (n) — Sir Henry Vane's ob- 
 jection and D'Ewes's reply (MS) ....... 7 
 
 Reference to pages fac-similed at close of volume — Striking historical 
 
 fact therein — Confusions of original MS ..... 8 
 
 Anecdote of Falkland and Cromwell — Position of parties after Execution 
 of Strafford— Critical turning point for all — Mistake of Richard 
 Baxter's corrected (n) ......... 9
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 Debates on the Remonstrance — page 
 
 Reversal of old positiims of Kiug aad House of Commons — Popular cause 
 in great peril — Pressure of anti-popular influences and agencies — 
 Impatience of tlie people . . . . . . . .10 
 
 Nature of crisis — Parties ready to take advantage of it — Evidence of his- 
 torian May (w) 11 
 
 Appeal to People resolved upon — Lord Digby's design for a Remonstrance 
 revived — Warning of Archbishop Williams on information of Pym's 
 servant ..... ...... 12 
 
 r.emonstrance in agitation before Recess (7th of August, 1641) — 
 Reassembling of Houses after Recess (2Qth of October, 1641) and 
 during King's absence in Edinburgh . . . . . . 13 
 
 Deficient attendance of members — Chiefly those of unsettled opinions — 
 
 Strode's proposition to fine or expel absentees (MS) . , .14 
 
 Hampden's letters from Edinbiirgh — The Incident— Pym's reference to it 
 
 on 30th of October (MS) 14 
 
 Effect of news from Scotland respecting the King (MS) — Alarm of 
 
 Secretary Nicholas — His letters to King — His character (n) . . 15 
 
 Arrival of Hampden — Discovers change of opinion in Falkland — Serious 
 
 desertions from popular ranks . . . . . ..16 
 
 New party led by Hyde and Falkland — Abandonment of the old cause 
 
 — Communication opened with King's servants . . . .17 
 
 Plague breaks out in London — Pym refuses consent to adjournment — 
 
 Occurrence in House — Young Mr. Rushworth . . . . . 18 
 
 Attempt on Pym's life related by eye-witness (MS) — Use of his name 
 in Letters of the Queen — Speech of warning by Mr. Robert Goodwin 
 against New Coimsellors at court (MS) . . . . . .19 
 
 Debate on choice of King's coimsellors — Speech of Strode, member for 
 
 Beeralston (MS) 20 
 
 Extraordinary error of historians as to Strode {n) — Mistaken identity . 20 
 
 Hyde's reply — News of Irish rebellion — Debate of 5th of November 
 
 (MS)— Notices of Strode from MS journal («) 21 
 
 Wallei-'s comparison of Pym to Strafford — Pym's reply and rebuke (-MS) 22 
 
 Waller's Apology — The new Royalist Party— Secret overtures to the King 
 
 — King's eager welcome . . . . . . . .23 
 
 Determined attitude of Old liberal Majority against New Opposition 
 
 — Debate on Bishops' Plea and Demurrer (MS) . . . . 24 
 
 Speech of Sir Simonds D'Ewes — Laugh against Mr. Holboi-ne (MS) . 25 
 
 Pym's speech on Irish Rebellion — Cromwell suggests raising troops by 
 Ordnance of Houses (MS) — Alarm of Court (n) — Germ of Par- 
 liamentary army .......... 26
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 Debates on the Remonstrance — page 
 
 First rough draft of Remonstrance submitted to House on Monday 
 
 8th of November (MS) — Nicholas sends account to the King . . 27 
 
 Commencement of struggle — Parties marshalled on either side — First 
 Debate on Remonstrance, Tuesday 9th of November (MS) — Movers 
 of Amendments and Additions ... .... 28 
 
 Second Debate on Remonstrance, Wednesday 10th of November — No 
 
 copies to be given out until the whole perfected (MS) . . .29 
 
 Debate on Irish Rebellion, Thursday 11th of November (MS) — Avowal of 
 intention to address and publish Remonstrance to the people (MS) 
 — Strode' s habit in debate . . . . . . . . 29 
 
 Third Debate on Remonstrance, Friday 12th of November — House sits 
 late — Motion to bring in candles (MS) — Orders and Regulations of 
 House, preserved in D'Ewes' MS Notes (w) 80 
 
 Reports sent to the King — Determined conduct of His Majesty's Oppo- 
 sition — The Majority as unyielding ... ... 31 
 
 Foui'th Debate on Remonstrance, Monday 15th of November — The 190th 
 
 clause (MS) SI 
 
 Falkland deserts former opinions as to Church, and joins Dering in 
 
 defence of Bishops — Character of Dering {n) .... 32 
 
 Fifth Debate on Remonstrance, Tuesday 16th of November^ (MS) — House 
 
 divides — Opposition in minority of 99 to 124 .... 32 
 
 Referred back to Committee (MS) — Debates on new Army Plot, 1 7th and 
 18th of November — Pym's resolution (MS) — Proceedings of House 
 to be printed .......... 33 
 
 Letter of Alarm to the King — Remonstrance brought back fi-om Com- 
 mittee — No concealment of its ultimate destination . . .34 
 
 Sixth Debate on Remonstrance, Friday 19th of November — Speeches of 
 Hyde and Pym — Order for the Engrossment — Appeal of Mr. Speaker 
 against late hours of House (MS) ...... 35 
 
 Seventh Debate on Remonstrance, Saturday 20th of November — Anecdote 
 of Cromwell and Falkland — Grave misrepresentation thereof by 
 Clarendon — Pym over-ruled, and final Debate appointed for Monday 
 22nd of November ......... 36 
 
 Abstract of Contents of tUe Grand Remonstrance (37 — 77). 
 
 The Preamble — Twenty Clauses not numbered 37 
 
 Conspiracy to subvert the Laws, to degrade Protestantism, and to establish 
 Ecclesiastical Tyranny, charged on King's advisers— Popery the predomi- 
 nant element of tlie Conspiracy 38 
 
 Clauses one to six — Early incidents of the reign — Illustrated by previous 
 
 speeches of Falkland and Strafford (n) 39 
 
 a 3
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 Abstract of the Remonstrance — pack 
 
 Clauses seven to ten — Governingf without Parliaments — Privy Seals — Com- 
 missions of Loan and Rxcise — Illustrated from the Veruey Papers and 
 fi-om the Diary of Walter Yonge (ft) 40 
 
 Clauses eleven to sixteen — Violations of Petition of Right — Treatment of 
 
 Representatives of the People 41 
 
 Sir John Eliot's death— Cessation of Parliaments for twelve years — People 
 forbidden to speak of them — Network of tyranny passed over the land — 
 Clauses seventeen to sixty 42 
 
 The subject plundered by obsolete laws and fines — Monstrous charges upon 
 land — Clauses 17, il, 22, 31, 44, 4i5, and 49 — Illustrations from contem- 
 porary Papers and Broadsides (n) 4J 
 
 Robbei-y of Merchants — Tonnage and Poundage — Book of Rates — Ship-money 
 — Coasts and Channel oven-ua by Pirates — Clauses 18, 19, 20, and part 
 of 34 44 
 
 Illustrations from Strafford Correspondence and from Pym's and Culpeper's 
 Speeches — AUeged lightness of Ship-money tax a grave error — Hampden 
 and Lord Say and Seale (n) 45 
 
 Violation of Statutes against Projectors— Clauses 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 35, and 
 
 part of 34 — Hyde's Speech against the Judges (n) 46 
 
 Monopolies revived — All necessaries of life made subject to them — A project 
 to debase tlie currency — Illustrations from Rous's Diary and from 
 Speeches by Falkland (n) 47 
 
 Monopoly of Gunpowder — Discouragement of martial spirit and Weakening 
 
 of National Defences— Speeches of Grimston and Culpeper (?i) . . 48 
 
 Private Projectors and Public Lands — Royal Commissions of Plunder — Popular 
 
 Rights of Common invaded— Clauses 23, 24, 25, 26, and 32 ... 49 
 
 Degradation of the Courts of Justice — Foul influences employed with Judges, 
 Counsel, Attomies, and Juries — Clauses 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, and 47 — 
 Illustrations from Harbottle Grimstou and Arthur Haselrig («) . . 50 
 
 New Judicatories created — Justice fitted to desires of Court and Government 
 
 — Common Law suspended or overnded ....... 51 
 
 Clause thirty-seven— The Star Chamber — The High Commission and the 
 Council Table — Opinion and Conscience suppressed — Illustrations from 
 May's History, from Rous's Diary, and Speech of member for South- 
 wark (n) 52 
 
 Laud's design for an English Inquisition — Establishment and Action of 
 Bishops' Courts — ImpoYerishment and Oppression of all classes — Emi- 
 grations to Holland and New England — Clauses 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55 . 53 
 
 Abuse of Preferments — Tamperings with Magistracy — Places of Trust in 
 counties bought and sold — A Despotism by Strafford and Laud over the 
 Council Table— Clauses 48, 60, 56, 57, 58, 69, and 60— Speech by Hyde {n) 54 
 
 Resistance of Scotland— Interval before Short Parliament — Clauses sixty- one 
 
 to seventy-five 55 
 
 Puritans the Partition Wall against Rome — To be thrown down — Popery to 
 be introduced, ail but the Name— Clauses 61, 62, 63, and 64 — Scotch Resis- 
 tance to Laud's Service Book — Clauses 65, 66, and 67 — Strafford recom- 
 mends a Parliament — With what motive 55 
 
 Clauses 68, 69, 70, 71, and 72— Writs for Parliament and levies for Army 
 simultaneous — Acts of Strafford in Ireland — Clauses 73, 74, and 75 — 
 Meeting and Dissolution of Short Parliament — Clauses 76, 77, and 78 — 
 Strafford's fatal advice 56 
 
 Interval before assembling of Long Parliament — Clauses seventy-nine to one 
 
 hundred and four .57 
 
 Desperate Contrivances for Money — Arrest of Members — Sickness of Strafford 
 —Clauses 79, 80, 81, 82. S3, and 84— Illustrations from Rous'e Diary— 
 Iklisrepresentations by Clarendon (n) 57 
 
 Laud still advances to Rome — The new Canons— Crown above Law, but 
 Bishops above Crown— Clauses 85, 86, and 87 — Speeches by Rudyard 
 and Grimston in) ,58
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 Abstract of the Remonstrance — paqb 
 
 Encouragement to Papists — Secret Convocations permitted — New Romish 
 
 jurisdictions erected — Clauses 88 to 1)4 . . . . . . .59 
 
 Conforming to Ceremonies lawful, but conforming to Christianity unlawful — 
 What commonest things were subject to Monopoly, and patents thereof 
 granted to Papists — Notes from Falkland's Speeches and Clarendon's 
 History (n) 59 
 
 Results of Laud's Pro-popish System — Clauses 88 to 94 — Religion and Politics 
 inseparable — Mistake of Hume and his followers — Remarkable Speech by 
 Sir IJenjamin Rudyard (m) 60 
 
 A Crisis — Source exhausted of Non -Parliamentary Supply — Prisons full, and 
 multitudes still recusant — Some of the most ancient Nobility petition 
 for a Parliament 61 
 
 The Scottish Army passes the Tyne — Summoning of Long Parliament — 
 
 Clauses 95 to 104 62 
 
 First Acts of Long Parliament — Opposition subdued, but work of Refor- 
 mation very arduous — Clauses 106 and 110 63 
 
 Delinquents punished — Financial wants supplied — Ship-money, Military 
 
 Assessments, and Monopolies, abolished — Clauses 106, 107, 108, and 109 . 84 
 
 Arbitrary power of Taxation taken away — Judgments upon Strafford, 
 Finch, Windebank, and Laud, and upon Judge Berkeley— Safety and pre- 
 servation of Subject to all future time — Clauses 111 to 1'24 ... 64 
 
 Striking passages from speeches of Culpeper and Pym^Universality of 
 
 Monopolies — Gain of King disproportioned to loss of Subject (n) . . 64 
 
 Abolition of Star Chamber, High Commission, and Courts of the North — 
 
 Rehgious grievances removed — Other great Reforms — Clauses 127 to 136. 65 
 
 Prynne's punishment and fine — Division on the Court of Requests Clause (n) 65 
 
 Bill for Triennial Parliaments, and Bill for Continuance of Long Parliament 
 — Clauses 125 and 126— Other contemplated measures of Religious, 
 Social, Legal, and Political Reform — Clauses 137 to 142 » . . . .66 
 
 Obstructions in the way of their Accomplishment — The Malignant Party 
 again preferred — The House of Commons maligned and slandered— 
 Clauses 143 to 153 67 
 
 Vindication of Commons from desiring unduly to weaken the Crown in 
 prerogative — The Bill against Dissolving Parliament without its consent 
 a temporary measure — Suspending not Abolishing — Clauses 154 to 161 . 6S 
 
 Other Slanders to prejudice the Nation against Parliaments — Comparison of 
 burdens Imposed with delinquents Punisiied and grievances Reformed — 
 A Bill in preparation to limit protections of membei-s from Suit and 
 Arrest— Clauses 162 to 168 63 
 
 Who were the Slanderers— Authors of Obstructions in the Lords' House — 
 Tempters and Seducers of Members of the Commons — Participators in 
 Army Plots 70 
 
 The Rebellion and Massacre in Ireland— A Prologue to that Tragedy was to 
 have been furnished in England — Clauses 169 to 180 — Appalling incidents 
 of the Massacre (n) 71 
 
 The only hope for Reformation — That both Houses should act together — That 
 Church of England be established under temporal Head and subject 
 to Parliamentary order and regulation — That Popish ceremonies be 
 abolished . . 72 
 
 The exorbitant power of Prelates to be reduced — Their political functions to 
 be taken away — Golden reins of Discipline in Church not to be let loose, 
 but a just Conformity of Worship to be settled— The Consciences of men 
 to be unburdened ....... .... 7.1 
 
 Authorship of the Remonstrance— Reasons for imputing it to Pym (n) . . 73 
 A General S.ynod of Protestant Divines suegestcd to settle English Church— 
 —Learning to be more widely encouraged —The Two Universities to 
 be reformed, and their advantages more diffused — Clauses 181 to 191 . 74 
 
 Closing Recommendations— Clauses 192 to 206— Summary of Remedial Mea- 
 sures the People still entitled to 75
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 A bstract of the Remonstrance — page 
 
 Pytn's opposition to the Roman Catholic Religion — The prudent spirit of 
 
 Statesman, not the unreasoning hatred of Bigot 1 5 
 
 Safeguards demanded against Popery — And for better administration of laws 
 — Charles I's Overtures to Pope for help to sustain Episcopacy in 
 England (m) 76 
 
 Precautions against Evil Counsellors to Royalty — King's Ministers to have 
 Confidence of Parliament — Some receiving Pensions from abroad (MS) — 
 Close of Remonstrance "i' 
 
 END OP ABSTRACT OF THE REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 Monday, 22nd of Novemhev lQi\. 
 King Charles within two days' journey of London — Business i^i progress 
 
 in House of Commons (^dS) — Motions by various Members (MS) . 78 
 
 Cries for Debate on Remonstrance — Hyde makes proposition to gain time 
 
 — Members sent for into Westminster Hall (MS) .... 79 
 
 Connection of Westminster Hall with the House — Celebrated Jleetings 
 
 there — Shops open in the Hall 80 
 
 Description of the old House of Commons — St. Stephen's Chapel temp. 
 
 Car. Prim. . . ..... . . .81 
 
 Mr. Speaker's authority not implicitly respected — Incidents in illus- 
 tration thereof (MS) ......... 82 
 
 Character of Speaker Lenthal — His difficulties with honourable Members 
 
 (MS) — Sir Simonds D'Ewes lectures him (w) .... 83 
 
 House nearly deserted between twelve and one mid-day — Members 
 " running forth for their dinners" — Mr. Speaker's rebuke (MS) 
 — Hyde still defers speaking . . . . . . . 84 
 
 Pym's dinner parties — Attemjit to convert Mr. Hyde — Lord Falkland 
 
 and the Bishops («) . . . . . . . . .84 
 
 Particular seats and places of leading Members in House — Sir Simonds 
 
 D'Ewes note-taking (MS) 85 
 
 Eighth Debate on the Remonstrance — Hyde opens the Great Debate (the 
 Eighth) on the Remonstrance — Philip Warwick's description of his 
 manner (w) .......... 86 
 
 Objects to form of Remonstrance as touching the King's honour — Ques- 
 tions the power of House to remonstrate alone (MS) — Allusion to 
 Eliot too strong — Is succeeded by Falkland . . . . . 87 
 
 Falkland ridicules Pretension to approve of King's councillors — Denies 
 Laud's league with Rome — House should make Laws, not Remon- 
 strances — Might have evil consequence in the condition of Ireland 
 (MS) — Its Prospective cliaracter dangerous (MS) — Defends the 
 bishops 88
 
 CONTENTS. siii 
 
 Debates on the Remonstrance — page 
 
 Sir Edward Dering the next speaker — Subsequent publication, of bis 
 speech, and angei" of the House — Speeches thereon of Ciomwell, Sir 
 Walter Earle, and Sir Simonds D'Ewes (MS) 89 
 
 Members complain of published speeches they have never spoken— Poets 
 in Shoe-lane, and beggarly Scholars in Ale-houses, inventing and 
 selling such speeches for hali-a-crown a-piece (MS) — First penny- 
 a-liners ........... 89 
 
 Dering objects to Remonstrance as a Descension of Parliament to People 
 
 — Constituents did not require this extraordinary coui-tesy . . 90 
 
 Characterizes Remonstrance as a movement Downward — Telling stories 
 to the People — Defends bishops from charge of introducing Idolatry 
 — Objects to referring Discipline of Church to Parliament . . 91 
 
 Argument against more equal distribution of Church preferment — Would 
 leave the Great Prizes in Lottery — The Moon cut into Little Stars 
 would give less Light . . . . . . . . . 92 
 
 Sir Benjamin Rudyard speaks — His reputation in the House . . 92 
 
 A Remonstrance necessary, owing to slanders against House — Defends 
 measures of Long Parliament (MS) — Apologies generally suspicious 
 but here necessary — Does not like Prophetical part . . . 93 
 
 ^Ir. Bagshaw's speech — Followed by Sir John Culpeper — Character of 
 
 Culpeper's oratory — Philip Warwick and Clarendon (w) . . 94 
 
 Remonstrance not necessary — In form dangerous and unconstitutional — 
 Going from that House only, goes but on One Leg — All remon- 
 strances to King not to People — No power by Writs to go direct to 
 People (MS) 95 
 
 Pym speaks — Answers preceding speakers (JIS) — Safety of People the 
 only honour of King — Maintains right of Parliament to control 
 King's councillors ......... 96 
 
 Mv^mbers of the House slandered — Only way to clear them — Bishops /(ctcZ 
 favoured Idolatry in enjoining Altar-worship — Only way to prevent 
 sectaries to refrain from Persecution — Objects to Great Prizes in 
 Church 97 
 
 Right of House to remonstrate Alone — Their own acts in question, and 
 conduct of Lords impugned — No Direction to People necessary 
 (MS) — Enough that Remonstrance reaches People — Pym resumes 
 his seat — Evening closing in — Orlando Bridgman rises — Disputes 
 the right of House to remonstrate Alone . . . . .98 
 
 Waller's speech — Calls it a Pre not a jRc-monstrance — A course altogether 
 Unusual and Unnatural — Laws their children, not Orders and 
 Declarations — Followed by John Hampden — His courtesy and 
 calm decision — Remonstrance necessary and wholly true . . . 99
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Debates on the Remonstrance — pagk 
 
 Hampden replies to Bering's illustration of moon and stars by quoting 
 Book of Revelations — Closes at nine o'clock (MS) — D'Ewes leaves 
 the House 100 
 
 Attempts at compromise resisted — Two Divisions — First majority 64, 
 
 second 14 — Some slight changes conceded (MS) . . . . 101 
 
 Speech of Denzil Holies — Avows the object of the Remonstrance to sti- 
 mulate the Indifferent — They could turn the scales — Several 
 members rise to speak — The Speaker's eye established as Rule of 
 Precedence (MS) 102 
 
 Glyn shows legality of Remonstrance — No constitutional reason why 
 Lords should join — Mr. Coventry speaks against Remonstrance — 
 Geoffrey Palmer very vehement against it — Maynard sup- 
 ports it ........... 103 
 
 Drawing on to midnight — Secretary Nicholas leaves House in order to 
 write to the King — Tells him of Debate still going on, and what 
 Hyde's party mean to do . . . . . . . . 104 
 
 Past midnight — Numbers di-iven away by lateness of hour — Which side 
 
 most affected by it — Contradictions of Clarendon . . . . 1 05 
 
 Question put — Remonstrance passed by a majority of 11 — Exact num- 
 ber absent (MS) — New question raised . . . . .106 
 
 How Clarendon narrates the Close of debate — His description written 
 
 very few years after event . . . . . . . . 107 
 
 Deliberate falsifications of the Truth — The order for Printing not moved 
 
 by Hampden (MS) — Unconscious testimony of Secretary Nicholas . 108 
 
 D'Ewes's extraordinary allusion to Hampden (MS) — His "Serpentine 
 
 Subtlety" explained— Character of the Member for Bucks . . 109 
 
 Hyde's plan to divide and break down Authority of the House — Motion 
 to address Remonstrance to King — Resisted (MS)— Motion that 
 Remonstrance be printed . . . . . . . . 110 
 
 Debate on motion for Printing — ^Hyde claims liberty to protest — Speeches 
 of Culpeper, Pym, and Holies — Geoffrey Palmer does protest — 
 Remarkable scene . . . . . . • . . ILl 
 
 "Valley of the Shadow of Death " — Sudden fury of excitement— Hats 
 waved over heads — Swords taken out of their belts — Great calm- 
 ness of Mr. Hampden ........ 112 
 
 House quieted by Member for Bucks — Debate as to Printing deferred — 
 Motion to restrict Publishing — Resisted by Pym, and defeated by 
 a majority of 23 — House rises at 2 A.m. . .... 113 
 
 Tuesday, 2Zrd of Nov. 1641 (MS). 
 House assembles at usual hour — Various matters proceeded with (MS) — 
 
 Pym's speech upon the scene of the previous night . . .114
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Debates on the Remonstrance — p^ge 
 
 Account in Clarendon's History of the alleged Private deliberations and 
 
 dissensions of the popular leaders — Reasons for disbelieving it . 115 
 
 Wednesday, Uth of Nov. 1641 (MS). 
 
 Ninth Debate on the Remonstrance — The leaders resolved on bringing 
 Palmer to judgment for his Protest against the Remonstrance — 
 Proceedings at the early sitting . . . . . . .116 
 
 Vyvn caUs attention to Palmer's offence — Hyde would justify himself 
 
 as well as Palmer for having asked leave to protest — Confusion . 117 
 
 Hyde obtains hearing — Strode follows — Hotham shows Palmer to have 
 been the Great Offender — Had, without asking leave, protested 
 " for himself and the rest " (MS) 118 
 
 Such protest was a Mutiny — Fatal to privileges of Commons — Many op- 
 pose Palmer being sent for — Palmer enters — His friends will not 
 allow him to speak (MS) 119 
 
 Hyde declares it Too Late to object to Words used during Monday 
 night's excitement — Should have been objected to at the time — 
 Culpeper supports him — House not Same now as on Monday — 
 D'Ewes replies (MS) 120 
 
 D'Ewes exhibits Pi-ecedents — Shows that House retains always Right to 
 question its members for words spoken within it — Succeeding Par- 
 liament may question its Predecessor (MS) . . . . . 121 
 
 Adverts to his own absence at Midnight on Monday — Urges that Palmer 
 be heard to speak "by way of speaking" — A laugh — D'Ewes de- 
 fends his expression (MS) . . . . . . .122 
 
 Hyde and Culpeper force on a division — Carried against them by two 
 
 majorities of 46 and 48 — Palmer required to speak (MS) . . 123 
 
 Palmer's speech — That his Protest was not against passing, but against 
 printing, Remonstrance — Explains circumstances — Appeals to Mr. 
 Hampden (MS) 124 
 
 Bulstrode Whitelocke speaks for Palmer — The afternoon so dark that 
 Mr. Speaker cannot See who stands up (MS) — Proposal for 
 adjournment .......... 124 
 
 Thursday, Ibih of Nov. 1641 (MS). 
 
 Tenth debate on Remonstrance — Assembling of the House — Various 
 matters proceeded with — Denzil Holies moves that Petition to 
 accompany Remonstrance be drawn up — Referred to Pym's Com- 
 mittee (MS) 125 
 
 Mr.Palmer'sdebateresumed— Nature of his offence discussed— Aggravated 
 by his ability and his temperateness of nature — Scene of Monday 
 night occasioned by his Protest — Imminent danger of Bloodshed . 126
 
 xvi CONTENTS. 
 
 Debates on the Remonstrance — page 
 
 Arguments in extenuation — Not Palmer but members near him cried 
 "All ! all ! " — No intention to cause excitement — The leaders firm 
 against him — Had attempted to divide House against itself, and 
 set up Minority against Majority I . . . . . .127 
 
 Pym and Hampden demand Palmer's committal to Tower — Others 
 require his Expulsion — Opposed by Strangways and Bagshaw — An 
 important admission of Clarendon's (MS) . . , . . ]2S 
 
 Crew has supported the Remonstrance but pleads for Palmer — Had here- 
 tofore rendered good service to the Cause — Edmund Waller on same 
 side — Not so effective . . . . . . . .129 
 
 Debate goes on till evening — -Dispute which question to be put first — 
 
 Expulsion or the Tower ? — Speech of Sir Ralph Hopton (MS) . . 130 
 
 D'Ewes replies to Hopton — Question put as to Tower — Carried by 
 majority of 41 — Motion for Expulsion defeated by majority of 32 — 
 House rises between six and seven o'clock (MS) . . . .131 
 
 Friday, 2Qth of Nov. 1641 (MS). 
 
 Geoffrey Palmer receives sentence — Committed to Tower — Sends in peti- 
 tion and apology on 8th December and obtains his release — Results 
 of Palmer's submission — Vindication of the course taken by 
 Leaders 132 
 
 Misstatements of Clarendon— No order got for Printing of Remonstrance 
 
 — Petition to accompany Remonstrance reported from Committee . 133 
 
 Arrival of King from Scotland — Great city Entertainment — Nicholas 
 made Secretary of State — Old Vane dismissed— Secret communi- 
 cation with Hyde and liis friends — Guard upon Houses removed . 134 
 
 Satitrdat, 27th of Nov. 1641 (MS). 
 
 Eleventh debate as to Remonstrance — Proceedings in House — 
 Cromwell complains of a slander — Strode moves to put kingdom 
 in state of defence — Committee named to prepare bill for future 
 command offerees . . . . . . . . . 135 
 
 Pym enters with Petition to be presented with Remonstrance to King — 
 
 Reads it — Clerk also reads it — Substance thereof . . .136 
 
 Malignant party had necessitated Remonstrance — Its leaders employed 
 too much about the King — Mere Engineers and Factors for 
 Rome 137 
 
 Results of so employing them — Army plots in England — Conspiracy to 
 slay Leaders of Covenant in Scotland — Massacre of Protestants 
 in Ireland — Concluding recommendations — Attempts to alter 
 expressions . . . . . . . . . . 138
 
 CONTENTS, xvli 
 
 Debates on the Remonstrance — page 
 
 Hyde's party object to Petition — Pym replies — Cnlpeper rejoins — Pym 
 rises and is interrupted — Strangways and otliers resist his speak- 
 ing again — Mr. Hampden to order (MS) ..... 139 
 
 D'Ewes maintains Pym's right, as Reporter of Petition, to answer New 
 objections — Pym permitted to speak — Petition read again and each 
 clause debated (MS) 140 
 
 Particular phrases resisted — Speeches of Hyde, Coventry, and D'Ewes 
 
 (MS) 141 
 
 The Petition passed — To be Engrossed, and Two Copies fair written, for 
 
 King and Lords 141 
 
 Tuesday, 20th of Nov. 1641. 
 
 Committee of Twelve named to present Petition and Remonstrance to 
 
 King 142 
 
 Pym withdraws his name fi-om Committee — Sir Edward Dering selected 
 to present Remonstrance — Withdi-awsaiid gets out of the way — Sir 
 Ralph Hopton substituted — D'Ewes and ten others proceed to 
 Hampton Court, leaving Dering behind (MS) . . . . 143 
 
 Remonstrance and Petition presented, and latter read, to King — His 
 remarks thereon — Asks if Remonstrance is to be Published — Com- 
 mittee cannot answer ........ 144 
 
 King's request that it should not be published until his Reply received — 
 
 Clarendon's misstatement — King's conduct his Practical reply . 145 
 
 Question of King's sincerity — Object in removing Balfour from Command 
 
 of Tower — Hyde and his friends invited to Office . . .146 
 
 Riots in City on 29th November — New guard on the Houses under Lord 
 Dorset — Firing upon the people (MS) — Pym, Hampden, and Holies 
 carry message for discharge of Lord Dorset and his followers . 147 
 
 Hyde and his party declare the House to be coerced — Design to Reverse 
 on that ground its former Acts — Minority, not Majority, the King's 
 faithful Commons . . . . . . . , . 148 
 
 Debate of the 30th November (MS) — Sti'angways describes Plot sanc- 
 tioned by Some members to overawe Other members of House — 
 details alleged proofs . . . . . . . .149 
 
 Mr. Kirton's additional proofs — House declares them insufficienlr— - 
 Strangways not warranted in his charge — Pym describes it as a 
 member's Conspiracy to accuse other members of Treason . . 150 
 
 Thursday and Friday, 2nd and 3rd of Dec. 1641 (MS). 
 The conduct of Lord Dorset defended by Waller and Culpeper, against 
 Strode, D'Ewes, and Earle — D'Ewes attacked by Culpeper for 
 speaking of Citizens' " loyalty " to House 151
 
 xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 Debates on the Remonstrance — page 
 
 D'Ewes' appeal — Silence of Culpeper — Laughter of House (MS)— Pym's 
 
 motion on 3rd December as to obstructions in Lords' House . . 1 52 
 
 Pym's memorable speech— Shall one Hoyse unaided by other Save the 
 kingdom — Francis Godolphin's proposition to put Minority of 
 Commons with Majority of Lords ....... 153 
 
 Monday and Tuesday, 6th and 7th of Dec. 1641 (MS). 
 
 Cromwell attacks Lord Arundel for unduly influencing voters of Ai'undel 
 
 — Tuesday's debate — A startling proposition (MS) . . . 154 
 
 Haselrig's Bill for Settling the Militia — Caution against accepting State- 
 ments of Clarendon's History . . . . . . . 155 
 
 Clarendon describes Militia Bill in his Fourth Book — Describes Same Bill 
 quite diflferently in his Third Book — Confusion as to time, names, 
 and objects .......... 156 
 
 Reception of Haselrig's bill (MS) — Violent speech of Culpeper — Mis- 
 takes and misstatements — Untrustworthy character of Nalson's 
 Collections ........... 157 
 
 Debate on Haselrig's Bill (MS) — D'Ewes and Strode speak for — Mallory 
 and Cook violently against — A question as to a pi-ecedent — Inge- 
 nuity of D'Ewes 158 
 
 Cook admonished — Laughter of House — Majority of 33 for Haselrig's 
 
 Bill — Points of order and reference observed in proceedings (MS) . 159 
 
 Friday, 10th of Dec. 1641 (MS). 
 
 Alarm of Members to find new Guard set upon Houses — Great agitation 
 
 — Guards show Lord Keeper's writ — Voted Breach of Privilege . 160 
 
 Lords startled as well as Commons — Characteristic incident — Guard dis- 
 missed — Magistrates and under sheriff reprimanded . . .161 
 
 Saturday, Uth of Dec. 1641 (MS). 
 Arrival at House of Great City Petition — Largest yet known in history 
 
 — Deputation of Citizens . . . . . . .162 
 
 The Citizens and Mr. Speaker — Opposition from my Lord Mayor — 
 
 Question revived as to Printing of Remonstrance (MS) . . .163 
 
 Tuesday, lith of Dec. 1641 (MS). 
 
 Bill for pressing soldiers — Intemperate conduct of the King — Breach of 
 
 Privilege — Protestation and Remonstrance (MS) . . . .164 
 
 D'Ewes describes reception of the Commons by King at Whitehall — 
 Privileges of House asserted — Confident and Severe look of the 
 King (MS) 165
 
 CONTENTS. xix 
 
 Debates on the Remonstrance — page 
 
 Wednesday, 15th of Dec. 1641 (MS). 
 Twelfth Debate on Kemonstrance — Mr. Purefoy moves that Remon- 
 strance be Printed — A great silence — Surprise of many members 
 — Mr. Peard moves printing of Petition also (MS) . . .166 
 
 Waller resists Printing — Debate protracted until dark — Sir Nicholas 
 
 Slanning moves adjournment (MS) — his character . . .167 
 
 Discussion whether candles should be brought — The little men — 
 Clarendon's sketches of Slanning, Hales, Chillingworth, Sidney 
 Godolphin, and Falkland 168 
 
 Motion for candles carried by majority of ninety-nine — Motion for 
 printing Great Remonstrance can-ied by majority of fifty-two — 
 Much excitement — Claim to Protest revived by Slanning — The 
 storm allayed by Pym (MS) 169 
 
 Monday, 20th of Dec. 1641. 
 Thirteenth and Last Debate on Remonstrance — Right of Protest in lower 
 House discussed — Elder Vane opposes against Hyde and Holbome 
 — Significant allusion — Resolution against Protesting carried . . 170 
 
 Opinion of Clarendon's History — Its Character and claims — Tests applied 
 
 to it in this Essay ......... 171 
 
 Extraordinary misstatements as to Grand Remonstrance — Followers of 
 
 Clarendon misled — Its final vindication . . . . .172 
 
 Its Appeal to the people necessary — Momentous results — Recruiting 
 Sergeant to Parliament during civil war — English Puritanism 
 not antagonistic to English institutions and government . ,173 
 
 Political as well as Religious movement embodied in Grand Remonstrance 
 — Its assertion of civil rights — Modern parliamentary conflicts 
 anticipated in its debates . . . . . . .174 
 
 Authors of Grand Remonstrance — Their claim to Remembrance and 
 
 Gratitude 175 
 
 II. THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 
 
 A Sketch op Constit0tional History. 
 
 {Now frst published.) 177—239. 
 
 Records and Titles of English Freedom — Part played by Precedents in 
 
 earliest time 177 
 
 The Charter of Henry I — Grants of liberties Edged Tools for princes . 178 
 
 Effects of Crusades on Feudal Institutions — Gains to civil freedom from 
 
 first Plantagenet King 179
 
 XX CONTENTS. 
 
 The Plantagenets and the Tudors — page 
 
 Dispute of Henry II and his Primate— What it involved . . .180 
 
 Relations of State and Church — New relations between Baronage and 
 Throne — Earliest authority for Responsibility of ]\Iinisters to Par- 
 liament .......... 181 
 
 Strength of the principle of Elective Sovereignty in E ngland — Illustrations 182 
 
 Treasons the second seed-plot of Liberty — Henry IPs policy relaxed and 
 
 unsettled by his Sons . . . . . . . .183 
 
 Government during reign of John — Early questions as to Church and 
 
 Invasion— Later as to Civil Freedom — The King's character . 184 
 
 Growth of Party spirit — National feeling and its effects . . .185 
 
 The Grand Confederacy against the King — Character of Stephen de 
 
 Langton . . . . . . . . . .186 
 
 Friday, 19th of June, 1215, the Great Charter signed . . . 187 
 
 General character of its provisions — Special grievances redressed . . 188 
 
 Forms of Sheriffs' summons to Great Council — Most hateful to succeeding 
 
 jDrinces . . . . . . , . . . .189 
 
 The clauses protecting Personal Liberty and Property — Their effect in 
 
 subsequent history . . . . . . . . .190 
 
 Henry Ill's reign — Earliest Great Council bearing name of Parliament . 191 
 
 First example of Parliamentary control — People successively appealed to 
 
 by Barons and by King . . . . . . . . 192 
 
 Rise of Merchants and Tradesmen — The political ballad . . .193 
 
 Englishmen on the soil of England — Foreigners driven out — ]\Iinisterial 
 
 responsibility . , . . . . . . ..194 
 
 Public faith recognised — Law taking the form of a system , . .195 
 
 Description of Great Council — How distinctions and grades of Rank 
 
 arose . 196 
 
 Transition from Feudal to Real representation — Old institutions adapted 
 
 to new necessities . . . . . . . . ,197 
 
 Fictions containing germs of truth — Origin of County Representation . 198 
 
 Earliest levy of subsidy — Vague formation of Authority and Power of 
 
 Commons .......... 199 
 
 Scheme to obtain money from Shires — Election of Representatives to im- 
 pose Taxes — Knights sit with Lords ...... 200 
 
 Lesser duties replaced by Higher — Lords pay their Expenses, sitting 
 
 in their own right — Knights are paid, sitting as deputies . . 20] 
 
 Ages and Generations prepare — The Man and the Hour accomplish — 
 
 14th of Dec. 1264, wi-its for first House of Commons . . . 202
 
 CONTENTS. xsi 
 
 Ti.e Plantagenets and the Tudor s — page 
 
 Edward I's reign — The Statute ofWincliester arms all Englislimen . 203 
 
 Edward II's reign — New boroughs created — Commonalty claim equal-legis- 
 lative power 203 
 
 Edward Ill's reign — Unsuccessful attempts of royalty to impose taxes — 
 
 Statute of Treasons .204 
 
 Richard II and Henry IV — Results of triumph of House of Lancaster . 205 
 
 The thirty articles for Regulation of King's household — State of Sove- 
 reignty in England at opening of XVth century .... 206 
 
 Henry Vth's reign — Privilege of Parliament established — General recog- 
 nition, and frequent violation, of Securities of civil freedom . . 207 
 
 Gradual decay and departure of Feudal System — Higher developments of 
 
 its principle .......... 208 
 
 Contrast between Insurrections of Wat Tyler and Jack Cade — Old 
 
 Fuller's mistake 209 
 
 Evidence of Sir John Portescue and Philip des Comines — Advantages 
 of England over France — Non-exclusive character of aristocratic 
 privileges . . . . . . . . . .210 
 
 Guarantees against Oppression — Checks of Parliament — Control of public 
 
 purse 211 
 
 House of Commons profiting by alternate weakness in other branches of 
 state — Often deserted by Barons in maintaining liberties, never by 
 People in resisting taxation — The supreme force . . . . 212 
 
 Wars of the Roses — Sinking of great families — Rising of commerce, the 
 
 arts, and learning . . . . . . . . .213 
 
 Henry VII — His act of settlement — Pains to create a Parliamentary 
 
 Title 214 
 
 First State paper from Caxton's press — Peculiarity of the Despotism of 
 
 first Tudor king 215 
 
 New Power replacing the Old — Henry VII unconscious of its influence . 216 
 
 Leading acts of Henry's sovereignty — What he intended by them — What 
 
 they effected beyond Ids intention . . . . . .217 
 
 Reawakening of commerce and of learning — Sebastian Cabot in the New 
 
 world — Homer at Oxford ........ 218 
 
 Statute Book of Henry VII — Real results not in his own but his suc- 
 cessor's reign . . . . . . . . . .210 
 
 Empson and Dudley — Their abuses and their uses 220 
 
 Henry VIII — Tudor characteristics — Yielding to People — Repressing 
 
 Nobility 221
 
 xxii CONTENTS. 
 
 The Plantagenets and (he Tudors — face 
 Necessity of the work to he done by Tudor sovereigns — Respective 
 
 tasks assigned to Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth . 222 
 
 Checks and limits interposed to their tyranny — Acts of Parliament the 
 
 only Weapons of Despotism in England ..... 223 
 
 Constitutional gains wrested from Henry VIII — Thirty members added 
 
 to Hoiise of Commons ......... 224 
 
 Elizabeth — Her conduct to the Puritans — Their feeling respecting her . 225 
 
 Close of her reign — Political agitation — Her conciliatory policy . . 226 
 
 Cecil's exertions for Union of the kingdoms — A great Opportunity lost . 227 
 
 James I's learning and cunning — Wisest fool in Christendom . . . 228 
 
 Formation of King's character — His family of children . . . 229 
 
 Tragedy of the Ruthvens — Birth of Charles Stuart — His natural defects 230 
 
 James begins journey South ward — Appearance of a King after fifty years' 
 
 rule of a Queen .......... 231 
 
 Description of James's person — One fence to the Monarchy thrown down 
 
 — Astonishment of the chaplain of Venetian Em bassy . . . 232 
 
 Oliver Cromwell's first sight of a King — Francis Bacon's intemew . 233 
 
 Robert Cecil — His meeting with James — Royal favorites . . . . 234 
 
 Somerset and Buckingham — Prime Ministers at a Masque . . . 235 
 
 The Court of James I — Profligate waste — Shameful want . . . . 236 
 
 Depression of the subject — Sale of Dignities — Hampden escapes a 
 
 Peerage ........... 237 
 
 Hampton Court Conference — Conduct of the King and the bishops —The 
 
 Puritans 238 
 
 Opinions of the people — Contempt of the person of the sovereign —Ter- 
 rible legacy left to Charles the First 239 
 
 III. THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 (From the Edinburgh Review, Jan. 1856. With Additions.) 241 — 336. 
 
 Fac-similes of two pages from D'Ewes's MS Diary. 
 
 English memorialist and French historian . . . . . . 241 
 
 Civil wars of XVIIth century — Their unselfish character —War without 
 
 an enemy .......... 242 
 
 Charles I's Attorney-General — His character — Favourable specimen of a 
 
 Lawyer in that age 243
 
 CONTENTS. xxiii 
 
 The Civil Wars and Cromwell — page 
 
 Old age of Sir Edward Coke — Exertions for English liberty — Strafford . 244 
 Irish Administration of Strafford — Causes of its failure . ... 245 
 
 Strafford's Commissions into defective titles compared to Encumbered 
 
 Estates Act — Folly and ignorance of such comparison . . . 246 
 
 Description of the modem Act — Description of the Act of Strafford . . 247 
 
 Thorough and its consequences — A perilous stake in a perilous game . 248 
 
 Strafford's Attainder — Discussions respecting it — Denzil Holies . . 249 
 
 Conduct of Hyde (Earl of Clarendon) — Why he did not take office — Con- 
 fessions in his History . . . . . . . .250 
 
 Mr. Cromwell offensive to Mr. Hyde — Common errors as to so-called 
 
 Moderate Party 251 
 
 Evidence of D'Ewes's MS Journal — Startling discovery — Correct judg- 
 ment of Lord Macaulay {n) . ...... 252 
 
 Impeachment of Strafford— Incidents of 13th day — Proceedings of Com- 
 mons after retm-n to their House (MS) ...... 253 
 
 Secret history of the Bill of Attainder — Its introduction opposed by Pym 
 
 and Hampden (MS) 254 
 
 Report by D' Ewes — Fac-simUe of his pages deciphered . . . . 255 
 
 Eesolutions of Commons as to discovery of Vane's Notes of Council (MS) 256 
 
 Hotham, Maynard, Tomkins, and Culpeper for the Attainder — Pym, 
 
 Eudyard, and D'Ewes against it (MS) 257 
 
 Elder Vane refuses explanation — Glyn and Henry Marten for Attainder 
 
 — Hampden against it (IMS) . . . . . . .258 
 
 Infamous conduct of Glyn and Maynard at Restoration — Falkland's 
 severity to Strafford — Friends who sat together and never differed 
 but Once {n) 259 
 
 Hyde's vote — Explanation of the votes of Pym and Hampden — Question 
 
 whether Strafford's counsel should be heard (MS) . • . 260 
 
 Against hearing counsel, St. John, Falkland, Culpeper, Glyn, and 
 Maynard — In favour of, Hampden and Pym — Striking appeal by 
 Pym (MS) 261 
 
 Impeachment of Bishops — Offence committed by them — Alleged reign of 
 
 terror ........... 262 
 
 London in 1641 and Paris in 1793 — Absurdity of comparison . . . 263 
 
 Protest of the Bishops — Attempt to over-ride Parliament — Cromwell's 
 
 allusion to it in Protectorate («) 204 
 
 Clarendon's opinion as to Protest — The Bishops have but One supporter 
 
 in Commons' debate — A character misunderstood . . . 265
 
 5xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 The Civil Wars and Cromwell — taok 
 
 Opinions of Falkland and Strafford as to Monarcliy — Falkland's poetry 
 
 and his poet friends («) ........ 266 
 
 Falkland's dislike of Court and want of veneration for King — His won- 
 derful reverence for Parliaments ...... 267 
 
 The Punctilio of Honour — Sacrifices it exacts — Struggle of opinions and 
 
 convictions with habits and tastes ...... 268 
 
 Impetuosity another form of shyness — Falkland's " notable vivacity " 
 
 — Characteristic anecdote . . . . . . .269 
 
 Eanton and Falkland — Hl-chosen representative of the Moderation of 
 
 struggle ........... 270 
 
 Picture of Falkland from D'Ewes's Journal — His higher qualities — 
 
 Wisdom of separating them from party associations . . . 271 
 
 Falkland's private home — His welcome to men of all opinions — Arrange- 
 ments of his house — Intolerant only of Popish intolerance {n) . . 272 
 
 His hatred of every kind of Dissembling — Detestation of employment of 
 
 Spies — Denunciation against Opening private letters . . . 273 
 
 Chief Justice Bankes advising the King — A thankless office — Letters of 
 
 mediation ........... 274 
 
 Important advice to King from Denzil Holies, Lord Northumberland, 
 
 Lord "Wharton, Lord Say and Seale, and Lord Essex . . .275 
 
 A libel on Pym and Hampden — Ben Jonson's Verses to Sir Benjamin 
 
 Rudyard 276 
 
 Services of Eudyard to the patriots— His admLrable oratoiy . . .277 
 
 Advocate for Compromise — His desire for Peace — No deserter of liis 
 
 friends ........... 278 
 
 First stage of conflict — Position of disputants up to arrest of five mem- 
 bers — Second stage — A new actor thereon . . . . .279 
 
 Cromwell under the aspects presented of him by modern writers — First 
 
 view of his character — Defeat and disappointment . . . . 280 
 
 Second view of his character — Same result from other causes . . 281 
 
 Third view of his character — Complete type of the Puritan Rebellion . 282 
 
 Cromwell according to Mr. Carlyls — His temporal and spiritual victories 283 
 
 M, Guizot's version of Cromwell's character — Coloured by his experience 
 
 of revolutions .......... 254 
 
 A great and successful but unscrupulous man — Exciter and chastiser of 
 
 Revolution — Destroyer and architect of Government . . . . 285 
 
 Causes of his Failure — Foundations of his greatness set iipon Disorder . 286 
 
 How a book may be spoiled by translation — Pleasures of taste taken 
 
 away 287
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXV 
 
 The Civil Wars and Cromwell — page 
 Peculiarities of M. Guizot's style — A muiBed voice — Delicacies of 
 
 utterance gone . . . . . . . ... 288 
 
 Examples of mistranslation — Temptation of high-sounding sentences . 289 
 
 Meanings missed — Subtleties dropped and vanished .... 290 
 
 Further instances — Wrong meanings substituted . . • . . 291 
 
 Parallel passages from Text and Translation — French wine and English 
 
 water 292 
 
 Copyright in Translation — Responsibilities imposed by new law — Dangers 
 
 involved 293 
 
 Character of M. Guizot's History — The reflection of his own— His former 
 
 historical writings — Influences from recent events . . . 294 
 
 Early life of M. Guizot — First literary labours — Professor of Modem 
 
 History at the age of 24 . . . . . . . . 295 
 
 His opinions — Writings on Representative Government and the English 
 
 Revolution— The Three Days 296 
 
 His political career — Fall of the French monarchy — Dislikes and calum- 
 nies of French republicans . . . . . . . . 297 
 
 The Old Republicans of England — Their character and motives . . 298 
 
 Under what conditions a Republic honours and serves humanity — M. 
 
 Guizot not unjust to English republicanism . . . . 299 
 
 A visit to Mr. John Milton's lodging — Cromwell's personal relations 
 
 with Milton 300 
 
 Jhe Republican Council of State — Causes conspiring to its fall . . . 301 
 
 Cromwell's seizure of Power — Secret of the governing art — Instinct of 
 
 the drift of the People 302 
 
 Cardinal de Retz and Cromwell — Vane's secret mission to France . . 303 
 
 Ambition with a plan and without — Fixity of men's designs and Uncer- 
 tainty of their destiny — The interval between . . . .304 
 
 Cromwell's early life — Quiet performance of his duties — Doing thoroughly 
 
 what he has to do . . . . . . . . . 305 
 
 His Experience in the Field — Organisation of his Ironsides — Duty of 
 
 directing and governing men ....... 306 
 
 Rising to all occasions — Assuming still his natural place — Glory of the 
 
 country reflected in his . . . . . . . . 307 
 
 Readiness for the hour and no restlessness beyond — The time when one 
 
 mounts highest ......... 308 
 
 M. Guizot's imperfect recognition of Religious Element in English Revo- 
 lution — His view of purely worldly character of Protectorate . . 30^ 
 VOL. I. b
 
 xxvi CONTENTS. 
 
 The Civil Wars and Cromioell — paqi; 
 Oliver Protector — The basis of his government — -His plan for a Succes- 
 sion 310 
 
 The Protector's real model — The old Hebrew Judges — His piety not state- 
 craft 311 
 
 One mind ia all his letters — h.% St. Ives and in Whitehall his tone the 
 
 same — Equally removed from hypocrisy and fanaticism . .312 
 
 Toleration of differences in religion — His project of a Synod to bring sects 
 
 into peaceful agreement under equal shelter of laws . . . 313 
 
 Noble correspondence with Governor of Edinburgh Castle^Preachers of 
 Covenant overthrown as he had overthrown its Army — Sublime 
 warning to the Presbytery ....... 314 
 
 A scene in Ely Cathedral- — Intercession with a Royalist for liberty of 
 
 conscience . . . . . . . . . .315 
 
 Cromwell's view of the inseparability of Temporal and Spiritual things — 
 True heroism of character — The same in triumph and in peril — 
 After Worcester and before Dunbar ...... 316 
 
 Admired most where must intimately known — Accounts by Officers of his 
 
 Household — A Velasquez portrait in words . . . .317 
 
 General estimate of Cromwell by M. Guizot — Of his Contention with the 
 
 Parliament ..... ..... 318 
 
 Cromwell's foreiga policy — Light thrown upon it by M. Guizot — New 
 
 discoveries .......... 319 
 
 Rivalries of De Retz and Mazarin for Cromwell's favour — His attitude . 320 
 
 Mazarin no match for Cromwell^ — Negotiations before the dissolution of 
 
 Long Parliament ......... 321 
 
 Cromwell's alliances — France and Spain — Why France was preferred . 322 
 
 Presents indicative of character — Tapestry, wine, and Barbary horses — 
 
 Pure Cornish tin 323 
 
 Cromwell's quan-els with Parliaments of Protectorate — His Major- 
 
 Generals .......... 324 
 
 The Comedy of Kingship — Its unwelcome fifth act .... 325 
 
 M. Guizot's opinion of the Protectorate — Causes of its non-continuance . 326 
 
 Whitelock's Embassy to Sweden — The project for a Council of all 
 
 Protestant Communions . . . . . . . .327 
 
 Execution of the Portuguese Ambassador's brother — Priuce of Conde's 
 
 overtures to Cromwell 328 
 
 Seizure of Jamaica — Great Treaty with France — Admiration of young 
 
 Louis XIV 329 
 
 Old Princes and Kings humbled before Cromwell — His patronage of 
 
 Literature and learned men ....... 330
 
 CONTENTS. xxvii 
 
 The Civil Wars and Cromwell — page 
 
 Cromwell's gratitude for Waller's panegyric — His enjoyment of cheerful 
 
 recreation — His pipe and game at crambo — Taste for music . . 331 
 
 Alleged domestic infidelities a Royalist slander — Correspondence with his 
 
 wife 332 
 
 Cromwell's five sons — Information respecting them — The school at 
 
 Felsted 333 
 
 Death-bed of Cromwell — Affecting reference to his eldest son . . 334 
 
 The Register of Burials in Felsted parish church — One memorable Entry 
 
 there 335 
 
 What might have been if Robert Cromwell had lived . . . .336 
 
 Facsimile of two pages of D'Ewes's Journal, from the original MS in 
 the British Museum.
 
 THE DEBATES ON THE GEAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1641. 
 
 If the question were put to any thoroughly informed 
 student of our Great Civil War, into what single incident 
 of the period before the actual outbreak would appear 
 to have been concentrated the largest amount of party 
 passion, he could hardly fail at once to single out the 
 Grand Remonstrance. And if he were then asked to 
 name, out of all the party encounters of the time, that of 
 which the subject matter and antecedents have been most 
 unaccountably slurred over by historians, he must per- 
 force give the same answer. It follows that the writers 
 of history have in this case thought of small importance 
 what the men whose deeds they record accounted to be of 
 the greatest, and it will be worth inquiring how far the 
 later verdict is just. 
 
 Happily, the means exist of forming a judgment as to 
 the particular subject, on grounds not altogether uncertain 
 or unsafe. The Grand Remonstrance itself remains. 
 Under masses of dull and lifeless matter heaped up in 
 Rushworth's ponderous folios, it has lain undisturbed for 
 more than two centuries; but it lives still, even there, for 
 those who care to study its contents, and they who so 
 long have turned away from it unstudied, may at least 
 plead the excuse of the dreary and deterring companion- 
 ship around it. The truth, however, is, that to the art and 
 disingenuousness of Clarendon it is really due, in this
 
 2 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 instance as in so many others, that those who have written on 
 the conflict of parties before the civil war broke out, have 
 been led off to a false issue. He was too near the time of 
 the Eemonstrance when he wrote, and he had played too 
 eager a part in the attempt to obstruct and prevent its 
 publication to the people, not to give it prominence in his 
 History ; but he found it easier to falsify and misrepresent 
 the debates concerning it, of which there was no published 
 record, than to pass altogether in silence the statements 
 made in it, diffused as they had been, some score of j-ears 
 earlier, over the length and breadth of the land. Indeed 
 it also better served the purpose he had, so to garble and 
 misquote these ; and from the fragment of a summary he 
 gave, filling some six pages of the octavo edition of his 
 book, Hume and the historians of the last century derived 
 manifestly the whole of what they knew of the Grand 
 Remonstrance. But even the more careful and less pre- 
 judiced historians of our own century have not shown 
 that they knew much more. 
 
 Upon the debate in the house before it was put to the 
 vote, as referred to by Hyde, all writers have dwelt ; and 
 of course every one has copied and reproduced those 
 graphic touches of Philip Warwick, the young courtier and 
 follower of Hyde, in which he gives his version of what 
 the Remonstrance was, how it originated, and what an 
 exciting debate it led to. How some leading men in the 
 house, as he says, jealous of the proposed entertainment 
 to be given by the City to the King on his return from 
 Scotland, had got up an entertainment of their own in 
 the shape of a libel (the Remonstrance, that is), than 
 which fouler or blacker could not be imagined, against 
 his person and government; and how it passed so 
 tumultuously, two or three nights before the King came 
 to town, that at three o'clock in that November morning 
 when they voted it, he thought they would all have sat in 
 the Valley of the Shadow of Death ; for they would, like 
 Joab's and Abner's young men, all have catched at each 
 other's locks, and sheathed their swords in each other's
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 3 
 
 bowels, had not the sagacity and great calmness of Mr. 
 Hampden, b}^ a short speech, prevented it, and led them 
 to defer their angry debate until the next morning.' 
 Doubtless a scene to be remembered, and which naturally 
 has attracted all attentions since ; but that, out of the 
 many who have so adopted it, and from the mere reading 
 it felt some share in the excitement it pourtrays, not one 
 should have been moved to make closer inquiry into what 
 the so-called " libel " really was that so had roused and 
 maddened the partizans of the King, may fairly be matter 
 of surprise. Hallam is content to give some eight or 
 nine lines to it, in which its contents are not fairly 
 represented. Lingard disposes of it in something less than 
 a dozen lines. Macaulay has only occasion incidentally to 
 introduce it, and a simple mention of it is all that falls 
 within the plan of Carlyle. Godwin passes over it in 
 silence ; and such few lines as Disraeli (in his Commen- 
 taiies) vouchsafes to it, are an entire mis-statement of 
 its circumstances and falsification of its contents. It is 
 not necessary to advert specifically to other histories and 
 writings connected with the period ; but the assertion may 
 be confidently made, that in all the number there is not 
 one, whatever its indications of research and originality in 
 other directions may be, which presents reasonable evi- 
 dence of any better or more intimate knowledge of the 
 Great Remonstrance than was derivable from the garbled 
 page of Clarendon. 
 
 Yet, as I have said, this State Paper remains a fact 
 living and accessible to us : a solid piece of actual history, 
 retaining the form which its authors gave to it, and breath- 
 ing still some part of the life which animated them. It 
 embodies the case of the Parliament against the Ministers 
 of the King. It is the most authentic statement ever put 
 forth of the wrongs endured by all classes of the English 
 people, during the first fifteen years of the reign of Charles 
 
 ^ Memoires of the Beiqn of King Charles I, by Sir I'hilip Warwick, 
 Knight, Ed. 1702. P. 201-2.
 
 i HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the First; and, for that reason, the most complete justifi- 
 cation upon record of the Great Rebellion. It describes the 
 condition of the three kingdoms at the time when the 
 Long Parliament met, and the measures taken thereon to 
 redress still remediable wrongs, and deal out justice on 
 their authors. Enumerating the statutes passed at the 
 same time for the good of the subject, and his safety in 
 future years, it points out what j^et waited to be done to 
 complete that necessary work, and the grave obstructions 
 that had arisen, in each of the three kingdoms, to inter- 
 cept its completion. It warns the people of dangerous and 
 desperate intrigues to recover ascendancy for the court fac- 
 tion ; hints not obscurely at serious defections in progress, 
 even from the popular phalanx ; accuses the bishops of a 
 design to Romanize the English Church ; denounces the 
 effects of ill counsels in Scotland and Ireland; and calls 
 upon the King to dismiss evil counsellors. It is, in brief, 
 an appeal to the country ; consisting, on the one hand, 
 of a dignified assertion of the power of the House of 
 Commons in re-establishing the public liberties, and, on 
 the other, of an urgent representation of its powerlessness 
 either to protect the future or save the past, without 
 immediate present support against papists and their 
 favourers in the House of Lords, and their unscrupulous 
 partizans near the throne. There is in it, nevertheless, 
 not a word of disrespect to the person or the just privilege 
 of royalty ; and nothing that the fair supporters of a sound 
 Church Establishment might not frankly have approved 
 and accepted. Of all the State Papers of the period, it is 
 in these points much the most remarkable ; nor, without 
 very carefully reading it, is it easy to understand rightly, 
 or with any exactness, either the issue challenged by the 
 King when he unfurled his standard, or the objects and 
 desires of the men who led the House of Commons up to 
 the actual breaking out of the war. 
 
 Essential as the study of it is, however, to any true 
 comprehension of this eventful time, the difficulty of 
 reproducing it in modern history must doubtless be
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 5 
 
 admitted. It is not merely that it occupies fifteen of 
 Eushwortli's closely printed folio pages, but that, in 
 special portions of its argument, it passes with warmth 
 and rapidity through an extraordinary variety of subjects, 
 of which the connection has ceased to be always imme- 
 diately apparent. Matters are touched too lightly for 
 easy comprehension now, which but to name, then, was 
 to strike a chord that ever}^ breast responded to. Some 
 subjects also have a large place, to which only a near 
 jicquaintance with party names and themes can assign 
 their just importance, either as affecting each other, or 
 making stronger the ultimate and wider appeal which by 
 their means was designed. The very heat and urgency of 
 tone, the quick impatience of allusion, the minute sub- 
 division of details, the passionate iteration of topics, 
 everything that made its narrative so intense and power- 
 ful once, and gives it in a certain sense its vividness and 
 reality still, constitutes at the same time the difficult}^ of 
 presenting it in such an abstract, careful and connected 
 3'et compressed, as would admit of reproduction here. It 
 will be well worth while, nevertheless, to make the trial ; 
 Avhich, however short it may fall of success in the par- 
 ticular matter, ma}'' have some historical value indepen- 
 dently. For, by the use of manuscript records as yet 
 unemployed by any writer or historian, it will be pos- 
 sible to illustrate the abstract to be given of the Remon- 
 strance, by an account of the Debates respecting it in the 
 House of Commons, and these with relation as well to 
 itself as to its antecedents and consequences, far more 
 interesting, because more minute and faithful, than any 
 heretofore given to the world. And in this there will be 
 the undoubted additional advantage, that thereby will be 
 supplied a not inefficient test for Clarendon's accuracy 
 and honesty of statement in the most critical part of liis 
 narrative of these affairs. 
 
 But first, to establish for myself the claim it is 
 proposed to dispute in others, it will be necessary to 
 state the authority from which the most part of the
 
 6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 facts given in this pajser are derived, and now first con- 
 tributed to history. They are the result of much 
 tedious and painful research into the blotted manu- 
 scripts of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, preserved in five bound 
 volumes in the British Museum, and entitled, "A Journal 
 " of the Parliament begun November 3d, Tuesday, Anno 
 " Domini 1640." To the existence of such a journal atten- 
 tion has been lately drawn more than once by allusions in 
 Mr. Carlyle's writings in connection with Cromwell ; ' and 
 from a manuscript abstract made for him when he con- 
 templated writing a History of the Puritans (a project he 
 unhappily abandoned), a very interesting notice of D'Ewes, 
 with some account of his Journal, was written twelve years 
 ago in the Edinhurgh Review.^ Mr. Carlyle kindly placed 
 this manuscript at my disposal on my commencing, some 
 years since, at the request of the Messrs. Longman, what 
 I have found to be the not very easy task of preparing 
 for a library edition, and making worthier of the favour 
 extended to it, a work entitled The Statesmen of the Com- 
 monwealth written several years before. On comparing, 
 however, its abstract of D'Ewes with the original, it 
 proved to be so entirely imperfect and deficient even as an 
 index to the larger collections, that there was no alter- 
 
 1 "We call these Notes the most in confirmation of what is said in 
 ' interesting of all manuscripts. To the text. "For some part of the 
 ' an English soul who would under- "time, the Notes have been copied 
 'stand what was really memorable " and written out in a narrative form, 
 ' and godlike in the History of his "in a respectable hand ; in other 
 ' country, distinguishing the same ' ' places, we have nothing but the 
 'from what was at bottom un- "rough jottings-down of D'Ewes's 
 'memorable and devil-like; who " own pen. At first, when we begin to 
 'would bear in everlasting remem- " read them, all is obscurity, as dull 
 ' brance the doings of our noble heroic ' ' and dense as that which overclouds 
 ' men, and sink into everlasting ' ' the pages of Kushworth, Nalson, 
 ' oblivion the doings of our low ignoble "and the Journals; but as we go 
 'quacks and sham-heroes, — what "on, the mist gradually grows less 
 ' other record can be so precious?" — "dense, — rays of light dart inhere 
 
 Carlyle's ilfisceZiawies, iv. 338-9. " and there, illuminating the palpable 
 
 2 For July, 1846. I do not betray " obscure ; and in the end, after much 
 any confidence in stating that this ' ' plodding, and the exercise of infinite 
 paper was by that very learned and "patience, we may come to know the 
 agreeable writer, Mr. John Bruce, " Long Parliament as thoroughly as if 
 whose description of D'Ewes's original " we had sat in it." 
 
 manuscript may here be subjoined,
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 7 
 
 native but to begin the research anew. I soon found, 
 indeed, that without strictly honest and earnest examina- 
 tion of D'Ewes's actual handwriting, it was impossible to 
 make anything of his Journal. AVhatever in it is most 
 valuable, is in the roughest blurred condition ; written often 
 on the backs of letters, mere disjecta memhra of Notes for 
 a Diary, often all but illegible, now and then entirely so ; 
 and the reader will better understand the full force of this 
 remark who turns to the careful facsimile made for me of 
 two of its pages, and given as an illustration to the present 
 volume. Many portions, certainly, are more legibly 
 written, a secretary or transcriber having been called in 
 for the purpose ; but these are found upon examination 
 to be also the less valuable, consisting often of illus- 
 trations drawn from contemporaneous printed records, of 
 prodigiously lengthy expansions of somewhat sill}^ orations 
 by D'Ewes himself, or of extracts from the Journals or 
 other documents supplied by the Clerk of the House. 
 On the other hand, wherever the blotted writing of 
 D'Ewes recurs, there springs up again the actual and 
 still living record of what he had himself heard, and 
 himself noted down, with pen and ink, as he sat in 
 that memorable parliament ; ' and these Notes, extend- 
 
 ' I quote a passage from the the jealousy very frequently exhi- 
 
 original manuscript under date No- bited by members of the house in 
 
 vember 13th, 1641. The plea and de- regard to the practice of note-taking. 
 
 murrer put in by the bishops was then Sir Edward Alford, member for 
 
 in debate, and Mr. Holborue, member Arundel, had been observed taking 
 
 for St. Michaels, was speaking. ' ' I notes of a proposed Declaration moved 
 
 ' was then about to withdraw a little by Pym. Sir Walter Earle, member 
 
 ' out of the house, and went down for Weymouth, upon this objected 
 
 'as far as the place where he was that he had seen "some at the lower 
 
 ' speaking ; and finding a seat empty " end comparing their notes, and one 
 
 'almost just behind him, I sat down, "of them had gone out." Alford 
 
 ' thinking to have heard him a little, was thereupon called back, and Iiis 
 
 ' before 1 had gone out. But finding notes required to be given up to the 
 
 ' him endeavour to justify the plea Speaker. D'Ewes then continues — 
 
 ' and demurrer, I drew out again ' ' Sir Henry Vane eenr. sitting at 
 
 'my pen and ink, and took notes, "that time next me, said he could 
 
 'intending to answer him again as " remember when no man was allowed 
 
 'soon as he had done." Between " to take notes, and wished it to be 
 
 four and five months later (March 5, "now forbidden. Which occasioned 
 
 1641-2) a special instance occurred of "me, being the principal note-taker
 
 8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 ing from 1640 to 1045, and in which the fourth or 
 fifth of those years is found jumbled up with the first, 
 second, or third, the one perhaps written on the re- 
 verse of the other, have been thrown together and 
 bound with such equally small regard to succinct arrange- 
 ment, that the record of the same week's debates may 
 occasionally have to be sought through more than one, 
 or even two volumes. The pages elsewhere facsimiled, 
 which express fairly the condition of the rest, were 
 selected not for that reason, but because they were found 
 to contain a fact of such great historical importance, and 
 to set at rest, in a manner so startling and unexpected, 
 discussions relating to it which have divided the writers 
 of history,' that it seemed desirable to present them in a 
 specially authentic form. Yet these very pages were 
 found entii'ely separated from the volume contaming the 
 main part of the debates of which they form the connected 
 portion, and mixed up with the quite disconnected records 
 of three years later. All this, at the same time, while it 
 explains the obscurity in which D'Ewes's Notes have until 
 now been permitted to rest, gives us also striking proof of 
 the genuineness of the record. For that reason only it 
 has been dwelt on here. The reader, who now returns 
 with me to the subject of the Great Remonstrance, will 
 have less reason to doubt the scrupulous veracity of what 
 is here contributed to its illustration. 
 
 Nowhere does the author of the History of the Rehel- 
 lion aifect such particularity of detail as in describing 
 the various incidents and circumstances of the discussion 
 of this Remonstrance. It was indeed, to the party of 
 which he then first assumed the lead in the house, as to 
 
 " in the house, to say, &c. That tlie "some among us do, or go to 
 
 "practice existed before he was born. " as others have done." 
 
 ''For I bad a Journal, 13th Eliza- ^ This discovery is mentioned and 
 
 " beth. For my part I shall not com- described, jMst, in the remarks on the 
 
 " municate my journal (by which I Bill of Attainder against Strafford, at 
 
 "meant the entire copy of it) to any the opening of the Third Essay (on 
 
 " man living. If you will not permit the Civil Wars and Cromwell) in this 
 
 " us to write, we must go to sleep, as volume.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 9 
 
 their opponents, the critical moment of theii' career. It 
 was, to both, the turning point of all they had done here- 
 tofore, or might hope to do hereafter. Falkland told his 
 friend Hyde that as he and Cromwell left the house 
 together, immediately after the last division, the member 
 for Cambridge said to him, that, if it had gone against 
 them in that vote, he and many other honest men he 
 knew would have sold all they had the next morning, and 
 never have seen England more ; and, without too readily 
 accepting this anecdote, or thinking " the poor kingdom," 
 as Mr. Hyde phrases it, to have been half so near to its 
 deliverance in that particular as he affects to believe, it 
 would be impossible to overstate the g"ra^dty, to both 
 parties, of the issue depending on the vote which had 
 just been taken. 
 
 Immediately after the execution of Strafford, which 
 Hyde and his associates helped more largely than any 
 other section of the House to accomj)lish,' they began 
 steadily and secreth' to employ every artifice, and 
 all the advantages which their position in the Commons 
 gave them, to bring about a reaction favourable to the 
 King. The one formidable obstacle had been removed, 
 by Strafford's death, to their own entry into Charles's 
 counsels ; and without further guarantees for the security 
 of any one concession they had wrested from the Crown, 
 they were prepared to halt where they stood, or even (as 
 in the case of the Episcopacy Bill) to recede from ground 
 they had taken up.* Nor was it to be doubted that the 
 
 ^ The discovery to be hereafter wrote long after the event, and was 
 
 described, and to which I have very imijerfectly informed. Neither 
 
 alluded in connection with the fac- Falkland nor Hyde had at any time 
 
 simile from D'Ewes's Notes, places a friendly feeling to Lord Digby, and 
 
 this fact beyond further doubt or though a diflereiice no doubt arose as 
 
 question. to the Bill of Attainder, the principal 
 
 " Richard Baxter {Reliq. Baxt. 19) seceders who went with Digby ou 
 
 has attributed "the first breach that question were lawyers, such as 
 
 "among themselves" to the desire Selden, Holljonie, and Bridgman, who 
 
 on the part of "Lord Falkland, the went with him on no other ; and un- 
 
 "Lord Digby, and divers other able doubtedly the men who took after- 
 
 "men," to gratify the King " by wards the lead in forming a king's 
 
 " sparing Strafford's life." But Baxter party, such as Falkland and Culpeper 
 
 B 3
 
 10 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 plan had some chances of success, in the particular time 
 when it was tried. From the moment the Impeachment 
 was carried against Strafford, those old relative positions 
 of King and House of Commons, which, in the memory of 
 living men, had existed as if unchangeabl}^, were suddenly- 
 reversed. There was not a Parliament in the preceding 
 reign that James had not lectured, as a schoolmaster his 
 refractory pupils ; nor any in the existing reign that 
 Charles had not bullied, as a tyrant his refractory slaves. 
 But this Avas gone. The King was now, to all apj)earance, 
 the weaker party, and the House of Commons was the 
 stronger ; and how readily sympathy is attracted to those 
 who are weak, however much in the wrong, and how apt 
 to fall away from the strong, however clearly in the right, 
 it does not need to say. The popular leaders became 
 conscious of daily defections from their ranks ; the House 
 of Lords unexpectedly deserted them, on questions in 
 which they had embarked in unison; the Army was 
 entirely unsafe ; and opinions began to be busily put 
 about, that enough had been conceded by the King, and 
 that the demand for more would be ungenerous. 
 
 Never had a great cause been in peril more extreme. 
 For most thoroughly was the character of their adversary 
 known to its chiefs, and that not a single measure of re- 
 dress had been extorted from him which was not jaelded 
 in the secret hope of finding early occasion to reclaim it. 
 Strafford could not be raised from the dead, and there- 
 fore only had the concession in his case been obtained 
 with greater difficvilty than in the rest. The army had 
 been widely tampered Avith ; to save the bishops and their 
 bishopricks, the universities were moving heaven and 
 earth ; ' reliance could no longer be placed ujjon the 
 
 (whom Selden refused to join), had the Bill, were in reality opposing it, 
 
 taken the lead in promoting the Bill and bent only on continuing and 
 
 of Attainder. I am now, indeed, closing by way of impeachment, 
 
 in possession of evidence to show Culpeper and Falkland strenuously 
 
 that when the liberal leaders, who to advocated the procedure by Bill, 
 this hour are supposed to have origi- ^ "Bishops had been much lifted 
 
 nated and most hotly urged forward "at," says May (lib. i. cap. ix),
 
 THE GKAND REMONSTRANCE. 11 
 
 Lords ; concurrently with many signs of treachery in the 
 Commons themselves, were seen evidences elsewhere as 
 dangerous of the return of an unreasoning confidence in 
 the King; even in the city, the stronghold of liberal 
 councils, a noted royalist had been able to carry his 
 election as lord maj^or ; and the patriots could not hope 
 that their power, or their opportunities, would survive 
 any real abatement of zeal or enthusiasm in the people. 
 It is more wearing to the patience to wait for the redress 
 that is really near, than for what is wholly uncertain and 
 remote ; and those who had bravely and silently endured 
 the wrongs of fifteen years without a parliament, were 
 ready to resent a delay of half as many months in the 
 reliefs which parliament had promised them.' With such 
 a semblance of amended administration, therefore, and 
 such pretences of half popular measures, as the ingenuity 
 of Hyde could furnish, if Charles could be brought to 
 concede even so much, there was yet the means of 
 strikmg a heavy blow for recovery of the old prerogative. 
 
 " tliough not yet taken away, whereby "they had so long wished to see; 
 
 " a great party whose livelihood and "not considering that a prince, if he 
 
 "fortunes depended on them, and "be averse from such a Parliament, 
 
 "far more whose hopes of prefer- "can find power enough to retard 
 
 " ment looked that way (most of the " their proceedings, and keep off for 
 
 "Clergy, and both the Universities), "a long time the cure of the State. 
 
 ' ' began to be daily more disaffected ' ' When that happens, the people, 
 
 ' ' to the Parliament ; complaining ' ' tired with expectation of such a 
 
 " that all rewards of learning would "cure, do usually by degrees forget 
 
 ' ' be taken away. Which wrought * ' the sharpness of those diseases 
 
 ' ' deeply in the hearts of the young ' ' which before required it ; or else — 
 
 " and most ambitious of that coat. " "in the redressing of so many and 
 
 ' This point is admii-ably touched "long disorders, and to secure them 
 
 by the historian May. ' ' Some are ' ' for the future, there being for the 
 
 " taken off" (weaned from Parliament, "most part a necessity of laying 
 
 he means) "by time and their own " heavy taxes, and draining of much 
 
 " inconstancy, when they have looked " money from the people — they grow 
 
 ' ' for quicker redress of grievances ' ' extremely sensible of that present 
 
 "than the great concurrence of so "smart; feeling more pain by the 
 
 "many weighty businesses can pos- "cure, for a time, than they did by 
 
 " sibly admit in a long discontinued "the lingering disease before; and 
 
 "and reforming Parliament, how " not considering that the causes of 
 
 "industrious soever they be, dis- "all which they now endure were 
 
 ' ' tracted with so great a variety. ' ' precedent, and their present sufif.jr- 
 
 " Those people, after some time spent, " ing is for their future security." — 
 
 "grew weary again of what before Lib. i. cap. ix. 115.
 
 12 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Nor were nearer dangers wanting. Pym's life had been 
 aimed at repeatedly; and more than one attempt had 
 been tried to overawe deliberation by the display of force. 
 Something was in peril beyond the abstract freedom 
 of parliament or debate ; nor was it more to secure tlie 
 permanence of provisions akeady achieved for the public 
 liberty, than to guard against sudden substitution of a 
 naked despotism, that the pai'liamentary chiefs were now 
 called to defend their position, or to abandon it for ever. 
 
 They were not men to hesitate, and they resolved upon 
 an Appeal to the People in a more direct form than had 
 ever yet been attempted. Within a week after the House 
 first met, a committee had been moved for by Lord Digby, 
 in a most passionate speech, to " draw up such a Remon- 
 " strance to the King as should be a faithful and lively 
 " representation of the deplorable state of the kingdom, and 
 " such as might discover the pernicious authors of it," and 
 the proposal had been adopted in a modified and more 
 moderate form, wherein it will be found on the Journals 
 (ii. 25), of " some such way of Declaration as may be a 
 " faithful representation to this Mouse of the estate of the 
 " kingdom;" all the leading men of the house being 
 members of the committee, and Lord Digby its chairman. 
 This design, superseded for the time by matters of more 
 pressing moment, and whose originator had in the interval 
 become the hottest partizan of the King, was now revived. 
 Charles received warning of it before he departed for Scot- 
 land, on that mission which has since been shown to have 
 had no object so eagerly desired as to gather supposed 
 proofs on which to build a charge of treason against Pym 
 and Hampden. Archbishop Williams, for purposes of his 
 own, had intercourse with a servant of P3'm's, and did 
 not scruple to tell the King how that he had learned, from 
 this worthy, what had been going on in his master's house. 
 Some of the Commons were preparing a Declaration to 
 make the actions of his Majesty's government odious, and 
 he had better try to conciliate them before he went. All 
 this pains of the Archbishop, however, might have been
 
 »■ THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 13 
 
 spared. There was, from the first, no attempt to conceal the 
 revival of the Declaration, or, as Lord Digby had suggested 
 it should be called, the Remonstrance. It stood among 
 the orders of the House, as part of the business to be 
 done. Portions of it had certainly been under discussion 
 before the members rose for the recess. We have evidence 
 that at the close of Jul}^ during the excitements of the 
 enquiry into the army plot, the committee to v^'hom it had 
 been referred had it under deliberation ; and a peremptory 
 order was made in August,' during the excitement caused 
 by the King's resolute persistence in then departing for 
 Scotland, that by a particular day the Remonstrance of 
 the state of the kingdom and the church^ was to be 
 brought in. What its promoters prudently concealed, or, 
 to speak perhaps more correctly, had not yet finally settled, 
 was the particular manner in which they proposed to make 
 use of it. 
 
 The parliamentary recess, during which Pym sat as 
 chairman of a committee having absolute powers to conduct 
 business in the interval, lasted from the 9th of September, 
 when the House did not rise until nine o'clock at night, 
 to the morning of the 20th of October. On that day the 
 members reassembled ; but great gaps were seen in their 
 ranks, and it became obvious, as week followed week 
 without supplying these deficiencies, that the average of 
 attendance had considerabl}' diminislicd. Lord Clarendon, 
 though he hesitates expressly to say so, would have us 
 assume that the King's party suffered most by this falling 
 off ; but the assumption is hardly reconcileable with the 
 strenuous exertions of the patriots to compel a more full 
 attendance. It appears from the D'Ewes manuscript that 
 
 ' I quote Sir Ralph Vemey's Notes night, unable to settle upon anysatis- 
 
 of the Long Parliament. Saturday, factory course), the following entry 
 
 7th August, 1641 : After mention appears : 
 
 that order had been taken for a " per- "A Remonstrance to be made, 
 eraptory" call of the House (great " how we found the kingdom and the 
 apprehension prevailed at the moment "church, and how the state of it 
 as to the King's obstinate persistence " now stands." P. 113. 
 in going to Scotland, and on this - So styled in the Commons' Jour- 
 Saturday both Houses sat until 10 at nals (ii. 234).
 
 U HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Strode went even so far, some two months after the 
 recess, as to propose to fine a member £50, or expel hhn, 
 if he persisted in absence without leave ; and when sug- 
 gestion was made on the King's behalf from Edinburgh, 
 for the issue of a proclamation requiring full attendance 
 of all the members of the house, the Lord Keeper and 
 Chief Justice Bankes were against it, as unseasonable. 
 The truth seems to have been, that the defection comprised 
 generally the class of not very settled opinions which had 
 hitherto sided mostly with the strongest ; and that its 
 manifestation at this critical time, bringing new proof of 
 influences at work as well within as without the house, 
 to weaken the power of its leaders, furnished also a more 
 complete justification, if that were needed, of the course 
 on which they had resolved. 
 
 Nor had they assembled many hours before darker 
 warnings gathered in upon them. Hampden was still in 
 Scotland, nominally as a commissioner on the Scotch debt, 
 but really to Avatcli the King's jiroceedings there; and 
 Pym, after narrating his discovery of Goring's plot, and the 
 serious evidences existing of another widely spread army 
 conspiracy, handed in letters from the member for Bucks 
 which had reached the committee the previous day by an 
 express, detailing the scheme just discovered at Edinburgh 
 for the assassination of the leaders of the Covenant.' The 
 
 ^ Clarendon says explicitly that tober, appears to liave been thoroughly 
 
 Montrose, while professing to be able conscious of what had been going on 
 
 to satisfy the King of the treason of in Edinburgh. In the course of his 
 
 Argyle and the Hamiltons, advised elaborate statement of the circum- 
 
 the more certain and expeditious stances of " a new design now lately, 
 
 mode of disposing of them by assas- ' ' again to make use of the army 
 
 sination, which he "frankly under- " against us," he has occasion to ad- 
 
 "took todo" (if^isi!. ii. 17). Tbenoble vert also to the fact that "secret 
 
 historian adds that the King "abhor- "forces were ready in some places, 
 
 "red that expedient," but unhappily "and secret meetings had been in 
 
 even he is notable to deny that the King "Hampshire by sundry great recu- 
 
 continued his regard and confidence "sauts;" and with this he couples 
 
 to the man who had suggested it. a warning "that the Prince" (after- 
 
 From the manuscript records of these wards Charles II.) "who was ap- 
 
 proceedings of the Long Parliament "pointed to be at Richmond, was 
 
 which are before me as I write, I find " often at Oatlands with the Queen, 
 
 that Pym, so early as this 30th Oc- "and away from the Marquis of
 
 THE GEAXD REMONSTRANCE. ■ 15 
 
 entire contents of these letters were not divulged : but, on 
 the further statement then made by Pym, resolutions were 
 ])assed for immediate conference with the Lords on the 
 safety of the parliament and kingdom ; instructions were 
 given for occupation, with a strong force, of all the military 
 posts of the city ; and the train -bands of London were 
 ordered up to guard the two Houses by night as well as by 
 day. That was on the morning of the 20th of October ; 
 and in the evening, Edward Nicholas,' so soon to be 
 knighted and made Secretary of State in place of 
 Windebank, and who now sat for Newton in Hants, 
 keeping the signet during Charles's absence in Edin- 
 burgh, wrote to the King that some well-affected par- 
 liament men had been with him that day in great trouble, 
 in consequence of news from Scotland, and that he had not 
 been able to calm their anxiety." As the days passed 
 on, and new light was thrown on the equivocal position 
 of the King with the promoters of the league against 
 Ai'gyle and the Hamiltons, tliis cause for trouble to the 
 " well- affected " did not diminish. In a second letter, his 
 Majesty is told how much his servants in the house are 
 disheartened to be kept so long in darkness. In a third, 
 he has further notification of the great pain which is 
 caused by his silence. Nevertheless, that most significant 
 silence continued. 
 
 Hampden followed soon after his letters, leaving his 
 
 ' ' Hertford his Governor, for whom ' ' Buckingham for the Maritime Af- 
 
 ' ' there were no convenient lodgings ' ' fairs, a man of good experience, 
 
 "at Oatlands." Then, after a cer- "and of a very good reputation" 
 
 tain break, these remarkable words (ii. 600). The King made him Secre- 
 
 follow : ^^ That he feared the con- tary of State as soon as he returned 
 
 " spiracy went round, and tvas in from Scotland. See Clarendon's ii/e, 
 
 " Scotland as ivell as England." i. 94. 
 
 * An able and a moderate man, - " The next day after the receipt 
 
 who served his master faithfully, and "of the letters," says Clarendon (ii. 
 
 (rarest of qualities in a King's servant 579), "the Earls of Essex and Hol- 
 
 then) not unwisely. Clarendon de- "land .sadly told me, that I might 
 
 scribes him, in one of the suppressed " clearly discern the indirect way of 
 
 passages of his History, as "one of "the Court, and how odious all 
 
 " the Clerks of the Council, who had " honest men grew to them." 
 ' ' been Secretai'y to the Duke of
 
 16 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 fellow commissioners ' in Edinburgh, and arrived in 
 London while the newly introduced bill to take away 
 the bishops' votes in the other house was under dis- 
 cussion. The well-aifected parliament men, as Secretary 
 Nicholas calls them, were now acting as a compact body, 
 and not scrupling to avow the new tactics that governed 
 them. " I am sony," said Hampden, " to find a noble 
 " lord has changed his opinion since the time the last bill 
 " to this purpose passed the House; for he then thought 
 " it a good bill, but now he thinketh this an ill one." 
 " Truly," replied Lord Falkland, " I was persuaded at 
 " that time, by the worthy gentleman who hath spoken, to 
 " believe many things Avhich I have since found to be 
 " untrue ; and, therefore, I have changed my opinion in 
 " many particulars, as well as to things as persons." 
 
 This was at least fair warning. On whichever side 
 might be found to lie ultimately the right or the wrong, 
 here was at an}^ rate an end to that phalanx which had 
 brought Strafford to the scaffold, lodged Laud in the 
 Tower, and driven Finch and AYindebank into exile : which 
 had condemned ship-mone}', impeached the judges who 
 gave it their sanction, and dragged one of them in open 
 court from the seat his injustice had polluted;^ which had 
 passed the triennial bill, and voted as unlawful every tax 
 upon the subject imposed without consent of the House 
 of Commons ; which had abolished all jurisdictions that 
 reared themselves above the law ; and before whose un- 
 shrinking, compact array, alike the petty and the might}" 
 instrument of wrong had fallen, the Stannary Courts and 
 
 1 The Hon. Nathaniel Fiennes, "the Lords' House, and, by their 
 
 Lord Say and Scale's second son, "command, Maxwell, the Usher of 
 
 member for Banbury ; and Sir Philip "the Black Kod, came to the King's 
 
 Stapleton, member for Boroughbridge. " Bench when the .Judges were sitting, 
 
 * I quote from Whitelocke's Me- "took Judge Berkley from off the 
 
 morials (p. 40, Ed. 1732). "Feb- "Bench, and carried him away to 
 
 " ruary 13, 1640. Sir Robert " prison, which struck a great terrour 
 
 "Berkley, one of the Judges of the "in the rest of his brethren then sit- 
 
 " King's Bench, who gave his opinion "ting in Westminster Hall, and in 
 
 " for Ship money, was impeached by "all his profession." 
 " the Commons of High Treason, in
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 17 
 
 the Court of York, the Star Chamber and the High 
 Commission. In not one of these retributive or refor- 
 matory acts, had the party of Hyde and Falkland wavered 
 in the least ; in many, they had outstripped even Denzil 
 Holies, Cromwell, Hampden, and Pym. But they now did 
 not hesitate to give out, as in Falkland's reproach to 
 Hampden, that unfounded inducements had been addressed 
 to them ; and that this justified their instant desertion, as 
 well of the principles they had acted on, as of the men they so 
 long had acted with. What the alleged misrepresentations 
 were, has never been explained. But it is certain that not 
 an attempt was made by them, before they passed into 
 opposition against their old associates, to obtain a single 
 security for the King's better faith as to any one transaction 
 of the year during which they had ranked as his oppo- 
 nents. Still in all respects unaltered, save that Straftbrd 
 stood no longer by his side, at least Charles the First 
 cannot be accused of having tempted these men. Their 
 names, and their exertions in debate, are submitted by 
 Secretary Nicholas to his master, with a request for due 
 encouragement to such service, in the very letters which 
 bear evidence of Charles's continued hatred of the Cause 
 of which they had been the defenders, and were now the 
 betrayers. There is hardly an interchange of confidence 
 at this date between Edinburgh and Whitehall, in which 
 there is not either news of some fresh supposed danger to 
 the parliamentary leaders received with unconcealed satis- 
 faction, or the suggestion of some plot or intrigue against 
 them thrown out with eager hope. If they had flinched 
 or wavered for a moment, all that they had gained must 
 at once have passed from their keeping. Happily for their 
 own fame, more happily for our peaceful enjoyment of 
 the fruits of their desperate struggle, they stood quiet 
 and undismayed under every danger and every form of 
 temptation. 
 
 Some days before the reassembling of the House, great 
 sickness had broken out in London ; the plague had 
 reappeared in some quarters ; and the occasion had been
 
 18 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 seized for an intrigue to stay the reassembling, or to pro- 
 cure at least an adjournment of place if not of time. It is a 
 leading topic in several letters from Secretar}'- Nicholas 
 to the King. At first he is full of liope, describing the 
 spread of the plague and the shutting up of infected 
 houses around Westminster, and confidently anticipating 
 that adjournment in some form must be resorted to, so 
 rife and dangerous the sickness grows. But after three 
 days he has to change his tone, and to tell the King that 
 " Mr. Pym " and those of his party will not hear that 
 parliament shall not be held, or shall meet anywhere but 
 in London or Westminster. It met, as we have seen ; 
 and Mr. Pym, five days after the meeting, received very 
 decisive intimation of the temper with which the King's 
 partizans out of doors now regarded him. 
 
 He was sitting in his usual place, on the right hand 
 beyond the members' gallery, near the bar, on the 25th of 
 October, when, in the midst of debate on a proposition 
 he had submitted for allowance of " powder and bullet " 
 to the City Guard, a letter was brought to him. The 
 Serjeant of the House had received it from a messenger 
 at the door, to whom a gentleman on horseback in a grey 
 coat had given it that morning on Fish-street-hill ; with 
 a gift of a shilling, and injunction to deliver it with great 
 care and speed. As Pym opened the letter, something 
 dropped out of it on the floor ; but without giving heed to 
 this he read to himself a few words, and then, holding up the 
 paper, called out it was a scandalous libel. Hereupon it was 
 carried up to the lately-appointed Clerk's Assistant, Mr. 
 John Bushworth, who, in his immoved way, read aloud its 
 abuse of the great leader of the house, and its asseveration 
 that if he should escape the present attempt, the writer 
 had a dagger prepared for him. At this point, however, 
 young Mr. Rushworth would seem to have lost his cool- 
 ness, 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-wound, sent in the 
 hope that infection might by such means be borne to him
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTEANCE. 19 
 
 who opened it. " Whereupon," says the eye-witness, 
 from whose report the incident is now first related as 
 it really happened, " the said clerk's assistant having 
 " read so far, threw down the letter into the house ; and 
 " so it was spurned away out of the door." Its threats, 
 however, could not so be spurned away, and were not mere 
 empty brutalities. Nicholas's report of it to the King 
 was dated but a few days after the occurrence, yet, in the 
 brief interval, not only had another attempt upon Pym's 
 life been discovered, but a person jnistaken for him had 
 been stabbed m Westminster Hall. Charles made no 
 comment on the particular subject reported upon by his 
 correspondent. But if so minded, his Majesty might 
 have told him that he and his Queen had their plots also 
 against the foremost man of the parliament, and that his 
 name, for purposes of their own, was become a word of 
 familiar sound in their letters to each other.' 
 
 Pym had assailants in the house itself, too, more 
 open but hardly more honorable. The first direct result 
 of the dark rumours from Scotland inculpating the King, 
 was a proposition moved in the Commons for a vote 
 afiirming the King's right to nominate all ofiicers, coun- 
 cillors, ambassadors, and ministers ; but demanding that 
 the power of approving them should in future rest with 
 the parhament. It was brought forward by Mr. Robert 
 Goodwin, the member for East Grinstead, in a speech 
 
 ^ "I received yesterday a letter Again she says, in another letter: 
 "from Pym, by which he sends me "As to the thirty thousand pieces 
 "word that he fears I am ofl'ended "which Pj'm sends me word have 
 ' ' with him, because he has not had a ' ' been promised a long time ago, and 
 " letter from me for a long time. I "not sent, you will also be shown 
 " beg you tell him that that is not " how they have been employed most 
 " the case, and that I am as much " usefully for your service." Again, 
 " his friend as ever, but I have so much artfully naming him with a known 
 "business, that I have not been able agent and minister of Charles: "I 
 ' ' to write by expresses, and by the ' ' have so much business that I 
 "post it is not safe." So wrote "have not leisure to write to Pym 
 Henrietta Maria to her husband the "nor to Culpeper. Remember me 
 King; and the intention of course "to them, and tell them I am re- 
 was to damage Pym, if possible, by ' ' turned to England as much their 
 letting such expressions, in themselves "friend as when I left, &c." 
 a pure invention, casually be seen.
 
 20 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 levelled at tlie newpart}^ in the house. He dilated on the 
 disasters undergone from former advisers and ministers 
 of the Sovereign ; and argued that all they had gained 
 would now be lost, if they could not guard against pos- 
 sible dangers from new counsellors as unworthy, and 
 who might perhaps become as powerful, as the old. 
 The matter was debated on both sides with vehemence, 
 and Mr. William Strode,' who sat for Beeralston, 
 
 ^ What Clarendon says of Strode, 
 that he was "one of those ephori 
 " who most avowed the curbing and 
 "suppressing of Majesty" (i. 253), 
 and further (ii. 23), that he was "one 
 ' ' of the fiercest men of the party, 
 " and of the party only for his fierce- 
 "ness," is coloured always by strong 
 personal dislike, but it had probably 
 some foundation. Only he forgets to 
 state that Strode had precisely the 
 same claims to popular sympathy and 
 confidence of which he does not with- 
 hold the credit from other leading 
 men, in so far as such might fairly 
 rest on former sufferings and long 
 imprisonments for independent con- 
 duct in preceding parliaments. And 
 indeed, considering the strong claim 
 which, in every other case, such suf- 
 ferings constituted — the title which 
 the mere fact of having so suffered 
 gave, to popularity out of the house, 
 to authority within it, and to con- 
 tinued dislike and jealousy from the 
 Coui-t — it is perfectly inexplicable to 
 me that Clarendon, in remarking on 
 the arrest of the five members, should 
 bring himself to talk of a man who 
 had sat in the last two Parliaments of 
 James and in all the Parliaments of 
 Charles, who had been a foremost 
 actor in the great scene of the disso- 
 lution of the Third Parliament, and 
 who for his spirited and manly con- 
 duct that day had suS'ered persecution 
 and long imprisonment, as he speaks 
 of Strode. After observing that three 
 of the five members impeached were 
 really distinguished men, he adds (vol. 
 ii. 161) "Sir Arthur Haselrig and Mr. 
 "Strode were persons of too low an 
 
 "account and esteem ; and though 
 "their virulence and malice was as 
 "conspicuous and transcendent as 
 "any man's, yet their reputation, 
 ' ' and interest to do any mischief, 
 ' ' otherwise than in concurring in it, 
 "was so small, that they gained 
 "credit and authority by being joined 
 "with the rest, who had indeed a 
 " great influence." 
 
 I had wi-itten thus far when it oc- 
 curred to me to make further enquiry, 
 and the result is a clear conviction to 
 my mind that the Strode of the Par- 
 liaments of James and the early Par- 
 liaments of Charles, and the Strode 
 of the Long Parliament, in whose 
 identity every historian and vrriter 
 upon these times, so far as I am aware, 
 has hitherto implicitly believed, and 
 who, as one and the same speaker, fill 
 a large place in both Editions of the 
 Parliamentary History, were two dis- 
 tinct persons. That so extraordinary 
 a mistake should have been made as 
 to a person whom the King's fatal 
 attempt was calculated to render 
 notorious, may serve to show, among 
 other things, how much has yet to 
 be learned respecting the incidents 
 and actors in these momentous times. 
 The proof as to Strode, which is 
 quite decisive, consists in the fact of 
 repeated references to him as a young 
 man, in the manuscript reports of the 
 proceedings of the house which I have 
 had before me while writing. Rush- 
 worth had already drily noticed {Col- 
 lectioiis, Part iii. Vol. I. 477) his ob- 
 stinacy in refusing, when the King's 
 intention was made known, to leave 
 the house with the other members.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 21 
 
 appears to have given the member for Saltasli, Mr. 
 Edward H^'de,' some advantage, by the unusual violence 
 of tone with which he broadly insisted on the right of 
 the House to a negative voice in placing great officers 
 of state. " I think most he said was premeditated," 
 saj's a member who was present ; " but it was so extreme 
 " in strain, as Mr. Hyde did, upon the sudden, confute 
 " most of it." Mr. Hyde doubtless found his task more 
 difficult, however, when Pym, after the interval of a week, 
 dui-ing which the startling news had arrived (received 
 in the house, says Clarendon, with deep silence and a 
 kind of consternation) of that rebellion and most 
 appalling massacre by the Irish papists, from some 
 connivance with whose abettors the memory of Charles 
 the First has never yet been cleared, put the matter in 
 a more practical form. 
 
 On Friday, the 5th of November, Pym met the question 
 of the supi^ly necessary for the forces to be sent into 
 Ireland by reviving the question of the King's evil coun- 
 sellors. His Majesty must be told, said the member 
 
 until his ancient acquaintance Sir From tlie fact of his representing 
 
 Walter Earle forced him out : but I Beeralston, and of the connection be- 
 
 subjoin an ampler accoixnt of the tween the family of the elder Strode 
 
 scene, until now unpublished, which and Sir Walter Earle, young Strode 
 
 is interesting in itself, and decisive as was in all probability the son ; but 
 
 to the mistake hitherto made. "But both the Editions of the Parliamentary 
 
 " Mr. William Strode, the last of the History, and all other biographies and 
 
 "five, being a young man and un- histories relating to him, beginning 
 
 ' ' married, could not be persuaded by with the very positive account in the 
 
 " his friends for a pretty while to go Second Impression of the Athe7icB Oxo- 
 
 "out; but said that knowing him- nienses (iii. 176-8, Edit. 1817), must 
 
 ' ' self to be innocent, he would stay now be altered. 
 
 " in the house, though he sealed his ^ Afterwards Lord Clarendon. I 
 
 " innocency with his blood at the call him by either name indiscrimi- 
 
 " door : nor bad he been at last over- nately in the course of this pajjer, but 
 
 " come by the importunate advice and he was not the only Hyde who sat in 
 
 "entreaties of his friends, when the the Long Parliament. There was a 
 
 *' van or fore-front of those ruffians Robert Hyde, also a lawyer and a 
 
 "marched into Westminster Hall. royalist, who sat for Salisbury ; com- 
 
 " Nay, when no persuasions could monly called Serjeant Hyde. Robert 
 
 "prevail with the said Mr. Strode, voted against Strafford's attainder, 
 
 " Sir Walter Earle, his entire friend, and has occasionally been mistaken 
 
 " was fain to take him by the cloak, for Edwai'd in the list of "Strafford- 
 
 "and pull him out of his place, iaus." 
 "and so get him out of the house."
 
 22 HISTORICAL ESSA.YS. 
 
 for Tavistock, that paiiiameiit here finds evil counsels to 
 have been the cause of all these troubles in Ireland ; 
 and that unless the Sovereign will be pleased to free 
 himself from such, and take only counsellors whom 
 the kingdom can confide in, parliament will hold itself 
 absolved from giving assistance in the matter. On this 
 up sprang the member for St, Ives, Mr. Edmund 
 Waller, cousin to Hampden and to Cromwell, yet one of 
 Hyde's most eager recruits, nor more despised for his 
 abject, veering, vacillating spirit, than he was popular for 
 his wit, vivacity, and genius.^ These he had now placed 
 entirely at the King's disposal. He begged the House 
 to observe what jNIr, Pym had just said, and to remember 
 what formerly had been said by the Earl of Strafford. 
 Where in efi^ect was the difi"erence, between such counsel 
 to a king, as that he was absolved from all laws of govern- 
 ment, on parliament refusing his unjust demands; and 
 such advice to a parliament, as that it should hold itself 
 absolved from assisting the State, on the king's non-com- 
 pliance with demands perhaps not more just ? The too 
 ingenious speaker was not permitted to say more. Pym 
 rose immediately and spoke to order. If the advice he 
 had given were indeed of the same nature as Lord 
 Straftbrd's, then he deserved the Hke punishment ; and he 
 craved, therefore, the justice of the House, either to be 
 submitted to its censiu'e, or that the gentleman who spoke 
 last be compelled to make reparation. Many and loud 
 were the cries for Waller which followed this grave and 
 dignified rebuke ; but a strong party supported him in 
 his refusal to give other than such modified explanation 
 as he at first tendered, and it was not until after long 
 
 ^ "He had a graceful way of ' ' than weight. There needs no more 
 
 " speaking ; and by thinking much lip- "be said to extol the excellence 
 
 * ' on several arguments, he seemed often ' ' and power of his wit, and pleasant- 
 
 ' ' to speak upon the sudden, when ' ' ness of his conversation, than that 
 
 " the occasion had only administei'ed " it was of magnitude enough to cover 
 
 " the opportunity of saying what be " a world of very great faults; that 
 
 "had thoroughly considered, which "is, so to cover them, that they were 
 
 " gave a great lustre to all he said ; "not taken notice of to his reproach." 
 
 "which yet was rather of delight — Clarendon, Life, i. 54.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 23 
 
 debate lie was ordered into the committee chamber, and 
 had to make submission in the required terms. It was 
 near five o'clock on that November evening, when 
 Mr. Waller " publickly asked pardon of the House and 
 " Mr. Pym."' 
 
 But the House, or Mr. Pym, was little now to 
 Mr. Waller and his friends, in comparison with their 
 new and late-found allegiance to the other master whom 
 till now they had determinedly opposed. So quick 
 and ready the change, it was as the shifting of a 
 scene upon the stage. The men who had always been 
 courtiers were seen suddenly deposed from what impor- 
 tance they had, and an entii'ely new set of characters 
 promptly filled their place. " I may not forbear to 
 " let your INIajesty know," writes Nicholas immediately 
 before the scene just named, and describing the 
 debates which led to it, " that the Lord Falkland, Sir 
 " John Strangways, Mr. Waller, Mr. Edward Hyde, and 
 " Mr. Holborne, and divers others, stood as champions in 
 " maintenance of your prerogative, and showed for it 
 " unanswerable reason and undeniable precedents, whereof 
 " 3'our Majesty shall do well to take some notice, as your 
 " Majesty shall think best, for their encouragement." 
 Eagerly did the Iving respond, that his good Nicholas was 
 commanded to do so much at once in his name, and to 
 tell those worthy gentlemen that he would do it himself at 
 his return. Whereupon closely had followed Mr. Waller's 
 assault on INIr. Pym, and the rebuke at Westminster 
 winning him fresh favour at Whitehall. 
 
 * All, until now, revealed of this "then he was commanded to return 
 
 affair, is contained in the subjoined " to his place. 
 
 entry from the Commons' Journals " And then the Speaker told him, 
 
 (ii. 306), under head of Friday, 5th " that the House held it fit, that, in 
 
 Nov. 1641 : "his place, he should acknowledge 
 
 " Exceptions were taken at words " his offence given by his words, both 
 
 "spoken by Mr. Waller, which re- "to the House in general, and Mr. 
 
 "fleeted upon Mr. Pym in a high " Pym in particular, 
 
 "way: for which he was commanded "Which he did ingenuously, and 
 
 "to withdraw. "expressed his sorrow for it." 
 
 "And he being withdrawn, the The special cause of offence is now 
 
 " Business was a ■while debated : And first made known.
 
 24 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Each incident that had manifested thus, however, the 
 spirit and purpose of the new opposition served only to 
 knit more closely what was left of the old liberal phalanx. 
 No word was breathed of any kind of concession. Their 
 speech had not been more decisive, or their action more 
 vigorous, while Strafford stood at bay. Broken as were 
 their ranks, their majority was sufficient and decisive : 
 and they had a supreme force in reserve, to whicli they 
 were about to appeal. Wherever Hyde and his friends, 
 therefore, might be expected to muster strongest, there 
 they struck ever themselves the first, and the heaviest. 
 
 Before the recess, thirteen bishops had been impeached 
 for an attempt to override the law by asserting a legislative 
 authority in new Canons which they claimed to impose ; 
 and after the House again met, as we have seen, a bill 
 had been introduced for taking away their votes in the 
 upper house ; yet this was the time selected by Charles 
 for pressing with characteristic vehemence the investiture 
 of five new bishops ! In writing to Edinburgh, Nicholas had 
 been careful to recount the surprise he heard expressed 
 that any man should move his Majesty for making of 
 bishops in those times, to which his Majesty wrote instantly 
 back that on no account was there to be any delay ; and at 
 the very moment these letters were thus interchanged, 
 Mr. Oliver Cromwell had carried in the Commons, by a 
 majority of eighteen, a motion for a conference with the 
 Lords to stay the investiture. The day had now arrived, 
 too, when the impeached bishops were to put in their 
 answer ; and a demurrer was entered on their behalf so skil- 
 fully drawn up, that tbe curiosity was great to ascertain its 
 author. It came on for discussion in the house ; and the 
 one of Hampden's counsel who had argued with most con- 
 summate ability against ship-money, and who had not 
 heretofore been very friendly to bishops, Mr. Holborne, 
 member for St. Michael's and of late entirely leagued with 
 Hyde, got up to support it. Hereupon Sir Simonds 
 D'Ewes, that wealthy and respected coimtry gentleman 
 who now sat for Sudbury, ex-high-sheriff of Suffolk, but
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 25 
 
 formerly student and barrister of the Middle Temple, 
 made a lucky hit. He complimented his learned friend ; 
 recalled the days when they used to meet at mootes in 
 Lincoln's Inn, and admitted that, of all men, he was 
 wont to get deepest into the points of a case ; but truly, 
 he had this day so strongly maintained the plea and 
 demurrer of the bishops, that he could not have performed 
 it more exactly if he himself had drawn the same. Some- 
 thing here perhaps in Holborne's manner betrayed him, 
 but a loud laugh burst forth which was kept up some 
 time. " All the House laughed so long," says D'Ewes, 
 " as I was fain to remain silent a good while ; for I 
 " believe many in the house did suspect, as well as 
 " myself, that either the said Mr. Holborne had wholly 
 " drawn them, or at least had given his assistance 
 " therein." It was quite true : but the great ship-money 
 lawj^er took little for his pains in having thus come to the 
 rescue. Upon the success of the demurrer, Pym headed 
 a conference with the Lords ; demanded, m the name of 
 the Commons, that the votes of the bishops should be 
 suspended until the fate of the bill under discussion was 
 decided ; and so began the conflict with the Right 
 Reverend Bench which ended in their committal to the 
 Tower. 
 
 In like manner it fared with the two other questions, 
 control of his Army and choice of his Counsellors, on 
 which the King was himself most sensitive, and his 
 friends in the house most busy and eager- Every move 
 they made was outmoved. Vehement as were the excite- 
 ments, and grave the dangers, of the Irish Rebellion, 
 of the doubtful allegiance of the force under arms in 
 England, and of the attempts in Scotland against Argyle 
 and the Hamiltons, Pym seized and turned to instant 
 advantage, as already we have seen on one subject, the 
 equivocal position regarding all in which ill counsels had 
 placed the King. At a conference with the Lords, every 
 step to which had been hotly contested in the Commons, 
 he obtained their consent to the introduction of a
 
 26 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 clause against evil counsellors into the instructions for 
 requesting help from the Scotch Parliament for suppres- 
 sion of the Irish Rebellion ; and this after a speech con- 
 summate in its power and effect, and remarkable for the 
 subtlety of its argument against the Roman Catholic 
 religion as in its full indulgence incompatible with the 
 existence in a State, not only of any other form of religion, 
 but of any form whatever of political government and 
 freedom. The clause embodied the exact sentiment, in 
 almost the exact words, to which Hyde and his friends, 
 as we have seen, had taken violent objection ; and on the 
 same day when this clause passed the lower house by a 
 majority of forty- one, and the conference with the Lords 
 was obtained, which was only two days later than that of 
 Waller's high-flying parallel between Strafford and Pym, 
 I discover that Mr. Cromwell moved and carried an 
 addition to the subjects for conference — (" that we should 
 " desii'e the Lords that an ordinance of parliament ' 
 " might pass to give the Earl of Essex power to assemble, 
 " at all times, the trained bands of the kingdom on this 
 " side Trent, for the defence thereof, till further orders 
 " therein taken by the Houses ") — wherein lay the 
 ominous germ and beginning of the victorious army 
 of the parliament. 
 
 ' Then for the first time appeared Queen appears to have sent, upon this 
 
 the ill-boding claim of power for an all important point, even earlier 
 
 Ordinance of both Houses in the ab- tidings to the King, for in a letter 
 
 seuce of the King. Nicholas hastened dated the 12th November, only two 
 
 to inform the King of the portent. days later, she thus writes to Nicho- 
 
 A great lord had objected, he said, las : "I send you a letter for 
 
 and expressed doubts whether men "Milord Keeper that the King did 
 
 might be raised without warrant " send to me to deliver if I thought it 
 
 under the Great Seal; whereupon, "fit. The subject of it is to make a 
 
 this doubt being made known in the "Declaration against the Orders of 
 
 Commons' house, it was declared " Parliament which are made with- 
 
 that an Ordinance of both Houses '^ oid the King. If you believe a fit 
 
 was a sufficient warrant for levying "time give it him, if not you may 
 
 of volunteers by beating of the drum, "keep it till I see you." In the same 
 
 " and an entry of such their declar- letter she tells Nicholas that the King 
 
 " ation was accordingly made in the will certainly be in London by the 
 
 "Register of that house." The 20th of the month, and that he is 
 
 letter of Nicholas is dated the 10th therefore to advertise the Lord Mayor 
 
 November. Meanwhile, however, the of London of the fact.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 27 
 
 In the afternoon of that same Monday the 8th of 
 November, the " Declaration and Bemonstrance " was 
 submitted in its first rough draft for discussion . by the 
 House. Never before was presented to it, never since has 
 it received, such a State Paper as that ! — Immediately upon 
 its production, it was read at the clerk's table ; whereupon 
 several notices of motions for additions and amendments 
 were given, and order was taken for commencing the 
 discussion upon its several clauses, seriatim, on the 
 following morning at nine o'clock. 
 
 The character of the impression at once made by 
 it will be inferred from the instant communication of 
 Secretary Nicholas to the King. On the evening of the 
 same day, he wrote off to Scotland that there had been 
 that afternoon brought into the Commons' house, and 
 there read, a Declaration of the State of Affairs of the king- 
 dom which related all the misgovernment, and all the 
 unpleasing things that had been done by ill counsels (" as 
 " they call it "), since the third year of the reign until 
 now. The further consideration of it was to be had the 
 next day in the house ; and so much was it likely to 
 reflect to the prejudice of his Majesty's government, that 
 Mr. Secretary " troubled " to think what might be the issue 
 if his Majesty came not instantly away from Edinburgh. 
 Every line in the Tetter showed the sore perplexity the 
 writer was in. He could not possibly account for this 
 Remonstrance satisfactorily as a party demonstration. 
 " Surely if there had been in this," he says, " nothing but 
 " an intention to have justified the proceedings of this 
 " parliament, they would not have begun so high." He 
 entreated the King to burn his letter, or he, Nicholas, 
 might be lost ; and at its close he again made urgent and 
 anxious representation to his Majesty, that he could not 
 possibly so much prejudice himself by at once leaving 
 Edinburgh and all things there unfinished, as by delaying 
 his return to London even one day. The King's answer, 
 avoiding the question of the immediate return, as to 
 which he had already communicated with the Queen, was 
 
 c 2
 
 28 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 not less urgent. " You must needs speak with such of my 
 " servants that you may best trust, in my name, that hy 
 " all means possible this Declaration may he stopped ^ 
 
 Alas ! this was not by any means possible. All that 
 could now be done, by earnest recruiting for the royal 
 service, was to arouse and league firmly together, in despe- 
 rate opposition to the Remonstrance and its authors, a 
 band of members of the lower house, even more fierce, and 
 only less determined, than the other indissoluble league 
 already j)ledged to support it, and bent upon carrying it 
 to the people. And so the struggle began. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 9th of November, the first debate was 
 taken. The hour appointed for it was nine o'clock, but it 
 did not begin till about twelve o'clock, and it continued 
 until a late hour. The order of procedure was first settled. 
 The Declaration was to be read clause by clause ; every 
 member was to speak to each clause, if he w^ould ; and if 
 any spoke to have the clause amended, and that the House 
 gave leave, then it was to be amended, and the clause with 
 the amendments put to the question. Cromwell and Strode 
 were among those who moved the first amendments. At 
 this first sitting also, Bulstrode Whitelocke, who sat for 
 Marlow, Serjeant Wylde, the member for Worcestershu-e, 
 Mr. Henry Smith, the member for Leicestershire and 
 afterwards one of the King's judges, Sir John Clotworthy, 
 who sat for Maiden, Mr. Wingate, the member for St. 
 Albans, and Mr. Geoffre}^ Palmer, the member for 
 Stamford, and formerly one of the managers of Stratford's 
 impeachment, moved and carried insertions and additions ; 
 all of them, with exception of the last, designed to make 
 it more stringent and severe in tone. On the following 
 day, Nicholas reported as usual to the King. A fourth 
 part had been gone through, comprising nearly fifty 
 clauses ; and the rest of it, Mr. Secretary had learnt, 
 was to be voted in the same way, as fast as might be ; 
 after which it was to be transmitted straightway to the 
 Lords. The latter information was inaccurate ; but the 
 King's instant order to act upon it, though destined to be
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 29 
 
 of no avail as to the upper house, was a new incentive to 
 activity in the lower. " Command the Lord Keeper in 
 my name," he wrote, " that he warn all my servants to 
 " oppose it in the Lords' house." 
 
 On Wednesday, the 10th of November, sa3's a member 
 who took part in the debate, " we proceeded with the 
 " Remonstrance where w^e left off 3'esterday," Insertions 
 and additions were again made, among them one having 
 reference to slavish doctrines against the subject's property 
 in his estate, very generally preached from pulpits before 
 the King ; and a peremptory order, issued at this sitting, 
 to the effect that the clerk should on no account give out 
 copies of the Declaration until the House had fully per- 
 fected it, may serve to show how interest was gathering 
 around it from day to day. 
 
 The Irish Eebellion, and provision for the levies and 
 expenditure it had suddenly rendered necessary, occupied 
 the House so incessantly during the sitting of the 11th 
 of November, that the order for resuming the Re- 
 monstrance had to be laid aside ; but a remarkable 
 allusion was thrown out in reference to it, by Strode, 
 in the course of the debate on the raising money for 
 supply of his Majesty's wants in Ireland. He spoke 
 of the dissatisfaction of the people, and of the injustice 
 of laying fui'ther burdens on them, until something 
 were done to reassure them under their present fears 
 and misgivings, and to give them hope that what with so 
 much toil and sacrifice had been lately gained was not 
 again to be completely lost. " Sir," said the member for 
 Beeralston, " I move against the order of the committee 
 " that we should not admit of the giving of money till the 
 *' Remonstrance be passed this house, and gone into tlie 
 " country to satisfy them." This at any rate was plain 
 speaking.' Thus early in the debates the desire and 
 
 * Strode seems to have tad the were content to leave as matter of 
 
 hahit of blurting out in words, in a inference from their acts. As to the 
 
 sudden impulsive way, what the more question of disbanding the Scotch 
 
 reserved of the party more prudently army, for instance, he frankly avowed :
 
 30 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the design of the promoters of the Kemonstrance were 
 frankly avowed. It was to be to them some guarantee 
 that the army about to be raised for the suppression of 
 Irish rebellion, should not hereafter be used for the sup- 
 pression of English libert3\ It was to be printed and 
 circulated among the j^eople. 
 
 That was on Thursday, the 11th of November. On the 
 day following, the Remonstrance was proceeded with, and 
 every part so obstinately disputed, that the House sat far 
 into that November afternoon. A motion for rising having 
 been resisted successfully, another member moved that 
 candles should be brought. This was a proceeding as 
 yet very rarely resorted to; it having been only duiing the 
 proceedings on the Attainder of Stratford that the order of 
 the house had been so far relaxed as to admit of new 
 motions made, except with special permission, after noon.' 
 " Sir," said the advocate for candles, Avho was no other 
 than D'Ewes himself, " we have now been sitting in the 
 " house near upon seven hours " (the ordinary hour of 
 meeting was eight o'clock in the morning, but of late, in 
 consequence of the prolonged sittings, the hour had been 
 generally nine, sometimes even ten o'clock), " and we do 
 
 "We cannot yet spare the Scotch. "taking his place, talk so loud as to 
 
 "The sons of Zeruiah are too strong "interrupt the business of the house 
 
 'for us:" for which, being called to "from being heard, should pay a 
 
 order, the House refused to exact " shilling fine, to be divided between 
 
 any apology. (Journals, Feb. 6, " the serjeant and the poor." And to 
 
 1640-1.) Whathe thus openly declared this order, on the motion of Sir John 
 
 had till then (according to May, Strangways, the member for Wey- 
 
 lib. i. cap. viii.) been asserted princi- mouth, it was added "that after 
 
 cipally by the ill-atfected, who not "twelve o'clock no new business be 
 
 only in discourse but wiitten libels " entered into, or moved, without the 
 
 taxed the Parliament with it, im- "leave of the house." More formally 
 
 puting it to them as a crime of too it was resolved a few days later, upon 
 
 much distrust of the King, and ac- the motion of Sir Walter Earle, the 
 
 fusing them of having kept up a other member for Weymouth, "that 
 
 foreign army to overawe their own " the ancient order of the house be ob- 
 
 Prince. ' ' served : namely, that no bills be 
 
 ' I find, from the D'Ewes manuscript "read the second time but between 
 
 before me, that on the 4th December " the hours of nine and twelve." To 
 
 1640, on the motion of Strode, an which it was added, at the suggestion 
 
 order was made that "every one of Mr. Speaker (Lenthal), that all 
 
 "upon coming into the house who bills might be read a first time, early 
 
 ' ' did not take his place, or did, after in the morning.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 31 
 
 *' not now think fit to rise, but we will still sit. I desii'e 
 " that we may sit according to the ancient use of parlia- 
 " ments, having the use as well of our eyes as of our 
 " ears; and that lights may be brought in." 
 
 On this very day, Nicholas had written somewhat ngiore 
 hopefully to the King that the House had been the day 
 before so employed about Irish affairs, that they meddled 
 not with their Declaration : but after a very few days he 
 has, less eagerly, to report that they have been making 
 up for lost time. " The House of Commons," he wrote, 
 " hastens by all means the finishing of the Declaration or 
 " Remonstrance; and for the more speedy expediting of 
 " it, they have at the committee passed by many par- 
 " ticulars to avoid the delay of long debates." 
 
 In those few words were also expressed the steady 
 perseverance and tenacity of what was truly to be called 
 His Majesty's Opposition. Every inch of the gi'ound was 
 so contested indeed, that only the most watchful and 
 resolute determination could avail to maintain any part 
 of it unimpaired ; and all the forms of the House were 
 exhausted in pretences for delay. The whole of the 
 sitting of Monday, the 15th of November, was taken up 
 with the discussion of the single clause which ultimately 
 stood as the hundred and ninetieth. In this, adverting 
 to the charges brought by the ill-affected party against 
 the leaders of the House of Commons, it was affirmed, in 
 contradiction of those charges, that not the meddling of 
 the Commons with the power of episcopacy, but the 
 idolatry and popish ceremonies introduced into the 
 Church by command of the bishops themselves, were 
 the causes why sectaries and conventicles abounded in 
 England, and why Englishmen, seeking Hberty of worship, 
 had been driven into exile. A debate of extraordinary 
 vehemence arose upon this word command. It was led 
 by Sir Edward Dering, the member for Kent,' who but 
 
 ' Poor Sir Edward Dering got lam- on this qiiestion of the Remonstrance, 
 self only hiuglied at for his paius in He lost his seat in the house shortly 
 going suddenly over to Hyde's party after, and failed to obtain any stand-
 
 32 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 a little while before had moved the reading of a bill for 
 extirpating bishops, deans, and chapters; and it was sup- 
 ported by Lord Falkland, who, on the 8th of the preceding 
 February, had distinctly charged the bishops with having 
 destroyed unity under j)retence of uniformity, with having 
 brought in superstition and scandal under the titles of 
 reverence and decency, with having defiled the Church by 
 adorning the churches, and destroyed of the gospel as 
 much as they could without bringing themselves into 
 danger of being destroyed by the law. With a petti- 
 fogging worthier of Hyde than of himself, Falkland now 
 joined Bering in asking where proof was to be found that 
 the bishops had issued any " command " for the intro- 
 duction of idolatry. Who hath read this command ? they 
 asked. " Who hath heard it ? Who hath seen this com- 
 " manded idolatry ? " The day closed while yet the debate 
 had not; an order being made that the Remonstrance 
 should be resumed the next day at ten o'clock, and that 
 meanwhile tlie clause which had then been debated so 
 much, should be recommitted to the committee that ori- 
 ginally drafted it, to prepare it in such a manner as might 
 be agreeable to the sense of the House. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 16th, the debate was resumed accord- 
 ingly ; but the obnoxious word remained in the clause as 
 again introduced, and after further hot debate, the 
 question of whether it should stand passed to a division. 
 It was carried in the affirmative by a majority of 25, 
 Sir Thomas Barrington, the member for Colchester, 
 and Sir Martin Lumley, the member for Essex, being 
 tellers for the 124 ayes, and Sir Edward Dering, with Sir 
 Hugh Cholmley, the member for Scarborough, for the 
 
 ing with the Royalists. Yet he seems "motive" in moving the trenchant 
 to have been an eloquent and on the bill against the bishops, was that he 
 whole a well-meaning man, and hardly might have the opportunity of apply- 
 to have deserved the sneers of Cla- ing the two lines from Ovid, 
 rendon ; who in his History (i. 
 
 416) characterises him as a man of Cuncta prius tentanda, sed Immedicabile 
 
 levity and vanity, easily flattered by ^■^"''^'^^., , 
 
 being commended ; and goes so far ^ "'f.^atur f" '™ '''^' ''" ^^^ '''''^'■" 
 as to assert that his "greatest
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 33 
 
 99 noes. The discussion on this day again occupied 
 nearly all the sitting, and was only at last closed by the 
 compromise of lajdng aside some clauses in wliich ex- 
 ception had been taken to parts of the Liturgy as savour- 
 ing of superstition. Other changes, comprising - some 
 additions, were also assented to ; and these, with the 
 Declaration as amended thus far, were referred to " the 
 " same committee that was appointed for penning of it. 
 " and they are to bring it back to the house with all con- 
 " venient speed." A further concession to the Opposition 
 was at the same time made, in the addition to that com- 
 mittee of the names of Culjaeper and Falldand. 
 
 The two following days, Wednesday and Thursdaj^ the 
 17th and 18th of November, were silent as to the Remon- 
 strance, but filled with matters of grave import having a 
 direct bearing upon it. Complaints had been made of 
 unauthorised and exaggerated accounts sent abroad of the 
 recent proceedings of the House, and after debate an order 
 was issued for peremptory suppression of all present 
 printing, " or venting in manuscript," of the Dim-nal 
 Occurrences of parliament. The examinations as to the 
 new army plot were also completed, the evidence leaving 
 little doubt as to the design having been known to the 
 King ; and Pym moved and carried a resolution, " that, in 
 " the examinations now read unto us, we did conceive 
 "there was sufficient evidence for us to believe that there 
 " was a second design to bring up the army to overawe 
 " the deliberations of this House." 
 
 On Friday the 19th, Secretary Nicholas wrote witli 
 unconcealed alarm and misgiving to his master. " The 
 " worst in all that business is, that it reflects on your 
 " Majesty, as if you had given some instructions con- 
 " cerning the stirring up the army to petition the i">arlia- 
 " ment. I hope it will appear that your Majesty's 
 " intentions were only to retain the army in their duty 
 " and dependance on your Majesty." After which, in the 
 same letter, Mr. Secretary went on to say, that there had 
 been nothing done these two days by the Commons 
 
 c 3
 
 34 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 touching the Declaration remonstrating the bad effects of 
 ill counsels ; but it was thought that the same would be 
 finished that week. There were, he added, divers well 
 affected servants of his Majesty in the house who had 
 continued to oppose the Eemonstrance with unanswerable 
 arguments ; but it was verily thought that it would pass 
 notwithstanding, and that it Avould be " ordered to be 
 " printed " without transmission to the Lords. Upon 
 which it is to be observed as beyond question, that 
 manifestly there was no longer any concealment of the 
 ultimate design of the leaders of the House of Commons. 
 Thus early, the destination of the Eemonstrance was 
 known. Strode had indeed publicly argued upon the 
 assumption of its being printed and diffused among the 
 people, as a thing to be admitted ; and any subsequent 
 complaint, therefore, of being taken by surprise when the 
 proposition for the printing was formally made, could 
 have been but a sheer pretence on the part of its 
 opponents. 
 
 While Nicholas was writing to the King, it had been 
 brought back to the house from the committee, j)ursuant 
 to the last order; certain amendments to it had been 
 violently debated, having reference to portions of the 
 service-book ; ' these ultimately, upon concession by the 
 majorit}^ had been read and assented to, and certain other 
 verbal alterations made ; and another lengthened debate 
 had given further opportunity for the " unanswerable" argu- 
 ments on the one side, and the quiet and resolved answers 
 on the other, which had now occupied the House, with 
 small intermission, since the 9th of November. "Why 
 should you pass this unnecessary and unseasonable Declara- 
 
 ^ I subjoin a characteristic passage "ture ... I started with wonder 
 
 from a speech of Dering's delivered in "and anger to hear a bold mechanick 
 
 this debate, as reported and preserved "tell me that my creed is not my 
 
 by himself. "Why, Sir, at one of "creed. He wondered at my wonder, 
 
 "your committees I heard it publicly "and said, / hope your worship is 
 
 "asserted by one of the committee '^too wise to believe that which you 
 
 "that some of our Articles do contain " call yowr creed." 
 ' ' some things contrary to Holy Scrip-
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 35 
 
 tion ? urged Hyde and his friends once more. It is un- 
 necessary to detail grievances, most of which are already 
 fully redressed ; and it is unseasonable to welcome home 
 from Scotland, with such a volume of reproaches, the very 
 author of that redress, and to assail his Majesty the King 
 for what others have done amiss, and for what he himself 
 hath reformed. We propose to pass it, w^as the determined 
 answer of Pym and his associates, because w^e hold it to be 
 necessary for the preservation and maintenance of the con- 
 cessions which have so been made. We believe ourselves 
 in danger of being deprived of all the good acts we have 
 gained, if great care and vigilance be not still used to dis- 
 appoint malignant counsels. They who most exalt the 
 grace and bounty of the King in regard to those good acts, 
 have been most busy to pervert the affections of the people 
 from ourselves in regard to the same matter. For our 
 own acquittal, therefore, w^e would let the kingdom know 
 in wdiat state we found it at our first convention, what 
 fruit it hath received by our counsels, wherein we think 
 the securities obtained are not yet sufficient, and such 
 further measures as in our consciences we believe to be 
 called for. Because, though the prime evil counsellors 
 liave been removed, there are others growing up in 
 their places like to do quite as much mischief. — To 
 which last home thrust, reply could not have been very 
 easy ! — It was late in the afternoon, when, at the close 
 of this debate, the order was moved and carried that the 
 Declaration should be duly engrossed, and again brought in 
 at two o'clock the next day. All which having been accom- 
 plished, the House was about to pass to other business, 
 when D'Ewes informs us that Mr. Speaker Lenthal made 
 an appeal ad misericordiam for himself. He showed that 
 he had been sitting very late j'esterday (Thursday 18th), 
 that it was now past four o'clock, and that he really 
 could not hold out daily to sit seven or eight hours. 
 Whereon the indefatigable Mr. Pym, admitting the appeal, 
 suggested that the House should rise, and that a grand 
 committee should presently sit.
 
 36 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 On Saturday, the 20th of November, at two o'clock, 
 the Remonstrance, engrossed and finished, was laid 
 upon the table. Doubtless it was then expected by 
 its supporters, and with some show of reason, that after 
 having stood the brunt of so many prolonged debates, it 
 might be voted without further resistance. A resolution 
 was accordingly moved upon its introduction, " that it be 
 " read and finished to-night;" which was met, however, by 
 such determined opposition, that Pym was obliged to yield, 
 and the final debate was fixed for ten o'clock on the 
 morning of Monday the 22d. " Why would you have it 
 " still put off," asked Cromwell of Falkland, as they left 
 the house ; " for this day would quickly have determined 
 " it." To which Falkland made reply that there would 
 not have been time enough, for sure it would take some 
 further debate. Oliver rejoined, " A very sorry one." ' 
 
 Cromwell was mistaken, no doubt. He was not in 
 Hyde's confidence, and could not know of the desperate 
 party-move to be attempted on the occasion of the last 
 debate. But before this is described, and while the 
 Remonstrance, ready engrossed, is lying on the table of 
 the house, the time would seem to have arrived for the 
 endeavour to present it to the reader, at once with 
 sufficient fulness for accurate reflection of all its state- 
 ments and in such form as to render justice to the 
 striking narrative they embod}^ j^et at the same time so 
 
 1 Hist, ii., 42. Clarendon tells " morning -vrith other debates, and to- 
 
 the anecdote, however, in a sense ' ' wards noon called for the Eemon- 
 
 quite diiferent from that which it " strance," &c. upon which they were 
 
 derives from an authentic statement forced to go back to the first under- 
 
 of the circumstances. It was in the standing of giving an entire day to 
 
 ordinary course of the business of the the debate. Accordingly, he continues. 
 
 House that Pym had proposed at once "the next morning, the debate being 
 
 to bring tbe matter to a conclusion, "entered upon about nine of the 
 
 but Clarendon (ii. 41) would have us "clock,"' &c. Now, no such incidents 
 
 believe that he made that proposition occurred. On the day fixed for the 
 
 in direct forfeiture of a previous en- resumption of the debate, it was 
 
 gagement. "And by these and the resumed, and at the hour precisely 
 
 ' ' like arts, they promised themselves which before had been arranged — 
 
 " that they should easily carry it ; so namely, twelve o'clock. Clarendon's 
 
 "that, the day it was to he resumed, statement is an entire misrepresen- 
 
 " they entertained the House all the tation.
 
 THE GRAND REMON-STRANCE. 37 
 
 compressed as to bring it within the limits of ordinary 
 histories. There, it should long ago have had the place, 
 from which it may hardly be too much to believe now, 
 with some degree of confidence, that it never more can be 
 excluded. In which expectation are here appended to it 
 some notes of matters not lying on the surface of ordinary 
 books, which will be found to illustrate and completely 
 corroborate the most startling of its averments. 
 
 And so to modern readers is committed that great 
 vindication of the rising of their ancestors against the 
 sovereign in the seventeenth century, as to which one who 
 opposed it eloquently through all its stages thus frankly 
 confessed the secret of his opposition : " Sir, this 
 " Remonstrance, whensoever it passeth, will make such an 
 " impression, and leave such a character behind, both of his 
 " Majesty, the People, and the Parliament, and of this present 
 " Church and State, as no time shall ever eat it out, while 
 " histories are written, and men have eyes to read them ! " 
 
 The Preamble, consisting of twentynot numbered clauses, 
 and opening in the name of " the Commons in the present 
 " Parliament assembled," begins by declaring that for the 
 past twelve months they had been carrying on a struggle 
 of which the object was to restore and establish the 
 ancient honour, greatness, and security, of the Nation and 
 the Crown. That during this time they had been called 
 to wrestle with dangers and fears, with miseries and 
 calamities, with distempers and disorders so various, great, 
 and pressing, that for the time the entire liberty and 
 prosperity of the kingdom had been extinguished by them, 
 and the foundations of the throne undermined. And that 
 now, finding great aspersions cast on what had been done, 
 many difficulties raised for the hindrance of what remained 
 to do, and jealousies everywhere busily fomented betwixt
 
 38 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the King and Parliament, they had thought it good in 
 this manner to declare the root and growth of the designs 
 by which so much mischief had been caused ; the heighth 
 to which these liad reached before the parliament met ; 
 the means they used for extirpating them ; and, together 
 with the progress made therein, the ways of obstruction 
 by which such progress had been interrupted, and the 
 only course by which the obstacles at present intervening 
 could be finally removed. 
 
 Then, in express terms, they state the general plan or 
 scheme of the authors of these evils, as a conspiracy to 
 subvert the fundamental laws and principles of govern- 
 ment on which alone the religion and justice of the 
 kingdom can firmly rest ; and they denounce the con- 
 spirators as threefold, (1) the jesuited papists, (2) the 
 bishops and ill-affected clergy, and (8) such counsellors, 
 courtiers, and ofiicers of state, as had preferred their 
 private ends to those of his Majesty and the Common- 
 wealth. All three classes of conspirators, they continued, 
 had principles and counsels in common ; and these were, 
 to keep up continual differences betwixt the King and 
 People, and to lower and degrade the protestant religion 
 through the sides of those best affected to it. To the 
 end that so, on the one hand, setting up the prerogative 
 whenever a question of liberty was mooted, discrediting 
 the claims and authority of Parliament, and ever pre- 
 tending to be siding with the King, ihey might get to 
 themselves the j)laces of greatest trust and power, putting 
 him upon other than the ancient and only legitimate ways 
 of supply ; and, on the other hand, by cherishing to the 
 utmost such views of church doctrine and discij)line as 
 would establish ecclesiastical tyranny, by sowing dissen- 
 sions between the common protestants and those whom 
 they called puritans, and by including under the name of 
 puritans all who desired to preserve unimpaired the public 
 laws and liberties and the purity and power of the true 
 religion, they might be able ultimately to introduce such 
 opinions and ceremonies as would necessarily end in
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 39 
 
 accommodation with Popery.' For, of the three elements 
 of the conspiracy, that was the strongest. And as in all 
 compounded bodies, so in this, the operations had been 
 qualified and governed throughout by the predominating 
 element. 
 
 Such in substance was the Preamble to the Great 
 Remonstrance ; of which all that followed was in the form 
 of practical proofs and illustrations. These were con- 
 tained in two hundred and six numbered clauses ; each 
 clause, as we have seen, having been put separately to the 
 House, and so voted. 
 
 The first six had relation to the First Parhament of 
 the reign, and to the recovery of strength by the popish 
 party after their discomfiture by the breach with Spain at 
 the close of the reign of James. Two subsidies had been 
 given by that parliament, yet it was dissolved without the 
 relief of a single grievance; and then followed the 
 disasters of Rochelle, the desertion of the Protestant 
 party in France, the discreditable attempt on Cadiz, the 
 abandonment of the Palatinate and of the Protestant 
 struggle in Germany, the wrongs inflicted on merchants 
 and traders, the pressing and billeting of soldiers^ in all 
 
 1 "It seemed that their work," "if none of them have found away 
 
 said Falkland, in one of his admirable ' ' to reconcile the opinions of Rome to 
 
 speeches against Laud and his asso- ' ' the preferments of England ; and 
 
 ciates (already quoted, ante, p. 32), "to be so absolutely, directly, and 
 
 "was to try how much of a papist "cordially papists, that it is all 
 
 " might be brought in without Popery; "that fifteen hundred pounds a year 
 
 " and to destroy as much as they could "can do to keep them from con- 
 
 "of the Gospel without bringing "fessingit." 
 
 "themselves into danger of being - The intolerable wrong and misery 
 
 "destroyed by the Law. . . . The implied in this grievance will be better 
 
 ' ' design has been to bring in an understood by reminding the reader 
 
 ' ' English though not a Roman of the passionate speech of Wentworth 
 
 "Popery: I mean, not only the (afterwards Earl of Strafford) in the 
 
 "outside and dress of it, but an debates on the Petition of Right, in 
 
 "equally absolute and blind depen- which, referring to the billeting of 
 
 ' ' dence of the people upon the clergy, soldiers, he exclaims, ' ' They have rent 
 
 "and of the clergy upon themselves. " from us the light of our eyes ! en- 
 
 " They have opposed the papacy "forced companies of guests worse 
 
 "beyond the seas that they might " than the ordinances of France ! viti- 
 
 " settle one beyond the water." [lie " ated our wives and daughters before 
 
 means at Lambeth.] "Nay, common "our faces!" In the Verney Papers 
 
 "fame is more than ordinarily false, Mr. Bruce prints the subjoined very
 
 40 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 parts of the kingdom, and the endeavour, happily frustrated, 
 to introduce therein large hodies of mercenary troops. 
 
 The next four clauses described the Second Parliament, 
 its dissolution after a declared intention to grant five 
 subsidies, and the subsequent levy of those subsidies, not 
 by parliamentary authority, but by the sole order of the 
 King. Commissions of loan were issued, and all who 
 refused were imprisoned ; many contracting sicknesses in 
 prison from which they never recovered. Privy seals 
 went forth, raising enormous sums. Court waste and 
 profusion were spoken of on all sides, Avhile the people 
 were unlawfully impoverished.' And a commission under 
 the gTeat seal exacted payments from the subject by way 
 of excise, to an extent and in a manner before unheard of.^ 
 
 The Third Parliament ; the attempt, by a surreptitious 
 declaration, to evade its enactment of the Petition of 
 
 curious return of recusant parishes in 
 the three hundreds of Ashindon. 
 
 " A retorne of those parishes that doe 
 refuse to paye for the billiting of soldiers 
 in my dmision with in the three hun- 
 dreds of Ashiudon. 
 
 li. s. d. 
 Chersly. Mr. Thomas Britwell, 
 
 John Winter, with the rest . 1 13 3 
 Brill. George Carter, Mr. John 
 
 Pim, Mr. William Pirn, Mr. 
 
 John Caswell, with the rest .240 
 Ilmor. Thomas Lyeborn, Ed- 
 
 mon Brooks, with the rest .16 
 Lurgesall. The whole parish . 1 18 3 
 Borstal!. The whole parish • 1 13 6 
 Per me, Edward Bulstrod." 
 
 The two Pyms named in this return, 
 if not connections or relatives of the 
 great statesman, at least were worthy 
 of the name they bore. 
 
 1 In the Diary of Walter Tonge, 
 from 1604 to 1628, edited by Mr. 
 Roberts for the Camden Society (1848) 
 with an interesting and well-informed 
 introduction about the leading western 
 families (Yonge was a Devonshire 
 magistrate and member for Honitou), 
 the two following notices occur in 
 close juxtaposition (p. 98) : 
 
 (1) "December, 1626. The Kine hav- 
 " iiig determined heretofore to demand 
 '•of all his subjects so much money by 
 
 " way of loan as they are set in subsidy, 
 " viz. : he that's set at 201. in subsidy to 
 '' lend unto the King 20^., the judges 
 " were urged to subscribe. They paid 
 " their money, but refused to subscribe 
 "the same as a legal course: for which 
 " Sir Randall Crewe, Chief Justice of 
 " England, had his patent taken from 
 ' ' him, and he was displaced Ter. Michael. 
 " 1626, anno 2 Oxroli. The privy council 
 " subscribed ; the lords and peers sub- 
 " scribed, all except fourteen, whereof six 
 " were Earls : viz. Earl of Essex, Earl of 
 " Warwick, Earl of Clare, Earl of Hun- 
 " tingtou. Earl of Lmcoln, and the Earl 
 " of Bolingbroke, being Lord St. John.' 
 
 (2) " The Duke of Buckingham feasted 
 " the King, Queen, and French Ambas- 
 " sador, and bestowed 4000i. in a banquet. 
 "The sweet water which cost him 200(. 
 '■ came down the room as a shower from 
 " heaven ; the banquet let down in a 
 " sheet upon the table, no man seeing 
 "how it came; with other pompous 
 " vanities to waste away and consume 
 " money, the country being in poverty, 
 " and more necessary occasions for it." 
 
 - Among the notices for additions 
 to the original draft of the Remon- 
 strance, entered on the Journals, the 
 subjoined appear with the initials 
 J. C. , and may doubtless be assigned 
 to Sir John Clotworthy. 
 
 ' ' The last expedition into Germany. 
 
 " The loans upon Privy Seal. 
 
 " The Commission of Excise."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 41 
 
 Right ; its forcible dissolution ; the imprisonment and 
 persecution of its most distinguished members ; and the 
 Bo^^al Declaration printed and dispersed among the people 
 to discredit and disavow its proceedings,' and give colour 
 or excuse for the violence used to its chiefs ; form the 
 subject of the six following clauses.^ Strenuous as had 
 been the struggle to pass the Great Petition, its only use 
 had been to show with what reckless presumption, by 
 wicked and daring ministers, the laws had been broken and 
 the liberties suppressed which therein were so solemnly 
 and recently declared. And what meanwhile had been their 
 sufferings whose only crime was to assert the laws, and 
 who could be punished only by their entire subversion ? 
 The representatives of the people had been flung into 
 prison, and there treated like felons for words spoken in 
 parliament. All the comforts of life, all means of pre- 
 servation of health, all necessary means of spiritual con- 
 solation, were denied to them. Not suffered to go abroad 
 to enjoy God's ordinances in God's house, His ministers 
 not permitted to minister comfort in theii' prisons, the 
 liberty of reading and of writing taken from them ; in 
 such miserable durance, years upon years had passed. 
 Towards the close of the second year, indeed, some had 
 been released, j^et not without heavy fines, and the 
 shame of being enforced to give security for good 
 behaviour : but others might have wearied out their lives 
 in imprisonment, if, eighteen months ago, a parliament 
 had not come ; and to one, the most distinguished of 
 them all, after four years' tedious misery, there had 
 
 1 It was on the motion of Strode, culars should he added, are appended 
 
 member for Beeralston, when the sometimes initials, sometimes the 
 
 Remonstrance was before the House, abbreviated name, more rarely the 
 
 that there was ordered to be inserted name in full. One name is thus 
 
 therein a mention of given : 
 
 "The Declaration set forth upon '■^ Pal. The additional explanation 
 
 "the breach of both Parliaments." " to the Petition of Right." 
 
 '■2 Several of these clauses appear Which may stand for Geoffrey Palmer, 
 
 to have received additions in the the Member for Stamford, who took a 
 
 house ; and to several notices of leading part in the debates ; or it 
 
 motions ia the Journals that the con- may be intended for Sir Guy Palmes, 
 
 sideration of such and such parti- member for Rutlandshire.
 
 42 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 come a mightier friend. In the last da3's of November, 
 1632, the brave and dauntless Eliot died in the Tower. 
 Petition after petition had been sent up for his release ; 
 application had been made for but a few months' freedom, 
 even to give him strength to bear further imprisonment ; 
 without such temporary change, his physician had testified 
 that he must perish ; but a cold and stern refusal was the 
 onl}^ answer vouchsafed, and the end came which was past 
 remedy and never to be redressed. His blood cried for 
 vengeance still ; ' or for repentance of those Ministers of 
 State who had so obstructed the course alike of his 
 Majesty's justice and his Majesty's mere}'. 
 
 The long and terrible interval which succeeded, and 
 which only Laud's mad resolve to impose the service-book 
 on Scotland at last abruptly closed, during which no par- 
 liament met, and the people were forbidden even to speak 
 of parliaments," forbidden merely to look back to their 
 ancient liberty ; fills forty-four clauses, up to the sixtieth 
 inclusive. Then passed over the land a net-work of 
 tyranny so elaborate and comprehensive, that, excepting 
 only its agents and projectors, not a single class of the 
 community escaped it. Nearly all men suffered alike, in 
 lands, goods, or person ; nor was there left to any one 
 that which safely he could call his, except the wrong, and 
 the too patient endurance. 
 
 Obsolete laws and services, which it was hoped had 
 been extinguished for ever, confronted suddenly all 
 families of reasonable condition. Old laws of knighthood 
 were revived; and such sums exacted for default, as, 
 
 ' There was no wi-ong which Pym " to view the rooms and places where 
 
 appears more deeply to have resented ' ' he was imprisoned and where he 
 
 than this murder (for such it really " died, and to report the same to the 
 
 amounted to) of his great associate in " House." 
 
 the former parliaments of the reign. '^ During the first discussion of 
 The little parliament (which met in the Remonstrance, Mr. Wingate, mem- 
 April, 1640) had not assembled many ber for St. Alban's, moved that there 
 days when Pym moved "that it be should be named therein 
 "referred to the committee of the " The Proclamation set forth, for- 
 " Tower to examine after what man- " bidding people so much as to talk 
 " ner Sir John Eliot came to his " of a parliament." 
 " death, his usage in the Tower, and
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 43 
 
 wlietlier in respect of the persons charged, the fines 
 demanded, or the modes of exaction, were entirely 
 monstrous. By fines and compositions for wardships 
 alone," estates were weakened past help. Coat and 
 conduct money," and other military charges, were either 
 pressed as due, or, failing that claim of right, were re- 
 quired as loans. Without a shadow of pretence, either in 
 fact or law, the ancient securities and charters of real pro- 
 perty were everywhere violated; and from forests where 
 never any deer fed, from depopulations where never any farm 
 was decayed, and from enclosures where never any hedges 
 were set, charges unceasing and insatiable were drawn 
 against the land.' When flaws in title were alleged, they 
 were judged by packed juries ; and when commissions of 
 enquiry into excesses of fees or fines were issued, they were 
 made but additional means of increasing and confirming 
 the grievance. They ended, for the most part, in compo- 
 sitions with the delinquents themselves ; so that offences 
 
 ^ Some notion of the advantage 
 taken, for purposes of extortion, of 
 those obsolete feudal statutes, may be 
 derived from the documents in the 
 Vemey Papers relating to Mrs. Mary 
 Black nail, who had the misfortune, on 
 her father's death, to become a ward 
 of the Crown, and four of whose 
 maternal relations, "Anthony Bla- 
 " grove the elder, Anthony Blagrove 
 "the younger, both of Bulmarsh, 
 " Richard Libb esquire of Hardwick 
 " in the county of Oxford, and Charles 
 "Wiseman esquire of Steventon in 
 " Berks," are obliged to purchase 
 from the Court of Wards (that is, the 
 Government) freedom from oppression, 
 and the ordinary rights of citizenship, 
 by payment to the Crown of a fine of 
 2,000Z., half of which is paid down, 
 and a bond given for the remainder. 
 
 '' This op])ressive tax was assessed 
 on the several hundreds separately, 
 each being obliged to supply its quota 
 of men by pressing or enlistment, in 
 proportion to its size and the number 
 demanded ; one shilling being paid 
 to each man, fourteen shillings levied 
 
 for the cost of his "coat," and two other 
 payments made severally, as remu- 
 neration to the constable who took 
 him to the place of embarkation, and 
 as fine or charge for his "conduct," 
 or expenses on the way. 
 
 3 From a Schedule of Grievances 
 largely circulated through the country 
 before April 1G40, 1 select one or two 
 items: 
 
 " The new taxo of Coate and Conduct 
 " Mouy, with undue rneanes used to in- 
 " force tlie payment of it, by messen- 
 " gers from tlie counsell table." 
 
 " The infinite number of Monopolies 
 " tipon everything the countryman must 
 " bu.v." 
 
 " the rig:id execution of the Forrest 
 " laws in theire extremity." 
 
 " The exaction of immoderate fees by 
 " some officers under the Lord Chief 
 " Justice in Eyre." 
 
 Finch was at this time Chief Jus- 
 tice of the Common Pleas, and no part 
 of his conduct in the circuit in Eyre 
 more exasperated the people than his 
 extending the boundaries of the 
 forests in Essex, and annihilating th(> 
 ancient perambulations.
 
 44 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 to come were compromised as well as the offences past» 
 and a complete impunity established for future wrongs. 
 To these matters were devoted the 17th, 21st, 22nd, 31st, 
 44th, 45th, and 49th clauses. 
 
 Nor was the lot of the merchant and trader, in this 
 disastrous interval, more to be envied than that of any 
 owner of a moderate estate. In the very teeth of the 
 Petition of Kight, tonnage and poundage were again 
 levied, with many other similar impositions, of which some 
 were in a disproportion so monstrous, that the amount of 
 the charge exceeded the entire value of the goods. The book 
 of rates generally was also enhanced to such an extent that 
 the ordinary transactions of commerce became impossible. 
 And though, for these violent assessments, there was set 
 up the notable pretence of duly guarding the seas ; and 
 though there was suddenly added thereto that new 
 and unheard of tax of ship-money,' by which, for 
 
 ^ In the above-named "Schedule 
 "of such Grievances as most oppresse 
 "this country," largely circulated in 
 the early part of 1640, stands first 
 " Theillegall and insupportable charge 
 ' ' of ship-money, now the fifth yeere 
 "imposed as high as ever, though 
 "the subject was not able to pay the 
 "last yeer, beeing a third." The 
 Lord Deputy Wentworth's newswriter 
 gives us curious notices of this memo- 
 rable tax, ' ' word of lasting sound in 
 " the memory of this kingdom ;" but 
 even his gossiping letters lose something 
 of their careless tone in talking of it, 
 and show that he also winces and smarts 
 Tinder the pressure no one can escape. 
 In one year, Mr. Garrard says, ' ' it 
 " will cost the city at least 35,000/." 
 He names particular assessments to 
 theamountof 360/. andSOO/. : "great 
 ' ' sums to pay at one tax, and we 
 "know not how often it may come. 
 ' ' It reaches us in the Strand, being 
 "within liberties of Westminster, 
 " which furnisheth out one ship — 
 "way lodgers, for I am set at 40s ; 
 " but I had rather give and pay ten 
 "subsidies in parliament than 10s. 
 
 "this new-old way of dead Noy's." 
 And as in the cities, so in the country. 
 "Mr. Speaker," said Sir John Cul- 
 peper, " this tax of ship-money is 
 "the grievance which makes the 
 ' ' farmers faint, and the plough to go 
 "heavy." So intolerable was it 
 everywhere, indeed, that the prisons 
 were literally filled with those who 
 had refused and resisted payment, 
 before the Crown (which, through the 
 judges on circuit, had resisted every 
 former attempt to bring the question 
 into the coui'ts as refusing even to ad- 
 mit a doubt of its legality) consented 
 to appear to Hampden's plea. The 
 Court lawyers had selected Hampden 
 as a better man to fight it out with, 
 than the less affable and apparently 
 more obdurate Lord Saye ; but here, 
 as everywhere, they were fated to 
 discover their mistake. I give a 
 curious note (not otherwise reported) 
 as to Lord Saye's subsequent proceed- 
 ings : 
 
 "March 19, 1638-0. Shipmoney, de- 
 " termined for the king by his prerog.i- 
 " tive, argued Easter and Trinity Term. 
 " III Michaelmas term, the lord Saye
 
 THE GEAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 45 
 
 many years, with the help of the book of rates, near 
 upon 700,000/. was yearly taken by the Crown ; the 
 seas meanwhile were left so utterly unguarded that the 
 Turkish pirates ranged through them uncontrolled, re- 
 peatedly taking great ships of value, and consigning to 
 slavery many thousands of English subjects.' It was in 
 
 " brought his action about it to the 
 " King's Bench barre. Mr. Holbome, 
 '' pleading strongly for him, was rebuked 
 " by Judge Bartlet [Berkeley], because it 
 " was determined as before. He alleged 
 " a president when such determinings 
 ' ' have been againe questioned. Judge 
 " Crooke alledged presidents. Judge 
 " Joanes said they were not like. Sir 
 " Jo. Brampton [Bramston] alledged that 
 " they had no president like this, viz. to 
 ' ' call the thmg in question the next ternie, 
 " and before the judges' faces that did de- 
 " termine it. The lord Saye affirmed, that 
 " if their Lordships wold say it were 
 " la we, then he wold yeeld ; but other- 
 " wise not, to the wronging of his coun- 
 " try. He hath time to consider until 
 " the next terme." 
 
 Pym, in his great speech in the little 
 parliament, struck at the root of the 
 extraordinary and tiniversal resist- 
 ance provoked by this tax when he 
 pointed out, that it extended to all 
 persons and to all times, that it sub- 
 jected goods to distress and the person 
 to imprisonment, that, the King 
 being sole judge of the occasion, there 
 was no possibility of exception or 
 relief, and that there were no rules 
 or limits for the proportion, so that 
 no man, under it, knew what estate 
 he had, or how to order his course 
 or expenses. It is quite a mistake to 
 suppose, as some have represented, 
 that it was a light tax— and that 
 Hampden, well able to afford it, op- 
 posed it only on principle. No man, 
 not the wealthiest in that day, was 
 able to afford it. It must, sooner or 
 later, have broken him down. 
 
 1 " About the end of March, 1627, 
 "Sir William Courtenay his hou.se of 
 " Ilton, near Salcomb, in Devon, was 
 "robbed ; and much of his pewter 
 "plate and household stuff carried 
 "away. It was done by certain 
 " pirates, which came up in boats 
 ' ' from Salcomb, and fled the same 
 
 " way they came without apprehen- 
 " sion" — Diary of Walter Yonge : 
 to which passage a valuable note is 
 appended by the editor. The sove- 
 reignty of the sea was as yet but the 
 emptiest of claims. Pirates of all 
 lands swept our coasts during the 
 whole of this period of government by 
 the sole will of the King. Piracy 
 had become indeed so much more pro- 
 fitable than honest trading, that many 
 Englishmen tm'ued Turks and lived 
 at Tunis. Sir Francis Vemey is sup- 
 posed to have been among them ; and 
 Mr. Bruce (in his most interesting 
 collection of Vemey Papers, printed 
 for the Camden Society, 95-102) does 
 not effectually rebut the supposition. 
 " Assisted by Englishmen," says the 
 editor of Yonge's Diary, "the Bar- 
 ' bary corsairs not only scoured the 
 ' English and St. George's Channels, 
 ' but even disembarked, pillaged the 
 ' villages, and carried the inhabi- 
 ' tants into slavery, to the number 
 
 'of several thousands One vessel 
 
 ' the Algerines captured was worth 
 '260,000^. The Dutch resumed 
 ' their fishing without a licence, and 
 ' captured two rich East Indiamen. 
 ' France, Spain, and Holland violated 
 ' the neutrality, and insulted the 
 ' English flag. The French scoured 
 ' the Severn in 1628 ... So late 
 ' as the year 1633, Lord Wentworth, 
 'appointed lord-deputy of Ireland, 
 ' names noted pirate vessels ofi" the 
 ' coast of Ireland, and their captures. 
 ' The Turks carried off a hundred 
 ' captives from Baltimore, in Ireland, 
 'in 1631. They landed their poor 
 ' captives at Rochelle and marched 
 ' them in chains to Marseilles. And 
 ' in 16 15, the Turks carried ofl 
 ' twenty-six children at one time from
 
 46 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 vaiu that the leading merchants would have appealed to 
 the law. The ordinary course of justice, the common 
 birthright of the subject of England, was closed to them. 
 The most distinguished of their number who made the 
 trial was dragged into the Star Chamber, fined 2000/. 
 kept twelve years in prison, and released a beggar.' These 
 things are the subject of clauses 18th, 19th, 20th, and 
 part of the 84th. 
 
 Other wrongs, too, equally grave, the merchant shared 
 with the mass of his countrymen. As with the Petition 
 of Right, which had been solemnly enacted only eight 
 months before, so it fared with the statutes against mo- 
 nopolies and projectors, won by as hard a struggle in the 
 fourth parliament of James, and which now had been the 
 law for eight years. Again had monopolies and protec- 
 tions of every kind sprung up into existence, and the 
 whole community smarted and groaned under them. There 
 were monopolies of soap, of salt and saltpetre, of wine, of 
 
 "Cornwall. The editor has a curious 
 " bill of expenses for sending pirates 
 " with their hands tied behind them 
 " on horseback to Dorchester gaol." 
 
 ' A man had but to question the 
 most profligate decisions of the Courts 
 to be dragged into the Star Chamber. 
 One instance of a different kind, 
 showing the deep resentment of the 
 people at such proceedings, is well 
 worthy of preservation. Of the 
 twelve judges who pronounced on 
 ship money, three dissented, of whom 
 Button was one ; and a clergyman 
 named Harrison was brought before 
 a jury for having charged Judge Hut- 
 ton with treason, in having denied 
 the King's prerogative in the matter 
 of ship money. The jury gave 
 10, OOOi. damages against him ; a 
 judgment disallowed, but evincing un- 
 mistakeably the feeling of the people. 
 That was in 1638-9. I may add, not 
 less as a valuable illustration of this 
 part of the subject, than as a good 
 specimen of Hyde's tone in the House 
 at this time, a few sentences from his 
 
 speech upon the misdoings of the 
 Bench of Judges. "The great reso- 
 " lution in ship money was a crime of 
 " so prodigious a nature, that it could 
 " not be easily swallowed and digested 
 "by the consciences even of these 
 "men : but as they who are to 
 "wrestle, or run a race, by degrees 
 "prepare themselves by diet and 
 ' ' lesser essays for the main exercise, 
 "so these judges enter themselves, 
 "and harden their hearts, by more 
 ' ' particular trespasses iipon the law 
 " — by imposition and taxes upon the 
 "merchant in trade, by burdens and 
 ' ' pressure upon the gentry by knight- 
 ' ' hood — before they could arrive at 
 "that universal destruction of the 
 "kingdom by ship money; which 
 ' ' promised them reward and security 
 "for all their former services, by 
 ' ' doing the work of a parliament to 
 "his Majesty in sujiplies ; and seemed 
 "to elude justice in leaving none to 
 "judge them, by making the whole 
 ' ' kingdom party to their oppres- 
 " sion."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 47 
 
 leather, of coals ; literally, of everything in most common 
 and necessary use ; and, as the immediate and universal 
 consequence, not merely were the most extravagant prices 
 required to be paid for everything so protected, but 
 articles of the very worst quality, and subject to the basest 
 adulterations, were sure to be supplied. Purveyors, clerks 
 of the markets, saltpetre men,' became bye-words of petty 
 oppression. Not only a man's unavoidable daily wants, 
 but his trade, his employment, his habitation, anythinjSf, 
 served as the pretext for some vexatious restraint to his 
 liberty. If he would build near London, he found such 
 building was adjudged a nuisance, and had to pay some 
 projector for permission to inflict the nuisance on his 
 neighbours. If he would trade at sea, he was surprised, 
 even there, by the projector, as by a foreign enemy. 
 Merchants commonly were prohibited from unlading their 
 goods in ports for their own advantage, and compelled to 
 unlade in places for the advantage of monopolisers and 
 projectors. There was even a scheme of brass money set 
 on foot * which would have had the effect of beggaring the 
 whole kingdom at a stroke, by summary and simultaneous 
 process. And when some solitary citizen was occasion- 
 ally moved to resistance, it was but to discover that what 
 he had imagined to be courts of law for the determination 
 of the subjects' rights, were now become courts of revenue 
 
 ' Bulstrode Whitelocke moved and p. 95 — 98. Lord Falkland made a 
 
 carried, in the House itself, this addi- happy allusion to the brass project 
 
 tion of "the abuses of Purveyors and in one of his resolute speeches against 
 
 " Saltpetre men." the bishops, while yet he acted on 
 
 2 " About the month of July, that question with Hampden and 
 
 "1638, there was a project on foot Pym. " As some ill ministers 
 
 " for brasse money. It was solemnly "in our State first took away our 
 
 " debated whether it be for his Ma- "money fi'om us, and after endea- 
 
 " jesty's service to coine brasse money, "voured to make our money not 
 
 "and to make the same currant " worth the taking by turning it into 
 
 "within his dominions." — Diary of "Brass by a kind of anti-philoso- 
 
 Rous, p. 95. Of the consequences " pher's stone — so these men used us 
 
 that must immediately have ensued "in this point of preaching: first 
 
 upon this wicked proposal to de- "depressing it to their power, and 
 
 base the coin of the realm, it is need- "next labouring to make it such as 
 
 less to speak ; but some of them arc " the harm had not been much if it 
 
 detailed in a paper printed by Rous, "had been depressed."
 
 48 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 to supply the treasury of the King. The common result 
 of such resistance was long and hard imprisonment ; loss 
 of health to man}-, loss of life to some ; and theirs was an 
 enviable lot, who escaped with the mere breaking up of 
 their establishments and the seizure of their goods.' 
 The points so dwelt upon were in the 27th, 28th, 29th 
 30th, 33rd, part of the 34th, and the 35th clauses. 
 
 From the private wrong the public grievance is of 
 course rarely separable ; but here it happened fre- 
 quently that the one received peculiar exasperation from 
 the other, and a striking instance was alleged in the 
 monopoly of gunpowder. So high was the rate set upon 
 gunpowder, that the poorer sort of people were unable to 
 buy it ; so strict was the protection, that without a license 
 it was not procurable at all ; and, besides the unlawful 
 advantages thus permitted to individuals, many parts of 
 the kingdom were left in consequence utterly without 
 defence.^ It resulted, in fact, in one of the heaviest wrongs 
 inflicted on the commonwealth. The trainbands were 
 generally discouraged in their exercises, the country began 
 to lose its martial spirit, and several bodies of militia in 
 the counties had their arms taken away. Belonging also 
 to the same class of grievances, were such incidents as the 
 
 ' The state to which in this respect cially entered "as it was a project 
 
 the kingdom had been brought was "for disarming of the kingdom." 
 
 briefly and forcibly expressed by Mr. Another J. C. (Sir John Culpeper), 
 
 Harbottle Grimston, the member for unhappily now the fiercest opponent 
 
 Colchester, subsequently Master of of the Remonstrance, bad strongly 
 
 the Rolls, in one of the great debates pressed this as a grievance at the 
 
 on grievances. " Sii-," he said, "by opening of the Long Parliament, 
 
 "some judgments lately obtained in "However little it may seem prima, 
 
 "courts of justice, and by some "facie, sir," he said, with ad- 
 
 "new ways of government lately mirable sense and shrewdness, "upon 
 
 "started up amongst us, the law of "due examination it will appear a 
 
 " property is so much shaken that no "great grievance, that enhancing of 
 
 " man can say he is master of any- " the price of gunpowder whereby the 
 
 "thing. All that we have, we hold " Trained Bands are much discouraged 
 
 "but a? tenants by courtesy and at "in their exercising .... Mr. 
 
 "will, and may be stripped of at "Speaker, the Trained Band is a 
 
 "pleasure." "militia of great strength and 
 
 - It was moved by J. C. (Sir John "honour, without charges to the 
 
 Clotworthy) in the House that the " King, and deserves all due ea- 
 
 guapowder monopoly should be spe- " couragement. "
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 49 
 
 breaking up of the forest of Dean, and the assignment 
 to projectors, for supply of temporary needs, of the royal 
 timber therein. One of the best store-houses of the 
 kingdom for maintenance of its shipping was thus lost ; 
 nor was the grief of good subjects abated, when they saw 
 it leased and sold to papists. And as public possessions 
 were seized b}- ];)rivate projectors, so was private land appro- 
 priated imder pretences of public or royal title. The crown 
 lawyers put in claims incessantly to portions of estates 
 between high and low water marks, against which the 
 owners had no remedy- ; ' and commissions were granted 
 under vexatious and all but obsolete statutes, by which, 
 for the sole benefit of the rich, the poor were most heavily 
 burthened. ^ Large quantities of Common, also, and 
 several public grounds, were taken by the subject under 
 colour of the statute of improvement, and by abuse of the 
 commission of sewers. The 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 
 32nd clauses were thus occupied, the last having been 
 specially inserted at the urgent representation of 
 Cromwell. ' 
 
 The steps by which the ordinary courts of judicature 
 had become meanwhile so degraded, as to render possible 
 the prolongation of this lawless time, are succinctly 
 detailed in the 38th, 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 46th, 
 and 47th clauses. The patents of the judges were altered ; 
 
 ^ Mr. Serjeant Wilde had moved in ' ' Lord Morton, and the Secretary of 
 
 the House as to "the Destruction of "Scotland, the Lord Sterling : much 
 
 "Timber, especially in the Forest of "crying out there is against it, 
 
 "Deane, by Recusants;" and con- "especially because mean, needy, 
 
 sideration was moved to be added by "and men of no good fame, pri- 
 
 J. C. (Sir John Clotworthy) of "the " soners in the Fleet, are used as 
 
 " Entitling the King to the lands be- "principal Commissioners to call the 
 
 "tween the high-water and low- "people before them, to fine and 
 
 " water mark." " compound with them." 
 
 2 "Here is at this present," writes ^ " The Commission of Sewers to 
 
 Garrard to the Lord Deputy Went- " be farther explained " arc the terms 
 
 worth, "a Commission in execution of a notice given in tlie House by 
 
 " against cottagers who have not four Cromwell. This, and the Com- 
 
 " acres of ground laid to their houses, mission for Depopulatinus, were often 
 
 "upon a statute made the 31 Eliz., indignantly recurred to, both by Pym 
 
 "which vexeth the poor people and Cromwell. 
 ' ' mightily, all for the benefit of the
 
 50 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and the condition of absolute servility, durante bene plac'ito, 
 toolc the place of that which might imply at least moderate 
 independence, the quamdiu se bene gesserit. Some few 
 judges were disj)laced for refusing to betray their oaths 
 and their consciences ; ' nearly all the rest were overawed 
 into treachery to both ; the ordinary approaches to justice 
 were interrupted or foreclosed ; " and they who should 
 have been as dogs to defend the sheep, became the very 
 wolves to worry them. If a lawyer showed fidelity 
 to his client in any question affecting the Crown, he 
 was marked by the court disfavour. Solicitors and 
 attornies were repeatedly threatened, and not seldom were 
 punished, for prosecuting the most lawful suits. New 
 oaths were forced upon the subject. Undue influences 
 were employed to make juries find for the King. Men 
 found themselves suddenly, in their freeholds and estates, 
 their suits and actions, bound and overruled by orders from 
 the Council Table.' Old judicatories, as the Chancery, 
 
 1 The opportunities for violating 
 both were unceasing. Under the 
 pretext of curing defects in titles of 
 land, a proclamation was issued pro- 
 posing to grant new titles on payment 
 of a reasonable composition ; the 
 alleged flaws to be tried by judges 
 empowered, without appeal, to 
 establish the objections ; and who- 
 ever declined to avail himself of this 
 facility for being plundered, was 
 threatened in no measured terms with 
 the seizure and utter loss of all be- 
 longing to him. 
 
 - "Sir," said Mr. Harbottle Grim- 
 ston, in one of his speeches on griev- 
 ances at the opening of this parliament, 
 " I will tell you a passage I heard from 
 "a judge in the King's Bench. There 
 "was a poor man committed by the 
 "Lords, for refusing to submit to a 
 "project; and having attended a 
 "long time at the King's Bench 
 ' ' bar upon his habeas corpus, and at 
 "last pressing very earnestly to be 
 "bailed, the judge said to the rest of 
 "his brethren, 'Come, brothers,' 
 
 ' ' said he, ' let us bail him ; for they 
 " ' begin to say in the town, that the 
 " 'judges have overthrown the Law, 
 " ' and the bishops the Gospel.' " 
 
 3 "The Council Table bit like a 
 "serpent; the Star Chamber like 
 "scorpions. Two or three gentle- 
 ' ' men could not stir out, for fear of 
 ' ' being committed for a riot. Our 
 " souls and consciences were put on 
 ' ' the rack by the Archbishop. We 
 ' ' might not speak of Scripture or 
 ' ' repeat a sermon at our tables. 
 "Many godly ministers were sent to 
 "find their bed in the wilderness. 
 ' ' The oppression was little less in the 
 "lower courts and in the special 
 "courts." — Speech by Sir Arthur 
 Haselrig in Richard Cromwell's par- 
 liament, Feb. 1658-9. Clarendon 
 reports it as not merely an ordinary 
 saying but a regular principle of 
 conduct with Finch, sworn in to the 
 high office of Lord Keeper in January, 
 1639-40, that while he was Keeper, 
 no man should be so saucy as to dispute 
 orders of the Council Board ; but that
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 '51 
 
 the Exchequer Chamber, the Courts of the Household,' 
 the Court of AVards, and the Star Chamber, were enlarged 
 so as grievously to exceed their proper jurisdiction; and 
 new judicatories, such as the Court of the Earl Marshal, 
 were created w^ithout a pretence of legality. Such as 
 were in favour at Whitehall, no longer cared or needed to 
 seek justice except where justice might be fitted to their 
 own desire ; and the rules of common law, which had 
 survived through centuries of comparative barbarism, 
 began to lose their certainty and efficacy in this brief 
 term of twelve miserable years. ^ 
 
 The 37th clause dealt with the Star Chamber, and 
 recited the fines, imprisonments, banishments, stigmatiz- 
 ings, whippings, gags, pillories, and mutilations,^ which 
 
 the wisdom of that Board should be 
 always ground enough for him to 
 make a decree in Chancery. — Hist. i. 
 131. 
 
 ' Of the kind of courts thus reck- 
 lessly allowed to override or super- 
 sede the ordinary courts of judicature, 
 a remarkable instance occurs in the 
 Verney Papers, where a reprieve ap- 
 I)ears signed by Secretary Winde- 
 bauk for "one Elizabeth Cottrell, 
 "condemned to death at the Verge 
 " holden on Thursday last for steal- 
 "ing one of his Majesty's dishes," 
 and serving notice to the Treasurer 
 and Comptroller of the Household to 
 stay the execution. But most un- 
 doubtedly no authority existed, even 
 in the two infamous Tudor statutes 
 creating criminal courts within the 
 royal precincts, by which Charles the 
 First's Treasurer or Comptroller was 
 empowered to try, convict, and capi- 
 tally sentence any English subject. 
 Mr. Bruce has properly pointed out 
 that the only criminal cases to which 
 the limited jurisdiction of the Tudor 
 Courts could possibly apply were 
 those of members of the royal house- 
 hold conspiring to kill the King or 
 any great officer of the state, or shed- 
 ding blood within the limits of the 
 palace. To punish capitally the 
 theft of one of his Majesty's dishes, 
 
 even though committed by a servant 
 of the royal household (which Eliza- 
 beth Cottrell presumably was), is a 
 notion that could only have entered 
 into the projects and arrangements of 
 the most lawless government that 
 England had ever known. 
 
 ■' Several notices of motion for 
 additions to the Remonstrance, given 
 after its introduction into the House, 
 had reference to these subjects. I 
 subjoin a few of these : 
 
 "The Court of Wards." 
 
 " The Jurisdiction of the Council of 
 " the Marches." 
 
 " The Council Table, as they take cog- 
 " nizance of >ae and te." 
 
 " The Buying and Selling of Honours 
 " and Dignities." 
 
 Smyth, the signature attached to the 
 first, was doubtless Henry Smyth, 
 the member for Leicestershire, who 
 survived the vicissitudes of the eight 
 following years, and sat on the trial 
 of the King. 
 
 3 The bloody tragedies of Bast- 
 wick, of Burton, andof Prynne, — men 
 of spotless reputation in their several 
 learned callings, and whose offence 
 was simply to have claimed the 
 commonest right of freemen, — are well 
 known, and cannot to tliis day be 
 read without a burning sense of ir- 
 ritation and amazement that even 
 D 2
 
 52 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 it administered to cases of conscience. Nothing was too 
 trivial, nor anything too grave, to escape its tyranny:' 
 and they were fortunate who, once within its clutches, 
 were again restored safely to their friends and to their 
 callings ; thrice happy if not separated for ever from the 
 studies they cherished and the associates they loved. Yet, 
 even so administered, the Star Chamber still fell short of 
 the perfect tyranny which the Primate sought to establish 
 over opinion and conscience throughout England. It was 
 not until the severity of the High Commission, yet further 
 sharpened by the rigour of the Council Table, had brought 
 the Star Chamber at last into the form and uses of a 
 Bomish Inquisition, that Archbishop Laud seemed 
 
 the mucli-enduring English people 
 could have possessed their souls in 
 patience, under so many years of such 
 a government. Thomas May, the 
 historian of the Parliament, has a 
 pregnant remark upon the subject. 
 ' ' It seemed, I remember, to many 
 ' ' gentlemen (and vras accordingly 
 "discoursed of), a spectacle no less 
 ' ' strange than sad, to see three of 
 ' ' several professions, the noblest in 
 "the kingdom, Divinity, Law and 
 " Physick, exposed at one time to 
 "such an ignominious punishment, 
 " and condemned to it by protestant 
 "magistrates, for such tenets in re- 
 "ligion as the greatest part of pro- 
 ' ' testants in England held, and all the 
 "reformed churches in Eui'ope main- 
 "tained." (Lib. 1, cap. 7.) And 
 this feeling it was, stored up in the 
 minds and hearts of the people, that 
 found afterwards such terrible vent. 
 Yet the few leading names, such as 
 Leighton's and theirs, which live in 
 the history of such persecutions, are 
 of course but the type of countless 
 others, the record of whose sufferings 
 has perished. Here is a marginal 
 notice from Rous's Diary as of one of 
 the commonest incidents of the time. 
 "Many great censures in the Starre 
 "Chamber. Tubbing's case. Tub- 
 "bing lost one eare at Westminster, 
 "and, ere he lost the other in Nor- 
 
 " folk, he died in prison in London." 
 Rous was a clergyman of Suffolk ; a 
 man apparently of supreme silli- 
 ness and dulness, and who had 
 no opinions worth mention on any 
 subject, to trouble either himself or 
 his neighbours with. The only merit 
 of his Diary (and this but scant) is 
 to collect pieces of gossip, and so pre- 
 serve evidences of popular facts or 
 feelings, quite above the colour of 
 suspicion on the groimd of any popu- 
 lar sympathies in the gossip himself. 
 ' "When," said Mr. Bagsbaw, 
 member for Southwark, in his speech 
 at the meeting of the Long Parliament, 
 ' I cast my eyes upon the High Com- 
 ' mission and other Ecclesiastical 
 ' Courts, my soul hath bled for the 
 'wrong and pressure which I have 
 ' observed to have been done and 
 'committed in these Courts against 
 ' the King's good people. I have some 
 ' reason to know this, that have been 
 ' an attendant to the Court these five 
 ' years, for myself and a dear friend 
 ' of mine, sometime knight of our 
 'shire, for a mere trivial business. 
 ' The most that could be proved 
 'against him was the putting on his 
 ' hat in the time of sermon." But, 
 alas ! Mr. Bagshaw yielded afterwards 
 to Hyde's temptations, and joined the 
 party of the King.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 53 
 
 satisfied (clauses 51st, 52ncl, 53rd, 54th, and 55th). And 
 while its suspensions, excommunications, deprivations, 
 and degradations, fell daily upon learned and pious 
 ministers, whose zeal marked them out in its metropolitan 
 jurisdiction. Bishops' Courts were established throughout 
 the country on a similar model, which, though not reach- 
 ing so high in extremity of punishment, made themselves 
 more generally grievous by the multiplicity of their vile 
 persecutions. No man was now so poor as not to know 
 what ecclesiastical domination meant. It lighted upon 
 the meaner sort of tradesman. It struck the industrious 
 artificer. It impoverished by thousands large classes of 
 the people. And those whom in that respect it spared, 
 it yet so afflicted and troubled, that great numbers 
 departed, with all that they possessed, into Holland, into 
 New England, into whatsoever land or waste beyond the 
 sea the oppressed conscience might hope for freedom. 
 Such was the extent of this emigration, that it was 
 felt in that spring and fountain of English wealth, the 
 woollen-cloth manufacture, as well by the transport abroad 
 as by diminution of the stock at home. 
 
 The clauses remaining to be enumerated in this section 
 of the Remonstrance, the 48th, 50th, 56th, 57th, 58th, 
 59th, and 60th, spoke of appointments to offices ; of distri- 
 butions of preferments; of tamperings with the magistracy ; 
 and of the predominance at the Council Table of one or 
 two favoured Ministers, by whose counsels all others were 
 negatived and overruled. The divines selected for promotion 
 in the Church were those in whose pulpits the prerogative 
 had been preached above the law, superstitious formalities 
 elevated above religion, and the property and rights of the 
 subject most decried;' and it became quite the fashion to 
 put forth these doctrines in public and solemn sermons 
 before the King.'' The sheriff's in the several counties 
 
 ' "Ministers in their pulpits," "have preached it as gospel and 
 
 said Wentworth, talking, in his days "dmined tlie refusers of it." 
 
 of patriotism, of the sovereign's mon- - I find in the Journals of the 10th 
 
 strous claim to the subject's estate, of November, a notice of motion for
 
 5i HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 were no longer named in the usual course; but, when 
 they escaped being the victims of oppression, Avere 
 made its instruments. They were either pricked for 
 sheriffs as a j)unisliment and charge, or as mere agents 
 or commissioners' to execute what the Council would have 
 to be done. So, no less, it fared with the magistracies and 
 places of great trust in the counties. Whosoever had 
 shown the wish to maintain religion, liberty, and the laws, 
 were weeded out of the commission of peace, and all employ- 
 ments of influence in their districts ; which afterwards 
 passed, by secret bribery or open purchase, into the least 
 worthy hands. Titles of honour, serjeantships of law, 
 and places affecting the common justice of the Idngdom, 
 were made matters of open bargain in this wa}^, passing to 
 men of the weakest parts ; and of course what Avere ill gotten 
 were ill administered and ill used. Nor did the course of 
 terrorism and corruption, thus taking in the middle and 
 higher grades, and already stretching down, as Ave have 
 seen, to the lowest, stop until the highest were reached. 
 It had its consummation only at the very council table of 
 the King. There sat councillors, who were councillors 
 only in name ; and whose sole use was to confirm, in a fcAv, 
 the real power and authorit3\ Though otherwise jiersons 
 of never so great abilities and honour, Avhosoever opposed 
 those few were marked out for discountenance and neglect; 
 and the resolutions of state Avhich were brought to the 
 table, were not offered for debate and deliberation, but for 
 countenance and execution. 
 
 insertion in the Remonstrance, to "one remove from rage .and fury. No 
 
 which no name is attached, of "The "inconvenience, no mischief, no dis- 
 
 "sermons preached in divers places "grace, thatthemalice, orinsolence, or 
 
 ' ' before the King that the siibject had " animosity of these commissionershad 
 
 "no property in his estate." " a mind to bring upon that people fhe 
 
 ' Adverting to the common and is speaking of the assumed jurisdiction 
 
 ordinary instructions of the Council of the Court of York], but, thro' the 
 
 to the various commissions they is- ' ' latitude and power of this ' discre- 
 
 sued against the subject, that they "tion, ' the poor people have felt, 
 
 should "proceed according to their dis- "This 'discretion' hath been the 
 
 "cretion" — it had been well said in "quicksand which hath swallowed 
 
 the house by Hyde himself : "Such a " up their property, their liberty. 
 
 " confusion hath this ' discretion' pro- "I beseech you, rescue them from 
 
 " duced, as if discretion were only "this 'discretion.'"
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 55 
 
 Sucli being the state of the kingdom in the closing 
 months of 1639 (I now proceed to state the substance of 
 the next 15 clauses, from the 61st to the 75th inclusive) 
 all things appeared ripe for putting the finishing touches to 
 the great design of the leading men, the few just named, 
 wliich, as was now made sufficiently obvious, had three 
 distinct parts. A solemn adjudication of ship-money had 
 been lately obtained ; and the Government was to be set 
 free from all restraint of laws in regard to persons and 
 estates. There must be an identification (only not as yet 
 to be called Popery) betwixt Papists and Protestants, in 
 doctrine, discipline, and ceremonies. And the Puritans,' 
 who remained still as the English wall or partition flung 
 up against Eome, must be either rooted out of the kingdom 
 with force, or driven out by fear (Gl, 62, 63, 64). The main 
 stumbling-block to the entireness of the plan was Scot- 
 land ; and Laud, bent on doing the work thoroughly, now 
 struck in there, with his service book, his new canons, and 
 his liturgy. The Scots resisted ; the Archbishop would 
 not recede ; and, occupying silently either side of the 
 Tweed, two armies gradually arose (65, 66, 67). 
 
 But when they were ready to encounter, counsels of 
 fear, if not of prudence, led to the pacification of Berwick ; 
 Avhich had however hardly been completed, when Strafford 
 resumed his place at the council board, condemned the 
 course that had been taken, and advised what he declared 
 to be the Crown's last and best resource, the summoning of 
 a parliament.^ Not indeed to give counsel and advice, 
 
 ' " Whosoever squares his actions " The 27 of March, 15 Car. 1639, 
 
 "by any rule, either divine or human, "his Majestie rode through Roiston 
 
 "he is a Puritan; whosoever would "to Yorkeward, there to meete his 
 
 " be governed by the King's laws, he is "army, &c. It was told me, April 1, 
 
 " a Puritan ; he that will not do what- "that whereas it is an use to deliver 
 
 "soever other men would have him " billes to the sicke to be praid for 
 
 "do, he is a Puritan. Their great " in this manner ; one from tlie church 
 
 "work, their masterpiece, now is, to " dore, perhaps in the throng, pulles 
 
 " make all those of the true religion " another by the shoulder, and gives 
 
 "to be the suspected party of the "him the note or bill, he another 
 
 "kingdom." — »S'iV Benjamin Rud- " ka. untill it come to [the] clerke ; 
 
 yat'd, Nov. 7, 1640. " theclerke, atthepreaclier'scomming 
 
 ' The subjoined is characteristic of "into the pulpit, delivers them to 
 
 the feeling of the time. "him, &c. Some one had put up a
 
 56 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 but to restrict itself to the giving of countenance and 
 supply ; for to men who had corruj)ted and distempered 
 the whole frame and government of the kingdom, the 
 attempt also to corrupt what alone could restore all 
 to a right frame again, was become matter of safety 
 and necessity. If the plan should succeed, and par- 
 liament be pliant, the session would be continued, and 
 mischief established by a law. If it should fail, and par- 
 liament be stubborn, the session would at once be broken, 
 and the Crown absolved for using foul means by the 
 pretence of having endeavoured to use fair (68, 69, 70, 
 71, 72). Simultaneously with the issue of writs, went 
 forth levies for a new army, with fresh acts of violence 
 against the Scots. At the same time, Strafford, passing 
 over into Ireland, called together a parliament in Dublin ; 
 wrested from it four subsidies ; and, without concealing 
 the purpose for which they were designed, summoned 
 levies of eight thousand foot and one thousand horse from 
 the well-appointed army, chiefly of Papists, which he had 
 been able to raise in that kingdom (73, 74, 75). 
 
 The meeting of the Houses at Westminster on the 13th 
 April, 1G40; the demand of twelve subsidies for the 
 release of ship-money alone ; the temperate tone of both 
 the Commons and the Lords, and the sudden and intem- 
 perate dissolution ; occupy clauses 76, 77, and 78. The 
 next twenty-six, from the 79th to the 104th inclusive, 
 describe the momentous interval before the assembling 
 of the Long Parliament. 
 
 On the very day of the dissolution of the Parliament of 
 April, the King's most powerful Counsellor advised 
 that he was now absolved from all rule of government, 
 and entitled to supply himself out of his subjects' estates 
 without their consent.' A vigorous levy of shij) -money was 
 
 "bill which the preacher wold not "parliament." — Diary of Rous, 88. 
 
 " reade, but let it fall. The bill was ' This memorable advice, which 
 
 "thus: John ConimonweaMcs-man cost Strafford his head, was given on 
 
 "0/ Great Britaine, being sicke of the 5th May, 1640 ; and it was from 
 
 ' ' the Scottish disease, desires the the notes of the elder Vane, taken 
 
 "prayers of this congregation for a that day at the Council Table, and
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 57 
 
 accordingly ordered ; a forced loan was set on foot in the 
 city of London ; a false and scandalous Declaration 
 against the House of Commons was issued in the King's 
 name; on the day following the dissolution, some members 
 of both houses had their studies and cabinets, " yea, their 
 "pockets," searched;' and soon after, for having main- 
 tained the privilege of parliament, one of the members of 
 the lower house was committed from the Council Table. 
 Harsher courses were contemplated, and the report of 
 them went abroad ; but the sickness of the Earl of Straf- 
 ford, and a tumultuous rising in Southwark and about 
 Lambeth,* were supposed to have intercepted the execu- 
 tion of them. (Clauses 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84.) 
 
 Nevertheless they failed to turn aside the Archbishop 
 
 subsequently found by his son and 
 handed to Pym, that the evidence 
 was obtained against him. 
 
 * " Sir William Beecher was com- 
 "mittedto the usher of the blacke 
 " rod for not disclosing his warrant to 
 ' ' serche the pockets of Erie of War- 
 " wicke, Lord Say, Lord Brooke, pre- 
 " sently after the last parliament 
 ' ' broken up. It was done the next 
 ' ' morne to the Lord Say and Lord 
 " Brooke in bedde ; the Lord Brooke's 
 '•lady being in bedde with him. The 
 " King at length affirming that he 
 ''commanded it, he was released." 
 — Diary of Rous, p. 101. 
 
 2 "Upon the dissolution of the par- 
 " liament (5th May, 1(540) presently 
 ' ' were two insuiTections in one weeke, 
 "at Southwark and Lambeth ; in the 
 "first the White Lion pryson was 
 "broken and prisoners set free, &c ; 
 " in the second, Lambeth House in 
 "hazard, &c. One man was taken, 
 "and hanged and quartered." — 
 Diary of John Rous, p. 90. Claren- 
 don tells us {Hist. i. 253) that 
 the reference to the Lambeth riots 
 in the llemonstrauce received modi- 
 fication during the debates. What 
 he says is characteristic, as well 
 for its dishonest reference to those 
 riots (for which one man suffered exe- 
 cution), as for its allusion to Mr. 
 
 Strode. " This infamous, scandalous, 
 ' ' headless insurrection, quashed by 
 ' ' the deserved death of that one var- 
 " let, was not thought to be con- 
 "trived or fomented by any persons 
 "of quality, yet it was discovered 
 " after in the House of Commons by 
 ' • Mr. Strode (one of those Ephori who 
 " most avowed the curbing and sup- 
 " pressing of Majesty) with much 
 "pleasure and content; and it was 
 ' ' mentioned in the first draught of 
 "the first Remonstrance (when the 
 " same was brought in by Mr. Pym) 
 "not without a touch of approbation, 
 "which was for that reason somewhat 
 "altered, though it still carried 
 " nothing of censure [judgment] upon 
 " it in that piece." It is quite true, 
 as Clarendon alleges, that only one man 
 suffered death for this disturbance, but 
 it was not the clemency of the Govern- 
 ment, but of one of the few upright 
 judges of the day, which had prevented 
 other capital prosecutions. "Judge 
 " Reeve," says Rous, November, 1 640, 
 "this summer assizes did in South- 
 " warke refuse to proceede upon the 
 " inditeiuent of one of the Lambeth 
 " tumult, saying that he wold have 
 " no hand in any man's bloud ; but, 
 "because the fellow had been busie, 
 " &c. remitted him to prison agaiue." 
 101. 
 
 d3
 
 58 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 from his eager and unswerving advance to Rome. Un- 
 daunted and undeterred by discontents and tumults, 
 never did he and the other bishops follow up that pur- 
 pose more actively than in those six memorable months. 
 If any before could have doubted what they aimed at, now 
 it was made plain to all. For now it was that, with the 
 authority of a so-called provincial synod, canons were put 
 forth declaring things lawful which had no warrant of law; 
 justifying altar-worship, and other superstitious innova- 
 tions ; ' setting at defiance the usages and the statutes of 
 the reahn ; trampling alike on the property and liberty 
 of the subject, the rights of parliament, and the preroga- 
 tive of the King ; and showing that they who would set 
 the crown above the laws, would also set themselves above 
 the crown. They imposed new oaths ; they taxed the 
 great mass of the clergy for the King's supply;^ they 
 fomented the quarrel with Scotland, which they fondly 
 styled Bellum Epkcopale;^ they composed, and enjoined 
 to be read in the churches, a prayer against the Scots as 
 rebels, of which the object was to drive the two nations to 
 irreconcileable bloodshed ; and, above all, upon authority 
 of their pretended canons and constitutions, they pro- 
 ceeded to such extremities of suspension, excommunica- 
 tion, and deprivation against good ministers and well- 
 aifected people, as left the passage easier than it yet had 
 seemed to their design of reconciliation with Rome. 
 (Clauses 85, 86, 87.) 
 
 1 "They would evaporate and "meddle with men's freeholds ! I aay, 
 
 ' ' dispirit the power and vigour of re- ' ' the like was never heard of before ; 
 
 " ligion, by drawing it out into solemn "and they that durst do this will 
 
 "specious formalities, into obsolete "do worse, if the current of their 
 
 ' ' antiquated ceremonies new furbished ' ' raging tyranny be not stopped in 
 
 "up." — Sir Benjamin Radyard, 7th "time." 
 Nov. 1640. ^ In the last great debate on the 
 
 " "Sir, imagine it 1" exclaimed Remonstrance, Falljland (of all men 
 
 ]\Ir. Harbottle Grimston. "See what in the world) took objection specially 
 
 ' ' a pitch they have flown. A synod to this passage ; feeble and faint trans- 
 
 " called together upon pretence of cription as it is of what, some few 
 
 "reconciling and settling contro- mouths earlier, he was never wearied 
 
 ' ' versies in religion, take upon them- of himself urging and repeating in , 
 
 "selves the boldness, out of parlia- fiery and passionate speeches. 
 ' ' ment, to grant subsidies and to
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 59 
 
 For it was part of the design that the Papists at this time 
 should receive peculiar exemptions from the penal laws, 
 besides many other encouragements and court favours.' 
 They possessed, in the King's secretary of state, Sir Francis 
 Windebank, a powerful agent for speeding all their 
 desires. They had a resident Pope's Nuncio, by whose 
 authority, under direct instructions and influences from 
 Rome itself, all the most influential of the nobility, 
 gentry, and clergy of that persuasion held secret con- 
 vocations after the manner of a parliament. So led and 
 strengthened, they erected new jurisdictions of Romish 
 Archbishops ; levied taxes ; secretly stored up arms and 
 munition ; and were able to set in motion such powerful 
 agencies, at the Com't and in the Council, that it actually 
 there became matter of debate whether or not to issue to 
 
 ' The celebration of mass, though 
 illegal, was openly connived at ; but 
 woe to the pi-otestant who declined 
 attendance at his parish church be- 
 cause he would not bow to the altar ! 
 He was punished first by fine, and, on 
 a repetition of his refusal, by trans- 
 portation. "It hath been more dan- 
 "gerous," exclaimed Falkland, in his 
 speech upon grievances in the Short 
 Parliament, ' ' for men to go to some 
 "neighbour's parish when they had 
 ' ' no sermon in their own, than to be 
 " obstinate and perpetual recusants. 
 ' ' While masses have been said in se- 
 ' ' curity, a conventicle hath been a 
 " crime ; and, which is yet more, the 
 ' ' conforming to Ceremonies hath been 
 ' ' more exacted than the conforming to 
 " Christianity." lu like manner the 
 Roman Catholics were singled out for 
 special concessions of monopolies. 
 "They grew," says Clarendon, "not 
 ' ' only secret contrivers but public pro- 
 ' ' fessed promoters of, and ministers 
 ' ' in, the most grievous projects ; as that 
 " of soap, formed, framed, and exe- 
 ' ' cuted by almost a corporation of that 
 ' ' religion, which, under that license 
 "and notion, might be, and weresus- 
 " pected to be, qualified for other agi- 
 " tations" (i.2(J2). Fancy the monopoly 
 
 of such a necessity as soap in the hands 
 of a corporation of Roman Catholics, 
 using it to impose the worst articles 
 at the highest price upon all classes of 
 the people. "Continual complaints 
 ' ' rise up, " writes Garrard to Lord 
 Deputy Wentworth, "that it burns 
 " linen, scalds the laundress's fingers, 
 "and wastes infinitely in keeping, 
 "being full of lime and tallow." And 
 fancy the same sort of thing going on 
 with respect to every conceivable thing 
 on which a tax could be laid, or out of 
 which a monopoly could be formed. Salt, 
 starch, coals, iron, wine, pens, cards, 
 dice, beavers, belts, bone-lace, meat 
 dressed in taverns (the vintnei's of 
 London gave the King 6000/. for free- 
 dom from this horrible imposition), to- 
 bacco, wine casks, game, brewing and 
 distilling, lamprons, weighing of hay 
 and straw in London, guagiug of red 
 herrings, butter-casks, kelp and sea- 
 weed, linen cloth, rags, hops, but- 
 tons, hats, gut-string, spectacles, 
 combs, tobacco-pipes, sedan chairs 
 and hackney coaches (now first in- 
 vented), saltpetre, gunpowder, down 
 to the privilege of gathering rags 
 exclusively — all these things were 
 subject to monopolies, and all heavily 
 taxed !
 
 60 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 some great men of the party, under private conditions and 
 instructions, a commission for the raising of soldiers. 
 And thus there was moulded within this State another 
 State independent in Government, opposed in affection 
 and interest, secretly corrupting the careless, actively 
 combining against the vigilant, and in this posture waiting 
 the opportunity to destroy those whom it could not hope 
 to seduce.' (Clauses 88 to 94 inclusive.) 
 
 But a crisis came unexpectedly. At the moment when 
 any further illegal pressm'e on the subject seemed hope- 
 
 * The close and powerful reasoning 
 of the Remonstrance shows how in- 
 separable Religion and Politics had 
 become. Each was to be stabbed 
 only through the side of the other. 
 Wherever, indeed, any writer, such 
 as Hume, has sought to put a dis- 
 tinction between the modes of re- 
 garding these subjects pursued by 
 the statesmen of this Parliament, 
 contrasting their profound capacity, 
 undaunted courige, and largeness of 
 view in civil affairs, with their sup- 
 posed narrowness and bigotry in re- 
 ligion, he has simply shown how 
 imperfect and narrow had been his 
 own study and preparation for the 
 task of doing justice to such men. 
 Let me illustrate what is said in the 
 text by one of the most masterly ex- 
 positions ever made of the true state 
 of the case, and of the real issue that 
 was then to be determined. "Sir," 
 said Sir Benjamin Rudyard, in per- 
 haps the most eloquent of all the 
 speeches delivered in the great de- 
 bates of November 1640, "if we 
 " secure our Religion, we shall cut off 
 ' ' and defeat many plots that are now 
 "on foot by them and others. 
 ' ' Believe it. Sir, Religion hath been 
 "for a long time, and still is, the 
 "gi'eat design upon this kingdom. 
 "It is a known and practised prin- 
 "ciple, that they who would intro- 
 "duce another religion into the 
 "Church, must first troulile and dis- 
 " order the government of the State, 
 "that so they may work their ends 
 
 " in a confusion : which now lies at 
 
 ' ' the door I have often 
 
 ' ' thought and said, that it must be 
 ' ' some great extremity that would 
 " recover and rectify this State ; and 
 " when that extremity did come, it 
 "would be a great hazard whether it 
 "might prove a Remedy or Ruin. 
 ' ' We are now, Mr. Speaker, upon 
 "that vertical turning point, and 
 "therefore it is no time to palliate, 
 "to foment our own undoing. . . . 
 " To discover the diseases of the State 
 "is (according to some) to traduce the 
 "Government ; yet others are of 
 " opinion that this is the half-way 
 "to the cure. . . . Men that talk 
 "loudly of the King's service and yet 
 " have done none but their own, that 
 "speak highly of the King's power 
 "yet have made it a miserable 
 " power producing nothing but weak- 
 " uess, these are they who have always 
 ' ' peremptorily pursued one obstinate 
 "pernicious course. First, they 
 ' ' bring things to an extremity ; then 
 ' ' they make that extremity, of 
 "their own making, the reason of 
 "their next action, seven times 
 ' ' worse than the former. And there, 
 " Sir, we are at this instant. They 
 " have almost spoiled the best insti- 
 ' ' tuted Government in the world, for 
 ' ' sovereignty in a king, lor liberty to 
 ' ' the subject ; the proportionable tem- 
 " per of both which, makes the hap- 
 ' ' piest State for power, for riches, 
 "for duration."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 61 
 
 less, his Majesty's treasure was found to be consumed, and 
 his entire revenue to be anticipated. Though the prisons 
 were filled with commitments from the Council Table,' yet 
 " multitudes " who had refused illegal payments still hung 
 in attendance at its doors. Several of the sheriffs had 
 been dragged up into the Star Chamber from their 
 respective counties, and some had been imprisoned for 
 not having levied ship-money with sufficient vigour. In 
 a word, the source of non -parliamentary supply was 
 exhausted. The people, Avith no visible hope left but in 
 desperation, languished, beginning to seem passive under 
 grief and fear ; and the King's chief advisers suggested a 
 subscription to supply his wants, to which they made very 
 large personal contribution. But the example was lost on 
 the class to which alone with any effect the appeal could 
 be made. For now the Nobility themselves, weary of their 
 silence and patience, began to be sensible of the duty and 
 trust which belonged to them as hereditary counsellors of 
 the Crown; and some of the most ancient of them 
 petitioned his Majesty for the redress to which his 
 subjects were entitled.'^ Which Petition had yet borne no 
 
 1 "Many are daih' imprisoned " names are here imderwritteu, in be- 
 /,/. r • i i„ J iU„ TT- ~ „„ " halfe of themselves and many others. 
 "for refusing to lend the King so ■ Most Gracious Sovereign f 
 
 "that the prisons in London are full ; < The sense of tliat duty and service 
 
 " and it's thought they shall be sent ' which we owe unto your Majesty, and 
 
 "and imprisoned in divers gaols in ' our earnest affection to the good and 
 
 ,, , ' "1 "" & ' welfare of this your rcahn of England, 
 
 " the country, remote from tbeir own . j,.jve moved us, in all huraUity, to 
 
 "dwellings." — Walter Vonge^sDiary, 'beseech your Majesty to give us leave 
 
 „ 1 05 ' to offer unto your most priucely wis- 
 
 "■ o _,'. , , T> i'j.' t • 1 ' dom, the appreliension which we, and 
 
 2 This memorable Petition which < other your faithful subjects, have con- 
 was afterwards the subject of sjiecial ' ooived, of the great distempers and dan- 
 thanks in both houses, which bore ' gers now threatening the Church and 
 attached to it the names of the Earls [ ^^^^ ^J'^J^lj;;^^ 
 of Bedford, Bristol, Herttord, Jissex, < bg removed and prevented. 
 Mulgrave, Pa'.;et, Warwick, and Bo- ' The Evils and Dangers whereof your 
 lingbroke, of the Viscounts Say and ] Majesty may be pleased to take notice 
 Scale and Mandeville, and of the Lords ^5i_ ^^^^j.' y^y^ Majesty's sacred person 
 Brook and Howard, has never been so ' is exposed to hazard and danger in the 
 correctly printed as in the copy now ' present expedition against tlie Scotish 
 
 1 • • 1 Ti 11, -i. • i,i ' armie : and bv the occasion of this war, 
 
 subjoined. Every word has its weight . t-o„r revenues^nuch wasted ; your sub- 
 and value. ' jccts burtliened witli Coat and Conduct 
 
 'Money, with Billeting of Souldiers and 
 
 "The humble Petition of your Ma- 'other Military Charges, witli divers 
 "jesty's most loyal subjects, whose 'rapines and disorders committed in
 
 62 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 fruit, when the Scots, oppressed in their consciences, 
 restrained in their trades, impoverished by the seizure of 
 their ships in English and Irish ports, and hopeless of 
 satisfying the King by any naked unsupported suppli- 
 cation, forced the passage of the Tyne at Newburn with a 
 powerful army, and having possessed themselves of New- 
 castle, there, out of brotherly love to the English nation, 
 sta3'ed their march, and gave the King leisure to entertain 
 better counsels. A cessation of arms was determined upon 
 for a certain fixed period, and all differences were referred 
 in the interval to the wisdom and care of the ancient 
 council of the nation. A Parliament was summoned to 
 meet on the 3rd November, 1640. (Clauses 95 to 104 
 inclusive.) 
 
 The great deeds done by this memorable assembly 
 during the first twelve months of its existence, are then, 
 in no boastful or vainglorious spirit, detailed by their 
 authors. History speaks to us, here, while yet in the 
 very process of creation ; and, by a rare privilege, records 
 
 ' several parts in this yonr realm by the ' 7. The great grief of your subjects 
 
 ' souldiei's raised lor that service; and ' by the longlutermissionof Pai-liameiits, 
 
 ' your whole kingdom become full of ' and the late and former Dissolving of 
 
 ' care and discontent. ' such as have been called, without the 
 
 ' 2. The sundry innovations in matters ' happy effects which otherwise they 
 
 ' of Religion, the Oath and Canons ' might have produced. 
 
 ' lately imposed upon the clergy, and ' For remedy whereof, and prevention 
 
 ' other your M.ajesty's subjects. ' of the danger tlvit maj- ensue to your 
 
 ' 3. The great Increase of Popery ; and ' Royal person, and to the whole State, 
 
 ' Employing of Popish Recusants, and ' We do, in all humility and faithful- 
 
 ' others ill-affected to the Religion by ' ness, beseech your most excellent Ma- 
 
 ' Law established, in places of power and 'jesty, that you would be pleased to 
 
 ' trust, especially in commanding of Men 'summon a Parliament within some 
 
 'and Armes both in the Field ajid iu ' short and convenient time, whereby the 
 
 ' sundry Coimtics of this your realm : ' cause of these and other gi-eat griev- 
 
 ' whereas by the Laws they are not per- ' ances which your people aud your poor 
 
 ' mitted to have Armes iu their own ' Petitioners now lye under, may be 
 
 ' houses. ' taken away, and the Authours and 
 
 ' 4. The great mischief which may fall ' Councellours of them may be there 
 
 ' upon this kingdom, if the Intention, ' brought to such Legal Tryal and con- 
 
 ' which hath been credibly reported, of ' dign punishment as the nature of their 
 
 ' bringing in of Irish and foreign forces ' sevenU offences shall require ; and that 
 
 ' should take effect. ' the present War may be composed by 
 
 "5. The urging of Ship-money, and ' your Majesties wisdom without effusion 
 
 ' prosecution of some sheriff's in the Star- ' of blood, in such manneras may conduce 
 
 ' chamber for not Levying of it. ' to the honour and .safety of your Majes- 
 
 ' (i. The heavy charges upon Merchan- ' ties person, the content of your people, 
 
 ' dize, to the discouraging of Trade. The ' and tlie unity of both of your realms 
 
 ' multitude of Monoiaolies, and other ' against common enemies of the Re- 
 
 ' Patents, whereby the Commodities aud ' formed Religion.' 
 
 ' Manufactures of the Kingdom are much " Aud your Majesty's Petitioners shall 
 
 ' burtbened, to the great and imivei'sal " alwa3's pi'ay, &o." 
 ' Grievance of your people.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 63 
 
 tlie actions of her heroes in language they have them- 
 selves left to us. They do not understate the work 
 they had to do; nor do they exaggerate their own power 
 in doing it. All opposition, they remark, seemed to have 
 vanished Avhen first they met. So evident were the 
 mischiefs, so manifest the evil of the counsellors respon- 
 sible for them, that no man stood up to defend either. 
 Yet very arduous was the work of reformation. The 
 difficulties seemed to he insuperable, which by the Divine 
 Providence they overcame : the contrarieties incompatible, 
 which yet in a great measure they reconciled. (Clauses 
 105 and 110.) 
 
 It was not only that the multiplied evils and corruption 
 of sixteen years strengthened by authority and custom, 
 and that the powerful delinquents whose interests were 
 identified with their continuance, were together to be 
 brought to judgment : but that two armies were to be 
 paid, at a cost of near 80,000/. a month; that the King's 
 household was to be supplied, in even its ordinary and 
 necessary expenses ; and that the people were yet to 
 be tenderly charged, as already exhausted by unjust 
 exactions (Clauses 106, 107, 108, and 109). And all this 
 was done. During the year, twelve subsidies had been 
 raised, to the amount of 000,000/; yet had the kingdom 
 been substantially no loser by those charges. Ship- 
 monej^ which drew supplies almost without limit from tlie 
 subject, was abohshed. Coat and conduct-mone}-, and 
 other military assessments, in many counties amounting 
 to little less than ship-money, were declared illegal and 
 removed. Monopolies, of which but the leading few, such 
 as soap, wine, leather, and salt, prejudiced the common 
 people to the amount of nearly a million and a half 
 yearly, were universally suppressed.' And, what was 
 
 ' No one was more eager against Chancellor of the Exchequer (until 
 
 the Remonstrance, or fought every Hyde was ready to assume that office, 
 
 stage of it with a more impassioned when Culpeper became a lord and 
 
 resistance, than Sir John Cxilpeper, Master of the Rolls) ; yet it was 
 
 so soon to be appointed "for life" he who, at the meeting of the Long
 
 6i 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 more beneficial than all, the root of these intolerable 
 evils had been extirpated. The judgment of both houses, 
 subsequent!}' embodied in a statute, had put an end for 
 ever to the arbitrary power pretended to be in the King, of 
 taxing the subject, or charging their estates, without con- 
 sent of their representatives in parliament. Judgment 
 had been dealt, also, upon the living grievances ; upon the 
 evil counsellors, and actors, of treason to the common- 
 wealth. The Earl of Strafford had perished on the 
 scaffold. Lord Finch, the Lord Keeper, and Sir Francis 
 Windebank, the Secretary of State, had taken flight into 
 ignominious exile. Archbishop Laud and Judge Berkeley 
 were lodged in the Tower. And such was the report gone 
 forth of these memorable acts of retribution, that not 
 the present only, but all future times, were like to find 
 safety and preservation therein. (Clauses ill to 124 
 inclusive.) 
 
 Parliament, had spoken that me- 
 moralile speech against monopolies 
 and projectors which might have 
 supplied Sydney Smith with his 
 famous diatribe oa the universality of 
 British taxation two hundred years 
 later. "It is a nest of wasps, or 
 "swarm of vermin, which have over- 
 ' ' crept the land — I mean the mouopo- 
 ' ' lers and polers of the people. Like 
 ' ' the frogs of Egypt, they have gotten 
 ' ' the possession of our dwellings, and 
 ' ' we have scarce a room free from 
 "them. They sup in our cup, they 
 "dip in our dish, they sit by our fire. 
 "We find them in the dye-fat, tlie 
 " wash-bowl, and the powdering-tub. 
 " They share with tlie butler in his 
 ' ' box. They have marked and sealed 
 ' ' us from head to foot. Mr. Speaker, 
 "they will not bate us a pin. We 
 " may not buy our own clothes with- 
 "out their brokage." To. illustrate 
 the operation of some of these mo- 
 nopolies, a striking passage may also 
 be taken from a speech of Pym's, in 
 which he undertook to show tliat the 
 gain of the King was wonderfully dis- 
 proportioned to the loss of the subject. 
 
 ' In France, not long since, upon a 
 'survey of the King's revenue, it was 
 ' found that two parts in three never 
 ' came to the King's purse, but were 
 ' diverted to the profit of the officers 
 ' and ministers, of the Crown ; and it 
 'was thought a very good service 
 ' and reformation to reduce two parts 
 'to the King, lea\aug still a third 
 ' part to the instruments that were 
 ' employed about getting it in. It 
 ' may well be doubted if the King 
 ' have the like or worse success in 
 ' England. For instance, he hath 
 ' reserved upon the monopoly of 
 ' wines thirty thousand pound rent a 
 ' year ; the vintner pays forty shil- 
 ' lings a tun, which comes to ninety- 
 ' thousand pounds ; the price upon 
 'the subject by retail is increased 
 ' twopence a quart, which comes to 
 ' eight pounds a tun, and for forty- 
 ' five thousand tun brought in yearly 
 ' amounts to three hundred and sixty 
 ' thousand pounds ; which is three 
 ' hundred and thirty thousand pounds 
 • loss to the kingdom, above the 
 ' King's rent ! "
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 65 
 
 Through ten succeeding clauses the great recital con- 
 tinued. The abolition of the Star Chamber, of the High 
 Commission, and of the Courts of the President and Coun- 
 cil in the North, as of so many forges of oppression, misery, 
 and violence,' was exultingiy detailed. And those votes of 
 both Houses were recounted, which had taken away the 
 immoderate power of the Council Table ; had blasted for 
 ever the design of overriding gospel and law by canons 
 of the Church ; had struck do^\Ti the exorbitancies of 
 bishops and their courts ; had punished scandalous 
 ministers ; had reformed the forest laws ; had put an end 
 to the encroachments and oppressions of the Stannary 
 Courts ; had abolished the extortions of the Clerk of the 
 Market ; had relieved the subject of the vexations of the 
 old laws of knighthood ; and, of all these and other as 
 grievous public wrongs, left no more trace or vestige 
 than might suffice to tell to future generations the story 
 of the miseries they had caused.* (Clauses 127 to 186 
 
 * To what extent these courts might 
 be, and were, made to minister to 
 oppression, could only be shown by a 
 relation too particular for this place ; 
 but there is a letter from Ralph 
 Vemey to his friend James Dillon, 
 describing Prynne's fine and punish- 
 ment, which remarkably illustrates 
 the reckless liberty of indulgence to 
 private spleen and passion, on which 
 they were all based, and by which all 
 were governed. The judgment for a 
 fine, as will be observed, was taken 
 on the average of the various sums 
 suggested. 
 
 I6i-d— 4. FehruavT/ 26th. " I did 
 " but even now receave a letter from 
 " you,wherein you desire an account of 
 "Mr. Prinn's censure. To satisfie 
 "you therein. He is to be degraded 
 " in the Universitie, disbarred at the 
 " Innes of Court; he was fined in 
 " foure thousand jwuuds by some, by 
 "others in 5,000"-, in e.OOO''-, in 
 "10,000"; but which of these does 
 " now stand I cannot resolve you, 
 " because I counted not in which of 
 
 "these summes most of the Lords did 
 "agree; but I believe it was in 
 " 4000" •. He was withall condemned 
 " to the losse of his eares, whereof he 
 "is to part with one at Westminster, 
 ' ' with the other at Cheapside, where, 
 " v.liilest an officer doeth execution on 
 ' ' him .self, the hangman is to doe 
 "execution on his booke, and burne 
 " it before his face. He is withall to 
 "suffer perpetuall imprisonment by 
 " tlie decree of the Starr Chamber. 
 " There were of the lords, that counted 
 ^' this not enough; they would have 
 ' ' his nose slitt, his arme cuit of, and 
 " peiin and inke for ever withheld 
 "fi-om him ; but these were hut fewe, 
 " and their censure stood not." 
 
 - A clause introduced in the course 
 of this summary, having reference to 
 the Court of Requests, was subse- 
 quently objected to by the liberal 
 leaders, and on a division was rejected 
 by 187 to 123 (this was the first 
 division on the great day when the 
 final vote was taken), Sir John Clot- 
 worthy and Sir Thomas Barrington
 
 66 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 inclusive.) In the same recital, but standing apart from 
 the general statement of redress, was the mention (Clauses 
 125 and 126) of the two memorable statutes, for triennial 
 parliaments, and for prevention of any abrupt dissolution 
 of the existing parliament, as constituting not only a 
 remedy for the present, but a perpetual spring of remedies 
 for the future; and, closing the statement (Clauses 137 
 to 142 inclusive), was a sketch or intimation of other 
 contemplated measures, which the existence of those two 
 safeguards had enabled them to prepare with some reason- 
 able certaint}'^ of enactment even before the close of the 
 session. Among them were laws and provisions for 
 defining and settling the powers of the bishops ; for 
 abating pride and idleness in the clergy ; for easing the 
 people of needless and superstitious ceremonies ; for 
 removing unworthy, and maintaining godly, preachers ; 
 for so establishing the King's revenue, as both to cut off 
 superfluities, and make more certain all necessary pay- 
 ments; for so regulating courts of justice as to abridge 
 both the delays and the costs of law ; for better settling 
 of the currency, and equality of exchanges ; for increasing 
 manufactures and facilitating trade ; for putting an end to 
 the iniquities of press-money ; ' and for so improving the 
 herring fishery on their own coasts, as not only to give 
 large employment to the poor, but to create and cherish a 
 plentiful nursery of seamen. 
 
 Then arose, in connection with this mention of laws so 
 desirable to be passed, the consideration of such and so 
 many obstructions and difficulties then lying across the 
 path to their accompHshment, as might even prove strong 
 enough, and obstinate enough, to defy removal. The 
 
 Leing tellers for the majority, and for "of the like imprisonment, to fer- 
 tile minority, Mr. Stanhope and Sir "sake their place of habitation, 
 F. Cornwallls. " hiding themselves in woods, where- 
 1 In the Schedule of Grievances ' ' by their families are left to y* 
 before referred to appears "the com- "charge of the parish, and harvest 
 " pelling some free-men, by imprison- " worke undone for want of labourers." 
 " ment and threatening, to take — ■Diary of Rous, t^. 92. 
 *' presse-money ; and others, for feare
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 67 
 
 heart of the Eemonstrance lay here ; and its authors 
 made no secret of their aim in so shaping and directing 
 it. The malignant party, they frankly declared, repre- 
 senting still the authors and promoters of all the miseries 
 and wrongs therein described, had taken heart again. 
 Even during the present parliament, that party had been 
 enabled again to prefer to degrees of honour, and to places 
 of trust and employment, some of its own factors and 
 agents ; and had used this influence to work, in the King, 
 ill impressions and opinions of the proceedings of the 
 House of Commons : as if its members had altogether 
 done their own work and not his, and had obtained from 
 him many things very prejudicial to the Crown, both in 
 respect of prerogative and profit. To wipe out which 
 last-named slander, they thought it good to declare, that, 
 — in voting 25,000/. a month for the relief of the Northern 
 Counties, in votmg 300,000/. by way of brotherly assist- 
 ance to the Scots, and in voting above 50,000/. a month 
 for the charge of the army, — all these sums, which, 
 with the addition of monies yielded by assessments on 
 merchandize, amounted to a million and a-half sterling, 
 had been contributed to the greatness, the honour, and 
 the support of the King. He was bound to protect his 
 subjects ; and his subjects might well have claimed 
 exemption from contributing to the relief of burthens, 
 created by the very wrongs inflicted on themselves. 
 Yet, out of their purse, since the present parliament 
 met, had this million and a half been voted to his Majesty, 
 by those very members of the House of Commons whom 
 the ill-affected were now so " impudent " as to reproach 
 with having done nothing for the King ! (Clauses 143 to 
 153 inclusive.) 
 
 As to the other reproach put forth to justify the 
 slander, and touching mainly the question of prerogative, 
 it was met with challenge as frank and resolute. While 
 they acknowledged with thankfulness, and in most im- 
 pressive language, that the King had given his con- 
 sent, during the preceding ten months, to more good
 
 68 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 bills for the advantage of the subject than had been in 
 many previous ages, they yet claimed to remember the 
 venomous councils which had since gone far to obstruct 
 and hinder the benefits from these good acts. They 
 proceeded to instance, one by one, the four statutes, — the 
 Triennial Bill, the Bill for Continuance of the Parliament, 
 and the two Bills for Abolition of the Star Chamber and 
 High Commission, — singled out to establish the charge 
 of having prejudiced the Crown in prerogative as well as 
 profit (in none other could be found so much as the 
 shadow of pretence for such a charge) ; and they de- 
 clared themselves content to rest, upon no other than 
 these four, the issue whether or not they had been 
 careful, ever, to avoid desiring anything that should 
 weaken the Crown in its just profit or its useful power. 
 The Star Chamber and High Commission had ceased, 
 for sometime before their abolition, to bring in any 
 considerable fines ; and, fruitful to the last in oppression, 
 were so no longer in revenue. The Triennial Bill had 
 fallen short of what the ancient law, existing still in 
 two unrepealed statutes appointing parliaments each year, 
 w^ould have justified them in demanding. And though 
 there might indeed seem to have been, in the Bill against 
 putting an end without its own consent to the Parliament 
 then sitting, some restraint of the royal power in dissolving 
 parliaments, it was to be remembered that the design of 
 that statute was by no means to take the authority out of 
 the Crown, but simply to suspend its operation for the 
 specific time and occasion. Without it, the great pecuniary 
 charges heretofore described could never have been 
 undertaken : the fii'st consequence whereof must have 
 been, the giving up of both armies to confusion and of the 
 kingdom to plunder ; and the first and greatest sacrifice, 
 that of the public peace and of the King's own security. 
 (Clauses 154 to 161 inclusive.) 
 
 Thus far the slander of the ill-affected had reached, in 
 relation to the King. But it had taken also a wider 
 range ; and, — by such aspersions as that the House of
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 69 
 
 Commons had spent much time and done little work, 
 especially in the grievances concerning religion ; and that it 
 pressed upon the kingdom with peculiar burthens, not only 
 by the voting of many subsidies heavier than any formerly 
 endured, but by excess in the protections against suits 
 and debts granted to its members, — the attempt had been 
 made to damage, with the people, the reputation of their 
 representatives, and to bring the English nation out of 
 love with Parliaments. Yet was there truly a ready 
 answer, if they to whom such slander was addressed 
 would but look back and forward. Before they judged 
 this Parliament, let them look back to the long growth 
 and deep root of the Grievances it had removed, to the 
 powerful supports of the Delinquents it had struck 
 down, to the great necessities of the Commonwealth for 
 which it had provided, — let them look forward to the 
 many advantages which not the present only but future 
 ages would reap, from the laws it had passed and the 
 work it had accomplished, — and where was the indifferent 
 judgment, to which its burden laid upon the subject 
 would not seem lighter than in any former example, and 
 to which its time spent in deliberation would not appear 
 to have been better employed than a far greater proportion 
 of time in many former parliaments put together? In the 
 only direction where it was possible that just reason for 
 complaint might exist, already a bill was under discussion 
 to provide a remedy ; and any undue stretching of those 
 protections' from suit and arrest which were necessary 
 to the discharge of the functions of a legislator, would now 
 very speedily be removed. (Clauses 102 to 168, inclusive.) 
 But what was the character of the men, and what their 
 daily practices and efforts, by whom these slanders had 
 been busily dispersed ? They were the same men who 
 most busily had sown division between the sister kingdoms, 
 and striven to incense against each other the subjects of 
 
 1 "By wliich the debts from parlia- "dependants, were not recoverable." 
 " ment men, and their followers, and — Clarendon, Hist. ii. 55.
 
 70 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 one Crown. Who had been able so to influence the 
 bishops, and a party of Popish lords in the upper 
 house, as to create those very obstructions and delays for 
 which the lower house was assailed. Who had laboured, 
 not unsuccessfully, to seduce and corrupt some even of 
 the representatives of the people, and to draw them into 
 combinations against the liberty of parliament. Who, by 
 their instruments and agents, had tampered with the 
 King's army for the same wicked and traitorous purpose, 
 and had twice engaged in plots to bring up a force to 
 overawe the deliberations of the House of Commons, and 
 to seize the persons of its leaders. Whose designs with 
 this view, as well in Scotland as in England, had still 
 been defeated, before ripe for execution, by the vigilance 
 of the well-affected ; but w'ho had been so far more 
 successful in Ireland, that not till the very eve of the 
 day when the main enterprize should have been executed 
 at Dublin, was discovery made, by God's wonderful pro- 
 vidence, of their scheme to possess themselves of that 
 whole country, to subvert totally its government, to root 
 out and destroy the protestant religion, and to massacre all 
 without exception, of whatever sex or age, who were bred 
 in it, or likely to be faithful to it. Which devilish design 
 was so far pursued notwithstanding, that open rebellion 
 had broken out in other parts of the Irish kingdom, 
 many towns and castles had been surprized, many 
 murders and villanies unutterable perpetrated,' all bonds 
 
 ' It has been reserved for our own "with exquisite and unheard of tor- 
 time, after such a lapse of years as " tures, within the space of one 
 might have seemed to render wholly "month. . . Dublin was the sane- 
 incredible the possibility of a recur- "tuary of all the despoiled Protestants, 
 rence of such horrors, to furnish a ". . and what mischiefs soever were 
 parallel to the imutterable cruelties "acted in other parts, were there 
 perpetrated in this Irish Rebellion. "discovered and lamented. Their 
 " The innocent Protestants" (I quote " eyes wei-e sad witnesses of the rebels' 
 the historian May, no vehement or " cruelty in such wretched spectacles 
 exaggerated writer) "were upon a "as daily from all parts presented 
 "sudden disseised of their estates, "themselves: people of all conditions 
 "and the persons of above two hun- "and qualities, of every age and sex, 
 "dred thousand men, women, and " spoiled and stripped . . . And be- 
 ' ' children murtbered, many of them ' ' sides the miseries of their bodies,
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 of obedience to the King and the laws shaken off, and 
 such a fire in general kindled as nothing but God's infinite 
 blessing upon the measures and endeavours now in pro- 
 gress would be able to quench. And to that so miserable 
 tragedy in Ireland, but for the great mercy of Provi- 
 dence in confounding former plots, this country of 
 England would have been made to furnish the lamentable 
 prologue. (Clauses 169 to 180 inclusive.) 
 
 " And now," proceeded this memorable Declaration, in 
 
 "their minds tortured witli the losse 
 " of all their fortunes, and sad remem- 
 " brance of their husbands, wives, or 
 "children, most barbarously mur- 
 ' ' dered before their faces . . . But 
 ' ' that part of this woful tragedy pre- 
 "sented to the eyes was the least, 
 "and but the shadow of that other 
 "which was related to their ears, of 
 " which the readers and all posterity 
 " may share the sorrow. Many hun- 
 " di'eds of those which had escaped, 
 " — under their oaths lawfully taken 
 "upon examination, and recorded 
 "with all particulars, — delivered to 
 "the Councill what horrid massacres 
 " the bloody villains had made of 
 "men, women, and children; and 
 " what cruel inventions they had to 
 " torture those whom they murdered : 
 "scarce to be equalled by any the 
 " most black and baleful story of any 
 "age. Many thousands of them at 
 ' ' several places (too many to be here 
 " inserted), after alldespitese.vercised 
 "upon them living, were put to the 
 " worst of deaths : some burned on 
 "set purpose, others drowned for 
 "sport and pastime; and if they 
 ' ' swam, kept from landing with poles, 
 " or shot and murdered in the water : 
 ' ' many were buried quick, and some 
 "set into the earth breast high, and 
 "there left to famish. But mo.st 
 "barbarous (as appears in very many 
 "examinations) was that cruelty 
 "which was showed to pregnant 
 " women, whom the villains were not 
 
 ' ' content to murder, but . But 
 
 "I am loath to dwell upon so sad a 
 "narrative." — Lib. 2, cap. i. 14. Let 
 
 a brief passage from the authentic 
 Rushworth (Part IIL vol. i. p. 416-7; 
 complete the horror, and with it the 
 appalling parallel to incidents which 
 have plunged this living generation 
 into mourning. "For such of the 
 "English as stood upon their guard, 
 "and had gathered together, though 
 "but in small numbers, the Irish 
 " fairly offered unto them good con- 
 "ditions of quarter, assured them 
 ' ' their lives, their goods, and free 
 ' ' passage, and as soon as they had 
 "them in their power, held them- 
 " selves disobliged from their promi- 
 * ' ses, and left their soldiers at liberty 
 "to despoil, strip, and murder them 
 ' ' at pleasure . . . Their servants 
 ' ' were killed as they were ploughing 
 "in the fields, husbands were cut to 
 ' ' pieces in the presence of their wives, 
 " their children's brains were dashed 
 "out before their faces . . their goods 
 " and cattle seized and carried away, 
 " their houses burnt, their habitations 
 " laid waste, and all as it were at an 
 ' ' instant, before they could suspect 
 "the Irish for their enemies, or any 
 ' ' ways imagine that they had it in 
 "their hearts, or in their power, to 
 "offer so great violence, or do such 
 "mischief." Clarendon's own touch- 
 ing account (viii. 9, and elsewhere) 
 of the barbarous circumstances of 
 cruelty with which, in the space of 
 less than ten days, an incredible num- 
 ber of protestants, "men, women, 
 "and children promiscuously, and 
 " without distinction of age and sex," 
 were murdered — must be familiar to 
 every reader of his History.
 
 72 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 language which its authors might fairly have claimed to 
 he rememhered on all occasions afterward when their 
 deeds or their motives were called in question — " And 
 now, what hope have we but in God ? The only means 
 of our subsistence, and power of Eeformation, is, under 
 Him, in the Parliament ; but what can we, the Com- 
 mons, without the conjunction of the House of Lords ? 
 and what conjunction can we expect there, when the 
 Bishops and recusant Lords are so numerous and 
 prevalent, that they are able to cross and interrupt our 
 best endeavours for Reformation, and by that means 
 give advantage to this mahgnant party to traduce our 
 proceedings ? 
 
 " The}'^ iirfuse into the people that we mean to abolish 
 all Church Government, and leave every man to his own 
 fancy for the service and worship of God, absolving 
 him of that obedience which he owes under God to his 
 Majesty; whom we know indeed to be intrusted with the 
 ecclesiastical law as well as with the temporal, to regu- 
 late all the members of the Church of England — though 
 by such rules of order and discipline onl}- as are estab- 
 lished by Parliament ; which is his great council in all 
 affairs, both in Church and State. 
 
 " They have strained to blast our proceedings in par- 
 liament by wresting the interpretations of our Orders 
 from their genuine intentions. They tell the people 
 that our meddling with the power of Episcopacy hath 
 caused sectaries and conventicles, when it is Idolatry,' 
 and the Popish Ceremonies introduced into the Church 
 by command of the Bishops, which have not only 
 debarred the people from them, but expelled them from 
 
 ^ No expression was so hotly con- "pare the clause in such a manner 
 
 tested in the house as this of Idola- " as may be agreeable to the sense of 
 
 try. It was debated, as the reader "the House;" and after a division 
 
 has been already told, with extraor- taken on the question uf whether it 
 
 dinary vehemence ; the clause con- should stand, which was carried by a 
 
 taining it was recommitted twice ; majority of twenty-ilve, it was 
 
 Falkland and Culpeper were added again, on the final debate, vehe- 
 
 to the Committee ajjpoiuted "to pre- mently discussed.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 73 
 
 " the kingdom. And thus, with Eliah, we are called by this 
 " malignant party the troublers of the State ; and still, 
 " while we endeavour to reform theii' abuses, they make 
 *' us authors of those mischiefs we study to prevent. 
 
 " We confess our intention is, and our endeavours have 
 " been, to reduce within bounds that exorbitant power 
 " which the Prelates have assumed unto themselves, so 
 " contrary both to the word of God and to the laws of the 
 " land: to which end we passed the Bill for the removing 
 " them from their temporal power and employments, that 
 " so the better they might with meekness apply themselves 
 " to the discharge of their functions, which Bill they 
 " themselves opposed, and were the principal instruments 
 " of crossing." 
 
 " And we do here declare that it is far from our pur- 
 " pose or desire to let loose the golden reins of discipline 
 " and government in the Church, leaving private persons 
 " or particular congregations to take up what form of 
 " divine service they please : for we hold it requisite that 
 " there should be, throughout the whole realm, a con- 
 " formity to that order which the Laws enjoin according 
 " to the word of God. But we desire to unburden the 
 " consciences of men of needless and superstitious cere- 
 " monies, to suppress innovations, and to take away the 
 " monuments of idolatry.^ 
 
 ' This clause was stremiously con- internal evidence. In themselves they 
 
 tested to the last, and on the day are remarkable, and they agree ex- 
 
 when the final division on the Ilemon- actly with the tone and terms of the 
 
 strance was taken, as will hereafter brief but impressive "Declaration and 
 
 be seen, it was again put to the vote. "Vindication" which the maligned 
 
 ^ Clarendon more than once im- leader of the popular party put forth, 
 putes the main authorship of the with his own name, against the calum- 
 Remonstrance to Pym ; but the nies of the royalists during the year 
 share taken in it by that great preceding his death. "That lam, 
 statesman is yet more satisfactorily "ever was, and so will die, a faithful 
 established by the extraordinary num- "son of the Protestant Religion, with- 
 ber of passages in it, identical in " out having the least relation, in my 
 style, in manner, and often in tho "belief, to the gross errors of Ana- 
 most precise expression, with his "baptism, Brownism, or any other 
 printed speeches. The passages on " revolt from the orthodox doctrine of 
 Church government quoted above are "the Church of England, every man 
 among the many such proofs from " that hath any acquaintance with my 
 VOL. r. B
 
 71 ' HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 " The better to effect which intended Eeformation, we 
 " desire there may be a General Synod of the most grave, 
 " pious, learned, and judicious divines of this island, 
 " assisted with some from foreign parts, professing the 
 " same religion with us ; who may consider of all things 
 " necessary for the peace and good government of the 
 " Church, and represent the results of their consultations 
 " unto the Parliament. There, to be allowed of, and 
 " confirmed ; and receive the stamp of authority where- 
 " by to find passage and obedience throughout the 
 " kingdom. 
 
 " We have been maliciously charged with the intention 
 " to destroy and discourage Learning, whereas it is our 
 " chiefest care and desire to advance it, and to provide 
 " such competent maintenance for conscientious and 
 " preaching ministers throughout the realm as will 
 " be a great encouragement to scholars, and a certain 
 " means whereby the want, meanness, and ignorance 
 " to which a gTeat part of the clergy is now subject, 
 " will be prevented. And we have intended likewise to 
 " reform and purge the Fountains of Learning, the two 
 " Universities, that the streams flowing from thence may 
 " be clear and pure, and an honour and comfort to the 
 " whole land." 
 
 So ran the eleven clauses of the Great Bemonstrance 
 from the 181st to the 191st inclusive. Foiu-teen more, 
 from the 192nd to the 206th, carried it to its close. Li 
 these were frankly indicated the measures which the 
 people were entitled to demand, as their only safe or 
 
 " conversation can bear me righteous "of looking to the cure of men's 
 
 " witness. These are but aspersions " souls (which is their genuine office), 
 
 "cast upon me by some of the dis- " they inflicted punishment on men's 
 
 " contented clergy, and their factors "bodies, banishing them to remote 
 
 "and abettors; because they might "and desolate places, bringing in 
 
 "perhaps conceive that I had been a " papistical ceremonies by unheard of 
 
 "main instrument in extenuating "canons into the Church, imposing 
 
 "the haughty power and ambitious "burdens upon men's consciences 
 
 "pride of the bishops and prelates . . "which they were not able to bear, 
 
 " And was it not high time to seek to "and introducing the old abolished 
 
 " regulate their power, when, instead "superstition of bowing to the altar ?"
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 75 
 
 sufficient guarantee against the recurrence, at any moment, 
 of the wrongs and the sufferings of the past sixteen years. 
 The groundwork of these measures, I may remark, was 
 precisely that which formed afterwards the basis of the 
 settlement by which alone the Monarchy was again firmly 
 established in England. It comprised safeguards against 
 the Roman Catholic religion; security for the better 
 administration of the laws ; and conditions for the future 
 selection of only such counsellors and ministers by 
 the King, as the Parliament might have reason to 
 confide in. 
 
 For the first, it was laid down broadly that the principles 
 of those who professed the Roman Catholic religion so 
 certainly tended to the destruction and extirpation of all 
 Protestants, whenever they should have opportunity to 
 effect it, that it was absolutely necessary to keep them in 
 such condition, as that they might not be able to do any 
 hurt ; ' and that such connivance and favour, therefore, 
 as had theretofore been shown to them, should thereafter 
 be avoided.' With this view his Majesty was moved to 
 
 ' The expression is exactly ttat "his command will move them to 
 
 which Pym had employed in his "the disturbance of the realm, 
 
 speech on grievances in the Short "against their own private disposi- 
 
 Parliament, in a passage which vindi- ' ' tion, yea against their own reason 
 
 cates his memory from any imputa- " and judgment, not only in spiritual 
 
 tion of intolerance. It is always with "matters but in temporal. Henry 
 
 the prudent spirit of the statesman, and "III. and Henry IV. of France were 
 
 never with the unreasoning hatreds of " no Protestants themselves, yet were 
 
 the bigot, that this great speaker " murthered becau.«e they tolerated 
 
 adverts to the Roman Catholic re- " the Protestants. The King and the 
 
 ligion. "He did not desire any new "kingdom can have no security but 
 
 " laws against Popery, or any rigorous " in their weakness and disabilitie to 
 
 "courses in the execution of those "do hurt." 
 
 * ' already in force. He was far from ^ n jg uq^ necessary to multiply 
 
 ' ' seeking the ruin of their persons or illustrations of the thorough under- 
 
 " estates; only he wisht they might standing of the character of the King, 
 
 "be kept in such a condition as which appears in, and justifies, the 
 
 "should restrain them from doing variousurgentwarningsof thellemon- 
 
 " hurt . . . The principles of Popery strance against his tendency to dan- 
 
 " are such as are incompatible with gerous intercourse with Home. But 
 
 "any other religion. Laws will not let me refer the reader to one of the 
 
 "restrain them. Oaths will not. latest and most decisive evidences on 
 
 "The Pope can dispense with both this point, furnished in the very 
 
 "these; and where there is occasion, curious and interesting volume of 
 
 s 2
 
 76 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 grant a standing commission to some choice men named 
 in Parliament, who might take watch of their increase, 
 report upon their counsels and proceedings, and use all 
 due means, by execution of the laws, to prevent mis- 
 chievous designs, from that quarter, against the peace 
 and safety of the realm. And it was further suggested, 
 that some sufficient tests should be applied to that 
 counterfeit and false conformity of Papists to the English 
 Church, by colour of which persons greatly disaffected to 
 the true religion had been admitted into places of highest 
 authority and trust in the kingdom. 
 
 For the second, stipulation was made, that, for the 
 better preservation of the liberties and laws, all illegal 
 grievances and exactions should be presented and punished 
 at the sessions and assizes; that judges and justices 
 should be very careful to give this in charge to the grand 
 juries ; and that both the sheriff and the justices should be 
 sworn to the due execution of the Petition of Eight and 
 other laws. 
 
 For the third, a series of precautions were suggested 
 to meet those cases of not infrequent occurrence, when 
 the Commons might have just cause to take exceptions 
 at particular men for being selected to advise the King, 
 
 Letters written by Charles to his ' ' municate this motion to any of the 
 
 Queen in 1646, published by the "French ministers of state, but I 
 
 Camden Society in 1856, and most "would have thee to acquaint the 
 
 carefully edited by Mr. John Bruce. "Cardinal with it, requiring his 
 
 In these letters will be found the ' ' assistance, for certainly France is as 
 
 most satisfactory of all evidence, under " much obliged to assist me as honour 
 
 his own hand, of the otherwise in- "can make it." p. 42. The intended 
 
 credible and utterly insane scheme mode of doing it was worthy of the 
 
 by which he proposed, to that conge- thing to be done. The Queen was to 
 
 nial helpmate who did more than all get the French government to invade 
 
 the rest of his advisers to bring about England with 6000 men, and with 
 
 the tragedy of his death, that she these, and double the number of 
 
 should ' ' invite the Pope and other Irish Roman Catholics, Charles pro- 
 
 " Roman Catholics to help me for the posed to provide for the safe re- 
 
 ' ' restitution of Episcopacy in England, establishment of the English Protestant 
 
 "upon condition of giving them free Church and his own royal authority ! 
 
 "liberty of conscience, and convenient — Letters inl646, p. 24 and 25. And 
 
 " places for their devotions. . . I de- see Clarendon's <S(!a<e Papers, ii. 262. 
 "sire thee not," he adds, "to com-
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 77 
 
 and yet have no just cause to charge them with crimes. 
 Seeing that there were grounds of diffidence which lay 
 not in proof, and others which, though proveable, were 
 yet not legally criminal (as, to be a known favourer of 
 Papists, or to have been very forward in countenancing 
 and supporting great offenders questioned in Parliament, 
 or to have become notorious for a studied contempt of 
 Parliamentary proceedings), the most cogent reasons 
 might exist to be earnest with the King not to put 
 his great affairs into such hands, though the Commons 
 might be imwilling to proceed against them in any legal 
 way of impeachment. It was then plainly stated that 
 supplies for support of the King's own estate could not 
 be given, nor such assistance provided as the times 
 required for the Protestant party beyond the sea, unless 
 such Counsellors, Ambassadors, and other Ministers only 
 were in future employed as Parliament could give its 
 confidence to ; and unless all Counsellors of State were 
 sworn, as well to avoid receiving in any form reward or 
 pension from any foreign prince," as to observe strictly 
 those laws which concerned the subject at home in his 
 liberty. 
 
 And so this memorable Declaration ended, with a 
 prayer that his Majesty might have cause to be in 
 love with good counsel and good men ; and, profiting by 
 the humble and dutiful representations therein made, 
 might acknowledge how full of advantage it would be, 
 to himself, to see his own estate settled in a condition 
 sufficing to support his honour, to see his people united 
 in ways of duty to him and in endeavours for the public 
 good, and, by the influence of his own power and govern- 
 
 1 On Friday the 11th of December "the Spaniards ;" and moved that it 
 
 1640, I find from a manuscript report should be referred "to the same com- 
 
 of the proceedings of that day, Pym "mittee appointed to consider of the 
 
 handed in several petitions, and "Turkish pirates and Algiers, and 
 
 among them one from "Joseph "to enquire what ministers of our 
 
 " Hawes and other merchants touch- "State do receive pensions from 
 
 "ing the wrongs done them at sea by "foreign States."
 
 78 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 ment, to see derived to his own kingdom, and procured 
 to those of his allies, Happiness, Wealth, Peace, and 
 Safety. 
 
 Such was the Declaration, the Great Eemonstrance, 
 which lay engi'ossed on the table of the house on Monday 
 the 33nd of November 1641, waiting the final vote. The 
 King, eager at last to reach London before that vote could 
 ])e taken, Avas now hastening with all speed back from 
 Edinburgh ; and the fact that he was only distant a two 
 days' journey was doubtless known to Pym, Hampden, 
 and Cromwell, when they passed into the house that 
 morning. 
 
 The Speaker was late, probably in expectation that 
 he should have to sit long ; and prayers were not over 
 until a little after ten. There is then some business 
 essential to be done, and honourable members eager 
 for the great debate are fain to curb their impatience. 
 Mr. Wheeler, the member for AVestbury, has to rej^ort 
 concerning a delinquent involved in the recent con- 
 spiracies. Sir John Price, the member for Montgomery- 
 shu'e, has ill report to make of a Mr. Blany, a W^elsh 
 justice of peace. Mr. Strode has to complain of an order 
 of the House as to a case in the Exchequer tending to 
 throw discredit on liimself, and to obtain correction of 
 the same. Mr. Speaker has to prefer a petition from 
 some hundred or so of the moniers of the mint, claiming 
 to be exempt, by the precedents of four centuiies, 
 from contributing to the pajnnent of the last six sub- 
 sidies voted by the Commons; which petition, having been 
 presented to the King, his Majesty had commended to 
 Mr. Speaker for presentation this day, and by the House 
 was now ordered to be referred to the committee for 
 poll-money, some not very courtly members remarking 
 that " these subsidies were given to the Commonwealth 
 " and not to the King, and therefore they were not freed
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 79 
 
 " by any charter of exemption." But, above all, Mr. Pym 
 has to report the result of a conference with the Lords the 
 preceding Saturday on Irish affairs, and sundry' important 
 matters relating thereto. He has evidence to offer that 
 " this design of Ireland was hatched in England." He has 
 a petition bearing on these affairs to present from Sir 
 Faithful Fortescue. He has to make an important sug- 
 gestion for the transport, to Ireland, of the magazine at 
 Hull ; to get authority for the necessary estimates, from 
 the officers of ordnance, as to the number of ships 
 required for such transport ; to take order for the inmie- 
 diate pro^ision thereof ; and to obtain means, by a vote 
 of 4000/. to Mr. Crane, the victualler of the Navy, for the 
 hastening away of other ships to guard the coast of 
 Ireland. 
 
 So the time passed until the clock had struck twelve, 
 when, as the members began to hm'ry out for dinner, 
 cries became loud for the debate on the Remonstrance. 
 Thereupon, order having been made (so little in some 
 quarters, even then, was any debate of unusual dui'ation 
 expected) that the Irish business should be resumed as 
 soon as the debate on the Declaration was done, and the 
 order of the day for resumption of the latter subject 
 having been read, Mr. Hyde rose and desired that the 
 Serjeant might be sent with his mace to call up such 
 members of the house as were then walking in West- 
 minster Hall. It was a device to gain time, Mr. Hyde, 
 we may presume, not liking to speak to thinly occupied 
 benches ; but on the other hand the liberal leaders were 
 interested to have no time lost, and many resisted the 
 proposal. After some debate, however, the objectors 
 gave way, and the Serjeant with his mace departed 
 accordingly. 
 
 The old House of Commons, it may be well here to 
 remmd the reader, now that a generation has grown up 
 who never saw the narrow, ill-lighted, dingy room, in 
 which for three centuries some of the most important 
 business of this world was transacted, ran exactly at right
 
 80 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 angles with Westminster Hall, having a passage into it at 
 the south east angle. The Hall itself, in those days, 
 shared in all the excitements of the House ; and 
 nothing of interest went on in the one, of which visible 
 and eager indications did not present themselves in the 
 other. 
 
 It was here, in the Hall, within an hour after the dis- 
 solving of the Short ParUament, that the cheerful and 
 sanguine Mr. Hyde, with deeply despondent face, deplored 
 gloomil}^ that rash step to the dark and reserved Mr. St. 
 John, who with laughter lighting up features rarely known 
 to smile, rejoined briskly that all was well, and it must be 
 worse before it would be better. It was here, upon the 
 assembhng of the Long Parliament, that Mr. Hyde had 
 walked up and down conferring on the state of affairs with 
 Mr. Pym, when that worthy and distinguished member 
 told him they must now be of another temper than they 
 had been heretofore, and must not only sweep the 
 house clean below, but must pull down all the cobwebs 
 which hung in the top and corners, that they might not 
 breed dust, and so make a foul house hereafter. It was 
 here the King himself was so soon to enter on his 
 ill-fated errand against the five members, striking such 
 a fear and terror, according to a manuscript report now 
 before me, " into all those that kept shops in the said 
 " Hall, or near the gate thereof, as they instantly shut up 
 " their shops.' For here also such trades as those of book- 
 sellers, law- stationers, sempstresses, and the like, found 
 customers among the variously idle, busy, or curious 
 people, continually drawn together ; and under the roof of 
 the noble old Hall, whatever the business in progress 
 might be within the Courts adjoining or in the Chapel 
 beyond, might be heard the old city cry of What d'ye 
 lack ? addressed to lawyers walking up and down till 
 
 1 Booksellers, law-stationers, semp- place ; and Laud notices in his Diary 
 
 stresses — these and other trades akin a narrow escape of the Hall from 
 
 to these, now and for some time being burnt down, owing to a fire iu 
 
 later, plied their callings in the one of the stalls.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 81 
 
 their cases in the Bench or Exchequer come on, to clients 
 in attendance to consult with their lawyers, to politicians 
 anxious for news, and to members of either house 
 escaping from committees or debates. As those of the 
 lower house, however, for whom Mr. Hyde sent the 
 Serjeant and his mace, have doubtless by this time been 
 collected, it is our business to enter St. Stephen's with 
 them and observe the aspect it presents. 
 
 The entire length of the room in which the members 
 sat was something less than the breadth of Westminster 
 Hall ; and, handsome as it originally had been, with its 
 rich architecture and decorated paintings of the thirteenth 
 century, it had lost all trace of these under boards and 
 whitewash immediately after the Reformation, when also 
 a new floor above, and a new roof under the old, still 
 more abridged its proportions. At the western end, the 
 entrance was between rows of benches, passing the bar, 
 and underneath a gallery into which members mounted 
 by a ladder on the right-hand corner, near the south- 
 ern window. At the eastern end, a little in advance of a 
 large window looking on the river, stood the Speaker's 
 chair ; and again, a Httle less in advance of that towards 
 the middle of the floor, stood the Clerk's table, at which sat 
 Henry Elsyng, and John Kushworth his lately appointed 
 assistant, with their faces to the mace and their backs to 
 the Speaker. Then, on right and left of the Speaker, in 
 benches stretching along and springing up as in an 
 amphitheatre on either hand, were assembled the honour- 
 able members. There they sat, puritan and courtier, the 
 pick and choice of the gentlemen of England ; with 
 bearded faces close-cut and stern, or here and there 
 more gaily trimmed with peak and ruff ; faces for the most 
 part worn with anxious thoughts and fears, heavy with 
 toil, weary with responsibility and care, often with long 
 imprisonment ; there they sat, in their steeple hats and 
 Spanish cloaks, with swords and bands, by birth, by 
 wealth, by talents, the first assembly of the world. And 
 there, presiding in his great chair surmounted by the arms 
 
 \ 3
 
 82 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of England, sat Mr. Speaker; also hatted, cloaked, and 
 sworded like the rest ; but not always treated by them, 
 nor in sooth always treating them, with the respect 
 which has gathered to his office in later tune. 
 
 It was but a few weeks, for example, before the late 
 recess, that that honourable barrister and member for 
 Melcombe Begis, Mr. Eichard King, took upon himself 
 to declare, that, in a particular rebuke which Mr. Speaker 
 had addressed to another honourable member, he had 
 " transgressed his duty in using so disgraceful a speech 
 " to so noble a gentleman ; " and though the House inter- 
 fered to protect their Speaker, and Mr. King was com- 
 manded to withdraw into the Committee Chamber, the 
 matter ended in but " a conditional apology with which 
 " the House was not satisfied but the Speaker was." 
 The noble gentleman whom it vexed Mr. King to see 
 treated with disrespect was the younger brother of Lord 
 Digby, Mr. John Digby, member for Milborn Port ; Avho, 
 on the day when liis brother would have been expelled 
 the House of Commons if the King's letters-patent had 
 not issued the night before calling him to the House of 
 Lords, " came into the house, and getting upon the ladder 
 " that stands at the door of the house by which the 
 " members thereof usually go up to those seats which are 
 " over the same door under the gallery, he sat still upon 
 "the said ladder;" whereupon the Speaker, doubtless 
 coupling the act, as a sign of disrespect, with a display of 
 insubordination by the same 5"0ung gentleman on dis- 
 cussion of his brother's case the previous da}^, " called 
 " out to him, and desired him to take his place, and not 
 " to sit upon the said ladder as if he were going to be 
 " hanged : at which many of the House laughed," and Mr. 
 King, as aforesaid, was indignant. The incident leaves us at 
 least no room for doubt, that, though the Speaker's powers 
 were in their infancy as yet, and his claim to proper con- 
 sideration only grudgingly admitted, he had nevertheless 
 as unruly an assemblage to deal with, as the powers and 
 consideration conceded him in modern parliaments have
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 83 
 
 found themselves barely equal to govern,' Incessant 
 certainly were the rebukes offered, and the rebuffs 
 received, by Mr. Speaker Lenthal ; who, setting aside 
 the one notable act of his career, had but commonplace 
 qualities of his own to sustain him ; and who, in especial, 
 seems often to have found (herein perhaps not differing 
 from later experiences in the same seat) the dinner-hour 
 an almost insuperable difficulty. As it has been with 
 many a modern Mr. Speaker between the hours of seven 
 and eight in the evening, so fared it with Mr. Lenthal 
 between twelve and one mid-day.^ Not a great many 
 
 ' Even Sir Simonds D'Ewes him- 
 self, one of the most prim and precise 
 of men, and a very Qrandison of pro- 
 priety in regard to all customs, orders, 
 records, and authorities of the House, 
 in which he was a marvellous pro- 
 ficient, yet indulges himself without 
 scruple, when any occasion arises, in 
 a sneering disrespect to Mr. Speaker. 
 On the second of December 1641, for 
 example, there is quite a passage of 
 arms between them. It begins with 
 D'Ewes, " sitting in my usual place 
 "near his chair," correcting Mr. 
 Speaker on a point of order connected 
 with a summons to conference with 
 the lords. Then, upon D'Ewes moving 
 to have the Londoners' petition read 
 over again, Mr. Speaker takes his 
 turn by interposing that it is the 
 worthy member's own fault to have 
 been absent at the reading on the 
 previous day ; but has to cry D'Ewes 
 mercy on the latter pleading his 
 absence that day at Hampton Court, 
 by order of the House itself, to assist 
 in presenting the Great Reraonsti'ance 
 to the King. Then Mr. Waller gets up 
 to speak, and handles both the points 
 started, as well the conference with the 
 lords as the Londoners' petition. Tohim 
 succeeds D'Ewes, who also enlarges 
 upon bothsubjects under variousheads, 
 until Mr. Speaker becomes manifestly 
 uneasy. " Having proceeded thus 
 "far or a little further, I perceived 
 "the Speaker often oifering to rise 
 
 * ' out of his chair as if he intended to 
 "interrupt me." An explanation 
 follows. Mr. Speaker thinks D'Ewes 
 out of order in not taking points 
 separately, first the matter of con- 
 ference with the lords, and then 
 the Londoners' petition afterwards. 
 " Whereupon I stood up again and 
 "said, 'Truly, sir, I am much be- 
 ' ' ' holding to you for admonishing 
 " 'me, but if you had been but 
 ' * ' pleased to have informed the 
 ' ' ' gentleman who spoke last before 
 " ' to both the particulars, you would 
 ' ' ' have saved me my labour, for I 
 "'did but follow his method;' at 
 "which the House laughed ; and the 
 "Speaker being half ashamed of 
 * ' what he had done, stood up again 
 ' ' and confessed that he did permit 
 "Mr. Waller, &.c., and now he left 
 "it to the House, &c." Other similar 
 instances might be quoted. One had 
 oecuiTed, in reference to a point on 
 the passing of the Subsidy Bill, on 
 theprevious 13th of February, 1640-1, 
 when the Speaker had predicted all 
 sorts of ill consequences from a par- 
 ticular course of procedure, and D'Ewes 
 is careful to inform him (and us) that 
 "no inconvenience had followed." 
 
 - There is a pleasant passage in 
 Clarendon's Life (i. 90), where he ex- 
 pressly excepts certain leading mem- 
 bers from this habit of rushing out 
 at the time of dinner, and describes 
 what plan they adopted. When their
 
 u 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 days before the present sitting, the rush of members out 
 of the house at that hour, during a debate on supply, had 
 been such that he was fain flatly to tell them " they were 
 " unworthy to sit in tliis great and wise assembly in a 
 " parliament that would so run forth for their dinners." ' 
 And now, though the Serjeant has returned with several 
 members from the Hall, so many more continue absent 
 from the house at this clamorous hour, that Mr. Hyde 
 still waits and defers to speak. 
 
 While he does this 3^et a few minutes longer, let 
 us seize the occasion to observe where some of the 
 prominent people sit. The member whose manuscript 
 record chiefly has been quoted. Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 
 will guide us to the knowledge here and there, in jotting 
 down his own speeches ; for as it was then the custom to 
 avoid mention as well of the place represented as of the 
 member's name, the principal mode of indicating a pre- 
 vious speaker^ was by some well known personal quality, 
 
 hoiirs had become very disorderly, he 
 says, the house seldom rising till after 
 four of the clock in the afternoon, he 
 used to be frequently invited ( ' ' im- 
 "portuned" he calls it) to dine with 
 the party of whomPym was the leader, 
 and often went with them accord- 
 ingly to "Mr. Pym's lodging, which 
 "was at Sir Richard Manly's house, 
 " in a little court behind Westminster 
 ' ' Hall, where he, and Mr. Hampden, 
 ' ' Sir Arthur Haselrig, and two or 
 "three more, upon a stock kept a 
 ' ' table, where they transacted much 
 ' ' business, and invited thither those 
 ' ' of whose conversion they had any 
 "hope." It was after one of these 
 dinners, the summer evening being 
 fine, that Nathaniel Fiennes having 
 proposed to Mr. Hyde to ride into the 
 fields and take a little aii", they two 
 sent for their horses, and, while riding 
 in the fields between Westminster and 
 Chelsea, Mr. Fiennes did his best to 
 convert Mr. Hyde from his notions as 
 to the government of the Church. 
 ' This will explain a saying of 
 
 Lord Falkland's reported in one of the 
 suppressed passages of Lord Clai'en- 
 don s History, recently restored (ii. 
 595, Appendix F;, "that they who 
 "hated bishops, hated them worse 
 "than the devil ; and they who loved 
 "them, loved them not so well as 
 " they did their dinners." 
 
 ' Thus old Sir Harry Vane, refer- 
 ing to D'Ewes himself (June 26, 1641) 
 ' ' is sorry to miss the gentleman out 
 "of his place who is so well versed 
 "in records;" and in like manner Sir 
 Robert Pye characterises him (July 1, 
 1611) "that learned gentleman who 
 "was so well skilled in records — and 
 "then he looked at me." Sir Ralph 
 Hopton is "that ancient parliament 
 "man." Mr. Cage, member for Ips- 
 wich, is " my old neighbour behind 
 "me," or "an oldgentleman who used 
 "to sit here behind me." Sir Thomas 
 Barrington, member for Colchester, 
 is "as ancient a parliament man as 
 "Mr. Cage, though not of as many 
 "years." " No man did more 
 "honor and love that worthy mem-
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 85 
 
 or by his position in the house. Sir Simonds himself 
 sat usually by the Speaker's chair, on the lowermost form 
 close by the south end of the clerk's table ; and there, 
 whatever the subject of debate might be, or the excite- 
 ment going on around him, this precise self-satisfied 
 puritan gentleman sat, writing-apparatus forming part of 
 his equipment, his eyes close to the paper (for their sight 
 was defective), and ever busily taking his Notes : but it was 
 his custom, when he spoke, to go up two steps higher, that 
 he might more easily be heard by the whole house. In 
 this position, Mr. Harry Marten, the member for Berk- 
 shire, was "the gentleman below." Mr. Pym, the acknow- 
 ledged chief of the majority of the Commons, is ever 
 in his "usual place near the Bar," just beyond the gallery 
 on the same right-hand side of the house at entering. 
 Sir John Culpeper, member for Kent, and so soon to 
 be Chancellor of the Exchequer, is " the gentleman on 
 " the other side of the way." ' He sat upon the left-hand 
 side ; and near him, most generally together, sat Hyde 
 and Falkland ; Mr. Geoifrey Palmer, the member for 
 Stamford, and Sir John Strangways, sitting near. On 
 the same side at the upper end, on the Speaker's right, 
 sat the elder Vane, member for Wilton, for a few days 
 longer Secretary of State and Treasurer of the House- 
 hold ; near whom were other holders of office. Sir 
 Thomas Jermyn, his Majesty's Comptroller, who sat for 
 Bury St. Edmund's ; Sir Edward Herbert the Attorney- 
 General, who sat for Old Sarum ; Oliver St. John the 
 Solicitor- General, member for Totness, still holding the 
 office in the King's service which had failed to draw him 
 over to the King's side ; Mr. Coventry, member for 
 Evesham and one of the King's house f and j'oung Harry 
 
 ' ' ber that spake last than myself, " " then I looked on Sir John Culpeper, 
 
 are words in which an allusion to " — <&€." 
 
 Pym is conveyed. And Mr. Denzil ^ <« p^j. jf tJjg gentleman on the 
 
 Holies is "the worthy gentleman " other side wlio last i)rcssed it— awti 
 
 "whom I very much respect. 'Uhen I looked towards Mr. Coventrie, 
 
 ^ " I desired that the gentleman "<fcc. " 
 "on the other side of the way — and
 
 86 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Vane, member for Hull, and Joint-treasurer of the Navy ; 
 all sat in this quarter, on the Speaker's right. Near them 
 sat also Mr. Edward Nicholas, clerk of the Council, soon 
 to be Sir Edward and Secretary of State in place of 
 Windebank, now an anxious auditor and spectator of this 
 memorable debate, which he was there to report to the 
 King. Between these members and Hyde, on the same 
 side of the house, sat the member for Wilton, Sir 
 Benjamin Eudyard ; Sir Walter Earle ; William Strode ; 
 and lawyer Glyn, the member for Westminster. Mr. 
 Herbert Price, the member for Brecon, with Mr. Wilmot, 
 member for Tamworth, and a knot of j'oung courtiers, sat 
 at the lower end of the house on the same side, imme- 
 diately on the left at entering. John Hampden sat on 
 the other side, behind Pjan ; and between him and Harry 
 Marten, sat Edmund Waller ; on one of the back benches, 
 Cromwell ; not far from him, Denzil Holies ; and under 
 the gallery, the member for Oxford University, the 
 learned Mr. Selden.' Near him sat lawyer Maynard, the 
 other member for Totness ; and over them, in the gallery 
 itself, that successful lawyer Mr. Holborne ; Sir Edward 
 Bering ; and the member for Leicestershire, Sir Arthur 
 Hasekig. But our list must come to a close. The reader 
 has been detained too long from the debate on the Great 
 Remonstrance. 
 
 Hyde opened it, in a speech of great warmth^ and 
 great length. The general ground of objection he took 
 was that a Declaration so put forth was without j)recedent ; 
 and he questioned the power of the House, in so far as this 
 was defined by the words used in the writs of election, to 
 make, alone, a remonstrance to the people, without the 
 
 * " I said that I did prize what- the points in which the King's prin- 
 
 " soever should fall from the pen or cipal advocate in the house was weak, 
 
 "tongue of that learned gentleman as well for himself as his cause. "Mr. 
 
 ' ' under the gallery — and then I ' ' Hyde's language and style, " he re- 
 
 ' ' looked towards Mr. Selden, oDc." marks, ' ' were very suitable to busi- 
 
 - Mr. Philip Warwick, young "ncss, if not a little too redundant." 
 
 courtier as he was, and admirer of — Memoirs, p. 196. 
 all things courtly, could yet detect
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 87 
 
 concurrence of the Lords. Arguing from this, he asserted 
 that the form of the Declaration touched the honour of 
 the King, and that it ought not, for that reason, to be 
 made public or circulated among the people. Such a pub- 
 lication could only be justified by having peace for its end, 
 and here every such object would be frustrated. In the 
 Remonstrance itself, apart from these considerations, he 
 did not deny that there might be a propriety. The mem- 
 bers of the house were accused to have done nothing either 
 for King or kingdom. It was right to repel that charge. 
 But if a parhament must make an apology, let them show 
 what they had done without looking too far back. They 
 may desire themselves to see, but they should not divulge, 
 their own infirmities, any more than a general the defects 
 of his army to the enemy. All was true, if expressed 
 modestly. But such passages as Sir John Eliot's impri- 
 sonment under the King's own hand, and his wanting 
 bread,' were ill-exj^ressed. Let them be chary of Majesty. 
 They stood upon theii' hberties even, for the Sovereign's 
 sake : lest he should be King of mean subjects, or they 
 subjects of a mean King. 
 
 Lord Falkland rose immediately after Hyde, and, as 
 his wont was, spoke with greater passion in his warmth 
 and earnestness ; his thin high-pitched voice breaking 
 
 ^ In Sir Ralph Verney's Note of " want of ordinary refreshment" in 
 
 the debate (p. 121), this passage the history, is clearly the same as 
 
 stands, "Sir John Eliot's imprison- " wanting bread " in the speech ; yet 
 
 "ment under the King's own hand, certainly the Remonstrance as printed 
 
 "and the Kincfs wanting bread, ill says no such thing, and the words, if 
 
 "expressed." It is clear, however, ever there, must have been among the 
 
 that the words marked in italics are unbecoming expressions cast out. 
 
 a repetition by mistake from the pre- The passage really runs thus : "Of 
 
 vious line. Clarendon in his History " whom one died by the cruelty and 
 
 (ii. 51) affects to quote, in the exact "harshness of his imprisonment, 
 
 words of the Remonstrance as it "which would admit of no relaxa- 
 
 passed ("after many unbecoming ex- "tion, notwithstanding the imminent 
 
 " pressions were cast out"), the pas- "danger of his life did sufficiently 
 
 sage respecting Eliot; and he quotes "appear by the declaration of his 
 
 it in inverted commas, thus : "One of "physician. And his release, or at 
 
 "which died in prison, /or want of ^Heast his refreshment, was sought by 
 
 ^^ ordinary refreshment, vi\losq \)\QO(i "many humble petitions. And his 
 
 "still cried for vengeance." The " blood still cries, &c. "
 
 88 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 into a scream, and his little, spare, slight frame trembling 
 with eagerness. He ridiculed the pretension set up in 
 the Declaration to claim anj^^ right of approval over the 
 councillors whom the King should name ; as if priest 
 and clerk should divide nomination and approval between 
 them. He denounced it as unjust that the concealing 
 of delinquents should be cast upon the King. He said 
 (forgetting a former speech of his own going directly to 
 this point)' it was not true to allege that Laud's party 
 in the Church were in league with Rome ; for that 
 Arminians agreed no more with Papists than with Pro- 
 testants. And with the power to make laws, why should 
 they resort to declarations ? Only Avhere no law was 
 available, were they called to substitute orders and ordi- 
 nances to command or forbid. Reminding them of the 
 existing state of Ireland, and of the many disturbances in 
 England, he warned them that it was of a very dangerous 
 consequence at that time to set out any remonstrance : at 
 least such a remonstrance as this, containing many harsh 
 expressions. Above all, it was dangerous to declare what 
 they intended to do hereafter, as that they would petition 
 his Majesty to take advice of his parliament in the choice 
 of his privy council ; and it was of the very worst example 
 to make such allusion as that wherein they declared that 
 already they had committed a bill to take away bishops' 
 votes. He pointed out the injustice of imputing to the 
 bishops generally the description of the Scotch war as hel- 
 ium ephcopale, which he asserted had been so used b}' only 
 one of them. He very hotly condemned the expression of 
 " bringing in idolatry," which he characterised as a charge 
 of a high crime against all the bishops in the land. And 
 he denounced it as a manifest contradiction and absurdity, 
 that after reciting, as they had indeed sufficient cause to 
 do, the many good laws passed by a parliament of whicli 
 bishops and Popish lords were component members, they 
 should end by declaring that while bishops and Popisli 
 
 > See ante, p. 39.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 89 
 
 lords continued to sit in parliament no good laws could 
 be made. 
 
 Falldand was followed by Sir Edward Dering, who was 
 so well pleased himself with the speech he proceeded to 
 deliver, that he afterwards committed it, with another 
 spoken in the preliminary debates, to print, with a preface 
 which cost him his seat in the house ; ' and until very 
 
 ' Under date the 2nd February, 
 1641-2, D'Ewes gives curious and 
 amusing evidence in his Journal of the 
 anger awakened in wise grave men 
 1)y this very silly publication of Sir 
 Edvirard Bering's. Oliver Cromwell 
 takes the lead in vehemently de- 
 nouncing the book. D'Ewes himself 
 chimes ia as violently, for that "in 
 "this scandalous, seditious, and 
 "vain-glorious volume," he does " so 
 " overvalue himself as if able of him- 
 "self to weigh down the balance of 
 " this house on either side, &c., &c." 
 Then Sir Walter Earle moves to call in 
 the book. But to this D'Ewes very 
 sensibly objects, "for that by so 
 ' ' doing the price of it would rise from 
 " fourteen pence to fourteen shillings, 
 "and hasten a new impression." 
 Finally, Cromwell moves and carries 
 that the obnoxious volume shall be 
 burnt "next Friday:" on which 
 occasion doubtless Palace-yard was 
 duly illuminated by the small bonfire. 
 But perhaps there was really more 
 reason than lies immediately on the 
 surface for the resentment with which 
 the House regarded the publication 
 by its members of their speeches, 
 unauthorised by itself. It gave some 
 sort of sanction to another publi- 
 cation of a still more unauthorised 
 description, which had lately become 
 not uncommon, and by which many 
 members suffered not a little. I quote 
 one of the entries of D'Ewes in his 
 Journal under date the 9th February, 
 1641-2. " After prayers I said that 
 "much wrong was offered of late to 
 " several members by publishing 
 "speeches in their names which they 
 "never spake. I had yesternight a 
 
 ' ' speech brought me by a stationer 
 "to whom one John Benuet, a poet 
 "lodging in Shoe-lane, sold it for 
 " half-a-crown to be printed. He 
 "gives it as my speech at a confer- 
 " ence when there was no conference." 
 This is probably one of the first 
 glimpses to be got in our history of 
 the now ancient and important penny- 
 a-lining fraternity. The danger and 
 the annoyance, however, were greater 
 from the interpolated and falsified 
 versions, now also abundantly put 
 forth, of speeches really spoken in the 
 house, than from the pure inventions 
 of which D'Ewes complained. I may 
 add that the inventions were not 
 limited to speeches only. Petitions af- 
 fecting to represent the feeling of large 
 classes of people were got up in the 
 same way ! On the 25th of January, 
 1641-2, the matter of a Royalist 
 petition from Hertfordshire was before 
 the house, and the subjoined curious 
 entry is made in D'Ewes's Notes. 
 "Thomas Hulbert, one of the framers 
 ' ' of the Hertfordshire petition, sent 
 "for as a delinquent; also Martin 
 " Eldred, one of the penners of the 
 ' ' same. The said Martin Eldred, 
 ' ' being called into the house, did 
 ' ' acknowledge that Thomas Hulbert, 
 "a young scholar of Cambridge, did 
 "draw the said false petition of 
 " Hertfordshire in his presence ; and 
 * ' that they sold it to the said John 
 ' ' Greensmith, a stationer, for half-a- 
 " crown, which the said Greensmith, 
 "being called on, did likewise con- 
 "fess; and that he printed it. I 
 " said there were now abiding in, and 
 "about London, certain loose beg- 
 ' ' garly scholars who did in ale-houses
 
 90 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 recently, this publication by the member for Kent was sup- 
 posed to be the only fragment which had survived of the 
 debates on the Grand Kemonstrance." Nor was it by any 
 means a bad speech, though for the interests of his party 
 it was hardly a discreet one. They would fain indeed have 
 prevented his rising so early in the debate, but as yet 
 Pym resolutely kept his place, and the field was open to all 
 comers. 
 
 Dering began by enlarging on the importance of the 
 matter in discussion as far transcending any mere bill or 
 act of parliament. Of what was so put forth, he warned 
 them, the three kingdoms were but the immediate or first 
 supervisors ; for all Christendom would be attracted by 
 the glass therein set up, and would borrow it to view their 
 deformities. Then let them not dismiss in haste what 
 others would scan at leisure. It was to be considered, 
 first, whether their constituents were looking for such a 
 Declaration. If not, to what end did the House so de- 
 cline ? Wherefore such descension from a j)arliament to 
 a people ? The people looked not up for any so extra- 
 ordinary courtesy. The better sort thought best of that 
 House ; and why should its members be told that the 
 people were expectant /or a Declaration. " My consti- 
 " tuents," continued Sir Edward, " don't want it. They 
 " do humbly and heartily thank you for many good laws 
 
 " invent speeches, and make speeches Parliament, most intelligently edited 
 
 ' ' of members in parliament, and of by Mr. Bruce ; but the existence of 
 
 ' ' other passages supposed to be the manuscrijit materials which have 
 
 " handled in, or presented unto, this supiplied me with the main portions of 
 
 ' ' house. That the license of pruit- the account now laid before the reader 
 
 ' ' ing these scandalous pamphlets is in this Essay, was not suspected, even 
 
 "grown to a very great heighth, so late as Mr. Bruce's publication. 
 
 " &c." Wherefore the indignant Sir The report supplied in my text of 
 
 Simonds would have Mr. Thomas the particular debate now in progress, 
 
 Hulbert, and Mr. Martin Eldred, is the result of a careful comparison 
 
 and Mr. John Greensmith forthwith of the notes of Verney and D'Ewes, 
 
 conveyed to the Gate-house. each haviug been used to correct and 
 
 ' The gloom was broken by such complete the other. Fragments of 
 
 additional brief notices as were sup- Verney's notes, I should add, were 
 
 plied by the appearance, a few years known to Air. Serjeant D'Oyley and 
 
 ago, of Sir Ralph Verney's valuable Mr. Hallam some years before their 
 
 JSotes of Proceedings in the Long publication by Mr. Bruce.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 91 
 
 " and statutes, and pray for more. That is the language 
 " best understood of them, and most welcome to them. 
 " They do not expect to hear any other stories of what 
 " you have done, much less promises of what you will do. 
 " Mr. Speaker," he added, " when I first heard of a 
 " Kemonstrance, I presently imagined that, like faithful 
 " counsellors, we should hold up a glass unto his Majesty. 
 " I thought to represent, unto the King, the wicked 
 " counsels of pernicious counsellors ; the restless turbu- 
 " lency of practical papists ; the treachery of false judges ; 
 " the bold innovations, and some superstition, brought in 
 " by some pragmatical bishops and the rotten part of the 
 " clergy. I did not dream that we should remonstrate 
 " downward, tell stories to the people, and talk of the 
 " King as of a third person." The orator was here upon 
 delicate ground, and had perhaps some warning as he 
 spoke that liis footing was unsafe. He did not dispute, 
 he already had remarked, the excellent use and worth of 
 many pieces of the Declaration ; but what was that to 
 him, if he might not have them without other parts that 
 were both doubtful and dangerous ? He felt strongly, 
 with the learned noble lord who spoke last (Falkland), 
 that to attribute an introduction of idolatry to the com- 
 mand of the bishops was to charge those dignitaries with 
 a high crime. He did not deny that there had been some 
 superstition in doctrines and in practices by some bishops, 
 but flat idolatry introduced by express command was quite 
 another thing. He objected that to refer to the decision 
 of Parliament the order and discipline that were to regulate 
 the Church, would be to encourage sectarianism ; and he 
 further objected that these, and other similar passages, 
 appeared to have been introduced by the Committee with- 
 out being first discussed and recommended to them from 
 the House. Then, taking up the closing averments in the 
 Declaration as to the desire of its promoters for the ad- 
 vancement of learning by a more general and equal distri- 
 bution of its rewards, he avowed his opinion that this object 
 would be defeated if the great prizes in the Church were
 
 02 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 abolished. " Great rewards," he said, " do beget great 
 " endeavours ; and certainly, Sir, when the great Basin 
 " and Ewer are taken out of the lottery, you shall have 
 " few adventurers for small plate and spoons only.' If 
 " any man could cut the moon out all into little stars, — 
 " although we might still have the same moon, or as 
 " much in small pieces, yet we should want both light and 
 " influence." 
 
 Much beyond this flight, even the member for Kent could 
 not be expected to soar ; and forcible and lively as many 
 parts of his speech had been, its general tone and ten- 
 dency had also been such, that greatly must the impa- 
 tience and fears of his friends have been relieved by his 
 preparation to resume his seat, after some further 
 enlargements of his argument for the patronage and 
 diffusion of learning. He ended by stating, that because 
 he neither looked for cure of complaints from the com- 
 mon people, nor did desire to be cured by them ; because 
 the House had not recommended all the heads of the 
 Remonstrance to the Committee which brought it in ; and 
 because they passed his Majesty, and remonstrated to 
 the people ; he should give his vote with Mr. Hyde. 
 
 When Dering resumed his seat. Sir Benjamin Bud- 
 yard rose. It could hardly fail but that much interest 
 should be felt as to the part he would take on this occa- 
 sion. He was not a leader in the house ; but his speeches 
 had the influence derived from singularly eloquent expres- 
 sion, from his age and character, from that long expe- 
 rience of parliaments in which he rivalled even Pyra 
 himself, and from his gravity, courtesy, and moderation 
 of tone. In these qualities the Historian of the parlia- 
 ment reports him as pre-eminent. *' Cujus erant mores," 
 he says, " qualis facundia;" instancing his oration at the 
 
 ' There is no new thing under the which must for ever rank among the 
 
 sun ; and it hardly needs to remind wittiest prose compositions in the 
 
 the reader that Sydney Smith's language, had been exactly and almost 
 
 famous argument in defence of the literally reproduced from this speech 
 
 "prizes in the Church," in those of Sir Edward Dering's. 
 three letters to Archdeacon Singleton
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 93 
 
 opening of the session as "a perfect exemplar" at once of 
 the unsparing exposm-e of giievances, and of " the way of 
 " sparing the King.'" His known desire in this latter 
 respect gave peculiar significance to what should now fall 
 from him. 
 
 He began by stating that in his opinion it was absolutely 
 requisite that the House should publish a Declaration, be- 
 cause this parliament had been slandered by so many. Of 
 the slanderers he then spoke, as consisting of the papists, 
 to whom all parliaments were hateful, but this worst of 
 all ; of the delinquents, whom the parliament had punished ; 
 and of the reckless class of libertines, who sought ever to 
 throw off the restraints of parliament and law. Next he 
 commented on the malignancy of the hbels they had propa- 
 gated so busily. Nevertheless, he continued, " whatsoever 
 " they traduce, by God's assistance we have done great 
 " things this parliament — things of the first magnitude. 
 " We have vindicated the liberty of our persons, the free- 
 " dom of our estates. We have gotten, by the King's grace 
 " and favour, a triennial, a perpetual parliament, wherein 
 " all other remedies and liberties are included. We have 
 " done something, too, for religion ; though I reckon that 
 " last, because, I am sorry to speak it, we have done least 
 " in that." Then, as if to guard against a too decisive tone 
 against Hyde and his party, with whom he was never on 
 unfriendly terms, he desired Mr. Speaker not to imagine 
 that he approved ordinarily of parliament putting forth 
 what might be called an apology. Truly he thought it went 
 hard with a parliament when it was put to make an apology 
 for itself, because apologies were commonly accounted 
 suspicious ; but the malignity and machinations of the 
 times had here enforced it, in this instance had made it 
 necessary. To the particular Declaration before the 
 House, however, he had yet one objection to make. His 
 vote went freely with the narrative part of it ; but he must 
 
 ' May's nistory : lib. i. chap. vii. 70th year, having been born in 
 Rudyard was now verging on his 1572.
 
 U HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 object to what he would call the prophetical part. He 
 meant those clauses which set forth acts that were waiting 
 to be passed, and measures intended hereafter. In that, 
 it appeared to him, there was danger ; and he doubted if 
 there was precedent for it. It was to foresee the whole 
 work of this parliament to come, and to bind it up by- 
 anticipation and engagement of votes beforehand. And 
 he would humbly wish the House to consider, whether, if 
 they failed in performing some few of the things they so 
 promised and the world would expect, they might not 
 lose more by non-performance of those few than they 
 would be likely to get by all the rest of the Declaration. 
 He resumed his seat with the remark that in any of these 
 his doubts he should be glad to be resolved by better 
 judgments. 
 
 He was succeeded by Mr. Bagshaw, the member for 
 Southwark, whose effective speech on gTievances at the 
 opening of the session had for a time given him a place 
 in the House which he failed to make good. He had now 
 joined Hyde's party, but did them small service in this 
 discussion. All that has survived of his speech are two 
 objections to a passage in the Declaration as to the abuses 
 of the law comets ; and against the tendency of one expres- 
 sion, " the rest of the clergy," to comprehend and blame 
 the whole of that profession. 
 
 Sir John Culpeper, Dering's colleague in the represen- 
 tation of Kent, and, after Falkland, Hyde's strength and 
 reliance in the debate, spoke next ; and we may suppose 
 the speech, from the fragment of it that remains, to have 
 been highly characteristic of the man.' With a ready 
 
 1 "He seldom made an entire judg- "He might very well he thougtt a 
 
 " ment of the matter in question, for "man of no very good breeding ; hav- 
 
 " his apprehension was commonly " ing never sacrificed to the Muses, or 
 
 " better than his resolution ; and he "conversed in any polite company." 
 
 "had an eagerness or ferocity that — Clarendon's Life, i. 106-8. In his 
 
 ' ' made him less sociable than his other History (ii. 94), he says that he could 
 
 "colleagues; (for his education and upon occasion, when he spoke at the 
 
 "converse in the world had been in part end of a debate, as his custom often 
 
 "military) and his temper hasty." — was, recollect all that had been said 
 
 Sir Philip Warwick's JfemoiVs, p. 196. of weighton all sides with great exact-
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 95 
 
 elocution, he had a rough and hasty temper, and though, 
 when he pleased, few were so qualified by memory and 
 quickness to seize and reproduce all the points in a dis- 
 cussion, he seldom saw, or cared to see, more than that 
 single point to which he chose to address himself. At all 
 times in speaking, Hyde admits, he was warm and positive, 
 uncourtly and ungraceful in his mien and motion, and 
 somewhat indifferent to religion. His first objection now 
 to the Remonstrance was that it spoke of altering the 
 government of the Church, and would therefore offend the 
 l)eople ; an argument which certainly no other speaker 
 would have had the boldness to put in that form. He then 
 declared his opposition to rest upon two grounds. The first 
 was, that the Declaration was unnecessary. The parliament 
 had not been "scandaled" by any public act, and therefore 
 needed not to send out any declaration to clear themselves. 
 The second was, that if this were not so, it was yet both 
 unconstitutional and dangerous in its present form. Going 
 but from that house, he said, it went but on one leg. All 
 remonstrances should be addressed to the King, and not 
 to the people, because it belonged to the King only to 
 redress grievances. Their writs of election did not 
 warrant them to send any declaration to the people, but 
 only to treat with the King and the lords : nor had it ever 
 been done by any parliament heretofore. It would be 
 most dangerous for the public peace. 
 
 The member for Tavistock rose after him, and delivered 
 a speech which in the manuscript record of the debate 
 before me is characterised as an answer to what had been 
 said by the various members who preceded him ; and of 
 which the fragment remaining, scanty as it is, shows that 
 tliis was indeed its character. Even here its massive and 
 equal proportions are manifest ; and we may trace again the 
 calm power and self-possession with which the veteran 
 
 ness, and express his own sense with to his opinion than he. This descrip- 
 
 rauch clearness, and such an appli- tion, however, from other accounts, 
 
 cation to the House, that no man would seem to be much more appli- 
 
 more gathered a general concurrence cable to the speaking of Pym.
 
 95 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 leader of the Parliament appears to have passed in review 
 the previous speakers, as his custom was in the great 
 debates, and to have answered each. The boldness and 
 plain speaking of his reference to the King was even for 
 him remarkable. 
 
 To Hyde's appeal that the House should be chary above 
 all things of the King's honour, Pym first replied that the 
 honour of the King lay in the safety of the people, and 
 that the members of that house had no choice now but to 
 tell the truth. They had narrowly escaped great dangers, 
 and the time was passed for concealment. The Plots had 
 been very near the King. All had been driven home to 
 the Court and the Popish party. To what the noble lord 
 (Falkland) had objected against the alleged necessity of 
 disallowing the votes of the Popish lords and their abet- 
 tors the bishops, he answered that good laws passed in 
 spite of those votes formed no answer to the assertion that 
 the continued presence of such voters would prevent the 
 future enactment of similar necessary laws. That debate 
 itself might help to show how their dangers were increasing 
 upon them ; and " will any one deny," asked Pym, " that 
 " the Popish lords and the bishops do now obstruct us ? " 
 Nor could he see any breach of privilege in naming them; 
 for had they not heretofore often complained of particular 
 lords being away, and of miscarriages that lords had occa- 
 sioned ? Where also, he desii-ed to know, should be the 
 danger apprehended by "the noble learned lord" in the 
 recommendation to his Majesty not to choose such coun- 
 sellors as that house might be unable to approve. "We 
 " have suffered so much by counsellors of the King's 
 " choosing," said Vjm, "that we desire him to advise 
 " with us about it." He maintained that this course was 
 constitutional, and where was the objection to it ? Many 
 of the King's servants were known to have moved him 
 about such counsellors, and why may not the parliament? 
 He enlarged upon this ; and illustrated the mischief of 
 disregarding such advice by that quarrel with the first 
 parliament upon the unwise treaty of peace with Spain,
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 97 
 
 wliich had been fraught with so many evils. The same 
 worthy lord, and the knight who spoke after him in the 
 debate, had objected to the expression idolatry. But for 
 himself, he declared his opinion that altar-worship was 
 idolatry; and such worship had undoubtedly been enjoined 
 by the bishops in all their cathedrals. Coupling afterwards 
 Sir John Culpeper's assertion as to the danger of disturbing 
 the existing Church government, with Sir Edward Dering's 
 urgent appeal against the danger of permitting sectari- 
 anism to intrude into the liturgy or service, Pym avowed 
 his readiness to join in a law against sectaries, and remarked 
 that they would most surely prevent the evil by going to 
 the root of what caused it. Let them take care, then, 
 that no more of such pious and godly ministers as were 
 now separatists beyond the sea, should be driven out of 
 England for not reading the Book of Sports. Adverting 
 next to what had fallen from opponents of the Declaration 
 in admission of the slanders thrown out against parlia- 
 ment, Vyxa challenged them to show that anything but a 
 Declaration could take away the accusations that had so 
 been laid upon the members of that house. To Dering's 
 remark against the suggestion of a more equal provision 
 for ministers of the Church, that it would interfere with the 
 great prizes, he replied that he held it best that learning 
 should be better provided for in the general than extrava- 
 gantly rewarded in the particular. Another learned knight 
 on the opposite benches (Sir Benjamin Ptudyard) liad 
 objected to what he termed the prophetical part of the 
 Declaration, but he would remind the worthy member that 
 the Declaration did not prophesy, but said simj^ly that 
 which it believed to be fit, and might easily be done. 
 The member who followed him (Mr. Bagshaw) had ques- 
 tioned the propriety of asserting that the Court of 
 Chancery had grown arbitrary and unjust in their juris- 
 diction, but to this he replied that not the Cluxncery 
 alone but every English court had of late years usurped 
 unjust and arbitrary jurisdiction. To the worthy knight 
 opposite (Sir John Culpeper) who averred that a decla-
 
 98 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 ration going from this house alone, without having desired 
 the lords to join, went but upon one leg, he answered that 
 the matter of this particular declaration was in no respect 
 fit for the lords. Many of the lords were accused in it. 
 It also dealt throughout with subjects which had been 
 agitated only in that house. The assertions made by the 
 same honourable person, that all remonstrances should be 
 addressed to the King, and that their writs of election did 
 not warrant them to send any declarations to the people, 
 were not borne out by the practice. Remonstrances were 
 not in truth directed either to the King or the people, but 
 showed the acts of the House. If it were desired to 
 present the Declaration now before them to the King, it 
 must be done by Petition prefixed to it ; and for his own 
 part he inclined that such should be the com^se. Honom-- 
 able speakers had complained of a direction to the people 
 in this case, but where was it ? Such had not been the 
 purpose, nor was it necessary. It would suffice that its 
 contents should reach the people, and be read by them. 
 And when, by means of the Declaration, it became known 
 throughout England how matters stood, and how the 
 members of the house had been slandered, it would bind 
 and secure to them the people's hearts. 
 
 It was late in that November evening before Pym 
 resumed his seat, but candles had been brought long ago, 
 and the debate still went on. Orlando Bridgman, member 
 for Wigan, so soon to be Sir Orlando and law dignitary 
 to the King, rose next from among the group of lawyers 
 seated near Hyde, and questioned Pym's view of the 
 House's right to remonstrate or declare alone. They could 
 only consent, counsel, and petition ; and it was expressly 
 said, in the indemnity of the Lords and Commons, that 
 nothing should be reported out of either house, without 
 consent of both houses. As for what had been said of the 
 separatists di-iven beyond sea, he thought them a condition 
 of men to be taken away, being they were not at all 
 moderate. To the right of approval sought by the House 
 for ever over all counsellors selected by the King, he
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 99 
 
 objected ; and he thought the temporary ground alleged, 
 of the necessity so to obtain security for a proper use of 
 the money to be voted for the affairs of Ireland, a reason 
 too particular to justify so general a demand. 
 
 Edmund Waller started up and spoke after Bridgman, 
 and with ingenious and lively turns of expression, as his 
 custom Avas. He thought the Declaration ill-named, he said. 
 It was aimed more at the future than the past, and expos- 
 tulated less with what had been done than with what was 
 expected to be done. He thought it should be called, not 
 a i^emonstrance, but a Premonstrance. And how un- 
 natural were all such expedients for expressing the will of 
 that House. Laws were the children of the parliament, 
 and it did not become them to destroy their offspring by 
 means of orders and declarations. By what authorit3% 
 too, did they claim the right to control the King in the 
 choice of his counsellors ? Freeholders had power to 
 choose freely the members of the House of Commons to 
 make laws, and yet the King must not choose counsellors 
 to advise according to law without the approbation of the 
 House. In one sense it might indeed be a Remonstrance, 
 but it was a Remonstrance against the laws. 
 
 John Hampden now rose. Little remains of what he 
 said, but sufficient proof that he must have spoken, as he 
 did ever, with calm decision, yet with that rare temper 
 universally attributed to him in debate, and which even to 
 a discussion so angry and passionate as this, could bring 
 its portion of affability and courtesy. What were the 
 objections, he asked, to this Declaration ? When that House 
 discovered ill counsels, might it not say there were ill 
 counsellors, and complain of them ? When any man was 
 accused, might he not say he had done his endeavour ? 
 "And," continued the member for Bucks, "we say no 
 " more in this." The part}' opposed to the members of the 
 house was prevalent, and it was therefore necessary for 
 them to say openly that they had given their best advice. 
 That was declared in the Remonstrance, and no counter 
 remonstrance could come against them, being it was 
 
 p2
 
 100 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 wholly true. Quiet and merely suggestive, however, as 
 Hampden's general tone in this speech seems to have 
 been, yet at least once, in the course of it, he rose to a 
 higher strain. We have seen that Dering enforced his 
 argument against using the power and revenues of the 
 Bishops in any attempt to strengthen the Church by so 
 giving influence and increase to the general body of the 
 clergy, by remarking that if any man could cut the moon 
 out all into little stars, although the same amount of moon 
 might still remain in small pieces, both light and influence 
 would be gone. Taking up this extravagant illustration, 
 Hampden claimed to apply it differently. He asked the 
 House to remember what authoritj^ they had for believing 
 that the stars were more useful to the Church than the 
 moon. And then he quoted from the Book of Revela- 
 tions the passage' under which the perfect Church, the 
 spouse of Christ, is figured, and warned them that when 
 the woman should be clothed with the sun, the moon 
 would be under her feet, and her head would be circled 
 with stars. 
 
 The House had now been sitting, without interval or rest, 
 for a length of time unexampled in any one's experience. 
 It was nearly nine o'clock before Hampden resumed his 
 seat, yet still the cries for adjournment were resisted amid 
 excitement and agitation visibly increasing. D'Ewes had 
 himself left the house soon after four in the afternoon. 
 He foresaw, as he tells us, that the debate in the issue 
 would be long and vehement ; and having been informed 
 by Sir Christopher Yelverton, member for Bossiney, that 
 those who wished well to the Declaration did intend to 
 have it pass without the alteration of any one word, he 
 did the rather absent liimself (" being also somewhat ill of 
 " a cold taken yesterday ") because there were some par- 
 ticulars therein which he had formerly spoken against, 
 and could not in his conscience assent unto, although 
 
 1 " And there appeared a great " moon under her feet, and upon her 
 ' ' -wonder in Heaven : A Woman ' ' head a crown of twelve stars," — ■ 
 "clothed with the sun, and the Revelations, xii. 1.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 101 
 
 otherwise his heart aucl vote went with it in the main. 
 His relation of what followed in his absence, therefore, 
 was derived by him from other members of the house. 
 
 The resolution of which Yelverton informed D'Ewes, 
 though relaxed upon a few points, appears to have been 
 in the main steadily adhered to ; and it was this resolved 
 determination to resist all attempts at any material com- 
 promise, which tended more than anything else to prolong 
 and exasperate the opposition. Several such attempts 
 were made, but without success. Though verbal changes 
 were assented to, and one clause was omitted,' it may be 
 inferred, from the two divisions which immediately pre- 
 ceded those taken upon the main question, that such few 
 previous changes were not made under the pressure of 
 any adverse vote. The first was upon a proposition by 
 the promoters of the Declaration to remove a clause to 
 which they had found reason to object, and tliis they 
 carried, in a house of three hundred and ten members, by 
 a majority of sixty-four.* The second division, which was 
 taken on the clause avowing the necessity and intention 
 to reduce the exorbitant power of the bishops, ran closer, 
 for, though in the interval, two members onl}^ had left the 
 house, the liberal majority was only fourteen.^ 
 
 ' I subjoin ■what appears as to this ■which the subject is not no^w to be 
 
 in the Journals of the House. "Re- traced, ■was probably that to ■which 
 
 " solved, ThcUihe Courts of Chancery, D'E'wes referred ■when, after the re- 
 
 " Exchequer Chamber, A:c. are ai-hi- mark quoted in the text, he added, 
 
 " trai-y and unjust in their proceed- " But those ■who desired the declara- 
 
 *' ings, to be left out; and to be "tion might pass, were compelled, 
 
 "added, instead thereof, which have " contrary to their resolution of which 
 
 '^ been grievoiis in exceeding their "Sir Christopher Yelverton had in- 
 
 ^^ jurisdiction. ^ Loose persons^ "formed me, to suffer many par- 
 
 "to be made ' Libei'tines.'' Resolved "ticulars to be altered, and amongst 
 
 " upon the question, that these words "the rest that which I could not have 
 
 "which authority shall enjoin, be "assented unto." 
 
 "made which the law enjoins. Re- - Sir Thomas Barrini;ton and Sir 
 
 "solved, For to him they are best John Clotworthy were tellers for the 
 
 '■^ known, that these words to be ayes. Sir Frederick Cornwallis (mem- 
 
 " left out. Resolved, that the word ber for Eye in Suffolk) and Mr. 
 
 '^ First be left out; and that the Stanhope (member for Tamworth, 
 
 "clause beginning with the word and fourth son of Lord Chesterfield) 
 
 ' ' which, and ending kingdom, be for the noes, 
 
 "left out." This omitted clause, of ^ The numbers were 161 to 147,
 
 102 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Still it sufficed ; and no signs of receding were shown. 
 More firmly than ever, therefore, as the night went on, 
 the debate continued to rage ; and what remains of the 
 speech of Denzil Holies gives proof of a less tolerant and 
 more defiant temper than any previous speaker had ex- 
 hibited. He plainly avowed with what belief and expecta- 
 tion he was there to support the Declaration. The 
 kingdom, he said, consisted of three sorts of men, the 
 bad, the good, and the indifferent. The indifferent could 
 turn the scales, and that kind of men it was their hope to 
 satisfy by publishing this Remonstrance. In denial of 
 what had been averred by Culpeper, Bridgman, and other 
 speakers, he declared the House to be expressly em- 
 powered, by their writs of election, to do this ; and he 
 quoted, in proof, the language of the writ by which they 
 were called ad tractandum de arduis negotiis, 8^c. As to the 
 ability residing in either branch of the legislature to 
 make declarations without the concurrence of the other, 
 he said that it rested on grounds not to be assailed. The 
 Lords had often made declarations without the Commons, 
 as about the Irish nobility ; and the Commons without 
 them, as about the Duke of Buckingham. It had been 
 objected that there were subjects on which they of that 
 house were not entitled to advise his Majesty, but all 
 necessary truths must be told. If kings were misled by 
 their counsellors, the people's representatives may, nay 
 they must, tell them of it. It was a duty which rested 
 within safe limits. They only beseeched the King to 
 choose good counsellors, for against such the House would 
 never except. 
 
 Many members rose after Holies, but Speaker Lenthal's 
 eye (a rule of precedence only lately adjudged to be settled) ' 
 
 Sir "Walter Earle and Mr. Arthur debate on the Canons, 26th Novem- 
 
 Goodwyu (Hampden's colleague in the ber 1640, after Glyn had done speak - 
 
 representation of Bucks) telling for ing, " long dispute ensued who 
 
 the majority, and Sir F. Cornwallis " should speak, divers stood up, and 
 
 and Mr. Strangways for the minority. "at last ruled for Mr. White, and 
 
 ' "Then," says D'Ewes (in the "the Speaker's eye adjudged to be 
 
 course of his note describing the ' ' the riile."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 103 
 
 rested j&rst on lawyer Glyii, the member for "West- 
 minster, soon to be recorder for London. There had 
 been some doubt as to the line he would take, but he 
 speedily removed it. It was against nature, he said, not 
 to have liberty to answer a calumny, and there was no 
 way but by Remonstrance to repel what had been laid 
 upon them. They had made a remonstrance in the first 
 year of the reign, and that without the Lords ; and in the 
 third year, if the Speaker of the house had sat still in his 
 chair, a remonstrance would have been voted, and no 
 fault found with it. The right was unquestionable. Both 
 the Lords temporal and the Bishops had often severally 
 protested without the Commons. He approved also of 
 the matter of the Declaration. It was an honour to let 
 the world see that in one twelvemonth they could reduce 
 the distempers of twelve years. The people trusted that 
 House, and it was therefore no dishonour to strive to 
 satisfy them. 
 
 From the anxious group of members who sat near 
 Hyde, among whom were now gathered several servants 
 and officers of the King, Mr. Coventry, member for 
 Evesham and second son of the deceased Lord Keeper, 
 rose after Glyn, and appealed to the House at least to 
 address the Declaration to the King, if they should 
 persist in voting it. Though men build their monuments 
 in their own time, he said, yet a chronicle of any King's 
 reign had never, until now, been written in his life -time, 
 without his own consent. After him started up Mr. 
 Geoffrey Palmer, the well-kno^v^l lawyer (he was Attorney- 
 General at the Restoration), member for Stamford, and 
 Hyde's ultimate friend and counsellor, who asserted with 
 much vehemence that the House could not declare without 
 Lords and King, nor had ever done it, and that the best 
 way for the Commons to answer a scandal was to neglect it. 
 As to his friend's law, however, " honest Jack Maynard " 
 at once rose and protested, when Palmer resumed his seat. 
 It was fully competent to the House to declare to the 
 people, for, he continued, if they should do nothing but
 
 104 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 what was previously ordained and settled with the other 
 branches of the State, they would assui*edly sit still. 
 They petitioned only for approbation, they did not 
 dictate the choice, of the counsellors of the King. 
 
 Meanwhile, as the debate thus continued to rage 
 towards midnight, one counsellor of the King had silently 
 and sadly withdrawn. His Majesty's correspondent 
 Nicholas, under promise to inform him that night of the 
 result of the discussion, had waited and watched until 
 nearly worn out with fatigue, and had then of necessity 
 repaired to Whitehall to close and forward his dispatch. 
 He first added to it the subjoined words, little supposing 
 that they would be rendered very memorable by what 
 occurred in the house after his departure. " The 
 " Commons have been in debate about their Declaration 
 " touching the ill effects of bad councils ever since 
 " twelve at noon, and are at it still, it being near 
 " twelve at midnight. I stayed this dispatch in hope 
 " to have sent your Majesty the result of that debate, 
 " but it is so late, as I dare not (after my sickness) 
 " adventure to watch any longer to see the issue of it : 
 " only I assure your Majesty there are divers in the 
 " Commons' house that are resolved to stand very stiff 
 " for rejecting that Declaration, ayid if they prevail not 
 " then to protest against it." So thoroughly had Hyde's 
 party previously resolved upon, and so unreservedly com- 
 municated to the ministers of the King, the step which 
 they afterwards declared was quite unpremeditated, and 
 indeed rendered suddenly necessary by the tactics of 
 their opponents. 
 
 Nicholas had not long left the house when, a little 
 after twelve o'clock, the main question whether the 
 Remonstrance should pass was at last allowed to be put. 
 In his History, Clarendon admits that it was the party led 
 by Hyde (himself) which so long had resisted the inces- 
 sant calls for a division ; and that they hoped to profit in 
 numbers by so wearing out their opponents, is the plain 
 and irresistible inference. Nevertheless, he proceeds to
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 105 
 
 tell his readers that when midnight arrived, many were 
 gone home to their lodgings out of pure indisposition of 
 health, having neither eat or drank all the day ; and 
 others had withdrawn themselves, that they might neither 
 consent to it, as being against their reason and conscience, 
 nor disoblige the other party by refusing {Hist. ii. 595) ; 
 leaving it to be inferred, that the gain from delay was 
 entirely to the other party, not his own. In another passage 
 (ii. 42), he conveys a similar impression, informing us that 
 candles having been called for when it grew dark " (neither 
 " side being very desirous to adjourn it till the next day, 
 " though it was evident very many withdrew themselves 
 " out of pure faintness and disability to attend the con- 
 " elusion), the debate continued till it was after twelve of 
 " the clock, with much passion." And again he says, in 
 a thii-d passage (ii. 44), that the party led by Mr. Pym 
 knew well enough that the House had not, at that time, 
 half its members present, though they had provided that 
 not a man of their party was absent ; and that they had 
 even then carried it by the hour of the night, which drove 
 away a greater number of old and infirm opposers, than 
 would have made those of the negative superior in 
 number. Assuming for a moment that this was so ; that 
 the hour of the night did really carry it ; and that it was, 
 as Whitelocke affirms Sir Benjamin Rudyard compared it 
 to, the verdict of a starved jury ; " surely it is inexplicable 
 that from Pym and his friends, who were to profit by 
 the exactly opposite course, should have proceeded all 
 the efforts that were made to force on the division at an 
 earlier horn-. The real truth appears to have been, that 
 
 ' " The sitting up all night caused cause which the author had once 
 
 "many through weakness or weari- stroiif;Iy sup])orted, but the suspicion 
 
 "ness to leave the house, and Sir B. which ttiere is good ground for enter- 
 
 " R. to compare it to the verdict of a taining that they were much inter- 
 
 " starved jury " ('l^e"io'''«^Si ol, ed. polated before publication. Tlie pub- 
 
 1732). In reading the Memorials, lication took place in Charles the 
 
 however, valuable as they are, it is Second's reign, twenty-two years after 
 
 always necessary to keep in mind not the restoration, seven after Whit€- 
 
 only the fact that they were compiled locke's death, 
 at a time not very favourable to the 
 
 F 3
 
 106 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 veiy few indeed, and these only occasional stragglers, had 
 quitted the house before the great division. Two divisions 
 on minor points preceded it, as we have seen, with some 
 interval interposed ; yet upon the first, three hundred and 
 ten members divided, and upon the second, three hundred 
 and eight ; and these, being more than three fifths of the 
 entire House, were certainly as large an assemblage as 
 had been mustered since the Recess within its walls." 
 
 What, then, were the numbers on the third and most 
 important division ? They had been reduced by simply 
 one vote, and this in all probability the vote of Secretary 
 Nicholas. I quote the entry from the Jom'nals (ii. 322). 
 " The question being proposed, whether this Declai'ation. 
 " thus amended, shall pass; the question was put, whether 
 " this question should be first put ? and it went with the 
 " Yeas : And then the question was put, whether this 
 " Declaration, thus amended, shall pass ? The house was 
 " divided. Sir Frederick Cornwalhs and Mr. Strang- 
 " ways, tellers for the Noe, 148 ; Sir John Clotworthy and 
 " Mr. Arth. Goodwyn, tellers for the Yea, 159. Resolved. 
 " upon the question, that this Declaration, thus amended, 
 " shall pass." 
 
 The question so long and desperately debated had 
 hardly thus been settled, however, when that new 
 question arose wliich was to create a new and worse 
 agitation, and to carry almost to the pitch of frenzy the 
 excited passions of the House. As soon as the vote was 
 declared. Clarendon proceeds to say in his History 
 (ii. 42), " Mr. Hampden moved that there might be 
 " an order entered for the present printing it, which 
 
 ^ This point has already been ad- ticular debate "Sir John Evelyn of 
 
 verted to, ante, 1 3 ; and I will only add ' ' Surrey " undertook to show that 
 
 that in a debate reported by D'Ewes that number " had not been here since 
 
 on the 13th of the month following " this second meeting." On this same 
 
 that in which the Remonsti-ance was occasion it was that Strode made the 
 
 passed, it appears that the exact proposition, already referred to, to 
 
 number absent on the latter occasion fine a member 50^. or expel him, if 
 
 were absent still. The expression he quitted town without leave. '^ It 
 
 used is "200 members still absent "was," says D'Ewes, "much de- 
 
 " after our recess." And in this par- " bated, but laid aside."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 107 
 
 ' produced a sharper debate than the former. It appeared 
 " then " (as if this had not been avowed all through the 
 debate), " that they did not intend to send it up to the 
 " house of peers for their concurrence ; but that it was 
 " upon the matter an appeal to the people, and to infuse 
 "jealousies into their minds. It had never' been the 
 " custom to publish any debates or determinations of the 
 " House, which were not regularly first transmitted to the 
 " house of peers; nor was it thought, in truth, that the 
 " House had authority to give warrant for the printing of 
 " anything ; all which was offered by Mr. Hyde, with 
 " some warmth, as soon as the motion was made for the 
 " printing it : and he said, ' he did believe the printing it 
 " ' in that manner was not lawful ; and he feared it would 
 " ' produce mischievous effects ; and therefore desired the 
 " 'leave of the House, that if the question should be put, 
 " ' and carried in the affirmative, that he might have 
 " ' liberty to enter his protestation ; ' which he no sooner 
 " said than Geoffrey Palmer (a man of great reputation, 
 " and much esteemed in the house) stood up, and made 
 " the same motion for himseK, ' that he might likewise 
 "'protest.' When immediately together, many after- 
 " wards, without distinction, and in some disorder, cried 
 "out 'They did protest: ' so that there was after scarce 
 " any quiet and regular debate. But the House by degrees 
 " being quieted, they all consented, about two of the 
 " clock in the morning, to adjourn till two of the clock the 
 " next afternoon." 
 
 So did the chief actor in a very memorable scene, 
 writing deliberately in his exile a few years after the 
 event, when nothing of the dignities, the responsibilities, 
 or the trials incident to his later life, had occurred to 
 impair or preoccupy his memory, describe the close of 
 a stormy debate in which he had taken so prominent a 
 
 1 The first editors of Clarendon substituted "seldom" for it. The 
 seem to have been so startled by his genuine text was only restored thirty- 
 use of this word, in direct contradic- two years ago. 
 tion of a well-known fact, that they
 
 108 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 part. We shall shortly be able to test its accuracy. 
 With how much accuracy the same writer had before 
 described its commencement, has already been seen.' Of 
 the similar spirit in which its progress had also been 
 narrated, the reader who has here had all its details before 
 him will be able to judge, when informed, still on Lord 
 Clarendon's authority (ii. 594-5), that " the debate held 
 "many hours, in which the framers and contrivers of the 
 " Declaration said very little, nor answered any reasons 
 " that were alleged to the contrary : the only end of 
 " passing it, which was to incline the people to sedition, 
 " being a reason not to be given : but still called for the 
 " question, presuming theii* number, if not their reason, 
 " would serve to carry it ; and after two of the clock in 
 " the morning (for so long the debate continued, if that 
 " can be called a debate where those only of one opinion 
 " argued), when many had gone home, &c. &c." It may 
 be doubted if history contains such another instance of 
 flagi'ant and deliberate falsification of the truth, committed 
 by one to whom the truth was personally known. 
 
 Nor unworthy to rank beside it are the sentences first 
 quoted, descriptive of what followed as to his own and 
 Palmer's protestation when the Bemonstrance had passed. 
 It was not Hampden who moved the order for the print- 
 ing,^ but Mr. Peard, the member for Barnstaple, a lawyer 
 
 ^ See ante, p. 36. which such statements made by him 
 
 - It is somewhat strange that this find unexpected support. Thus, in 
 
 particular misstatement should have an entry of his Journal relating to the 
 
 been made by Clarendon, whose habit debate of " the Bill of Episcopacy," 
 
 it is to represent Hampden as invari- on the 10th June 1641, after men- 
 
 ably, on such occasions, reserving tioning that the bill was moved by 
 
 himselfin the back ground and puttiug Sir Robert Harley, the member for 
 
 others in the front. I am bound to Herefordshire, Sir Simonds D'Ewes 
 
 add that Clarendon seems to have adds : ' ' Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, 
 
 shared with others this habit, ' ' and others, with Mr. Stephen Mar- 
 
 which I once thought peculiar to him- "shall, parson of Finchingfield in 
 
 self For, as it is one of the objects of "the county of Essex, and some 
 
 this Essay to show how entirely un- "others, had met yesternight and 
 
 trustworthy is his authority for any "appointed that this bill should be 
 
 statement adverse to the leaders " proceeded withal this morning, and 
 
 against Charles I. , it is the more ' ' the said Sir Robert Harley moved 
 
 necessary not to omit any instance in "it first in the house : for Mr.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 109 
 
 of the Middle Temple in good repute in liis profession, 
 and who had sat in the last as well as the present parlia- 
 ment. It was not then announced for the first time, hut 
 had substantially been confessed all through the debate, 
 that the Declaration . was meant as an appeal to the 
 people. And so far from the desii-e to " protest " having 
 arisen naturall}^ and suddenly out of that announcement, 
 we have seen, by the ii-refragable evidence unconsciously 
 afforded in Secretary Nicholas's letter to the King, that 
 the protest had been concerted as a party move, and 
 made known to the King's servants before the Declaration 
 
 ' ' Hampden, out of his serpentine 
 "subtlety, did still put others to 
 " move those businesses that he con- 
 "trived." It is impossible not to 
 compare this with what Clarendon 
 says {Hist. iv. 93) of Hampden's 
 moderation during the first year of 
 the Long Parliament, ' ' that wise and 
 "dispassioned men plainly discerned 
 "that that moderation proceeded 
 ' ' from prudence, and observation 
 " that the season was not ripe, rather 
 ' ' than that he approved of the mode- 
 " ration; and that he begat many 
 ' ' opinions and notions, the education 
 ' ' whereof he committed to other 
 "men, so far disguising his own 
 ' ' designs, that he seemed seldom to 
 "wish more than was concluded." 
 The reader will at the same time not 
 too hastily conclude, that, even 
 assuming the feeling reflected in these 
 passages to have been entertained by 
 members on both sides of the house, 
 it is necessarily the true one. Hamp- 
 den's was a character, more than most 
 men's, open to misconception. He 
 was peculiarly self-reliant and self- 
 contained, and in a remarkable degree 
 he had the faculty of silence. Until 
 the time arrived for speaking, he had 
 never the least disposition to utter 
 what lay within the depths of his 
 breast — altd mente repftstum. On 
 no man of this great period is so un- 
 mistakeably impressed the qualities 
 which set apart the high-bred 
 English gentleman, calm, courteous. 
 
 reticent, self-possessed ; but with a 
 
 will and energy so indomitable, lying 
 
 in those silent depths, that all who 
 
 came within its reach came also under 
 
 its control. Clarendon, though he 
 
 still imparts his own colour to the 
 
 feeling, gives it fairer expression in 
 
 the passages where he speaks of his 
 
 possessing " that seeming humility 
 
 "and submission of judgment as if he 
 
 " brought no opinion of his own with 
 
 "him, but a desire of information and 
 
 ' ' instruction ; yet had so subtle a way 
 
 "of interrogating, and under the 
 
 "notion of doubts, insinuating his 
 
 "objections, that he left his opinions 
 
 ' ' with those fi'om whom he pretended 
 
 "to learn and receive them." iv. 92. 
 
 And again ; "He was not a man of 
 
 ' ' many words, and rarely begun the 
 
 ' ' discourse, or made the first entrance 
 
 ' ' upon any business that was assumed ; 
 
 ' ' but a very weighty speaker, and 
 
 ' ' after he had heard a full debate, and 
 
 " observed how the House was like to 
 
 " be inclined, took up the argument, 
 
 " and shortly, and clearly, and craf- 
 
 "tily, so stated it, that he com- 
 
 " monly conducted it to the conclu- 
 
 "sion he desired; and if he found 
 
 " he could not do that, he was never 
 
 " witliout the dexterity to divert the 
 
 "debate to another time, and to pre- 
 
 "vent the determining anything in 
 
 " the negative which might prove in- 
 
 " convenient in the future." i. 323-4. 
 
 Here we have again the craft and the 
 
 subtlety, but it is less " serpentine."'
 
 110 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 was voted. The intention was obvious. It was meant 
 to divide, and by that means destroy, the authority of 
 the House of Commons. It was a plan dehberately 
 devised to exhibit, before the face of the country, the 
 minority as in open conflict against the majority, and as 
 possessed of rights to be exercised independently. The 
 balance would be thus redressed"; and the King's party, 
 outvoted in the house, would yet be a recognised power 
 without its walls, and would carry thenceforward a share of 
 its authority. Happily, the leaders saw the intention, and 
 on the instant met and defeated it. The right to protest, 
 they said, never had been, and never could be, admitted 
 there.- The House of Commons was indivisible. It 
 acted with one wiU, and one power ; and it exercised rights 
 with which individual claims were incompatible. Its 
 authority derived from the people, its privilege to address 
 them, its power to tax them, rested upon a foundation 
 wliich, what was asked for by Hyde and liis friends, would 
 at once undermine and overthrow. 
 
 To use merely the language of Clarendon in giving 
 account of what followed thereupon, and simply to say 
 that many members rose to speak without distinction and 
 in some disorder, so that there was after scarce any quiet 
 and regular debate, were to ofl'er a faint version indeed 
 of the truth. Never had those walls witnessed such a 
 scene as now, from the report of eye-witnesses less pre- 
 judiced and partial, waits to be described. 
 
 Hardly had announcement been made of the division 
 which carried the Bemonstrance by a majority of eleven 
 votes, when one more strenuous effort was made to have 
 it addressed to the King. This was successfully resisted ; 
 Denzil Holies expressing his intention to move, on 
 another occasion, that it should be referred to a com- 
 mittee to give effect to the modified suggestion already 
 thrown out by Pym. Mr. Peard then moved that the 
 Declaration might be printed, which was opposed witli 
 the greatest warmth and vehemence by Hyde and Cul- 
 peper ; Hyde again giving utterance to the extraordinary
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. Ill 
 
 opinion he had ventured to express in the debate, that the 
 House of Commons had no right to print without the 
 Lords' concurrence. Wherefore, he added, if the motion 
 Avere persisted in, he should ask the leave of the House to 
 have Uberty to enter his protest. Culpeper's speech in 
 the same strain, replying to the determined objection 
 made upon this, first very calmly by Pym, and then more 
 excitedly by Denzil Holies, carried the excitement still 
 higher ; and in the midst of it were now heard several 
 voices, and among them very conspicuously that of Palmer, 
 crying out that they also protested. Some one then rose, 
 and moved that the names of the protesters might be taken ; 
 but tliis being declared against the forms and orders, was 
 not at the moment pressed. " So," accordmg to D'Ewes's 
 accomit, derived from Sir Christopher Yelverton, " this 
 " matter was understood to be laid aside until a further 
 " time of debate, when everybody thought the business 
 " had been agreed upon, and that the House shoidd have 
 " risen, it being about one of the clock of the morning 
 " ensuing, when Mr. Geoffrey Palmer, a lawyer of the 
 " Middle Temple, stood up." He should not be satisfied, 
 he said, for himself or those around him, unless a day 
 were at once appointed for discussion of whether the 
 right to protest did not exist in that House ; and mean- 
 while he would move, with reference to such future dis- 
 cussion, that the Clerk should now enter the names of all 
 those whose claim to protest would then have to be 
 determined. At these words the excitement broke out 
 afresh ; loud cries of "All ! All ! " burst from every side 
 where any of Hyde's party sat ; and Palmer, carried 
 beyond his first intention by the passion of the moment, 
 cried out unexpectedly that he did for himself then and 
 there protest, for himself and all the rest — " of his mind," 
 he afterwards declared that he meant to have added, but 
 for the storm which suddenly arose. 
 
 The word All had fallen like a lighted match upon gun- 
 powder. It was taken up, and passed from mouth to 
 mouth, with an exasperation bordering on frenzy ; and to
 
 112 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 tliose who in after _years recalled the scene, under that 
 sudden glare of excitement after a sitting of fifteen hours, 
 — the worn-out weary assemblage, the ill-lighted dreary 
 chamber, the hour sounding One after midnight, confused 
 loud cries on every side breaking forth unexpectedly, 
 and startling gestures of violence accompanying them, — it 
 presented itself to the memory as a very Valley of the 
 Shadow of Death. "All! all!" says D 'Ewes, was cried 
 from side to side ; " and some waved their hats over their 
 " heads, and others took their swords in their scabbards 
 " out of their belts, and held them by the pummels in 
 " their hands, setting the lower part on the ground ; so, 
 " as if God had not prevented it, there was very great 
 " danger that mischief might have been done. All those 
 " who cried All, all, and did the other particulars, 
 " were of the number of those that were against the 
 " Remonstrance." And among them was the promising 
 young gentleman of the King's house, Mr. Philij) Warwick, 
 the member for Radnor, who bethought him, as we have 
 seen, of that brief scriptural comparison from the wars of 
 Saul and David,' his application of which comprised all 
 that, until now, was known to us of this extraordinary 
 scene. He thought of wjiat Abner said to Joab, and 
 Joab to Abner, when they met on either side of the pool 
 of Gibeon ; and how, having arisen at the bidding of 
 their leaders to make trial of prowess, their young men 
 caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his 
 sword in his fellow's side, and so fell down together : a 
 result which might have followed here, had not the 
 sagacity and great calmness of Mr. Hampden, by a short 
 speech, prevented it. 
 
 It is not perhaps difficult to imagine, from what 
 D'Ewes goes on to say of the short but memorable 
 speech, with what exquisite tact and self-control this 
 profound master of debate calmed down the passions of 
 that dangerous hour. He saw at once that the motion 
 
 ' Second Book of Samuel, Chap. ii. v. 12-16.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 113 
 
 for printing could not then with safety be persisted in ; 
 and, reminding the House that there might be many who, 
 having supported the Bemonstrance, might yet be opposed 
 to the printing of it, he asked how any one could so far 
 know the minds of such as to presume to enter a protest 
 for them ? " Some who were against the printing of the 
 " Remonstrance," says D'Ewes, " yet disavowed Mr. 
 " Palmer's desiring to have a protestation entered in their 
 " names ; and Mr. Hampden demanded of Mm how he could 
 " know other men'' s minds ? To whom Mr. Palmer answered, 
 " having leave of the House to speak, that he having once 
 " before heard the cry ' All, All,' he had thereupon 
 " desired to have the said protestation entered in all their 
 " names." 
 
 The mere question and answer had quelled the unnatural 
 excitement, and brought tlie House again, as Hampden 
 anticipated, within government and rule. Agreement was 
 then come to, that the question as to the printing of the 
 Declaration should for the present be left undetermined, 
 with the understanding that it was not to be printed without 
 special leave. Hyde's party would further have restricted 
 this order, by introducing the word " published " into it ; 
 but Pym, refusing to consent to that addition, divided the 
 house once more, and carried the original proposal, " that 
 " this Declaration shall not be printed without the par- 
 " ticular order of the house," by a majority of twenty-three; 
 thus leaving the publication free, and restraining the 
 printing only until further order. The numbers were 124 
 to 101 ; Sir Edward Dering and Sir Robert Crane, D'Ewes's 
 colleague in the representation of Sudbury, being tellers 
 for the minority; and for the majority, Sir Walter Earle 
 and Mr. Richard Knightly, the member for Northampton. 
 Between the last division and the present, thirty-five of 
 Pym's party and forty-seven of Hyde's had quitted the 
 house. And so, says D'Ewes, " the House arose just 
 " when the clock struck two the ensuing morning." 
 
 Clarendon fixes the hour of meeting the next day as 
 late as three o'clock, but in reality they assembled only a
 
 114 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 little later than the usual hour. Much important business 
 not admitting of delay was in hand ; and the further loan 
 of fifty thousand pounds from the City for the Irish 
 affairs, to beai" interest at eight per cent, had this day to 
 be completed. A little incident marked the temper of the 
 House . Early in the month the Queen's confessor, Father 
 PhiHps, had for contumacious conduct been committed by 
 the Lords to the Tower, and no order was to be given for 
 his release without the knowledge of the Commons. He 
 had now made submission, and in deference to an ui'gent 
 message from the Queen, the Lords had ordered his release ; 
 but on their messenger bringing this intimation to the 
 Commons, a peremptory refusal was sent back, and Father 
 Philips had to return to the Tower. This incident had 
 passed, and it was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, when 
 Pym rose and made allusion to the scene of the night before. 
 He lamented the disorder on that occasion, which, he 
 said, might probably have engaged the House in blood. 
 It proceeded principally, he continued, by the offering a 
 protestation, which had never before been offered in that 
 assembly; and was a transgression that ought to be severely 
 examined, that mischief hereafter might not result from 
 the precedent. He therefore proposed that the House 
 should the next morning enter upon that examination : 
 and in the meantime he advised that men might recollect 
 themselves, and they who used to take notes might peruse 
 their memorials ; to the end that the persons who were 
 the chief causers of the disorder might be named, and 
 defend themselves the best they could. " And with tliis 
 " resolution," adds Clarendon, " the House rose ; the 
 " vexation of the night before being very visible in the 
 " looks and countenance of many." ' 
 
 How far the further statement made herein by 
 Clarendon is to be believed, must be judged upon the 
 facts. He says, as we have seen, that the House did not 
 
 ' Hist. ii. 46. D'Ewes simply ''at ten. and rose between four and 
 Bays of the rising of the House, that " five of the clock." 
 " they appointed to meet to-morrow
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 115 
 
 meet till three in the afternoon : But the statement in 
 D'Ewes's Notes (and this is borne out by the Journals) 
 leaves no doubt that the House was in debate soon after 
 ten o'clock. He asserts that the most part of the day 
 had been passed by the leading men in private consulta- 
 tions, having for their object how to chastise some of 
 those who most offended them the night before, and how 
 to punish the attempt to introduce the dangerous and 
 unheard-of precedent of protesting against the sense of 
 the house : But the private consultations must in this case 
 have been held during the open sitting, for the leading 
 men on Pym's side were unquestionably engaged, in 
 public, upon the bill for determining parliamentary 
 privilege, upon the Committee of Irish affairs, upon the 
 bill of tonnage and poundage, upon the City loan, and 
 upon the case of the Queen's confessor. He explains 
 that the subject of private consultation was all the more 
 grateful to the " leading violent men who bore the greatest 
 *' sway," because they should thereby take revenge upon 
 Mr. Hyde (himself), whom they perfectly hated above any 
 man, and to whose activity they imputed the trouble they 
 had sustained the day before ; only they encountered 
 an unexpected difficulty from an important section of 
 their supporters, the Northern men as they were called, 
 led by Sir John Hotham, Sir Hugli Cholmondeley, and 
 Sir Philip Stapleton, members for Beverley, Scarborough, 
 and Boroughbridge, who were so grateful to Mr. Hyde for 
 his services in overthrowing the monstrous oppression of 
 the Court of York, that they refused to join against him, 
 though very eager to make others responsible; and he adds 
 that this dispute, which broke out at the private council in 
 the morning, occupied all that day and night, and was only 
 terminated by the compromise of selecting another 
 person, Palmer, to bear the brunt of punishment : But if 
 all this were so, it is strange that neither Sir Simonds 
 D'Ewes, nor Sir Ralph Verney, in Notes still preserved 
 exactly as they were taken at the moment, should 
 in any form confirm or make allusion to it ; and still
 
 116 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 more strange that the leaders should have proposed 
 to make Hyde responsible for the minor offence of asking 
 leave to protest, which had led to no disturbance, and to 
 pass by the real offence of Palmer, who reopened the 
 question that had been laid aside, did actually protest 
 without asking leave,' and brought on the scene that 
 followed. It will be perhaps the more natural, and 
 certainly no unfair, conclusion to form, that the writer 
 who deliberatel}^ had misrepresented and misstated every 
 single successive incident in these memorable debates, 
 has misrepresented this also. Happily the means of 
 refutation are at hand; and from records taken at the 
 moment, and quite above suspicion, the account given by 
 Clarendon can be corrected, and the story of the Grand 
 Remonstrance be faithfully carried to its close. 
 
 On AVednesday, the 24th of November, the Speaker 
 arrived at the house at about ten o'clock, when, after 
 prayers, certain necessary business of no great interest 
 was done, and Pym moved the appointment of some 
 committees. He then, producing a printed pamphlet, 
 pm-porting to be Articles of accusation preferred against 
 Father Philips and containing matters of scandal against 
 the French Ambassador, pointed out the grave offence of 
 disseminating such falsehoods, and called the printer to 
 the bar. Hereupon Mr. Ralph Goodwin, the member for 
 Ludlow (he who was afterwards secretary to Prince 
 Rupert), took the same opportunity of complaining, that a 
 pamphlet scandalous to the King himself had also just 
 been printed, purporting to be the account of a duel 
 between Sir Kenelm Digby and a French Lord, as to 
 which he moved that the printer thereof might also be 
 questioned. To whom, with a similar complaint of un- 
 authorised printing, succeeded Mr. Robert Reynolds, who 
 
 ' Clarendon is obliged to admit himself, Hist. ii. 45) "who made 
 
 this distiuction, even -where he is "the protestation, that is, asked 
 
 doing his best to exaggerate the cause " leave to do it ; ■which produced the 
 
 of oifence he had himself given. ' ' He ' ' other subsequent clamour, that 
 
 "was the first" (he is speaking of " was indeed in some disorder."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 117 
 
 sat for Hindon in Wiltshire and was afterwards one of 
 the King's judges, and who brought before the house the 
 fact, that the examination of a delinquent priest, taken 
 by one of their committees, still remaining in his own 
 possession, and not yet reported to the house, had been 
 suddenly issued in print ; an offence which also called 
 for punishment. " Upon all which motions," D'Ewes 
 adds, " it was ordered that the former committee for 
 " printing (of which I was one) should meet to-morrow 
 " morning at seven of the clock in the Inner Court of 
 " Wards, and should examine these abuses now com- 
 " plained of, and all other abuses of the kind, and to 
 " consider of some way for the preventing thereof." 
 
 Then succeeded the more interesting business of the 
 day, introduced as usual by the member for Tavistock. 
 He called the attention ' of the House to the offence which 
 had been committed on Monday night. He enlarged upon 
 the mischief it was then like to have produced, and which 
 would unavoidably be produced, if the custom or liberty 
 of individuals protesting against the sense of the House 
 should ever be admitted. That was the first time it had 
 ever been offered there, and care ought to be taken that 
 it should be the last, by severe judgment upon those who 
 had begun the presumption. Whereupon, Hyde rose and 
 said, that it concerned him to justify what he had done, 
 being the first man who mentioned the protestation. But he 
 was interrupted by a general noise and clamour, one half 
 the House crying to him to " withdraw," and the other 
 half to " speak." He waited awhile, and then resumed. 
 He was not old enough, he said, to know the ancient 
 
 • This opening of the proceedings, butes to himself, but it is even likely 
 
 down to the appearance of Hotham in that he so endeavoured to put himself 
 
 the debate, is taken from Clarendon forward, when he found that his 
 
 {Hist. ii. 46-7). It is here given friend Palmer was to be called to 
 
 because, though neither in the Notes of account. The matter of the so-cal led 
 
 D'Ewes, nor those ofVemey, is there private dispute raised as between 
 
 any mention of it, — both beginning Hyde and Palmer, which I altoget her 
 
 their account with Hotham's speech, — disbelieve in, is not affected by it 
 
 it la not only quite possible that Hyde either way. 
 may have spoken what he here attri-
 
 118 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 customs of that House ; but he well knew it was a very 
 ancient custom in the House of Peers. Leave was never 
 denied there to aii}^ man who asked that he might protest, 
 and enter his dissent, against any judgment of the House 
 to which he would not be understood to have given his 
 consent ; and he did not understand any reason why 
 a commoner should not have the same libert}'-, if he 
 desired not to be involved in any vote which he thought 
 might possibly be inconvenient to him. He had not 
 offered his protestation against the Eemonstrance, though 
 he had opposed it all he could, because it remained still 
 witliin those walls. He had only desired leave to protest 
 against the printing it ; which, he thought, was in many 
 respects not lawful for them to do, and might prove very 
 pernicious to the public peace. 
 
 This was listened to with some impatience, and at its 
 close the member for Beeralston, always impetuous and 
 forward on such occasions, was for having the House to 
 call upon Mr. Hyde to withdraw, since he had confessed 
 that he first proposed the protestation ; but Mr. Strode's 
 suggestion was disregarded, and not the least notice 
 appears to have been taken of Mr. Hyde's own proposal 
 to make a martyr of himself. 
 
 Mr. Hotham, the member for Scarborough, familiarly 
 called Jack Hotham, the son of Sir John, and so soon to 
 perish with him on a public scaffold for treason to the Par- 
 liament, rose now and said that the offence committed on 
 Monday night which the House was called to visit with its 
 severest censure, was committed by Mr. Geoffrey Palmer, 
 the member for Stamford. A gentleman on that occasion 
 had offered, with the leave of the House, to make a 
 protestation, and another had seconded him ; upon which 
 the said Mr. Palmer had without leave cried out, I do protest, 
 and, further encouraging men to cry out every man the 
 same, had said that he protested " for himself and the rest." 
 Many voices here interrupted Hotham, shouting out that 
 Palmer's words were " all the rest." The speaker pro- 
 ceeded, and shewed that such words in the mouth of any
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 119 
 
 member tended to draw on a mutiny ; and that if this 
 were permitted in the house, anj^ one might make himself 
 the head of a faction therein, and there would soon then 
 be an end of the liberty and privileges of parliament, and 
 they might shut up their doors. He therefore desired 
 that Mr. Palmer, not being in the house, might be 
 sent for. 
 
 Several members of Hyde's party next rose, and objected 
 to Palmer's being sent for ; and some wished to know by 
 what right Mr. Hotham had applied the word " faction " 
 to any section of members in that house. But, adds 
 D'Ewes, " whilst we were in debate about sending for 
 " him, Mr. Palmer came in ; and then Mr. Hotham laid 
 " the same charge against him which he had done before, 
 " for the substance thereof." Hereon, he continues, some 
 would have had Mr. Palmer to make his answer, and then 
 to withdraw into the Committee Chamber, that so they 
 might proceed to censure ; but others said, that either he 
 had committed no fault to which he was to answer, or, if 
 he had spoken anything amiss, he was to have been 
 questioned for it at the time when he spake it, and not at 
 this time, which was two days since the pretended words 
 were uttered. " And this was maintained," says D'Ewes, 
 "with great vehemence by those who spake for Mr. 
 " Palmer." 
 
 Hyde and Culpeper were as usual the most vehement. 
 Speaking to the orders of the House, Hyde said' the 
 charge against Palmer was against the orders, being he 
 was only charged with words, not with any ill carriage. 
 
 ' Clarendon's own account of his "conld not be presumed that his 
 
 speech {Hist. ii. 48) is, that, upon Mr. " own memory could recollect all the 
 
 Palmer being called upon to explain, "words he had used ; or, that any- 
 
 "Mr. Hyde (who loved him much, "body else could charge him with 
 
 "and had rather have suflfered him- "them ; and appealed to the house 
 
 " self, than that he should) spoke to " whether there was any precedent of 
 
 "the order of the house, and said that "the like — and there is no doubt 
 
 "it was against the orders and "there never had been; and it was 
 
 ' ' practice of the house that any ' ' very irregular. " The account of 
 
 "man should be called upon to ex- the speech in the text, however, 
 
 "plain, for anything he said in the is manifestly more correct than this 
 
 ' ' Ixouse two days before ; when it notice of it preserved by its author.
 
 120 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 This being so, and the words not having been excepted 
 against at the time they were spoken, it was now no 
 orderly charge. For, in that case, a man might be 
 questioned for words spoken a month or a year ago, as 
 well as for those spoken on Monday last. Words might 
 be forged, too, and then how could a man answer for 
 himself? It would take away the great privilege of 
 freedom of speech. Culpeper went still further. Also 
 speaking to the orders of the House, he took the objection, 
 that the members assembled on that day, Wednesday the 
 2ith, could not be competent judges of words spoken on 
 Monday the 22d, because divers were on this occasion 
 present who on the former were absent ; although he did 
 not deny that the House was the same in respect of the 
 power of it. And what could be more dangerous than for 
 a man to be questioned for words spoken in the house 
 after the time he should speak them ; for might he not in 
 such case be also questioned in another parliament after ? 
 
 These confident opinions appear to have shaken some 
 of the members present ; the debate went on with in- 
 creasing heat ; and three hours had been so passed, when 
 Denzil Holies got up, and declared that he would charge 
 Mr. Palmer with a new charge, in making a pernicious 
 motion. But now, Sir Simonds D'Ewes, fortified with 
 precedents, advanced to the rescue ; undertaking to prove 
 that the original proposition to make Palmer responsible 
 for the words he had uttered, was strictly in accordance 
 with the usage, and no violation of the orders, of the 
 Commons. 
 
 He began by sajing he was sorry, with all his heart, 
 that the House should already have lost so much time 
 about this business, and the more because it concerned a 
 gentleman whom he had long known, and knew to be 
 learned in his profession. But he wondered to see any 
 member of that house, and much more (alluding to Hyde) 
 any of the long robe, affirm that they could not question 
 words spoken therein any day after they were spoken, 
 unless exception to the words were taken at the time of
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 121 
 
 speaking. '•'! dare be bold to say," continued Sir 
 Simonds, warming into confidence, as his Avell-beloved 
 records and precedents came to him at need, " there 
 " are ahnost precedents in every journal we have of the 
 " House of Commons. Some I can remember upon the 
 " sudden, as Mr. Copley, in the time of Queen Mary ; 
 " Mr. Peter Wentworth, in 85th Elizabeth ; ' and, in 
 " 43d and 44th of the same Queen, either one Hastings 
 " took exception at Mr. Francis Bacon, or he to Hastings : 
 " for I dare not trust an ill memory with the exact relation 
 " of it upon the sudden. And all these were questioned 
 " in this house after the day was past in which the Avords 
 " were spoken. This, indeed, is the true, ancient, funda- 
 " mental right of parliament, that we should not be 
 " questioned anywhere else for things spoken within 
 " these walls. But that we should not have power here to 
 " question our own members for words spoken within 
 '' these walls, either at the time when the said words were 
 " spoken, or at any time after also, were to destroy those 
 " very liberties and rights of parliament." 
 
 Having laid down thus clearly and boldly the undoubted 
 parhamentary rule, D'Ewes went on to apply it to 
 Palmer's case. Premising that the words spoken, and 
 matter of fact in issue, must be stated exactly, he shewed 
 that to resist any proposal to question the same, whether 
 at the moment of delivery, or at any time after, would be 
 to decline the justice of the House, which for his part he 
 should never do, but should always be ready to answer, 
 at any present or future time, to anythng he should 
 there say. As for that which was objected, he continued, 
 by the gentleman on the other side (and he pointed to Su' 
 John Culpeper), that it were a dangerous thing for them 
 to admit that a succeeding parliament might question 
 what was done in a former, there was nothing more 
 ordinary or more usual. There was no doubt what- 
 
 ' " I was mistaken in tlie year," "in — " but alas! the correction is 
 notes the particular D'Ewes in the not legible to me. 
 margin of his Journal, "for it was 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 122 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 ever but that a succeeding parliament might not only 
 question any particular thing clone b)^ them, as, for 
 example, what was in progress at that moment, but 
 might also revoke and repeal all the acts and statutes 
 which they had passed. And the reason thereof was 
 evident and plain. For they sat not there in their own 
 right, but were sent thither, and entrusted by the whole 
 kingdom ; the knights being chosen by the several coun- 
 ties, and the rest by the several cities and towns. And, 
 for that which was objected by the same worthy gentle- 
 man opposite, that, there being divers others in the house 
 who were not there wdien the words were spoken, there- 
 fore the House was not the same, he (Sir Simonds D'Ewes) 
 said confidently that the House was the same to all intents 
 and purposes, not only quoad potestatem, but quoad 
 notionem also ; for of course he assumed there must be a 
 perfect agreement as to what the words were that were 
 spoken, before they could proceed to a censure of them. 
 Whereupon, as though remembering his own absence at 
 the extraordinary scene, he thus proceeded : 
 
 " And truly they may well be excused that were absent 
 " out of this house at midnight, for it was about that time 
 " on Monda}' night last when these words were spoken ; 
 " and I do as much wonder that so many in this house 
 " should object that the speaking of words is not an 
 " action, when that old verse assures us of the contrary — 
 " ' Quatuor et dentes et duo labra simul, &c.' And 
 " more strange it seems to me also, that when this 
 " worthy gentleman himself (and I pointed to Mr. Palmer) 
 " hath so often stood up, himself, to speak, so many should 
 " hinder him ; for if they will not let him speak by way 
 " of answering, yet let him speak by way of speaking. — 
 " Some laughed at this, thinking I had been mistaken ; 
 " but I proceeded and told them, that I should be sorry 
 " to speak anything in that house which I could not make 
 " good logic of; and therefore I still pressed, that if we 
 " would not let him speak by way of answering, that is 
 " by coaction and as a delinquent, then let him speak by
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 123 
 
 " way of speaking, that is sermoni lihero et sponfaneo. And 
 " who knows," concluded the precise and learned orator, 
 " but that he may give much satisfaction to this House by 
 " his speaking ? And therefore, Sii', I desii'e that he 
 " may be heard." 
 
 The desire of the worthy Sir Simonds, however, failed 
 to convince Mr. Palmer's friends of the expediency of 
 yielding thereto. In vain the Speaker renewed the 
 proposition that the member for Stamford should be 
 heard. In vain was it m-ged that no man was entitled to 
 object because none knew what he would say. The 
 objectors stood so firm, that it became clear it would have 
 to come to a division, and Hyde and Culpeper violently 
 called out to divide. Palmer withdrew into the Committee 
 Chamber, and the Speaker put the question — As many as 
 are of opinion that Mr. Palmer shall be required to answer 
 to the charge laid against him, let them say Aye. " But 
 "then," interposes D'Ewes, " Mr. Palmer's friends would 
 " have had these words to have been added to the question, 
 " namely, ' for words by him spoken on Monday night 
 " ' last ; ' but we that thought Mr. Palmer deserved to be 
 " questioned, would not agree to that addition. Where- 
 " upon it came to a division upon the question." 
 
 The tellers appointed on the one side were Hyde and 
 Sir Frederick ComwaJlis, and on the other Sir Thomas 
 Barrington and Sir Martin Lumley, the member for 
 Essex. The Ayes went out, and proved to be but 146 ; 
 the Noes (of whom D'Ewes was one) sat still, and were 
 192. It being directed, upon this, that Hyde's addition 
 should not be made, Sir Robert Hatton, the member for 
 Castle Piising, and a determined royalist, jumped up to 
 speak against the other question ; but Mr. Speaker inter- 
 rupted and told him he was out of order, for he could not 
 now speak until the question had been put. It was put 
 accordingly, the same tellers being appointed on both 
 sides ; and the Ayes (of whom D'Ewes was one) going 
 out, were 190, whereas the Noes, sitting still, were but 
 
 142. It was thereupon immediately ordered, that Mr. 
 
 a 2
 
 124 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Palmer should be required to speak; and being called 
 down from the Committee Chamber, in which he had 
 remained since before the first division, he was informed 
 by the Speaker that the House required him to make 
 answer to the charge laid against him. 
 
 He presently arose, and, professing his innocency as to 
 the particular matter alleged, made relation of some 
 foregoing passages. That when, upon the vote being 
 determined that the Declaration should pass, a motion 
 was made by Mr. Peard that it should be printed, divers 
 protested against it; and that himself desired also to have 
 his protestation entered, against the printing but not the 
 passing ; and that w'hen, afterwards, it was moved that the 
 names of such as had protested might be entered, he being 
 imsatisfied, and desiring it might be debated first whether 
 such a protestation might be made or not, wished a day 
 to be appointed for that end, and thereupon desired that 
 his own name, and the names of the rest who had pro- 
 tested, might be entered by the Clerk. And that Mr. 
 Hampden thereupon asking him, how he knew other 
 men's minds, he answered, because he had heard others 
 desire their names to be entered, and heard them cry 
 " All, all." But for the other words charged upon him, 
 that he had protested " in the name of himself and the 
 " rest," he declared he did not remember that he had 
 spoken them. But he was ver}^ sensible of his own 
 misfortune, and sorry for having given that occasion to 
 the House to question him. And so, having ended, he 
 withdrew again into the Committee Chamber. 
 
 Bulstrode Whitelocke, member for Marlow, and a per- 
 sonal friend of Palmer's, though himself a supporter of the 
 Remonstrance, rose immediately after to confirm gene- 
 rally, by his own recollection, the substance of the state- 
 ment just made : but the hour was now late, it having 
 long struck four, and it had gi'own so dark that the 
 Speaker was no longer able to discern who stood up. 
 Cries from both sides became loud for an adjournment, 
 and order was accordingly made that the further con-
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 125 
 
 sideration of Mr. Palmer's offence should be resumed at 
 ten o'clock the next morning. Dark as it was, however, 
 the House was not allowed to rise until the indefatigable 
 Mr.Pym had obtained direction for a committee, consisting 
 of himself, Mr. Denzil Holies, and others, to take examina- 
 tions of divers Irishmen ' then in the Serjeant's custody, 
 suspected of privit}^ in the late horrible design ; and his 
 purpose in so demanding this immediate committee was, 
 that those who on examination might be found not fairly 
 obnoxious to suspicion might at once be dismissed. 
 Through all the frequent conspiracies and dangers of this 
 troubled time, the reins of authority seized by the House 
 were held with a firm, yet wise and temperate, hand; and 
 no strain upon the liberty of the subject that could be 
 safely spared, was countenanced or permitted by its gi'eat 
 leader. 
 
 On Thursday, the 25th of November, the Speaker took 
 the chair at ten o'clock, but Mr. Solicitor St. John inter- 
 posed before the resumption of Palmer's business, to 
 obtain leave to bring in a short bill for the levy of tonnage 
 and poundage, and after him Denzil Holies rose to remind 
 the House of that suggestion of the worthy member sitting 
 below him by the bar (designating Pym) which had found 
 favour on Monday night, to accompany the Remonstrance 
 by a Petition to his Majesty; as to which he moved 
 accordingly that some might be appointed to draw this 
 Petition in such manner as to show what had necessitated 
 them to make theu* Declaration. Some little debate 
 ensued hereon, and ended in the adoption of Holles's 
 motion that the Petition should be prepared and presented 
 by the same committee that had drawn the Declaration ; 
 to which was added an order, on the motion of Sir 
 Gilbert Gerrard, member for Middlesex, that they 
 should include in the said Petition a form of congratula- 
 tion for his Majesty's safe return from Scotland, which 
 
 1 "He hoped also" the liberal "who had conveyed letters iuto 
 leader told the House on this occasion, ' ' Ireland." 
 "that they had the woman in hold
 
 126 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 slioulcl also be presented to him in the name of the 
 House. 
 
 D'Ewes had left his place while Holies was speaking, 
 and when he returned to it, between eleven and twelve 
 o'clock, he found the Solicitor- General pressing his bill of 
 tonnage and poundage through the necessary stages to 
 obtain its enactment before the existing bill should expire. 
 After this some other business of moment presented itself, 
 but members grew impatient for the conclusion of the 
 debate respecting Palmer ; and on the motion of Sir Robert 
 Cook, who sat for Tewkesbury, and who urged with some 
 vehemence the propriety of not delaying censure in a 
 matter aifecting the high privileges of the House, that 
 subject was resumed. "We then," says D'Ewes, " pro- 
 " ceeded before twelve of the clock with the debate and 
 " consideration touching Mr. Palmer's offence. That held 
 " till about three of the clock in the afternoon, before we 
 " proceeded to debate of his punishment." 
 
 The substance of the speeches on either side Avill suffi- 
 ciently indicate the character of the early part of the debate. 
 In aggravation it was insisted on, that as to the particular 
 matter, Palmer's great ability in his profession, his very 
 temperateness of nature in the general, and the fact of 
 his being a gownsman, much increased his offence. " That 
 " after the first distemper of the House Avas well pacified 
 " which arose about the protestation-making, he, by his 
 " new motion to have a protestation entered in his own 
 " name and the name of all the rest, did again raise the 
 " flame to such an heighth, as, if God had not prevented 
 " it, murder and calamity might have followed thereupon, 
 " and this parliament with our posterity and the kingdom 
 " itself might have been destroyed. For, upon Mr. Palmer's 
 " said motion, some waved their hats, and others took 
 " their swords with the scabbards out of their belts and 
 " held them in their hands." On the other side in 
 extenuation it was urged, that Palmer had in no respect 
 forfeited his reputation as a sober, learned, and moderate 
 man. That his only intent in the motion he made was
 
 TflE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 127 
 
 to put an end to the particular niglit's debate, it being so 
 far spent ; and to put off to a further day the dispute of 
 the question whether the members of that house might 
 protest or not. There had been an earnest offer to 
 protest on the part of Mr. Hyde, then a motion to take 
 names by others, and then Palmer moved in the name of 
 himself and all others of his mind : but whether this was 
 to i^rotest, or to take names, was 3'et a question. Afterwards, 
 indeed. Palmer was questioned by Mr. Hampden, and he 
 stood up, and the House cried, " All, all." But there was 
 no proof that he had an intention to raise any heat or 
 combustion. He had done very good service in the house, 
 and particularly in the enquiries into forest abuses, where 
 he occupied the chair ; and he was entitled to have that 
 remembered now. Some, however, went still further in 
 extenuation, and others even justified what he had done 
 to be no offence at all. 
 
 The afternoon wore away in such debate, but it was in 
 vain that Palmer's friends exhausted ever}'- resource to 
 avert what they too plainly felt must inevitably come. 
 The popular leaders were not to be turned from their 
 purpose. The offence committed, and the person com- 
 mitting it, were of no ordinary kind. The offence struck 
 at the very source and foundation of the power of the House, 
 breaking down all the barriers which old usage and custom 
 had thrown up, to keep before the people sole and intact, 
 no matter wliat their internal divisions might be, the 
 authority and influence of the Commons. The offender in 
 himself represented a new and powerful party, bred within 
 the house itself, who would have entered through the 
 breach so made, and tm-ned that very influence and 
 authority to the secret service of the King. Palmer's 
 success would have divided the House against itself ; into 
 a minority claiming to be free from undue strain and 
 pressure upon their consciences, opposed to a majority 
 claiming predominance incompatible with the exercise of 
 individual rights, and coercing free deliberation. Once 
 admit such division, all the votes of the i^ast year would
 
 128 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 lose their claim to continued respect,' and the Sovereign 
 would again be uncontrolled. No jot would Vjm and 
 Hampden consent to abate therefore, from what was strictly 
 necessary to single out and set aside what Palmer had done, 
 as matter of high and weighty censure. But they did not 
 go beyond it. They demanded his committal to the 
 Tower until due submission and retractation were made. 
 Some indeed were eager to have gone farther, demand- 
 ing his expulsion ; but none of the great names on the 
 liberal side appear among these, who were in truth led by 
 the very man. Sir John Hotham, whom Clarendon repre- 
 sents as most opposed to what the more prominent and 
 leading men desired. Sir Robert Cook, the member for 
 Tewkesbury, would have had the offender not only 
 sentenced to the Tower, but turned out of the House 
 as well : whereupon Sir John Strangwa^^s got up and 
 reminded that worthy member, that as he had been sworn 
 since the last Lord Steward surrendered his staff, some 
 doubts existed how far there was any legal commission to 
 swear him,^ and perhaps he might himself, by the statute 
 21st of James, be turned out of the house before Mr. Palmer. 
 The member for Southwark, Mr. Bagshaw, rose next, and, 
 as a brother barrister of Palmer's, took the liberty to doubt 
 whether, having denied the fact charged, he was fit to be 
 
 ' Clarendon occasionally, to use an " of strength to make that act good, 
 
 expression of his own, "lets himself " which was in itself null. And I 
 
 loose" (i. 7 : as if, to quote War- "doubt," he adds, "this logic had 
 
 burton's shrewd comment on the " an influence upon other acts of no 
 
 phrase, he were speaking against his "less moment than these." Those 
 
 duty when he censures the Crown) ; are surely very significant and preg- 
 
 and there is a rem^-rkable and most uant words. 
 
 weighty passage in his History (ii. ^ Three days subsequent to this, 
 
 25.:!), in which he distinctly admits an order was made to move the Lords 
 
 that it was the King's habit to con- to join with the Commons in moving 
 
 sent to particular measures (in this his Majesty "to appoint the Earl of 
 
 case he is speaking of the bill for "Pembroke Lord Steward of his 
 
 taking away the legislative power of "Majesty's household : for that this 
 
 the bishops) from an opinion that " house is deprived of certain mem- 
 
 what he held to be the violence and " bers, by reason there is no Lord 
 
 force used in procuring them, ren- "Steward, to give or authorise the 
 
 dered them absolutely invalid and " giving of the oaths of allegiance and 
 
 void, and "made the confirmation of "supremacy." 
 *'them less considered, as not being
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 129 
 
 sentenced ; seeing that the charge had really not yet been 
 proved by any one man, and all judges should go secundum 
 allegata et probata. But Palmer found a more effective 
 advocate in Mr. John Crew, the member for Brackley. 
 
 Crew, a man of great fortune, and of principle as firm 
 and unassailable as he was generally moderate in speech 
 (it was by his help chiefly that Vane and Cromwell were 
 able subsequently to pass the Self-Denying Ordinance), 
 had voted uniformly with Vyva. and Hampden throughout 
 the debates on the Eemonstrance,' and he now thought 
 that the justice of the case, which he considered to have 
 been fully admitted, would be satisfied sufficiently by such 
 admonishment as the Speaker standing in his place might 
 then and there administer. For himself, he would interpret 
 things doubtful ever in the best sense ; and he could not 
 forget such service as Mr. Palmer had heretofore rendered 
 to the cause which in this late matter had received some 
 offence from him. " Sir," continued this discreet and 
 temperate advocate, " though none can plead his merits 
 " to excuse a fault, yet if I have received many favours 
 " from a man that now doth me injury, I shall not forget 
 " those benefits, but be the willinger to forget the injury, 
 " and the rather in this place, because we have power to 
 *' punish our own members when they offend, but not to 
 " reward them when they do well." It was impossible 
 that such an appeal as this should fail of effect ; but the 
 effect was in a great degree removed by a speech in which 
 Waller meant to have followed up the advantage, but in 
 his lively audacious way, seeking to please both sides, 
 satisfied neither, and almost wholly lost what Crew had 
 gained. He desired the House not to permit a man's 
 success to be the proof of his delinquency. All their 
 punishments were but the Tower and the Bar, and those 
 were great punishments, when they were inflicted for great 
 
 ' It is worth mention, perhaps, side of the Parliament, with GeoSrey 
 that in the famous treaty of Uxbridge, Palmer opposed to him on the King's 
 nearly four years after this date, Grew side. See Clai'cudon, Jlist. iii. 37, 
 was one of the commissioners on the 76, and 90. 
 
 a 3
 
 130 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 ofi'ences. But the custom liad arisen, both within and 
 without those walls, of punishments disproportioned to 
 the offence. In former days, while Queen Elizabeth 
 reigned, a check from the Council Table, or a sentence in 
 the Star Chamber, were of such repute that none 
 esteemed men who were so checked or sentenced : but what 
 was it their Remonstrance had justly taken exception to? 
 Of late these punishments had been inflicted for such small 
 ofiences, that all men did rather value and esteem those 
 as martyrs who suffered in that way, than cUsesteem them 
 for it. He adjured them, therefore, to let no man be 
 punished for temperance, lest they should seem to punish 
 virtue. The result of which homily, by one whose great 
 wit and parts had brought himself such small esteem, may 
 perhaps be measured by what followed immediately after. 
 Sir John Hotham declared that if by the rules of the 
 House any greater censure than exi)ulsion and the Tower 
 could be laid upon the offender, he would gladly go higher 
 than even those. Happily the majority were not of that 
 opinion. 
 
 " This last debate," says D'Ewes, " held till past four, 
 " at which time I withdrew out of the house. When I 
 " returned again, the debate was, which of the two 
 " questions should be put first : whether for his sending 
 " to the Tower, or for his being expelled out of the 
 " House." Upon this. Sir Ealj^h Hoj)ton, member for 
 Wells, afterwards so conspicuous on the King's side in 
 the war as " Hopton of the West," appears to have taken 
 the lead. He moved that the question of sending to the 
 Tower should be first put, because, he argued, if that for 
 expulsion were put first, being the greater, the judginent 
 of the House would be past by it, and then the lesser 
 question could not be put. Such a point mooted as this 
 rarely failed to call up D'Ewes. He rose accordingly, 
 and craved leave rather to speak to the orders of the House 
 than to the order of putting the questions. In respect of 
 the remarks which had been last made, he wondered to 
 hear such from an ancient parliament man : for it was not
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRAKCE. 131 
 
 the putting and voting of one, two, three, or four questions 
 there, that made the judgment of the House. " That, 
 " Sir," continued the precise Sir Simonds, "is to be pro- 
 " nounced by yourself, our Speaker, to whom we direct 
 '■ our speeches; and then, and not till then, is the judg- 
 " ment of this House past." He added that, if they 
 could not agree which of the two questions should be 
 past first, for his part he should be content to have them 
 past together. 
 
 The result is thus succinctly recorded by the same 
 veracious and conscientious witness. " Others spake 
 " after me, and the contention which question should be 
 " first put was again set on foot, till at last it was resolved, 
 " by question, that the matter touching Mr. Palmer's 
 " going to the Tower should be first determined ; and 
 " thereupon the Speaker did first put this question — As 
 " many as are of opinion that Mr. Palmer should be sent 
 " to the Tower, there to remain during the pleasure of 
 " the house, let them say Aj^e. Upon which followed a 
 " great affirmative ; and, the question being put negatively, 
 " there were many Noes : whereupon there followed a 
 " di\dsion of the house, and the Speaker appointed Sir 
 " Thomas Barrington and Sir John Clotworthy tellers for 
 " the Ayes, of which I was one, and we went out and 
 " were in number 169 ; the tellers appointed for the Noes 
 " who stayed in the house, being the Lord Falkland and 
 " Mr. Strangvvays," (the member for Bridport), " and the 
 " number of them was 128. Then the Speaker put the 
 " second question, namel}^ — As manj'^ as are of opinion 
 " that Mr. Palmer shall be expelled from being a member 
 " of this house during this parliament, let them say Aye. 
 " Upon which followed a lesser affirmative than formerly ; 
 " and upon the negative, a greater number of Noes. The 
 " house was again divided, and the same tellers appointed 
 " both for the Ayes and Noes as before. I was an Aye, 
 " and the Ayes went out again, and were in number 131. 
 " The Noes that continued in the house were 103. And 
 " so Mr. Palmer escaped expulsion out of the House,
 
 132 HISTORICAL ESSA.TS. 
 
 " which his offence had deserved in a high measure. We 
 " appointed to meet to-morrow morning by ten of the 
 " clock, and so the House rose between six and seven of 
 " the clock at night." 
 
 On the next day, Friday the 26th of November, 
 Palmer "in his barrister's gown" appeared at the Bar to 
 receive sentence ; and, kneeling there, was informed by 
 Mr. Speaker that the judgment awarded to his offence was 
 committal to the Tower during the pleasure of the House. 
 To the Tower he was committed accordingly, and there 
 remained until Wednesday the 8th of December, on the 
 morning of which day " the humble petition of Geoffrey 
 " Palmer was read, wherein he did acknowledge his 
 " offence and the justice of the House, and his sorrow 
 " that he had fallen into its displeasure : " upon which an 
 order passed for the discharge of Mr. Palmer from his 
 imprisonment in the Tower. 
 
 As to this submission of his friend, Clarendon is 
 wholly silent ; and, in so far as the sin of suppres- 
 sion may be less than of deliberate falsification, the 
 circumstance should perhaps be mentioned to his 
 praise. He also unconsciously renders tribute to 
 the sagacity and steadiness of purpose with w^hich the 
 leaders had pursued and obtained their object in these 
 long and passionate debates, when he sa3's that having 
 compassed their main end, the}^ found the sense of the 
 House more at their devotion from that time, and admits 
 that the minority grew so cast down and dejected, that 
 the leading men ever after met no equal opposition within 
 its walls (ii. 61, 62). But in every other point of these 
 later, as of the earlier proceedings, every single sentence 
 he utters is a misstatement. He says there was not the 
 least doubt that there never had been any precedent for 
 calling a member to account for words spoken except at 
 the moment of their utterance : whereas D'Ewes's prece- 
 dents have been seen. He says, that, after two hours' 
 debate, additional delays and bitterness were only spared by 
 Palmer's own voluntary offer that to save the House farther
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 133 
 
 trouble he might answer and Avithclraw : whereas the 
 answer was only given upon compulsion, after a formal divi- 
 sion had left no alternative. He says that the real secret 
 of the hostility displayed to Palmer, and the reason why 
 the angiy men pressed with all their power that he might 
 be expelled the House, was that they had borne him a 
 long gTudge for the civility he showed as one of the 
 managers in the prosecution of the Earl of Strafford, in 
 that he had not used the same reproachful language 
 which the others had done : whereas the men most eager 
 to protect Palmer were notoriously those who, like Cul- 
 peper, Falkland, and even Hyde himself, had shown least 
 mercy or forbearance to Strafford. Finally, he says,' 
 that in the close of the day when the division was taken 
 against Palmer, and on the rising of the House, an order 
 was obtained, without much opposition, for the printing of 
 the Remonstrance : whereas two days were occupied by 
 the Palmer debate, and not even an attempt was made 
 during either to smuggle in any order for the printing. 
 When it was done, it was done openly, but the time for 
 it was even yet not come. 
 
 Saturday, the 27th of November, was the day named 
 for reception of the report of the Committee appointed to 
 draw the Petition to the King ; designed, in accordance 
 with Pym's suggestion, to accompany the Bemonstrance. 
 It was ushered in by threatening omens. Charles was 
 
 ' I give the entire passage, taking "that he should be committed to 
 
 it up from where the passage pre- " the Tower ; the angry men press- 
 
 viously quoted (ante, p. 119) ends. "ing with all their power, that he 
 
 As he there mentions, he had appealed "might be expelled the house: 
 
 to the House whether there was any "having borne him a long grudge, 
 
 precedent of the like: "and there "for the civility he showed in 
 
 " is no doubt," he continues, "there "the prosecution of the Earl of 
 
 "never had been ; and it was very "Strafford; that is, that he had not 
 
 "irregular. But they were too " used the same reproachful language 
 
 "positively resolved to be diverted; "which the others had done . . . And 
 
 " and, after two hours debate, he him- "in the close of that day, and the 
 
 " self desired, ' that to save the house " rising of the House, without much 
 
 "farther trouble, he might answer "opposition, they obtained an order 
 
 "and withdraw' — which he did. "forthe^printingtlieir Remonstrance." 
 
 ' ' When it drew towards night, after — Ili&t. ii. 48-9. 
 ' ' many hours debate, it was ordered
 
 134 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 now arrived from Scotland ; had been received with 
 magnificent entertainment in the city, on the previous 
 Thursday ; had returned afterwards to "Whitehall in such 
 elation and excitement as rarely was witnessed in him ; 
 between that evening and the following day, when he 
 proceeded to Hampton Court, had given Nicholas the 
 seals which were held by Windebank, had deprived old 
 Vane of liis secretaryship and treasurer's staff, had seen 
 privately Culpeper, Falkland, and " Ned Hyde," had 
 directed a proclamation to be issued for more implicit obe- 
 dience to the laws established for the exercise of religion, 
 and had given order for the immediate dismissal of those 
 trainbands employed upon guard at the two houses, 
 which, as we have seen, upon the receipt of Hampden's 
 dispatch out of Scotland announcing the plots against the 
 leaders of the covenant, had been ordered up for their 
 protection, and since had guarded them by night and day.' 
 He had also taken the resolution, though the act was 
 deferred for jet a few days, to remove Col. Balfour from 
 the command of the Tower and to appoint Col. Lunsford 
 in his place. The temper of the House at such report 
 as had reached them of these incidents was not slow in 
 revealing itself. 
 
 Prayers had just been said when Hampden rose in his 
 place; made a statement as to a Buckinghamshire papist, 
 one Adam Courtney, suspected of connivance in the 
 plot now proved against the King's officers to bring 
 
 ^ The order had been given hy return, he hath surrendered his coin- 
 
 the King on Thursday evening. Early mission, and the Lords have received 
 
 on Friday morning Pym reported a message from his Majesty, to be 
 
 to the House that, whereas, heretofore, communicated to both Houses, ' ' that 
 
 a guard had been set, at the desire of "the guard, that had been set in his 
 
 the Commons, in respect of the multi- "absence, perhaps was done upon 
 
 tude of soldiers, and other loose " good grounds, but now his presence 
 
 persons, infesting the precincts of " is a sufficient guard to his people ; 
 
 Westminster, and was afterwards con- "and therefore it is his pleasui-e they 
 
 tinned by both Houses, and the Lord "should be discharged ; and, if need 
 
 Chamberlain [Essex], who had a com- "be to have a guard hereafter, his 
 
 mission to be Lord General on this "Majesty will be as glad to have a 
 
 side Trent, took a care concerning the " guai'd as any other." 
 same ; but now, upon his JMajesty's
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 135 
 
 up the Army to overawe the Parliament ; and, producing 
 the minute pieces and fragments of certain letters which 
 Courtney had torn up on his arrest, desired that they 
 should be deciphered by the army committee then sitting, 
 by whom also the delinquent could be brought up from 
 Aylesbury gaol and examined. After him rose Mr. 
 Oliver Cromwell to call attention to a gross slander 
 against the House of which he held the proofs in his 
 hand, and by which it seemed that '' one whom he 
 " named not lest he should withdraw himself" had 
 given out that the principal members had been alarmed 
 on seeing the intended City entertainment to his Majesty 
 announced, and had sent privately to the said City to 
 induce them not to entertain him. After Cromwell, 
 Strode presented himself, to move that some course 
 might be taken for putting the kmgdom in a posture 
 of defence, in which he was seconded by Sir Thomas 
 Barrington and Sir Walter Earle ; and upon the sug- 
 gestion of the same active member, a committee of seven 
 was named to draw up the whole proof of the first 
 design to bring up the Arm}^ to overawe the House, and 
 to prepare for introduction at the next sitting a bill for 
 the " future commanding of the Arms and tlie Trained 
 " Bands of the Idngdom." The member for Beeralston 
 also moved that reasons should at once be presented to 
 his Majesty for the continuance of the Guard over both 
 houses,' and that these should be drawn by the same 
 
 ' This -was on Saturday ; and on and "Westminster. It described the 
 
 the morning of the following Tuesday, jealousy conceived upon discovery 
 
 the 30th of November, Pym presented of the design in Scotland, for the sur- 
 
 those reasons in a remarkable report prising of the persons of divers of the 
 
 which shows how thoroughly existing nobility, members of the i)arliament 
 
 dangers were appreciated, and how there, which had been spoken of here, 
 
 much was already suspected of the some few days before it broke out, 
 
 King's most cherished design. It not without some whispering intima- 
 
 ad verted to the great number of tion tliat the like xvas intended 
 
 disorderly, suspicious, and desjjeratc against divers persons of both houses : 
 
 persons, especially of the Irish which had found the more credit, by 
 
 nation, lurking in obscure alleys reason of the former attempt of bring- 
 
 and victualling houses in the sub- ing up the army, to disturb and 
 
 urbs and other places near London enforce this parliament. It en-
 
 136 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 committee to whom it liad been referred to prepare the 
 Petition to accompan}^ the Remonstrance. After this the 
 House went into committee on the Tonnage and Poundage 
 bill, with Mr. Lisle, the member for Winchester (he who 
 afterwards sat on the King's trial), in the clerk's chair ; 
 and on the Speaker's resumption of his seat, between 
 one and two o'clock mid-day, P3'm entered with the 
 Petition just named in his hand. He craved permis- 
 sion at once to be permitted to read it ; and having done 
 this, it was handed over to the Clerk, who " loudly and 
 " deliberately" read it over again. 
 
 It was to the effect that his Majesty's faithful Commons 
 did with much thankfulness and joy acknowledge the 
 great mercy and favour of God, in giving his Majesty a 
 safe and peaceable return out of Scotland into his king- 
 dom of England, where the pressing dangers and dis- 
 tempers of the State had caused them, with much earnest- 
 ness, to desire the comfort of his gracious presence, to 
 help the endeavours of his parliament for the averting of 
 that ruin and disaster with which his kingdoms at this 
 
 larged upon the conspiracy in Ireland, 
 and indicated the alarming evidence 
 existing that somelMng of the like 
 was designed in England and Scotland. 
 It hinted at divers advertisements 
 coming at the same time from beyond 
 sea, "that there should be a great 
 ' ' alteration of religion in England in 
 " a few days, and that the necks of 
 ' ' both the parliaments should be 
 ' ' broken." It instanced the recent 
 divers examinations and dangerous 
 speeches of the popish and discon- 
 tented party ; and the secret meetings 
 and consultations of the papists in 
 several shires and districts. And its 
 authors concluded that for these con- 
 siderations a guard was necessary ; 
 for they did conceive there was just 
 cause to apprehend that there was 
 some wicked and mischievous practice 
 still in hand to interrupt the peaceable 
 proceedings of the parliament. Nor 
 less necessary did they consider it that 
 the Earl of Essex should be continued 
 
 I the command. ' ' For preventing 
 whereof it is fit the gnard should be 
 continued under the same command, 
 or such other as they should choose ; 
 but, to have it under the command 
 of any other, not chosen by them- 
 selves, they can by no means con- 
 sent to ; and will rather run any 
 hazard, than admit of a precedent 
 so dangerous both to this and future 
 parliaments. And they humbly 
 leave it to his Majesty to consider 
 whether it will not be fit to suffer 
 his high court of parliament to 
 
 ■ enjoy that privilege of providing for 
 their own safety, which was never 
 denied other inferior courts : and 
 that he will be pleased graciously 
 to believe, that they cannot think 
 themselves safe imder any guard, 
 
 ■ of which they shall not be assured 
 that it will be as faithful in defend- 
 ing his Majesty's safety as their 
 own ; whereof they shall always be 
 more careful than of their own,"
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 137 
 
 time were threatened. For, having convinced themselves 
 of the existence of a malignant party who had access to 
 his person and councils, and whose unceasing endeavours 
 were to discredit his parliament and to create a faction 
 among his people, they had, for the prevention thereof, 
 and the better information in sundry important particu- 
 lars of his Majesty, the Peers, and all other his subjects, 
 been necessitated to make a Declaration of the state of 
 the kingdom as well before as after the meeting of the 
 parliament now assembled. Before submitting which, 
 they desired frankly to point out with what danger to the 
 country, and grievous affliction to all loyal dwellers 
 therein, the practice was attended of placing in employ- 
 ments of trust and nearness about his Majesty, the 
 Prince, and the rest of his Eoyal children, active mem- 
 bers of the malignant party before mentioned, favourers 
 in all respects of popery, and mere engineers or factors 
 for Rome ; since it was by such, to the sore discontent 
 of his loyal subjects, that divers of his bishops, and 
 others in prime places of the Church, had been cor- 
 rupted. They justified their right to give this warning, 
 by the distractions and suffering so caused ; by the con- 
 tinual tamperings with the army in England ; by the 
 miserable incidents and jealousies in Scotland ; by the 
 papist insurrection, and most bloody massacre, in Ireland ; 
 and by the great necessities which had in consequence 
 arisen for the King's service, imposing upon themselves 
 the task of burdening the subject for contributions to 
 the extent of a million and a half sterling.' Not distantly 
 
 ^ Since the preceding sheets of this and illustrated the allusions in the 
 
 Essay went to press, some extracts Grand Remonstrance. From Lon- 
 
 from the MS. correspondence of the don, the 14th April, 1628, Sir Ed- 
 
 Moundefords of Norfolk (contributed mund Moundeford, member for Thet- 
 
 to the Norfolk and Norwich Archago- ford in the third Parliament then sit- 
 
 logical Society), have been sent to me, ting, and who sat for Norfolk in the 
 
 from which I select one or two out Long Parliament, writes : ' ' We went 
 
 of the many passages they contain, ' ' this afternoon with our Speaker to 
 
 which may be added to the traits and "the King to deliver him a petition 
 
 characteristics of this lawless time, with "for the billeted souldiers, what 
 
 which in former notes I have explained " answer we shall have is not known.
 
 138 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 pointing at the Queen, they then urgentlj" entreat his 
 Majesty not to suffer any solicitation to the contrar^^ 
 " how powerful and near soever," to turn aside the three 
 requests with which they concluded. — (1). That for the 
 j)reserving the kingdom's peace and safety from the 
 designs of the popish party, his Majesty will, in regard to 
 the bishops,' concur with and second his people's humble 
 desires in a parliamentary way^ to abridge their immode- 
 rate power usurped over the clergy ; to deprive them of 
 their temporal jurisdiction in parliament; to take away 
 such oppressions^ in religion, church government, and 
 
 "Our house proceeds not with that 
 * ' calme it did. God grant a good 
 "end." On the 5th of the following 
 month he writes : ' ' Sorrye am I to 
 "be a messenger of sadd tidings. 
 ' ' The feares of an ill ending of this 
 ' ' Parliament are now growne so great 
 ' ' as they command beliefe. Our last 
 "day is appointed to-morrow seven- 
 ' ' night, and we ai'e as farre from 
 "ending our worke as when wee 
 "began." In the interval between 
 the Third and the Long Parliament, 
 he writes : ' ' We have no new sheriffs 
 ' ' pricked, nor shall not (it is said) 
 " untill the now sheriffs have accounted 
 "for this ship-money: in some 
 ' ' counties they pay, in others not, 
 ' ' and many make the sheriffs take 
 "distress. New impositions are set 
 ' ' upon fruit, silver, pewter, pines, 
 ' ' and divers other things to the value 
 "80,000 li. Tp' aun. There is a 
 '■^patent to he granted for making 
 "Salt, which will make us all smarte.'" 
 From Drury Lane, on the 13th of 
 November 1632, he writes : "On 
 "Wednesday last, one Mr. Palmer 
 " was censured 1,000 li. in the Star 
 "Chamber for living in London con- 
 " ti'ary to the Proclamation, and yet 
 "he was a Batchelor, and never had 
 ''^family, and lately had his man- 
 " sion house burnt in the coimtrie. 
 ''^ There is diligent search made by 
 "the constables of everie ward, and 
 " the names taken of all such lodgers 
 ' ' as lay in towne the last vacation." 
 
 The allusion in this last letter is to 
 one of the most scandalous of all the 
 projects for the plunder of the subject 
 set on foot by this reckless govern- 
 ment to enrich the exhausted treasury 
 of the King. A Proclamation came 
 forth from the Council Table command- 
 ing all who could not shew their stay 
 in London to be absolutely necessary, 
 to go within forty days and reside in 
 their respective counties and at their 
 mansion hoxises, "in order to hinder 
 "them from wasting their estates'' (!); 
 and by the example which Sir Edward 
 Moundeford here furnishes, some idea 
 may be formed of the atrocities per- 
 petrated under cover of this Procla- 
 mation. How truly says Bishop 
 Warburton (Notes on Clarendon, vii. 
 571') that evei-y now and then a story 
 comes out which shews the Court to 
 have been so exceedingly tyrannical 
 as to abate all our wonder at the rage 
 of those who had been oppressed by 
 it. 
 
 ' A great attempt was made, as 
 stated in the text, but unsuccessfully, 
 to limit the expression here to ' ' divers 
 "of the bishops," as in a previous 
 passage. 
 
 ■^ These words, "in a parlia- 
 "mentary way," were moved to be 
 added after the Petition was brought 
 in. 
 
 3 The word ' ' oppressions " hal 
 originally stood " corruptions," and 
 seems to have been changed on JVIr. 
 Coventry's suggestion.
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 139 
 
 discipline, as had teen brought in and fomented by 
 them; and to abate their pressure upon weak consciences 
 by removing such oppressions and unnecessary cere- 
 monies. (2). That the malignant and ill-affected be re- 
 moved from their places of influence, and that in future 
 his Majesty vouchsafe to employ near him, and in great 
 public offices, only such persons as his parhament had. 
 cause to confide in. (3). That such lands in Ireland as 
 may be forfeit to the Crown in consequence of the Rebel- 
 lion, be not alienated from it, but applied to the public 
 necessities. — Which humble desii'es being fulfilled, the 
 authors of the Eemonstrance undertook, by the blessing 
 and favom" of God,' most cheerfully to undergo the 
 hazard and expenses of the war against the Irish rebels, 
 and to apply themselves to such other courses and coun- 
 sels as might, with honour and plenty at home, with 
 power and reputation abroad, support the Eoyal estate, 
 and, by their loyal affections, obedience, and service, lay 
 a sure and lasting foundation for the greatness of the 
 King, and the happiness of his posterity in future times. 
 
 After the Clerk had finished his reading, several mem- 
 bers of Hyde's party stated objections ; " to whom," says 
 D'Ewes, " Mr. Pym answered. Then Sir John Culpeper 
 " answered much of that Mr. P^^m had said, and made 
 " some new objections. Mr. Pym stood up again." But 
 he was not permitted to speak. Mr. Strangways rose 
 to order, many others rose to order, and the interruption 
 was long and vehement. Hampden's authority at length 
 again restored some quiet, upon his suggesting that it would 
 probably be found within the rules of the House that Mr. 
 Pym, being the reporter from the committee which prepared 
 the Petition, might speak more than once, and might answer 
 all objections. Here was opportunity made for D'Ewes ; 
 and that great master of precedents, and voucher of 
 records, was not slow to take advantage of it. He got 
 up and said that it was very true that the worthy gentle - 
 
 ^ "By tbe blessing and favour of motion, during the debate. 
 "God" were words added, upon special
 
 HO HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 man at the Bar (indicating Mr. Pym), being the reporter, 
 might speak as often as occasion should serve ; and yet it 
 was as true, also, that he might speak out of order. For, 
 though he was at liberty to answer new objections that 
 were made, yet, if those answers of his were replied upon, 
 he was not at liberty to speak again to those particular 
 points to which he had spoken before, by way of mere 
 answer to him that did reply upon him. There was, 
 however, no question but that the gentleman on the other 
 side who first interrupted him did himself break the 
 orders of the House in doing so ; because it did not then 
 appear whether the gentleman at the Bar would have 
 answered any new objection, or would simply have 
 spoken again to any of those particulars whereto he had 
 formerly spoken. 
 
 " The distinction I gave," continues D'Ewes, " being 
 " well approved by the House, and some few having 
 " spoken after me, the Speaker directed Mr. Pym to 
 " speak again to any new objection, but not to touch upon 
 " any thing to which he had formerly spoken. And so 
 " he spake again, and answered those new objections 
 " Sir John Culpeper had made. Others spake also, after 
 " him, to the said Petition in general. Then others 
 " moved that it might be read over again, that so every 
 " particular might be debated ; which was at length 
 " agreed unto. So the clerk read it again, and staid at 
 " every clause awhile ; and so some clauses were spoken 
 
 against, and others were agreed unto without any oppo- 
 " sition. In one part of it, we alleged that the popish 
 " and malignant party had corruj)ted divers of the bishops 
 " with popery. In another part, that all the bishops had 
 " exercised usurped authority. Whereupon it was moved, 
 " by one or two, that we would not make the crimination 
 " general here, but that we would put in the word ' divers ' 
 " as we had done in the former place. To which I 
 " stood up and answered, that though some of the bishops 
 " were of themselves so corrupt and bad as they could not 
 " well be made worse, yet the word ' divers ' was necessa-
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 141 
 
 " rily added in that clause, because they were not all so : this 
 " being but a personal crimination. But in the other 
 " clause, the complaint having reference to their pre- 
 " latical jurisdiction, which was equally exercised by 
 " them all, and defended and maintained by them all, 
 " we should as much err on the other hand to add the 
 " word ' divers ' in this place, as we should have done to 
 " omit it in the former place." 
 
 This lucid argument of the correct and learned baronet 
 was doubtless very favourably received, for the word so 
 much desired by Hyde and his friends was not allowed to 
 limit the force of the sentence. But a further stand was 
 attempted to be made against the use of the words " cor- 
 " ruptions " and " unnecessary ceremonies," in speaking 
 of the necessity of abating the immoderate power of the 
 bishops ; Hyde urging strongly that such words laid a 
 scandal upon the law itself, in so characterizing a church 
 discipline it had established. His friend Mr. Coventry 
 also put another objection, whether, seeing the intention 
 was to have those particulars in the discipline of the 
 church altered by law, it was not quite out of rule to 
 " preoccupate " his Majesty with it beforehand. Surely, 
 when the new church-regulation acts should have once 
 passed both houses, then it would be seasonable, and not 
 before, to move his Majesty about it. This, however, 
 again called up D'Ewes. He could not admit the force 
 of the objection taken. It was an old, and he thought a 
 wise usage, when the means offered, to move the Sove- 
 reign beforehand as to particulars proposed to be passed 
 by act of parliament. For if the gentleman on the other 
 side who last pressed it (" and then I looked towards Mr. 
 " Coventry") had but had time to peruse the Parliament 
 Roll de ano. 2^^°. H. IV. no. 23, he would have found that 
 the same course was then advised upon : to the end that 
 so, by knowing the King's inclination beforehand, they 
 might save much time in avoiding to treat of particulars 
 which there was no hope of obtaining his assent unto. And, 
 holding that if it were ever needful to take that course
 
 li-2 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 to gain time, it was so at this moment, he thought the 
 word " corruption " might very well stand. On the 
 whole, however, Pym seems to have thought differently ; 
 whether or not from some feeling of distaste to the logic 
 employed, or to the sentiments expressed, hy Sir Simonds; 
 and " corruption '" having been withdrawn, and " oppres- 
 " sion " substituted, the Petition passed. 
 
 It now remained to present it to the King, with which 
 view it was ordered to be engrossed ; and direction was 
 given that the Clerk should also cause two copies of the 
 Declaration itself to be fair written, one for his Majesty 
 to be presented with the Petition, the other for the 
 Lords ; and that the Committee for presenting it should 
 be named at the next sitting but one. On Tuesday, 
 the 30th, it was accordingly moved that this committee 
 should consist of twelve members, and the twelve selected 
 were, Sir Simonds D'Ewes ; Sir Arthur Ingram, member 
 for Kellington ; Sir James Tliinne, who sat for Wilt- 
 shire ; Mr. Henry Bellasis, and Lord Fairfax (Ferdinando), 
 who both sat for Yorkshire ; Lord Grey of Groby, member 
 for Leicester, Earl Stamford's second son, and hereafter to 
 sit among the regicides ; Sir Christopher Wray, who 
 represented Great Grimsby ; Sir John Corbet, member 
 for Shropshire ; Sir Richard Wynne, member for 
 Liverpool, who held an office in the King's house ; 
 
 1 Nevertheless, and notwitlistand- ' ' them), ia Religion, in Church 
 ing the change of this word, it is " Government, and in Discipline, and 
 remarkable that in the answer which " the removing of such unnecessai-y 
 the King sent to the Petition (in "ceremonies, &c." Again he says, 
 which he stigmatises the Remon- ' ' We are very sorry to hear in such 
 strance as "unparliamentary," and " general terms. Corruption in religion 
 intinxates his surprise that " our ex- " objected," &c. Now in the Petition 
 "press intimation, by our Comptroller, as published by the House it will be 
 "to that purpose," should not have found that the clause stands ex- 
 restrained them from the publishing pressly as concerning " Oppressions in 
 of it till such time as they should ' ' Religion, Church Government, and 
 have received his answer), he quotes, " Discipline, and again as referring 
 not from the Petition as amended, to " some Oppi-essions aud iinnecessary 
 but from some copy of it which he had " ceremonies ; " bearing out and con- 
 received in its original form. "Unto firming exactly the narrative given in 
 " that clause," he says, " which con- my text. 
 * ' cemeth Corruptions (as you style
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 143 
 
 and Sir Balpli Hopton, Sii* Edward Dering, and Sir 
 Ai-thur Haselrig. There was here a liberal apportion- 
 ment of those who, being known to have opposed the 
 Declaration, were less likely to be unwelcome to the 
 King; and that the same tenderness on this point 
 determined Pym to withdraw his own name, which 
 appeared among those first selected,' hardly admits of 
 a doubt. The same deference to the feelings of the 
 Sovereign seems also to have suggested a resolution 
 moved the next morning (when the Committee were in 
 waiting in the house to receive the Petition and Piemon- 
 strance, and repair therewith to Hampton Court) to the 
 effect " that Sir Edward Dering should present and read 
 " the Petition unto his Majesty." The Petition only was 
 to be read, after which the Remonstrance was to be 
 placed in his hands. Sir Edward Dering, however, 
 probably suspecting that into much consideration for 
 the King in this matter had entered not a little want 
 of consideration for himself, quietly withdrew from the 
 house while the resolution was in hand; and upon discovery 
 of his absence another order had to be substituted, 
 " that Sir Ralph Hopton, in the absence of Sir Edward 
 " Dering, shall read the Petition and present that and 
 " the Declaration unto his Majesty." 
 
 And so, the Speaker calling to Sir Simonds D'Ewes to 
 receive Petition and Remonstrance, to which Sir Simonds 
 responds by advancing from the lower end to the table, 
 making three congees as he moves along, the Committee 
 get possession of their important charge, and betake 
 themselves to Hampton Court. 
 
 The next day, Thursday the 2d of December, Sir 
 Ralph Hopton reported to the House what had passed 
 there. With the exception of Sir Edward Dering, all the 
 deputation assembled,^ and on arrival at the palace, the 
 
 1 See Rushworth, vol. L part iii. "by myself and ten other members 
 486. "of the House," which shews that 
 
 2 D'Ewes has subsequent occasion the only defaulter in attendance, out 
 to refer in his Journal to the Eemon- of the twelve named, was Sir Edward 
 strance " presented at Hampton Court Dering.
 
 in HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 member for Liverpool, who had familiar entrance therein, 
 having announced them, they had to wait hut a quarter 
 of an hour before the King invited them to his chamber. 
 Here they sank upon the knee, and in this posture Sir 
 Ralph began to read the Petition. But Charles would 
 not have it so, and making them all rise, listened atten- 
 tively as Sir Ralph proceeded, until he came to the 
 passage charging the malignant party with a design 
 to change the established religion, when his Majesty 
 suddenly interrupted him, exclaiming with a great 
 deal of fervency, " The Devil take him, whomsoever 
 " he be, that hath a design to change our religion ! " 
 Then Sir Ralph resumed; but just after reading the 
 sentence towards the close about reserving the disposal 
 of the rebels' lands in Ireland, his Majesty again broke 
 in and was pleased to say, " We must not dispose of the 
 " Bear's skin till the Bear be dead." His Majest}^ in 
 short, was in excellent spirits ; showed none of his usual 
 short sharp ways ; and, after they had finished reading 
 the Petition and had placed the Remonstrance before him, 
 seemed perfectly disposed to have some familiar tallc with 
 the Committee. Its object, however, speedily revealed 
 itself on his desiring merely to ask the worthy members a 
 few questions touching this Remonstrance and the Petition 
 they had read. Royalist as he was, Sir Ralph Hopton 
 saw the danger, and made reply respectfully that they 
 had no commission to speak anything concerning the 
 business. " Then," the King quickly rejoined, " you 
 " may speak as particular men. Doth the House intend 
 " to publish this Declaration ? " But not so were 
 those ancient parliament men to be thrown off their 
 guard ; and they answered simply that they could give 
 no answer to it. " Well then," said the King, "I sup- 
 " pose you do not expect nie to answer now to so long 
 " a petition. But this let me tell you, I have left Scot- 
 " land well, and in peace ; they are all satisfied with me, 
 " and I with them ; and though I stayed longer there 
 " than I expected, yet I think, if I had not gone, you had
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 145 
 
 " not been rid so soon of the army. And as to this 
 " business of yours, I shall give you an answer with as 
 " much speed as the weightiness of the business will 
 " permit." With which he gave them his hand to kiss, 
 committing them to the entertainment of his comptroller, 
 and the lodgment of his harbinger ; both being of the 
 worthiest. And Sir Ralph craved to conclude his report 
 with faithful repetition of the royal message which, just 
 as they were on the point of leaving the palace, was 
 brought to them with request for its immediate delivery 
 to the House of Commons : " That there might he no 
 " publishing of the Declaration till the Souse had received his 
 " Majesty's ansiver." 
 
 The reader will now judge to what extent the facts 
 justify Clarendon in stating, that, when it was finally 
 resolved to publish the Remonstrance, this was done in 
 violation of a compact or understanding against any such 
 step until the King's answer was received. On the one 
 side there was a strong wish expressed undoubtedly, but 
 on the other this wish was met by neither compact nor 
 understanding. If indeed there were any violation in 
 the case, it might more fairly be charged upon the King. 
 He told the Committee that he did not at that time 
 design to answer their Remonstrance, yet there was 
 hardly an act at this moment contemplated by him, or 
 to which he had set his hand since his arrival in London, 
 which did not practically express his answer. It was 
 in his proclamation for obedience to the laws regu- 
 lating worship, in his order for the dismissal of the City 
 Guard over the houses, in his direction that they 
 should in future be guarded by the bands of Westminster 
 and Middlesex officered by his own servants, and in his 
 proposed removal of Balfour from the command of the 
 Tower. Already he had ended all doubt as to the temper 
 in which he had returned ; and many to whom even the 
 voting of the Remonstrance had appeared of doubtful 
 expediency, now saw and admitted the necessity of pub- 
 lishing it to the people. Manifestly at least had its
 
 146 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 promoters succeeded in its first design ; for the challenge 
 it threw down had been promptly taken up. If the 
 King had been sincere in liis former professions of 
 an intention to govei-n for the future within the limits 
 of the laws he had himself assented to, there was 
 nothing in the Bemonstrance to defeat that intention ; 
 but if he had any other as yet masked desire or 
 purpose, such was no longer maintainable. He never 
 liad a better opportunity than the present for betaking 
 himself to parliamentary ways of asserting his power and 
 prerogatives, but events were speedily to show with what 
 far other views he was now inviting into office two out of 
 those three of the House of Commons (calling also into 
 secret council the third) who had organised and led the 
 new party of his friends within its walls. Something 
 less than twelve days are to pass before the debate which 
 is to put finally before the j)eople the Grand Remon- 
 strance, and if the wish still lingered with Hampden or 
 with Pym to have been saved, if possible, the necessity of 
 that appeal, each day supi^lied its argument against such a 
 possibility. I will select but a few, from the manuscript 
 records before me, to show with what resistless march, 
 as day followed day, the crisis came on. 
 
 The rumoured removal of Balfour from the command 
 of the Tower was the first direct challenge to the House. 
 Balfoiu" stood high in their confidence for his unshaken 
 fidehty in preventing the escape of Stratford, whereas 
 Clarendon himself admits' that Lunsford, selected to 
 replace him, was a man of no education, of ill cha- 
 racter, and of decayed and desperate fortune, who had 
 been obliged, but a few years before, to avoid by flight 
 
 ' Though of course, as with all trusted, he selected Lunsford as one 
 
 the acts of the King which had im- who would be faithful to him for this 
 
 mediately disastrous issue, he makes obligation, and execute anything he 
 
 Lord Digby the scapegoat, and should desire of direct. In other 
 
 cliarges the ill counsel upon him. words, as is remarked by Warburton 
 
 — HUt. ii. 123. The King's object, (vii. 547), who puts in plain speech 
 
 as Clarendon frankly admits, was that Clarendon's laboured pei-iphi-asis, " <o 
 
 having now some secret reason to fill '•'keep the Five Members safe wh'.m 
 
 the place with a man who might be "it was determined to arrest."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 147 
 
 into France the penalty of punishment for a grave 
 misdemeanour. Such indeed was the feeling in the City 
 aroused by his appointment when, in less than three 
 weeks from this time, it actually took place, that under 
 the pressure of very alarming indications of riot, the King 
 had to withdraw it. Even already a certain uneasy feeling 
 in the City connected itself with a sense of the insecurity 
 of the Tower, and the report of Balfour's removal led to 
 some tumultuous gatherings on the Monday after the 
 King's return, and spread great alarm among the well- 
 affected. 
 
 That was on the 29th of November. On the morning 
 of that same day, the new Guard to the houses was sent 
 imder command of Lord Dorset by the Kmg, by way of 
 reply to the reasons drawn up by Pym' and presented in 
 the name of both houses ; and before the day had closed, 
 swords were drawn and muskets fired upon the people.' 
 It was thus fast coming to an issue outside the walls of 
 parliament, upon the suggestion or incitement of the 
 sovereign ; invitations were going out to the people to 
 throw on either side their weight into the scale ; and soon 
 perforce the question must arise to which of the parties 
 contending that power would most freel}'' lend itself, to 
 uphold monarchical pretension, or to strengthen and 
 establish parliamentary privilege. 
 
 On the morning of the 30th of November, Pym, 
 Hampden, and Holies went up to the Lords -s^itli a 
 message for the discharge of the train-bands which the 
 King had so substituted for their own. As Clarendon puts 
 it, " since they could not have such a guard as pleased 
 " them, they would have none at all" (ii. 80). And so, 
 the Lords consenting, Lord Dorset and his followers were 
 dismissed, the Commons at the same time declaring that 
 it should be lawful, in tlie absence of a guard duly 
 
 ' See ante, p. 135. "commanded some of the guard to 
 
 ^ "The Earl of Dorset's indiscreet "give fire upon some of the citizens 
 
 "rashness this day," writes D'Ewes, "of London in tht Court of Requests 
 
 on the 20th, " might have occasioned " or near it." 
 
 "the shedding of much blood — he
 
 148 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 appointed, for eveiy member to bring his own servants to 
 attend at the door, armed with such weapons as they 
 thought fit.' 
 
 The next move in the perilous game was made by- 
 Hyde and his party, to whom the popular riot of Monday 
 oif ered good pretence for complaint of such pressure and 
 coercion as " consisted not with the freedom of parha- 
 "ment." In that exj^ression their whole policy revealed 
 itself; its entire aim and end lay there ; and, in the same 
 temper which had now supplied the occasion, it was 
 eagerly followed up. It is not, I think, possible to doubt, 
 that, from the day when Charles had left for Scotland in 
 the autumn, his cherished and steadily pursued purpose 
 W'as to find ground for revoking whatever had been done 
 that was unpalatable to him during the past year ; and 
 such ground would be furnished by the pretence that 
 parliament had not been free. Every act of himself or 
 his partisans, therefore, assumed now that specific form 
 and direction. The case of the protesters against the 
 Grand Remonstrance he took where they left it, and 
 made his own. Not they who passed it, but they who 
 protested against it, were his faithful Commons. But 
 they were under a tyrann}' both witliin and "\\^thout the 
 house which prevented fair expression of opinion. 
 
 On the return of the leaders to their seats after removal 
 of Lord Dorset's men, at mid-day of the 30th of November, 
 Hyde rose, and craving leave to advert again to the 
 incident of the guard, taxed the London citizens and 
 apprentices with having come on the previous day armed 
 with swords and staves to Westminster specially to 
 overawe particular members from votmg as they wished. 
 He was interrupted by the demand for instances ; upon 
 which Sir John Strangways said aside to those who sat 
 near him, that he could extinguish some loud talkers and 
 
 1 Such is Clarendon's account "Mr. Glyn and Mr. Wheeler do 
 
 {Hist. ii. 86), but the notice in the "require the High Constable of 
 
 journals of the 30th of November " Westminster to provide a strong 
 
 simply says — "Ordered, that the "and sufficient watch in their 
 
 " guard shall be dismissed ; and that "steads."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 149 
 
 interrupters in that house perhaps were he to tell what he 
 knew. " Tell it, then," was the cry of one who overheard 
 him ; and the member for Weymouth rose, nothing loath. 
 He wished Mr. Speaker to inform him whether the pri- 
 vilege of parliament was not utterly broken if men might 
 not come in safely to give their votes freely ? Well, then, 
 he must tell them that he had received information of a 
 plot or conspiracy for the destruction of some of the mem- 
 bers of that house, which he conceived to be little less 
 than treason; and he had moreover grounds to believe 
 that some other of the members of that house were 
 either contrivers of it, or had consented to it; and he 
 therefore desired that the Lord Falkland, Sir John 
 Culpeper, and some three others, might be appointed a 
 select committee to examine the matter. Upon which 
 not very impartial projDOsal arose, not unnatm^ally, great 
 murmurs, ending in peremptory order that Sir John 
 should i^resently declare the Avhole matter in particulars, 
 and not lay suspicion and charge indiscriminately upon 
 members of the house. Authority for the statement was 
 handed in accordingly, and proved to be to the effect' that 
 a certain " lusty young man," a haberdasher's apprentice 
 in Distaff Lane, had boasted to certain parties of having 
 been one among a thousand or so, who with swords and 
 staves had betaken themselves to Westminster Palace 
 Yard ; his master, who was a constable, having given him 
 
 * I furnish these curious details " in Gracious Street between nine and 
 
 from the manuscript Journal so often " ten of the clock," when that very 
 
 referred to ; the paper produced by respectable lad, Stephen, came in 
 
 Strangways being entitled " A brief Bomewhat elatedly to tell his uncle 
 
 "of the Discourse had between one the news above mentioned. Mr. 
 
 "Cole, an apprentice to Mi-. Mans- Kirton's respectable citizen, on the 
 
 "field, an haberdasher in Distaff other hand, whose mau came to 
 
 "Lane, and one John Nicholson, him when he was smoking with his 
 
 "D.D., in the presence of Stephen friend Mr. Farlow of Wood Street, 
 
 " Tirrett, uncle to the said Cole, and was one Mr. Lavender; and the 
 
 "John Derivale, both Chelmsford witnesses who signed the relation 
 
 "men." The Rev. Doctor is the averred that when Mr. Lavender 
 
 informant, and appears to have been heard what his man told him he 
 
 sitting conversing with the said instantly departed, "and the rest of 
 
 Tirrett and Derivale, probably on " the com{)any were much troubled." 
 theological subjects, "in his lodgings
 
 150 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 a sword and ordered him to go ; in fact, that some parlia- 
 ment Qien had sent for them ; and that the intent of their 
 going was because of news of some certain division among 
 the members of tlie lower house, in which the best-affected 
 party, whom they were to assist, were likely to be over- 
 borne by the others ; but that finding all quiet, and both 
 sides agreeing well together, they had come home again. 
 
 Yes, well, and is this all ? became the cry when Sir 
 John Strangway's relation was ended. Where, then, 
 is the e\idence against members of this house, and 
 who are the members impugned ? " That I can 
 " answer," cried an active partizan of Hyde's, Mr. 
 Kirton, the member for Milboru Port; who thereupon 
 handed in a further piece of evidence, to the effect that 
 a worthy London citizen, being in Wood-street taking 
 tobacco with some friends on the day in question, there 
 came liis man to him and brought him word that a 
 message was arrived from Captain Ven (member for 
 London, he who afterwards sat on the trial of the King) 
 to desire him to come away speedily armed to the House 
 of Commons, for swords were there drawn, and the well- 
 affected party was like to be overborne by the others. 
 During the reading of this paper Captain Ven came into 
 his place, and would -at the moment have answered to it ; 
 but the House thought it not fit till somewhat were 
 proved, and, as to the preceding relation, conceived 
 that Sir John Strangways had considerably overstated 
 himself, and had ventured upon an accusation which his 
 information in no respect warranted. On which Pym, 
 rising with unusual gravity of manner, put this very 
 significant question to Mr. Speaker : " Whether, 
 " though the worthy member had failed to prove Ids 
 " charge of a conspiracy, either contrived or consented 
 " to by members unnamed, for the destruction of other 
 " members more plainly referred to, he had yet not 
 " succeeded in proving very fully, that there was a 
 " conspiracy by some members of this house to accuse other 
 " members of the same of Treason ? "
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 151 
 
 On the second of December, and on the third, the subject 
 of these out-of-door demonstrations continued still under 
 debate. Edmund Waller inveighed much against the 
 Londoners for coming to Westminster in so tumultuous 
 a manner and crying openly, No Bishops ! no Bishops ! 
 and boldly justified the Earl of Dorset in the course he 
 had taken, saying he had done nothing but what he was 
 necessitated unto. Strode took the other side as warmly, 
 declaring that the citizens had not come in any tumultuous 
 or unlawful manner. Culpeper answered him, and in 
 rough overbearing speech reiterated the charge that there 
 had been a very unjustifiable tumult. To him succeeded 
 D'Ewes, who declared himself of Mr. Strode's opinion, 
 and that it was matter for grave inquir}^ that the Lord 
 Dorset should have advised his musqueteers to shoot the 
 citizens, and his pikemen to run them through, when 
 they came simply, with all affection and faithfulness to 
 the House, to attend the issue of their petitions to the 
 high court of Parliament. Whereupon again started 
 up Sir John Culpeper, speaking to order, and calling 
 upon Sir Simonds D'Ewes to explain what he meant by 
 
 talking of But then Sir Walter Earle rose to order 
 
 from the other side, and said that no individual had the 
 right, except with authority of the whole House, to 
 take exceptions to what had fallen from any member. 
 Culpeper hereon resumed his seat, and D'Ewes himself 
 was heard to the point of order. He simply desired 
 the gentleman on the other side of the way might be 
 allowed to speak, and to name the words he would except 
 against. On which Culpeper stood up again and said, 
 more mildl}^ that what he intended to have remarked was 
 out of a great deal of respect to the worthy member who 
 had just spoken, well knowing he had no ill intention, 
 whatever words might slip from him. But what did he 
 mean by mentioning the citizens' "loyalty" to that house? 
 Was loyalty due, and to be paid, there or elsewhere ? 
 " Which very words," interposes D'Ewes in his Journal, 
 " I either certainly spake not at all, or not in one
 
 152 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 " common clause together." (In his own report, in the 
 same manuscript record, the words are " affection and 
 " faithfulness," not loyalty.) " Wherefore I stood up 
 " myself, not one man calling on me, to explain ; and 
 " I said ' For the words themselves, I do not remember 
 " ' that I spake them, and for that I appeal to the whole 
 " ' House ' (upon which there followed a great silence, 
 " and I did not hear one man second Sir John Culpeper's 
 " charge). ' But if I had spoken the words, I conceive 
 " ' that gentleman would take no exception to them if he 
 " ' will but peruse Littleton in his chapter of Homage, 
 " ' where he will find that one subject may owe loyalty 
 " ' to another without breach of his loyalty to the King.' 
 " Whereupon the House rested satisfied. Sir John Cul- 
 " peper sat silent ; and many laughed at the impertinence 
 " of his exception, hearing how fully I had answered him 
 " upon the sudden. In which," adds the good Sir 
 Simonds in a parenthesis, "I did very much acknowledge 
 " God's assistance in furnishing me with so apt and 
 " present a reply." 
 
 The temper of the majority of the House, in close juxta- 
 position and contrast Avith that of its minority of royalist 
 opposition, appears in these curious and valuable records ; 
 and still more unmistakeably was it shown in the after- 
 noon of that same 3d of December, when Pym rose and 
 called attention to the stoppage of all legislative business 
 by the rejection of, or refusal of the Lords to proceed 
 with, various bills that had been sent to the upper 
 house. He moved for a committee to review what bills 
 they had passed and the Lords had rejected, and the 
 reasons why; and if the Lords would not join with them,' 
 
 > It was but a few weeks after this "whicliwe never intended; so that 
 
 that Pym summed up these and similar ' ' we may justly purge ourselves from 
 
 obstructions made by the Lords, at a "all guilt of being authors of this 
 
 conference with that House, and closed "jealousy and misunderstanding, 
 
 his speech in these very memorable " We have been, and are still, ready 
 
 words : "to serve his Majesty with our lives 
 
 "We have often suflfered under the "and fortunes, with as much cheer- 
 
 " misinterpretation of good actions, " fulness and earnestness of affection 
 
 "and false imputation of evil ones "as ever any subjects were ; and we
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 153 
 
 then let them go to the King ; having first put their 
 Declaration before the people, which would enable them 
 to see where the obstructions lay. " We may have our 
 " part in the misery occasioned," he said, " let us be 
 " careful that we have no part in the guilt or the dis- 
 " honour." He further threw out the suggestion that since 
 the Lords possessed the undoubted right to protest in 
 their individual capacity, and were not constitutionally 
 involved by the major part, it would be well that they 
 should take those protesting Lords with them, and repre- 
 sent jointl}^ to the King the causes of obstruction. A 
 proposal which called forth instantly a retort from the 
 quarter where Hyde's party sat ; for up sprang Mr. 
 Francis Godolphin, Edmund Waller's colleague in the 
 representation of St. Ives, and asked Mr. Speaker to 
 inform him, whether, if the majority of that House 
 went to the King with the lesser j)art of the Lords, 
 " the greater part of the Lords might not go to the King 
 *' ivith the lesser part of us." Mr. Godolphin's sugges- 
 tion was startling, and he was reprimanded and had 
 to make due submission for it ; ' but nothing could more 
 
 '• doubt not but oui" proceedings will 
 ' so manifest this, that we shall be 
 ' as clear in the apprehension of the 
 ' world, as we are in the testimony 
 ' of our own consciences. I am 
 ' now come to a conclusion. I have 
 ' nothing to propound to your Lord- 
 ' ships by way of regret or desire 
 ' from the House of Commons. I 
 ' doubt not but your judgments will 
 ' tell you what is to be done. Your 
 ' consciences, your honours, your 
 ' interests, will call upon you for the 
 ' doing of it. The Commons will be 
 ' glad to have your concurrence and 
 ' help in saving of the kingdom ; but 
 ' if they fail of it, it shall not dis- 
 ' courage them in doing their duty. 
 ' And whether the kingdom be lost 
 ' or saved, (I hope, through God's 
 ' blessing, it will be saved !) they 
 ' shall be sorry that the story of 
 ' this present parliament should tell 
 
 ' ' posterity, that in so great a danger 
 "and extremity the House of Com- 
 " mons should be enforced to save 
 "the kingdom alone, and that the 
 ' ' Peers should have no part in the 
 ' ' honour of the preservation of it ; 
 " having so great an interest in the 
 ' ' good success of those endeavours, 
 " in respect of their great estates and 
 " high degrees of nobility." 
 
 ' " Ordered that on Tuesday next 
 ' ' the House shall take into considera- 
 " tion the offence now given by words 
 "si>okenby Mr. Godolphin." — Corn- 
 moils' Journals, 3rd Dec. The offence 
 is not further specified. On the Tues- 
 day named, an order appears ' ' that the 
 " House do take into consideration, ou 
 "Thursday next, sucii words spoken 
 " by members of this House, to which 
 ' ' formerly exception hath been 
 " taken." — Journals, 7th Dec. Alas .' 
 however, on the Thursday named 
 II 3
 
 154 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 perfectly have revealed all that at this time filled the 
 minds and hopes of the King and his friends. And if the 
 right blow could only be aimed, at the right time, against 
 the leaders of the Commons, the way to its accomplishment 
 seemed not remote. 
 
 That was on Friday the 3d. On Monday the 6th, 
 
 Cromwell brought forward a case of interference by a 
 
 peer with House of Commons privileges, which had no 
 
 tendency to abate the prevailing excitement. He charged 
 
 Lord Arundel with having sought unduly to influence and 
 
 intimidate burgesses of the borough of Arundel in regard 
 
 to new elections. This appears to have raised an animated 
 
 debate, in the course of which a doctrine laid down by 
 
 Hyde and Cidpeper, to the effect that Lords might "write 
 
 " commendatory letters" during the progress of an election, 
 
 was somewhat roughly handled. But Tuesday the 7th 
 
 saw a still more startling proposition launched from the 
 
 other side — a proposition so notable indeed, that Clarendon 
 
 in his History is disposed to single it out, and set it 
 
 apart, as the sole cause and ground of all the mischiefs 
 
 which ensued. Nevertheless it will probably seem to us, 
 
 after watching the course of events immediately before and 
 
 since the return of the King, but as an advance or step, 
 
 hardly avoidable, in the hazardous path which had been 
 
 entered. The necessity of greatly increasing the forces 
 
 of the realm was not more obvious, than the danger of 
 
 entrusting to an executive in whom no confidence was 
 
 placed, the uncontrolled power of disposing those forces. 
 
 The disaffected spirit of the army, as now officered, 
 
 and in the midst of a frightful rebellion raging in one 
 
 of the three kingdoms, was no longer matter of doubt. 
 
 Irrefragable proofs of the second army plot had been 
 
 completed ; and resolutions were at this time prepared, 
 
 to take effect on the day after that to which my narrative 
 
 has arrived, disabling four of those officers, men high in 
 
 (the 16th), occurred the King's great matter was again deferred. I have 
 breach of privilege in taking notice not cared to pursue it further, 
 of a Bill while in progress, and the
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 155 
 
 the King's confidence and to whom he afterwards gave 
 peerages, from their seats in the lower house as guilty 
 of misprision of treason ; by name Wilmot, Pollard, 
 Ashburnham, and Piercy, members for Tamworth, 
 Beeralston, Ludgershall (Wilts), and Northumberland. 
 The distrust felt by the Commons on the King's removal 
 of their guard, the resolutions as to the defence of the 
 kingdom which they passed on that troubled Saturday 
 after his return, and the incident now to be related, 
 receive only their full explanation from keeping such facts 
 in view. 
 
 On Tuesday, the 7th of December, Sir Arthur Haselrig 
 rose in his usual place in the gallery of the house, and 
 presented a Bill for settling the militia of the kingdom 
 by sea and land, under a Lord General and a High 
 Admiral, to whom it gave great powers to raise and levy 
 forces. It was styled An Act for the making of (Blank) 
 Lord General of all the Forces within the kingdom of 
 England and dominion of Wales, and (Blank) Lord High 
 Admiral of England. Clarendon says that this bill had 
 been privately prepared by the King's solicitor, St. John ; 
 and that his influence as a lawyer, on his declaring the 
 existing law to have been so unsettled by disabling votes 
 of the two houses that a special enactment was become ab- 
 solutely necessary, mainly led to the bill being permitted 
 to be read. But while his statements here are to be taken 
 with even more than the usual caution,' it is to be 
 
 1 Perhaps no more remarkable the house, as if by mere chance, 
 
 ■warning could be given of the scru- which produced many inconveniences 
 
 pulous care with which ClafSiidon's thereafter ; and, indeed, if there had 
 
 Histbi'y sliouTd_be_ rea(lJ''aii3"'of 'the not been too many concurrent causes, 
 
 danger of trusting io its statements might be thought the sole cause and 
 
 even where there is no suspicion of ground of all the mischiefs which 
 
 bad faith, than is afforded by his ensued. And then he describes "an 
 
 account of the first introduction of "obscure member" moving unex- 
 
 this Bill for putting the power of the pectedly "that the House would euter 
 
 militia substantially into the hands of " upon the consideration whether the 
 
 the House of Commons. In his ' ' Militia of the kingdom was so 
 
 Fourth Book (ii. 76), speaking of the " settled by law that a sudden force, 
 
 exact period to which my text refers, " or army, could be drawn together 
 
 he says that there was "at this time, " for the defence of the kingdom, if 
 
 " or thereabout," a debate started in "it should be invaded, or to suppress
 
 156 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 remarked that D'Ewes, while he says nothing absolutely 
 inconsistent therewith, does not expressly confirm them ; 
 
 ' ' aa iusurrection or rebellion, if it 
 " should be attempted." He goes ou 
 to say that the House kept a long 
 silence after the motion, the newniess 
 of it amazing (until the edition of 
 1826, this word had been printed 
 "amusing") most men, and few in 
 truth understanding the meaning of 
 it ; until sundry other members, not 
 among the leading men, appeared to 
 be so moved by the weight of what 
 had been said, that it grew to the 
 proposition of a committee for pre- 
 paring such a bill, whereupon Mr. 
 Hyde so strongly opposed it as en- 
 croaching on the royal prerogative, 
 that the House appeared satisfied to 
 take up another subject : when the 
 king's solicitor, St. John, "and the 
 ' ' only man in the house of his leai-ned 
 "council," got U23 and questioned Mr. 
 Hyde's law, observing that the ques- 
 tion was not about taking away 
 power from the King (which it was 
 his duty always to oppose), but to 
 inquire if the sufficient and necessary 
 power existed at all. This he re- 
 gretted to say he did not believe, 
 supporting his opinion by the many 
 adverse votes which that House had 
 passed against tlie ordinary modes of 
 levy in the King's name by means of 
 commissions to Loi'd Lieutenants and 
 their subordinates ; and the result of 
 his display of learning was, that in 
 the end he was himself requested to 
 introduce such a bill, which, within 
 a few days after, was actually brought 
 in, enacting "that lienceforward the 
 " militia, and all the powers thereof, 
 
 " should be vested in -" and then 
 
 a large blank was left for inserting 
 names, in which blank, the Solicitor 
 urged, they miglit for aught he knew 
 insert the King's, and he hoped it 
 would be so. This bill, he concludes, 
 notwithstanding all opposition, was 
 read, "they who had contiived it 
 ' ' being well enough contented that it 
 "was once read; not desiring to 
 "prosecute it, till some more favour- 
 
 ' ' able conjuncture should be offered : 
 " and so it rested." (ii. 80.) 
 
 Now having proceeded so far, let the 
 reader turn back to the Third Book of 
 the same History (i. 486), and he 
 will there find that the same his- 
 torian, professing to speak of the 
 period immediately before the King's 
 departure for Scotland, antedates the 
 whole of the transaction just de- 
 scribed; and narrates quite differently, 
 and as though impelled by motives and 
 inducements altogether different,events 
 precisely the same. His object now is 
 to show that the leaders of the House 
 were anxious to prevent the King's 
 departure by warning him that he 
 was leaving afiairs in a dangerously 
 unsettled state, and without sufficient 
 powers inherent to the laws and con- 
 stitution to meet the danger. " And 
 "therefore," he continues, "one day 
 "Sir Arthur Haselrig (who, as was 
 " said before, was used by the leading 
 " men, like the dove out of the ark, 
 " to try what footing there was) pre- 
 " ferred a bill for the settling the 
 ' ' Militia of the kingdom both by sea 
 ' ' and land in such persons as they 
 "should nominate." He adds that 
 there were in the bill no names, but 
 blanks to receive them, when the 
 matter should be passed ; and that 
 when the mere title of the bill was 
 read, it gave so general an offence to 
 the House that they seemed inclined to 
 throw it out, without suffering it to 
 be read : not without some reproach 
 to the person that brought it in " as 
 "a matter of sedition:" till Mr. 
 St. John, the King's Solicitor, rose up 
 and spake to it, and ("having in 
 "trutli himself drawn the bill") de- 
 fended its provisions, declaring his 
 belief as a lawyer, that the power it 
 proposed to settle was not yet by law 
 vested in any person or in the Crown 
 itself, the House by their votes having 
 blasted the former modes of proceeding 
 by the ordinary royal commissions to 
 Lord Lieutenants and their deijuties ;
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 157 
 
 and D'Ewes's account, of which I proceed to give an 
 abstract from his manuscript, is the onl}" other on record, 
 so far as I am aware, of this memorable debate. 
 
 Haselrig had scarcely named the provisions of the bill 
 when a great many members cried, "Away with it!" 
 and others that they should " Cast it out ! " Sir John 
 Culpeper started up on the instant of Haselrig's resuming 
 his seat, and after wondering that the gentleman in the 
 gallery should bring in such a bill, moved at once that 
 it be rejected. Sir Thomas Barriugton, though he had 
 voted -with the majority in all the Remonstrance debates, 
 regretted that he could not support the particular 
 measui'e, and wished it might be thrown out; but he 
 thought another less objectionable should be brought in 
 Strode " and others " spoke for it 
 
 with similar design 
 
 that such a bill therefore was neces- 
 sary ; and that for the nomination 
 of persons under it, this was a matter 
 not requiring to be settled on the 
 reading of the bill, for if it seemed 
 too great for any subject it might be 
 devolved upon the Crown. ' ' Upon 
 "which discourse," Clarendon con- 
 cludes, "by a person of the King's 
 ' ' sworn council, the bill was read ; but 
 ' ' with so universal a dislike, that it 
 ' ' was never called upon the second 
 ' ' time, but slept, till, long after, 
 "the matter of it was digested in 
 "ordinances" (i. 488). 
 
 Infinite of course has been the confu- 
 sion, to readers, consequent on these 
 two versions of thesame incident, dated 
 at different times, and having objects 
 quite dissimilar ; aud it has still 
 further beeu increased by a state- 
 ment of Nalson's (CoZ/ed/o/is, ii. 719) 
 that Haselrig's bill was rejected in- 
 dignantly on its introduction, by a 
 majority of 158 to 105. The one 
 point on which Clarendon is not in- 
 accurate is, in statiug, in both his 
 narratives, that the bill was read. 
 The error in this respect has arisen 
 from a too hasty reading of the 
 Commons' Journals (ii. ii34), where 
 the Yeas at the division appear un- 
 
 doubtedly as 125 (not 105), and the 
 Noes as 158 ; but it has been over- 
 looked that the division was taken 
 not on the question whether the bill 
 shoiild be read, but whether it should 
 be rejected. The names of the tellers 
 are quite decisive, Culpeper and Corn- 
 wallis being for the Yeas, and Denzil 
 Holies and Sir W'". Armyn (member 
 for Grantham, and afterwards a 
 king's judge) for the Noes. Even 
 that generally accurate and reliable 
 writer, Mr. Bruce, has fallen into 
 error on this point (see Verney's 
 Notes, p. 132), and supposes the bill 
 to have been rejected. I take the 
 opportunity of adding that Nalson's 
 Collections, which, by some^'fiSfli^,- 
 orWHSfy freak In the fortunes of 
 books, has been generally accepted as 
 an authority on these times, is an 
 utt erly un trustworthy farrago of 
 vioIenF^^Tty r uU mslT, "^^OTS^jiled 
 to wards lEe" close of CharlS?" the 
 Second's reign, for the special delec- 
 tatfoiTTJf Tus M.tjusty and as an 
 antidote to raisliworth, by an uu- 
 scrupuTous royali.-t partizau who had 
 him'Sclf no personal knowledge of the 
 eveiits over which h'^ c\'Pf.'"ise'c^. an 
 unlimited right of t!: ' abuse 
 
 and misrepresentati
 
 158 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 strongl}'; and then D'Ewes himself rose and made a 
 lengthy speech in its favour, duly self-reported, but with 
 which the reader need not be troubled. Divers followed 
 him, speaking on either side, some for, and others against 
 the bill, and many using violent expressions against 
 it. IVIr. Thomas Cook, for example, the member for 
 Leicester, declared that one Hexey in Eichard the 
 Second's time, for introducing, in the twentieth year of 
 that reign, a bill against the King's prerogative of far less 
 consequence than this, had been condemned as a traitor. 
 Nor did ]\Ir. Mallory, the member for Eipon, speak less 
 violently on the same side. He denounced the bill as 
 fit to be burned in Westminster Palace Yard, and the 
 gentleman who brought it in as deserving to be questioned. 
 On the other hand, several rose and excepted against 
 Mr. Mallory's speech, as rather thinking it more worthy 
 to be questioned : but hereupon Strode got up and 
 remarked that he thought Mr. Mallory's speech in some 
 sort excusable, as having been occasioned by the speech 
 of a gentleman that sat near him (alluding to Mr. Cook) 
 who had once before cited in that house a highly dan- 
 gerous precedent. Great cries of assent followed this 
 remark, and many rose in succession to enforce it, 
 until, in spite of dissentients, Mr. Cook was called up 
 to explain. But what he said not satisfying the House, 
 he was ordered to withdraw, while some would have had 
 his further attendance suspended. Meanwhile a sudden 
 thought had occurred to D'Ewes, which he had imme- 
 diately proceeded to execute. " During this debate," he 
 says, " I retired out of the house to my lodging in Goats- 
 " alley, near the Palace, and there searched out the 
 " precedent. On my return I said that the gentleman 
 " now withdrawn was a young man, and a man of hope, 
 " and therefore I desired that he be not too much dis- 
 " heartened. I thought him more punishable for mis- 
 " reciting, than for citing, precedents. The precedent in 
 " question was not against the King's prerogative, but 
 " against the excessive expenses of the King's household ;
 
 TUE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 159 
 
 " and though Hexey was sentenced, he was afterwards 
 " cleared by Parliament. Therefore the greatest censure 
 " I would have laid upon this gentleman is, that he would 
 " cite no more records till he shall have studied them 
 " better. At which divers of the house laughed:" and Cook 
 having been called in, and admonished by Mr. Speaker,' 
 Haselrig's bill passed to a division. Sir John Culpeper 
 and Sir Frederick Cornwallis were tellers for the Yeas, 
 which were 125, to reject it; and Denzil Holies and Sir 
 William Armyn, member for Grantham, for the majority 
 of 158 in its favour. And so the bill was read a first 
 time. 
 
 Next day, Wednesday the 8th, Geoffrey Palmer made 
 his submission and was released from the Tower. The 
 day following, the expulsion of the officers convicted of 
 complicity in the second army-plot took place ; and on 
 the morning after, Friday the 10th of December,'' the 
 members were startled, on coming to take their seats, to 
 find a new guard of Halberdiers set upon the doors. A 
 debate upon the report as to the Public Debt, handed in 
 
 ' The only notices hitherto given of 
 this incident appear in the Journals 
 and in Verney's Notes. ' ' Some excep- 
 " tions were taken to Mr. Coke for 
 "the misalleging of precedents; and 
 " after he had explained himself, he 
 * ' -was, according to the order of the 
 "House, commanded to withdraw. 
 "Resolved upon the question, That 
 ' ' Mr. Coke shall he called down, and 
 * ' in his place, have an admonition 
 " for the words that fell from him. 
 " The Speaker told him in his place 
 ' ' that he was commanded to admonish 
 "him, that he should take a care 
 " hereafter, how he did allege or ap- 
 " ply Precedents in this house." — 
 Journals, ii. 334. Verney says in his 
 Notes: "Sir Arthur Ilaselrig did 
 "bring in a bill to dispose all the 
 "Militia of England into two generals 
 "for life. This bill was thought fit 
 ' ' by some to be rejected, and Mr. 
 "Thomas Cook said, it was in his 
 
 judgment worse than the bill brought 
 in by Hexam in Richard the Second's 
 time, by which he was accused of 
 high treason. For this speech he 
 was questioned and taxed, for cit- 
 ing but half the precedent, for 
 Hexam was afterwards cleared by 
 parliament. For this oifence he re- 
 ceived an admonition in his place, 
 by the Speaker."— iVo^es, p. 132. 
 ^ On the same morning I find a 
 point of order and reverence settled 
 by Mr. Denzil Holies. " On Mr. 
 "Holies' motion," says D'Ewes's 
 Manuscript, "it was declared the 
 ' ' ancient order of the house that when 
 "men came in and went out of the 
 "house, they ought to make three 
 "reverences; and that if any were 
 "speaking on the lower form, they 
 "ought to go about, and not to come 
 "up towards the table" — interrupt- 
 ing honorable speakers !
 
 160 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 by Sir John Hotliain the previous day, and upon the 
 immediate necessity of raising men and money for the 
 requirements of the Irish Rebellion, was in progress, 
 when Sir Philip Stapylton stood up and called attention 
 to the fact that there was a new guard set upon the house 
 of two hundred men with halberts. Much agitation 
 ensued upon this, the business immediately in hand was 
 dropped, and some fear and trouble found expression. 
 Upon particular inquiry it was discovered, that the plea 
 for this new show or threatening of force was a report 
 Avhich had gone abroad of a great petition coming from 
 the City against the bishops' votes, and against the 
 obstruction by the Lords of other matters of which the 
 settlement was much to be desired, which petition, accom- 
 panied by large numbers of citizens, was to be presented 
 the following day. " Then we were informed," says D'Ewes, 
 " from several hands, that the original ground of those 
 " men assembling was upon a writ from the Lord Keeper 
 " pretended to be warranted by the statute of Northampton 
 " (13 Henry IV.) for the better suppressing of Routs and 
 "Riots:" in obedience to which writ the under-sheriff 
 and magistrates of Middlesex had issued order for the 
 l)lacing of the Halberdiers. The matter was debated 
 with unusual gravity and earnestness, and, upon the 
 motion of Pym, not only was a resolution passed that the 
 placing of such a guard without consent of the House was 
 a breach of privilege, but orders were issued for bringing 
 before them at nine o'clock on the following morning the 
 various magistrates by whom the warrants had been 
 signed. Instant steps were at the same time taken for 
 removal of tlie Halberdiers,' and while these were in pro- 
 
 1 The subjoined order and resolu- "in, was demanded by wbat autho- 
 
 tions appear upon the Journals (ii. "rityhe brought down men armed : 
 
 338), "Ordered that the Serjeant " He said the Sheriff received a writ 
 
 "shall require some of the Halber- " from the Lord Keeper, and that the 
 
 ' ' diers, or some of those that have ' ' Uudersheriif gave him warrant to 
 
 "the command of them, to come "doit Resolved upon the ques- 
 
 " hither to the bar. The bailiff of " tion, That the setting of any guards 
 
 ' ' the Duchy of Lancaster being called ' ' about this house, without the con-
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 161 
 
 gress, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, Sir Christopher 
 Yelverton entered, and said that divers of the Lords were 
 now come, knowing nothing at all of the setting of this 
 new guard, and were startled at it "as much as ourselves." 
 A characteristic incident of the debate, as related in 
 D'Ewes's manuscript, should not be omitted. One of 
 Hyde's party, Mr. Francis Newport, the member for 
 Shrewsbury, " during our debate offered to go out of 
 " the house, and there was great cry, ' Shut the door ! 
 " ' Shut the door ! ' and yet he would go away. The 
 " Serjeant not being in the house, Mr. Rushworth, the 
 " clerk's assistant, w^as sent after him ; who called him 
 " back. He being come into the house, the Speaker 
 " declared to him that when the sense of the House was 
 " that the door should be shut, no member ought to go 
 " out. Mr. Newport said he knew of no order that had 
 " been made to that end : but Mr. Pym showed, that, 
 " besides the general sense of the House, expressed by so 
 " many calling out to have the door shut, the greatness 
 " and weight of the agitation might persuade any man to 
 " forbear going out." 
 
 The next mornmg, Saturday the 1 1th of December, the 
 under-sheriff and Westminster justices appeared, and, 
 having been duly examined and reprimanded, and the 
 under-sheriff having been committed to the Tower, there 
 shortly afterwards arrived at the house the Petition upon 
 whose presentation the King had been so eager to impose 
 that check of armed men. The intention of its originators 
 had been to disabuse his Majesty of the fatal notion which 
 seems to have been suddenly engendered in him by his 
 recent grand entertainment in the city, and by the eager 
 royalist tendencies of the Lord Mayor, that there was any 
 real defection from the popular cause in that its most 
 powerful stronghold ; ' and so eagerly had it been signed 
 
 " sent of this House, is a breach of "question, That this Guard shall be 
 
 "the privilege of the House: And " immediately discharged by the com- 
 
 " that therefore such guards ought to " maud of this House." 
 
 ' ' be discharged. Resolved upon the ' Lord Macaulay has admirably
 
 162 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 by all classes with this view, that, up to that date in the 
 world's history, no petition of equal size and dimensions 
 had 3'et been seen. One of the members for London, 
 Alderman Pennington, who afterwards sat as one of the 
 King's judges, announced its arrival. He said that divers 
 able and grave citizens were waiting without, to present 
 the House with that formidable petition of which they had 
 been told that ten thousand persons were coming to 
 present it ; but a small number only had come with it, 
 and in a humble and peaceable manner. To avoid all 
 possibility of commotion or undue excitement in con- 
 nection with it, it had been brought by twelve leading 
 citizens. Upon this the House laid aside all other business ; 
 the Speaker called in the deputation ; and Mr. Fouke, 
 a merchant dwelling in Mark-lane, appeared at their 
 head, and presented it as the humble petition of Aldermen, 
 Common Councilmen, Subsidymen, and other inhabitants 
 of the City of London and subm'bs thereof. Then, says 
 the precise Sir Simonds D'Ewes, "the Clerk of the house 
 " did thereupon go down to the bar, and received it of him, 
 
 described (Essays, ii. 213) what the "porations abundantly prove. The 
 
 city then was. " The city of London "principal offices were filled by the 
 
 "was indeed the fastness of public "most opulent and respectable mer- 
 
 " liberty, and was, in those times, a " chants of the kingdom. The pomp 
 
 ' ' place of at least as much import- ' ' of the magistracy of the capital was 
 
 ' ' ance as Paris during the French ' ' inferior only to that which sur- 
 
 " Revolution It was then closely " rounded the person of the sovereign. 
 
 "inhabited by three hundred thou- " The Londoners loved their city with 
 
 "sand persons, to whom it was not "that patriotic love which is found 
 
 " merely a place of business, but a "only in small communities, like 
 
 "place of constant residence. This "those of ancient Greece, or like 
 
 " great capital had as complete a civil "those which arose in Italy during 
 
 "and military organization as if it had "the middle ages. The numbers, 
 
 ' ' been an independent republic. Each ' ' the intelligence, the wealth of the 
 
 "citizen had his company; and the "citizens, the democratical form of 
 
 "companies which now seem to exist "their local government, and their 
 
 "only for the sake of epicures and " vicinity to the Court and the Parlia- 
 
 " of antiquaries, were then formid- " ment, made them one of the most 
 
 " able brotherhoods, the members of " formidable bodies in the kingdom. 
 
 " which were almost as closely bound "Even as soldiers they were not to 
 
 " together as the members of a High- "be despised At the battle of 
 
 " land clan. How strong these arti- "Newbury they repelled the fiery 
 
 " ficial ties were, the numerous and "onset of Rupert, and saved the 
 
 "valuable legacies anciently be- "army of the Parliament from de- 
 
 " queathed by citizens to their cor- " struction."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 163 
 
 " and brought it up, and laid it on the table. The said 
 " petition was not yery long, but there were some fifteen 
 " thousand names set to it. It was about three-quarters 
 " of a yard in breadth, and twenty-four yards in length." 
 Nor did it seem that even these unusual proportions had 
 quite satisfied its promoters ; for the worthy citizen at 
 the head of the Deputation, having liberty to address the 
 House, informed them that they should have got before 
 that day many thousand hands more to it, but that they 
 found many obstructions and much opposition from the 
 Lord Mayor, and others. And such, said Mr. Fouke, in 
 conclusion, was the feeling excited by these difficulties 
 interposed, that it was God's mercy the petitioners had 
 not come in numbers yesterday, when the Halberdiers 
 were assembled, and when there must have been blood- 
 shed. To which Mr. Speaker replied with gi'acious words, 
 telling the citizens of London, through the worthy gen- 
 tlemen then standing at their bar, that the House gave 
 them thanks for their readiness on all occasions to comply 
 with supplies for the public ; that they would take into 
 consideration, in due time, the particulars desired in the 
 petition ; and that they hoped to bring things to such 
 result as would give them satisfaction. 
 
 When the Deputation left, a debate arose as to the 
 necessity for immediate provision of the supplies which 
 had been voted for Ireland, and as to the best mode of 
 providing such satisfaction for the people as had just been 
 promised to the London petitioners : and again the debate 
 pointed in the old direction, which was that of printing, 
 and circulating through the country, their Grand Kemon- 
 strance. The course taken by the King's advisers, indeed, 
 had so far gone in the same direction, that even some 
 royal partizans among the members had been constrained 
 to admit the unlawfulness of the recent attempt to put 
 external pressure on the Houses by means of armed 
 watches and guards. The result of the present deli- 
 beration, therefore, appears to have been a kind of silent 
 or unopposed understanding, that the printing of the
 
 164 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Remonstrance should be considered as soon as the bill 
 then depending for the pressing of soldiers to serve against 
 the Irish Rebellion should have been disposed of. 
 
 But again the ill-advised monarch precipitated this 
 determination. The bill for raising such soldiers by- 
 Impressment was under debate on the morning of Tuesday 
 the 14th of December, when a message was unexpectedly 
 brought in, to the effect that his Majesty desired the 
 Commons to attend him in the Lords' house. There, in 
 brief intemperate phrase, he adverted to the Impressment 
 bill which they were then discussing ; warned them that, 
 in the event of its passing, he should give his consent to 
 it only with an express saving of his prerogative ; and 
 significantly added, that he was little beholding to " him 
 " whoever at this time began this dispute." The Com- 
 mons immediately returned to their house ; voted it, 
 upon the motion of Pym, a breach of all the ancient privi- 
 leges both of Lords and Commons that his Majesty 
 should so have taken notice of a bill whilst in progress ; 
 demanded a conference with the Lords ; and, before the 
 day closed, had obtained their full co-operation in drawing 
 up "a declaratory Protestation " of their privileges and 
 liberties, and " a petitionary Remonstrance " ' against his 
 Majesty's violation of them. Eighteen of the Lords, and 
 double the number of the Commons, went with tliis 
 Protestation to Whitehall.'' 
 
 ' The petitionary Remonstrance 
 further requires that "his Majesty 
 ' ' will be pleased to discover the par- 
 " ties by -whose information and evil 
 " counsel his Majesty was induced to 
 ' ' this breach of privilege, that so 
 "they may receive condign punish- 
 " ment for the same." In the face 
 of which, Clarendon nevertheless ha- 
 zards the statement in his Ilitstory 
 (ii. 70-1) that the man who had ad- 
 vised this breach of privilege, was, of 
 all men in the world, Mr. Solicitor St. 
 .lohn ! As if, supposing this were so, 
 the King, who hated no one so much, 
 would not thereon have been eager to 
 give him up as his adviser in so direct 
 
 an attack upon his own party ! From 
 the account of the matter I find in 
 D'Ewes's Journal I am convinced, on 
 tlie other hand, that the persons sus- 
 pected were Culpeper and Hyde, and 
 that the clause requiring the King 
 to surrender the names of his ill ad- 
 visers was directed specially at them. 
 D'Ewes would have had the clause 
 rejected, on the ground that it was 
 "very possible that his Majesty re- 
 ' ' ceived his information and ill coun- 
 ' ' sel from some third person and from 
 "no member of either house," but 
 Pym strongly opposed this and the 
 clause was retained. 
 
 ^ D'Ewes attended, as one of the
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 
 
 165 
 
 On the following morning, Wednesday the 15th of 
 December, an unusual number of members were in 
 attendance at an early hour in the House of Commons, 
 and a suppressed excitement showed itself, as of some 
 
 Deputation of the Commons, both on 
 the occasion of the presenting of the 
 Protestation, and on that of receiv- 
 ing the King's Answer, and his notices 
 of both are highly curious and inte- 
 resting. I quote from his manuscript 
 Journal. "I departed with divers 
 ' ' others to the Court at Whitehall, 
 " being one of the select committee of 
 ' ' thirty-six appointed by the House 
 "of Commons to attend his Ma- 
 "jesty thei'e this afternoon at two 
 " o'clock with a select committee of 
 "eighteen of the Lords' House with 
 ' * that petiti'jnary Remonstrance. The 
 "eighteen Lords were at Whitehall 
 "before us, and having staid awhile 
 "in the Privy Chamber, the Earl of 
 "Essex, Lord Chamberlain of his 
 "Majesty's household, came out to 
 "us and told us that the King ex- 
 " pected our coming to him. Where- 
 " upon divers of theLordsand weof the 
 " House of Commons followed him in 
 " through two or three rooms, into a 
 " fair inward chamber where the King 
 * ' was. Dr. Williams, Archbishop of 
 " York, was appointed to read the 
 " said Petition or Remonstrance. He, 
 "passing from the lower end of the 
 " room towards the King, made three 
 "reverences, as most of us also did 
 " with him ; and then he, coming 
 "near the King, kneeled down, and 
 "showed his Majesty that he had a 
 ' ' Petition or Remonstrance from both 
 " Houses to be presented to him. The 
 " King then caused him to stand up, 
 "and so he read the said Petition. 
 " I stood all the while close to him 
 "on his left hand. After he had 
 "read it, he kneeled again, and pre- 
 " sented it to his Majesty, being fairly 
 " engrossed in parchment. The King 
 "spake so low as I could not hear 
 "him ; but the Archbisliop of Yoik 
 "told me after we were come out 
 " 'that he would take some time to 
 
 " 'advise,' &c. And so, making like 
 "reverence at our going out as we 
 " did at oiir coming in, we departed." 
 In like manner he describes the more 
 striking scene of receiving the King's 
 Answer. Between the two occasions, 
 the reader will remember, the Com- 
 mons had not only voted the printing 
 of their Grand Remonstrance, but had 
 issued it in pi-int ; a circumstance 
 which may account for the increased 
 sharpness of the King's manner. 
 "Went to Whitehall," says D'Ewes, 
 "to receive the King's Answer. We 
 " were admitted into the same room 
 ' ' again (being a fair chamber within 
 " the privy gallery) where we hadde- 
 ' ' livered the said Petition. The King, 
 "looking about, asked to whom he 
 " should deliver his Answer ; because 
 ' ' he saw not the Lord there from 
 ' ' whom he had received our Petition. 
 ' ' But it was answered his Majesty 
 ' ' that he, being to preach before the 
 ' ' Lords at the Fast on Wednesday 
 " next, was now absent on that occa- 
 " sion. His Majesty demanded fur- 
 ' ' ther to what other Lord in his ab- 
 ' ' sence it was to be delivered ? It 
 "was answered, to the chief of the 
 " Lords who were present. His Ma- 
 "jesty then calling to Sir Edward 
 ' ' Nicholas, lately made Secretary of 
 "State, delivered to him his Answer 
 "written on a sheet of paper, which 
 " the said Sir Edward received kneel- 
 " ing, and then, standing up again, 
 "read it, and His Majesty, after the 
 " delivery of it to the said Earl (Bris- 
 " tol), just as we were all making 
 "reverences and departing forth, 
 ' ' passed through the midst of us with 
 " a confident and severe look, and so 
 " went into the privy gallery, where 
 " he stood looking towards us, as we 
 " came forth and made our obeisances 
 " to him."
 
 166 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 undertaking of weight in band as yet not generally known. 
 Then Mr. Purefoy, the member for Warwick, who after- 
 wards sat upon the trial of the King, stood up and said, 
 that they did now stand sorely in need of money, and he 
 conceived that any proposition for the bringing in of 
 money would be very seasonable and acceptable. "Where- 
 " upon," says D'Ewes, " there ensued a gTeat silence." 
 Mr. Purefoy then proceeded, and said, he conceived that 
 there was but one mode of obtaining what they desired in 
 this respect, and that was by imparting to their consti- 
 tuents and the people generally some gTound for greater 
 confidence than they could derive from recent and exist- 
 ing events. He pointed out that all men's minds were 
 unsettled by the many slanders which had freely gone 
 abroad, and that if, as a worthy member had said on a 
 former occasion, it was desirable to recover and bind to 
 that house the hearts of the people, now was the time 
 and the opportunity. In a word, he conceived there were 
 no readier means to bring in money than to cause their 
 Declaration to be printed : that so they might satisfy the 
 whole kingdom. At this there Avere loud cries of agree- 
 ment, but upon several even of the majority the proposal 
 fell with a surprise ; and D'Ewes was one of them. " Tt 
 " seems," he says, " that many members were privy to 
 " this intended motion, which I confess seemed very 
 "strange to me; for they cried Order it! Order it ! " 
 Then the Speaker rose, and, as if to show that he at 
 any rate had been no party to the preparing of the motion, 
 asked the member who had spoken, what Declaration he 
 meant, for (alluding to the declaration as to breach of 
 privilege voted the preceding day) there were two. This 
 called up Mr. Purefoy again, who said he meant the 
 Declaration which had been presented to the King, the 
 great Remonstrance ; and he was seconded by Mr. Peard, 
 who had first moved the printing on the memorable 
 night of the 2 2d November, and who now moved that 
 the Petition accompanying it might also be printed : to 
 which loud cries again responded of Order it ! Order it !
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 1G7 
 
 Edmund Waller next took the lead in a desj)erate attempt 
 to protract and delay the vote, which in so much was 
 successful that it lasted far into the afternoon, but of 
 which small record unfortunately remains, for in the 
 midst of it D'Ewes, apparently in some dudgeon at the 
 want of confidence in him displayed by the leaders, left 
 the house for some time. Then, the putting of the 
 Resolution having been fought off until daylight began 
 to decline, the coming on of dark was made the excuse 
 for a further attempt to prevent its being put at all. 
 So dark it became, that the Clerk could no longer see 
 to read ; but on a proposal for bringing in candles. 
 Sir Nicholas Slanning, the member for Penryn, made 
 urgent representation of the propriety of adjourning 
 the debate, reminded the House of ^the scene which had 
 been witnessed when this question was before discussed 
 in the night, and threw out warnings of some similar 
 danger now. Against any possible recurrence of that danger, 
 the majority was on this occasion thoroughlj^ guarded ; but 
 if it had not been so, few were better entitled than Slan- 
 ning to give the warning. Himself one of those who early 
 and eagerly exposed and lost their lives in the war, he was 
 also ever at the head of the young and ardent spirits of the 
 House of Commons, with whom it was matter of chivahy 
 to resent every encroachment on the i)ower and preten- 
 sions of the sovereign ; and Clarendon (in one of those 
 charming character-pieces of his Historj^ which will sur- 
 vive to keep it still the most delightful reading in the 
 world, long after the conviction of its untrustworthiness 
 and bad faith shall have entered into every mind) has 
 celebrated his youth, his small but liandsome person, his 
 lovely countenance, his admirable parts, and his courage 
 " so clear and keen." ' He failed for the present, however, 
 
 • See History, iv. 150, and 612-13. " size" {Life, i. 62), among tlie men 
 
 Slanning was one of the little men, of learning as well as of action. One 
 
 "and it was an age," says Claren- of the least men in the kingdom he 
 
 don, "in which there were many celebrates as one of the greatest seho- 
 
 " great and wonderful men of that lars of Europe, in the person of the
 
 1G3 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 to turn the House from their purpose, though not till he 
 had forced on a division. 
 
 D'Ewes returned to his seat just as they were about to 
 divide on the question for candles, and by the very sound, 
 he says, the Ayes declared themselves to be far more than 
 the Noes ; but the Noes persisted in dividing, and, " sitting 
 " still " in the house with Sir Robert Hatton and Mr. John 
 Russel (who had succeeded Lord William on the old Earl's 
 
 ever to be remembered Mr. Hales of 
 Eton — "who would often say that he 
 ' ' would renounce the religion of the 
 ' ' Church of England to-morrow, if it 
 "obliged him to believe that any 
 ' ' other Christians should be damned ; 
 ' ' and that nobody would conclude 
 " another man to be damned, who did 
 "not wish him so; — than whom iio 
 ' ' man was more strict and severe to 
 ' ' himself, yet to other men so chari- 
 ' ' table as to their opinions, that he 
 " thought that men not erring were 
 " more in fault for their carriage to- 
 " wards men who emed, than the men 
 " themselves were ; — and who thought 
 " that pride and passion, more than 
 " conscience, were the cause of all sepa- 
 " ration from each other's communion ; 
 " and frequently said, that that only 
 ' ' kept the world from agreeing upon 
 ' ' such a liturgy as might then bring 
 "them into one communion" {Life, 
 i. 60-1). ChlUingworth was another 
 of the very little men. Sidney Go- 
 dolphin, also belonging to the same 
 diminutive class, amazed the tall and 
 well-formed Mr. Hyde by presenting 
 so large an understanding and so un- 
 restrained a fancy in so very small a 
 body as he possessed — the smallest in- 
 deed, as it would seem, of all, for Falk- 
 land used merrily to say that he thought 
 what charmed him most to be so much 
 in Godolphin's company was the sense 
 of finding himself there "the i)roperer 
 "man." But the prince of all the 
 little men was Falkland himself. Ob- 
 serve with what exquisite art Claren- 
 don puts forward his disadvantages of 
 person simply to make more lovable 
 the attractions of his mind. "His 
 
 stature was low, and smaller than 
 most men ; his motion not graceful ; 
 and his aspect so far from inviting, 
 that it had somewhat in it of sim- 
 plicity ; and his voice the worst of 
 the three, and so untuned, that in- 
 stead of reconciling, it offended the 
 ear, so that nobody would have ex- 
 pected music from that tongue : and 
 sure no man was less beholden to 
 nature for its recommendation into 
 the world. But then no man sooner 
 or more disappointed this general 
 and customary prejudice. That 
 little person and small stature was 
 quickly found to contain a great 
 heart, a courage so keen, and a 
 nature so fearless, that no com- 
 position of the strongest limbs, and 
 most hai'monious and proportioned 
 presence and strength, ever more 
 disposed any man to the greatest 
 enterprise, it being his greatest 
 weakness to be too solicitous for 
 such adventures; and that untuned 
 tongue and voice easily discovered 
 itself to be supplied and governed 
 by a mind and understanding so 
 excellent, that the wit and weight 
 of all he said carried another kind 
 of lustre and admiration in it, and 
 even another kind of acceptation 
 from the persons present, than any 
 ornament of delivery could reason- 
 ably promise itself, or is usually 
 attended with ; and his disposition 
 and nature was so gentle and oblig- 
 ing, so much delighted in courtesy, 
 kindness and generosity, that all 
 mankind could not but admire and 
 love liim."
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 169 
 
 death as Pyin's colleague in the representation of Tavis- 
 tock) for tellers, proved to be only 53 in number, whereas 
 the Ayes who went out, with Denzil Holies and Sir John 
 Clotworthy as tellers, were 152. Upon this, candles were 
 brought ; and again the debate went on not less warmly 
 than before. For more than two hours longer, says D'Ewes, 
 it was argued with great vehemence j)ro and con, until at 
 last the question was put for the printing. Then went 
 forth the Yeas, in number 135, with Denzil Holies and Sir 
 Walter Earle for tellers; the tellers for the Noes, who stayed 
 in the house, being Sir John Culpeper and Mr. John Ash- 
 burnham, the member for Hastings, and their numbers 83. 
 Amid considerable excitement, the order was then given 
 for immediate printing of the Remonstrance concerning 
 the state of the kingdom ; the Grand Bemonstrance, as it 
 came to be thereafter called, to distinguish it from the 
 many other similar state papers of less importance and 
 less interest for the people, which were issued during the 
 war. Even now, however, it required all the temper and 
 control of the leaders to avoid a mutiny. The claim 
 to protest was, at this point, once more revived ; and Sir 
 Nicholas Slanning, heading the protesters, did his best to 
 bring his own warning true. Some sixty members having 
 joined him, they formally demanded that their protestation 
 might be entered by order of the House ; but the growing 
 excitement was happily allayed by the art with which 
 Pym, in appearing to yield to that proposal, in reality 
 yielded nothing. The demand was turned into an order 
 for an adjournment " to take into consideration the matter 
 " touching protestations in this house ; " and the folio wng 
 Friday having been fixed for the purpose of such con- 
 sideration, the House rose at seven o'clock. 
 
 So closed the last debate on the Grand Remonstrance, 
 which then found its way, after a succession of scenes and 
 struggles as worthy of remembrance, though not until 
 now remembered, as any in our history, to tlie audience 
 for whom it Avas designed. Neither Hampden nor Pym 
 spoke further, when the day for discussion of the right of
 
 170 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 protesting came.' They left it to the King's ex-secretary, 
 okl Sii' Henry Yane, to i)oint out how iiTeconcileable any 
 such right wouki be with the precedents, the usages, 
 and the proceedings of the Commons' house. They 
 listened without replying to a long speech from Hyde, 
 who, admitting there was no precedent for the claim, yet 
 urged that neither was there a precedent for the printing 
 of a Declaration, and that, a precedent in a case unpre- 
 cedented being nothing to the purpose, they must act 
 according to reason. They listened, still unmoved, to 
 the significant allusion of Mr. Holborne, who, putting the 
 case of an order having passed the House which might 
 carry grave consequences, enlarged upon the hard position 
 of those who, having no right to protest, would be involved 
 in such consequences, " and perhaps lose their heads in 
 " the crowd when there was nothing to show who was 
 " innocent." Theii" part in the affair was done, their 
 weapon thrown, and none of those contingent or possible 
 events had any alarms for them. They called upon the 
 Speaker to put the resolution that in no circumstances 
 should a protestation be desu-ed in that house, or 
 admitted if desired ; and they voted and carried it. 
 
 Upon the consequences hinted at by Holborne, upon 
 the blow which so soon was levelled at the heads of the 
 five leading men in these debates, and which had so fatal 
 a recoil upon the King, it is no part of the design of this 
 Essay to dwell. Its object was to restore a page of the 
 English history of some importance, which time had been 
 permitted to efi'ace ; and this has been accomplished. It 
 is for the reader to apply its details to their further use, 
 in illustration of already existing records, and determi- 
 nation of their value. It would lead the writer too far 
 from the design to which he has purposely restricted him- 
 
 1 The Friday originally fixed was ' ' That in no case a Protestation ought 
 
 changed to the following Monday, when "to be desired by any member of this 
 
 the three principal speakers were "house, or admitted by this house, 
 
 Hyde, Holborne, and Vane, and it was " being desired." 
 finally "resolved upon the question,
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 171 
 
 self, to attempt in this place any such application. Every 
 one may do it, within the range of his acquaintance with 
 the general history of the time ; and to help to extend 
 this range for all, some pains have been taken to render 
 the notes appended to the Essay both a guide to research 
 out of the common track of histories, and a warning 
 against too ready or implicit belief in the most respected 
 authorities. It is not desirable, even if it were possible, 
 that Clarendon's History of the BehclUon should be 
 deposed from the j)lace it holds in our literature. Its 
 rare beauties of thought and charm of stjde, the pro- 
 found views of character and life which it clothes in 
 language of unsurpassed variety and richness, its long 
 line of noble and deathless portraits through which its 
 readers move as through a gallery of full-lengths by 
 Vandyke and Velasquez, have given and will assure to 
 it its place as long as literature remains. But, for the 
 pm'pose to which it has mainly been applied by many 
 party writers since Clarendon's death, as well as by writers 
 not prejudiced or partial, it should never have been 
 used. The authority of its waiter is at no time so worthless 
 as when taken upon matters in which he played himself 
 the most prominent i^art ; and his imputations against 
 the men with whom he was once leagued as closel}' 
 as he was afterwards bitterly opposed to them, are never 
 to be safely relied upon. With the very facts he laboured 
 to misrepresent, he has been £ere confronted ; and with 
 the antagonists to whom he stood actually opposed upon 
 the floor of the House of Commons, he has been again 
 brought face to face. The Grand Remonstrance has 
 itself been heard after long and unmerited oblivion, and 
 Sir Simonds D'Ewes has sjjoken to us after a silence of 
 more than two centuries. The result is decisive against 
 Clarenctoii. It is not merely that he turned King's evi- 
 dence "against his old associates, but that his evidence 
 is completely disproved. 
 
 An opinion has been expressed in the course of this 
 
 Essay upon the importance of the Grand Remonstrance 
 
 I 2
 
 172 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 merely as a contribution to history, and upon the impro- 
 babihty of its being again displaced from the position here 
 assigned to it. Certainly it is impossible that any one 
 should speak of it hereafter as it has been described here- 
 tofore. In Mr. Disraeli's Commentaries on Charles the 
 First's Eeign, for example, a book which after his death 
 was with final and scrupulous correction republished by 
 his son, it is characterised as an historical memoir of all 
 the infelicities of the reign, " ivith a very cautious omis- 
 " sion that all those capital grievances had no longer 
 
 i " any existence." That such an assertion should be 
 
 ( hazarded again is at least not conceivable. Amid much, 
 too, that in the same book is as gravely passed off for 
 
 ■ truth, the Remonstrance is said to have been smuggled 
 through the House of Commons by a trick. Its authors, 
 
 \ we are informed, " assured the moderate men that its 
 " intention w^as purely prudential ; it was to mortify the 
 " Court, and nothing more ; after having been read, it 
 " would remain in the hands of the Clerk, and never after- 
 " wards be called for; and so, when it was brought for- 
 " ward, to give it the appearance of a matter of little 
 " moment, the morning was suffered to elapse on ordinary 
 " business, and it was produced late ; but they overshot 
 " their mark," ' &c. &c. with much more to the same in- 
 credible purport ! Surely not again can Clarendon lead 
 his followers into such a quicksand of "history" as that; 
 nor, with the Remonstrance itself in evidence, can the 
 signal misrepresentation he left of its contents, and of 
 the conduct and objects of its authors, be in future 
 accepted against his own frequent and unconscious testi- 
 mony to its deep and ineradicable impression ujpon the 
 mass of the English people. 
 
 That, after all, is its final and lasting vindication. It 
 had become a necessity so to make appeal to the people. 
 It may be true, or it may be false, that Cromwell would 
 
 ' Commentaries on the Reigu of Charles I. By Isaac D'Israeli. Ed. 
 1S51, ii. 294.
 
 THE GRAND REMOXSTRANCE. 173 
 
 have sold all he had the next morning if the Ptemonstrance 
 had been rejected, and would never have seen England 
 more : but that Falkland heard him say so would seem to 
 be undoubted, and the fact is a singular proof of the gravity 
 of the conjuncture which had arisen. Measured also by 
 the effects j^roduced, the same conclusion is forced upon 
 us ; though in the presence of the document itself, these 
 may well appear less surprising. To do Clarendon justice, 
 he never aifects to conceal the momentous influence 
 exerted by the Ptemonstrance over the subsequent course 
 of affairs. He puts it in his own language indeed ; but 
 when he refers to " that dreadful," " that fatal " Remon- 
 strance, when he speaks of it as having "poisoned the ■; 
 " heart of the people," when he recurs to it as " the first I 
 " inlet to the inundations that overwhelmed " his party, j' 
 when again and again he dwells upon it as " the first visible ? 
 " ground and foundation of that rage and madness in the 
 " people of which they could never since be cured," no gloss 
 or comment is needed for such expressions. They are so 
 many tributes to the vigour and capacity of his opponents, 
 and to the largeness and wisdom of the outlook they had 
 taken when they launched this Great Remonstrance. Par- 
 liament had no such recruiting-sergeant through the after 
 years of civil war. It might have fallen, indeed, compa- 
 ratively without effect, if Charles I had been able at 
 any time to accept honestly the consequences of his own 
 acts ; but its authors knew that this was not in his nature, 
 and if we would condemn in that respect their polic}', we 
 must have satisfied ourselves, that, with a man so essen- 
 tially and deliberately false as tlie King was to all the 
 engagements made with him, it was in any manner 
 possible, without direct appeal to the people as a part 
 of the State, to bring about a lasting adjustment of right 
 relations between the Commons and the Crown. The 
 Remonstrance constituted that appeal ; and not the least 
 of the claims which in my judgment it possesses to the 
 attention and respect of all students of history, is the proof 
 which it affords that English puritanism liad in itself no
 
 174 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 necessary antagonism to English institutions and govern- 
 ment. Tlie ancient limited monarchy, and a reformed 
 
 ^ church establishment, would have satisfied its authors. 
 They were devout religious men, who claimed free 
 exercise for their religion ; but inseparable from the 
 
 [ Protestant Reformation, and its overthrow of Roman 
 
 ' Catholic bondage, to whose immediate inspiration they 
 owed their greatness, was the passion for civil freedom 
 
 I no less than for religious libert3^ The writers who would 
 separate the religious from the political movement in the 
 
 » seventeenth century, and so strive to underrate the 
 earnestness of the effort it included for political as well as 
 
 i religious emancipation, have their answer in the Grand 
 Remonstrance. Liberty of conscience and of worship 
 has its leading place therein, but only as the very basis 
 and condition of such other claims, constituting civil 
 government, as the right not to be taxed without consent, 
 the right to enjoyment of what is lawfull}' possessed, the 
 right to petition, the right to choose representatives, the 
 right of those representatives to freedom of debate, the 
 right to pure administration of justice, the right to 
 individual freedom under protection of the laws. 
 
 Of the men by whom these great rights were so asserted 
 in the old English house of legislature, and to whose 
 exertions and sacrifices in the Long Parliament, their 
 ultimate though less complete acceptance by the Conven- 
 tion Parliament is due, perhaps a nearer view is afforded 
 in this Essay than hitherto has been attainable in any 
 printed record. It might indeed have been too near if 
 the men had been less great. But they do not suffer by 
 that closer inspection. Their greatness, too, is assumed 
 so easily and so naturally exerted, as to raise no feeling 
 of surprise but that in an age which produced them such 
 a tyranny should have been possible. To find in the 
 party struggles of two hundred years ago a full and 
 perfect anticipation of parliamentary conflicts of more 
 modern days, may probably surprise not a few ; but 
 still more startling is it to reflect that dming the whole
 
 THE GRAND REMONSTRANCE. 175 
 
 fifteen years described in the Grand Remonstrance, 
 while England lay gagged, imprisoned, mutilated, and 
 plundered, under the most vexatious and intolerable 
 tyranny that ever tortured body and soul at once, she 
 yet contained these men. But they had profoundly 
 studied her history ; and they had an immovable faith that 
 her civil constitution, outraged as it was, yet held within 
 itself the sufficing means of recovery and retribution. Nor, 
 happily for us, did they quite lose this patient belief, until 
 the sword was actually drawn ; and hence it was that all 
 the old laws and usages of the land, all the old ways and 
 precedents of parliament, all the ancient traditions of 
 the rights of the three estates, successively drawn forth 
 from their resting-place in records, charters, old books, 
 and parchment rolls, were appealed to on either 
 side, were claimed by both sides, were tried, tested, 
 and made familiar to all, in such debates and conflicts in 
 the House of Commons as these pages have described. 
 It was for later generations to enjoy what thus was toiled 
 for so gallantly, and only with infinite suffering, and 
 terrible drawbacks, won at last. But the Leaders of the 
 Long Parliament have had their reward in the remem- 
 brance and gratitude of their descendants ; and it will 
 bode ill to the free institutions of England when honour 
 ceases to be paid to the men whom Bishop Warburton 
 truly characterised as the band of greatest geniuses for 
 government that the world ever saw leagued together in 
 one common cause.
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TFDOES. 
 
 A SKETCH OF CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 
 
 One of the noblest images in the writings of Burke, is 
 that in which he says of the spirit of English Freedom 
 that, always acting as if in the presence of canonised fore- 
 fathers, it carries an imposing and majestic aspect. " It 
 " has a pedigree and illustrating ancestors. It has its 
 " bearings and its ensigns armorial. It has its gallery 
 " of portraits, its monumental inscriptions, its records, 
 " evidences, and titles." For collecting and producing 
 them, Selden was thrice imprisoned by James I and his 
 son ; and the part which they played in that struggle 
 with the Stuarts, was but the revival, in more powerful 
 form, of an influence they had exerted over the Plantage- 
 nets and the Tudors. As in later, so it had been in the 
 earlier time. Tlie Petition of Right, enacted in Charles I's 
 reign, was but the affirmation and re-enactment of the pre- 
 cedents of tlu'ee preceding centuries ; and in the reign 
 of John, when the Barons were in treaty for the Great 
 Charter, Langton put forward, as the basis and title of 
 their claims, a charter of a hundred years' earher date. 
 
 That was the enactment of the first year of Henry 
 Beauclerc, the first of the name, and the third of our 
 Norman kings. It was sujiposed to be the only cojiy 
 then in existence ; so assiduous Henry's officers had been, 
 in the more secure years of his reign, to destroy tlie 
 evidence of his recognition of popular rights at the outset 
 
 I 3
 
 178 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of his usurpation. But he could not depress the people 
 for his pleasure, when already he had raised them for his 
 gain. They are edged tools, these popular compacts 
 and concessions ; and not so safe to play the game of 
 dissimulation with, as a friendly nod or greeting to the 
 friend you purpose to betray. " Does he smile and 
 " speak Avell of me?" said one of the chief justiciaries 
 of this King. " Then I am undone. I never knew him 
 " praise a man whom he did not intend to ruin." It 
 was truly said, as the speaker soon had occasion to 
 know ; but it is more difficult so to deal with a people. 
 A charter of relief from onerous and unreasonable bur- 
 dens, once granted, is never more to be resumed as a mere 
 waste piece of parchment. The provisions of which men 
 have lost the memory, and are thought to have lost the 
 record, reappear at the time of vital need ; and the 
 prince into whose violent keeping a people's Kberties have 
 fallen, is made subject to a sharp responsibility. For the 
 most part, unhappily, history is read as imperfectly as it 
 is written. Beneath the surface to which the obscurity 
 of imperfect records too commonly and contentedly 
 restricts us, there lies material to be j'et brought to light, 
 less by laborious research than by patient thought and 
 careful induction. Conceding to the early chroniclers 
 their particular cases of oppression, subjection, and 
 acquiescence, let us well assure ourselves that these will 
 not prevail for any length of time against an entire and 
 numerous people. If ever rulers might have hoped to 
 measure their immunities and rights by the temper and 
 strength of their swords, it should have been these early 
 Norman princes ; yet at every turn in their stor}', at every 
 slight casualty in their chequered fortunes, they owe their 
 safety to the fact of flinging down their spoil. A some- 
 thing which, under various names, represents the People, 
 is still upon their track; and thus, over our rudest 
 history, there lies at least the shadow of that substance 
 which fills our later and nobler annals. 
 
 Contemporaneous with Henry's charter were the first
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 179 
 
 great victories of the Crusades, wliich led to the sacrifice 
 of many millions of lives, and had the effect not only 
 greatly to increase the temporal power and ecclesiastical 
 domination of the Popedom, but to begin the terrible 
 story of religious wars. Yet they had also good results, 
 to which the existing condition of the world gave a pre- 
 ponderating influence. What there was of merit in the 
 feudal institutions had here taken a higher and more 
 spiritual character, largely abating their ferocity and 
 somewhat lessening their injustice. The union of different 
 countries in a common object had a tendency to dissipate 
 many narrow hindrances to a common civilisation ; and the 
 intercom'se of eastern and western nations by degrees 
 introduced into religion, as well as into government, larger 
 and more humane views. The pecuniary obligations, too, 
 incurred by the feudal chiefs, led to a wider circulation of 
 money, and made further gradual but sure encroachment 
 on the stricter domains of feudalism. Finally, we owe it 
 mainly to the Crusades, that the enrichment of the ports 
 of Italy, by such sudden avenues to trade, became an 
 important element in the advance to a higher and more 
 refined system of society ; and that, scattered through the 
 wandermg paths of Troubadour or Dominican, the seeds 
 of eloquence and song sprang up in later days, and in 
 many countries, into harvests of national literature. 
 
 Some of these advantages began to be felt even so 
 early as under the first and greatest of the Plantagenet 
 kings. It was in Henry II's reign that personal services 
 of the feudal vassals were exchanged for pecuniary aids ; 
 that, by the issue of a new coinage of standard weight 
 and purity, confidence was given to towns and cities, then 
 struggling into importance by the help of charters and 
 fiscal exemptions ; that the most oppressive baronial 
 tja'annies received a check from the Crown ; and that 
 settled guarantees for internal tranquillity were given by 
 a more orderly, equal, and certain administration of the 
 laws. Yet even such services to civilisation yield in 
 importance to that which was rendered by this great
 
 180 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 prince in resisting the usui'pations of the Church. His 
 dispute with his Primate involved essentially little less 
 than the ultimate question of the entire arrangement of 
 human society. Not seventy years had j^assed since the 
 voice of Hildebrand had declared the papal throne to he 
 hut the temporal emblem of a universal spiritual authority, 
 holding absolute feudal jurisdiction over the lesser 
 authority of kings and nobles ; and Becket stood upon 
 the claim so put forth by Hildebrand. Like him he 
 would have made a theocracy of human government, and 
 placed the Church at its head, unquestioned and supreme. 
 He would have drawn together the whole of Christian 
 Europe under one sole Suzerain authority, and, through 
 all the wide and various extent of civilised nations, would 
 have made the spiritual tyranny of Rome the centre and 
 metropolis of dominion. To Henry Plantagenet, on the 
 other hand, it seemed that any such centralisation of 
 ecclesiastical power would be fatal to the peace, the 
 happiness, and the liberty of the world. He had laboured 
 hard, with his Chancellor Becket, to reduce all autocracies 
 and tyrannies within his kingdom ; and against his Primate 
 Becket, he now resolutely declared that this work should 
 still go on. Not necessarily was the question implied, 
 whether spiritual interests were, or were not, of higher 
 importance than temporal interests ; any more than whether 
 a firm belief in Christianity should involve a total subjec- 
 tion of the understanding, of the heart and the will, of the 
 active and the intellectual powers, to ecclesiastical domina- 
 tion. Not so, happily for the people whom he governed, was 
 this resolute prince disposed to renounce his social and 
 civil duties. In events that arose as the contest went on, 
 he was rude, passionate, and overbearing; and perhaps 
 much of the work he was called to do, by more dehcate 
 ways could hardly have been done ; but, though what he 
 had nobly gained was thus at times in danger of being 
 ignobly lost, there seldom fails to be visible, throughout 
 all the reckless impulses of that really majestic though ill- 
 regulated nature, a strong comprehension of the vital truth
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 181 
 
 which was afterwards wrought out with such hreadth and 
 potency in England. And on the whole it was certainly 
 well that his triumph should not have been on all points 
 complete. Notwithstandmg the spiritual despotism which 
 the Chm'ch would fain have established, we cannot forget 
 what the Church in those rude times represented and em- 
 bodied ; and for the utter discomfiture and overthrow of 
 which, any absolute supremacy of the State and the sword 
 would have been but a ])ooy compensation. What it was 
 well that the King should retain, he did not lose ; and, 
 though neither did Becket entirely forfeit what his arro- 
 gance too rashly put in peril, substantially the victory 
 remained with Henry. Asserting the necessary rights of 
 temporal princes, and upholding the independent vigom- of 
 civil government, he defended and maintained, in effect, 
 religious libert}^ and equal laws; and happily the soil was 
 not unprepared to receive that wholesome seed, even so 
 early as the reign of the first Plantagenet. 
 
 The reign of the second of that family supplies to our 
 constitutional historian, in the sentence passed on the 
 Chancellor of the absent King by the convention of 
 barons, the earliest authority on record for the respon- 
 sibility of Ministers to Parliament. The incident, how- 
 ever, important as it is, seems rather to take its place 
 with others in the same reign, which mark the springing 
 up of a new condition of relations between the baronage 
 and the throne. In the obstinate absence of Cceur-de- 
 Lion on his hair-brained enterprizes, the inaptitude and 
 imbecility of his brother had thrown all the real duties 
 of government into the hands of a council of barons ; 
 these again were opposed by men of their owa class, as 
 well for self-interest, as on general and indej^endent 
 grounds ; and the result of a series of quarrels thus con- 
 ducted between equals, as it were, in station, between forces 
 to a great degree independent of each other — the Crown 
 striving to maintain itself on the one hand, but no longer 
 with the prestige of power it had received from the 
 stronger kings ; the Aristocracy advancing claims on the
 
 182 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 other, no longer overborne or overawed by the present pres- 
 sure of the throne — led to Avhat, in modern phrase, might 
 be called a S3^stem of unscrupulous party struggle, in which 
 royalty lost the exclusive position it had been the gTeat 
 aim of the Conqueror's family to secure to it, and became 
 an unguarded object of attack, thereafter, to whatever hos- 
 tile confederacy might be formed against it. 
 
 What there was of evil as well as of good in the con- 
 test became strongly manifest in the two succeeding 
 reigns. 
 
 In the strict order of hereditary succession the crown, 
 which on Eichard's death was conferred on John, would 
 have fallen to Arthur, the orphan of John's elder brother. 
 But though the subsequent misfortunes and sorrowful 
 death of this young prince largely excited sympathy in 
 England, therewas never any formidable stand attempted, 
 here, on the ground of his right to the throne. The battle 
 Avas fought in the foreign provinces. In England, while 
 some might have thought his hereditary claim superior to 
 his uncle's, there was hardly a man of influence who 
 would at this period have drawn the sword for him, on 
 any such principle as that the crown of England was 
 heritable property. The genius of the country had been 
 repugnant to any such notion. The Anglo-Saxon sove- 
 reignty was elective ; that people never sanctioning a 
 custom by which the then personal and most arduous 
 duties of sovereignty, both in peace and war, might pass 
 of right to an infant or imbecile prince ; and to the 
 strength of this feeling in the country of their conquest, 
 the Normans heretofore had been obliged to defer. At 
 each successive coronation following the defeat of Harold, 
 including that of the Conqueror, the form of deferring to 
 the people's choice had been religiously adhered to ; nay, 
 of the five Norman kings on whom the English crown had 
 now descended, four had been constrained to rest their 
 strongest title on that popular choice or recognition : 
 but its most decisive confirmation was reserved for the 
 coronation of John. Till after the ceremony, his right
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 183 
 
 was in no particular admitted. He was earl, until lie as- 
 sumed the ducal coronet ; and he was duke, until the Great 
 Council, speaking through the primate, invested him at 
 Westminster with the English crown, accompanying it 
 with the emphatic declaration that it was the nation's 
 gift, and not the property of any particular person. 
 Speed, with his patient industry and narrow ^dsion, calls 
 this latter condition, " a second seed-plot of treasons ; " 
 hut for the most part it has happened, throughout our 
 English history, that treasons have been the second seed- 
 plot of liberty. Other historical critics imagine John's 
 coronation to have been a mere arrangement of con- 
 ditional fealty specially restricted to him ; the sole 
 temptation to elect him, in preference to his nephew, 
 being the consideration that less was to be looked for 
 in the wa}^ of civil restitution from a legitimate monarch, 
 than from one who held by elective tenure. But these 
 reasoners overlook, not only the fact that the law of 
 succession as between a living brother and a dead 
 brother's child was by no means settled at this time, 
 but that, as has just been pointed out, the choice of a 
 monarch on grounds exclusively hereditary would have 
 been the exception, and not the rule. If anything beyond 
 the objection to entrusting sovereignty to a child and a 
 woman, induced the preference of John, it very probably 
 was some anticipation of a possible and not distant 
 struggle between the throne and its feudal dependencies, 
 and the sense of how much the latter would be 
 strengthened by an incompetent and feeble King. For, 
 how stood the government of England, when placed in 
 John's keeping ? 
 
 The balance of power between the various grades 
 of feudal society, as in a great degree established by 
 the discreet and powerful policy of Henry II, had 
 been wholly relaxed and unsettled by the lawless admi- 
 nistration in Coeur-de-Lion's absence. The powers which 
 Henry centred in the throne for good purposes, were 
 prostituted to evil by his son. The weakness which an
 
 184 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 able king, for wise and prudent purposes, had sought 
 to introduce into the aristocratic element of the kingdom, 
 had since been used for the suppression of all restraint 
 upon monarchical tj^ranny. If such a sovereign as Henry 
 could have continued to reign, until a forced repression 
 of the baronial feuds might have permitted a gradual and 
 free reaction of the popular on the kingly power, the 
 establishment of rational libertj^ would have been hastened 
 by at least two centuries. Even as it was, there stood 
 the people between the two opposing forces ; alternately 
 recognised in the necessities of each, and by both made 
 conscious of their power. In the Church questions, and 
 that of resistance to invasion, which arose in the earlier 
 portion of the reign, they took part with John ; in the 
 questions of civil freedom which immortalised its close, 
 they joined the grand confederacy of his enemies. Of 
 the character of this prince it is needless to speak. It 
 belongs to the few in history or in human nature of which 
 the infamy is altogether black and unredeemed. The 
 qualities which degraded his j'outh grew with his years ; 
 combined with them, he had just enough of the ambition 
 of his race to bring forth more strongly the pusillanimity 
 of his spirit ; and thus he was insolent and mean, at once 
 the most abject and the most arrogant of men. The 
 pitiless cruelties recorded of him surpass belief ; and the 
 reckless madness with which he rushed into his quarrels, 
 was only exceeded by his impotent cowardice when 
 resistance showed its front. He deserted the people 
 when the people joined liim against the Chui'ch, he 
 deserted the Church when the Chm'ch joined him against 
 the people. Yet what resulted from the very vice and 
 falsehood of so despicable a nature was in itself the 
 reverse of evil. A man more able, though with an equal 
 love of tj'ranny, would have husbanded, and kept, his 
 power; this man could only feel that he existed when 
 he knew that he was trampling on his fellow-men, and, 
 making his power intolerable, he risked and lost it. 
 The conclusion which would infer that with the barons.
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 185 
 
 and not with the people, the substantial benefit remained, 
 is far too hastily formed. What in its beginning was the 
 claim of one powerful faction in the realm as against its 
 feudal lord, became in the end a demand for rights to be 
 guaranteed to the general community. It was but a 
 month before the gathering at Eunnymede that an 
 unavailing attemj)t was made to detach the greater barons 
 from the national confederacy, by offering to themselves 
 and their immediate followers what the Great Charter was 
 to secure to every freeman. 
 
 I have shown that party spirit had now arisen in Eng- 
 land. From it have sprung scenes and compromises 
 often neither just nor honourable ; but with it have been 
 associated, in very memorable periods of history, the 
 liberties and political advances of the English people. 
 The determined wish of a large section of the nobles to 
 degrade the position and humble the pride of theii* 
 Sovereign, became obvious at the outset of John's reign. 
 When he began his continental wars, he was master of 
 the whole French coast, from the borders of Flanders to 
 the foot of the Pyrenees ; when three years had passed, 
 the best portion of that territory was irrevocably lost to 
 him, and, after a separation of three hundred years, Nor- 
 mandy, Anjou, j\Iaine, and Touraine, were reannexed to 
 the French crown. Nor were any of liis complaints so 
 loud and bitter, during the progress of these events, as 
 that which was implied in his reproach that the English 
 nobles had forsaken him. They certainly saw -psLSS into 
 subjection to France those large and opulent provinces so 
 long won and guarded by the swords of their fathers, and 
 they made no sign of resistance. But this had also a deeper 
 significance than mere disgust with John. They had 
 elected their country. They were no longer foreign pro- 
 prietors, on a soil which was not their own ; they were 
 Enghshmen, resolved to cast their fortunes and their fate 
 with England. Soon after this, indeed, they raised a 
 counter-cry to that of their reci-eant King, accusing him 
 of " foreign " favouritism. With the name, opprobrious
 
 186 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 now, of foreigner, they branded the Angevin, the Norman, 
 and the Poitevin nobles, whom he had brought into Eng- 
 land at the close of his French wars ; and whom he now 
 delighted to parade about his person, to load with digni- 
 ties and wealth, and to encourage in theii' vigorous efforts 
 to plunder and oppress the native population. Even the 
 French historian of Norman conquest here admits that 
 the conquering lord and the conquered peasant had found 
 a point of contact and a common sympath3\ He can no 
 longer resist the conclusion, that in the soil of England 
 there was at length germinating a national spirit, common 
 to all who traversed it. Without doubt it was so. Nor 
 was there a new fine now levied on one of the old domains, 
 or a new toll on one of the old bridges or highways, that 
 did not bring the English baron and lord of the manor 
 nearer in his interests and rights to the English farmer 
 and citizen. 
 
 The next step in John's degradation completed the 
 rupture with his barons and carried over the people to 
 their side. From the attempted overthrow of all govern- 
 ment, hj the surrender of England to the Pope, dates the 
 first sensible advance in our annals to anything like a 
 government under general and equitable forms of law. 
 There is not an English freeman living in this nineteenth 
 century, who may not trace in some degree a portion of 
 the liberty he enjoys to the day when King John did his 
 best to lay his country at the feet of a foreign priest, and 
 make every one of her children as much a slave as him- 
 self. From that day the Grand Confederacy against the 
 King took its really formidable, because now unwavering 
 shape; and what was best in England joined and 
 strengthened it. The concentration of its purposes was 
 mainly the work of Stephen de Langton, and forms his 
 claim to eternal memory. Rome never clad in her purple 
 a man of nobler nature, or one who more resolutel}^ 
 when he left" the councils of the Vatican, seemed to have 
 left behind him also whatever might impinge upon his 
 obligations as an Englishman. No name stands upon
 
 THE TLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 187 
 
 our records worthier of national honour. In an unlettered 
 age, he had cultivated with success not alone the highest 
 learning but the accomplishments and graces of litera- 
 ture ; and at a time apparently the most unfavourable to 
 the growth of freedom, he impelled existing discontents, 
 Avhich but for him might have wasted in casual conflict, 
 to the establishment of that deep and broad distinction 
 between a free and a despotic monarchy, of which our his- 
 tory, through all the varying fortunes and disasters that 
 awaited it, never afterwards lost the trace. Even wliile 
 he personally controlled the treacherous violence of the 
 King, he gave steady direction to the still wavering 
 designs of the Barons ; and among the securities obtained 
 on the first day of Kunnymede for due observance of the 
 instrument which the King was to be called upon to sign, 
 probably none inspu^ed greater confidence than that which 
 consigned for a certain specified time to Langton's custody 
 the Tower and the defences of London. This and 
 other guarantees conceded, the various heads of grievance 
 and proposed means of redress were one by one dis- 
 cussed ; and, the document in which they were reduced 
 to legal shape having been formally admitted by the 
 Sovereigni, on the fourth day from the opening of the 
 conference, Friday the 19th of June, 1215, there was 
 unrolled, read out aloud, and subscribed by John, the 
 formal instrument which at last embodied, in fifty-seven 
 chapters, the completed demands of the confederacy, and is 
 immortalised in history as the Great Charter. 
 
 The Great Charter, it is hardly necessary to say, had 
 nothing to do with the creation of our liberties. Its 
 inexpressible value was, that it corrected, confirmed, and 
 re-established ancient and indisputable, though con- 
 tinually violated, public rights ; that it abolished the 
 worst of the abuses which had crept into existing laws ; 
 tliat it gave an improved tone, by giving a definite and 
 substantial form, to future popular desires and aspira- 
 tions ; that, without attempting to frame a new code, or 
 even to inculcate any grand or general principles of legis-
 
 188 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 lation, it did in effect accomplish both, because, in insist- 
 ing upon the just discharge of special feudal relations, it 
 affirmed a principle of equity which was found generally 
 applicable far beyond them ; that it turned into a tangible 
 possession what before was fleeting and undetermined ; 
 and that, throughout the centuries which succeeded, it 
 was violated by all our kings and appealed to by every 
 struggling section of our countrymen. 
 
 To very many of its provisions no reference needs to be 
 made, beyond the mention that they redressed grievances 
 of the military tenants, hardly intelligible since the down- 
 fall of the system of feuds, but then very severely felt. 
 Reliefs were limited to a certain sum, as fixed by ancient 
 precedent ; the waste committed, and the unreasonable 
 services exacted, b}^ guardians in chivalry, were restrained ; 
 the disparagement in matrimony of female wards was 
 forbidden ; and widows were secured from compulsory 
 marriage and other wrongs. Its remedies on these 
 points were extended not to the vassals only, but to the 
 sub-vassals of the Crown. At the same time the fran- 
 chises, the ancient liberties and free customs, of the City 
 of London, and of all towns and boroughs, were declared 
 to be inviolable. Freedom of commerce was also guaranteed 
 to foreign merchants, with a proviso to the King to arrest 
 them for security in time of war, and keep them until the 
 treatment of our own merchants in the enemy's country 
 should be known. The tyranny exercised in connection 
 with the Eoyal Forests was effectively controlled ; and a 
 remedy was applied to that double grievance of expense and 
 delay, long bitterly felt, to which private individuals were 
 subjected when prosecuting suits in the King's court, by 
 the necessity of foUowmg the King in his perpetual pro- 
 gresses. " Common Pleas shall not follow our court," said 
 this memorable provision of Magna Charta, " but shall be 
 "held in some certain place." 
 
 As striking a provision had relation to the levy of aids 
 and scutages, and this, which was not in the articles first 
 submitted to the King, appears to have originated during
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 189 
 
 the four days' conference at Runn^'mede. The frequency 
 of foreign expeditious had given a very onerous character 
 to these aids ; always liable to be farmed out with peculiar 
 circumstances of hardship, and lately become of nearly 
 annual recurrence. But the provision in question now 
 limited the exaction of them to the three acknowledged 
 legal occasions — the King's personal captivity, the knight- 
 hood of his eldest son, and the marriage of his eldest 
 daughter ; and in case aid or scutage should be required 
 on any other grounds, it rendered necessary the previous 
 consent of the great council of the tenants of the crown. 
 It proceeded to enumerate the constituent parts of this 
 council, as to consist of archbishops, bishops, abbots, 
 earls, and greater barons, who should be summoned 
 personally b}' writ ; and of all other tenants in chief of the 
 crown, who should be summoned generally by the sheriff; 
 and it ordered the issue of summons forty days before- 
 hand, with specification of time and place, and intended 
 subject of discussion. Nor did anything in the Charter, 
 notwithstanding the careful limitation of the article to 
 royal tenants and to purposes of supply, prove so hateful 
 to succeeding princes as this latter stipulation. It was soon 
 formally expunged, and was never formally restored ; j^et in 
 its place arose silently other and larger privileges, such as no 
 one was found daring enough in later years to violate openly. 
 
 Upon many smaller though very salutary provisions 
 which, relating to the better administration of justice, to 
 the stricter regulation of assize, to mitigation of the rights 
 of pre-emption possessed by the Crown, and to the 
 allowance of liberty of travel to every freeman excepting 
 in time of war, took a comparatively narrow and local 
 range, it is not necessary to dwell. I proceed to name 
 those grander provisions which proved applicable to all 
 places and times, and were found to hold within them the 
 germ of our greatest constitutional liberties. 
 
 These were the clauses which protected the personal 
 liberty and property of all freemen, by founding accessible 
 securities against arbitrary imprisonment and arbitrary
 
 190 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 spoliation. " We will not sell, we will not refuse, we will 
 " not defer, right or justice to any one," was the simple 
 and noble protest against a custom never thenceforward 
 to be practised without secret crime or open shame. In 
 the same great spirit, the thirty-ninth clause, beginning 
 with that rude latinity of nidhis Uher homo which Lord 
 Chatham thought worth all the Classics, stipulated that 
 no freeman should be arrested or imprisoned, or disseised 
 of his land, or outlawed, or destroyed in any manner ; nor 
 should the King go upon him, nor send upon him, but by 
 the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the 
 land. And a supplementary clause, not less worth}'", 
 provided that earls and barons should be amerced by their 
 peers only, and according to the nature of their offence ; 
 that freemen should not be amerced heavily for a small 
 fault, but after the manner of the default, nor above 
 measure for a great transgression ; and that such amercia- 
 ments — saving always to the freeholder his freehold, to the 
 merchant his merchandise, and to a villein his implements 
 of husbandry — should be imposed by the oath of the good 
 men of the neighbourhood. It was at the same time pro- 
 vided that every liberty and custom which the King had 
 granted to his tenants, as far as concerned him, should be 
 observed by the clergy and laity towards their tenants, as 
 far as concerned them ; thus extending the relief generally, 
 as before remarked, to the sub -vassals as well as vassals, 
 but restricting it still to the freeman. 
 
 Manifest as were such omissions in the Charter, how- 
 ever, and limited as the bearing seemed to be even of 
 its greatest remedial clauses, these did not avail 
 against its mighty and resistless effect through the 
 succeeding centuries. Its framers might have paused, 
 could they wholly have foreseen or known what it in- 
 volved ; and that under words intended only to be appli- 
 cable to the relations of feudal power, lay concealed the 
 most extended truths of a just and equitable polity. By 
 the very right they claimed to den}^ protection to serfs, the 
 bonds of serfdom were for ever broken. By the authority
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 191 
 
 they assumed of protesting against the power of taxation 
 in a prince, they forfeited the power of taxation in a like 
 case which they believed they had reserved to themselves. 
 They could not assert a principle, and restrict its operation 
 and consequences. They could not insist upon regular 
 meetings of the great council with the purpose of con- 
 trolling the King, and prevent the ultimate admission into 
 it of forms of popular election which w^ere most effectually 
 to control the Nobility. If required to convey by a single 
 phrase the truth embodied in the Great Charter, it might 
 be simply and sufficiently expressed as resistance to irre- 
 sijonsible tyranny; and this substantially is the same, under 
 the jerkin of the peasant and under the coat of mail of the 
 baron. In all the struggles of freedom, therefore, which 
 filled the centuries after Runnymede, it played the most 
 conspicuous part ; and from the solid vantage ground it 
 established, each fresh advance was always made. Never, 
 at any new effort, were its watchwords absent, or its 
 provisions vamly appealed to ; although, when old Sir 
 Edward Coke arose to speak in the third parliament of 
 James I, the necessity had arisen no less than thirty-two 
 times to have them solemnly reaffirmed and re-established. 
 Thirty -two several times had tliey then been deliberately 
 violated by profligate ministers and faithless kings. 
 
 Already twice had this wrong been suffered in the 
 reign succeeding John's, when, six years after the Eegent 
 Pembroke's death, and while the jjerson of the young 
 King was under the guardianship of a Poitevin bishop, 
 Peter des Roches, formerly a tool of John's, there was 
 summoned the earliest Great Council which bore the 
 ominous name of Parliament. The Court's urgent neces- 
 sities had called it together : but upon the demand for a 
 subsidy, fresh violations of the Charter were made broadly 
 the ground for refusing it ; and it was only at length 
 conceded, in the shape of a fifteenth of all movables, 
 upon receipt of guarantees for a more strict observance 
 of the Charter, and with the condition that the money so 
 raised should be placed in the treasury and none of it
 
 192 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 taken out before the King was of age, unless for the 
 defence of the realm, and in the presence of six bishops and 
 six earls. As far as I am aware, this is the first example 
 of parliamentary control brought face to face with the royal 
 prerogative, and the transaction contained in the germ 
 whatever has been worthiest of a free people in our history. 
 
 Indirectly may be traced to it, among other incidents 
 very notable, that proclamation from Henry III, sum- 
 moning his people to take i)art with him against the 
 barons and great lords, which was one of the most 
 memorable of the precedents unrolled by Sir Kobert 
 Cotton and Sii' Edward Coke when the struggle with 
 the Stuarts began. It was then late in the reign ; 
 but Henrj' was only seeking to better the instruction 
 received in his nonage from appeals exactly similar 
 addressed to the people by the barons, while their conflict 
 still continued with Peter des Roches. The wily Poitevin, 
 galled by the conditions attached to the subsidy, precipi- 
 tated the yoimg King into further disputes ; in the com'se 
 of which, offices of trust were gradually taken from the 
 English barons and filled by foreigners brought over into 
 England. The men of old family, wedded now to the 
 land of their fathers as jealously as the Saxon had been, saw 
 themselves displaced for the French jester, tool, or pander; 
 and these so-called Norman chiefs turned for sympathy 
 and help to a people no longer exclusively either Norman 
 or Saxon, but united inseparably on their English soil. 
 
 Historians have been ver}^ reluctant to admit so early 
 an intrusion of the popular element into the government 
 of the Plantagenets ; and it is still the custom to treat of 
 this particular reign as a mere struggle for the predomi- 
 nance of aristocracy or monarchy. But beneath the 
 surface, the other and more momentous power is visible 
 enough, as it heaves and stirs the outward agencies and 
 signs of authority ; and what might else have been a 
 paltry struggle, easily terminable, for court favour or 
 military predominance, was by this converted into a war 
 of principles, awful and irreconcileable, which ran its
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 193 
 
 course with varying fortune through all subsequent time. 
 The merchants and tradesmen of the towns are now first 
 recognisable as an independant and important class. 
 They have been enriched by that very intercourse with 
 foreigners which was so hateful to the class above them. 
 They are invested with privileges wrung from the poverty 
 of tlieii' lords. Tliey are no longer liable to individual 
 services, but in place of them are pajdng common rents. 
 They have guilds and charters inviolable as the fees of 
 the great proprietors ; and, incident to these, the right, as 
 little now to be disputed as that of the feudal superior 
 had been, to hold fairs and demand tolls, to choose their 
 own magistrates and enact their own laws. On the 
 hearing of such men, the provisions of the Great Charter, 
 read aloud from time to time in their County Courts, 
 could not have fallen as a mere empty sound. What was 
 so proclaimed might be but half-enfranchisement ; it 
 could indeed be little more, while serfdom remained in 
 the classes dii-ectly beneath them ; but it pointed to where 
 freedom was, accustomed them to its claims and forms, 
 and helj)ed them onward in the direction where it lay. 
 They joined the Barons against the foreign favourite. 
 
 The conflict had continued some time, and Henry was 
 twenty-six years old, when his necessities again compelled 
 him to call together a parliament ; but twice his bidding 
 was refused, and the messengers who bore the refusal 
 might have added the unwonted tidings, that songs sung 
 against the I'avourite, and filled with warnings to the 
 Sovereign, might daily be heard in the streets. Amid 
 other signs and portents of social change had now arisen 
 the pohtical ballad. In it shone forth tlie first vera 
 effigies of the Poitevin bishop of Winchester ; nimble at 
 the counting of money as he was slow in expounding the 
 gospel ; sitting paramount, not in Winchester, but in 
 Exchequer ; pondering on pounds, and not upon his lioly 
 book ; postponing Luke to lucre ; and setting more store 
 by a handful of marks than by all the doctrines of their 
 namesake saint. Would the King avoid the shipwreck of
 
 194 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 his kingdom ? asked the singer. Then let him shun for 
 ever the stones and rocks (Roches) in his wa3^ Quickly, 
 too, were these warnings followed up. By no less a 
 person than Pembroke's son, the standard of rebellion 
 was let loose in the Welsh districts ; the clergy, oppressed 
 by tax and tallage from Rome, began to take part in the 
 general discontent ; and in midst of a feast at the palace, 
 Edmund of Canterbury (Langton's successor) presented 
 himself with a statement of national grievances and a 
 demand for immediate redress. He reminded the King 
 that his father had well nigh forfeited his crown ; he told 
 him that the English people would never submit to be 
 trampled upon by foreigners in England ; and for himself 
 he added, that he should excommunicate all who any 
 longer refused, in that crisis of danger, to support the 
 reform of the government and the welfare of the nation. 
 That was in Februar}^ 1234. In April, a parliament had 
 assembled, Peter and his Poitevins were on their way 
 home across the sea, the ministers who had made them- 
 selves hateful were dismissed, and the opposition barons 
 were in power. 
 
 This will read like the language of a modern day ; but 
 if such events have any historic significance, the}'- esta- 
 blish what in the modern phrase can only properly be 
 described as ministerial responsibility and parliamentary 
 control. Nor were they the solitar}' or isolated events of 
 their class which marked the feeling of the time. Again 
 and again, during this prolonged reign, the same incidents 
 recur, in precisely the same circle of resistance and sub- 
 mission. There is an urgent request for money, which 
 is contemptuously refused ; but on a promise to redress 
 grievances, the subsidy is given. Then, Court coffers 
 being full, Court pledges are violated; until again dis- 
 tress brings round the old piteous petition, and, with new 
 conditions of restraint and constitutional safeguards before 
 undemanded, assistance is rendered again. In five years 
 from the incident I have named, the money so granted by 
 Parliament was paid into the hands of selected Barons,
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 195 
 
 with as strict proviso for account as modern parlia- 
 ments have claimed over public expenditure ; and in two 
 years more, on the payment of certain monie>s to the 
 Exchequer, the City of London exacted a stij)ulation that 
 the Justiciary, Chancellor, and Treasurer might there- 
 after be appointed with the consent 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 recognised, law was taking the form of a 
 system. It was now that Bracton produced that treatise 
 which went far in itself to establish uniformity of legal prac- 
 tice, and so create our common law ; nor had the reign, 
 for which this might have sufficed as the sole distinction, 
 reached its close, before the same great lawyer found 
 himself able to reckon as superior to the King " not only 
 " God and the law by which he is made king, but his 
 " Great Court (Cm-ia Regis) ; so that if he were without a 
 " bridle, that is the law, they ought to put a bridle upon 
 " him." This Court, this Curia Regis, consisting of 
 Cliief Justiciary, Chancellor, Constable, Marshal, Cham- 
 berlain, Steward, and Treasurer, was what in modern 
 time might be called the Cabinet of the King. 
 
 But the achievement which most connects this thirteenth 
 century with the struggles of the seventeenth, and with the 
 associations of modern time, remains to be commemorated. 
 Beyond doubt or question, and after due allowance for 
 differences in a discussion where the most learned and 
 calm of antiquarians have not been able wholly to divest 
 themselves of party zeal, in the Great Council which met 
 at Westminster on the 2nd of May, 1258, originated the 
 House of Commons as a separate branch of the State. 
 
 Under the earliest Norman kings, Avhat was called the 
 Great Council appears to have been only another form of 
 the Saxon Witan. A greater misapprehension of our 
 constitutional history can hardly exist than that which 
 would affect to discover in it any actual commencement of 
 our modern House of Lords. The idea of an liereditary 
 
 House of Lords did not at that time exist in England. 
 
 K 2
 
 106 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 A barony consisted of so many knights' fees ; in other 
 words, of so many estates from which the services of a 
 knight were due ; and a baron claimed his barony not as 
 a lord (even the coronet was not worn until much later), 
 but as a proprietor. The Council, in short, was distinctly 
 representative. The dignity was territorial, resulting 
 from the possession of fiefs of land ; and if those fiefs 
 were forfeited, alienated, or lost, the dignity dejjarted 
 with them. But it is not difficult to discern how a larger 
 parliamentary system would almost necessarily arise out 
 of such baronial tenures. Through all the differences 
 and dissensions of the many learned persons by whom 
 these matters have been discussed, and without touching 
 the vexed questions which their learning has left still 
 unsolved, it seems tolerably clear that, whether or not 
 tenure by knights' service in chief was originally distinct 
 from tenure by barony, they had become so separated 
 some time before the reign of John. Tenants in chief 
 appear to liave comprised, in the first instance, only the 
 King's immediate vassals ; but as time wore on, the}'- 
 could not so be restricted. Many of the greater baronies 
 split up and became divided ; while the name of baron, 
 no matter Avhat number of fees it represented, or for the 
 feudal service of how few or how many knights it may 
 have been responsible, was still retained. 
 
 But this led to a natural jealousy on the j)art of the 
 greater proprietors ; and in time to a broad distinction, 
 in name at least, between the more important of those 
 barons who held by their honours or baronies, and the 
 lesser proprietors whom grants of escheated honours 
 might newly have created, or whose ancient rights had 
 been reduced by escheat or decay. A tenant in chief was 
 now not necessarily a baron ; or he might be a baron of 
 inferior grade. It is more difficult to determine what 
 regulated the issue of writs of summons ; but it seems 
 probable that the same jealousy to which allusion has 
 been made, brought about the distinction first observable 
 in John's reign, between the greater baron summoned by
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 197 
 
 his special writ, and the inferior tenants in chief called 
 together by a summons directed to their sheriff. It is 
 clear also, that, though all were entitled to summons, the 
 mere right of tenure could not dispense with its forms ; 
 and an unsummoned tenant, without resorting to such 
 remedies as might compel the issue of the writ, could not 
 take his place in the Council. 
 
 Up to this point, it will be observed, the principle is 
 distinctly that of feudal representation. The immediate 
 vassals of the Crown, representing certain land, possess 
 the personal right to be present in parliament. They 
 are the liegemen of the Sovereign ; and, by the universal 
 feudal compact, though aid could be asked of the liegeman, 
 the man's consent was necessary to legalize the aid ; 
 while the same relation, implying protection from the 
 lord, conveyed a further right to insist upon cor- 
 responding guarantees. In this view, the presence of 
 both larger and lesser tenants was required, and was even 
 exacted by the Crown as needful to the authority and 
 execution of a law. But as the inferior tenants increased 
 in number, the tax for parliamentary attendance on men 
 of smaller fortunes became intolerable ; and their consent 
 and attendance came to be implied in that of the greater 
 barons. Still, they were supposed to be in the Council ; 
 and it seems to me that to the mere form and legal 
 fiction thus resorted to, may be traced the gradual 
 transition from a feudal to a real representation. The 
 sure though silent power, with which a growing society 
 of men will modify and adapt old institutions to new 
 necessities, at once widening and strengthening their 
 foundations, is for the most part happily unknown to 
 those who might otherwise not unsuccessfully strive to 
 control it. 
 
 As the inferior tenants in chief withdrew gradually from 
 the Council, its component members became restricted to 
 the bishops and abbots, the earls and barons, the ministers 
 and judges, and neighbouring knights holding of the 
 Crown. But the language of the writs continued to
 
 198 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 imply a mucli larger attendance. When, for example, the 
 Great Charter was confirmed in the ninth year of Henry's 
 reign, the roll informs us that at the same time a fifteenth 
 had been granted in return by the bishops, earls, barons, 
 knights, free tenants, and all of the kingdom {d omnes de 
 regno nostro Anglice); and when a fortieth was granted seven 
 years later, there is put forth as having concurred in 
 the grant the strange and ominous combination of 
 bishops, earls, barons, knights, freemen and villeins. 
 This was indeed a fiction, but with an expanding germ 
 of truth. The consent of particular classes was to be 
 understood, as a matter of course, to be included in 
 that of others. But the very emptiest acknowledgment of 
 a right is precious. The right itself waits only its due 
 occasion to assume the substance and importance of 
 reality. 
 
 Nor had the English freeman, even under his earliest 
 Norman kings, been wholly without the means of knowing 
 what representation meant. When the Conqueror or his 
 sons had any special reason to make inquiry into their 
 own rights ; when particular wrongs of the people reached 
 them, or when peculations were charged against theii' 
 barons or officers ; nothing was more common than a com- 
 mission of knights in each shire, not simply named by the 
 Sovereign (as when the Conqueror issued an inquiry into the 
 details of the Saxon law), but quite as frequently elected in 
 the County Court, whose business it was to proceed 
 from hundred to hundred, to make the investigation upon 
 oath, and to lay its result before the King in council. 
 The Great Charter contained a provision for the election 
 of twelve knights in the next court of each county, to 
 inquire into forest abuses. In the seventh year of the 
 reign now under notice, every sheriff was ordered to 
 inquire, by means of twelve lawful and discreet knights, 
 what special privileges existed in his shire on the day of 
 the first outbreak between John and his barons. And 
 in the year of the assembling of the Great Council to 
 which these remarks apply, a commission of four knights
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 109 
 
 ill each county received it in charge to inquire into certain 
 excesses committed by men in authority. In relation to 
 the levy of subsidies also, the same rule came to be 
 adopted. The most ancient example on record of a sub- 
 sidy (that of 1307) is found to have been collected by the 
 itinerant judges ; but only thirteen years later, the office 
 of collection is seen to be deputed to the sheriif, in 
 conjunction with two knights to be chosen in a full 
 court of the county, mth the consent of all the suitors. 
 
 Was it not obvious that such usage as this must grow 
 as the people gi-ew ? Were not the collection of taxes, 
 and reports of grievances, manifest steps to a power over 
 the money collected, and to a right of petition against the 
 grievances exposed ? Is it difficult to discern, throughout 
 these efforts of Norman royalty to check the excess of its 
 ministers and obtain the co-operation of its people, the 
 vague formation of that authority and house of the 
 Commons, which was to prove more formidable than 
 either of the powers it was called into existence to 
 control ? 
 
 Soon what was vague became more distinct. It wanted 
 yet two years of the date of the Great Charter, when a Avrit 
 was issued marking the first undoubted transition towards 
 the change so vast and so memorable. This contained a 
 summons for military service, with an order that four 
 discreet knights of the county should be sent to Oxford 
 without arms to treat with the King concerning the afiairs 
 of the kingdom. In other words, it was a summons to 
 Parliament, in terms the same as those of a later period ; 
 and it was followed, after an interval of forty years, by 
 another and more decisive instance. While Henry III 
 was on the continent in 1254, his Queen and Re- 
 gents summoned tbe tenants in chief to sail to his 
 assistance ; and gave order, in the summons, that 
 " besides these, two lawful and discreet knights should 
 " be chosen by the men of every county, in the place of 
 " all and each of them, to assemble at Westminster, and 
 " to determine with the knights of the other counties
 
 200 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 " what aid they would grant to their Sovereign in his 
 " present necessity, so that the same knights might be 
 " able to answer, in the matter of the said aid, for their 
 " respective counties." 
 
 Of the meaning of such a writ and its return, there 
 cannot surely be a question ; nor is it easy to vmder- 
 stand the discussion it has provoked. Call it singular, 
 anomalous, or by what name may most suitably express 
 its irregular character ; except it from ordinary par- 
 liaments, and call it a convention; still the undeniable 
 fact remains, that it was a scheme to obtain money from 
 the Commons of the various counties, and that to this 
 end it prescribed the election of representatives whose 
 deliberation and assent should control those of their 
 constituents. The language of the writ connects itself 
 undoubtedly with that of its predecessor in the fifteenth 
 of John ; and it is quite immaterial whether or not the 
 barons, and higher tenants in chief, were summoned to sit 
 with these knights. Enough that the Commons of the 
 shires were thus admitted to a co-ordinate share in the 
 imposition and voting of taxes ; for, whatever anti- 
 quarians may urge as to Parliament's use of one chamber 
 at Westminster up to the middle of the third Edward's 
 reign (abimdant proof exists of separate sittings in other 
 parts of England), it is sufficiently clear that the voting 
 must always have been by each order separately, and 
 without interference from each other. The mere circum- 
 stance of the different proportions of taxation would 
 establish this. 
 
 In the thirty-eighth of Henry III, then, the principle 
 of a real representation had become part of the constitution 
 of England, and the third estate of the realm took a 
 direct share in its government. Yet, momentous as the 
 concession was, it had been obtained by no violent effort, 
 but as the mere unavoidable result of the increasing 
 importance of the people. From lesser they had risen 
 quietly to higher duties. The kniglit, whose business it 
 had been to assess subsidies, had found gradual admission
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 201 
 
 by the side of the earls and barons, to help m the 
 disposition and distribution of the money obtained ; and 
 that he and his fellows were so received distinctly as the 
 deputies of others, appeared even in the remuneration set 
 apart for them. Great men, such as earls and barons, 
 who attended in their own right, paid their own charges ; 
 but men of smaller substance, who had undertaken merely 
 to transact business for others, were held to have a title 
 to compensation from those in whose behalf they acted. 
 As they were paid for their labour in assessment, so for 
 their sacrifice of time and labour in representation they 
 were paid. Wherefore a rate levied on the county dis- 
 charged their expenses for so many specified days, in 
 " going, staying, and returning." 
 
 On another branch of this inquiry, too, which has been 
 sadly encumbered with needless learning and misplaced 
 vehemence of discussion, the county rate would seem to 
 have an important bearing. It has been assumed, by those 
 antiquarians who would narrow as much as possible the 
 basis on which our freedom is built, that the representative 
 knights, as representing simply the inferior tenants in 
 chief from whose reluctance to attend in Parliament they 
 first derived importance, are not to be taken to have had 
 relation to the county at large. But this assumption is 
 negatived by every reasonable supposition. The wages 
 of the knights were levied on the whole county {de com- 
 munitate comltatus) ; and the mesne tenant could hardly 
 have been denied a right, to the support of which he was 
 obliged to contribute. . That what concerned all should 
 be approved by all, was a maxim not unused by even 
 Norman kings. The language of the writs of election, 
 also, cited with pardonable exultation by Prynne in the 
 early sittings of the Long Parliament, is clear and specific. 
 The tenants in chief are never mentioned in them ; while 
 tenants of the Crown implied tenants both by free and by 
 military service. The condition required of the candi- 
 date, was to be discreet and lawful ; of the electors, to be 
 suitors of the county ; and of the election, to be made in 
 
 E 3
 
 202 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 a full court. A full County Court was always the least 
 feudal of the modified feudality that lingered in England. 
 It comprised all freeholders ; whether of the King, of a 
 mesne lord, or by military or any free service ; and in 
 the reign of Henry III therefore, not less certainly 
 than in that of Victoria I, the knights of the shire 
 represented, without regard to the quality of tenure, the 
 whole body of freeholders. 
 
 Still, they were knights. Their station associated them 
 with the earls and barons. They were part of what in 
 feudal institution was held to be a lower nobility. They 
 ranked above the ordinary burgess or citizen. They repre- 
 sented the power of the Commons, but they were not 
 commoners ; even when the commoners sat apart, they 
 continued to sit with the barons ; and as yet no man seems 
 to have dreamt that the class lower than they, could ever 
 be raised to the national councils, whether in separate, co- 
 ordinate, or subordinate rank. Though the jjrinciple which 
 by easiest pressure expanded to admit them, had been win- 
 ning its gradual way for centuries to the acknowledgment 
 it had at last obtained, yet that lower class were still shut 
 out. But what ages and generations are needed to prepare, 
 the man and the hour accomplish ; and both were at hand 
 when the Great Council, having met at Westminster on 
 the 2nd of May, 1258, yielded to the demand of Simon 
 de Montfort that a parliament should meet at Oxford in 
 June. The struggle which then began filled more than 
 six eventful years, but at last the day arrived, never to be 
 forgotten in English story, and pn the 14th December, 
 1264, writs went forth calling together rejiresentatives 
 from the counties, cities, and boroughs, to meet the pre- 
 lates and great lords ; and the first enactment of that 
 most memorable assemblage, giving solemn confirmation 
 to charters and ordinances, ran as by common consent 
 " of the King, his son Edward, the prelates, earls, barons, 
 " and commonalty of the realms 
 
 That from the position thus gained the commonalty 
 never again were dislodged, is the sufficient answer to
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 203 
 
 those who would ascribe the victory less to the causes I 
 have retraced than to the sudden needs of a faction of the 
 barons. As of right the commonalty took, and they kept, 
 the place to which they were called ; and we may dismiss 
 as of the least possible importance the question whether 
 the power was usurped that called them. Their exist- 
 ence once recognised, no man was found to gainsay it ; 
 their position and place once found, everj^thing helped 
 to make it more decisively plain. In the reigns of the 
 first and second Edwards, and their successors, we find 
 them m actual efficiency as a branch of the State ; and in 
 spite of the weaker princes, as with the help of the wiser 
 and stronger, their power was still to grow. 
 
 Edward I had not occupied his father's throne three 
 years when a statute was passed that forasmuch as 
 election ought to be free, no man by force of arms, nor 
 by malice or menacing, should disturb any to make free 
 election. Ten years later, what proved to loe one of the 
 heaviest blows to the system it was meant to guard was 
 struck by the arming of all classes : for then was passed 
 the Great Statute of Winchester, by which every man in 
 the kingdom, according to the quantity of his lands and 
 goods, was assessed and sworn to carry weapons. The 
 lesson had now been taught to two estates of the realm, 
 that in the third, as yet unknown to itself, the supreme 
 force lay ; and the ability or power most effectively to 
 make common cause with it, was hereafter to be the 
 measure of gain or loss to either. A cmious example 
 presents itself in the succeeding reign. Under Edward II, 
 when beyond all question the Commons sat, as well as 
 voted, apart from the temporal and spiritual Barons, 
 numerous boroughs were expressly created with the 
 design of strengthening the regal as opposed to the aris- 
 tocratic influences ; and it was also then that, in a very 
 remarkable statute, equal legislative power with the other 
 estates was claimed for the commonalt}^ not as a new 
 pretension, but " according as hath been before accus- 
 *' tomed," as a fundamental usage of the realm. Both
 
 204 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the first and the thii-d Edward, in the plenitude of their 
 power and their success, attempted without direct autho- 
 rity from ParHament to impose taxes on the people ; and 
 both had to suffer defeat. Edward I struggled long to 
 reverse that decision ; and in the end had hut to enter into 
 more special covenants that he would never again levy 
 any aid without the assent and good-will of the estates of 
 the realm. The long and remarkable reign of his grand- 
 son is the date of the Statute of Treasons, one of the 
 greatest gains to constitutional freedom. It limited the 
 crime, before vague and uncertain, to three principal 
 heads ; the conspiring the King's death, the levying war 
 against him, and the adhering to his enemies ; and, if any 
 any other cases for question should arise, it prohibited 
 the judges from inflicting the penalty of treason without 
 apphcation to Parliament. Then also were passed those 
 memorable acts against arbitrary conscription and com- 
 pulsory pressing of soldiers, so repeatedly cited in the 
 struggle against Charles I, which saved to every man, 
 except upon " the sudden coming of strange enemies into 
 " the realm," the obhgation to arm himself only within 
 his o^^^Ti shire. But perhaps the highest distinction of 
 Edward Ill's government was that the j)oet Chaucer 
 then arose to instruct and charm his countrymen, purify- 
 ing their native tongue. And it was with much appro - 
 j)riateness, therefore, enacted in the thirty-sixth year of 
 the reign, that the English language, which had been 
 thus ennobled, should in future be used as the language 
 of legislation. 
 
 The greatest of the Edwards governed England for 
 fifty years, and called together seventy parliaments. He 
 w^as succeeded by a prince of qualities in all respects the 
 reverse of his, and whom Parliament deposed. Yet not 
 more certainly in the enforced resignation of the 
 crown which closed the reign, than in the rebellion of 
 the serf-class which signalised its commencement, did 
 Pilchard II's rule bear testimony to the strength and 
 efficacy of principles promoted equally by the rule of
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 205 
 
 Edward. Placed even on the inferior ground of a conflict 
 between the higher powers of the State ; calling it mere 
 gain to the King when he broke down the exclusive 
 pretensions of the great lords by forcing their House to 
 recognise his writs of summons, and counting it but as a 
 new privilege to the Barons when they led Henry of 
 Lancaster to the vacant throne ; the consequences of this 
 reign were momentous. With at least the nominal co- 
 operation of the constituted authorities of his empire, a 
 legitimate King had been deposed; and never was it 
 afterwards disputed, that the solid and single claim of the 
 dynasty which took his place, rested upon the ability of 
 Parliament, or of the power which those Lords and 
 Barons with all England armed behind them repre- 
 sented, so to alter the succession. By the wording of the 
 acts of settlement connected with the change, that most 
 essential principle of popular right was fully admitted ; 
 and from them were derived the historical and legal 
 precedents which, down to our own time, have proved 
 most advantageous to the people. Nor did the first 
 prince of the house of Lancaster accept them grudgingly. 
 Wary as he was bold, the policy of Bolingbroke con- 
 tinued to be the policy of Henry IV. The parliamentary 
 authority which had given him power, and the popular 
 sympathies which had confirmed his title, were in every 
 possible way promoted by him during the fourteen years 
 of his great though still disputed rule ; and no one who 
 examines the preambles and other wording of the statutes 
 that were passed in his reign, can fail to be struck with 
 the sense of how much the commonest orders of the 
 people must have risen since the date of the reign of 
 John, in all that, with the sense of personal power, brings 
 the sure hankering after political privilege, gradual means 
 to estimate freedom at its value, and strength ultimately 
 to win it. It was this Sovereign whom his House of 
 Commons startled with the proposal that he should seize 
 the temporalities of the Church, and, after general and 
 reasonable endowment of all the clergy, employ them as a
 
 206 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 fund reserved for the exigencies of the State. The pro- 
 posal failed, unluckily for the Church itself, hut it led to 
 some important checks on clerical privilege ; and the 
 thirty articles which, two 3^ears later, were not only 
 proposed but conceded, for the regulation of the King's 
 household and government, have been declared by Mr. 
 Hallam, an authority well entitled to respect, to form a 
 noble fabric of constitutional liberty, hardly inferior to 
 the petition of right. The Sovereign was required to 
 govern by the advice of a permanent council ; and this 
 council, together with all the judges and the officers of the 
 royal household, were bound by solemn oath to parliament 
 to observe and defend the amended institutions. It esta- 
 blished in effect the principle of ministerial responsibility. 
 To this, then, had been brought, at the opening of the 
 fifteenth century, that claim of a Sovereign Authority which 
 in the older time had certainly been conceded to the Norman 
 Iving. For it would be as idle to doubt in what divi- 
 sion of the State the conquest temporarily vested such 
 authority, as to deny that many forms of it still were 
 retained long after its substance and vitality had departed. 
 Still, for example, the course of legislative procedure 
 retained vestige of exclusive kingly rule. Petitions were 
 still presented by the Commons, considered by the Lords, 
 and replied to by the King; which, being entered on the j^ar- 
 liament roll, formed the basis of legislation by the monarch 
 himself. Even as late as Henry V, indeed, on the authority 
 of a somewhat remarkable remonstrance found on the roll, 
 it has been alleged as a not unusual practice for the King, 
 taking advantage of the custom which had so arisen of 
 leaving statutes to be drawn up by the judges from the 
 Petition and Answer during the parliamentary recess, to 
 misrepresent and fiilsify the intentions of parliament, by 
 producing statutes to which it had not given assent. But 
 how strikingly it proves that the sovereign authority, as a 
 real working power, had declined, when such artifices were 
 thought worth resortmg to ; and how significant the fact 
 that in the very next reign even the form disappeared alto-
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 207 
 
 gether, and, in place of the old Petitions, the introduction 
 of complete statutes under the name of Bills was effected. 
 
 What the sword had won the sword should keep, said 
 Henry V on his accession ; but what was meant by the 
 saying has its comment in the fact that in the year which 
 witnessed his victory at Agincourt, he yielded to the 
 House of Commons the most liberal measure of legislative 
 power which until then it had obtained. The dazzling 
 splendour of his conquests in France had for the time 
 cast into shade every doubt or question of his title, but 
 the very extent of those gains upon the French soil 
 established only more decisively the worse than useless- 
 ness of such acquisitions to the English throne. The 
 distinction of Henry's reign in constitutional history will 
 always be, that from it dates that power, indispensable to 
 a free and limited monarch}^, called Privilege of Parlia- 
 ment ; the shield and buckler under which all the battles 
 of liberty and good government were fought in the after 
 time. Not only were its leading safeguards now obtained, 
 but at once so firmly established, that against the shock 
 of incessant resistance in later years they stood perfectly 
 unmoved. Of the awful right of impeachment, too, the 
 same is to be said. It was won in the same reign, and 
 was never afterwards lost. 
 
 For let it not be thought that all the fruits of the hard- 
 fought liberal victories were at once gathered in and stored 
 for peaceful and uninterrupted enjoyment. AYhat most 
 impresses the careful student of early English history, is 
 the singular and marked distinction he finds it necessary 
 to keep before him, between a generally existing substan- 
 tial recognition of the securities of civil freedom, and their 
 frequent and flagrant violation. Still the violation, when 
 it occurred, was seen to be such. " So when the Lion 
 "preyeth" as brave old Sir Edwin Sandys told the House 
 of Commons earl}^ in James I's reign, " no cause to think 
 " it his right." Of a mingled character in this respect were 
 the results of the long and bloody contest, now about to 
 begin, between the rival branches of the Plantagcnet
 
 208 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 family; but it does not admit of doubt that the final pre- 
 dominance of the house of Lancaster was favourable to 
 popular liberty. The influence from which it first derived 
 authority, still imparted power. The right of parliament to 
 alter the succession was the title on which that house rested, 
 and in its continuance the popular sanction was implied. 
 As the period of the accession of the family of Tudor ap- 
 proaches, the full effect of such influences is distinctly seen. 
 
 The heaviest blow had been struck unconsciously at 
 the feudal system in England when the thii'd estate of 
 the realm obtained a formal place in the legislature, and 
 with the accession of Edward I the feudal tenures and 
 privileges had begun rapidly to decline. Domestic and 
 prsedial servitude had also been abolished, or had fallen to 
 disuse ; and though villenage was never repealed by any 
 regular enactment, the peasantry had gradually been 
 emerging from it into the state of hired labourers and 
 copyholders. During the interval to the wars of the Eoses, 
 without express external aid, society had been finding for 
 itseK a more easy level throughout its various gradations. 
 The few aristocratic privileges that remained were no 
 peculiar burden to the knight, the gentleman, or the 
 yoeman, the burgess or the labourer ; and, what is very 
 important to keep in mind, these several particular classes 
 had obtained their form and place in simple obedience to 
 the working of general laws. Servitude or villenage was 
 no part of feudalism ; and the tendency of the feudal 
 system itself was to decay, in proportion to the higher 
 development of that principle of mutual rights and duties, 
 and of the corresponding obligations thereby engendered, 
 on which feudalism was founded. 
 
 A more striking illustration of this truth could not 
 perhaps be afi^orded than by the contrast, which has not 
 escaped observation, between the insurrections of Wat Tyler 
 and Jack Cade. It is the remark of Sir Frederick Eden, 
 in his excellent book on The Poor, that in the earlier 
 of these popular tumults, which, notwithstanding the 
 atrocities that attended it, very materially contributed
 
 THE PLANTAGEXETS AND THE TUDORS. 209 
 
 towards the extinction of servitude, the language of the 
 rebels, who were chiefly villeins, bespeaks men not un- 
 acquainted with the essential requisites of rational liberty. 
 They required the abolition of slavery, freedom of com- 
 merce in market towns without tolls or imposts, and a 
 fixed rent on lands instead of services due by villenage. 
 But more remarkable and worthy of notice is the advance 
 which, after the comparatively short interval of three 
 quarters of a century, Jack Cade's rebellion proclaimed. 
 Here there is nothing to connect the movement with any 
 forms of serfdom. AVhat rebels now claimed with arms in 
 their hands, was the redress of such public wrongs as the 
 King's profligate expenditure, and the subject's exposure 
 to illegal exactions in order to maintain it ; as the pre- 
 ference of foreigners over Englishmen in the oflices of 
 State ; as the gross wrongs committed by sheriffs and the 
 collectors of taxes ; as the imperfect and uncertain admi- 
 nistration of justice; and finally (most memorable grievance 
 of all) as the unwarrantable interference of the nobles in 
 elections for the House of Commons. Nothing could 
 more strongly show how rapid must have been the fall of 
 the feudal system when once the change began ; or how 
 naturally the classes immediately below the noble, had 
 become parties to a league offensive and defensive against 
 him. The good old Fuller so hated all rebellions, except 
 rebellions against popery, that he finds in these popular 
 insurrections the reason why the better sort of people, to 
 avoid being confounded with levellers and rabble, set up 
 all kinds of nice social distinctions ; but the truth lies 
 exactly the other way. Less and less were the distinctions 
 marked, as the Tudor time came on. Commerce levels 
 by exaltmg. And Mr, Hallam has pointed attention to 
 the very unpleasing remark, which everyone who attends 
 to the subject of prices will be disposed to think not ill- 
 founded, that the labouring classes engaged in agriculture 
 were generally better provided with the means of subsis- 
 tence in the reign of Henry the Sixth than they are at 
 present.
 
 210 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Evidence more direct and positive, indeed, is not wanting, 
 of the comparative happiness and freedom of the people 
 generally under the latter years of the Plantagenet rule. 
 Two very trustworthy writers have sketched, from personal 
 observation, the respective condition of England and of 
 France at this time ; and both have directed attention to 
 the fact that while, in France, there existed only the two 
 divisions of a powerful governing noblesse and a servile 
 peasant population, in England, on the other hand, a 
 third and middle class had been able to make good its 
 independence, because the nobles wisel}'' had retained no 
 privileges that prevented their mixing and marrying freely 
 with other classes of the realm. When thus Sir John 
 Fortescue, twenty years before Henry VII ascended the 
 throne, "svrote in praise of the English lav/s, it was on the 
 ground of this special limitation of the power of the sove- 
 reign, and of the non-exclusive character of the privileges of 
 the nobles ; and when his yet more travelled and experienced 
 contemporary, Philip de Comines, turned to England 
 from the contemplation of other States, as the country 
 where the commonwealth was best governed, it was 
 because he had reason to believe that there the people 
 were " least oppressed." 
 
 What the main guarantees ' against oppression were, 
 Henry YI's learned Chancellor enables us to state also 
 with tolerable exactness. In the first place, the " sole 
 " will of the prince " could not enact a law, nor make 
 alterations in existing laws, nor " burthen men against 
 " their wills with strange impositions," nor " lay taxes or 
 " subsidies of what kind soever upon the subject," but 
 Avith the concurrent consent of the whole kingdom through 
 their representatives in Parliament. These representa- 
 tives consisted of the lords spiritual (bishops and mitred 
 abbots), and lords temporal (in right of property, by here- 
 ditary claim, or, after Richard II, by summons), who 
 voted m the upper house ; and of individuals chosen by 
 the freeholders of counties, and the burgesses of towns, 
 who formed the lower house. In the next place, no man
 
 THE PLANTAGENET3 AND THE TUDORS. 211 
 
 could be thrown into prison, but under sanction of a legal 
 warrant which specified his offence, and with the right of 
 demanding speedy trial. That trial, moreover,, must be 
 heard in a x^ublic court, in the district where the alleged 
 offence was committed, and be determined conclusively 
 by the verdict of twelve men ; which in like manner 
 decided questions of fact, as affecting the civil rights of 
 the subject. Finally, the servants and officers of the 
 Crown were liable to actions of damage, or to criminal 
 process, when the subject suffered mijustly at their hands 
 in person or estate ; nor could they plead in answer or 
 justification, even the direct order of the Sovereign. 
 
 How far these guarantees, and especially the last, were 
 reduced or evaded in practice, it would not be difficult to 
 shew. Lord Macaulay has remarked on the facility with 
 which a prince who reserved to himself a pardoning 
 jiower might overstep the limits that separate executive 
 from legislative functions, by so remitting or so enforcing 
 penalties as virtually to annul or create the statute im- 
 posing them. But, in theory at least, no one ventured to 
 dispute the law ; and when judges were honest, and juries 
 intelligent and brave, an effective restraint was not seldom 
 put upon the Crown. The checks of Parliament had 
 invariable recognition. In affairs of peace and war, in 
 the marriages of princes, in control of the domestic 
 government, Parliament had now for centuries claimed and 
 obtained the privilege of advising, and not seldom of 
 restraining, the Sovereign ; and in one momentous ques- 
 tion, it had completely succeeded, as we have seen, in 
 establishing its paramount authority. The formal tenure 
 and absolute control of the public purse had at length been 
 finally yielded by the Crown. The struggle lasted long ; 
 but more than a century before the first Tudor, no prince 
 had even attempted to impose a tax without the consent 
 of Parliament. Happily for the prince, indeed, when 
 such consent involved any great difficulty, he had the 
 show of begging and borrowing to resort to ; but the very 
 name of the Loan or the Benevolence, the mere pretence
 
 212 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 that he woukl borrow and beg, kept alive his formal 
 abandonment of the right to take, and at last strengthened 
 the people to destroy it for ever. 
 
 One consideration should be added, which in every 
 retrospect of our constitutional history it is safe not to 
 lose sight of. In reviewing the course of events through 
 which the Commons' house of parliament obtained recog- 
 nition, it is important not to attach too great a weight to 
 their single unassisted authority. They profited less by 
 power to which they could of themselves lay claim, than 
 by power or weakness in other sections of the State. 
 They were stronger after the rebellion of the serfs, which 
 struck the blow at villenage ; they were stronger after 
 the rebellion of the barons, which crowned the first 
 Lancastrian king. Deriving help alternately from the 
 powers above and below themselves, it would have fared 
 ill with the third branch of the legislature at any difficult 
 crisis, if, unsupported by the people, they had been 
 unassisted by the lords. Nor might it be imjust to 
 measm-e the relative value of such support and of such 
 assistance, by a comparison of the more difficult and less 
 perfect maintenance of the national liberties, with the 
 absolute victory in taxation. In the first, the Commons 
 were often deserted by the Barons ; in the last, they were 
 never deserted by the People. 
 
 There the supreme force lies. None exists that can 
 be compared with it, when moved into action. The 
 bodily fetters of the feudal system, the mental bondage 
 of the Boman Catholic priesthood, were expedients to 
 keep the People at rest ; but they could not last for ever. 
 The doom of feudalism had gone forth, before the 
 preaching of Wickliffe began. It only remained that the 
 aristocratic factions should throw themselves into a self- 
 exhausting struggle, and underneath the very storm 
 provide those principles which they must else have re- 
 sisted, and might have overthrown, an unconscious but 
 efficient shelter. 
 
 During the wars of the Roses there was no leisure to
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 213 
 
 persecute the Lollards ; and commerce and the arts, 
 unobstructed by any intermeddling, were left to their 
 natural development. The marked increase of commerce, 
 the sudden growth of learning, advances made in the 
 useful arts, and the earliest great endowments for the 
 foundation of grammar-schools and places of popular 
 education, are thus the incidents which also signalise the 
 time, when the chiefs of the great families, ejected finally 
 from those provinces of France which had fed their 
 appetites for plunder and power, were impelled to that 
 conflict with each other, on their own soil, of which all 
 the suiferings and all the retribution were to fall upon 
 themselves alone. For though this was a strife which lasted 
 incessantly for thirty years, though twelve great pitched 
 battles were fought in it, though eighty princes of the 
 blood were slain, it raged only on the surface of the land, 
 and the peaceful current beneath was free to run on 
 as before. The desolation of the bloody conflict never 
 actually reached the heart of the towns, except in awaken- 
 ing such instincts of danger as are the primary sources of 
 safety. Hence, on the one hand, for precaution and 
 defence, guilds, commercial brotherhoods, and municipal 
 safeguards silently arose, to grow more hardy and to 
 flourish; while, on the other, ancient baronies, all-powerful 
 families, names that had overawed the crown and over- 
 shadowed the people, sank in the conflict, never to rise 
 again. The storm that swept the lofty, spared the low. 
 It was the beginning of a vast social change, now accom- 
 plished apparently without the aid of those whom prin- 
 cipally it was to affect ; and not limited to England. Over 
 the Avhole continent of Europe its manifestations might 
 be seen. The system of the Middle Ages was everywhere 
 breaking up. The sway of a feudal chiefdom, in all 
 modifications of its form still fitful and turbulent, was 
 ending ; and there was rising, to take its place, a predomi- 
 nance of monarchy in personal attributes, a calm con- 
 centrated individual cunning, or as it was called in after 
 years, when it had lost all the subtle qualities that justified
 
 214 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the name, a ICingcraft. The ires magi of kings, renowned 
 for possession of this sovereign craft, have been celebrated 
 by Lord Bacon. Louis XI had arisen in France, and 
 Ferdinand in Spain ; yet the lesson for which Machiavelli 
 waited was incomplete, until Henry Tudor took possession 
 of the English throne. 
 
 Though the last living representative of the house of 
 Lancaster, he was not its legitimate heir ; but from his 
 marriage with the heiress of the house of York, he derived 
 a strong title. His own dissatisfaction with it never- 
 theless, and his uneasy desire to surround it with other 
 guarantees, are among the indications of a state of 
 feeling in England at the time which distinguishes the 
 position of Henry VII from that of the other magi. The 
 act of settlement passed by the two Houses upon his 
 accession, taking great pains to avoid either the assertion 
 or contradiction of any pretensions of lineal descent, had 
 created strictly a parliamentary title ; but he afterwards 
 obtained a rescript from Pope Innocent III, setting forth all 
 the other conditions on which he desired it to be known 
 that the crown of England also belonged to him. It was his, 
 according to this document, by right of war, by notorious 
 and indisputable hereditary succession, by the wish and 
 election of all the prelates, nobles, and commons of the 
 realm, and by the act of the three estates in Parliament 
 assembled ; but nevertheless, to put an end to the bloody 
 wars caused by the rival claims of the house of York, and 
 at the urgent request of the three estates, he had con- 
 sented to marr}'- the eldest daughter and true heir of 
 Edward IV: and now, therefore, the supreme Pontiff, 
 being called to confirm the dispensation necessary to 
 such marriage, declared the meaning of the act of 
 settlement passed by Parliament to be, that Henry's 
 issue, whether by EHzabeth, or, in case of her death, 
 by any subsequent marriage, were to inherit the throne. 
 More remarkable than the rescript itself, however, were 
 the means taken to carry it directly to the classes it was 
 meant to address. It is the first similar document of
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 215 
 
 which we have any evidence that it was translated into 
 English and circulated in a popular form throughout 
 England. A broadside containing it, printed by Caxton, 
 was discovered ten years ago. . 
 
 Such indications may at least satisfy us that Henry 
 Tudor would not very gravely have resented the 
 description which has been given of him by Lord 
 Bolingbroke, as a creatm^e of the people raised to the 
 throne to cut up the roots of faction, to restore public 
 tranquilhty, and to establish a legal government on the 
 ruins of tyranny. The same writer, however, who doubts 
 if he succeeded in this design, is undoubtedly wrong when 
 he supposes that he failed in establishing what by all the 
 customs of historical courtesy must be called a legal 
 government. It is not of course to be disguised that 
 in spite of manj^ great principles asserted in it, and 
 advantages achieved, his reign was not in its immediate 
 course favom'able to libert}^ But the fact, as little to 
 be questioned, that during its continuance risings in the 
 Commonalty were far more frequent than remonstrances 
 in the Commons, and that upon questions where the people 
 proved most stubborn, parliament generally was most 
 compliant, sufficientl}' shews that the defection did not 
 so much lie with the people themselves, as with their 
 proper leaders in the State. It was nevertheless the 
 peculiarity of Henry's despotism, as distinguished from 
 that of his more violent predecessors, that he bottomed 
 it strongl}^ on the precedents and language of law, 
 screening the violation of liberty by artful employment 
 of its forms; and though this may have made the 
 despotism more odious while it lasted, it established 
 more certainly a limit to its duration. Relatively to what 
 is called the State, circumstances had thrown an over- 
 balance of power into the hands of Henry ; but to the 
 mass of the people, these very circumstances rendered him 
 unconsciously the instrument of great social and political 
 change. The position he occupies in historj'-, and the 
 rights he exercised, began and ended with his race.
 
 216 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Of the shattered aristocracy of England only twenty - 
 nine representatives presented themselves when Henry 
 called his first Parliament, and several of these were 
 recent creations. Doubtless it was well, for the ultimate 
 advance of liberty, that the old feudal power had thus 
 been so completely subdued, and the way by such means 
 prepared for the decisive struggle with the Stuarts ; but 
 for the immediate progress of liberty, it was certainly less 
 beneficial. The House of Commons, suddenly wanting 
 in an old and habitual support, was too ready an instru- 
 ment for the mere use and convenience of the King ; and in 
 such cu"cumstances to avail themselves of every attainable 
 advantage, and turn it to the best account, in each case 
 holding it for rehgion that craft might supersede force, 
 constituted the very art and genius of the tres magi. 
 But though such circumstances worked well for the Mage 
 upon the English throne, he did not, with all his craft, 
 penetrate influences around him that were less obvious ; 
 nor suspect that, by a purely selfish legislation, he might 
 yet be advancing higher hopes and more comprehensive 
 designs. Surrounded, and no longer assailable, by the 
 impoverished and broken power of the past, he was 
 unconscious of a more formidable power which was 
 silently and insensibly replacing it. He thought onlj^ of 
 himself and his succession. When, by the statute enlarging 
 and extending the old Consilium Regis, and creating 
 the Star Chamber, he raised the judicial authority of the 
 King in Council to a height at which the fiercest of his 
 Norman predecessors would not have dared to aim, he did it 
 to support the throne. That a rallying cry against the Star 
 Chamber might one day bear the throne into dust, was 
 not to him within the sphere of possibility. What was near 
 him, in short, he never mistook or marred, and no man so 
 clearly saw what would help or might obstruct himself. 
 As Lord Bacon says, he went substantially to his own 
 business, and, to the extent of not suffering any little 
 envies or any great passions to stand in its way, he was a 
 practical and sagacious statesman. But he was not a
 
 THE PLANTAGEXETS AXD THE TUDORS. 217 
 
 great king, though he miglit be called an able, a crafty, 
 and a prudent one. 
 
 So much, even in the midst of eulogy that might itself 
 have preserved his name, Avould seem to be admitted by 
 his incomparable biographer. " His wisdom," says Lord 
 Bacon, " by often evading from perils, Avas turned rather 
 " into a dexterity to deliver himself from dangers Avhen 
 "they pressed him, than into a providence to pre- 
 " vent and remove them afar off. And even in nature, the 
 " sight of his mind was like some sights of eyes ; rather 
 " strong at hand, than to carry afar oJff. For his wit 
 " increased upon the occasion ; and so much the more, if 
 " the occasion were sharpened by danger." It v.ill be a 
 sufficient comment on these pregnant sentences merel}' to 
 enumerate his leading acts of sovereignty. Heresy he 
 thought dangerous ; and he burnt more followers of Wyc- 
 liife than any since the first Lancastrian king. Yv^inner of a 
 successful stake in battle, he knew the chances of war to be 
 dangerous; and he favoured strenuously the arts of peace. 
 Served by men whom his death or discomfiture might 
 suddenly attaint with rebellion, he thought it dangerous 
 to leave those friends without security against the possible 
 vengeance of future faction ; and he passed the lav/ which 
 made possession of the throne the subject's obligation to 
 allegiance, and justified resistance to all who should dis- 
 pute it. Incessant suits for alienated lands he thought 
 dangerous, in a country torn with revolutionary quarrel ; 
 and his famous statute of fines barred, after certain con- 
 ditions, all claims of ancient heritage. But not to him, 
 therefore, belongs any part of the glory of those greater 
 results which flowed indirectly from these measures of 
 l^recaution. It was with no intended help from him that 
 the Wycliffe heresy struck deeper root ; that more eager 
 welcome Avas given to the studies which in England 
 marked the revival of learning; that the civil duties of 
 allegiance were placed on a just foundation; and that 
 the feudal restrictions of landed property were finally 
 broken.
 
 218 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 On the other hand, Avith rehxtion to the progress of 
 constitutional freedom, or to the prevalence of just views 
 in government and legislation, this reign of Henry VII 
 must be regarded as the opening of a middle or transi- 
 tional state. The feudal strength had been broken, and 
 the popular strength had not made itself felt. Power was 
 changing hands, and conscience was about to be set free ; 
 but both were to be meanwhile committed, almost unre- 
 servedly, into the keeping of the Tudors. The interest of 
 the succeeding reigns, up to the very middle of Elizabeth's 
 great career, is less political than social ; and it is not in the 
 statute book or the parliament roll that we are to look for 
 what smoothed and made ready the way. Early in the 
 summer of the eleventh year after Henry VII's acces- 
 sion, a Venetian seaman and pilot who had settled in 
 Bristol during the impulse given to English commerce in 
 the wars of the Roses, set sail from that city, accompanied 
 by his three sons, with the first European expedition that 
 ever reached the American continent. Later in the same 
 summer, Lord Mountjoy brought over Erasmus into Eng- 
 land, to take part in the new study of which Oxford had 
 become the unaccustomed scene. Of commerce, as of 
 learning, it was the reawakening time. The Cabots dis- 
 covered the Island of Newfoundland and St. John, and 
 with their five ships under the English flag crept along 
 the coast of Florida ; while Erasmus, in the Greek class 
 at Oxford, was making discoveries not less rich or 
 strange. " The world," exclaimed the student-scholar, 
 " is recovering the use of its senses, like one awakened 
 " from the deepest sleep." The civilisation so begin- 
 ning, whatever struggle it had still to encounter, w^as to 
 rest finally on freer intercourse and intercliange of the 
 labours of men's hands as well as thoughts ; and singularly 
 rare w^as the felicity that befel the great Greek poet, 
 Avhose glory, identified Avith nigh two thousand years of 
 the history of the past, was to be also most prominently 
 associated with a fresh dawning and reawakening of the 
 world. As with tlie old, so with the new civilisation.
 
 TPIE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 219 
 
 wbicli, througli all its heats and vicissitudes of quarrel, 
 civil and religious, was to find him still, as at first, driving 
 along the Sigsean plain his temperate and indefatigable 
 horses, making the Gods themselves his charioteers and 
 ministers, and keeping them, alike in the ardour of combat 
 and the tranquillit}^ of Olympus, obedient to his will. 
 
 The statute book of Henry Avill be vainly searched 
 for any attempt to strengthen, govern, or direct such 
 agencies. It was his policy to favour commerce for his 
 own advantage ; but certainly his provisions against 
 lending money on interest, against letting in foreign com- 
 modities, and for the supposed enrichment of the country 
 by over-enrichment of himself, would entirely have failed 
 to promote it. Among his legislative exploits none will 
 be found to favour learning, or to suggest toleration for 
 the new opinions ; but he never burnt a Lollard, without in 
 some sort more widel}^ diffusing what men were so readily 
 found so calmly to die for. To print an occasional pope's 
 bull, or one of the acts of his own parliament, was the 
 sole use to which he cared to put the types of Caxton or 
 Wynkin de Worde ; but there was sitting at the time, in 
 beggarly rooms of Oxford colleges, another parliament, 
 composed of such men as Grocyn, Linacre, More, AVolse}', 
 and Erasmus, on whom that printing press was to confer an 
 irresistible power, and who were legislating for the reign 
 of his successor. Indeed, to that following reign every- 
 thing which marked out this from its predecessors had a 
 singular and special reference ; and not an opportunity 
 in it, improved or not by Henry for himself, failed with 
 tenfold increase to reach his son. Upon his two most 
 prominent designs, of fencing the throne against con- 
 spiracy, and making it rich and independent, he suffered 
 no doubt to rest. Of the few great nobles that remained, 
 not one ever found favour from him ; out of chiu'chmen 
 and lawyers exclusively, he chose his friends and counsel- 
 lors; and " ever having an eye to might and multitude," 
 there was not a gathering of common men, whether with 
 
 the citizen's cap or the peer's badge, which was not 
 
 L 2
 
 220 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 watclied b}- him so closely and unceasiugl_y, and with so 
 much caution, adroitness, and success, that of all the 
 thick brood of treasons Avhich marked the opening of the 
 reign, not one existed at its close to vex its successor. 
 That, even without his aid, the revenues of the Crown 
 should at the same time have largely increased, was one 
 of the consequences of the civil Avars, which had dispersed 
 the annuitants and creditors who previously crowded the 
 door of the Exchequer ; but these revenues were not 
 alone handed down unimpaired, but free from incum- 
 brances, increased by forfeitures, and with the enormous 
 addition of his own ill-gotten exactions. 
 
 " Belike he thought to leave his son," suggests Lord 
 Bacon apologeticall}', " such a kingdom and such a mass 
 " of treasm'e, as he might choose his greatness where he 
 " would :" but nothing can palliate the iniquity by which 
 such Avealth was amassed. Every means of extortion 
 tried by the Plantagenet kings having been exhausted, he 
 sought out other and more scandalous methods ; and when, 
 in his Courts at Westminster, he had found two learned 
 lawyers sufficiently able, supple, eloquent, and unscrupu- 
 lous, he was in possession of what he sought. " As 
 " kings," says James I's experienced Chancellor, " do 
 " more easily find instruments for their will and humour 
 " than for their service and honour, he had gotten for his 
 "purpose, or beyond his purpose, two instruments, 
 "Empson and Dudley." These men revived dormant 
 claims of the Crown, founded on obsolete pretensions of 
 feudal tenure, and made them a means of frightful oj^pres- 
 sion. They discovered forgotten cases of forfeiture ; 
 invented fixlse charges against innocent men, from which 
 release was only given on j^ayment of what were termed 
 mitigations ; dragged forward arrears of old amercements, 
 alleged to be unsatisfied ; and, with the help of a sort of 
 informers and plaintiffs who were called "promoters," 
 made the ordinary course of law an enormous engine of 
 plunder. Unremembered penal statutes of jDrofligate 
 times were revived, to the end that, by intolerable
 
 THE PLANTAGEXETS AND THE TQDORS. 221 
 
 exactions for offences unknown, unconscious offenders 
 might be dragged into the Exchequer ; where Empson 
 and Dudley sat as barons, where packed dependants of the 
 Crown discharged the functions of juries, where juries 
 with any sense of shame were made docile by imprison- 
 ment and fine, and from whose clutches the unhappy 
 victims could only escape by exorbitant composition or 
 hopeless imprisonment. But, horrible as all this was, not 
 a little was it owing to such atrocities that Henry VIII 
 succeeded to a better filled exchequer than any of his 
 predecessors since the conquest, and to so many greater 
 facilities for the work it was appointed him to do. 
 
 They did not indeed pass without some retribution. 
 Though new honours had been largely heaped upon their 
 perpetrators in the last year of Henry YII's reign, 
 in the first year of Henry VIII's both Empson and Dudley 
 were led to the scaffold. The popular wrath demanded 
 them as victims ; and it being more convenient that death 
 should wipe out their debt, than that by any worse accident 
 the royal exchequer should be called to make restitution, 
 the new King gave them up to the executioner. Strong- 
 willed as the Tudors were, they were generally able to put a 
 present rein upon their passions, when by such means they 
 could make more sure of their ultimate safe indulgence. 
 They reigned in England, Avithout a successful rising 
 against them, for upwards of a hundred years : but not 
 more by a studied avoidance of what might so provoke 
 the country, than by the most resolute repression of every 
 effort, on the part of what remained of the peerage and great 
 families, to make head against the throne. They gave 
 free indulgence to their tyranny only within the circle of 
 the Court, while they unceasingly watched and conciliated 
 the temper of the people. The work they had to do, and 
 ■which by more scrupulous means was not possible to be 
 done, was one of paramount necessity ; the dynasty 
 uninterruptedly endured for only so long as was requisite 
 to its thorough completion ; and to each individual 
 sovereign the particular task might seem to have been
 
 222 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 specially assigned. It was Henry's to spurn, renounce, 
 and utterly cast off, the Pope's autliorit}^, -without too 
 suddenly revolting the people's usages and habits ; to 
 arrive at blessed results by ways that a better man might 
 have held to be accursed ; during the momentous change 
 in progress, to keep in necessary check both the parties it 
 affected ; to persecute with an equal hand the liomanist 
 and the Lutheran ; to send the Protestant to the stake for 
 resisting Popery, and the Eoman Catholic to the scaffold 
 for not admitting himself to be Pope ; while he meantime 
 plundered the monasteries, hunted down and rooted out 
 the priests, alienated the abbey lands, and glutted himself 
 and his creatures with that enormous spoil. It was E d ward's 
 to become the ready and undoubting instrument of Cran- 
 mer's design, and, with all the inexperience and more than 
 the obstinacy of j-outli, so to force upon the people his com- 
 promise of doctrine and observance, as to render possible, 
 even perhaps unavoidable, his elder sister's reign. It was 
 ]\Iary's to undo the effect of that precipitate eagerness of 
 the Reformers, by lighting tlie fires of Smithfield ; and 
 opportunely to arrest the waverers from Protestantism, by 
 exhibiting in their excess the very worst vices, the cruel 
 bigotry, the hateful intolerance, the spiritual slavery, of 
 Rome. It was Elizabeth's finally and for ever to uproot 
 that slavery from amongst us, to champion all over the 
 world a new and nobler faith, and immovably to establish 
 in England the Protestant religion. 
 
 But though the tasks thus appointed to this imi^erious 
 and self-willed famil}', had the effect of imparting an 
 exceptional character to their style and course of govern- 
 ment, it is not to be inferred that even they dared oj)enly 
 to violate those fundamental laws of which it has ever 
 been the nature, in all cases, to use the fine expression of 
 Fortescue, " to declare in favour of liberty." Henry sent to 
 the scaffold whom he pleased, from within the 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 resistance offered, and publicly to
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AXD THE TUDORS. 223 
 
 disavow the intention of breaking the laws of the reahn. 
 Elizabeth's rule had been not less imperious than her 
 father's, 3'et one of her latest acts was freely to surrender 
 to the House of Commons her demand for certain 
 monoi^olies, Avhich had raised a fierce resistance in that 
 house. Mary was able to burn, at her pleasure, the 
 alienators of the abbey lands ; but over the lands them- 
 selves, invested by forms of law in their new joroprietors, 
 she discovered that she was powerless. Unworthy as the 
 position was, indeed, in which the House of Commons 
 consented to place itself in these reigns, what survived of 
 independence and courage still was able to find expression 
 there ; and the meanest-spirited of its assemblages had 
 3'et gleams of popular daring, which shew how little 
 might have served, even then, to put substance into the 
 forms of liberty, and how ready was even a Tudor King, 
 " as he would sometimes strain up his laws to his pre- 
 " rogative," to let down not the less, as Lord Bacon said 
 of the founder of the race, " his prerogative to his parlia- 
 '• ment." In truth it can never be too often repeated that 
 tyranny can only reign in England through the pretences 
 of freedom. Acts of parliament are, with us, the weapons 
 of despotic rule; and at times they will recoil with danger 
 to the user, or break in the despot's hand. 
 
 Of this the unhappy Mar}^ had painful experience when 
 she saw the very house she had packed with her creatures 
 turn against her in the matter she had most at heart. 
 They wont with her in re-establishing over tlie kingdom 
 the authority of Piome ; but wlien she would have had 
 them concede to her husband an authority within the 
 realm that might involve danger to the native privileges 
 and laws, those very tools and creatures deserted her. 
 Within two years she had to summon and dissolve 
 three Parliaments, and informations were pending against 
 recusant members at the time of her death. Nor will the 
 same kind of incidents fail to be noted in her stronger 
 father's reign. He found it not possible to reduce the 
 lower House to the utterly dependent condition in which
 
 221 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 a constant reaction of hope and dread, — the choice between 
 confiscation and the scaffokl, or church property and 
 royal favour, — soon placed what remained of the upper 
 House. The difficulty was not essentially very great, 
 indeed, in dealing with the lower, but certain forms had 
 to be observed ; and it is curious that in Henry VIII's 
 reign, not only (in the case of Ferrers) -was one of the 
 most valuable confirmations of privilege obtained by the 
 Commons, but upwards of thirty members were added to 
 their house, upon the principle expressed in the preamble 
 to the act for so extending representation to the princi- 
 pality of Wales, that it is disadvantageous to any place 
 to be unrepresented, and that those who are bound by 
 the laws are entitled to have a voice in their enactment. 
 Whatever uses the House of Commons might lend itself 
 to, the idea of that higher function of representation was 
 at least never lost; and even the Tudors had to remember, 
 in common with all princes to whom as yet the luxury of 
 a standing army was unknown, that the people so repre- 
 sented, beingfreemen, were trained universally to bear arms, 
 and were under penalties to present themselves, at stated 
 periods, for martial exercise in their counties and shires. 
 Only because he wielded an authority, therefore, not 
 strictly his, and for the use of which he was not directlj'- 
 responsible, could the Sovereign in such case ever assume 
 to be all-powerful. There was a power beyond, which the 
 people had now for two centuries uniformly recognised, 
 and which alone could be the instrument, whoever might 
 be the immediate agent, of changes affecting themselves. 
 They saw the lower House contmue to grant subsidies, 
 not to be raised by any other means ; and they saw it 
 continue to be used in the proposal of statutes, which 
 without its consent could never become binding. It gave 
 their sole validity to the bills of attainder which struck 
 down the guilty, or shed the blood of the innocent ; and 
 only by its sanction had one -fifth of the landed property 
 of the nation been transferred suddenly to new pro- 
 prietors. As the times of the Tudors wore on, too, and
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDOES. 225 
 
 left the character of their work, and its results, more 
 visible, the members of that House began to claim for it 
 worthier associations. " I have heard of old Parliament 
 " men," said Peter Wentworth, from his place there, in 
 the latter half of Elizabeth's reign, " that the banishment 
 " of the Pope and Popery, and the restoring of true 
 " Peligion, had their beginning from this house, and not 
 " from the bishops." 
 
 Unquestionabl}' Ehzabeth was the greatest of her race ; 
 but it was Avhen her authority might seem to have been 
 most weakened, that she bequeathed to her successors, bj^ 
 her last act of sovereignty, an example Avhicli might have 
 saved them the throne, if they could have profited by it. 
 Unhappily they could onl}^ imitate her in the qualities 
 which provoked, and not in those which subdued or 
 turned aside, resistance. It is a striking fact in the 
 career of this great Queen, that she could put aside her 
 hatred and contempt even of Puritanism itself, when she saw 
 it had become so transfused with the desire's and wants of 
 the people as to represent no longer a religious discontent 
 alone. While she believed it to be confined within that 
 limit, the prison and the rack were the only replies she 
 made to it ; because she knew that from all serious 
 attacks to maintain it, the cause she then championed 
 efficiently protected her, and that from the very depths of 
 the dungeons into which she might throw the Puritan 
 leaders, they would yet be ready to offer up, as they did, 
 their prayers for the safety of herself and the stability of 
 her government. For to all the world it had become 
 notorious, that the destinies and fate of the Reformation 
 had for the time fallen into her liands exclusivelj' ; and that 
 not in England only did she animate every effort connected 
 with the new faith, but that in her centred not less the 
 hopes of all who were carrying on the struggle, against 
 overwhelming numbers, in other lands. Of the movement, 
 however, of which she was thus the heroine, she unhappily 
 never recognised the entire meaning and tendency ; and 
 
 h o
 
 226 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 instead of disarming Puritanism by concession, slie liad 
 strengthened and cherished it by persecution. 
 
 But, towards the close of her reign, Avhen, after that 
 subduement of the Roman Catholic power on the con- 
 tinent to Avhich she had devoted so many glorious years, 
 she found leisure to investigate patiently the domestic 
 concerns of her kingdom, the old Puritan remonstrance 
 presented itself to her under a new form, and in ominous 
 conjunction with very wide-spread political dissatisfaction. 
 Ever^^where voices had become loud against royal patents 
 of monopolies ; and not onlyVas her first minister's coach 
 mobbed in the streets when he Avent to open her par- 
 liament of 1(301, but, when Mr. Serjeant Hejde rose in 
 that Parliament to express his amazement that a subsid}- 
 should be refused to the Queen, seeing that she had no 
 less a right to the lands and goods of the subject than 
 to any revenue of her crown, the House universally 
 " hemmed and laughed and talked " the learned Serjeant 
 down. Nor was the aspect of afiairs become less 
 grave or strange, when, a little later in that Parliament, 
 Cecil thought it right to warn the lower House of dangers 
 which had particularly declared themselves to his rij)e 
 and experienced judgment. " I must needs give you this 
 " for a future caution, that whatsoever is subject to public 
 " expectation cannot be good, while the parliament matters 
 " are ordinary talk in the street. I have heard myself, 
 " being in my coach, these words spoken aloud : God 
 ''prosper those that further the ocerthroic of these mono- 
 '' polies!" It had not then seemed possible to the 
 Secretary's experience that the Queen herself might think 
 it safer to attract this prayer to her own prosperity than to 
 let any one else reap the benefit of it ; but a very few 
 days undeceived liim. Elizabeth in person went to the 
 house, withdrew all claim to the monopolies which had 
 excited resistance, redressed other grievances complained 
 of, and quitted "Westminster amid the shouts and j^i'ayers 
 of the people that God might prosper their Queen.
 
 THE PLANTAGENET3 AND THE TUDORS. 227 
 
 Within two more j-ears she died, bequeathing the Crown 
 to her cousin of Scothmd. 
 
 To this point, then, the Tudor S3^stem had been 
 brought, when Scothmd and England became united 
 under one sovereignty, and the noble inheritance fell to a 
 race, who, comprehending not one of the conditions by 
 which alone it was possible to be retained, profligately 
 misused until they lost it utterly. The calamity was in 
 no respect foreseen by the statesman, Cecil, to wdiose 
 exertion it was mainly due that James was seated on the 
 throne ; j'et in regard to it he cannot be held blameless. 
 He was doubtless right in the course he took, in so far as 
 he thereby satisfied a national desire, and brought under 
 one crown two kingdoms that Avith advantage to either 
 could not separately exist ; but it remains a reproach to 
 his name that he let slip the occasion of obtaining for the 
 people some ascertained and settled guarantees which 
 could not then have been refused, and which might have 
 saved half a century of bloodshed. None such were pro- 
 posed to James. He was allowed to seize a prerogative, 
 "which for upwards of fifty 3'ears had been strained to a 
 higher pitch than at any previous period of the English 
 history ; and his clumsy grasp closed on it without a sign 
 of question or remonstrance from the leading statesmen 
 of England. " Do I mak the judges ? Do I mak the 
 " bishops ? " he exclaimed, as the powers of his new 
 dominion dawned on his delighted sense : " Then, God's 
 " wauns ! I mak what likes me, law and gospel ! " It was even 
 so. And this license to make gospel and law was given, with 
 other far more questionable powers, to a man whose personal 
 appearance and qualities were as suggestive of contempt, as 
 his public acts were provocative of rebellion. It is necessary 
 to dwell upon this part of the subject; for it is only just to 
 his not more culpable but far less fortunate successor to 
 say, that in it lies the source and explanation of not a 
 little for which the penalty was paid by him. What is 
 called the Great Rebellion can have no comment bo 
 pregnant as that which is suggested by the character and
 
 228 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 previous career of the first of the Stuart kings. Upon 
 this, therefore, and upon the court with which he sur- 
 rounded himself in England, though they do not other- 
 wise fall strictly within my purpose, I shall offer a few 
 remarks before closing this Essay, 
 
 That James I had a decidedlj' more than fair share of 
 what the world agrees to call learning is not to be denied ; 
 but it was of no use to any one, and least of all to himself. 
 George Buchanan was reproached for having made him a 
 pedant, and replied that it was the best he could make of 
 liim. Learning the great scholar could communicate, but 
 not the mode of its use, or the knowledge of its value. 
 Probably no such foolish man as James I was ever in 
 fairness entitled, before or since, to be called a realty 
 learned one. But he possessed also, to a quite curious 
 extent, a quick natural cunning, a native mother wit, 
 and the art of circumventing an adversary ; and 
 it was to this Henri Quatre alluded when he called 
 him the wisest fool in Christendom. That he ever 
 derived a useful thought from what he knew, or a suggestion 
 of practical worth, it is impossible to discover. INrysticall}'- 
 to define the prerogative as a thing set far above the law ; 
 to exhibit king-craft as his own particular gift from heaven; 
 to denounce Presbytery as the offspring of the devil ; to 
 blow with furious vehemence what he called counterblasts 
 to tobacco ; to deal damnation to the unbelievers in witch- 
 craft, and to pour out the wrath of the Apocalypse upon 
 Popery ; were its highest exploits. He had been busy 
 torturing and burning old women for the imaginary crime 
 of witchcraft, while Elizabeth Avas preparing a scaffold for 
 his mother ; and it was to make the rest of the world 
 as besotted with superstition as himself, that he wrote 
 his Dcmonologic. Before he was twenty, with an 
 astonishing display of erudite authorities, he had 
 conclusively shown St. Peter's descendant to be Anti- 
 Christ ; but he was not more eager to set fire to a Avitch, 
 than to burn seditious priests who might presume even
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 229 
 
 against Anti- Christ to rebel. To him it was the climax of 
 sin to resist any settled authority. To seditious priests 
 he owed his Scotch throne, there could he no doubt ; but 
 as little had he the courage to take open part against 
 them, as the honesty to refrain from intrigues with his 
 mother's turbulent faction. The only allegiance he was 
 always true to, was that which he gloried in avoAving he 
 implicitly owed to himself. 
 
 Nor may it be denied that, at least in that outset of his 
 life, he had some excuse for such self-saving instincts, in 
 the straits through which he then passed. Alternately 
 swayed between the two contending forces ; his person 
 now seized by the Nobles, and the Presbytery now 
 governing by his name ; he fell into the habit of making 
 unscrupulous use of either, as occasion happened to serve. 
 And hence the skill in outwitting people, the sly ways of 
 temporizing, the studied deceit and cunning, which he 
 formed gradually into a system under the name of kingcraft, 
 and in which his whole idea of government consisted. Of 
 course neither party could trust him. The condition of king 
 cle facto he owed to the presbyterians who placed him on 
 the throne, but it was only from the paj^ists he could 
 obtain concession of the title of Jdng de jure which he 
 coveted hardly less ; and if he detested anything more 
 than the Jesuit who preached the pope's right to release 
 subjects from their allegiance, it was the Presbyter who 
 claimed a power to control the actions of his prince. 
 And so his character was formed : without an opinion to 
 rest upon, or a principle to guide it ; devoid utterly of 
 straightforwardness or self-reliance ; and incapable, in 
 any manly sense, of either friendship or enmity. He 
 never formed an attachment which was perfectl}"- creditable 
 to him, or provoked a contest from which he did not run 
 away. In this respect he was always the same, and the 
 days of Arran but prefigured those of Somerset and 
 Buckingham. 
 
 Before he inherited the English throne, James had three 
 sons and two daughters born to him. Of these, two sons
 
 •230 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and a daughter died before they reached maturity ; but 
 to the surviving daughter and son, a memorable part in 
 English history was assigned. At Falkland, in the 
 autumn of 1590, was born Eli^^abeth, afterwards Queen of 
 Bohemia : whose name became identified on the continent 
 with the Protestant cause, and through the youngest of 
 whose ten children, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, the 
 house of Brunswick finally displaced the house of Stuart. 
 At Dumferline, in November IGOO, was born Charles, his 
 second son, who succeeded him as Charles I : and shortly 
 before whose birth. Sir Henr}- Neville had written to Sir 
 Pialph Winwood that out of Scotland rumours were 
 abounding of no good agreement between the King of 
 Scots and his wife ; and that " the discovery of some 
 " affection between her and the Earl of Gowrie's brother, 
 " who was killed with him, was believed to be the truest 
 " cause and motive of all that traged}'." The traged}- 
 referred to was the murder, in their own castle, of the 
 grandson of the Euthven avIio first struck at David 
 Piizzio ; and the condition of James's mother, when she 
 witnessed the assassination of her favoiuite, was the same 
 as that of his wife, when she heard the fate of Alexander 
 Gowrie, Not even in tlie blood-stained Scottish annals is 
 an incident to be found more dark or mysterious than this ; 
 and on the day when the bodies of the two brothers were 
 sentenced to ignominious exposure, the second sou of 
 James and Anne was born. His baptism Avas sudden, for 
 he was hardly expected to outlive the day ; and it was 
 through an infancy and boyhood of almost hopeless feeble- 
 ness, he struggled on to his ill-fated manhood. There 
 is a complexional weakness imparted at birth, which 
 nothing afterwards will cure ; and this, disqualifying alike 
 for stern resistance or manly submission, was unhappily 
 a part of Charles I's most sad inheritance. He was nearly 
 six 3'ears old before he could stand or speak, his limbs 
 being weak and distorted, and his mouth mal-formed ; nor 
 did he ever walk quite without difficult}-, or speak without 
 a stammer. "Who shall sa)- how far these physical defects
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 231 
 
 carried also -with them the moral weaknesses, the vacilla- 
 tion of pm'pose and obstinacy of irresolution, the insin- 
 cerity and bad faith, which so largely helped to bring him 
 to the scaffold ? 
 
 James's last year as the King of Scots was probably the 
 quietest he had passed in that troubled sovereignty. 
 As his succession to the English throne drew nearer, his 
 authority in his hereditary kingdom grew more strong. 
 Many of his enemies had ]3erished, others had become 
 impoverished ; and all began to think it more profitable 
 game to join their king in a foray on the incalculable 
 wealth of England, than to continue a struggle with him 
 for the doubtful prizes of his barren and intractable 
 Scotland. But his disputes with his subjects survived 
 his dangers from them. What tamed the laity, had made 
 more furious the clergy ; who already, in no distant vision, 
 saw their sovereign seated on the English throne sur- 
 rounded by the pomps of prelacy, and armed newly with 
 engines of oppression against themselves. Never was 
 Kirk so rebellious, in flaming up, synod after synod, 
 against the sovereign's unprinceliness and ungodliness ; 
 and never w^as King so abusive, in protesting before the 
 great God that highlaiid caterans and border thieves were 
 not such liars and perjurers as these " puritan pests in the 
 " church." He was in the thickest fury of the contention 
 when the sycophants who had bribed Elizabeth's waiting- 
 Avoman for earliest tidings of her last breath, hurried 
 headlong into Scotland to salute him English Idng. 
 Quieting, then, some ill-temper of his wife's by shrewdly 
 bidding her think of nothing but thanking God for the 
 peaceable possession they had got, James set out upon 
 his journey southward on the 5th of April, IGOy. 
 
 It was indeed something to be thankful for, that peace- 
 able possession of the land to which his very progress 
 was a sort of popular triumph. Doubly wonderful had 
 Kings gi-own to us, says old Stowe, so long had we, fifty 
 years or more, been under Queens. Racing against each 
 other as for life or death, rushed statesmen and courtiers,
 
 232 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 lawyers, doctors, and clergy, civic corporations, mayor- 
 alties, officialities of every descrijition and kind, all 
 classes and conditions of public men — eager to be slione 
 upon by the new-risen sun. And surely never from 
 stranger luminary darted beams of hope or promise upon 
 expectant courtiers. 
 
 The son of a most unhapjo}' mother, by a miserable 
 marriage, and even before birth struck by the terror of 
 the murder of Pdzzio, James was born a coward, and 
 through life could never bear even the sight of a drawn 
 sword. He was of middle stature, and had a tendency to 
 corpulence, which the fashion of his dress greatly exag- 
 gerated. He had a red complexion and sandy hair, and 
 a skin softer, it was said, than tafteta sarsenet, because 
 he never thoroughly washed, but only rubbed himself 
 slightly with the wet end of a napkin. His sanguine face 
 had little or no growth of beard ; and his large eye rolled 
 about unceasingl}^ with such suspicious vigilance, that it 
 put fairly out of countenance all but the most experienced 
 courtiers. He had a big head, but a mouth too small for 
 his tongue, so that he not only slobbered his words when 
 he talked, but drank as if he were eating his drink, which 
 leaked out on either side again into the cup. His clothes 
 formed a woollen rampart around him, his breeches being 
 in large plaits and full stuffed, and his doublets quilted for 
 stiletto proof; and so weak and rickettj^ were his legs 
 that his steps were circles, and he was well-nigh helpless 
 when he would walk alone. " He likes," says the 
 astonished chaplain of the Venetian embassy, "in walking, 
 " to be supported under the arms by his chief favourites." 
 It was in truth a necessit}', as the favourites were. His 
 body had as little in itself to sustain it, as his mind. Both 
 shuffled on by circular movements, and both had need of 
 supports from without. 
 
 But if the time has now come in England for any 
 serious conflict between the Subject and the Crown, where 
 any longer is that fence or barrier to the monarchy 
 which the personal qualities and bearing of English
 
 THE ILANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 2S3 
 
 soTereigns have heretofore thrown up ; and which in past 
 years, even when its privileges were most onerous, has been 
 no inconsiderable protection to it? This clumsy, un- 
 couth, shambling figure, with its goggle eyes, shuffling 
 legs, and slobbering tongue, confounded even an eager 
 congregation of courtiers ; and by the time it reached 
 London, a witness not prejudiced takes upon himself to 
 avouch, "the admiration of the intelligent Avorld was 
 " turned into contempt." 
 
 Up to the close of the journey, nevertheless, the con- 
 tempt had been decently disguised. At Newcastle and 
 York, magnificent civic entertainments awaited his Majesty. 
 AVith splendour not less profuse. Sir Robert Gary received 
 liim at Widdrington, the Bishop of Durham at Durham, Sir 
 Edward Stanhope at Grimston, Lord Sln-ewsbury at 
 Worksop, Lord Cumberland at Belvoir Castle, Sir John 
 Harrington at Exton, the Lord Burghley at Burghley, 
 and Sir Thomas Sadler at Standen. With princely hospi- 
 tality. Sir Ohver Cromwell regaled him at Hinchinbrook ; 
 and tliere may the sturdy little nephew and namesake of 
 Sir Oliver have received his first impression of a king, and 
 of the something less than divinity that hedged him 
 round. At Broxbourne, too, wdiere Sir Henr}^ Cox had 
 provided noble entertainment, greeting as memorable was 
 in store for liim ; for here the greatest man then living in 
 this universe, save only one, waited to ofier him homage. 
 " Methinks," said Francis Bacon after the interview, 
 " his Majesty rather asks counsel of the time past than of 
 " the time to come ; " and closing up against the time to 
 come his ow'n prophetic vision, that wonderful genius took 
 his emploj-ment in the service of tlie time past. Nearer and 
 nearer London, meanwhile, the throng swelled more and 
 more ; and on came the Xing, hunting daily as he came, 
 incessantly feasting and drinking, creating knights b}^ the 
 score, and everywhere receiving worsliip as the fountain 
 of honour. Visions of levelling clergy and fiictious nobles, 
 which had haunted him his whole life long, now passed 
 for ever from him. He turned to his Scotch followers,
 
 2U HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and told them the}' had at hist arrived in the hind of 
 promise. 
 
 But he had 3'et to see the most important man in this 
 promised hand. He Avas waiting the royal advent at his 
 seat of Theohalds, Avithin a few miles of London, on the 
 3rd of Ma}- : and strange must have been the first meeting, 
 at the gate of that splendid mansion, between the broad, 
 shambling, shuffling, grotesque monarch, and the small, 
 keen, crook-backed, capable minister ; between the son of 
 Mary Queen of Scots, and the son of her chief executioner. 
 We are not left to doubt the nature of the impression 
 made upon Cecil. During the years he afterwards passed 
 in James's service, he withdrew as far as possible from 
 the control he might have claimed to excTcise, and the 
 responsibility he must have assumed, over the home 
 administration, and did his best, to the extent of his 
 means, by a sagacious policy abroad, to keep England 
 still respected and feared in lier place amid foreign 
 nations. No one served the King so ably, or, there is 
 reason to believe, despised him so much. In her latter 
 years, Elizabeth had exacted of her ministers that they 
 should address her kneeling, and some one congratulated 
 Cecil that those degrading conditions were passed away. 
 " Would to God," he replied, " I yet spake upon my 
 " knees ! " 
 
 On the death of Cecil, in the tenth year of the reign, 
 James found himself first free to indulge, unchecked, his 
 lusts of favouritism. Though already the Eamsays, 
 Humes, and INIarrs, had contrived to fatten themselves 
 upon him, it is not until Cecil has passed away that we 
 get full sight of the Somersets and Buckinghams. Robert 
 Car was a poor but handsome young Scot, younger son of 
 one of the small lairds of Teviotdale, straight-limbed, well- 
 favoured, strong-shouldered, and smooth-faced, when the 
 King's eye fell upon him. Within a few weeks he was 
 created Knight, Lord-treasurer, A^iscount, Knight of the 
 Garter, and Earl; and everywhere about the Court, 
 according to Lord Thomas Howard, the Kinj? was to be
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 235 
 
 seen leaning upon him, pincliing liis clieek, smoothing his 
 ruffled garment, and, while directing his discourse to 
 others, looking still at him. He attended him at his 
 rooms in illness, taught him Latin, heggared the hest to 
 enrich him ; and, when the wife of Ealeigh knelt at his 
 feet to implore him not to make destitute the hero he had 
 imprisoned, spurned her from him with the words, " I 
 " mun ha' the land ! I mun ha' it for Car." Even on 
 the eve of Car's conviction as a murderer, Avhen master 
 and favourite were parting for ever, the King is described, 
 b}^ one who was present, to have hung lolling about his 
 neck, slobbering his cheeks with kisses ; and not murder 
 itself had power altogether to unloose the bonds between 
 them. The life of the attainted poisoner of Overbury was 
 spared; and he received no less a pension than 4000/. 
 a year, when his offices were transferred to a successor 
 certainly better entitled to favour than himself, but whose 
 rise had been hardly more honourable. Never any man, 
 exclaims Clarendon of George Villiers, in an}^ age, or in 
 any country or nation, rose in so short a time to so much 
 greatness of honour, fame, or fortune, upon no other 
 advantage or recommendation than of the beauty and 
 gracefulness of his person. Nor was it in a less degree 
 the amazement of the grave signors and ambassadors of 
 Venice, when received at a court masque, to see the prime 
 aninister Buckingham, for the delectation of the King, cut 
 a score of lofty and ver}^ minute capers, and the King, for 
 the reward of his prime minister, pat him on both cheeks 
 with an extraordinary affection. 
 
 Such entertainment had of course little to recommend 
 it to Italian visitors, who seem rightly to have judged, of 
 all the ordinary actors in it, that not only were they odious 
 and profligate, but in some sense or other despicable. The 
 likings of James's court were indeed those of Comus and 
 his crew ; and even the genius it engaged in its service, it 
 degraded to that level. Nakedly to indulge ever}' gross 
 propensit}', became the daily pursuit and highest qualifi- 
 cation of all admitted to its precincts. Tlie circle that
 
 233 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 suiTOimdecT Elizabeth had been no very exact model of 
 decency ; but there was strength of understanding in the 
 Queen, and it constrained the vices of those around her, 
 as it veiled her own. "When James became chief of the 
 revels, this check passed wholly away. Everything was 
 in wasteful excess; and in the foul corruption which alone 
 could satisfy it, the men were not more eagerly engaged than 
 the women, who drank also freely as they, and played as 
 deep. Lady Glenham took a bribe of a hundred pounds 
 for some dishonourable work to be done by her father ; and 
 even the King's cousin, poor Arabella Stuart, intrigued to 
 get one of her uncles a peerage, for a certain sum to be 
 paid to herself. The dead Queen had gradually disused, 
 and at last strictly prohibited, the brutal sports of the 
 cockpit; but her successor revived, and at least twice 
 every week took part in them. Daily, from morning until 
 evening in the chase, the bear-garden, or the cock-pit, 
 and from evening until night in gross sensual pleasures, 
 the Com't passed its life ; and to what extent such life 
 took precedence of every other, may be partly measured by 
 the fact that the fee of the master of the cocks exceeded 
 the united salaries of two secretaries of state. The second 
 3'ear of the reign had not passed, when Cecil had to write 
 to Lord Shrewsbury that the expense of the royal house- 
 hold, which till then had not exceeded thirty thousand a 
 year, had risen to a hundred thousand ; " and now think," 
 added the minister of Elizabeth, " what the Country feels ; 
 " and so much for that." In the seventh year of the 
 reign, the surplus of outlay above revenue continued, and, 
 according to the then value of money, James's debts 
 were half a million ; or at our present value, something 
 more than a million and a half. The shame of his neces- 
 sities became flagrant. His treasurer, Buckhurst, was 
 seized in the street for wages due to his servants; the very 
 purveyors stopped the supply to his table ; and some years 
 afterwards, when the embassy from Venice came to 
 London, such wants of the royal household were still 
 common talk. They went on further increasing. The
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AXD THE TUDORS. 237 
 
 liungiy and numerous family of the favourite liad to be 
 provided for as well as himself, and of all the favourites 
 none had been so profuse as Buckingham. As yet among 
 rare luxuries was the coach, unheard of till the pre- 
 ceding reign, and then with but two horses only ; but the 
 prime minister, to the general amazement of men, drove 
 six, and even eight horses. Hard would it be to say 
 which was most degrading, the extremity of the waste, 
 or the desjjeration of the means of meeting it. Bene- 
 volences were tried, and exorbitant fines were imposed by 
 the Star Chamber on those who resisted them or who coun- 
 selled resistance. Impositions b}' prerogative v>'ere laid 
 in every form, and were backed by suborned and scanda- 
 lous decisions in the courts. Patents were granted on all 
 sides to greedy projectors, creating monopolies the most 
 intolerable, and eating the very life out of trade. Fees 
 had been got from knighthood, till nobody more would be 
 knighted ; and Lord Bacon, at even his wits' end, sug- 
 gested knighthood with some new difference and prece- 
 dence. Hereupon baronetcies were thought of; and being 
 offered for a thousand pounds each to any who consented 
 to be purchasers, for a time they made the King richer by 
 some hundred thousand pounds. This new branch of 
 industry turning out so well, the peerage had been next jiut 
 up to sale, and not less openly. For five thousand pounds 
 a man became a baron; for twenty thousand, an earl; and, 
 if Mr. John Hampden, of Great Hampden in Bucks, had 
 not preferred a less perishable title, his mother would have 
 given ten thousand poiuids to make a viscount of him. 
 
 Yet even decent and respectable were the scenes of ex- 
 travagance and riot which so marked the Court of the first 
 of our Stuart kings, when compared with tliose more 
 detestable exliibitions in which its^ chief actor claimed to 
 be regarded as furnished forth with sparkles of divinity, 
 and the lieutenant and vicegerent of God. Pie had written 
 a treatise to prove that inasmucli as Monarchy was the 
 true pattern of the Godhead, it could in no respect be 
 bound to the law ; for as it was atheism and blasphemy
 
 238 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 to dispute what God could do, so it was presumption and 
 high contempt to dispute what a King could do, or say 
 that a King could not do this or that : and an unimpeach- 
 able witness, who was present at the Hampton Court 
 Conference, has shown with what peculiar emphasis, upon 
 occasion, he could adorn and recommend these principles 
 by his graces of speech. At that conference he affected to 
 sit in judgment as moderator between the High Church 
 Party and the Puritans ; and it was after having heard the 
 high churchmen at great length, and with much gracious- 
 ness, that he interposed with scurrilous abuse as soon as 
 the Puritans began to speak. He " bid them awaie Avith 
 " their snivellinge ; moreover, he wished those who would 
 " take away the surplice might want linen for their own 
 " breech. The bishops," it is added naively, " seemed 
 "much pleased, and said his majestie spake by the power 
 " of inspiration." One of the bishops present, indeed, 
 Bancroft of London, flung himself on his knees, and 
 protested his heart melted for joy " that almighty God 
 " had, in his singular mercy, given them such a King as 
 "had not been seen since Christ's time." Chancellor 
 Ellesmere cried out that for his part he had now seen 
 what he had never hoped to see. King and Priest united 
 fully in one person ; and Archbishop Whitgift asseverated 
 that his Majesty spoke by the Spirit of God. " I wist 
 " not what the}- mean," adds the reporter of the confe- 
 rence, "but the spirit was rather foul-mouthed." And 
 it was cruel. Impelled and sustained by such blasphem}^ 
 the next character in which this deified Scotch pedant 
 presented himself Avas that of burner of two Unitarian 
 ministers, Bartholomew Legat and Edward Wrightman, 
 who perished by the stake at Smithfield ; of torturer and 
 murderer of the Avhite-haired old puritan Peachem; and of 
 persecutor to the death of the Dutch reformer Vorstius, 
 against whose wise and tolerant vieAvs he penned that 
 memorable declaration, which was inscribed to " our Lord 
 " and Saviour Jesus Christ by his most humble and most 
 " obhged servant James." In tlie i^resence of such acts
 
 THE PLANTAGENETS AND THE TUDORS. 239 
 
 and utterances, it is barely an act of justice to the memory 
 of their perpetrator to say that sins of this complexion 
 were only half expiated by the blood of his unhappy son. 
 The records of civilised life offer no other instance of such 
 pretensions amid a society of rational men. We have to 
 turn for a parallel to the pestilential swamps of Africa, where 
 one of those prodigious princes whom we bribe with rum 
 and trinkets to assist us in suppressing the slave trade, 
 announced not long ago to an English officer, "God made 
 " me after His image : I am all the same as God : and He 
 " appointed me a King." This was James I's creed pre- 
 cisely; and after delivering it to his subjects in words 
 exactly similar, he miglit be publich^ seen of them, as 
 Harrington describes him at a masque given hy Cecil, 
 " wallowing in beastly delights." 
 
 It will suffice perhaps if I simply add to all this the 
 opinion of their ruler which was meanwhile becoming 
 generally prevalent among the English people. An 
 intelligent foreigner will describe it for us. "Consider 
 " for pity's sake," says M. de Beamont in one of his 
 despatches, "what must be the state and condition of 
 " a prince, whom the preachers publicly from the pulpit 
 " assail ; whom the comedians of the metropolis covertly 
 " bring upon the stage ; whose wife attends those repre- 
 " sentations in order to enjoy tlie laugh against her 
 "husband; whom the Parliament braves and desjiises ; 
 " and who is universally hated by the whole people." 
 The Frenchman's great master, Henri Quatre, shortly 
 before he fell by the hand of an assassin, had spoken of 
 the effects of such contempt when directed against the 
 person of a Sovereign, as marvellous and horrible : and 
 in this case marvellous and horrible were they destined to 
 prove also, iJi the second (jencration.
 
 THE CIYIL WAES AND OLIVER CEOMWELL' 
 
 Uistoire de la Repuhlique d' Angleterre et de Crormvell. Par M. GcizoT. 
 
 Richard Cromwell. Par M. Guizot. 
 
 Tlistorii of Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth. By M. Gcizor. 
 Translated from tte French, 
 
 The Story of Corfe Castle, collected from ancient Chronicles and Records ; 
 also from the private Memoirs of a family resident there in the time of 
 the Civil Wars. By the Right Hon. George Bankes, M.P. for the 
 county of Dorset. 
 
 The volume by the member for the county of Dorset 
 illustrates the private memoirs of an English family in 
 the time of the civil wars. The more important work by 
 the great French statesman presents that portion of our 
 liistory which succeeded to the civil wars, and for a time 
 embodied their results. But what we have to say of 
 ]\[. Guizot's book and its hero, we are not sorry to have 
 the opportunity of prefacing by some remarks upon the 
 actors in the preceding struggle ; and so much of what 
 the English memorialist relates of those earlier stages of 
 the conflict requires correction, that we could ofier 
 perhaps no introduction so appropriate to such celebra- 
 tion of its later scenes as will invite our criticism in 
 the French historian. 
 
 From an address prefixed to Mr. Bankes's book we 
 learn its origin. It appears that in the borough and 
 neighbourhood of Corfe Castle there is a society esta- 
 blished for purposes of mutual improvement ; that Mr. 
 Bankes is its patron : and that in compHance with the 
 
 1 From the Edinburgh Review, January 1S5C. Witli additions. 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 242 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 wish of its members to have subjects suggested for lecture 
 and discussion, he was induced to gather together as 
 materials for such a purpose, " from rare books and 
 "original famil}'^ papers," a volume full of historical facts 
 relating to persons Avho at former times have inhabited or 
 possessed the castle which gives its name to the district. 
 He adds that his collections refer especiallj^ to a period 
 of history wherein their particular neighbourhood was 
 much concerned, and the interest of which will not soon 
 pass away. 
 
 Mr. Bankes so speaks of the civil wars of the seven- 
 teenth century, and most truly. The}'' have an interest 
 which still concerns not only particular neighbourhoods, 
 but every particular family and fireside in the kingdom ; 
 for under Heaven we owe it mainl}^ to them that all 
 English homes are now protected and secure. The 
 result has answered to their origin. They began in 
 no sordid encounter of selfishness or faction, they 
 ■': involved no vulgar disputes of family or territory, and 
 I personal enmities formed no necessary part of them. 
 They were a war, as one of their leaders said, without an 
 eneiny. In the principles they put to issue we "continue 
 ourselves to'^'Ee^iot less interested than were our fore- 
 fathers ; and hardly a c^uestion of government has arisen 
 I since, affecting human liberty or the national welfare, 
 which has not included a reference to this great con- 
 flicTi, and some appeal to the precedents it established. 
 Nothing can be unimportant that relates to it, therefore, 
 r nor an}^ service small that may clear uj) a doubt of the 
 t motives and conduct of its leaders ; and if these, as the 
 I winter evenings have again arrived, should again be dis- 
 I cussed in the Corfe Castle or any other improvement 
 i society, such hints as we are now about to ofi'er will not 
 be without their use. 
 
 We do not object to Mr. Bankes that he shows through- 
 out his book a leaning to the Royalist party ; for, 
 believing that justice remained with the Parliament, we 
 thinir~n(5I tlie less that high and noble qualiGe's were
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AKD OLIVER CROMWELL. 243 
 
 engaged on the side of the King. His error is in sup- 
 posing that the hitter may not be admitted without dis- 
 credit and doubt of the former. Our study of the period 
 has led us to other conckisions, some of which, in the 
 same spirit Avhich leads him to address his friends in 
 Dorsetshire, we would address to himself. As he truly 
 says of the society to which he is patron, the humblest 
 who are industrious in their callings can always teach 
 something, and the highest in attainments have much to 
 learn. We must do our best for each other. When the 
 wished-for Millennium shall at last arrive, it will doubt- 
 less form the whole human race into 'a society for pur- 
 poses of mutual improvement. 
 
 The ancestor who connects with the most striking 
 period of English history Mr. Bankes's family associa- 
 tions, was Sir John Bankes, Attorney- General to Charles I, 
 and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. The part allotted 
 him on that great stage, however, was in reality a very 
 small one, though he played it creditabl3^ He was a 
 respectable lawyer of honest intentions and very limited 
 A'iews, who interfered occasionally with good effect to 
 moderate both parties, until both became committed to 
 extremes ; but when the sword flashed out as arbitrator, 
 he turned aside helpless and useless, and, d^ing while 
 yet the victory neither way inclined, he seems to have 
 died in the persuasion that the disfavour of Heaven must 
 fall heavily on both, and that both wovild be deserving of 
 overthrow. However unfitted to its occasions, there was 
 much of course to be said for a temper such as this. In 
 itself a disposition kindly and pleasing, at any other time 
 than one of necessary conflict it might have done even 
 useful public service. The descendant of Sir John 
 Bankes was quite entitled to refer to him, therefore, as 
 in all respects a favourable specimen of a lawyer in that 
 age ; but we must think it less discreet in tlie panegyrist 
 to have contrasted his alleged upright ascent to worldly 
 rank, with what he calls the " unseemly intrigues and 
 " courtly struggles " by which Sir Edward Coke clambered 
 
 M 2
 
 244 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 thither. Allusions not strictly untrue may yet convey an 
 
 impression singularly false. Whatever his former failings 
 
 may have been, to the student of our Civil Wars the Lord 
 
 Chief Justice Coke presents himself in one aspect only. 
 
 So far, his age redeems his youth and his manhood. It 
 
 was he Ivlio gaw 1o llio ojirning of the struggle thiit 
 
 stamp of ancient precedent and legal right, of which it 
 
 never afterwards, in all its varying fortunes, lost the 
 
 trace ; and, in the presence of any attempt to compare 
 
 / such a man disadvantageously with one immeasurably his 
 
 ) inferior, we are obliged to remember that while, in the 
 
 '. Petition of Right, Sir Edward Coke has left a monu- 
 
 ■, ment of his exertions for English liberty as imperishable 
 
 / as that which the Institutes contain of his knowledge of 
 
 f English law, Sir John Bankes has left no more durable 
 
 i record of either than an elaborate argument against 
 
 ' Hampden in the case of ship-money. 
 
 Mr. Bankes is much enamoured of the character of 
 Strafford, an illustrious client and occasional corre- 
 spondent, or, as he prefers to st3'le him, " the honoured 
 " friend," of his ancestor. He appears not to know that 
 on a solemn reference to the Judges for their opinion on 
 certain charges in the Impeachment of that statesman 
 
 (which the Lords had voted to be i^roved. Sir John Bankes 
 formed no exception to the unanimous judgment which 
 declared the charges to amomit to treason. Widely 
 differing on this point from his ancestor, Mr. Bankes can 
 see nothing in his ancestor's "honoured friend" but a 
 
 I good financier and a great statesman. He does not seem 
 to be aware how very possible it is for a good financier to 
 be a bad statesman. There can be no doubt that Strafford's 
 ^ whole system, material and moral, was tried in advanta- 
 i geous circumstances in Ireland, and proved to be a sheer 
 I failure, — neither more nor less. Without overthrowing 
 the public liberties, indeed, it could not have succeeded ; 
 because it was an attempt to establish the royal preroga- 
 tive above them. Nevertheless it also included much that 
 had no unpopular aspect, for it was the design of a man
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 245 
 
 of courage and genius. Every pett}'- oligarchy would have 
 been reduced by it to subjection before the monarchy, 
 and it would have struck down all the tyrannies but its 
 own. The mere forms of parliament would universally 
 have been respected and retained by Strafford, because 
 he knew that despotism has no such efficient ally as 
 parhaments deprived of parliamentary power. "^Miile he 
 made the Irish customs more profitable by four times 
 their annual amount, he would so have employed tliis 
 enormous increase as again and again to multiply itself, 
 through enlarged resources of commerce and trade. 
 While he established vast monopolies for the Crown, he 
 would have aboHshed private monopolies that had simply 
 gorged its servants. And in the very act of imposing 
 taxes arbitrarily, and levying them by military force, he 
 fell with so heavy a hand on wrongdoers of high rank, as 
 made the oppressed commonalty grudge less what they, 
 too, had to endure. But it was of the ver}^ essence of 
 this design, comprehensive as it was, that the good it 
 might have wrought should perish by the evil it could not 
 but inflict. The sword he had provided for safety turned 
 and broke in his hand. A too vast ambition, joined with 
 a t oo narrow ai m, destroyed him. And his Irish admibis- 
 tration is now chiefly memorable, not for the revenues 
 and resources it so largely developed and his master as 
 miserably wasted ; not for the linen trade it estabhshed, 
 which struck root and has saved the land ; but because it 
 has shown, b^- one of the greatest examples oii'record^f 
 what small account is the statesmanship most successful 
 in providiii'j; for material wants, which yet refuses^' to 
 recognise the moral necessities of the people it assumes 
 to govern. ~ ' 
 
 "Mr. Bankes objects to only one of Strafford's Irish 
 measures ; and he so puts his objection as to imply that, 
 if Straff"ord deserved to suffer penalties of treason for it, 
 not the less have several of the most favoured statesmen 
 of our own day exposed themselves to the same well- 
 merited fate. "A measure," he says, " very lately adopted
 
 24o HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 " by the Imperial Parliament for the relief of Ireland, 
 " called the Encumbered Estates' Act, was one of 
 " Stratford's plans. Nothing could be more arbitrary in 
 " prmciple — more opposite to every recognised rule of 
 " established law ; nothing more unfit for adoption, unless 
 " the plea of necessity were admitted as decisive in its 
 " favour ; and, if success attends this measure, Strafford's 
 " memory may stand relieved from at least a portion of 
 " the obloquy which has been heaped upon him." We 
 are sorry to say that this is a very loose and idle way of 
 deahng with the grave questions of English history, and 
 likely to prove sadly misleading to the members of the 
 mutual improvement society at Corfe Castle. 
 
 First, let us state briefly what the Irish Encumbered 
 Estates' Act really was. It would, of course, be quite 
 permissible to say that a single person might justly be 
 held a traitor for taking it upon his own authority to do, 
 what yet it would be perfectly right that Queen, Lords, 
 and Commons should agree and unite to do. But we 
 prefer to show that Mr. Bankes's comparison is absolutely 
 as well as relatively false ; that there is not the remotest 
 analogy or resemblance between the things compared ; 
 that the act done with authority is as good, as the act was 
 bad which was done without authority ; and that so much 
 ignorance of what was really implied in an important 
 legislative measure, is hardly pardonable in one who is 
 himself a legislator. An Act to relieve the encumbered 
 estates of Ireland, by facilitating their sale when desired 
 by owner or encumbrancer, had become a necessity. 
 Nearly all the southern and western Irish counties were 
 hopelessly insolvent. Around the wreck of what once was 
 property, clung such a frightful accumulation of mortga- 
 gors, mortgagees, and settled annuitants, that, but for a 
 timely hand stretched out to save, all must have gone to 
 the bottom, wdth their dependent tenants and labourers. 
 A plague itself could not more surely have struck the 
 laud with barrenness. Capital fled affrighted from the 
 place, while labour starved ; and, whether the landlord
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 247 
 
 owed most to his creditor, or the tenant to his landlord, 
 or botli landlord and tenant to the Government which 
 was supporting them on the toils and taxes of the English 
 people, it would have been hard to sa,y. In this intolerable 
 crisis it was that Parliament stepped forward and said, 
 We will appoint three commissioners as trustees for the 
 sale of these encumbered estates. They shall have power, 
 for this purpose, to supersede the slow and dilatory action 
 of the Irish Chancery. The purchaser shall be protected, 
 by receiving under their conveyance an indefeasible title. 
 The encumbrancer and the owner shall have the guarantee 
 of a strict application of the purchase-money in discharge 
 of encumbrances, and in distribution of the residue to 
 those legally entitled. By these means we hope to sub- 
 stitute a real for a nominal proprietary. Our object, in 
 brief, is to take Ireland bodily out of chancery ; and to 
 enable the funds at present squandered in costly delays, in 
 receivers' fees, and in the extortions as well as obstructions 
 of the masters' offices, to be in future more legitimately 
 employed on the cultivation of the soil, and the support 
 and improvement of the people. Such was the Encum- 
 bered Estates' Act, and such hitherto has been its bene- 
 ficial operation. No single legislative measure in our 
 time has done so much to regenerate a comitr}''. 
 
 And now let us attempt to describe, with equal brevity, 
 what Mr. Bankes declares to have been its original or 
 prototype in Strafford's Irish administration. The imme- 
 diate drift of the whole of that statesman's policy, as 
 every well-informed student of English history knows, 
 was to raise money for Charles's wants in England. 
 Through and beyond all his measures, he looked, as he 
 expresses it over and over again in his dispatches, " to 
 "raise a good revenue to the Crown;" and one scheme 
 above all others presenting itself as weU suited to this 
 purpose, he dashed into it Avith that overbearing energy 
 of will, which had afterwards upon his own destiny so 
 fatal a recoil. It was a plan for increasing the royal 
 demesnes by ferreting out so-called defective titles. The
 
 248 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 court lawj^ers were eager and ready with proof that the 
 entire province of Connaught had fallen at some distant 
 period to the Crown, on the forfeiture of its Irish 
 chieftain ; and though it was not denied that, by a series 
 of formal patents from the sovereign, all this property 
 had since been granted away and passed into the hands of 
 different owners, yet so informal in almost every instance 
 had the royal grants been, that little doubt could be enter- 
 
 itained of the due discovery of a rich crop of flaws and 
 quibbles on which to found legal proceedings for recovery. 
 
 } A more scrupulous man than Strafford would have been 
 deterred by the failure of a former attempt in James's 
 reign, thus to beggar and dispossess, on such obsolete 
 f)retensions, a fourth part of the proprietors of Ireland. 
 A juster man would have desisted, on being told that the 
 result of that failure was the formal promulgation subse- 
 quently, by James's successor, Charles himself, of certain 
 royal graces expressly recognising and confirming the 
 validity of the titles in dispute. But considerations of 
 
 I this kind never stood in Strafford's way. He went 
 straight to his object without regard to consequences, 
 when his mind was once made up that the object must 
 be achieved. " Go it as it shall please God with me," he 
 wrote to Laud, " I will "sTill" 1)6 thorough and throughout, 
 " one and the same! less than thorough will not over- 
 " come it." He impanelled juries in the several counties, 
 imder penalty of heavy fines ; forced them, by gross 
 intimidation, into verdicts favourable to the Crown ; 
 fined one sheriff 1000/. for having chosen an ill-affected 
 jury ; mulcted each recusant juror separately in the more 
 ruinous exaction of four times that amount ; staked the 
 " peril of liis hcacV \x.]}0\\ the issue; and mainly by the 
 intemperate passion into which these transactions betrayed 
 him against all who resisted, provoked the majority of 
 three nations to claim that terrible forfeit. 
 
 ^ To its payment, at least under process of Attainder, 
 Mr. Bankes says that even Hampden objected. It may 
 have been so, but no authority has yet been publicly
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 249 
 
 produced which would warrant any historian in saying it. 
 The supposed authority is a speech of Hampden's in Sir 
 Ralph Yerney's Notes, on the question of whether the 
 Commons should attend the upper house to hear 
 Strafford's counsel on the matter of law. Ever since this 
 note was discovered, the point has heen somewhat 
 hotly debated of how far Hampden's position with his 
 friends, in regard to the Bill of Attainder, must be held to 
 have been affected by it ; and the preponderating opinion 
 has been, that he opposed the proceeding by bill. But the 
 real truth is, that the resolution to which Verney's note 
 relates, was upon a question in no respect vital to the Bill 
 of Attainder. Culpeper voted with St. John against it, Su* 
 Benjamin Budyard joining with Lord Digbyforit; and 
 Hampden, in voting as he is supposed to have done, would 
 have separated himself quite as much from the Hyde 
 and Culpeper party as from the friends with whom he 
 invariably acted. Up to this point, indeed, there is no 
 ground for supposing that any grave dispute or disSFffsion 
 had "really arisen in the lower house as to the course to be 
 pursued against Strafford. As yet he had few friends 
 there. And it is entirely a misapprehension to argue as 
 though the alternative were raised by the point now under 
 discussion, either to hear Strafford's counsel at the bar, or 
 to proceed with the bill ; and for this plain reason, that 
 both were ultimately done. Hampden's opinion and vote 
 prevailed, and the Bill of Attainder nevertheless jiroceeded. 
 Against it, not more successfully, Mr. Bankes enlists 
 another celebrated popular name. " Denzil Holies," he 
 says, " would take no share in it ; " but he forgets to tell 
 his readers that Denzil Holies was Strafford's brother-in- 
 law, and that this fact inust be assuhiect to have influenced 
 liim a little. Holies was, indeed, named one of the first 
 committee of six selected to prepare the charge ; but on 
 the day after he was so named, he was at his own request 
 spared out of that committee, and Mr. Grimston was jiut 
 in his place. Most bent is Mr. Bankes on pi'oving, how- 
 ever, that Edward Hyde, of all men, could have had no 
 
 m3
 
 250 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 possible complicity with it. Unfortunately, he grounds 
 the opinion on no authority better than H^'de's own ; 
 holding that if he had not objected, his language to Lord 
 Essex, set down in his own memoirs, would involve an 
 incredible inconsistency. Mr. Bankes appears not to 
 know that the entire conduct of Hyde at this period is 
 now proved to have been an inconsistency (to use no 
 stronger word), as deliberately as it was elaborately planned, 
 and carried out with a view to the uses to be made of it 
 towards the service of the King. When he declined to 
 take office with Culpeper and Falldand, it was because 
 " he should be able to do much more service in the 
 " condition he was in, than he should be if that were 
 " improved by any preferment." In other words, he 
 i stayed as an independent member among the patriots to 
 
 I make the better royalist use of his knowledge of their 
 plans. Even in his own history, he does not scruple to 
 i say as much, though not till a few years ago chd his 
 editors find courage to print it. It stands there now, 
 a shameless avowal, on the same page which perpetuates 
 his fame. When he had himself assented to a particular 
 . state paper issued by the House of Commons, he does not 
 ^ hesitate to inform us that the answer, issued some days 
 later by the King, was copied from a draft prepared and 
 privately forwarded by himself; and when, in grand com- 
 mittee on the bill against episcopacy, he was chosen 
 chairman, he expressly tells us that he used the advantage 
 it gave him to " ensnare " and " perplex " the advocates 
 of the measure. Somewhat earlier, it may not here be 
 out of place to add, he had sat also as chairman of a 
 committee to hear witnesses in support of certain com- 
 plaints brought before the House, on which occasion he 
 seems to have found it extremely difficult to ensnare or 
 perplex a particular member who sat with him. This 
 was a gentleman whom he had " never before " heard 
 speak in the House of Commons, but whose whole 
 carriage in the committee was so tempestuous, and his 
 behaviour so insolent, that really Mr. Hyde found himself 
 
 I
 
 i 
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 251 
 
 under tlie necessity of reprehending liim. A rebuke which I 
 nevertheless appears to have had small effect on the I 
 honourable member, who " in great fury reproached the | 
 " chairman for being partial ; " which, having regard to 
 the confession just made in a precisely similar case, we 
 are disposed to think that the chairman decidedly may 
 have been. The honourable member who came so tem- 
 pestuously on this occasion between the witnesses (" who 
 " were a very rude kind of people ") and Mr. Hyde's sense 
 of decorum, was Mr. Cromwell, lately returned for the 
 town of Cambridge. 
 
 Altogether, we think Mr. Bankes will have to re-study 
 and revise his character of Clarendon. He is moved with 
 horror at what he calls the revolutionary, the " fatal " act, 
 for perpetuation of the Parliament ; yet for that act Hyde 
 deliberately voted. He objects to the celebrated Pro- 
 testation brought forward at the time by Pym, and which 
 had such a singular effect in exciting the people ; yet 
 seems not to be aware that the second name affixed to it 
 was that of Edward Hyde. He (very inconsiderately we f 
 must say) compares to Robespierre's Reign of Terror, ) 
 the excitements and " pretended " plots that forced on the K 
 execution of Strafford ; yet the man who carried up to i 
 the House of Lords the first message as to the army plot ' 
 which precipitated the execution, was no other than Edward 
 Hyde. Its resolute promoter to the last, by speeches as 
 well as votes, was Falkland, Hyde's dearest friend. 
 Culpeper, his other confidential and intimate ally, sup- 
 ported most eagerly every step that led to it. The last 
 thing his associate Lord Capel recalled, as he laid his 
 own head down upon the scaffold raised by Cromwell, was 
 his vote in favour of it. And Hyde himself was the man 
 who exposed and defeated the last desperate attempt of 
 Strafford's personal friends, by means of an escape from 
 the Tower, to avert what Clarendon had afterwards the 
 face to call Strafford's " miserable and never to be enough y' 
 " lamented ruin." 
 
 The entire history of that period of Strafford's trial, in
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 short, and of all the proceedmgs connected with the Bill 
 of his Attainder, remains to be written ; and even since 
 the foregoing remarks were first printed, we have made 
 discoveries relating to it of sufficient importance to justify a 
 future attempt to render more complete the existing records 
 of the life and death of that remarkable man. 'At present 
 we restrict om-selves to a new piece of evidence of singular 
 interest, drawn from the manuscript journal of Sir Simonds 
 D'Ewes, which, while it thoroughly bears out the genieral 
 tenour of what we have said as to the men who most 
 eagerly supported Strafford's attainder, somewhat starthngly 
 disposes of our special surmise as to the improbability 
 of Hampden's' having opposed it. In a former Essay" 
 we have referred to this discovery, reserving a more 
 particular description of it for this place ; and from that 
 description we now exclude all argument and detail more 
 proper to be dealt with on a different occasion. We 
 confine it strictly to what is necessary to set at rest, once 
 
 ' The remarks now made are the 
 result of research subsequent to the 
 date when this Essay was first 
 written ; and I may here take the 
 opportunity of observing, that, out 
 of the many who have variously com- 
 mented on that very obscure note by 
 Sir Ealph Verney of a speech of 
 Hampden's on the Attainder, which 
 has hitherto comprised all the known 
 evidence wherefrom an opinion was 
 to be drawn as to his course re- 
 specting it, to Lord Macaulay alone 
 must be given the praise of having 
 construed it with singular correctness. 
 "The opinion of Hampden," he re- 
 " marks {Essut/s, i. 209) "as far as 
 ' ' it can be collected from a very 
 " obscure note of one of his speeches, 
 ' ' seems to have been that the 
 ' ' proceeding by Bill was unne- 
 "cessary, and that it would be a 
 "better course to obtain judgment 
 " on the Impeachment." It now 
 appears, as the reader will find from 
 my text, that such exactly was 
 Pym's opinion, in wKcli 'Hampden 
 implicitly followed him. I had myself 
 
 been disposed to think that the note 
 settled nothing conclusively, except 
 the fact of his desiring that Straiford's 
 counsel should be heard ; both because 
 it contained no opinion adrerse to 
 the Attainder, and also because, be- 
 lieving Pym to have onginated that 
 Bill, I found it difiicult to imagine 
 that in such a proceeding Hampden 
 could have separated himself from the 
 friend with whom, through the whole 
 course of these eventful times, he cer- 
 tainly had no other known difference. 
 It had occurred to no one as within 
 i-easonable probability that Pym him- 
 self might also, upon the mere ground 
 of policy, have opposed the Attainder ; 
 which now proves to have been the 
 case. The exact words of Vemey's 
 note are subjoined. "Hampden. 
 " The bill now pending doth not tie 
 "us to goe by bill. Our councill 
 ' ' hath been heard ; err/o, iii justice, 
 " we must hear his. Noe more pre- 
 "judice to goe to hear councill to 
 " matter of law, than 'twas ta hear 
 " councill to matter of fact." 
 - See ante, p. 8 and 9.
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 253 
 
 and for ever, sucli personal statements and charges 
 connected with the Attainder as have been variously 
 disputed and long contested by historians ; and to appor- 
 tion with some degree of correctness, at last, the respon- 
 sibilities of blame and praise incurred b}^ the men who 
 abandoned the way of Impeachment they had themselves 
 originated, in order to proceed by Bill. 
 
 That mode of procedure, it seems, had been canvassed 
 at the opening of the session ; and having been strongly 
 advocated by St. John, Glj-n, and Maynard, a bill was 
 actually prepared. But Pym and Hampden were so bent 
 the other way, and so convinced that their proofs would 
 establish the charge of treason under the statute of 
 Edward, that the impeachment went on. Nor in this 
 belief did they ever waver for an instant. Up to the close 
 of the proceedings on the trial, they had an invincible 
 persuasion that in the several hearings~Tie"fore the upper 
 house "both the facts and the law had been established ; 
 and when the sitting of the thirteenth day, Saturday the 
 lOtli of April, closed abruptly in violent dissatisfaction at 
 a decision of the peers, allowing Strafford to reopen tlie 
 evidence on other articles provided the demand of the 
 Commons to give additional proofs of the twenty-thu'd 
 article were conceded, they returned to their house, not to 
 throw up the impeachment, but to prepare the heads of a 
 conference with the Lords for settlement of such matters 
 of difference as had arisen. But with them returned a 
 more discontented section, numbering among its members 
 not only such men as Haselrig and Henry Marten, Oliver 
 St. John and Glyn, but also a grouj^ comiDrised of 
 Falkland, Culpeper, the Hothams, Tomkins (member for 
 Weobly), and others, all of whom afterwards either openly 
 embraced the cause of the King, or secretl}'^ conspired to 
 further it. And by these men it was that the project of 
 proceeding by Bill, formerly laid aside, was now suddenly 
 revived and pressed. "Divers," says D'Ewes, "spake 
 " whether we should proceed l)}^ wa,y of Bill of Attainder, 
 " or as we had begun ; but most inclined that we should
 
 254 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 " go by Bill." The principal opponents were Pym and 
 HaffipHenV 
 
 The additional evidence sought to be gi^^en before the 
 Lords upon the twenty-third article was that copy of 
 the Notes taken at the Council Board by the elder Vane 
 on the day of the dissolution of the Short Parliament, 
 which had been abstracted from his cabinet by the j^ounger 
 Vane, and by him given to Pym, who had founded the 
 twenty-third article upon them. They were pubKcly 
 read for the first time, after the tumultuous return of the 
 Commons to their own house on that Saturday afternoon ; 
 and from them it appeared, not only that Strafford had 
 given the King such traitorous advice as the article in 
 question charged him with (that having been denied 
 supply by his parliament he was absolved and loose from 
 all rule of government, and that he had an army in Ireland 
 which he might employ to reduce " this kingdom" to obe- 
 dience), but that Laud and Lord Cottington also had taken 
 part in the dangerous counsel. Amid the excitement 
 consequent thereon, the Bill of Attainder was produced ; 
 and the proposal by which it was met on the part of those 
 who objected to its introduction, was that a narrative of 
 the circumstances attending the discovery and production 
 of Vane's important Notes of Council should be drawn up 
 and submitted to the Lords at a conference ; and that if, 
 upon deliberation, the Lords decided not to receive it 
 except upon condition of permitting the accused to reopen 
 the evidence upon other articles, then that it should be 
 waived, and immediate steps taken to sum up the case on 
 both sides, and demand judgment. Any other course, 
 they argued, would involve not only the certainty of delay, 
 but a strong probability of disagreement -vvith the Souse 
 of Lords. So decided was the feeling for the Bill, how- 
 ever, that for once tliese great leaders were outvoted, and 
 it was introduced and read a first time ; a suggestion of 
 Hampden's, for resuming at Monday's sitting the prepara- 
 tion of heads for a conference with the upper house, being 
 at the same time assented to.
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 255 
 
 AYliat occurred in the latter part of this Monday's sitting 
 (the early part was occupied by the speeches of Pym and 
 young Vane in reference to the Minutes of Council, and by 
 the examination of the elder Vane's secretary as to their 
 abstraction from his cabinet), the reader who turns to the 
 facsimile given at the close of this volume may study 
 from D'Ewes's blotted record, taken down while yet the 
 sitting went on, and while the men named in it were busy 
 talking and writing around him. He will probably, how- 
 ever, elect to avail himself of the labour we have ourselves 
 already given to the task of decyphering it, and prefer to 
 read it in the plain print subjoined. The report is of the 
 roughest kind, as will be observed ; passing abruptly from 
 one point to another without explanation, and leaving 
 upon record things subsequently laid aside. But its evi- 
 dence is decisive as to the personal matters for which 
 alone it is here introduced ; and never more can be raised 
 the question, so long and eagerly debated, of whether or 
 not Hampden quitted Pym's side during the discussion 
 of the Bill of Attainder, and temporarily joined with the 
 party whom he afterwards very determinedly opposed. 
 Upon this, as upon every other great incident of the 
 time, the two friends held their course together, from 
 first to last. It must be kept ever in view, however, 
 that they did not oppose the introduction of the Bill of 
 Attainder as having any doubt either of Strafford's guilt, 
 or of the sufficiency of the proofs against him. They 
 opposed it for the express reason that they held the proofs 
 already placed before the Lords to he sufficient ; and their 
 subsequent assent to it, when the majority finally deter- 
 mined on that course, involved no inconsistency. 
 
 " Mr. Pymme shewed that the Committee appointed 
 " for the managing of the Evidence agst the Earle of 
 " Strafford had prepared certaine heads for a conference 
 " with the Lords. 
 
 " Mr. J\Iaynard begann where Mr. Pymme ended & furth 
 " [further] shewed that wee were to desire a conference. 
 
 "LA Narrative of the evidence concerning the triall
 
 \ 
 
 256 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 " against the Earle of Strafford, for which evidence 
 " wee had two members of the house readie to bee 
 " deposed & for w*^'^ the Committee advized with 
 " the house & intended to have presented the same 
 " to their LorPP® on Saturday last. 
 " 2. The house having taken consideration thereof doe 
 j" conceive it verie materiall : yet in regard of the 
 
 I" danger & distraction of the kingdome being verie 
 " great & will admit noe delay, they are resolved 
 " to come to a generall rejilie & to waive the saied 
 " evidence, if the Lords shall not permitt it to bee 
 
 fc " examined unlesse the Earle of Strafford [have] 
 
 it . . 
 
 ! " libertie to examine witnesses to other Articles ; 
 
 1" w'^'^ the house doth doe to avoid delay, whch is 
 " now of extreame dangerous consequence. 
 " 3. Others confederated. Archbi' & Lord Cottington are 
 " discovered : when motion to bring in Irish armie was 
 " made by Earle of Strafford — by this paper will 
 " appeare, if their LorPi'^ will have the paper read." 
 At this point, as will be seen in the facsimile, D'Ewes 
 puts a note in the margin, respecting that third head of the 
 proposed conference to which the preceding not very clear 
 sentences, and the two following not much more 
 luminous paragraphs, relate. 
 
 " This 3d head thus penned was rejected, and a new 
 " one brought in, 
 
 " Desire the L^'* to joine with us to prevent danger: 
 " which might ensue upon such counsels. 
 " Those Councellors removed. 
 
 " 3. That upon occasion of discoverie of this evidence 
 " a paper was read in the house by w'"'' it appeared 
 " that at the same time when the Earle of Strafford 
 " gave that dangerous counsell of bringing in the 
 " Irish armie into England others were present, 
 " deciphered by these letters Arch. & L. Cott. whome 
 " wee conceive Lord Arch. & L. Cott. verie full 
 " of pernicious counsell to the King & slanders to the 
 " Commons house assembled in the last Parliament.
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 257 
 
 " Mr. Hotham moved to have the bill of the Eaiie of 
 " Strafford's attainder read. 
 
 " Mr. P3mime would not have the bill read, but to goe 
 " the other way : because this is the safer, to shew that 
 " wee & the Lords are reconciled & not sundred : & 
 " soe we shall proceed the more speedilie by demanding 
 " judgment. 
 
 " Mr. Maynard one way doth not crosse another, but 
 " wee may~goe by"!)!!! of attainder if wee will, or" By 
 " demanding judgment ; w"^'' wee may best resolve upon 
 " wheii wee see the end of the triall. 
 
 " Sir Benjamin Rudier [Eudyard] shewed the gi-eat 
 " treason of the Earle of Strafford, & yet saied that one 
 " full third parte of the evidence was not heard, & that 
 " divers of the Lords who weere present at the opening 
 " thereof weere not satisfied that it was treason." 
 
 So ends the first page of the facsimile. On the reverse 
 page the debate is continued, the first two speakers being 
 men notorious afterwards for their royalist services, and 
 the third being D'Ewes himself. 
 
 " Mr. Tomkins for bill of attainder to bee read, for it 
 " is the old waj^ 
 
 " Sir Joliii "Culpepper not to lay bill aside : the safest 
 " & the speediest way to proceede by bill : yet for the 
 " conference now. 
 
 " I saied that I was verie gladd of the motion for a 
 " conference. Necessitie to compile with L^ [Lords] for 
 " timorbonorum spes malorum & the distraction now soe 
 " great in the kingdome as it threatens much hazard. First 
 " to demand judgment the most ancient way in evident" 
 " cases: bill, wheii men dead, or flcdd, or cases difficult. 
 " This the shorte way. For nothing now but to demand 
 "judgment. A bill will be long in passing; & all 
 " delaies incident to that as to this. For the summing 
 " upp, a narrative may bee" ohiittcd or proceeded in. 
 " This the safe way. Bpp^ in bill ought to have voices. 
 " Divers saied No. But I tolde them that I spake not 
 " by rote or tradition but what I knew. That I had this
 
 258 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 t " morning been searcliing in the office of the dark of the 
 " Lordes house touching the bill of attainder of Sir Thomas 
 " Seymour Lord Sudeley, as in paper pinned.' 
 
 " Divers moved that Mr. Treasurour might explaine 
 ! " himselfe, whome hee meant by L. Cott. whether hee did 
 » " not meane Lord Cottington. 
 
 " Mr. Treasurour [Yane] denied to make any other or 
 > " further explanation till he had well advized therupon, 
 1 " though wee sent him to the Tower. 
 
 s 
 
 I " Mr. Glynne shewed reason, why the committee named 
 
 i " the Lord Cottington because [he] had sworne hee was 
 
 J " there. 
 
 j " Mr. Martin [Henry Marten] spake to have bill of 
 
 I " attainder read againe and to proceede that way. 
 
 I " Mr. Hamden answered him & moved the message 
 
 ■ " might goe upp speedilie. 
 
 " Mr. Hamden sent with the message about 12 of the 
 
 i " clocke, but the Lords weere risen. 
 
 t " Being returned wee fell into debate to vote the heads 
 " for the conference. 
 
 *' Upon the first head before sett downe being read 
 " and debated, Mr. Treasurour upon some motions, was 
 " twice drawen to declare concerning the saied paper 
 " found by his sonne, that hee first moved his Ma"^ 
 " that hee might burne it, & soe he commanded him to 
 " doe it : & secondly, that hee was not possiblie able to 
 
 J, " speake further to it, till hee had considered deliberatelie 
 
 V"ofit." 
 
 Of the men who, on that 12th of April, thus supported 
 the Attainder, Hotham was afterwards executed for betray- 
 ing the trust reposed in him by the House, Tomkins was 
 expelled for similar bad faith, and Culpeper entered the 
 service of the King. Glyn and Maynard seem not to have 
 committed themselves on that day, but in the subsequent 
 
 * All tliat remains now of that simply proceeds and closes as in tlia 
 "paper pinned," however, is the text, 
 space it once occupied. The page
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 2r,0 
 
 debates tliey proved to be as eager for the Attainder as 
 St. John himself; though both lived to take part at the 
 Restoration, to their eternal infamy, in bringing to the 
 scaffold men such as Henry Vane, whose only crime was to 
 have borne a share, not more marked than their own, in 
 these transactions. Of Falkland, in relation to the 
 Attainder, it is needless to speak. Such was what 
 Clarendon calls his sharpness of tone upon this subject 
 altogether, " so contrary," he adds, " to his natural 
 " gentleness and temper," that his friend says those 
 who kncAV him but imperfectly were wont to accoimt for 
 it by recalling the memory of some unkindnesses, not 
 without a mixture of injustice, from Strafford to his 
 father; while Clarendon himself, with the usual disingenu- 
 ousness, attributes it to his having been " misled by the 
 " authority of those who, he believed, understood the 
 " laws perfectly." If this indeed had been the fact, it 
 is a pity that so distinguished a lawyer as Mr. Hyde was 
 alread}' become did not take the necessary pains to 
 enlighten so intimate a friend, gone astray on a matter of 
 such great importance ; but still more is it to be regretted 
 that very considerable grounds should exist for believing 
 that they actually went astray respecting it in each other's 
 company. For if it be also true, as in his history he dis- 
 tinctly informs us, that upon no question had they ever had 
 a single difference,' or gwen'^votes "opposed to each other, ^ 
 
 1 This is repeatedly said or implied stage ; and it is utterly impossilile 
 
 in what is remarked of Falkland that Hyde could have made the J 
 
 throughout the history, and when it remark just quoted, which was v 
 
 occurs to the historian to describe written two years after his friend's 
 
 the disagreement between himself and death, with anything so recent and 
 
 Falkland on the debate of the bill so marked in his memory as a dif- 
 
 for taking away the bishops' votes, ference ou the Attainder must have 
 
 brought forward after StratTord's exe- been. The friends sat, too, as they 
 
 cution, he expressly notes it as memo- voted, together. "The Lord Falkland 
 
 rable that there arose in tliis debate, "always sat next Mr. Hyde, which 
 
 ^'between tivo jiersons who had never " was so much taken notice of, that, 
 
 " been'%notv)i to differ in the house," "if they came not into the House 
 
 a difference of opinion (i. 412). Now "together, as usually they did, every- 
 
 nothingis so certain as that Falkland " body left the place for him that was 
 
 strenuously, by votes and speeches, "absent " (i. 41.3). 
 supported the Attainder in every !
 
 260 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 until the day when, after Strafford's execution, the bill for 
 taking- -ftAvay the bishops' votes was first debatecfTthe in- 
 ference is irresistible that Hyde, who assuredly did not at 
 any time vote against, must have voted for, the attainder. 
 Certainl}" what he says respecting it in his book is an 
 entire falsification of the facts, and could only have been 
 written under the persuasion that the erasure from the 
 journals of both houses, at the Restoration, of every 
 trace of the proceedings connected with it, had equally 
 obliterated them also from the recollections of men. He 
 might have shrunk from such confident misstatement, if 
 an}' vision of D'Ewes's Notes had presented itself, as 
 lilvely ever to rise again. 
 
 So clear and straightforward, on the other hand, was 
 the course taken by Pym and Hampden, that even by 
 their subsequent adoption" of tlie Attainder not a stain or 
 ' shadow of inconsistency was throAvn on their previous 
 resistance. They resisted it, because, believing the guilt 
 of Strafford to have been proved, they continued to have 
 faith in the Impeachment ; and afterwards they adopted 
 it, because, the House having finally determined against 
 the Impeachment, the same conviction as to Strafford's 
 guilt left them only that alternative. Until the very last, 
 however, the}' clung to the Impeachment, and to the obliga- 
 tions it had imposed. St. John, Glyn, and Mayna,rd, as 
 soon as the bill was introduced, would have made it the 
 pretext for resisting what had previously been resolved 
 as to hearing counsel for Strafford before the Lords upon 
 the matter of law ; and this point was strenuously debated 
 for two days. Both Falkland and Culpeper, as well as 
 St. John, Maynard, and Glyn, insisted strongly that it 
 , would compromise both the dignity and the power of the 
 Commons, if, at a time when they proposed to make 
 I themselves judges in the case, they consented to hear or 
 reply to counsel anywhere but at their own bar ; and Cul- 
 peper went so far as to assert his belief, that by attending 
 so to hear and reply before the Lords they would imperil 
 their right to assume subsequent legislative action in the
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 261 
 
 matter. But Pym and Hampden were not to be moved 
 from the ground on which tliey stood resolutely as to this 
 part of the case. Why should not the lawyers of the House, 
 suggested Hampden in rejily to Culpeper, speak to the 
 points of law before the bar of the Lords, and then come 
 back to their seats among the members of their ovm house, 
 and afterwards speak again at the Lords' bar if necessary ? 
 To which IMajiiard somewhat hotly replied, that he should 
 hold such a running up and down from one place to 
 another to be nothing less than a dishonour to the House. 
 The word called up Pym, who appears to have made one ; 
 of his most effective appeals. He submitted to the House . 
 that the question before it, of hearing and repljdng to - 
 Strafford's counsel before the Lords, did not bind them i 
 either to continue, or to abandon, the proceeding by bill. ; ' 
 That might hereafter be settled, according to the wisdom 
 and pleasure of the House ; but what they had now to con- 
 sider was the question, really involving honour, whether 
 the pledge was to be kept or to be broken, which, at the 
 time when their counsel first rose before the Lords to 
 speak against Strafford, they then undoubtedly gave that 
 Strafford's counsel should be heard in his behalf before 
 the same tribunal. " If," continued Pym, according to 
 the report in D'Ewes's*~manuscript of this remarkable 
 speech, "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 should much dishonour ourselves, 
 " and hazard our own safeguards." 
 
 To this appeal the House yielded, and the same spirit 
 which suggested it prevailed in the subsequent proceedings. 
 It was upon Pym's motion, when the Impeachment was 
 finally abandoned, that all its most material articles were 
 imported into the Bill ; that the fiicts, under each article, 
 were voted separately ; and that, before the third reading ; 
 passed to a question, the House first heard the " Gentle- 
 " men of the long robe " argue at great length the several ) 
 points of law, and then proceeded judicially to vote upon i] 
 them. It would tax a greater ingenuity, we think, than t 
 
 .4
 
 262 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 that of Mr. Bankes, to discover anything in all this of 
 Barrere or Foiiquier Tinville. 
 
 Nevertheless that is the school of comparison to which 
 recourse is ever found easy and pleasant by the president 
 of the Corfe Castle society for mutual improvement. 
 After Strafford's impeachment he takes up the impeach- 
 ment of the Bishops; of whom he says, describing what 
 he would " improve " his fellow members into believing 
 to have been a harmless act of self-defence on tlieii' part, 
 but which was in reality the most ill-judged of all the acts 
 of those ill-advised men, that " not daring to continue 
 " their attendance in Parliament, twelve of them, in- 
 " eluding the Archbishop of York, addi-essed a protesta- 
 " tion to the House of Peers, which was presented by 
 " Lord Keeper Littleton. This being communicated to 
 "the House of Commons, those who signed this protest 
 "were immediately charged "\^ith high treason." " The 
 " English," continues Mr. Bankes, in his next fol- 
 lowing paragraph, "are thought to be less sanguinary 
 " in their days of political frenzy than the French ; but 
 f " undoubtedly the history of London in 1041, bears very 
 . " many points of similarity with the history of Paris from 
 "the year 1791 to 1793." 
 
 We do not know that a reference so inapt requires to be 
 remarked upon, but it is not perhaps desirable that the 
 constituents of any county member, in Dorsetshire or 
 elsewhere, should be left under the impression that 
 Robespierre's reign of terror, or any other of those 
 bugbears of history which set the hairs of listeners on 
 end, had a parallel in these days of their ancestors among 
 either the yeomen or the gentlemen of England. If Mr. 
 Bankes be still enamoured of such comparison, therefore, 
 it would be well that he should point out in detail the pro- 
 scriptions and massacres which in his judgment justify it. 
 At present, it is the belief of every writer who has shown 
 himself most familiar with this period of English history, 
 that with_ anything approaching to its temper ..under 
 wrong, or its moderation in victory, no similar movement
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL, 263 
 
 in t he wo ijj^wag^.Y.er,caiTied to its close. For the very ] 
 prain reason, that far more of the real wealth oftlie kingdom i 
 was committed on behairof the Parliament than at any ! 
 time remained with the King, sansciilottism neTer got the | 
 upper hand amongst us. Stern as were the few forfeits 
 exacted on tlic scaffold, no hloocl "was~firthTessly or cause - 
 lessly"' spilt tluTG. No monstrous innovations disgraced 
 the~progress of the struggle, and no infamous proscrip- 
 tions marked its termination. The palaces of England 
 stood throughout as unrifled as its cottages ; and, except ? 
 where fortified resistance had been offered, the mansions | 
 and manor-houses remained as of old, through the length I 
 and breadth of the land. While the conflict continued, * 
 no servile passions inflamed or disgraced it ; and when i 
 all was over, the vanquished sat down Avith the victors in f 
 their common country, and no man's property was un- i 
 justly taken from him. To disprove all this will require | 
 sometliing more than the unsupported assertion of Mr. I 
 Bankes. 
 
 He says that the history of London, during the year 
 when the Commons impeached and beheaded the most 
 capable minister of the King, and the King made a 
 similar but less successful attempt against the most 
 capable members of the Commons, bears ver}^ many 
 points of similarity with the history of Paris, while the 
 guillotine reeked with the execution of the harmless 
 inoffensive King and of the poor fallen Queen, while 
 women and men were taken daily by waggon loads to 
 death, and while the swollen gutters of the wicked city 
 foamed over into the Seine with the best blood of France. 
 We will not insult the sense of the reader by pursuing 
 such a comparison. Yet were there certain points of 
 resemblance, if Mr. Bankes could have had the perception 
 to seize them, that might have served to throw into 
 instructive contrast the still more extraordinary points of 
 difference. Not more surely did those advisers of poor 
 Louis XVI who precipitated his doom, resemble the men 
 whose councils had driven Charles I to the scaffold, than
 
 2G4 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 \ 
 
 the frenzied wretches who bore aloft the mangled body of 
 the Princesse de Lamballe, w^ere unlike the calm self- 
 resolute men who fought at Marston INIoor. As for the 
 act by the bishops which Mr. Bankes so innocently calls 
 a protestation, as though it had simply protested against 
 unmerited ill-treatment, it was in truth the result of an 
 elaborate and very dangerous intrigue by Archbishop 
 Williams, set on foot after Strafford's execution, in the \ 
 interest of the King. Such was the impression made by ' 
 it, that it dwelt in Cromwell's memory long years after- 
 ward, and he named it in his last speech to the last 
 Parliament of his Protectorate,' as the most daring and 
 suicidal act of those most arrogant of men. The Declara- 1 
 tion which Williams drew u^), and induced eleven other 
 bishops to join him in signing, was to the effect that as 
 the bishops could no longer attend their duty in Parlia- j 
 inent, they therefore protested against the validity of any 
 votes or resolutions during their absence ; and if this had 
 not been rejected, and proceedings at once taken against 
 its authors, the first step to the King's now cherished 
 purpose of revoking all that had been done in the past 
 memorable year, on the ground that Parliament had not 
 been free, would then and there have been accomplished. 
 And let not Mr. Bankes imagine that this instant decision 
 was in any manner swayed by the " organised riots " of a 
 London mob. Authorities less "rare" than Hj-de's 
 history, or that book by Rapin which is not quite so 
 liberal as Mr. Bankes describes it to be, would have told 
 
 ' "Men tliat are of an episcopal "in their absence ; and so witliout 
 
 "spirit," said tte Protector, describ- "injury to others cut themselves 
 
 ing what he would most have his Par- " off ! Men of an episcopal spirit : 
 
 liament to take warning from, "with "indeed men that know not God; 
 
 "all tlie branches, the root and the " that know not how to account upon 
 
 "branches; who gave themselves a "the works of God, how to measure 
 
 "fatal blow in this place" [he is "them out; but will trouble nations 
 
 speaking in the House of Lords], " for an interest which is but mt'icecZ, 
 
 "when they would needs make a "at the best, — made up of iron and 
 
 "Protestation that no Laws were "clay, like the feet of Nebuchad- 
 
 "good which were made by this " nezzar's image." 
 " House and the House of Commons
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 265 
 
 him that the first " mob " who interfered in the matter 
 was the House of Lords ; and that the bishops had been 
 voted guilty of breach of privilege in the uj^per house 
 without a dissentient voice, before they were, with no less 
 unanimity, impeached of high treason in the other. 
 Clarendon himself, indeed, expressly admits that the indis- 
 cretion of these bishops, at such a crisis, gave so great 
 scandal and ofi'ence to all those even who passionately 
 desired to preserve their functions, that they had no com- 
 passion or regard of their persons, or what became of 
 them ; insomuch as in the whole debate in the House of 
 Commons there was only one gentleman who spoke on 
 their behalf, and he said he did not believe they were 
 guilty of high treason but that they were stark mad, and 
 therefore desired they might be sent to Bedlam.' 
 
 The remark was Falkland's, and is among the many 
 anecdotes recorded by his friend, which, taken with his 
 known course upon such questions as Strafford's attainder, 
 may well suggest some doubt as to the entire correctness 
 of the estimates ordinarily formed of the political character 
 and opinions of this celebrated man. It is but the other 
 day that his example was publicly pleaded by a first mini- 
 ster of the Crown to justify the sincerity with which he 
 might be prosecuting a war in the midst of continual 
 protestations of a desire for peace. We were asked to 
 remember (and this also is the tone adopted by Mr. Bankes), 
 that the most virtuous character in our great rebellion, and 
 the man most devoted to the royalist cause, still mur- 
 mured and " ingeminated " peace, peace, even whilst arming 
 for the combat. But the allusion was unfortunate in 
 turning wholly on that alleged point in Falkland's career 
 which is most capable of clear disproof. He was by no 
 means devoted to the cause he fought for ; and he cried 
 out peace, peace, solely because he detested the war. 
 
 ' Hist. ii. 120-1. He further talks " pilot was at his prayers, and the card 
 
 of their being so swayed by the pride and compass lost, they slioull put 
 
 and insolence of one anti-prelatical themselves, without the advice of one 
 
 archbishop (so he descrilies Williams) mariner, in such a cock-biat, to be 
 
 as that in such a storm, when the best severed from the good ship ! 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 266 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 No doubt, however, he is the man of all others in our 
 civil war who is most generally supposed to have repre- 
 sented the monarchical principle in the conflict ; and upon 
 this ground his statue was among those voted earliest for 
 the historical adornment of the new Palace at Westminster. 
 But the real truth we suspect to be, that Falkland was far 
 more of an apostate than Stratford, for his heart was 
 really with the Parliament from the first, which Strafford's 
 never was ; and never, to the very end, did he sincerely 
 embrace the cause with which his gallant and mournful 
 death at the age of thirty-four ' has eternally connected 
 him. We have no wish to say anything to unsettle the 
 admiring thoughts which must always cluster round the 
 memory of one whom Lord Clarendon has celebrated not 
 simply as a statesman and soldier, but as a patriot, poet,^ 
 
 ' "Thus fell tliat incomparable 
 "young man, in the four-and-thirtieth 
 "year of his age, having so much dis- 
 " patched the business of life, that the 
 " oldest rarely attain to that immense 
 "knowledge, and the youngest enter 
 "not into the world with more iuno- 
 " cence. Whosoever leads such a life, 
 "need not care upon how short a 
 " warning it be taken from him." — 
 Hist. iv. 257. For "need not care" 
 the first editors had substituted 
 "needs be the less anxious." 
 
 - To the gratitude of the poets 
 themselves, — to the eternal remem- 
 brance with which such men as 
 Ben Jonson, Suckling, Waller, and 
 Cowley, can pay richly back in their 
 loving verse all kinds and degrees of 
 loving service.^he rather owes this 
 title than to any achievements of 
 his own. But there are yet a suf- 
 ficient number of good lines in his 
 occasional poetical pieces to justify 
 Suckling's having placed him in his 
 'Session of the Poets.' There are 
 many manly verses in his Eclogue on 
 Jonson's death. 
 
 "Alas ! that bard, that glorious bard 
 
 is dead, 
 Who, when I whilome cities visited, 
 
 Hath made them seem but hours 
 which were full days. 
 
 Whilst he vouchsaft me his har- 
 monious lays ; 
 
 And when I lived, I thought the 
 country then 
 
 A torture ; and no mansion, but a 
 den." 
 
 Falkland puts this into the mouth 
 of Hylas, and it may remind us of 
 what Clarendon says of his own pas- 
 sionate fondness for London, Melyboeus 
 rejoins : 
 
 "Jonson you mean, unless I much 
 
 do err 
 I know the person by the character." 
 
 The same speaker continues : 
 
 "His learning such, no author, old 
 or new. 
 
 Escaped his reading that deserv'd his 
 view. 
 
 And such his judgment, so exact his 
 test 
 
 Of what was best in books, as what 
 books best. 
 
 That, had he joined those notes his 
 labours took 
 
 From each most praised and praise- 
 deserving book,
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 267 
 
 and jDhilosoplier, in sentences that will be immortal. But 
 it is impossible to become familiar with the details of that 
 period of our history, and with Falkland's share in what 
 preceded the outbreak into open hostilities, and to doubt 
 in what spirit alone he could have taken part in them. 
 Over and over again does Clarendon himself find it 
 necessary to remark of him, that he never had any vene- 
 ration for the Court, but only such a loyalty to the King as 
 the law required from him ; and as often is he constrained 
 to admit, on the other hand, that he had naturally a 
 wonderful reverence for Parliaments, as believing them 
 most solicitous for justice, the violation whereof, in the 
 least degree, he could not forgive any mortal power} 
 
 But the friend who has done so much to preserve and 
 endear his fame since his death, had unhappily influence 
 
 And could the world of that choice 
 
 treasure boast, 
 It need not care though all the rest 
 
 were lost." 
 
 Of his great art he then speaks, so 
 that what he pleased to write — 
 
 ' ' Gave the wise wonder and the crowd 
 
 delight. 
 Each sort as well as sex admirM 
 
 his wit, 
 The hes and shes, the boxes and the 
 
 pit ; 
 And who less liked, within did rather 
 
 chuse 
 To tax their judgments than suspect 
 
 his muse. 
 Nor no spectator his chaste stage could 
 
 call 
 The cause of any crime of his, but all 
 With thoughts and wills purg'd and 
 
 amended rise 
 From the ethick lectures of his 
 
 Comedies : 
 Where the spectators act, and the 
 
 sham'd Age 
 Blushes to meet her follies on the 
 
 stage ; 
 Where each man finds some light he 
 
 never sought. 
 And leaves behind some vanity he 
 
 brought. 
 
 Whose Politicks no less the mind 
 
 direct 
 Than those the Manners, nor with 
 
 less effect, 
 When his majestic Tragedies relate 
 All the disorders of a tottering 
 
 state." . . . 
 
 It was to be remembered also, 
 Melyboeus adds, that of all this 
 old Ben was himself " sole workman 
 " and sole architect," as to which he 
 concludes : 
 
 "And surely what my friend did 
 
 daily tell, 
 If he but acted his own part as well 
 As he writ those of others, he may 
 
 boast 
 The happy fields hold not a happier 
 
 ghost !" 
 
 These are not only good lines, but 
 vei-y valuable notices of rare old 
 Jonson. 
 
 ' This passage is of coui-se meant 
 to convey, as Bishop Warburtoii has 
 remarked, that Falkland thought 
 resistance lawful, which Ilyde himsolf 
 did not. And the same feeling is 
 expressed in other passages, as ii. 
 94; iv. 244, &c.
 
 268 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 ■ enougli, while lie lived, to lead him into a position 
 which made the exact reverse of those opinions an official 
 necessity ; and Falkland was eminently a man who, 
 
 i finding himself so placed, however unexpectedly, was 
 ^ ready at once to sacrifice everything to the punctilio of 
 
 (honour. In his opinions, if not in his personal ante- 
 cedents, he was like the old cavalier Sir Edmund Verney, 
 whose douhts were expressed to Hyde, the tempter of all 
 these men. " I have eaten the king's bread, and served 
 " him near thirty years, and I will not do so base a thing 
 "as to forsake him. I choose rather to lose my life (wliich 
 "I am sure I shall do) to preserve and defend those 
 " things which are against my conscience to preserve and 
 " defend ; for, I will deal freely with you, I have no 
 " reverence for the bishops for whom this quarrel sub- 
 " sists." There was only this important difi'erence in 
 Falkland, that the bread which he had eaten, and the 
 service to which he was vowed, before he made his final 
 election, was that of the Parliament and not of the King. 
 And it is not difficult to discern that his strongest feeling 
 remained in this direction throughout : even when he 
 seemed, as in the party struggle of the Remonstrance, 
 most deeply to have committed himself against its leaders. 
 His convictions never ceased to be with the opinions 
 which the Parliament represented, though his personal 
 habits, his elegant pursuits, his fastidious tastes, his 
 thorough-going sense of friendship, and even his shyness 
 of manner and impatient impulsiveness of temper, made 
 him an easy prey to the persuasive arts that seduced 
 him to the service of the King. Nor will it be unjust to 
 add that it is the admiration thus attracted to his personal 
 character and habits, rather than any sense of his public 
 services, which constitutes the interest of his name. It is 
 not therefore in parliament, nor on the field of battle, that 
 they should seek for Falkland who would cherish him 
 most, but rather in that private home to wliich his love 
 and patronage of letters lent infinite graces and enjoy- 
 ments, and where the man of wit and learning found himself
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 269 
 
 invariably welcomed as to " a college situated in a 
 " purer air." 
 
 Mr. Macaulay has remarked that he was too fastidious 
 for public life, and never embarked in a'cause that he did 
 not "speedily' discover some reason for growing indifferent 
 or hostile to. There is something in this ; but we should 
 prefer to'say that his spirit in all tilings was too much on 
 the surface — too quick, nnpetuous, and impatient; and 
 hence~both~'Eis' strength in friendly impulses, and his 
 weakness in statesmanlike action. He carried about with 
 hiin a painful and uneasy sense of ]3ersonal disadvantages 
 which he was always eager to overcome, and his very im- 
 petuosity was often but another form of sh3aiess and diffi- 
 dence. But to whatever cause attributable, it is certain that 
 what he would do in public life, he was apt to overdo ; and 
 there cannot be a greater mistake than that Avhich so 
 often Teprewnts him, and which voted him the first statue 
 among English worthies in the palace at Westminster, as 
 the incarnate spirit of the moderation of our struggle in 
 the seventeenth century. His temperament had as little 
 as possible of calmness or moderation in it. He fought a 
 duel before he was nineteen ; and while yet in his minority, 
 had defied his father's authority and made a runaway 
 match. What his friend Hyde calls a " notable vivacity " 
 was always expressing itself in him, by words or deeds ; 
 whether the matter was great enough to impel him sud- 
 denly into the allegiance for which he died, or only small 
 enough to bring down " his clasped hands tightly on the 
 " crown of his hat " where another man would have 
 thought it enough quietly to sit covered. Mentioning a 
 vote of the Commons for some certain special service, by 
 which the Speaker was instructed in the name of the 
 whole house to give thanks to him who had rendered it, 
 and every member was also desired as a testimony of liis 
 particular acknowledgment " to stir or move his hat," 
 Hyde tells us that, believing the service itself not to be of 
 that moment, and that an honourable and generous person 
 would not have stooped to it for any recompense, " instead
 
 270 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 " of moving his hat, he stretched both his arms out and 
 " clasped his hands together upon the crown of his hat, and 
 " held it close doivn to his head, that all men might see how 
 " odious that flattery was to him, and the very approbation 
 " of the person though at that time most popular." The 
 action might for once have excused ]\Ir. Bankes in his per- 
 petual desire to compare his countrymen in these wars to 
 very different actors in a very different revolution. " Firm 
 " as the hat of Servandony ! " shouted Danton, with happy 
 allusion to one of the towers of St. Sulpice so named, as 
 he crushed down and held his hat immovably over his 
 great broad face, when threatened with chastisement if he 
 would not uncover while he sat in the pit of the Fran^ais 
 on the eve of the Convocation of the States-General. And 
 certainly, however unlike the men, a sudden, indignant, 
 too impatient spirit, was common to both. It largely con- 
 tributed, indeed, as well to what was right as to what was 
 wrong in Falkland, and might equally have justified his 
 selection as the representative, not of the moderation of 
 the struggle, but of either of its extremes. The artist 
 who received the commission for his statue might have 
 sculptured him as on the 8th of February (1640-1), the 
 vehement assailant of the Bishops, or as on the 25th of 
 October in the same year the vehement supporter of the 
 Church. He might have been taken in 1640 as eager for 
 Strafford's life, as in 1643 he had become reckless of his 
 own in the same ill-fated service as Strafford's. 
 
 Very certain it is, at any rate, that he is the last person 
 to take for a model of devotion to the cause he was last 
 engaged in. Hyde expressly tells us that " from the 
 " entrance into this unnatural war his natural cheerfulness 
 " and vivacity grew clouded ; " that only " when there was 
 " any overture or hope of peace, he would be more erect 
 " and vigorous ; " and that, in short, such was his friend's 
 dislike of the war that he invited and sought death just to 
 get himself fairly out of it. Before the war was actually 
 entered on, indeed, we have proof that this dejection and 
 sadness of spiiit had stolen upon him. When, for instance,
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 271 
 
 on the 5th of September 1642, he delivered to the House of 
 Commons, as minister to the King, the last message sent 
 by Charles to the representatives of his people, he is 
 described in the mamiscript Journal of D'Ewes, who 
 witnessed the scene, to have stood bareheaded at the bar, 
 even as Culpeper had stood but ten days before, looking 
 so dejectedly as if he had been a delinquent rather than a 
 member of the parliament, a privy councillor, and mes- 
 senger from the King. Was he thinking, then, of that 
 old reverence he bore to Parhaments, insomuch that he 
 thought it really impossible they could ever produce 
 miscliief or inconvenience to the kingdom, or that the 
 kingdom could be tolerably happy in the intermission of | 
 them ? ' As he surveyed the old familiar benches, was he ■ 
 sorrowful with the sad misgiving that he had elsewhere 
 transferred his allegiance, and that it was no longer 
 permitted him to hold the exalted opinion he once held of 
 the uprightness and integrity of the leading men who sat i 
 there, especially of Mr. Hampden ? ^ ^ 
 
 But whatever such doubts or self-questionings may have 
 been, they need not now overshadow or cloud a memory 
 that EngHshmen of all opinions may well be proud 
 to cherish. If we desire to reclaim Falkland to the 
 Parliament it is that we would gladly, for ourselves, 
 associate with that side in the struggle those prodigious '- 
 parts of learning and knowledge, that inimitable sweetness \, 
 and delight in conversation, that flowing and obliging hu- / 
 manity and goodness to mankind, that primitive simplicity , 
 and integrity of life. But it is doubtless the wiser course ' 
 to separate from all mere party associations such qualities 
 as these, and rather to think of them as vouchsafed to sus- 
 tain and sweeten our common nature under all its condi- 
 tions of contest and trial. He asked no man's opinion, says 
 Clarendon, whom he desired to serve : it was enough that 
 he found a man of wit, family, or good parts, clouded with 
 poverty or want ; and such was his generosity and bounty 
 for all worthy persons of that kind needing supphes and 
 
 1 Clarendon, Illst. iv, 214. ■ Ibid. iv. 245.
 
 272 
 
 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 encouragement (whose fortunes requii-ed, and whose spirits 
 made them superior to, ordinary obligations),' that he seemed 
 to have his estate in trust for such alone. To that gene- 
 rous home which he kept open to his friends near Oxford, 
 no man had to pay toll or tax of opinion at entering.^ 
 There, without question asked, men of all opinions in 
 Church and State assembled ; finding in theii' host such an 
 immenseness of wit and such a solidity of judgment, so 
 infinite a fancy bound in by a most logical ratiocination, 
 such a vast knowledge that he was not ignorant in any- 
 thing, with such an excessive humihty as if he had known 
 nothing, that the place was to them as " a college situated 
 "in a purer air."^ 
 
 Were it possible that a time might come when all 
 recollection should have passed away of the momen- 
 
 ' "As," Clarendon takes occasion 
 to say {Life, i. 46), "Ben Jonson, 
 "and many others of that time." 
 " Which yet," he adds, " they were 
 ' ' contented to receive from him, 
 ' ' because his bounties were so gene- 
 ' ' rously distributed, and so much 
 " without vanity and ostentation, 
 ' ' that, except from those few persons 
 ' ' from whom he sometimes received 
 "the character of fit object for his 
 " benefits, or whom he intrusted, for 
 " tlie more secret deriving them to 
 "them, he did all he could that the 
 "persons themselves who received 
 ' ' them should not know from what 
 "fountain they flowed; and when 
 * ' that could not be concealed, he 
 ' ' sustained any acknowledgment from 
 "the persons obliged with so much 
 "trouble and bashfulness, that they 
 "might well perceive, that he was 
 "even ashamed of the little he had 
 "given, and to receive so large a 
 " recompense for it." — Life, i. 47. 
 
 - " Who all found their lodgings 
 "there," says Clarendon, "as ready 
 "as in the colleges ; nor did the lord 
 " of the house know of their coming 
 "or going, nor who were in his 
 "house, till he came to dinner, or 
 " supper, where all stUl met : other- 
 " wise there was no troublesome cere- 
 
 ' ' mony or constraint, to forbid men 
 "to come to the house, or to make 
 ' ' them weary of staying there ; so 
 " that many came thither to study in 
 "abetter air, finding all the books 
 "they could desire in his library, 
 "and all the persons together whose 
 "company they could wish, and not 
 "find in any other society." — Life,i. 
 48. In his history Clarendon adds that 
 upon one subject only was Falkland in- 
 tolerant in respect of those whom he 
 received, and he attributes it to the fact 
 that the Papists had corrupted his two 
 younger brothers (his mother was a Ca- 
 tholic) "being both children, and stolen 
 "them from his house, and trans- 
 ' ' ported them beyond seas ; " and that 
 they had also "perverted his sisters :" 
 upon which occasion Clarendon men- 
 tions, ' ' he writ two large discourses 
 "against the principal positions of 
 "that religion, with that sharpness 
 " and style, and full weight of reason, 
 " that the Chui-ch is deprived of great 
 "jewels in the concealment of them, 
 " and that they are not published to 
 "the world." — Hist. iv. 244. Some 
 curious letters having reference to 
 these incidents in Falkland's family 
 will be found in the Clarendon State 
 Papers, ii. 535—538. 
 
 ^ Clarendon, Hist. iv. 243,
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 273 
 
 tons quarrel in which Falkland threw down his life, 
 those things might yet continue his name and memory 
 with profit and advantage to all men. And even above 
 them we would place the three particular characteristics 
 which the affection of his friend cannot help recording, while 
 he quahfies them as matters with which he was reproached 
 during life as unsuited to " the necessity and iniquity of 
 "the time." Holding, on the other hand, that were it 
 only possible to find men pure enough to practise them, 
 they would abate the necessity and iniquity of every time, 
 we shall here place them on record as the highest human 
 eulogy to be pronounced on Falkland. The first was, that 
 so severely did he adore truth that he could as easily have 
 giveft himself leave to steal as to dissemble. In other 
 words, to suffer any man to think that he would do any- 
 thing which he was resolved not to do, he thought a far 
 more mischievous kind of lying than any positive averring 
 of what could easily be contradicted. The second was, 
 that he w ould nev er give the remotest countenance or enter- 
 tainment to the employing of spies. Such instruments, he 
 held, must be so void of all ingenuousness and common 
 honesty before they could be of use, that afterwards they 
 could never be fit to be credited ; and he could account 
 no single preservation to be worth so general a wound and 
 corruption of human society as the cherishing such persons 
 would carry with it. The third was, that he denounced 
 ever with vehement indignation the liberty "of opening 
 private letters, upon suspicion that they might contain 
 matter of dangerous consequence ; thinking it such a vio- 
 lation of the law of nature that no quahfication by office 
 could justify a single person in the trespass. 
 
 Such and so great that particular trespass, indeed, that it 
 may in some cases be a moot question whether any lapse of 
 time absolves the responsibility. But certainly, of the many 
 letters, once private and sacred, which Mr. Bankes has here 
 intercepted on their way to oblivion, we may faii'ly assume 
 that their publication after all these years would not have 
 fallen within Falldand's reproach, or have been held to 
 
 N 3
 
 274 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 impinge upon other rights than those which time itself 
 claims only to destroy. Mr. Bankes is entitled, we think, 
 to the praise he claims for publishing these letters in 
 his volume. But he might also have made the book at 
 once a more pleasing tribute to the memory of his ancestor, 
 and a better contribution to the knowledge of his contem- 
 poraries, if he had simply initiated himself, before he 
 I undertook it, into those earliest lessons of historical 
 research which consist in being able to decipher ancient 
 handwriting. Such communications as he gives us, and they 
 are really valuable, are printed with sad mutilations ; and 
 I half the letters discovered he has not been able to print in 
 f any form. Yet the time to which they refer was the most 
 I critical of all ; and at its turning point of ruin or safety 
 for Charles I, their writer was by his vojal master's side, 
 advising and warning liim. Does Mr. Bankes understand 
 the importance of even the solitary letter of his ancestor 
 which he has been able to decipher ? Does he perceive 
 that the great calamity of the kingdom is very plainly 
 referred in it, not to organised mobs or reigns of terror, 
 but to the fatal indecision of the King. " I have adventured 
 " far," writes the well-meaning Chief Justice, " to speak 
 " my mind freely, according to my conscience, and what 
 " hazards I have runue of the King's indignation in a high 
 " measure you will heare by others ; all men give not the 
 " same advice."' Some remarkable men, high in the 
 councils of the popular party, were now making a final 
 effort to keep the sword still sheathed ; and Sir John 
 Bankes stood between them and the King, with what peril 
 he has just hinted to us. Whv, a mere study of the 
 letters addressed to himself, here published by his 
 descendant, even without the answers that lay beneath his 
 hand (and which a little more pains and knowledge might 
 have enabled him to publish), should have saved the little 
 book that contains them from the dangerous errors it also 
 unhappily contains. 
 
 Against these we have done our best to protect any 
 classes of readers to whom a privy-councillor and count}-
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 275 
 
 member might have spoken with pretences of authority. 
 Mr. Bankes asserts that our civil wars began in organised 
 riots, in democratic excesses, and in scenes such as in- 
 augurated Robespierre's reign of terror. We say that they 
 began in high and honourable good faith, and in a com- 
 plete al5sencT^' pefsbTiatanifflOsitiesr ''He 1^^^^ before us 
 his volume, by way ofprbving his case ; and we find that 
 all the evidence adduced in its pages is clear against him. 
 What, in letters now first published, says Lord Northum- 
 berland to Mr. Bankes's ancestor ? what says Lord 
 Wharton ? what says Mr. Denzil Holies ? what sa^'s 
 Lord Say and Scale, a leader of the Puritans ? what says 
 even the leader of the parliamentary armies. Lord Essex ? 
 None of these men viewed with other than a sad reluctance 
 the strife which was about to begin ; none of them were 
 eager to exaggerate or precipitate the quarrel. In two as 
 impressive sentences as were ever written upon it, Lord 
 Northumberland tells Sir John Bankes, that Parliament' 3 
 is arrayed against the King because of the peril of " losing ., 
 " that libertj' which freeborn subjects ought to" enjoy, and I 
 " the laws of the land do allow ; and because those f 
 " persons who are most powerful with the King, do I 
 " endeavour to bring parliaments to such a condition that | 
 " they shall only be made instruments to execute the 
 " commands of the King." In a letter of singularly 
 earnest expression, Lord Wharton warns Sir John Bankes 
 that lie is intimate witli many popular leaders, " and I do » 
 " seriously profess, I dare not in my private thoughts j 
 " suspect or charge any of them for having disloyal hearts ] 
 " to his.Majesty, or turbulent hearts to this State." In \ 
 a letter written from that very place in the House of 
 Commons which he occupied in close vicinity with Pym 
 and Hampden, Denzil Holies tells the Chief Justice that | 
 the House of Commons only waits " the first appearance | 
 " of change in his Majesty that he will forsake those i 
 " councils which would divide him from his Parliament | 
 " and people, and make them destroy one another," to I 
 return in duty and affection to his person. In reply to a
 
 276 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 letter from the Chief Justice, soliciting his opinion, Lord 
 Say and Seale more sternly warns him that " your 
 " davaliers (as they are called) do much mistake in per- 
 " suading themselves or others, that there is any fear 
 " among those who desire the King's wealth and great- 
 " ness as it may stand with their own rights and liberty, 
 " and the end of his government." Finally, in rough 
 and unlettered but manly phrase, Lord Essex thus com- 
 municates to Sir John Bankes the grief with which he 
 is about to unsheathe his sword : " The great misfortunes 
 " that threaten this kingdom, none looks upon with a 
 " sadder heart than I, for in my particular, my conscience 
 " assures me I have no ends of my own, but what may 
 " tend to the public good of the King and the kingdom." 
 
 As for the alleged later and more fatal forms of grief 
 which Mr. Bankes would have us believe were undergone 
 by promoters and leaders of the strife, they may concern 
 us extremely little. The story of one of the leaders of the 
 Long Parliament dying of remorse as soon as the first blood 
 of the war was drawn, and complaining on his death-bed 
 that Mr. Pym and Mr. Hampden always told him they 
 thought the King so ill-beloved by his subjects that he 
 would never be able to raise an army to oppose them, 
 is a mere rascally invention of Chronicler Heath. Sir 
 Benjamin Eudyard had undoubtedly in his time played 
 no undistinguished part among the patriots, and he had 
 talents and graces of mind, that, as they justly entitled 
 him to such praise as Jonson's,' would have given any 
 cause new lustre. He was a most masterly orator, and 
 no contemptible poet ; and though he was never a leader 
 
 ' " RuDTARi>, as lesser dames to great Nor he for friendship can be thought 
 
 ones use, unfit, 
 
 My lighter, comes to kiss thy learned, That strives his manners should pre- 
 
 muse ; cede his wit." 
 
 Whose better studies -while she emu- 
 lates, And again : 
 
 She learns to know long diflference of 
 
 their states. " If I would wish for truth, and not 
 
 Yet is the office not to be despis'd, for show, 
 
 If only love should make the action The aged Saturn's age and rites to 
 
 prized ; know ;
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 277 
 
 among these great men, they might well boast of the 
 accession they received when so courtly and accomplished 
 a gentleman left his fashionable haunts upon town and , 
 took his place among them. But in truth Rudj'ard was 
 too good a speaker for the service which alone in other 
 respects he could render them when their struggle took ; 
 its gravest aspect. Shakespeare knew a kind of men [ 
 even incapable of their own distress, and Sir Benjamin 
 was not altogether capable of his own excellent oratory. 
 His nature was too delicate, fearful, and irresolute, for all \ 
 the c'onsequences it imposed. " He should be very glad," 
 he said on one occasion, " to see that good old decrepit 
 " law Magna Charta, which hath been kept so long bed- 
 " rid as it were, walk abroad again with new vigour and 
 " lustre ; " but nobody, not Charles himself, was so much 
 alarmed as Sir Benjamin, when that good old law did 
 in reality get upon its legs again. Yet in this he was no 
 traitor ; no renegade. It was the effect of timidity and of 
 time. The blows of old age are apt to fall suddenly upon 
 those who have led an active life ; and when Charles 
 raised his standard at Nottingham, Sir Benjamin Eudyard 
 had counted his seventy-second year. Thus he found 
 himself in all probability sinking bedwards, at the very 
 time when the gigantic statute before named was rising 
 out of its long sleep. Though he continued still to act 
 with the parliament, therefore, it is certain that during 
 the progress of the war he cried out incessantly, as 
 
 If I would strive to bring back times, And still again — this grand and 
 
 and try brave old Jonson could never say 
 
 The world's pure gold, and wise too much for the men he loved and 
 
 simplicity ; honoured : 
 If I would virtue set as she was young, 
 
 And hear her speak with one, aud her "Writing thyself, or judging others 
 
 first tongue ; writ, 
 
 If holiest friendship, naked to the I know not which thou'st most, 
 
 touch, candor, or wit ; 
 
 I would restore, and keep it ever But both thou hast so, as who affects 
 
 such ; the state 
 
 I need no other arts, but study Of the best writer and judge, should 
 
 thee : emulate." 
 
 Who prov'st all these were, and again Ben Jonson's Epigrams. 
 
 may be."
 
 273 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 perhaps it became old age when sensible of the grave's 
 approach, against the war, and for peace, for peace : and 
 he is even supposed to have gone so far as to entitle 
 himself to the (in that day) equivocal praise, recorded on 
 the title-page of one of his published speeches, of having 
 " nobly defended the Bishops." 
 
 But, convert to the desire for compromise as Sir Ben- 
 jamin so became in age, we cannot too often repeat that 
 I he did not desert, nor malign, the men with whom he had 
 I acted in riper years. The good old knight, to say nothing of 
 his honesty, was too much of a gentleman for that. Nor 
 is there the least reason to infer, much as he disliked the 
 conflict, that he was killed by it. He remained in his place 
 in the House of Commons as long as he could ; still acting 
 with Pym and with his successors (as for example in his 
 speech against the Court of Wards as late as '45), though 
 feebly ; still incessantly desiring a compromise ; and, though 
 he never regained any eminence in public affairs, he did 
 not die till he was eighty-seven. We think it very clear, 
 therefore, that the writers or politicians who want any 
 precedent for the desertion and abuse of a great cause, 
 or a set of great principles, must not go to the life of 
 the very estimable Sir Benjamin Rudyard. They must 
 be satisfied with the study of the life of Hyde, which 
 will show them, perhaps better tliMi" any other piecf^in 
 f history,' how it is possible to act in intimate union with 
 I the principles and policy of a particular party at the com- 
 ; mencement of a life, and to employ its close in steadily 
 ., blackening the characters and opinioii§^.Qf.^t]]yg^.fftej^^.^h 
 a whom one has so acted in earlier days. 
 
 Recommending tlie study, then, to all who would really 
 so inform themselves respecting this great period as to 
 be saved from the continual danger of doing injustice to 
 its worthiest men, let us leave Mr. Bankes's volume with 
 a final expression of our surprise that such errors as we 
 have here been at the trouble to describe should be com- 
 mitted at this time of day by an educated EngHsh 
 gentleman, in speaking of that earlier portion of the story
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 279 
 
 of our civil wars on which nearly all intelligent inquirers 
 might be thought to have laid aside their difierences long 
 ago. Surely the fairest judgments, from whatever opposite 
 points of view, have generally been able of late years to 
 arrive at substantially the same conclusion, on this first t 
 stage of the conflict ; and, up to the arrest of the Ave 
 members at least, to agree that a power to discriminate 
 between good and bad faith is really all the investigation { 
 now requires. That the Long Parliament had no desire s 
 permanently to strip the Crown of any of its essential 
 prerogatives, aud did absolutely nothing, before the 
 sword was drawn, which was not justified by the King's 
 personal character, or of which the sufficient reason is 
 not discernible in a necessary absence of all faith in his 
 promises, is an opinion which a large class of even tory 
 and high- church reasoners have not been ashamed to 
 adopt from the late Mr. Coleridge. To renew anything 
 like the vehemency of the old civil war disj^utes, there- 
 fore, let us assure Mr. Bankes, it is now become needful 
 to pass to a " more removed ground." His ancestor was 
 in his grave, and his ancestor's correspondents diversely 
 and sadly scattered; my Lord Northumberland was 
 sulking at his country-house, Mr. Denzil Holies was 
 fretting that he had ever so largely helped to turn out the 
 Stuarts, and my Lord Essex had been borne in funeral 
 pomp to the Abbey of Westminster ; before that greater 
 and sterner figure had fully emerged, whose " rude tempes- 
 " tuous " qualities, perplexing in early days to Mr. Hyde, 
 were so to perplex and trouble all future historians. 
 
 Up to the time when Mr. Macaulay, some seven and ; 
 twenty years ago, remarked of the character of Cromwell | 
 in this Review,' that though constantly attacked and | 
 scarcely ever defended, it had yet always continued | 
 popular with the great body of his countr3'men, it is un- | 
 questionable that the memory of the great Protector, \ 
 assiduously blackened as it had been in almost every ( 
 generation since his death, had failed to find a writer in ^ 
 
 ^ The Edinburgh Reyiew : art. on Hallam's Constitutional Ilistory.
 
 230 HISTORICAL ESSAYS, 
 
 any party entirely prepared to act as its champion. Down 
 to the daj's of Mr. Hume, Cromwell remained for the 
 most part what that philosophical historian very unphilo- 
 sophically called him, "a fanatical hj^pocrite;" and though 
 there was afterwards a great "cliange, though to praise him 
 was no longer punishable, though to revile him became 
 almost unfashionable, and at last the champion ready on 
 every point to defend and uphold him was found in Mr. 
 Carlyle, it is yet remarkable what differences as to Ms 
 moral qualities continued to prevail, where even the 
 desire to exalt his intellectual abilities was most marked 
 and prominent. We shall perhaps best exhibit this, and 
 with it the authorities on which M. Guizot has had mamly 
 to rely, if we briefly sketch Cromwell under the leading 
 general aspects in which he has appeared to the readers 
 of English history, from the opening of the present 
 century to our own day. That Avill of course exclude the 
 old Tory and Fox-hunting style of talking of him, and 
 restrict us to such expressions only as educated men 
 need not blush to read. Under three divisions, we think, 
 all may be sufficiently included. 
 
 The first would run somewhat thus. That when the 
 struggle had passed from the parliament house into the 
 field of battle, there somewhat suddenly arose into the 
 first place amid the popular ranks, a man not more re- 
 markable for his apparent religious fanaticism than for 
 the sagacity of his practical outlook on affairs. So far 
 indeed had the latter quality in him a tendency, as events 
 moved on, to correct the former, that even what was 
 sincere in his religious views soon yielded to the teachings 
 and temptations of worldly experience, and religion itself 
 became with him but the cloak to a calculating policy. 
 His principal associates were bigots in repubhcanism ; but 
 he had himself too much intellect to remain long under a 
 delusion so preposterous, as that monarchy, aristocracy, 
 and episcopacy were not essential to England. As the 
 opponent of all three, nevertheless, he was pledged too 
 deeply to recede ; and such was the false position in which
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 281 
 
 his veiy gemus and successes placed him, that with no 
 love for hypocrisy, he became of necessity a hypocrite. 
 To cant in his talk, to grimace in his gestures, on his 
 ver}^ knees in pra3'er to know no humility, were the 
 crooked ways by which alone he could hope to reach the 
 glittering prize that tempted him. Yv'hen at last it fell 
 within his grasp, therefore, when he had struck aside the 
 last life that intercepted his path to sovereignty, and all 
 he sought was won, there came with it the inseparable 
 attendants of discontent and remorse. " What would not 
 " Cromwell have given," exclaims INIr. Southey, " whether 
 " he looked to this world or the next, if his hands had 
 " been clear of the king's blood ! " The height to which 
 he afterwards rose never lifted him above that stain. It 
 darkened the remainder of his life with sorrow. " Fain 
 " would he have restored the monarchy," pursues Mr. 
 Southey, " created a house of peers, and reestablished 
 " the episcopal church." But his guilt to royalt}^ was not 
 to be cleansed, or his crime to society redeemed, by 
 setting up mere inadequate forms of the valuable insti- 
 tutions he had overthrown. He lived only long enough 
 to convince himself of this ; and at the close would have 
 made himself the instrument for even a restoration of the 
 Stuarts, if Charles II could have forgiven the execution 
 of his father. But this was not thought possible, and 
 Cromwell died a defeated and disappointed man. 
 
 The second view of the character would arrive, by very 
 iflerent reasoning, at something like the same conclusion 
 of grief and disappointment. Within somewhat similar 
 toils of ambition, however, it exhibits a far greater and 
 purer soul. It would seem to be founded on the belief 
 that a man must have thoroughly deceived himself before 
 he succeeds on any great or extended scale in deceiving 
 others ; and here the final remorse is made to arise, not 
 from treason to royalty, but from treason to liberty. In 
 thin Cromwell, we have a man never wholly without a deep 
 and sincere religion, however often able to wrest it to 
 worldly purposes ; and, if never altogether without ambi- 

 
 282 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 tion, yet with the highest feelings and principles inter- 
 mingling with the earlier promptings of it. There is 
 presented to us a man not always loving liberty, but 
 always restless and insubordinate against tyranny ; and at 
 the last, even with his hand upon the crown, driven back 
 from it by the influence still possessed over him by old 
 republican associates. His nature, in this view of it, is 
 of that complicated kind, that, without being false to 
 itself, it has yet not been true to others ; and it is even 
 more the consciousness of what might have been his 
 success, than the sense of what has been his failure, 
 which makes the grief of his closing years. While he 
 has grasped at a shadow of personal authority, the means 
 of government have broken from him ; and, failing as a 
 sovereign, he cannot further succeed as a ruler. Difficulties 
 without have accumulated, as perplexities within increased; 
 and his once lofty thoughts and asjjirations have sunk into 
 restless provisions for personal safety. The day which 
 released his great spirit, therefore, the anniversary of his 
 victories of Worcester and Dunbar, was to be held still 
 his Fortunate Day for the sake of the death it brought, 
 not less than it was so held of old for the triumphs it 
 associated with his name.' 
 
 The third stands apart from both of these, and may be 
 taken as the expression of certain absolute results, to which 
 a study of the entire of Cromwell's letters and speeches, 
 brought into succinct arrangement and connexion, has 
 been able to bring so earnest an inquirer as Mr. Carl3de. 
 We may thus describe them. That in the harsh untime- 
 able voice wliich rose in protest against popery in the third 
 parhament, was heard at once the complete tyi)e and the 
 noblest development of w^hat was 'meaTit by'tlie'Turitan 
 Rebeffion. That_^iE,re,^theii broke forth the utterance of 
 a true man, of a consistency of character perfect to an 
 
 ^ Such was the view I attempted bahly infer from the tone of the pre- 
 
 to present of the character of this great sent Essay, I should now be disposed 
 
 man in my Statesmen of the Com- \evy greatly indeed to modify it. 
 monwealth. As the reader may pro-
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 283 
 
 he roic de.£^re e, a nd whose figu re has heretofore_been com- 
 pletely distorted by the mists of" tune and prepossession 
 through which we liave regarded it, as we looked hack into 
 the past. That fliis Cromwell was no hj^jocrite or actor of 
 playsvhad no vanity or pride in the prodigious intellect he 
 possessed, was no theorist in politics or government, was 
 no victim of ambition, was no seeker after sovereignty or 
 temj)oral power. That he was a man whose every thought 
 was with the Eternal, — a man of a great, robust, massive 
 mind, and of an honest, stout, English heart; subject 
 to melancholy for the most part, because of the deep 
 yearnings of his soul for the sense of divine forgiveness, 
 but inflexible and resolute always, because in all things 
 governed by the supreme law. That in him was seen a 
 man whom no fear but of the divine anger could distract ; 
 whom no honour in man's bestowal could seduce or betray ; 
 who knew the duty of the hour to be ever imperative, and 
 who sought only to do the work, whatever it might be, 
 whereunto he believed God to have called him. That here 
 was one of those rare souls which could lay upon itself the 
 lowliest and the highest fmictions alike, and find itself, in 
 them all, self-contained and sufiicient, — the dutiful gentle 
 son, the quiet country gentleman, the sportive tender 
 husband, the fond father, the active soldier, the daring 
 political leader, the powerful sovereign, — under each aspect 
 still steady and unmoved to the transient outward appear- 
 ances of this world, still wrestling and trampling forward 
 to the sublime hopes of another, and passing through 
 every instant of its term of Hfe as through a Marston 
 Moor, a Worcester, a Dunbar. That such a man could 
 not have consented to take part in public affairs under 
 any compulsion less strong than that of conscience. 
 That his business in them was to serve the Lord, and to | 
 bring his country under subjection to God's laws. That j 
 if the statesmen of the republic who liad laboured and 
 fought with him, could not also see their way to that 
 prompt sanctification of their country, he did well to 
 strike them from his path, and unrelentingly denounce or
 
 284 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 imprison them. That he felt, unless his purpose were so 
 carried out unflinchingly, a curse would be upon him ; that 
 no act necessitated by it could be other than just and 
 noble ; and that there could be no treason against royalty 
 or liberty, unless it were also treason against God. That, 
 finally, as he had lived he died, in the conviction that 
 human laws were nothing unless brought into agreement 
 with divine laws, and that the temporal must also mean 
 the spiritual government of man. 
 
 And now, with these three aspects of the same character 
 before us, we may perhaps better measure the view which 
 M. Guizot takes of Cromwell. Something of the first 
 will be found in it, of the second decidedly yet more ; and 
 though it has nothing of the remorse with which both 
 cloud the latter days of the Protector, it expresses the 
 same sense of failure and loss, and stops with a faltering 
 step far short of where his last and warmest panegyrist 
 would place him. Free and unhesitating, nevertheless, 
 is its admiration of his genius and greatness, and earnest 
 and unshrinking the sympathy expressed with his courage 
 and his practical aims. It would seem to be the view too 
 exclusively of a statesman and a man of the world, of one 
 who has lived too near to revolutions, and suffered from 
 them too much, always to see them in their right pro- 
 portions, to measure them patiently by their own laws, or 
 to adjust them fairly to their settled meaning and ultimate 
 design. But there is nothing in it which is petty or 
 unjust, — nothing that is unworthy of a high clear intellect. 
 
 A great man, then, but enamoured too much of the 
 substantial greatness of this world, is M. Guizot's 
 Cromwell. All that was noble in his mind, and all that 
 was little, he was able, and too ready, to subordinate to the 
 lust of material dominion. But where that passion led 
 him, there also lay what he believed to be his duty ; and 
 if, in the pursuit of it, he suffered no princii^le of right to 
 be a barrier upon his path, neither did he suffer any mists 
 of petty vanity to cloud his perfect view of whatever hard 
 or flinty road might lie before him. To govern, says
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 285 
 
 M. Guizot, that was his design. The business of his life 
 was to arrive at government, and to maintain himself in 
 it ; his enemies were those who would throw any bar or 
 hindrance in the way of this ; and, excepting those whom 
 he used as its agents, he had no friends. Such a man was 
 Cromwell, if he be judged rightly by the French historian. 
 He was a great and a successful, but an unscrupulous 
 man. With equal success he attempted and accomplished 
 the most opposite enterprises. During eighteen years a 
 leading actor in the business of the world, and always in 
 the character of victor, he by turns scattered disorder 
 and established order, excited revolution and chastised it, 
 overthrew the government and raised it again. At each 
 moment, in each situation, he unravelled with a wonderful 
 sagacity the passions and the interests that happened to 
 be dominant ; and, twisting all their threads into his own 
 web of policy, he clothed himself ever with their authority, 
 and knew still how to identify with theirs his own dominion. 
 Always bent upon one great aim, he spurned any charge 
 of inconsistency as to the means by which he pursued it. 
 His past might at any time belie his present, but for that 
 he cared little. He steered his bark according to the 
 wind that blew ; and however the prow might point at 
 one time and another, it was enough for him if he could 
 ride the stormy waters of the revolution, and make short 
 voyage without shipwreck to the harbour beyond. The 
 oneness of his aim was the consistency that covered any 
 inconsistency in the conduct of his enterprise. His work 
 was good if it attained its crown. His seamanship was 
 creditable if it took him safely across to the desired port, 
 — port royal. 
 
 Not that this expressed in him any mean or low desire 
 for a merely selfish aggrandisement. It is a main 
 point in M. Guizot's judgment of the character of Crom- 
 well, that he holds him to have been a man who felt, 
 quite as distinctly as M. Guizot himself feels, an absence 
 of practical sense in even the noblest system that is revo- 
 lutionary. He was thoroughly aware that a people like
 
 236 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the English, reverent of law, though they might crush a 
 king by whom the law had been defied, would nevertheless 
 remain true in their hearts to the princii)le of monarchy. 
 When he proposed, therefore, finally to stand before the 
 English as their sovereign, the Cromwell of M. Guizot 
 was but shaping his ambition by the spirit of the nation 
 he sought to rule. His soul was too great to be satisfied 
 with a mere personal success. To become a constitutional 
 king was only his last aim but one. His last, and the 
 dearest object of his life, was to transmit a crown and 
 sceptre, as their birthright, to succeeding members of his 
 family. He was a man, however, who could conquer but 
 not found. He conquered much more than the power of 
 King of England, but also much less than the name ; and 
 while his o-^n wish, and the genius of the nation, were 
 begetting parliaments, and not an effort was left un- 
 atteinpted by him to put off his absolutist habits, and to 
 live within the means of a ruler accountable to Lords and 
 Commons, these were the only labours of his life in which 
 he failed. To substitute for a weak house of Stuart a 
 strong house of Cromwell, at the gate of the temple of the 
 constitution, was, if M. Guizot be right in his view, the 
 most persistent aim of the Protectorate. But herein the 
 Protector failed ; and the historian to whom disorder is the 
 synonym for revolution, closes with this sentence the 
 Histoire de la Rqyuhlique d^ Angleterre et de Cromwell : 
 
 " God does not grant to the great men who have set on 
 " disordei^fhe foundations of tlieir greatness, tTie~p6wer to 
 "regulate at their pleasure and for centuries, even accord- 
 " ing to their better desires, the government oriiations." ' 
 
 That is the moral of the book ; and it may be well that 
 the reader should see, before we proceed further, how the 
 few simple and pregnant words composing it are given in 
 
 ^ " Dieu n'accorde pas aux grands "gre et pour des siecles, mfime 
 
 " hommes qui ont pose dans le des- " selon leurs meilleurs dcsirs, le 
 
 " ordre les fbndements de leur grand- " gouvernement des nations." 
 " eur, le pouvoir de r^gler, a leur
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 287 
 
 the English version. For M. Guizot has found a trans- 
 lator ' whose endeavour has been " to make as literal a 
 " translation as was compatible with our English idiom ;" 
 and the sentence, which translates literally as above, is 
 accommodated in manner following to the English idiom : 
 " God does not grant to those great men who have laid 
 " the foundation of their greatness amidst disorder and 
 " revolution, the power of regulating at their pleasure, and 
 " for succeeding ages, the government of nations." Of 
 which sentence the accommodation to English idiom will 
 be seen mainly to consist in the addition of " and 
 "revolution " to " disorder," whereby it is implied in the 
 English that the two things are different, whereas it is in 
 the spirit of the French to assume that they are like ; and 
 in the entire omission of the very pregnant clause by 
 which both the summary of Cromwell's ambition is quali- 
 fied to his credit, and the moral the historian would draw 
 from it is pointedl}^ enforced, namel}^ that in the opinion 
 of M. Guizot, even designs that might seem well worthy 
 of completion are frustrated by the divine wisdom, when 
 disorder is used as a step to their accomplishment. 
 
 As it is in this opening sentence, however, so it is, 
 we regret to say, through the greater part of the 
 work of the translator ; and since we have interrupted 
 ourselves to say so much, we may as well delay the reader 
 a little longer to prove it. For it is surely to be regretted 
 that a history like this by M. Guizot, a book so especially 
 interesting to Englishmen that a place was at once ready 
 in our permanent literature for a good translation of it, 
 should have failed to find the proper care and attention in 
 this respect. If books were to be swallowed like water, 
 with no regard to the mere pleasure of the taste, it would 
 
 ' In again reading these remarks acquitted himself infinitely better in 
 
 on M. Guizot's translator, the tone the execution of the second part of 
 
 seems here and there unnecessarily M. Guizot's work, devoted to Richard 
 
 harsh ; but the question raised is an Cromwell. This latter book, taken 
 
 important one, and they are retained as a whole, is a version of the original 
 
 for that reason. I am bound to add, neither unpleasing nor unfaithful. 
 however, that the same translator
 
 288 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 matter little ; but there is a style in writing as there is a 
 bouquet in wine, and if M. Guizot's be a little thin, it is 
 yet pui'e, refined, and sparkling, with a delicate aroma. 
 As he presents it to us, it is never flat or insipid; but from 
 M. Guizot's flask to his translator's bucket is a lamentable 
 plunge^and whatever spirit the original possessed we find, 
 for the most part, dissipated in the transfer. A recon- 
 struction into verbose, round-in-the-mouth sentences, is 
 the utter destruction of M. Guizot's French. The sense 
 comes muffled, as though the voice reached you through 
 a feather bed. Let any one who cares to be at so much 
 trouble, read separately this book and its translation, and 
 he will be surprised to find how much is lost when style 
 is lost. The two versions leave absolutely different im- 
 pressions of the author's mind. 
 
 Without any special search for glaring instances, we 
 will begin at the beginning. We will take the first dozen 
 pages (written when the translator, fresh to his work, 
 could hardly have begun to slip through weariness), and 
 see what has been made of them. The very title, we regret 
 to sa.j, has been altered in significance. INI. Guizot wrote 
 History of the CommoniveaUh of EngJand and of Cromwell, 
 and this the translator brings into compatibility with 
 English idiom by writing History of Oliver Cromwell and 
 the English Commonwealth. It does not occur to him that 
 there may be sense, no less than sound, in the order of the 
 words placed upon his title-page by the historian. His 
 problem is to impart what he conceives to be an easy flow 
 to a given number of vocables ; and if for him they flow 
 better upside down than straightforward, they are, as in 
 this title, inverted accordingl3^ 
 
 It is a noticeable peculiarity of M. Guizot, that in 
 characterising historical persons he shows himself prone 
 to dwell on the contradictor}^ a^Dpearances assumed by the 
 same nature in a man. Whenever it is possible, he 
 marks the two sides which belong to human character, 
 and the ease with which opposite opinions may with no 
 dishonesty be formed. Of this there is of course no
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 289 
 
 example in bis book, or in tbe wbole range of buman 
 bistory, so prominent as Cromwell bimself; and as all 
 opposite quabties maintain tbe balance of an active mind, 
 tbe temptation is great to tbe bistorian to bring out tbe 
 expression of sucb contrasts in a strong antitbesis. So 
 strong in M. Guizot, indeed, is generally tbis form of 
 speecli, tliat it takes but tbe least additional strain to 
 turn it into nonsense ; and not seldom bis translator goes 
 far to effect tbis, by multiplying words witbout tbe least 
 necessity. It is quite curious bow be yields to tbe temp- 
 tation of rolling off bigb- sounding sentences. We bave 
 an instance in tbe opening words of tbe book. He can- 
 not give simply even sucb an epitbet as " tbe lustre of 
 " tbeir actions and tbeir destiny," in tbe very first sen- 
 tence, " I'eclat de leur actions et de leur destinee," 
 witbout turning it into " tbe splendour of tbeir actions 
 " and tbe magnitude of tbeir destiny." 
 
 Tbe bistory begins witb a picture of tbe Long Parlia- 
 ment under its republican cbiefs, reduced in number by 
 secessions following tbe execution of tbe King, and 
 regarded witbout sympatby by tbe main body of tbe 
 people. In tbe February following tbe execution, tbere 
 were not more tban seventy-seven members wbo recorded 
 votes at any of tbe divisions, and of tbese divisions M. 
 Guizot counts eigbt. Tbe translator alters tbis into ten, 
 witbout a note to indicate tbe cbange. Tbe parliamentary 
 leaders, M. Guizot continues, set to work, " avec une 
 " ardeur pleine en meme temps de foi et d'inquietude : " 
 a bint of tbe secret disquiet at tbe beart of tbeorists 
 committed to action, wbicb in tbe translation loses both 
 subtlety and sense by tbe exaggeration of disquiet into 
 anxiety, and by tbe yoking of an adjective to eacb noun 
 for tbe more dignified and sonorous roll of tbe period. 
 Tbey set to work, says tbe translator, witb an ardour 
 full " at once of strong faitb and deep anxiety." Enter 
 tbus upon tbe sentence tbe words strong and deep, and 
 exeunt from tbe sense of it tbe tbings strengtb and deptb. 
 
 Forty-one councillors of state were presently appointed,
 
 290 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and among those chosen, saj^s M. Guizot, there were five 
 superior magistrates, and twenty-eight comitry gentlemen 
 and citizens : but these numbers, again without a note to 
 say that he is not translating, tlie translator alters, one 
 into three, the other into thirty. When these councillors 
 met, continues the historian, they were required to sign 
 an engagement approving of all that had been done " in 
 " the king's trial, and in the abolition of monarchy and 
 "of the house of lords:" but this expression is too 
 simple for the translator, who words it and double words 
 it, " in the king's trial, in the overthrow of kingship, and 
 " in the abolition of the house of lords." Twenty-two, 
 proceeds M. Guizot, persisted " a le repousser;" but this 
 word of spirit vanishes from the translation, where it is 
 said, in the interest of English idiom, that they persisted 
 " in refusing it." The substance of their reasons, adds 
 M. Guizot, the tone of his mind insensibly colouring his 
 expression, was that they " refused to associate them- 
 " selves" with the past; but heavily clouded is this hint 
 of a personal stain, and of the dread of complicity, when 
 the translator turns it into " refused to give their sanc- 
 " tion." Excited by the censure so implied, resumes M. 
 Guizot, the House nevertheless checked its own resent- 
 ment (" on ne voulut pas faire eclater les dissensions 
 " des republicains ") ; and here his temperate and subtle 
 tone again directs attention to the weakness of the theo- 
 retical reiDublicans, in the fact that they did not wish to 
 pubHsh abroad their dissensions. But the entire sense of 
 it is lost by the translator, who thus again words and 
 double words and smothers it in idiom. " To originate 
 " dissensions among the republicans would, it was felt, 
 " be madness." There is already discord in the camp, 
 suggests M. Guizot. Discord, suggests his translator, 
 had yet to begin, and these were not men mad enough to 
 set it going. The translator may be right, but he is not 
 translating M. Guizot. 
 
 The historian still pursues his theme. " Les regicides 
 " comprirent qu'ils seraient trop faibles s'ils restaient
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 291 
 
 "seuls;" but that the translation might become "too 
 "weak" indeed, the simple words " trop faibles " are 
 multipUed into the idiomatic English of " not strong 
 " enough to maintain their position." The matter was 
 accordingly arranged, says M. Guizot, " sans j)lus de 
 " bruit." Hushed-up would be no bad idiom for that ; 
 but unfortunately hushed-up would mean what M. Guizot 
 means, and so, says the translator, it was arranged " with- 
 " out further difficulty." Significantly M. Guizot adds, 
 of the modified pledge offered by the dissidents, that with 
 it " on se contenta;" which insignificantly the translator 
 renders "it was accepted." 
 
 These are small items of criticism, it will be said. But 
 let it be understood that the last seven of them all arise 
 out of a single paragraph, and that the last six are all on 
 the same page ; and let any one conceive what murder is 
 done upon the soul of a book, 700 pages long, when a 
 translator sits down in this manner to the work of killing 
 it by inches. 
 
 We turn over, and on the first line of the next page read 
 that the compromise described was " to a very great 
 " extent" the work of Cromwell and Sir Henry Yane : 
 " to a very great extent " being the translator's idiom for 
 " surtout." Before we get to the middle of the page we 
 find a date set down as November, without any note of its 
 having been written December in the text. On the first 
 line of the next page. Vane's suggestion of an oath of 
 fidelity simply referring to the future is spoken of as an 
 idea whereof Cromwell was one of the most eager " to 
 " express his entire approval:" the translator in that sup- 
 plying his peculiar idiom for " h s'en contenter." Simi- 
 larly we find, in the sentence following, that for " nul " 
 the English idiom is " no one for a moment." Of the 
 committee of three who held the powers of the Admiralty, 
 M. Guizot says that Vane " etait I'ame ; " and his translator 
 says (diluting it into his idiom), that Vane " was the 
 " chief." Blake then enters on the scene, by whom, 
 according to M. Guizot, the glory of the Commonwealth 
 
 2
 
 292 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 at sea was hereafter " a faire ; " and this expression is 
 rendered " to augment," that its spirit may be utterly 
 destroyed. 
 
 We promised to comment on the first dozen pages of 
 the authorised English version of M. Guizot's Common- 
 wealth and Cromwell, and if we redeem our promise we 
 must discuss four more. Eather than do that, we will 
 break it. But we quote from both texts the beginning of 
 page nine ; the English water side by side with the French 
 wine ; and we think no reader who examines it will desire 
 that we should splash on through the rest of this page, or 
 the pages following. The passage, feeble as it is, is far 
 above the average ; for in it the sense of the text does 
 absolutely survive what the translator overlays it with, 
 though in what condition the reader will see. 
 
 " La chambre avait touche et " The house had revised and 
 
 pourvu a tout ; la legislation, arranged every department of the 
 la diplomatie, la justice, la po- administration ; the legislation 
 lice, les finances, I'arme'e, la and diplomacy of the country, the 
 flotte etaient dans ses mains. cotirts of justice, the police, the 
 Pour paraitre aussi desinteres- finances, the army, and the fleet, 
 s^e qu'elle ^tait active, elle were all in its hands. To ap- 
 admit les membres qui s'e'taient pear as disinterested as it was 
 s^pares du parti vainqueur, au active, it permitted those mem- 
 moment de sa rupture definitive bers who had separated from the 
 avec le roi, a reprendre leur conquering party, at the moment 
 place dans ses rangs, mais en of its definitive ruptiu-e with the 
 leur imposant vmtel desaveu de king, to resume their seats in its 
 leurs anciens votes que bien peu midst; but it required from them 
 d'entre eux purent s^y resoudre. " at the same time such a disavowal 
 
 of their former votes, that very 
 few could persuade themselves to 
 take advantage of this concession. ' ' 
 
 Such is the translation which M. Guizot has authorised, 
 and which the law now protects against any better that 
 might replace it. The example should not be thrown 
 away. It is an evil, but ought not to be a necessary evil, 
 of the protection given under international copyright, 
 that if a book be marred in the translation, it is marred
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 293 
 
 past hope of mending. The new law is not less politic 
 than it is just, for without it there can be no inducement 
 sufficient to invite to such labour the employment of 
 original talents and real learning. But if, through want 
 of care in obtaining these, inapt or inferior talents are 
 now employed and protected, mischief beyond retrieval 
 is done. Nor is it easy to make the proper choice. A 
 man may be a very respectable writer who will turn out 
 to be an execrable translator, though it would be next to 
 impossible that a good translator should not also be a 
 writer of respectable powers. But foreign writers cannot 
 be too careful in steadily looking this difficulty in the face, 
 before resolving to let their works pass out of their keep- 
 ing. What an engraver is in the eyes of an artist, a trans- 
 lator should be in the eyes of an author; and while, in the 
 former case, our academicians have been lately yielding, 
 to the most eminent in the craft, a right of brotherhood, 
 in the latter the best masters have at all times been 
 esteemed, by authors of repute, as brother craftsmen. If 
 publishers are indisposed to the same view, the public 
 should protect themselves. Copyright in translation will 
 involve grave injury to them, if it lowers instead of raising 
 the average of translating ability by lowering the prices 
 paid for it. To give no more under the new law to the 
 author and the translator, than under the old was given to 
 the translator alone, is to mistake altogether the object of 
 a change which was meant to increase the facilities for 
 properly remunerating both, by protecting translations of 
 a really high character from unequal rivalry with the in- 
 different or utterly worthless. We invite to the subject, 
 therefore, a more minute attention than it has hitherto 
 been customary to give to it. A more exacting criticism of 
 translation as translation may at least check the incapable 
 with some fear of censure, and cheer on the work of the 
 really able with some small hope of a just fame. 
 
 The lights and shades of style indicate the bias of an 
 author's mind. In describing their eifacement from the
 
 294 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 English version of this history, we have found also 
 means to indicate what, in ]\L Guizot's case, the bias 
 is. What it is, it could hardly fail to be. It requii-es but 
 the opening sentence of the volumes ' to reveal to us that 
 the feelings of the wTiter are here more nearly touched 
 than they had been by the former portion of his narrative. 
 His account of the revolution down to the King's execu- 
 tion was given in a style as calm as it was clear ; but 
 here, where only the men of the Eepublic are before him, 
 though he is still philosophical, still to the utmost of his 
 ability a righteous judge, a ripple before unseen appears 
 upon the surface of his judgment ; and we cannot but 
 thmk of all the interval which has passed since that first 
 portion of his book was written. The statesman who has 
 connected his own name in history with endeavours to 
 preserve a king and a constitution, and who saw king and 
 constitution swept away to make room for an ephemeral 
 republic, holds fast, nevertheless, by a constitutional 
 monarchy as not merely the best form of government, 
 but, so to speak, as his own cause, and regards a republic 
 with some sense of personal antagonism. The open 
 expression of this, indeed, is as far as possible subdued ; 
 but not less is it discernible. 
 
 Sixty-one years ago a high-spirited young lawyer died 
 at Nimes on the scaffold, sentenced to death for his 
 dislike of a republic by a court obedient to the French 
 Republican Convention. That 3'oung man, twenty-seven 
 
 ' "J'ai raconte la chute d'une "prend pour instvuinentsdeses grands 
 
 "ancienne monarchie et la mort " desseius sont pleins de contradiction 
 
 " violente d'un roi digne de respect, " et de mystere : il mele et unit en 
 
 " quoiqu'il ait mal et injustement " eux, dans des proportions pro- 
 
 "gouvernt^ ses peuples. J'ai main- " fondement cachees, les qnalites et 
 
 ' ' tenant h. raconter les vains efforts ' ' les defauts, les vertns et les vices, 
 
 "d'une assemblee revolutionnaire "les lumieres et les erreurs, les 
 
 "pour fonder une republique, et le " grandeurs et les faiblesses ; et apres 
 
 " gouvernement toujours chancelant, " avoir rempli leur temps de I'^clat 
 
 " bien que fort et glorieux, d'un des- " de leurs actions et de leur destinee, 
 
 " pote revolutionnaire, admirable par "ils demeurent euxmemes obscurs au 
 
 " sou liardi et judicieux genie, quoi- " sein de leur gloire, encenses et 
 
 " qu'il ait attaqud et detruit, dans " maudits tour k tour par le monde 
 
 " son pays, d'abord I'ordre legal, puis " qui ne les connait pas." 
 "la liberie. Les hommes que Dieu
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 295 
 
 years old when liis life was taken, was the father of 
 M. Guizot. The latter was only a hoy of seven at the 
 time, but he was old enough to receive into his soul undying 
 recollection of the murder in the name of liberty that 
 made a Avidow of his mother. The decree which took 
 away the father's life and confiscated his possessions, 
 ordered also that his children, — the boy just named, and 
 another little son, — should be committed to the foundling 
 hosi^ital, and brought up in accordance with a revolu- 
 tionary law. But their mother, a noble woman, whom 
 her eldest-born, then become a statesman and historian 
 of European fame, saw grieving after fifty years of 
 widowhood ^vith fresh tears for the husband of her youth, 
 took them ^ith the wreck of her fortune out of France, 
 and dwelt with them for six years at Geneva, watching 
 carefully their education. Father and mother had been 
 pious Protestants, firm against the pressure of religious 
 persecution ; and, open to all grave and noble influences, 
 M. Guizot's boyhood at Geneva was full of the promise 
 which his manhood has long since more than fulfilled. 
 By the reflective tone of his mind, by his skill in 
 reasoning, by a surprising aptitude for the acquisition of 
 languages, and by a taste for historical inquiry, even so 
 early he distinguished himself. Sent at the age of 
 eighteen as a law student to Paris, his abilities were 
 quickly recognised by men ready to turn them to account. 
 His pen was soon brought into use ; and his literary 
 talents as well as industry were displayed in the publica- 
 tion by him, at the age of twenty-two, of his well-known 
 Dictionary of Synonyms. He had begun at the same time 
 the arduous enterprise of a translation of Gibbon, mth 
 original notes ; and so prompt was the recognition of his 
 manifest ability, that at the age of twenty-four he was made 
 professor of modern history at the Faculty of Letters. 
 
 Through all the troubles of France during the years that 
 ensued, ]\I. Guizot, known as a man of the future, steadily 
 maintained his position as a calm antagonist of whatever 
 he believed to be anarchy. Standing between republican
 
 296 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 and despot in the days of Bonaparte and of Charles X, 
 with a moral courage free from display of passion, he held 
 firm to the lesson of his life which study had strengthened 
 in him, that the quiet reign of a constitutional king, upon 
 a system liberally conservative, is the condition of 
 prosperity and peace for the French people, or for any 
 people fairly civilised. Order, with liberty, was his creed 
 in those days ; as to the present it has remained his 
 belief that liberty must be protected by order. One of 
 his first political pamphlets was upon Representative 
 Government ; another was upon the mode of conducting 
 government and opposition. One of the first historical 
 inquiries on which he entered was a discover}^ for himself 
 of the origin and causes of our great Revolution. He 
 published an account of it to the death of Charles I ; 
 and with a spirit and enterprise which has yet found no 
 parallel in England, he completed, in no less than twenty- 
 six octavo volumes, a translated collection of memoirs 
 and histories relating to it. As a writer, we should not 
 omit to add, his first commanding success was won by his 
 elaborate lectures on the origin of Rej)resentative Govern- 
 ment in Europe, delivered at the temporary cost of his 
 chair when France sorely needed reliable and wise 
 information on that matter. 
 
 At last came the revolution of 1830, and there was 
 placed upon the French throne a ruler whose most obvious 
 interest it plainly was, not merely to ofier a determined 
 resistance to democratic passion, but to establish a govern- 
 ment that should be in its nature both conservative and 
 liberal : enough of the latter to be safe, enough of the 
 former to satisfy European statesmen. In such a course 
 there was no man in France so fit to counsel the King and 
 serve the country as M. Guizot. The student of history, 
 so skilful and dispassionate, became accordingly Minister 
 of Interior to Louis Phihppe. Subsequently he gave his 
 earnest support, though out of ofiice, to the Ministry of 
 CasimirPerier, and he afterwards held the Ministr}' of Public 
 Instruction for nearly five years, between 1833 and 1837.
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 297 
 
 Duringtlie summer of 1840, he was Ambassador in England ; 
 at the close of that year he formed the Ministry in which he 
 took the office of Foreign Affairs, hut of which he was the 
 virtual head; and finally, on the death of Marshal Soult, 
 in September 1847, became its nominal as well as actual 
 chief, and Prime Minister of France. The beginning of this 
 career of office was employed in decisive suppression of 
 all active revolutionary opposition to the newly-established 
 monarch3\ The middle of it saw him the successful 
 founder of a system of national education for his country- 
 men, far better than anything of a similar kind hitherto 
 attempted in Great Britain. And it is quite possible that 
 the close of it might have placed within his power the 
 salvation of the French throne, if, in the critical hour, 
 a failing king had not forsaken his counsels. Monarchy 
 fell ; and the same republican wrath which had destroyed 
 his father again beat and surged around the monarchist 
 statesman. But whatever his failures, in theory or in 
 action, M. Guizot never failed in probity. He never 
 flinched from the trial of his principles ; never fell from 
 his oaths or his professions ; never in his public conduct 
 abated a jot from the work demanded of him in his secret 
 conscience. There have been many greater statesmen, 
 but few so altogether free from moral stain. 
 
 Yet in his own country, where republicanism has been 
 identified with revolution, there has been no man, with of 
 course one exception, against whom so much ill has been 
 spoken by republicans ; and he had endured from them, for 
 many of the last years of his life as a statesman, the 
 incessant sting of calumny. In resuming at its close, 
 therefore, the story of a short-lived republic, he found 
 before him the moral of the creed which for sixt}^ years 
 had been his private and his public enemy. Not for this 
 reason, however, which the true scholar's spirit would 
 disown, did he then, after the storm of his active life was 
 over, return to the study of the revolution which earliest 
 had engaged his attention ; but because, being complete, 
 unlike that in progress and still undetermined in France, 
 
 3
 
 298 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 it admitted of a perfect scrutiny, and offered most prospect 
 of historical instruction. The History of the Common- 
 rcealth and Cromicell is the second of the four parts into 
 which he divides it (the third being that of Richard 
 Cromwell, of which, by the favour of M. Guizot, the early 
 portion is also before us) ; and remembering that the very 
 pulse of its author's life beats in it, we may well be 
 surprised to find its stroke so regular and calm. 
 
 Far from reviling our historical republicans, whose 
 high-minded endeavours he has quite nobility enough to 
 understand, INI. Guizot points out that the experiment 
 they made was not in their time associated with any of 
 those ideas of mere revolt and lawlessness which have 
 lately been connected with such attempts. Under 
 honourable forms only, as in Italy, Switzerland, or the 
 Netherlands, was republican government then known ; 
 and the attempt to convert the English monarchy into 
 a republic, was, to put his idea into plain words, such an 
 experiment as decent men might put their hands to. In 
 the eyes of continental nations it had also a religious 
 aspect ; and though he believes it, as a repubhcan move- 
 ment, to have been a mistake, he not the less believes, 
 that, but for the violence necessarily incident to the 
 transition from a kingdom to a commonwealth, the scheme 
 might have been a successful one. But, in his judgment, 
 a republic founded upon revolution finds its works soon 
 clogged by that property in its founders, which, calUng 
 itself and thinking itself republican zeal, is in reality 
 nothing but revolutionary obstinacy. 
 
 Thus, as might have been expected, M. Guizot is too 
 accurate a thinker to condemn wholly as theory that 
 scheme of government, in the formal establishment of 
 which both England and France, each in its own manner 
 and degree, have failed, but not a few of whose most practi- 
 cal and substantial results have been left to both countries. 
 Every way worthy of notice, indeed, is the reflection with 
 which he opens the tliird section of his labours, when, in
 
 THE CIVIL WAES AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 299 
 
 the narrative of Richard Cromwell and his troubles, 
 following upon that of Richard's father and his triumphs, 
 he is about to relate the career of the revived Long 
 ■ Parliament. A republic, he says, when it is, among any 
 people, the natural and true result of its social state, of 
 its ideas and of its manners, is a Government worthy of all 
 sym^jathy and respect. It may have its vices, theoretical 
 and ijractical; but it honours and serves humanity, 
 because it stimulates it to the mustering of its higher 
 moral forces, and can lift it to a very lofty degree of 
 dignity and vii'tue, of prosperity and glory. But a 
 Republic untimely and factitious, foreign to the national 
 history and manners, introduced and sustained by pride 
 of spirit and the egotism of faction, is a government 
 detestable in itself, for it is full of falsehood and violence ; 
 and it has, moreover, this deplorable consequence, that it 
 discredits in the minds of nations the principles of. 
 poHtical right and the guarantees of liberty, by the false 
 api^lication and the tyrannical use to which they are put, 
 or the hypocritical violation they are made to suffer. 
 Though hostile, therefore, to all crude attempts at the 
 estabUshment of a Republic, we are nevertheless glad to say 
 that no unfair measure is dealt out by the French states- 
 man to our republican forefathers. That after all they 
 should have failed principally because their hojDes were 
 pitched too high, is not a fact which such a man can 
 dismiss with indifference, whatever his sense of the needs 
 of practical statesmanship may be. He rather. French- 
 man as he is, rejoices to show them to us with Mazarin 
 bat in hand before them; spurning the ftiir outside of 
 civility with which the wily French- Italian would have 
 approached them ; and finally bringing him to a frank 
 submission, while the Queen Mother Henrietta gnashes 
 her teeth at the recognition of " these infamous traitors." 
 In illustration of the kind of men whom the traitors 
 sought out for employment, too, there stands a somewhat 
 memorable record in their Council Book, which we can 
 conceive appealing to M. Guizot with the same sort of
 
 300 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 interest it still possesses for Englishmen, notwithstanding 
 his too manifest predilection for those powers only " which 
 " are based upon right and sanctioned by time." It is 
 the official notice of Sir Harry Vane's and Mr. Harry 
 Marten's visit, one March evening in 1649, armed with 
 the authority of the Council of State of which they were 
 members, to " the lodging of Mr. John Milton, in a small 
 " house in Holborn, which opens backwards into Lincohi's 
 " Inn Fields, to speak to Mr. Milton, to know, Whether 
 *' he will be employed as Secretary for the Foreign 
 " Languages ? and to report to the Council." We may 
 feel quite sure that M. Guizot would think none the worse 
 of the Council for this little circumstance : though we 
 cannot quite satisfy ourselves as to the authority with 
 which he describes the Lord Protector eager to profit 
 by Milton's genius and ascendancy, and continuing 
 to employ the talents thus left at his disposal by the 
 government he displaced, but putting no faith in the 
 wisdom of their wondrous possessor ; supplying him with 
 funds to afford liberal hospitality, at his house and table 
 in Whitehall, to such foreign men of letters as came to 
 visit England, but, while chief of the State, admitting him 
 into no personal intimacy, and studiously withholding 
 from him all public influence. Such may have been the 
 relations of Milton and Cromwell ; but we do not know 
 the authority on which the statement rests, and what we do 
 know of the circumstances attending the interference for 
 the Yaudois would lead us to entertain some doubt of it. 
 
 Milton is M. Guizot's ideal of the highest of the 
 republican statesmen, grand, but unpractical. He depicts 
 him revelling in a dream of liberty, and taking pleasure 
 as a poet in sublime thoughts and majestic words, without 
 inquiring whether the world's every-day life held within 
 it any answer to such aspirations. In his case, according 
 to M. Guizot, abstract reasoning so far misguided a noble 
 heart,' a passionate and dreamy intellect, as to render his 
 
 ^ " Un noble coeur," says M. Guizot. ^'Astern hut noble heart," 
 says bis translator.
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 301 
 
 wisdom of less service than it might have been in the actual 
 conduct of afiairs. And as with him, so in less degree with 
 the other statesmen of the Commonwealth — scholastic, 
 theoretical rej)ublicans ; in their way, too, in regard to 
 much they took in hand, mere high-minded dreamers ; and 
 possessed, according to a foolish homely phrase, of every 
 sense but common sense. Yet is it the belief of M. Guizot, 
 that for the most part with a dignified reserve and an intel- 
 ligent prudence these adventurous statesmen entered upon 
 their work. The country coldly supported them, indeed, 
 and abroad they were detested; nevertheless, as they well 
 knew, they were not menaced, and they had otherwise 
 much upon their side. They mcluded men of high 
 integrity, such as Sydney, Ludlow, Marten, Hutchinson, 
 and Harrington ; they could boast of men of the highest 
 administrative ability, such as Vane ; they were impas- 
 sioned on behalf of then- cause ; and they were swayed 
 throughout by no meaner or less exalted interest than 
 that of seeing it triumph. The cause itself, too, though 
 " peu sensee et antipathique au pays," was noble and 
 moral ; for the principles presiding over it were a faith in 
 truth, and an affectionate esteem for humanity, respect 
 for its rights, and the desire for its free and glorious 
 development. But the historian thinks it was also 
 incident to their very position that many errors should 
 be committed, and that a too prolonged enjoyment of 
 power in the midst of chaos should prove disastrous to 
 some among themselves. And he shows, from the secret 
 correspondence of the agents of Mazarin, what a number 
 of people there were in the City who resembled a certain re- 
 spectable merchant and news-writer, Mr. Morrell, eager for 
 any sort of change, tired of a multiplicity of masters, and 
 ready to hope better things from one than from a hundred. 
 We want greater secrecy, wrote the thrifty Mr. Morrell, 
 more promptitude, less speechifying, more work. In a 
 word, three great causes were surely and steadily con- 
 spiring to the fall of the republic. There was matter 
 both corrupt and obstructive in its lower divisions ; there
 
 302 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 was a nation, reverent of law, heavily and surely swaying 
 back to monarchy; and, worse than all, the very heart 
 of the republican ranks held within it a leader in their 
 army, a man mighty in battle, born with an instinct of 
 command, born with a genius for government, eminently 
 j)ractical, and utterly unscrupulous. That is M. Guizot's 
 Cromwell. 
 
 A man who had the pitiless sagacity to see the worth 
 of an enemy only to recognise the necessity of at once 
 putting him out of the way, he was able not less, in the 
 judgment of the French historian, to conceal effectually 
 his own pride and pretensions, and carry exposed upon 
 his sleeve only an irresistible semblance of self-denial. 
 "No great man," exclaims M. Guizot, "ever carried the 
 " hypocrisy of modesty so far as Cromwell, or so easily 
 " subordinated his vanity to his ambition." So little also 
 can M. Guizot discover of system in his mind, so little 
 does he find him under the influence of preconceived 
 ideas of any land, that he believes him to have had no 
 reall}^ fixed principles at all on questions civil or religious. 
 But though he was not a philosopher, and did not act 
 in obedience to systematic and premeditated views, he 
 was guided by the superior instinct and practical good 
 sense of a man destined by the hand of God to govern ; 
 and he possessed, above all, the consummate secret of 
 the governing art which consists in a just appreciation of 
 what will be sufficient in every given circumstance, and 
 in resting satisfied with that. He had, moreover, an 
 unerring instinct of the drift of the people by which 
 he brought them to his side ; and the historian thinks 
 it an extreme proof of the relations he maintained, and 
 the hopes he inspired, among persons of all ranks and 
 creeds, that he should have been able to suggest himself 
 as their best resource, not simply to sectaries of all sorts, 
 — Unitarians, Jews, Muggletonians, and Freethinkers, 
 but even to Eoman Catholics and Episcopalians. Giving 
 credit to the earliest reports which represent him as by 
 councils and conversations feeling his way towards the
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 303 
 
 dignity of King, it was yet, according to M. Guizot, his 
 rare faculty throughout to understand the ne quid nimis 
 in the art of government ; and acting upon it, bitter as 
 the trial was, he finall}^ denied himself the crown. He 
 possessed, says the historian, the two qualities that make 
 men great. He was sensible, and he was bold ; indomitable 
 in his hopes, yet never the victim of illusion. 
 
 What is thus said of the absence of system in 
 Cromwell's ambition, let us remark, finds such striking 
 illustration in a passage of the Cardinal de Retz's 
 memoirs that we are surprised it should have escaped 
 M. Guizot. Having occasion to quote the description, 
 from that very clever book, of Vane's secret mission from 
 Cromwell and the Council of State immediately after the 
 victory of AVorcester, when the Cardinal found the envoy 
 a man of such "surprising capacity,'" the historian 
 should not have laid down the volume, we think, without 
 reproducing from a somewhat later page one of the 
 shrewdest of all its hints for statesmen, embodied in the 
 following memorable dialogue. The Cardinal is talldng, 
 during Cromwell's protectorate, with the First President 
 of the Parliament of Paris, M. de Bellievre. " I under- 
 " stand you," says the President at a particular point of 
 their argument, " and I stop you at the same time to tell 
 " you what I have learnt from Cromwell." (M. de 
 Bellievre, interposes the Cardinal, had seen and known 
 him in England.) " He said to me one day, tha t One 
 " never mounted so high as when one did not knotv where 
 " one ivas~ffoing." Whereupon says the Cardinal to the 
 Presidenl,, '"^You know that I have a horror of Cromwell ; 
 " but however great a man they may think him I add to 
 " this horror, contempt, for if that be his opinion he seems 
 " to me to be a fool." The Cardinal proceeds to tell us 
 
 ' An admission, we may observe, down to the last and best edition of 
 
 of wliich the French editors have MM. Michard and Poiijoulat, which 
 
 hitherto done their best to deprive restores the suppressed passages, aad 
 
 the great English republican by in- from which we quote), as Vaire, 
 
 variably printing his name (even Veix, or Vaiiic.
 
 304 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 that be reports this dialogue, which is nothing in itself, 
 to make us see the importance of never speaking of 
 people who are in gTeat posts. For Monsiem' the Pre- 
 sident, returning to his cabinet where there were several 
 i:)eople, repeated the remark without reflection, as a proof 
 of the injustice which was done their friend the Cardinal 
 when it was said that his ambition was without measure 
 and without bounds. All which was straightway carried 
 off to my Lord Protector of England, who remembered 
 it with bitterness, and took occasion not long after to 
 say to M. de Bordeaux, the Ambassador of France at his 
 Court, I know only one man in the world iclio despises me, 
 and that is Cardinal de Retz. " This opinion," adds the 
 penitent Cardinal, " had very nearly cost me dear." 
 
 The truth is, that Cromwell's remark by no means 
 deserved the contemptuous comment of De Eetz. It is 
 not at all so necessary, as the Cardinal appears to think, 
 that a man who is about to mount high should have 
 systematically arranged beforehand to what exact height 
 he shall mount. It may be true that in all ambitious 
 men there will necessarily be some calculation, and 
 something of a preconceived plan ; but it vnixy be fairly 
 doubted whether to constitute such a man of the first 
 order, there must not also be a yet larger amount of 
 passion to outstrip and go beyond the calculation. In 
 short, to whatever extent particular plans and arrange- 
 ments may contribute intermediately to success, it must 
 ever be a condition of the highest success not to be finally 
 bound by them. Between the fixity of all men's designs 
 and the uncertainty of their destiny, there is an interval 
 so large and vague, that it is there the highest order of 
 genius will probably most often find its occasions and 
 means, its power and opportunity ; and we think it very 
 certain that wherever the highest has been reached to 
 which it was possible to attain, the courage to undergo 
 a risk must at least have been as great as the patience 
 I to profit by a plan. We go farther in Cromwell's case, 
 for we are very certain he began with no plan at all but a
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 305 
 
 zeal for what he honestlj^ believed to be God's truth, and 
 for the establishment of a government that should be 
 according to God's will. 
 
 Wlio that is at all acquainted with his entire history- 
 will beHeve, that when the final summons of array reached 
 him, he knew, as he buckled on his sword, whither he 
 was going ? He had lived for nearly forty years the 
 useful unassuming life from which parliamentary duties 
 first called him away, cultivating his native acres in the 
 eastern fens, tilling the earth, reading his Bible, assist- 
 ing persecuted preachers, and himself kneeling daily 
 with his servants around him in exhortation and prayer. 
 When he w^ent up with Hampden to take his seat in the 
 Long Parhament, he was by birth a gentleman, as he 
 described himself ten years later to the first parliament 
 of the Protectorate, living at no great height, nor yet in 
 obscurity. He had not been without the means, that is, 
 of challenging distinction, if such had been his wish. 
 He had been dragged before the Privy Council ' without 
 claiming the honours of a martyr, and he had led an agita- 
 tion against the great lords of his county without aspiring 
 to the rewards of a hero. In resisting a particular grievance 
 he had made himself the most popular and powerful man 
 in all that district of the fens ; but, satisfied when the 
 work was done, he had sought no further advantage from 
 the popularity and power acquired in doing it. Certainly 
 this, too, is uniformly the character of his early exploits 
 in the war. All that appears essential to him is that he 
 must actually do the work he has in hand, and to this 
 he is bent exclusively. When, in conversation with his 
 cousin Hampden at the close of the first doubtful year of 
 the conflict, he threw out the remark which contained the 
 germ of all his subsequent victories, who will believe 
 thaf"Tirs~ thoughls^ere travelling beyond the duty and 
 
 ^ This curious and hitherto un- that most intelligent and able of anti- 
 known incident in his career was quaries, Mr. Jolin Bruce, and by him 
 lately discovered in a search among communicated to the AthencEum of 
 the registers of the Privy Council by the 13th of October, 1855.
 
 306 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 necessity of the hour ? His experience in the fiekl had 
 taught him why it was the royahsts gained upon their 
 adversaries in battle, and he at once declared that it 
 would not do to go on enlisting " poor tapsters and town- 
 " apprentice people" against well-born cavaliers, but that, 
 to cope mth men of honour, men of religion must be 
 enrolled. When he expressed this design to Hampden, 
 it might be said that, on the instant, the whole issue of 
 the war was determined ; but is it necessary to suppose 
 him carrying his own thoughts so far ? When he pro- 
 ceeded to organise his God-fearing regiment of Ironsides, 
 is it conceivable that he cared, or was troubled to anti- 
 cipate, to what a destiny they might bear himself? 
 Clarendon has made it a reproach against him that on 
 one occasion he said he could tell what he would not 
 have, but not what he would have ; but was not this only 
 another expression of the thought, that he had no concern 
 but the duty of the hour, no wish but to do it in the hour, 
 and that he knew not and cared not whither it might 
 lead him ? 
 
 As time went on, indeed, as he commanded armies, won 
 battles, and saw himself indisputably the first soldier and 
 captain in the war, to direct and govern men became 
 clearly as much a part of his no longer avoidable duty, as 
 any commonest avocation that had occupied him on his 
 Ely farm. With this, too, let it also be admitted, there 
 must of course have opened upon him that wider range of 
 worldl}^ opportunities to which, whether the}^ shape them- 
 selves to ambition or any other inclination of the mind, it 
 is so easy to give the name, or to make available under 
 the sanction, of duty itself. Doubtless to many such 
 temptations Cromwell yielded. In his religious creed he 
 is said (we must confess on what seems to us very doubtful 
 authority) to have held the somewhat dangerous doctrine, 
 that having once been in a state of grace it was not pos- 
 sible to fall from it ; and from time to time, if this were 
 so, it must insensibly have relaxed to him even the 
 restraints of religion itself. But that there was any con-
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 307 
 
 scions hypocrisy in liis language, or any settled scheme of 
 mere amhitiou in his conduct, we find it difficult to believe. 
 Higher and Eigher as he was mounting, still to the last he 
 might have asked himself Whither. When at the close of 
 
 O . , 
 
 the war he appears heaped with all the favours a grateful 
 j)eople and parliament could bestow, there is yet not one 
 which had not fallen to him naturally, or that it would 
 not have been monstrous as well as foolish to deny to him. 
 Every step of the ascent had been solidl}' and laboriously 
 wonT he stood upon it as of right; and surely no man 
 ever rose so high with less of what we must call usurpa- 
 tion, lii'the honours paid to him, in the very trappings of 
 state thrown over him, when he left London upon his last 
 campaign and returned with the final victory, there was 
 not a man in the popular ranks, of however rigid and 
 ascetic public virtue, who might not feel that he was also 
 himself participating as in a gain and glory of his own. 
 AVhen the Lord General passed out of the city in his 
 coach, drawn by six gallant Flander's mares, whitish gray, 
 and " with colonels for his life guard such as the world 
 " might not parallel," it may be very doubtful if less would 
 have satisfied the most exacting republican whose claims 
 and whose power he then and there represented. When 
 he returned in a more than regal triumph, receiving 
 homage from the populace, halting to hawk with the 
 gentry, and presenting horses and prisoners to the parha- 
 mentary delegates appointed to give him welcome, it was 
 yet but the glory of their common country which all men 
 were content to see reflected in the ceremony and the 
 pomp which surrounded him. 
 
 Should it be matter of blame, then, that still he rose to the 
 occasion which called him, and that even this position did 
 not take him unawares ? As he farmed at Ely and St. Ives, 
 as he fought at Marston Moor and Naseby, so now he fell 
 into his allotted place as Milton's " chief of men." Such 
 is the sum of reproach with any fairness up to this date 
 to be imputed to him. " This man will be King of England 
 " yet," said the Rev. Mr. Peters inwardly to himself, as
 
 308 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 he observed at the time, in his air and manner, an indescri- 
 bable kind of exaltation. Sir Philip Warwick afterwards 
 observed it too; and, being enSrely'at a loss to reconcile 
 so " great and majestic a deportment and comely pre- 
 " sence " with wdiat he remembered of his ver}' ill-made 
 apparel, and not very clean or sufficient linen, when he 
 first heard him speak in the parliament-house twelve 
 years before, is much disposed to attribute the change to 
 the fact of his having meanwhile " had a better tailor and 
 "more converse among good compau}'." The same diffi- 
 culty occurs even to Cl aren don, who more shrewdly dis- 
 misses it with the remark" that " his parts seemed to 
 " be raised, as if he had concealed hrs"^:^ltie5iill he 
 " had occasion to use them." But we shall not ourselves 
 have any difficulty at all, if we simply believe of such 
 a man that only the occasion for use would ever tempt 
 him to the assumption or display. A readiness for the 
 duty of the hour, and no restlessness l^eyohd It," wdiild 
 seem to be the lesson of Cromwell's life, Avhatever part 
 of it we examine ; and if we think the forcible dissolu- 
 tion of the Long Parliament an interruption to the 
 temperate wisdom which generally guided him, it is 
 because we feel that without it the supreme power must 
 nevertheless have been his, unattended b}^ the difficulties 
 in which the consequences of that act involved him. At 
 the very last, he said himself, he Avas doubtful about 
 doing it ; but another and stronger impulse got the 
 mastery over him. " When I went there," he told his 
 council of officers, " I did not think to have done this. 
 " But perceiving the spirit of God so strong upon me, 
 " I would not consult flesh and blood." And so w^e 
 arrive again at what he told JNIonsieui' the President de 
 Bellievre, that One never mounts so high as ichen one does 
 not know where one is going. 
 
 But M. Guizot w^ould attach little imjjortance to that 
 stronger impulse which the Lord General there professed 
 to have over-ruled him. We do not know that anything 
 has impressed us more throughout his book than its
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 309 
 
 extremely p artial and imperfect recognition of the reli- 
 gious element, wtich formed so large a portion not merely 
 of Cromwell himself, but of the entire English Revolution. 
 Doubtless it arises from the fact that this element, so 
 necessary in the study of it, lies too far away from those 
 e^ils which dwell insensibly and most strongly upon the 
 historian's mmd, and from which his study of these great 
 events in our history had deliberately or unconsciously 
 arisen. He is even careful to hint his belief, more than 
 once, that there were in those days more infidels in 
 England than we commonly suppose. It is curious to 
 contrast his view in this respect with that of another 
 French writer, M. de Lamartine, who, regarding Cromwell 
 from the thick of French republicanism, has very par- 
 tially and confusedly, but as he believes wholly, accepted 
 ]\Ir. Carlyle's interpretation, and informs his countrymen 
 that Cromwell was a fanatic. M. Guizot, accustomed 
 through his own life to submit to the dictates of a calm 
 unostentatious piety all public actions, and not unfre- 
 quently reminding his reader that a Divine Providence 
 is ordering and disposing the affairs of States, yet cannot 
 see in Cromwell either fanatic or chosen man of God. 
 In no part of his history of Oliver do we find any swerving 
 from this view, and subsequent and very recent reflection 
 appears only to have confirmed him in it. In the whole 
 of his account of Bichard Cromwell there is no more 
 striking passage than that in which, describing the 
 respective positions occupied by the followers of Oliver 
 and the advocates of the Bepublic, he again expresses 
 forcibly the distinction between the purely worldly 
 character of the Protectorate and the Divine purpose it 
 was called to fulfil. The Cromwellians under Richard, he 
 says, rather by experience and political instinct than by any 
 principle clearly comprehended or defined, did not think 
 that the people should be held sufficient to constitute tlie 
 entire Government, or that it had the right to unmake 
 and reconstruct it at its pleasure. In their opinion the 
 Government required, for the maintenance and good order
 
 310 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of society, some base independently subsistent, recog- 
 nised by the people, but anterior, and in a certain degi'ee 
 superior, to its shifting will. Originally conquest, after- 
 wards the hereditary principle in monarchy, and the pre- 
 ponderance of great landowners, had created in the English 
 Government such power, independent in itself, immovable 
 in right, and indispensable to society. By the course of 
 things, however, the territorial proprietorship had in part 
 changed hands, and, by its own faults, the hereditary 
 principle of monarchy had succumbed. But God then 
 raised up Oliver, and gave him the power with the 
 victory. Conqueror and actual master, surrounded by 
 his comrades in war, and treating with a house elected 
 by the people, he had been able to found, for his successor 
 as for himself, the Protectorate and its Constitution ; and 
 thus was provided that anterior and independent power, 
 born of events, not of the people's will, and which the 
 people should be held as little able to destroy according to 
 its fancy, as it had been able of its motion to create. This 
 great fact, therefore, accompHshed upon the ruins of the 
 ancient monarchy, and in the name of necessity, by the 
 genius of a great man sustamed by God, it became the 
 duty of all men to recognise and accept ; and, from the 
 uniform tone of his reasoning, it is manifest that the 
 historian himself would so have accepted it, though he 
 sees that it carried with it also the seeds of failm'e 
 inseparable from its revolutionary origin. 
 
 He thus in a great measure excludes from consideration 
 that particular element in Cromwell's idea of Govern- 
 ment which led him, in the re -constitution of the State 
 with a view to that bequest to his successor, to be in- 
 different whether it was repubhcan or monarchical in its 
 political form, provided only that, above all things, it 
 was godly in its spirit. Yet a sound perception of this 
 might have led him to far more just conclusions as to 
 the views also held by Cromwell in regard not only to 
 his system of rule during hfe, but to the very succession 
 he desired to leave after him. Upon a close examination
 
 THE CIVIL "WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 311 
 
 it would be found, we suspect, that liis true ideal was 
 among the Jewish forms of government disclosed by the 
 sacred book, even such as showed, in the midst, of the 
 petty kings of Moab and Edom, the free people of Israel, 
 without a king, living majestically. The grand old Hebrew 
 Judges would be perhaps his nearest model. But M. Guizot 
 will not recognise anything of this. M. Guizot thinks his 
 mind was great, because it was just, perspicacious, and 
 thoroughly practical ; but of tliis greatness he does not 
 find that religion formed an essential part, or contributed 
 to it in any material way. He avoids, indeed, all common- 
 place abuse. He knows that in Cromwell's day the open 
 use of scriptural language was no more synonymous with 
 cant, than republicanism with discord ; but in both cases 
 he appears to think that the one had a tendency to beget 
 the other, and he accepts Cromwell's reported comment 
 to Waller on a dialogue with one of the saints (" we must 
 " talk to these men in their own way"), as a fair hint of 
 the value of his piety. It was no more than one portion, 
 and not the chief, of his state craft. Even the rapt and 
 exalted fervour of his address to what we may call the 
 assembled saints in the Barebones Parliament, M. Guizot 
 attributes to those instincts on the part of a profound 
 genius anxious to derive, as though immediately from 
 God, the pretended supreme power which he had himself 
 established, and the inherent infirmity of which he already 
 perceived. We certainly cannot but regard as extremely 
 remarkable the grave indifference with which the French 
 historian is thus able to set aside, as only one of many 
 means towards a worldly end, the fervent vein of scriptural 
 thought and feeling which runs' not alone through every 
 deliberate work of Cromwell's, but which tinges also his 
 every lightest act, and, in his private as in his pubHc 
 utterances, is thatwhich still makes most impressive apj)eal 
 to all who would thoroughly investigate his character. 
 
 For this we hold to have been finally establislied by 
 Mr. Carljde, and to constitute the pecuHar value of his 
 labom's in connexion with the subject. To collect and
 
 312 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 arrange in chronological succession, and with elucidatory 
 comment, every authentic letter and speech left by 
 Cromwell, was to subject him to a test from which false- 
 hood could hardly escape; and the result has been to 
 show, we think conclusively and beyond further dispute, 
 that through all these speeches and letters one mind runs 
 consistently. \Vhatever a man's former prepossessions 
 may have been, he cannot accomj^any the utterer of these 
 speeches, the writer of these letters, from their first page 
 to the last, travelling with him from his grazing lands at 
 St. Ives up to his Protector's throne ; watching him in 
 the tenderest intercourse with those dearest to him ; 
 observing him in affair's of state or in the ordinary 
 business of the world, in offices of friendship or in con- 
 ference with sovereigns and senates ; listening to him as 
 he comforts a persecuted preacher, or threatens a perse- 
 cuting prince ; and remain at last with any other con- 
 viction than that in all conditions, and on every occasion, 
 Cromwell's tone is substantially the same, and that in the 
 passionate fervour of his religious feeling, under its 
 different and varying modifications, the true secret of his 
 life must be sought, and will be found. Everywhere 
 visible and recognisable is a deeply interpeneti^afecr sense 
 of spiritual dangers, of temporal vicissitudes, and of never 
 ceasing responsibility to the Eternal. " Ever in his 
 " Great Taskmaster's eye." Unless you can believe that 
 you have an actor continually before jon, you must 
 believe that this man did unquestionably recognise in his 
 Bible the authentic voice of God ; and had an irremovable 
 persuasion that according as, from that sacred source, he 
 learned the di\'ine law here and did it, or neglected to 
 learn and to do it, infinite blessedness or infinite misery 
 awaited him for evermore. 
 
 It is also clear to us from the letters, with only such 
 reservation as we have already intimated, and after the 
 large allowance to be made in every case for human 
 passion and frailty, that Cromwell was, to all practical 
 intents, as far removed on the" one hand from fanaticism,
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 313 
 
 as, on the other, from hypocrisy. It is certainly not 
 necessary that we shoukl accept it as proof of fanaticism, 
 that, on the day before setting out to the war with 
 Scotland, he enlarged to Ludlow upon the great pro- 
 vidences of God then abroad "upon the earth, and in 
 particular talked to him for almost an hour upon the 
 hundred and tenth psalm. We have but to remember it 
 as the i3salm in which God's promise was given to make 
 his enemies his footstool, to make his people willing, and 
 to strilce through kings in the day of his wrath, — to 
 understand why Cromwell so recalled it on the eve of his 
 last entrance into battle. It is as little necessary that we 
 should accept, as proof of hypocrisy, the proof M. Guizot 
 offers of his rejecting and even ridiculing the report set 
 about by the fanatical officers after the dissolution of the 
 Parliament, to the efiect that he had undergone special 
 and supernatural revelations. " The reports spread about 
 " the Lord General," writes M. de Bordeaux to M. de 
 Brienne, " are not true. He does not affect any special 
 " communication with the Holy Spirit, and he is not so 
 " weak as to be caught by flattery. I know that the 
 " Portuguese ambassador having complimented him on 
 " this change, he made a jest of it." But the Fi-ench 
 ambassador does not omit to accompany his statement 
 with a careful tribute to the Lord General's zeal and 
 great piety. Nor do we think M. Guizot justified in the 
 belief he appears to entertain, that Cromwell's toleration 
 of differences in religion proceeded from the merely 
 politic spirit, and was due only to his wisdom as a ruler 
 of men. To his profound knowledge of the art of govern- 
 ment may indeed be referred such projects as were started 
 in the Protectorate, — for a synod to bring the different 
 sects into peaceful agreement, for ensuring a complete 
 legal toleration to the Jews, and for receiving in England 
 even a bishop of the Church of Home to preside over the 
 religious communion of the Catholics. But from the 
 depth of true piety in his own soul must have proceeded 
 that larger personal charity, which was so ready, with 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 314 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 listening ear and helping hand, for any form of honest 
 belief that claimed from him sj'mpathy and protection. 
 Let any one read his noble correspondence with the 
 governor of Edinhm-glTTIastle, when, having defeated' the 
 army of the Covenant in battle, he proceeded in argument 
 to 'overthrow its preachers — and entertain aiiy "further 
 doubt of this if lie can. Those are the inconipafable 
 letters in which he reasoned "out a perfect scheme of 
 sublihie lolerafion. V in which He" vindicated the execution 
 of 'Cliarles" Stuart as an act which Christians in after 
 times would mention with honour, " and all tyrants in 
 " tlie world look at with feaF^^*^ in "wHich he wariied the 
 Presbytery that tlieilT'platform was too narrow for them 
 to expect " the great God to come down" to such minds and 
 thoughts ; in which he told them that he had not himself 
 so learned Christ as to look at ministers as lords over, 
 instead of helpers of, God's people ; and in whicli he 
 desired them specially to point out to him the warrant 
 they had in Scripture for believing that to preach was 
 their function exclusively. " Your pretended fear lest 
 " error should step in, is like the man who would keep 
 " all the wine out of the country lest men should be 
 " drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy 
 " to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon a suppo- 
 " sition he may abuse it. "When he doth abuse it, judge." 
 And then, within some six months or so, Edinburgh 
 having meanwhile surrendered, and the Presbytery, re- 
 covered from its sulks, having accepted permission again 
 to open its pulpits, you see this same Cromwell respect- 
 fully himself attending their services and sermons, and 
 taking no other notice of the latter being specially directed 
 against himself and his fellow " sectaries," than to desire 
 friendly discourse with the ministers who had so railed 
 against them, to the end that, if possible, misunderstand- 
 ings might be taken away. 
 
 Neither had Cromwell, before he evinced this spirit, 
 waited until authority fell to him as Lord General, at 
 which time, in M. Guizot's view, considerations altogether
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 315 
 
 politic and worldly began largel}" to operate with him. 
 There is a very remarkable letter decisive as to this, 
 which the GcntlcmmCs Magazine first published three 
 quarters of"a^entury ago, but which Mr. Carlyle has 
 beeu able to confirm by proof and adjust to the right 
 place in his life, — the year after the battle of Naseby. 
 Not long before the date of it, he had entered Ely cathe- 
 dral while the Eeverend Mr. Hitch was " performing " 
 the choir service, and with a " leave off your foolwg, and 
 " come down, sir," had turned tlie" reverend gentleman 
 sheer~out of the place, intoning, singing, and all. But 
 this was because Mr. Hitch had become a nuisance to a 
 godly neighbourhood, and had treated with dehberate 
 disregard a previous warning of Oliver's to the very 
 plain and legible effect, that, " lest the soldiers should in 
 " any tumultuous or disorderly way attempt the refor- 
 " mation of the cathedral church, I require you to forbear 
 " altogether your choir service, so unedifying and offen- 
 " sive ; and this as you shall answer it, if an}^ disorder 
 " should arise thereupon." And notwithstanding the 
 prompt procedure by which he kept his word in this 
 case, he shows himself, in the letter we have named and 
 are now about to quote, not less ready to protect any 
 honest people differing completely from himself in regard 
 to choir or other services, provided always they so exer- 
 cised their unedifjang faith as not to be offensive to 
 others. He intercedes with a Eoyalist gentleman, in the 
 adjoining (Norfolk) county, for liberty of conscience to 
 certain of his tenants. "And," he writes, " however the 
 " world interprets it, I am not ashamed to solicit for such 
 " as are anywhere under pressure of this kind ; doing even 
 " as I would be done by. Sir, this is a quarrelsome 
 " age, and the anger seems to nie to be the worse, Avhere 
 " the^ground is difference of opinion ; which to cure, to 
 " hurt men in their names, persons, or estates, will not be 
 " found an apt remedy." Over and over again he insists 
 and enlarges on these views. He started life with them, 
 
 and they remained with him to its close. Over and over 
 
 p 2
 
 316 HISTORICAL ESSAYS 
 
 again he used the noble language which was among the 
 last he addressed to the last parliament that assembled 
 in his name. He would have freedom for the spirits and 
 souls of men, he said, l)ecause the spirits of men are the 
 men. The mind was the man. If that were kept pure 
 and free, the man signified somewhat ; but if not, he would 
 fain see what difference there was betwixt a man and a 
 beast. Nay he had only some activity to do some more 
 mischief. Upon these principles he would have established, 
 and connected inseparably, government and religion. 
 
 The religion which teaches us our duty to others is not 
 very likely to fail us in regard to ourselves. Watch 
 Cromwell in any great crisis of his life, and judge whether 
 the faith he held could have rested on any doubtful or 
 insecure foundation. Take him at the moment of his 
 greatest triumph, or in the hour of his darkest peril, and 
 observe whether tlie one so unduly elates or the other so 
 unworthily depresses him, as to cause him to lose the sense 
 either of his own weakness or of his Creator's power, 
 either of the littleness of time or of the greatness of eter- 
 nit3^ In the very majesty of his reception after the 
 Worcester "Tmttle, " he would seldom mention anything 
 " of Eimself," says Whitelocke, describing theii' meeting 
 at Aylesbury ; " mentioned others only ; and gave, as was 
 " due, the giorj^ of the action unto God." In his last 
 extremity at Dunbar, when Lesle}^ with an army of 
 double his numbers. Hushed with victory, had so hemmed 
 him in with his sick, starving, and dispii'ited troops, as 
 they retreated and were falling back upon their ships, 
 that, to use his own expression, " almost a miracle " was 
 needed to save them, there is, in^the tone of the letter he 
 sent to Haselrig on the Newcastle border, such a quiet 
 and composed disregard of himself, such a care only for 
 the safety of the cause, such a calm and sustained reliance 
 upon God, as we doubt if the annals of heroism can else- 
 where parallel. " Whatever becoines of us,** lie wrote, 
 " it will be well for you to get what forces you can to- 
 " gether ; and tlie south to help what they can. If
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL, 317 
 
 " your forces had been in readiness to have fallen upon 
 " the back of Copperspath, it might have occasioned sup- 
 " plies to have come to us. But the only wise God knows 
 " what is best. All shall work for good. Our spirits 
 " are comfortable, praised be the Lord ; though our 
 " present condition be as it is. Let Henry Vane know 
 " what I write. I would not make it public, lest danger 
 " should accrue thereby." 
 
 Whatever else might desert this man, hope and faith 
 never did. There was one who stood afterwards by his 
 death-bed, while a worse storm shook the heavens than 
 even that which had swept along the heights of Dunbar, 
 and who recalled these days in testimony of the strong 
 man he had been. " In the dark perils of war, in the 
 " high places of the field, hope shone in him like a pillar 
 " of fire, when it had gone out in all the others." Nor 
 in the high places only, but in the solitude or service of 
 his chamber, he impressed in like manner all who had 
 intercourse with him. It was ever they who stood nearest 
 to him who had reason to admire him most; and to the eyes 
 even oT valets and chamber-grooms, the heroic shone out 
 of Cromwell. It is from one who held such ofl&ce in his 
 household we have a picture of him handed down to us 
 which Vandyke or Velasquez might have painted. A 
 body well compact and strong ; his stature under six foot 
 (" I believe about two inches ") ; his head so shaped as 
 you might see it both a storehouse and shop, of a vast 
 treasury of natural jiarts ; his temper exceeding fiery (" as 
 " I have known "), but the flame of it kept down for the 
 most part, or soon allayed with those moral endowments 
 he had; naturally compassionate towards objects in dis- 
 tress, even to an effeminate measure, though God had 
 made him a heart, wherein was left little room for any 
 fear ; " a larger soul, I think, hath seldom dwelt in a liouse of 
 " clay than his tvas." What Englishman may not be proud 
 of that written portrait of Oliver Cromwell, still fresh 
 from the hand of worthy Mr. John Maidstone, cofferer and 
 gentleman-in-waiting on the Lord Protector of England ? 
 
 /
 
 318 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 Of the general estimate of him formed by the French 
 historian httle more need be said. There is much we 
 might further make objection to ; but compressed and 
 brief as our summary of M. Guizot's views has been, it 
 will perhaps be understood with sufficient reservation, 
 . He does not reject the stories of the Irish massacres, 
 though they are unwittingly refuted even by Cromwell's 
 most eager enemies, the Irish priests, in the Clonmacnoise 
 manifesto. He retains, on authority very decidedly ques- 
 tionable, a great many reports which would tend to 
 suggest ill thoughts of the Protector. But to the fuU 
 worldly extent of the term, his Cromwell, whether before 
 or after the Protectorate', was one of the great men of the 
 earth. He is under the influence of ambition, but it is an 
 
 i ambition generally qualified, and often exalted, by the 
 state necessities to which it bends. The question that 
 ' so early arose between him and the Long Parliament, 
 M. Guizot calls the beginning of a duel, Avhich he holds 
 that neither party engaged in could avoid forcing on to its 
 close. Of one or other of them, he believes it became the 
 duty cedere majori ; and from the tone of his reasoning we 
 are left to infer also his belief, that in the latter days of 
 the struggle it could not but occur to the Parliament, 
 while claiming over Cromwell a nominal supremacy, to 
 feel the sting of the last portion of the epigram. Ilia gravis 
 palma est, quam minor Iiostis hahet. One very interesting 
 point we think certainly very clearly established by his 
 researches to illustrate the details he gives of this conten- 
 tion. He shows more decisively than any previous historian 
 that Cromwell, before the repubhc fell by his hand, was 
 indisputably the first man in it ; not simply in right of 
 his victories, but by the administrative genius he had dis- 
 played, and by the light in which the foreign courts 
 already regarded him. At the same time, as it seems to 
 us, he fails himself to attach sufficient importance to this ; 
 and perhaps generally somewhat underrates the influence 
 and connexion of foreign policy with the domestic ad- 
 ministration of England at the period.
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 319 
 
 But the mistake, if it be one, does not stint the details 
 M. Guizot gives, which open to us the manuscript 
 treasures of the Hague, and the unpublished archives of 
 the Ti-ench foreim office, as well as those of Simancas in 
 Spain, and pour upon this part of his great subject a flood 
 of steady and original light. His volumes thus include 
 details of various confidential missions, and much other 
 matter of the highest interest, of which the most essential 
 portions are given complete in a copious appendix. That 
 we should always admit their evidence in exactly the light 
 in which M. Guizot seems disposed to accept it, we of 
 course do not find to be necessary. Although M. Croulle 
 on the part of France, and Don Alonzo de Cardeilas on 
 the part of Spain, both express and act upon opinions of 
 Cromwell's character which agree generally with the 
 judgment formed of it in M. Guizot's book, it may yet 
 with perfect fairness be said that neither a gentleman from 
 the court of Philip IV, nor a gentleman from the court of 
 Louis Quatorze bound to the policy of a statesman of the 
 stamp of Mazarin, were very likely to understand an 
 exalted zeal like Cromwell's, assuming it to have been 
 always what it claimed to be. Putting aside such feats of 
 policy, however, as an alleged deliberate sowing of discord 
 for state purposes between the absent king and his 
 brothers, and some few other acts justified only by the too 
 freely permitted distinction between private and political 
 morality, especially in foreign relations, there is nothing in 
 these new discoveries of which any defender of Cromwell 
 has need to be ashamed, and there is a vast deal to 
 confirm very strikingly the sense of his greatness. 
 
 We give a few examples. Before the time of the Pro- 
 tectorate, by the chief statesmen of both parties in the 
 war of the Fronde then raging in France, the upward 
 course of the great leader of the popular party in England 
 had been Avatched with anxiety and dread. Both feared 
 and hated him ; yet such was their position m regard 
 to Spain, and each other, that his friendly countenance 
 to either was become of inexpressible value. He had
 
 320 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 hardly arrived in London after the battle of Worcester, when, 
 in answer to overtures from De Retz at the instant of 
 the brief triumph Avhich preceded that statesman's fall, he 
 sent Henry Vane with a letter to him (a striking proof 
 that up to this time, that " great parliamentarian and 
 " intimate confidant of his," as the Cardinal describes 
 him, could have had no suspicion of any blow meditated 
 against the parliament) ; and this also is the date when 
 Mazarin, affecting to put a friendly construction upon 
 rumours that had reached him of a proposed expedition 
 of Cromwell's into France, eagerly suggests to M. Croulle 
 through M. Servien that if at the close of his Scottish 
 campaign " Mr. Cromwell should come into France, being 
 " as he is a person of merit, he will be well received here, 
 " for assuredly every one will go to meet him at the place 
 "where he disembarks." Of course M. Croulle promptly 
 disabuses his master of any notion of expecting that kind 
 of neighbourly visit ; but, in also contradicting the report 
 that any hostile intentions were entertained to France, he 
 is careful to reproduce for the Cardinal the haughty terms 
 in which Cromwell himself was said to have denied it. 
 " Looking at his hair, which is already white, he said that 
 " if he were ten years younger there was not a king in 
 " Europe whom he could not make to tremble, and that, 
 " as he had a better motive than the late king of Sweden, 
 "he believed himself still capable of doing more for the 
 " good of nations than the other ever did for his own 
 " ambition." 
 
 Nevertheless it was while overtures were on all sides 
 secretly going on, and still during De Retz's brief pre- 
 dominance, that the double-faced Mazarin thus wrote from 
 his place of exile at Bruhl to discredit De Retz with the 
 queen. It was probably written at the very moment when 
 the coadjutor himself was attempting to justify his inter- 
 course with Vane on the express ground of what he calls 
 Mazarin's " base and continual " flattery of Cromwell. 
 " The coadjutor has always spoken with veneration of 
 " Cromwell, as of a man sent by God into England,
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 321 
 
 " saying that he would raise such men also in other 
 " kingdoms ; and once in good company, where there was 
 " Menage present, hearing the courage of M. de Beaufort 
 " extolled, he said in express terms, if M. de Beaufort is 
 " Fairfax, I am Cromwell.'" We subjoin a portion of M. 
 Guizot's comment, which we need hardly say we have 
 translated for ourselves. 
 
 " Mazarin excelled in poisoning, for the ruin of Ms enemies, 
 their actions or their words, and at the same time in taking to 
 himself impudently theii- examples and their weapons. While he 
 thus showed to the queen's eyes, as a crime in the coadjutor, his 
 ojjinion of Cromwell, he laboured himself to enter with Cromwell 
 into close relations. Too shrewd not to recognise that in that 
 direction, in England, lay the capacity and power,' it was to the 
 futiu-e master of the republic, no longer to the republican parlia- 
 ment, that he made his advances. Cromwell lent himself to them 
 willingly ; he too was incessantly bent on making to himself 
 powerful friends everywhere. ' He adroitly leaves to others the 
 ' conduct and care of whatever begets outcry,' said, in 1650, 
 CrouUe' to M. Servien, ' and reserves to himself affairs that confer 
 ' obligation ; concerning which at least he sets rumour afloat, in 
 ' such manner that if they succeed they may be attributed to him, 
 ' and if not that one may see he willed them well, and that the 
 ' result came of hindrance from others.'"'- 
 
 We cannot quote all the details of the overtures that 
 thus began, curious and impressive as they are, but through 
 none of them, the reader soon perceives, was Mazarin a 
 match for Cromwell. The great soldier and statesman, 
 though with his own predilections hampered by the pre- 
 judices of his country, and standing between the intrigues 
 
 1 " Trop sag ace pour ne pas reco)i- note, that as the letter aud its date 
 
 '■^naUrequela etaient, en Angleterrc, are beyond question, the title of 
 
 " I'habilete et le jwiivuir.' According Protector must have been intercalated 
 
 to the translator, " Too sagacious not some years afterwards ; but his traiiw- 
 
 " to perceive that in him were centred lator does not think it worth while 
 
 "all the power and ability then either to translate this note, or ex- 
 
 " existing in England." plain the confusion it was intended to 
 
 - A letter to Mazarin from the remedy ; and in subsequently giving 
 
 Count d'Estrador is added, in which, the note of June '53, quoted in the 
 
 though the date is the 5th of February, text, he appends to its signature the 
 
 165"2, the title of Protector is given title (P.) which its very contents 
 
 to (Jroniwell. Of course therefore should have shown him did not tlien 
 
 M. Guizot is careful to remark, in a belong tj the writer. 
 
 p 3
 
 322 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 of the rival Courts of France and Spain, yet knew how to 
 play his game with perfect safety, and to obtain sub- 
 stantially all that he desired. All through the negotiations 
 that ensued, however, two things are very obvious in his* 
 far-sighted policy. He had not simply to adjust the 
 balance in Europe, at that time overweighted by France ; 
 but he had to look to the safety and stability of his own 
 recently settled government, more in danger from so near 
 a neighbour as France, than from one so distant as Spain. 
 Here will be found the real clue to his wonderful manage- 
 ment of these two powers, and to the measures by which 
 he had been able to establish so potent and singular an 
 influence in the heart, and over both the parties, of the 
 neighbour kingdom. Up to the time of the expulsion of 
 the Long Parliament, no alliance had been absolutely con- 
 cluded with either France or Spain ; though at the moment 
 of its expulsion, Bordeaux was under the impression that 
 a treaty with it, on the part of the statesman he repre- 
 sented, was on the point of being happily concluded. But 
 already Mazarin had been obliged, even without deriving 
 any immediate advantage from the step, formally to recog- 
 nise the Republic and its leaders ; and with hot haste, as 
 soon as the Long Parliament was dissolved, the Cardinal 
 of course easily betook himself to the j)ower that remained 
 triumphant. " Mazarin," writes M. Guizot, " always pro- 
 " digal of flattering advances, wrote to Cromwell to offer 
 " him, and ask from him, a serviceable friendship. Crom- 
 " well replied to him with a rare excess of affected hu- 
 " mility." And then follows a little note, concerning which 
 Mr. Carlyle, believing it to exist only in the form of a 
 French translation made by Mazarin, remarked, that " it 
 " would not be wholly without significance if we had it in 
 " the original." Here it is in the original. 
 
 " Westminster, QtJt, of June, 1653. 
 
 ** It is surprise to me that your Eminency should take notice of 
 a person so inconsiderable as myself, living (as it were) separate 
 from the world. This honour has done (as it ought) a very deeji
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 323 
 
 impression upon me, and does oblige me to serve your Eminency 
 upon all occasions, so as I shall be bappy to find out. So I trust 
 that very honourable person Monsiem' Biu'doe [Bordeaux] will 
 therein be helpful to 
 
 " Your Eminencie's 
 
 " Tkrice humble Servant, 
 
 " O. Ckomwell." 
 
 The historian calls this a rare excess of affected 
 humility; but after all what is there more, in the 
 counterfeit humilit}^, than such a reply to a compliment 
 as every gentleman in England makes every week in some 
 form to somebody. " You do me too much honour. 
 " There is nothing that I would not do to serve you. Sir. 
 " Good morning." 
 
 There is never in truth any affected humility, but 
 rather a contempt very thinly covered, if not openly 
 avowed, on the part of Cromwell to Mazarin ; nor does 
 this find anywhere more characteristic expression than in 
 the evidence M. Guizot incidentally gives us of the sort of 
 gifts they interchanged. AVhile Mazarin sent over regal 
 presents of tapestry, wine, and Barbar}'^ horses, Cromwell, 
 familiarly and half contemptuously confident that he had 
 to do with a man more avaricious than vain, would return 
 such compliments by forwarding so many cases of pure 
 Cornwall tin. As to their public infeix^oiirse throughout, 
 the "lirstorian sees that it was but a constant interchange 
 of concessions and resistances, services and refusals, in 
 which they ran little risk of qviarrelling, for the simple 
 reason that they mutually understood each other, and did 
 not require from one another anything that could not 
 be denied without doing greater injury than the grant 
 would do service ; but it was after all a kind of equality 
 in which the personal predominance undoubtedly remained 
 with Cromwell. It is he whom it is manifestly impossible, 
 throughout, either to intimidate or deceive ; and though it 
 was no small art on Mazarin's side, as soon as he saw this, 
 to affect to meet his adversary with the same simple frank- 
 ness, there can hardly be a question which plays the
 
 324 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 greater figure, he who possessed tlie art, or he Avho always 
 reduced its possessor to the necessity of practising it. 
 
 Of Cromwell's first effort after the dissolution of the 
 Long Parliament to govern with the help of the men who 
 had been parties to that act of violence, the result, accord- 
 ing to M. Guizot's view, was to show him that reforming 
 sectaries and innovators, though useful instruments of 
 destruction, are destructive to the very power they establish; 
 and that the classes among whom conservative interests 
 prevail are the only natural and permanent allies of autho- 
 rity. Yet he had no choice but to renew his efforts in the 
 same direction, with what help such experience could give ; 
 for the French historian has satisfied himself that his 
 honest desire was so far, by any possible means, to place 
 himself in subordination to English law, as to obtain co- 
 operation from a fairly-chosen Parliament that should 
 consent honestly to assist him in establishing a Cromwell 
 dynasty of kings, and in restoring, with the monarchy, 
 the ancient form of lords and commons. But still his 
 attempts were unavailing. He could not restore what 
 he had so helped to destroy. Amid the ruins which 
 his hands had made, he was doomed to see the vanity of 
 those rash hopes, and to learn that no government is, or 
 can be, the work of man's will alone. In the endeavour 
 to obtain such a Parliament as the old usages of England 
 sanctioned, he raised up more than one semi-constitutional 
 assembly ; but merely to destroy it when it disappointed 
 him, and with it, as he well kneAv, his only safe means of 
 taxing the people he would govern. The money needful 
 for State purposes thus failing him, he was at last driven 
 to the expedient pronounced by M. Guizot to be the 
 political act which caused his ruin — the establishment of 
 Major- Generals to levy tithes on the revenues of the 
 royalists. By this unjustifiable act, M. Guizot declares 
 that he detached his glory from the cause of order and 
 peace, in the name of which he had begun to found his 
 throne, and plunged his power down among the depths of 
 revolutionary violence. " He invoked," says the consti-
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 325 
 
 tutional historian, " necessity ; and without doubt thought 
 " himself reduced to that : if he was right, it was one of 
 " those necessities inflicted by God's justice, which reveal 
 " the innate vice of a Government, and become the sen- 
 " tence of its condemnation." 
 
 From this time to the end, M. Guizot is of opinion that 
 Cromwell was thoroughly conscious of the weakness with 
 which he was smitten by his own deed, and that it was upon 
 feehng in all directions for support he at last perceived his 
 surest prop to be the advocacy of libert}^ of conscience. 
 Of the formal discussion which he afterwards raised with 
 his friendly Parliament on the question of his assuming 
 royal state, the historian speaks as of a comedy performed 
 for the instruction of the nation. It was designed to 
 make men familiar with the topic, and to scatter abroad a 
 variety of arguments in its favour ; but the interference 
 of the army brought the comedy to an unwelcome end. 
 Cromwell resigned the name of king ; and with it, the his- 
 torian appears to think, any power of retaining much 
 longer the kingly authority. He had arrived at the slippery 
 height on which to stand still was impossible, and there 
 was no alternative but to mount higher or to fall. Even his 
 great heart failed him. He now saw, that, die when he might, 
 he must be content to leave behind him for his successors 
 the two enemies he had most ardently combated, anarchy 
 andjthe Sliuarts ; and M. Gulzot's comments leave it to 
 be inferred as his opinion, that had he long survived the 
 discomfiture which embittered his last months, even his 
 political position might have been seriously endangered. 
 He died, however, in the fullness of his power, though 
 sorroivfid. " Sorrowful not onl}'- because he must die, but 
 " also, and above all, because he must die without having 
 " attained his true and final purpose." 
 
 But that his, nevertheless, was the strong resolve which 
 exclusively upheld the State as long as life remained to 
 him, M. Guizot shows nowhere so emphatically as in the 
 description of the Protectorate of his son. The weak 
 purpose of Bichard being substituted for his father's iron
 
 326 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 will, every party again became loud in the assertion of liis 
 own particular theory; " accomplices became rivals;" and 
 soon, in the stormy sea of faction, the good ship of the 
 Republic drifted an utter wreck. Then were seen, accord- 
 ing to the historian, the faults both of the pure republicans 
 and of the adherents of Cromwell revenging themselves 
 upon their authors. For what more easy than the way at 
 last appeared to be, to a firm establishment of Eichard 
 Cromwell's government '? AVhatever his infirmities of 
 character, he was disliked by none. M. Guizot quotes 
 golden opinions expressed of him by all sorts of people, 
 and points out that the whole jirivate interest of the mem- 
 bers of his first Parliament lay in the assm'ance of his 
 power, and with that also of their own prosperity. He 
 •describes the Government as having no design and no 
 desire of tyranny ; Richard himself as naturally moderate, 
 patient, equitable ; and his counsellors, like himself, as 
 demanding nothing better than to govern in concert with 
 the Parliament, and according to the laws. AVhat, then, 
 so natural or so reasonable, as for all men who had not 
 vowed their hearts to the old royal line or to the pure 
 republic, to accommodate themselves to the regime esta- 
 blished, and to live, by common consent, tranquil and 
 safe under the new Protector ? But it was not to be. 
 Though their empire had vanished, their obstinacy 
 remained unenlightened and unsubdued. Detested as 
 oppressors, and decried as visionaries, they retorted by 
 accusing their country of ingratitude, and battled vainly 
 against the successive defeats which they knew not that 
 the hand of God was inflicting. But though the}'^ could 
 not build they could destroy, and so the second Protec- 
 torate passed away. 
 
 Yet let us not leave the reader under any doubt whether 
 a full or a stinted measure of justice is done by the his- 
 torian to what was really successful as well as great in the 
 policy of the first Protectorate. It is on every account 
 our interest to give M. Guizot further hearing as to this, 
 since it enables us to give also further indication of the
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL, 327 
 
 very valuable original illustrations contributed by his 
 book to our English annals. 
 
 M. Guizot describes the foreign policy of Cromwell as 
 based on two fixed ideas, — peace with the United Pro- 
 vinces and the alliance of the Protestant States. These 
 were in his eyes the two vital conditions of the security 
 and greatness of his country in Europe, of his own 
 security and his own greatness in Eiu'ope and in his 
 country. With the United Provinces peace was at once 
 made, Whitelocke was sent upon his embassy to Sweden, 
 a special treaty of commerce was negotiated with the 
 King of Denmark, and Cromwell found himself on terms 
 of friendship with all Protestant States of Europe. In 
 France it was said, continues M. Guizot, tliat he even 
 meditated, in the interests of Protestantism, a more vast 
 and difficult design. 
 
 " ' The Protector proposes to himself,' Avrote to the Cardinal 
 Mazarin one of his confidential agents, ' to cause the assembly of 
 ' a council of all the Protestant communions, to re-unite them in 
 ' one body for the common confession of one and the same faith.' 
 Some particular facts indicate that he was, indeed, preoccupied 
 with this idea. He was one of those persons of powerful and 
 fertile genius in whom great designs and great temptations are 
 born by crowds ; but he applied promptly his firm good sense to 
 his finest dreams, and never pursued ftirther those which did not 
 endure that trial. 
 
 " He assumed towards the Catholic powers an attitude of 
 complete and frigid independence, without prejudice or ill-will, 
 but without forwardness, showing himself disposed to peace, but 
 always leaving to be seen a glimpse of war, and carrying a rough 
 pride into the cai'e of the interests of his country or of his own 
 greatness."^ 
 
 ' We cannot resist giving M. " portant une fiertd rude dans lo soin 
 
 Guizot's text in this latter paragraph " des int(:;rcts de son pays ou de sa 
 
 in connexion with the veision of " propro grandeur." Tliat is an ad- 
 
 his translator. " II prit envers les mirable specimen of AI. Guizut's style 
 
 " puissances Catholiques une attitude and manner in this book. We could 
 
 " de complete et froide liberte, — sans hardly instance a better. But now 
 
 "prcjuge ni mauvais vouloir, mais observe the following : "Towards the 
 
 "sans empressement, se montrant "Catholic powers he assumed an 
 
 " disposd k la paix, mais laissant "attitude of complete and fearless 
 
 " toujours eutrevuir la guerre, et "liberty, unmarked by prejudice or
 
 328 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 We need not pause to relate how he showed this : for 
 one example, hy treating with the King of Portugal, who 
 was stigmatised at Madrid as an usurper, and by the 
 simultaneous execution, for murder, of Don Pantaleon 
 de Sa, the brother of the ambassador from Portugal. 
 M. Guizot's very interesting narrative is full of similar 
 and striking proof, the greater part of it quite new. 
 France and Spain outdo each other in obsequious homage 
 before Cromwell's intractable energy. We see each 
 bidding higher and higher against the other for his active 
 friendship, and Cardenas at last eagerly offering him a 
 subvention of not less than six hundred thousand dollars 
 a year, " without having in London or in Flanders," wrote 
 Mazarin to Bordeaux, " the first sou to give him if he 
 " took them at their word. He would promise with the 
 " same facility a million, indeed two, to get a pledge from 
 " him, since assuredly it would not cost them more to 
 " hold and execute one promise than the other." Mazarin, 
 a better diplomatist, enriches his promises with a flowing 
 courtesy ; sends with them his wine, his tapestry, and his 
 Barbary horses ; and concedes, on the part of the young- 
 king, a rank only less than royal. Even the Prince of 
 Conde hastens to become acceptable to the rough English 
 soldier, and declares his belief that the people of the three 
 kingdoms must be now at the summit of their happiness 
 at seeing their goods and lives confided to so great a 
 man. 
 
 " Cromwell received all these advances with the same show of 
 good will : not that he saw them all with equal eye, or that he 
 drifted indiflerent or nucei-taiu among allies so opposite. Unlike 
 the Long Parliament, he inclined much more towards France than 
 towards Spain ; with a superior sagacity he had perceived that 
 Spain was thenceforward an apathetic power, able to efiect but 
 little, and in spite of its favom-able demonstrations, more hostile 
 
 "ill-will, but equally void of court- "war, and watching over the inte- 
 
 " ship or flattery, showing himself "rests of his country and of his own 
 
 "disposed to maintain peace, but "family with stern and uncom- 
 
 " always leaving open the prospect of " promising haughtluess."
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 321) 
 
 than any other to Protestant England, for it was more exclusively 
 than any other given up to the maxims and influences of the 
 Roman Church. And at the same time that there was little to 
 expect from Spain, she ofiered to the maritime ambition of England, 
 by her vast possessions in the new world, rich and easy prey." 
 
 Accordingly, there soon followed, we need hardly remind 
 the reader, the well-known swoop upon the King of 
 Spain's West Indian possessions. The better half of the 
 design failed, indeed, when the attack upon St. Domingo 
 failed ; but the seizure of Jamaica was an unquestionable 
 prize, which Cromwell's wisdom turned at once to a noble 
 account. The historian describes all these incidents and 
 their consequences in a way that shows ever characteris- 
 tically the personal predominance of the Protector. Up 
 to within a few days of the declaration of w^ar against 
 Spain, hope has continued with Cardenas. To even the 
 hour of the treaty of alliance with France, fear has not 
 quitted Mazarin. And by a free use of the very words of 
 the men who wrote freshly and on the instant out of the 
 midst of their diplomacy, the foreign policy of the Protec- 
 torate is thus with vivid truth and a rare freshness repro- 
 duced by ]M. Guizot. We may compare the mighty tread 
 of Cromwell with the pirouettes of the statesmen opposed 
 to him, and get no mean perception of the true hero of 
 the day. 
 
 Of the conditions of the treaty at last concluded with 
 France, it is not necessary that we should speak ; but the 
 jealous rigour with which Cromwell insisted on the sub- 
 stitution of Rex Gallornm for Rex GaUlce, is* a pregnant 
 indication of the attitude now assumed by him to the most 
 powerful of foreign States. Never, certainly, had our 
 English name been carried so high. " He is the greatest 
 " and happiest prince in Europe," exclaimed young Louis 
 Quatorze. Bound in fast treaties Avith all the Protestant 
 States, allied to the most potent of Catholic Sovereigns, 
 Montecuculi deprecating his wrath on one side as agent 
 for the house of Austria, and on the other the INIarquis of 
 Leyden on behalf of the King of Spain, he received.
 
 330 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 besides the foreign ministers who habitually resided at his 
 court, ambassadors extraordinary from Sweden, Poland, 
 Germany, and Italy, who came solemnly to present to him 
 the overtures or homage of their masters. Pictures and 
 medals, some nobly commemorative of his exploits, others 
 coarsely satirical of his adversaries, were displayed in 
 almost every town of the continent, celebrating his illus- 
 trious deeds, and humbling before them the old princes 
 and kings. VieW might one of the most considerable of 
 the foreign agents write over to Thurloe from Brussels 
 that " the Lord Protector's government makes England 
 " more formidable and considerable to all nations than 
 " it has ever been in my day." 
 
 Nor is less justice rendered by M. Guizot to what he 
 believes to have been another of the titles of that govern- 
 ment to esteem ; and of Cromwell's patronage of literature 
 and learned men, he speaks with due respect. Though 
 1:8 holds that his mind was neither naturally elegant nor 
 richly cultivated, he can yet see that his free and liberal 
 genius understood thoroughly the wants of the human 
 intellect. And while M. Guizot's experience has taught 
 him, clearly enough, that absolute power, on emerging 
 from great social disturbances, takes its chief delight and 
 achieves its completest triumphs in the promotion of 
 material prosperity, still, in regard to Cromwell, he 
 frankly admits that few despots have so carefully confined 
 themselves within the limits of practical necessity, and 
 allowed the human mind such a wide range of freedom. 
 He sees ih him the practical saviour of the two old 
 Universities, and the fo lTnder of the Uuncrsity of Durham. 
 H^'is gltid to reTJtJTTtthat he offered Ilobbes the post of a 
 secretary in his household, that he conSiiued the employ- 
 ment of Milton, and that he took no offence at either 
 Selden or Casaubon, when the one declined his pension, 
 and the other his invitation to write a history of the civil 
 Avars. He dwells with pleasure on his kindness to the 
 learned Usher, on his desire to stand well with Cudworth 
 and with Taylor, on his frank patronage of all the lettered
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 331 
 
 Puritans, and on the facts that Waller had a place in his 
 court (we have evidence, since M. Guizot wrote, that he 
 put no mean value on the poet's famous panegyric ' ), that 
 Butler was permitted to meditate Hudibras in the house 
 of one of his officers, and that Davenant obtained his 
 permission to open a private theatre for performance of 
 his comedies. He might have added that the Lord 
 Protector had himself a taste for innocent and cheerful 
 recreation ; that he had no objection to play at Crambo, 
 or even occasionally smoke a pipe with my Lord Commis- 
 sioner Whitelocke, who also has left us a pleasant anecdote 
 contrastin'g'^s laughter and gaiety_to_j.he soldiers with 
 the greater impatience and reserve of Ireton ; and that, 
 in the correspondence of one of the Dutch ambassadors, 
 thefe^s a picture of liis courteous habits on state occasions, 
 and of the dignified and graceful conduct of his household, 
 which far exceeds, in sober grandeur and worth, any other 
 couit circular of that age. " The music pla3^ed all the 
 " while we were at dinner," says Herr Jongestall, " and 
 " after, the Lord Protector had us into another room. 
 
 ' A brief but remarkable letter 
 was brought to light the other day in 
 which Cromwell, writing from White- 
 hall in 1655, tells Waller that he has 
 no guilt upon him uM?f§ it be "to be 
 "revenged for your soe willinglye 
 " mistakinge mee in your verses;" 
 and talks of putting Waller to redeem 
 him from himself, as he had already 
 from the world. The great Protector 
 was not insensible to those noble and 
 ever memorable lines. Waller had 
 known well how to make his Panegyric 
 most pleasing to his great kinsman's 
 ear. 
 
 '^^"The Sea's our own, and now all 
 ^ nations greet 
 
 "With bending sails each vessel in 
 
 our fleet, 
 " Your power resounds as far as wind 
 
 can blow, 
 ' ' Or swelling sails upon the globe 
 
 may go . . . 
 " Whether this portion of the world 
 
 were rent 
 
 ■ By the wide ocean from the con- 
 tinent, 
 
 ' Or thus created, it was sure de- 
 sigu'd 
 
 • To be the sacred refuge of mankind. 
 
 • Hither the oppressed shall hence- 
 
 forth resort 
 'Justice to crave, and succour of 
 your Court, 
 
 • And show your Highness not for 
 
 ours alone 
 ' But for the World's Protector shall 
 
 be known . . . 
 ' To pardon willing, and to punish 
 
 loth, 
 ' You strike with one hand, but you 
 
 heal with both . . . 
 ' Still as you rise, the State, exalted 
 
 ffiro -— ' 
 
 ' Fihots no distoinper whil§ 'tis 
 
 cTianged by you — 
 'Changed like the World's 
 
 scene, when without noise 
 
 great 
 
 rising Sii'n nrgTiTs vulg ar 
 Ijglts destroys 1" 
 
 /y
 
 332 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 " where the Lady Protectress and others came to us, and 
 " we had also music and voices." 
 
 To these graces of his private hfe, and to his domestic 
 love and tenderness, which even his worst enemies have 
 admitted, M. Guizot is of course not slow to pay tribute ; 
 but on one point he has suffered himself to be strangely 
 misled. He gravely mentions Cromwell's infidelity to 
 his wife, as if it were an admitted fact, and not a mere 
 royalist slander; and he seems to think that some com- 
 plaints of her own remain in proof of a well-founded 
 jealousy. Jealousy there may be, in the solitary letter 
 of this excellent woman which has descended to us ; but 
 it is the jealousy only of a gentle and sensitive nature, 
 shrinking from tlie least ruffle or breath bf doubt that can 
 come between itself and the beloved. " My dearest," she 
 writes, " I wonder you should blame me for writing no 
 " oftener, when I have sent three for one : I cannot but 
 " think they are miscarried. Truly, if I know my own 
 " heart, I should as soon neglect m3^self as to omit the 
 " least thought towards you, when in doing it I must do 
 " it to myself. But when I do write, my dear, I seldom 
 " have any satisfactory answer, which makes me think my 
 " writing is slighted; as well it may; but I cannot but 
 " think your love covers my Aveakness and infirmities. 
 " Truly my life is but half a life in your absence." That 
 is not the writing of a w^oman jealous of anything but the 
 share of her husband's time and care which public affairs 
 steal from her. Most touching, too, is a letter of his own 
 of nearly the same date, written to her from the very 
 midst of the toils and perils of Dunbar; in wliich he tells 
 her that truly, if he does not love her too well, he thinks 
 he errs not on the other hand much, and assures her that 
 she is dearer to him than any creature. Let M. Guizot 
 be well assured that he has here fiillen into error. 
 
 Of another error into which he has fallen, also connected 
 with the domesticities of Cromwell, we have now, in con- 
 clusion, to speak in somewhat more detail. It touches an 
 interesting point in Cromwell's history, and we are happy
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 333 
 
 to be able to remove all further doubt respecting it. By 
 none who have yet written on the subject has it been 
 stated correctl3^ 
 
 Five sons were born to Cromwell, of whom the youngest, 
 James, born in 1632, certainly died in his infancy, and 
 the eldest, Robert, born in 1621, is supposed in all the 
 biographies not to have survived his childhood. The 
 second son, Oliver, born in 1623, grew to manhood, and 
 his name is to be found enrolled as a cornet in the eighth 
 troop of what was called " Earl Bedford's Horse." He 
 was killed in battle, but in our opinion certainl}^ not so 
 early as appears to be fixed by Mr. Carljde, who accepts 
 an allusion in a letter of his father's written after Marston 
 Moor, as referring to this loss, which we are about to 
 show might have had quite another reference. Be this as 
 it may, however, all the biographers up to this time have 
 agreed in regard to the eldest, Robert, that what is com- 
 prised in Mr. Carlyle's curt notice, " Named for his grand- 
 " father. No further account of him. Died before ripe years,'' 
 — must be taken to express whatever now can be known. 
 Cromwell's only distinct reference to any of his sons while 
 yet in tender years, is contained in a letter addressed to 
 his cousin, Oliver St. John's wife, while she was staying 
 with his friend and relative Sir William Masham, at Otes 
 in Essex; and Mr. Carlyle connects the reference in this 
 letter with the fact that some two or three of Cromwell's 
 sons were certainly educated at the neighbouring public 
 school of Felsted, where their maternal grandfather had 
 his country-seat. But the allusion surely relates specifi- 
 call}' to one son, who appears to have been either staying 
 with the Mashams at the time, or the object of some 
 particular care and sympathy on their part. " Salute all 
 " my friends in that family whereof 5^ou are j^et a member. 
 " I am much bound unto tliem for their love. I bless the 
 " Lord for them ! and that my son, by their procurement, 
 " is so well. Let him have your prayei's, your counsel." 
 
 Such was the amount of existing information, respecting 
 the two eldest sons of Cromwell, when the biographer of
 
 334 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 the Statesmen of the Commonwealth reproduced from one 
 of the king's pamphlets in the British Museum, a very 
 striking account of the death-bed of the Lord Protector, 
 written by a oroorn of the chamber in waiting on him. In 
 this, Cromwell Wiis represented calling for his Bible, and 
 desiring those verses from the fourth chapter of the 
 Epistle to t he P hilippians to be read to him, in which 
 the Apostle speal^o"niavmg learned in whatever state he 
 was therewith to be content, for he could do all things 
 tlirough Christ which strengthened him. "Which read," 
 (the account proceeded) " said he, to use his own words as 
 " near as I can remember them. This scripture did once 
 " save mi/ life; when my eldest son died ; which went as a 
 " dagger to my heart : indeed it did." Naturall}^ enough, 
 this affecting passage was supposed by the writerwho repro- 
 duced it to relate to his son's death in battle, and Mr. Car- 
 \j\e arrived also at the same conclusion so confidentl}^ that 
 after " eldest son " he put in " poor Oliver " in reprinting 
 it, at the same time carefully marking the words as an 
 insertion. M. Guizot, however, has gone two steps fur- 
 ther, and printed the passage thus : " Ce texte, dit-il, m'a 
 " sauve une fois la vie, quand mon fils aine, mon pauvre 
 " Olivier, fat tue, ce qui me perca le coeur comme un poig- 
 " nard." In making this change without the least autho- 
 rity, M. Guizot marked unconsciously the weak j^oint in 
 the supposition he had adopted from others, and on which 
 he was himself too confidently proceeding. If the Pro- 
 tector had really intended his allusion for the son who 
 had been slain in battle, would he not, in place of the 
 simple expression " when my eldest son died," more pro- 
 bably have said just exactly what M. Guizot has thought 
 it necessary to say for him ? 
 
 We are now in a position to prove that the allusion was 
 not to Oliver, but to Kobe rt ; that Robert lived till his 
 nineteenth year; that lie was buried at Felsted within 
 seven months of the date of the letter containing the 
 allusion to the kindness of the Mashams respecting him; 
 and that his youth had inspired such promise of a future
 
 THE CIVIL WARS AND OLIVER CROMWELL. 305 
 
 as might well justify the place in his father's heart kept 
 sacred to his memory as long as life remained. In the 
 register of burials in the parish church of Felsted, under 
 the year 1639, is the following entry: " Robertus Crom- 
 " well filius honorandi viri M"-^ Oliveris Cromwell et 
 " Elizabethse uxoris ejus sepultus fuit 31° die Mail. Et 
 " Robertus fuit eximie pius juvenis deum timens supra 
 " multos.'' ' Which remarkable addition to a simple men- 
 tion of burial, we need hardly point out as of extremely 
 rare occurrence on that most formal of all the j)ages of 
 histor}' — a leaf of the parish register ; w'here to be born 
 and to die is all that can in justice be conceded to either 
 rich or poor. The friend who examined the original for 
 us could find no other instance in the volume of a devi- 
 ation from the strict rule. Among all the fathers, sons, 
 and brothers crowded into its records of birth and death, 
 the only vir honorandus is the puritan squire of Hmiting- 
 don. The name of the vicar of Felsted in 1639 was 
 Wharton ; this entry is in his handwriting, and has his 
 signature appended to it ; and let it henceforward be 
 remembered as his distinction, that long before Crom- 
 well's name -was famous beyond his native county, he 
 had appeared to this incumbent of a small Essex parish 
 as a man to be honoured. 
 
 The tribute to the 3'outli who passed so early away, 
 uncouthly expressed as it is, takes a deep and mournful 
 significance from the words wdiich lingered last on the 
 dying lips of his heroic father. If Heaven had but 
 spared all that gentle and noble promise which repre- 
 sented once the eldest son and successor of Cromwell's 
 
 ' This entry has been more than "Bitter and Miles, Fays Sclden 
 once carefully examiner], and is here "{Titles of Honour, Ivi.), often sig- 
 printed vcrbatiia et literatim, as it "nify in the old feudal law of the 
 stands in the register. The word "Empire, a gentleman, as the word 
 denoted by the contraction M'" is "gentleman is signified in nohilis, 
 " Militis," in the sense of esquire, or "and not a dubbed knight ; as with 
 arm-V)caring gentleman, and there are "us in England the word milites de- 
 some rare examples of its use with "notes gentlemen, or great frce- 
 tliis meaning before a pi'oper name. " holders of the country also."
 
 336 HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 
 
 name, the sceptre then falling might have found a hand 
 to grasp and sustain it, and the history of England taken 
 quite another course. The sad and sorry substitute — is 
 it not written in M. Guizot's narrative of the Protec- 
 torate of Richard Cromwell ? 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 BRADBtmV AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WIIITEFRIARS.
 
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 26 LIST OF WORKS 
 
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